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

[RubyZoo]

"So your a prince to huh? Do you have any conflicts like Izuru?" she asked, not wanting to get caught up in another royal battle. She was okay with the speed, having once rode a horse who was said to be the fastest in all of time. It was stolen from her and she hasn't seen her hoarse since. She petted Snow to, as a sign of saying high, but still kept her attention on Lucas. She looked at her knife of silver and shook her head in disappointment. When she gets to a village, she is going to make arrow tips out of it.

"I see you have arrows. Do you like to shoot a bow with arrows? Not to brag but I am pretty good at it" she said, puffing out her chest in a joking manner.

 

[ColdCash]

"Sensations of lingering heat aren't uncommon after being burned or scalded. It's likely just-"

Rosario was interrupted by a hiss and a yelp as the troupe's barber made contact with Stigma's flesh, scorching his fingertips. Rising to her feet with a sigh, she yanked the man away, taking the splinting kit from his hands.

"Have the men fetch you a clean rag and bathe her victim, officer. I'll handle the knight myself."

The fact that the creature's skin was hot enough to burn a man certainly explained the state of the soldier it had been supporting- his burns had likely been so bad as to strip from him all sensation, the intense heat had drying his wounds in minutes rather than hours. More to the point, however, it posed an interesting conundrum- if the creature was hot enough to burn flesh, what of wood and cloth?

More to the point, how does it wear clothes at all?

Rosario placed the splinting kit back on the table, since it would do her no use. Instead, she turned to the men.

"Supply team!"

"Sir!"

"Did you find any cutlery other than blades in your search?"

"Uh, a lot, actually."

"Get me any with straight, flat sections a finger's length or more. Wire too, if possible."

"Yessir."

____________________

Rosario stepped back to admire her handiwork. The flat, clipped metal of spoon handles and butterknives held the creature's bones straight, bound against it's flesh by way of narrow tin strips, carefully shaved and clipped from the remains of a mug. It had been slow going- the chipped blade of her borrowed dagger and singed, blackened fingers of her quilted gloves were proof of that. The soldier, too, was slathered head to toe in heavy ointments and his flesh had a sort of wet gleam to it- They'd tried the same with Stigma, but found the fatty mixture simply boiled away within minutes. Putting the creature's strange physiology out of her mind, Rosario began gathering up the remaining supplies.

"We're finished- I'm afraid this is all I can do for you."

With that, Rosario trudged to the front of the tent to check on the new arrivals.

Blood Born Angel

 

[Freshet]

Maximilien Von Hahnenhorn rolled his shoulders around as he impatiently tapped his foot. If he had brought a pocket-watch with him, or for that matter his cloak in which a pocket-watch would rest, Max surely would have angrily opened it and taken a peek at how long he had been waiting. But as he had no such pocket-watch he simply just stood there, watching the river and the wind blowing leaves away. Instinctively, Sir Von Hahnenhorn's eye was drawn to his staff in particular its orb. He began twisting his staff to the right and to the left as he began to calculate decisions.

Is anyone watching? If anyone were watching, would they give it a second thought? They clearly would, it is an unusual sight they would begin gossiping about it. Now, I know that they that they watched and described the scene, would they remember my appearance? And how far would this newfound gossip travel? Gossip travels quick, especially in small communities like these. Would that cause anyone to keep a closer eye on this village? Possibly, but that is an unknown variable... These were the thoughts that were in the inner monologue of The Lord of Thieves as he continued waving his staff back in forth with a dramatic flair.

There was a distinctive thunk sound as a reptilian man and his raft struck against the river. He quickly gestured towards the man who was waiting for another ride down the river. With a cheerful smile and a over the top bow, Sir Hahnenhorn addressed the man. "I see" he began as he flaunted his staff about as he walked towards the dock, without a trace of sound from his feet as was his way, "The ever-present ebbs and flows of fate have once again brought us together, you as the servant and once again me as the patron. I am most grateful that this has gone well?"

The reptilian eyed the man for a bit before pulling back on forth on the rudder. Eventually it gave way and headed back into the flow of the river, as the raft began making its progress well further downstream when he'd rather go upstream. The reptilian mumbled something before grabbing and set of oars and began rowing his way back upstream, as that was what he had been paid to do.

"I apologize for any difficulties you might be having, I assure you I shall reward you fairly for your obedience. You are to take me back up to the place I had told you before, you do remember it don't you?" The reptilian gave a grunt to signal that yes he was in fact aware. With a hearty chuckle The Lord of Thieves thrust his staff up to the air as he cheered. "Magnificient! Onward ferryman, we both have much things to get to!"
____________________________________________

Augusta Danielle Hermonie Daughter of 'Whose Alpaca Did This to Auntie Maybell's Antique Collection', or Augusta for abbreviation's sake, raised its neck up from its attempt at trying to find some grass to graze upon, which was for naught, and gazed at the other mounted creatures. Perhaps she wondered what the other animals were doing. Perhaps it was wondering why one would have so many legs that if broken would condemn it to becoming dinner. Well the mind of an alpaca to many is an enigma and Augusta simply made chewing noises and spat every so often.

As for Trinity she beamed eagerly as she shook the hand of Zharkov, who did in fact take the offer! After all they shook on it, and Trinity's handshake sealed many a deal in its time. She even smiled at her! Trinity had a good feeling about that, after all who would smile so bizarrely if they weren't enthused about grave-robbing!?

Trinity glanced around at those assembled apart from Zharkov. "Oh! If the army keeps running around like a headless chicken, it'll do as all headless chickens do; die! Which isn't a really good thing at all." She blinked as she processed that thought. Raising up her armored hand she coughed into it as she spoke, "So uh, yeah, grave-robbing! I think we got introductions out of the way again, so let's go rob for leftovers!" She reached out and attempted to grab Zharkov's arm and attempted to pull her a little, eager to get into spelunking.

She then turned her attention towards Cypher and smiled, "I can't think of any issues that weren't already present! OH except for a dash of morale lowering, but that has been fairly persistent today! Still thanks for this! Cause yeah camp watching kinda important yanno but I dug the graves so like, I don't think I should have to stay. Anywhooo, gonna be back kinda shortly probably! Can't imagine it'll take long to get any remnants left, after that I call dibs for first to bathe, but uh between you and me, like I know we've been killing undead all day but you smelled like swamp water! Didn't want to say anything earlier since you were my knight in shining armor back in there, but now that we can... So maybe you should also consider bathing first, I wouldn't mind but - AH!"

Trinity Tercet Thricecoined shook her head as she focused her attention back towards the ruins of Grigori's Fortress in Mount Snowden and began to head back that way.
Zerohex Amaya Himura Gaius Danius Griinia KnightOfNight RatKing

 

[Amaya Himura]

Cypher memorized the name as it came and went as the Homunculi listed off all the titles of Zharko... Serafim Bogdan Miroslav Kostadin Gerasim Vaska Trajan Apostol Zharkov XXXVII, the Lord Librarian Of The Most Completed Sanctum Of Lore In This World And The Next, Most Honored Of Scholars, Shaper Of Reality, Bender Of Wills, Wizard Of Wizards, and Master Of Homunculi. It may become a hassle when she may or may not need to speak to the Wizard of Wizards over a matter, but that could wait. She nodded in acknowledgement and made notes to memorizing the name fully when she had a moment to herself to think.

"I thought The Rinzler was a ruggedly handsome man." she read on the slate. Perhaps once, as my grandfather or his father were handsome men in their prime, and even grandfathers before them, but now, I am here. She smirked and responded to the Wizard of Wizards, "Besides the fact that I'm not a man, do you not think I am handsome?" Cypher decided a little joke would not only lighten the mood, but also, make herself smile.

KnightOfNight

After Mickey spoke about leaving with them, she felt strangely comforted when he poked her on the forehead. Only children do that, she thought. Rinzler could only offer him a weak smile. And his comment on having left for a battle made her shake her head. The Champ knew what he knew about fights and such, she figured. What a guy...

When he made the additional comment of camp being equivalent to headless chicken, she wondered to herself about who was the supposed leader of this encampment. She was only an assassin and Knight who was a part of this group of Knights. The Knights of Sumaru were brought together to follow orders given by the Emperor. And this Emperor was nowhere to be seen. Izuru was no leader in the slightest. She always knew that she was the "neck" of sorts, the one that helps direct the "head." But when there was no one to take the lead, the neck could only do so much. They were all, as Mickey the Champ stated, headless chickens.

Zerohex

As Trinity rambled on nearly without taking a breath, which surprised Rinzler that someone of her stature could have lungs of that capacity, she nodded. Everyone has been doing as they were before and after their leave. Cypher nodded her head in understanding of her current state. "I promise you Trinity, swamp water can stain a person's skin without even touching it, and I've been wanting to apologize for that when we first interacted in battle. Perhaps while you are spelunking and grave robbing, I will take that bath so I don't smell any longer like swamp water." she said with a little amusement in her voice. or smoke, or ash, or horse, or any others that may be displeasing to the nose. She made sure to take a quick enough bath to allow Trinity to return to an empty bathhouse.

Freshet

An elderly horse moseyed over to where Cypher stood. Her instinct told her that it was Chiho's steed before she even turned around to find the eight-legged mount. She glanced back and there was Sleipnir, or Slippy as she's called him once, looking for some attention as his master was occupied. She didn't need to say a word as her amber eyes told him to give her a moment before she could join him and entertain him for a bit.

Gaius Danius Griinia

 

[RatKing]

Following his own introduction to the new individual Kai had patted him on the head and expressed a similar feeling of having to repay Rinzler for her troubles before introducing who he was. While Sept knew the head pat was intended to be friendly he instead had found it kind of awkward.

Now that the three had made their introductions one of the eyeless creatures had unrolled a scroll, stepped in front of its master, and introduced her as 'Lord and Creator, Zharko Serafim Bogdan Miroslav Kostadin Gerasim Vaska Trajan Apostol Zharkov XXXVII, the Lord Librarian Of The Most Completed Sanctum Of Lore In This World And The Next, Most Honored Of Scholars, Shaper Of Reality, Bender Of Wills, Wizard Of Wizards, and Master Of Homunculi'

Oh boy… That's...that's quite a lot of a long name...I'm going to have to write that down if I'm going to even hope to address her properly. Though where am I going to find parchment and a writing utensil out here. He thought for a moment before coming up with an idea, surely one of the creatures had some paper with them or perhaps even a copy of the scroll which he presumed had its master's name upon. After all he could not be the only one that has would have trouble remembering such a long name right?

But before he could attempt to ask, Kai had crouched down and had asked him to show him his fire breath again. Apparently he too had the ability which made sense now that he knew Kai was half dragon. “Sure, but I gotta take care of something first. I'll show you when I'm done”

Turning his attention back to where the wizard of wizards had gone off to he spotted Trinity dragging her along toward Grigori’s fortress with the homunculi and Mickey in tow which meant that if Septimus wanted to ask about a spare scroll he would have to follow and get an answer or wait for them to come back. I hate trekking through snow… he sighed before jogging for a moment to catch up to them. “Excuse me” he said to the wizard of wizards attempting to get her attention and also so he wouldn't have to address her directly. “I saw one of your homunculi unroll a scroll and read your name off of it. You wouldn’t happen to have a spare would you? I would like to memorize your name and properly address you in the future. That is if you are going to be with us for a while of course”

Gohan510 KnightOfNight

 

[DarkstarUchiha]

Lucas sighed and spoke to Skyler, "Yes and No."
Lucas kept his eyes forward , watching for anything incoming from anywhere.
"You see I ran away from Home................my father is looking for me and has a bounty on me to brought home alive."
He than looks at Skyler, "I only left because my father wasn't ruling right and wanted me to take over...............because the people like me they respect me." Lucas than frowns, "He wanted to use me to gain their trust ,so he could abuse them more. So, my Nanny helped me get away."
Lucas shook his head, "I couldn't be apart of that Evil man's scheme. It was wrong."
Lucas glanced at Skyler to see her expression in the matter so far. "So yes and no. I'm keeping my head down so I don't have to be in a battle."
Lucas than shrugged, "But sometimes I have to protect my self ,but most of the time, I just use my illusion magic to make me look different to avoid conflict."
RubyZoo

 

[KnightOfNight]

The Wizard Of Wizards considered Rinzler's question but was pulled away by the small child before she could answer it. The girl was annoying and for a moment she considered stopping her but decided it was an easy out from all the people trying to bask in the greatness of the Wizard Of Wizards. Sometimes being the greatest wizard in all the land was a hassle. She decided to just relax her body and allow herself to float wherever her new friend decided to take her when she heard the voice of the shady lizard call out to her.

She really didn't want to explain everything to him, so she simply directed her thoughts to a homunculus and had it explain. "My Lord and Creator wishes for you to understand that we did not read the scroll as we don't have eyes and we do have more than one scroll, but it will do you no good as it is in a language no longer used by the mortals of this world." With the explanation finished, the Wizard Of Wizards recalled the homunculus and had it join the others in excavating the ruins.

She looked over the scene and wondered just why they thought this level of destruction was called for, did these 'knights' have something to prove? And to who? Zhakov then retrieved her slate and quickly wrote a message for the other girl. "You'll get cake if you find anything useful."

Freshet RatKing

 

[Freshet]

And so The Knight of Three successfully pulled the Lord Librarian Of The Most Completed Sanctum Of Lore In This World And The Next back to the ruins of the late Grigori's Fortress! It was easier than Trinity was expecting but didn't assume the floating and lack of resistance was the cause, but rather because her newfound associate was itching to loot a boneyard. Everyone loved looting a boneyard. You could find all sorts of neat and exciting stuff there!

But of course explanations would probably needed to be given again so Trinity pointed at the scene of the wreckage. Truly the site of countless rock debris of various shapes and sizes, lots of molten chunks and of course the ever present smell of rot from swamp water was going to be a fun expedition this time. No one would get hurt unnecessarily! "Like I said..." Trinity spun around on her heels and flashed a smile to The Master of Homunculi, "We really wrecked the place up."

But she did not focus on the continuing explanation as she noticed that Zharkov was writing something down on her slate. Trinity began swaying back and forth as she leaned in her head close to see what the wizard was writing down. Shortly thereafter Zharkov finished and displayed the message; Trinity began salivating a bit before wiping her mouth with her unarmored hand.

Spinning around, with a gleam in her eye, for a moment before bouncing up and down a few times while kicking her feet back. "I've been killing undead aaaalll daaaay, and I haven't had a real good bite yet! And cake! Cake is tasty! DEAL! I'M SURE I'LL FIND YOU SOMETHING USEFUL!" Trinity proclaimed as she balled up her hand into a fist and trudged a few paces away from the girl and began the process of looking for things.

Of course punching up the foundation of the place more was probably not the wisest idea for now, so she simply leaned a bit forward and began slamming her hand into the swampy waters to fish for useful items. As soon as she grabbed an item she threw it back towards the Wizard of Wizards, and so she began to throw a variety of things towards the girl. First there was a handful of muddy ferns, then there was a handful of muddy grasses, this was followed by an otter skull, and last from this current search a weathered, oval stone with some curvy looking scratches upon it.

Popping back up and turning around to face the Most Honored of Scholars Trinity spoke, "Anything important yet?! Or you want me to start punching things to get stuff?"

KnightOfNight

 

[Gaius Danius Griinia]

"I'm getting tired of this Big Bad Wolf and his Frost Breath" Said Izuru as he hid behind a wall of stone he erected. Wolf-Drake had been assaulting them with flurries of snow, sub-zero breath and frost spikes. "I am Frostelus!!! Lord of Ice and Snow!!!" Screamed Wolf-Drake as he got into position to pounce. "You are Dickhead, King of Wankers" Exclaimed Izuru as he poked his head out from cover. "YOU DARE INSULT ME?!" Frostelus charges at the wall. Izuru leaps on top of the wall at the exact moment Frostelus connects and gets behind him. "I do dare, Frosty!" Izuru stabs the monster in the rear with his flaming sword. Frostelus tries to breathe cold at Izuru but Otonashi drops out of nowhere and impales him through the snout. "Why you poke fun at your enemy when you could be fighting eludes me, Izuru" Otonashi sheathes his sword. Izuru hops around and does some shadow boxing. "You have to make sure you tighten the leash when your dog misbehaves" Then he gets knocked back through trees by an angry Frostelus. Otonashi blocks the next strike with his scabbard before cutting off a paw. "I'm not like the others... my curse was given to me by Lycaeus himself... I'll heal as fast as you can hurt me!" The large wolf snarled. "Fine then... I'll just have to be faster" Otonashi says as he channeled the fear he accumulated through his entire body. The snow around Otonashi began to melt, the foliage withered and Otonashi generated a pillar of bright light.

"What the.... WHAT ARE YOU?!" Said Frostelus as he slowly backed away. "Better than you" Said Otonashi with a demonic voice as he sheathed his blade. Frostelus found his legs had been cut off, though they were starting to regenerate. Then Otonashi sheathed his sword again, Frostelus found himself bisected. Coughing up blood, he tries to get away but its too late. Otonashi stabs his blade into the ground which sends Frostelus up into the air. Gripping his sword, Frostelus sees the faintest blur before everything went black... Otonashi had obliterated his opponent with pure speed and physical force. Reverting to his normal form, Otonashi walks over to his twin brother and kicks him awake. "WHA?! Frostelus?!" Said an awoken Izuru. "Dead" Said Otonashi as he straightened his clothes. "Dude! Now how're gonna find the Mountain with Three Tips? We don't know where Lycaeus is!" Izuru gestured at the small pieces of meat, bone and fur that were once Frostelus. "You mean like that one?" Otonashi pointed to a mountain that looked exactly like what they were looking for. "Well...yes" Said Izuru as he looked at the ground. Clicking his neck, he summoned Ghost to pick him up before shooting a bolt of fire at the heavens. "I shall summon my army! We march on the Werewolf base at dusk!" Izuru yelled heroically. "Everyone is at the fort, dickhead" Otonashi pointed out. "Yeah well..." Izuru flies back to Fort Trihaerd and checks in with the men. "Majesty... you may want to see this" Said a Foxkin recruit as he led Izuru to a room filled with weapons and armor. It led to other rooms with weapons and armor. "Seems these magical weapons were prepared for killing the wolves if they turned on the Rangers" Izuru reads a note from Commander Drake which specifies the contents of these rooms.



"This looks promising... though all the runes and patterns look cool. Some of this armor is a bit bright for my tastes" Izuru inspected the gear they found. It was enough to outfit two entire Legions. Seems the Northern Rangers were going to build an army from this place. Though with most of them dead and the remaining few muzzled and chained up, they wouldn't be needing it. Not quite into the colors, Izuru called for the Twelfth Legion to bring him some black paint...
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Sleipnir?" Chiho wandered outside of her pavilion to feed her trusty steed, Sleipnir. Although when she got out, Sleipnir was nowhere to be seen. Using a tracking spell, she eventually found him standing near Cypher Rinzler. Hiding behind a tent, Chiho covers her face with her hood. She hadn't seen Cy in so long, she looked just as good as Chiho remembered.

Okay... play it cool Chi...what would Izuru do?... probably something stupid... Otonashi wouldn't know about these things in the first place... I have no options!

Chiho was freaking out, she had no confidence that she could just waltz on over and start a CONVERSATION. Normally she was a lot better at this but lately Chiho had been feeling really weird...

Chiho is then dragged out of her hiding place by Sleipnir. The eight legged horse brings her over to Rinzler. It would seem that he was getting bored of all this talking and waiting.

"Uhhhh… Hey...C-...Rinzler...hows it goin?"

Nailed it

Amaya Himura

 

[Amaya Himura]

Before the Master of Homunculi could answer her silly comment, she was dragged off by the Knight of Three. Cypher looked to the remaining people who were left: Kai and herself. Septimus was speaking with a Homunculus about something probably dealing with the extremely long (and more inconvenient than not) listing of every title this great wizard. Looking to Kai, she said referring to his battle worn clothes, "You should get a change of clothes. It's still a bit chilly up here on this mountain." She didn't want to act like a big sister or mom, but she didn't want him to get frostbite even if they just found out he's a dragon, or partially so.

Cypher was more than ready to clean herself up since she didn't feel the horse's presence behind her anymore. He must've found something else to do. However, from behind, Rinzler heard a voice, an old acquaintance and her original charge to the throne. It was Chiho. The Knight of Zero thought that the elder sister of the nowhere-to-be-seen Emperor had stayed at the palace in the capital, safe and sound. She didn't think that the boy king would actually bring his sibling here. "Greetings, Princess. I was just about to quickly take to the bathhouse, but how may I be of service?"

As she thought about getting to the bathhouse more and more and finally getting clean, she hoped she could help Princess Chiho with whatever question she may have as quickly as possible. She didn't want to subject the others to her burnt, swampy stench.

Gohan510 Gaius Danius Griinia

Mentions: RatKing Freshet KnightOfNight

 

[Juju]

The woman left as soon as the two made it to the hut, leaving them to enter alone.Each wall was lined with shelves of herbs and jars of unidentifiable sludge. Spun across the ceiling like a giant spider's web were beaded streamers of cloth, their lengths filled with upside down bundles of flowers and leaves. In the center of the room was a small fire that bathed the hut in a soft amber glow. Sat cross-legged behind it was a woman with ivory hair and eyes as murky as the thin layer of smoke clouding the hut.

Yuki's eyes caught the light of the fire. "Are you a priest?" she asked.

A smile crept onto the crone's face, like a crack through worn stone. "I'm not a holy woman, if thats what you're wondering." She said in a bemused tone, "No child, we keep the old gods. Come, bring your wounded friend." She waved at the two to approach. Though she appeared blind, she seemed to know exactly where Kuto's wounds were.

"Child, do me a favour and bring me some peacebloom, it's the one wi-" she stopped herself mid-sentence when Yuki plucked the bundle of flowers from the ceiling and wordlessly handed them to her. The woman took a sip from her pipe. "A-ah. I see you know your herbs, little one." Her boney fingers began to undo the bindings but her eyes continued to stare ahead. "Most impressive, nowadays scholars call it Shrine Mint...named for its habit of growing in forest ruins. And here I was thinking the only ones who still call it peacebloom are old hags and spirits. Most impressive indeed." Yuki didn't say anything in response, but her shoulders tightened.

At the muttering of a few words, the flowers in the crone's hand began to wilt while her other hand began to emit a bright green light. It condensed into a ball and floated above her palm as she held it out to Kuto. As soon as it was near the wound, the magic leapt from the crone's hand like a lashing snake and crawled its way into the wound. Once settled, the flesh knit itself back together. "It is done, traveller. You are healed." the crone said once it was done.

"Death for life." she added and knowingly turned her blind gaze to Yuki. "Such is the blessing of Yakul." for such a harmless statement, Yuki looked extremely uneasy. No human should know that name.

Gohan510

 

[Gohan510]

Kai stood up once Septimus had left to deal with other matters the breeze from the winds felt good on his body. He heard Rinzlers voice and got scared out his skin. He was to intuned in the environment. Kai turned his head to notice her as he scratched the back of his head and laughed until a random lady appeared behind her. Natural reaction he grabbed the hilt of his blade that was sheathed until Rinzler acknowledged her and had addressed her as “princess”. Kai let go of his grip and walked by Rinzlers side. “You know each other?” Kai asked confused but impressed that big sis Rinzler knew so manh people. Well if she was going to be aiding the emperor she might as well.

Now that Kai realized it, where was the emperor?! Kai hasn’t heard the knight of 2 running his flow of thoughts at the Empror’s “lack” of leadership. Which was true, but still he just now realized of all the things Izuru was no longer with them. “Nice to meet you, Kai Ace Takeshi Knight of One.” He smiled. “Sorry I look like this.”
Gaius Danius Griinia Amaya Himura
———————
Kuto laid there as the old lady examined his body and noticed Yuki was helping her out. He hoped Yuki would keep her composure and not budge to her working with a human. Kuto never realized how important he was to her as she never really never told him or he just never seen her enjoyment of his presence. To see her move so quick and help the old lady. Thankfully this lady wasn’t a holy magic user at it would burn Kuto instead of healing him. Only holy magic that can help him is twolight or divine healing. As they ignore the boundries of holy magic. Yet this was normal human magic thankfully. The first thought that came to him was Cypher and Kai as he will soon have to fave them again. Yuki still had questions he could see it in her eyes. And tonight he will be willing to listen. Just for the night though.

Once it was done Kuto got up putting his shirt on and coat. “Thank you.” He said as his back was facig the old lady. He looked at Yuki with his ember eyes and realized that she was exhausted. It would probably be best they stayed. He can tell her body is barely holding up all this intensity. Black blood does take a tole on someone so he understood. “Could we perhaps camp out here?”
Juju

 

[KnightOfNight]

The Lord Librarian lazily drifted to the side as Trinity tossed junk her way. How on earth did she think handfuls of mud and grass would help the Wizard Of Wizards in her persuit of knowledge? She pondered on how she could fix her poor friend's brain when a heavy thud caught her attention. It seemed that Trinity discovered a rock, how utterly amazing she mused to herself as she approached it to kick it back in the water. Luckily for her, the shadow of the engravings caught her attention before she could kick it.

It was in terrible condition, most likely from the stupid, reckless, idiotic behavior of the oh so heroic knights. 'The [...] night of the [...] will open [...] for [...] venti'. The Lord Librarian slumped her shoulders. No great secret lore, no magic formulas, just a vague warning of demons. Normally she wouldn't care if a few demons invaded the world, but the heroes of this age would likely cause more damage then the demons in their attempts to stop them. The idea of wasting her time with this bothered her, but the risk of knowledge being lost in the chaos and destruction bothered her more.

The lead homunculus called out to the girl, already knowing what his master wanted. "Young Miss Thricecoined, my Lord and Creator wishes for you to return." The Lord Librarian waited for for Trinity with a message already written on her slate. "Demons will spread through the land soon and I will help minimize the damage caused. You can thank me now if you wish."

Freshet

 

[Zerohex]

Mickey MacRory had quietly gone with the two girls to where he and many others had gotten fried by a "lord" he'd never personally sworn fealty to and who he never would now, less out of any personal pleasure or interest in whatever they might find and more because someone had to be somewhat responsible in this whole thing. Lead by example, as it were, and who the hell let two young girls just run off into a dragon's lair just like that? That made no sense, even if the dragon itself was dead, who knew what kind of dangerous things might still be in there or what might try to occupy the place? Hell with everything they'd done the place might well come apart any day now.

So while Trinity Tercet Thricecoined and Zharko Serafim Bogdan Miroslav Kostadin Gerasim Vaska Trajan Apostol Zharkov XXXVII looked for or at something or other Mickey just sat on some collapsed chunk of structure, enjoying the still warm (previously hyperheated) rock and the film of steam that covered the entire room thanks to the water and humidity in the chamber. The whole place was effectively a steambath and without his burns stinging it was really quite nice. "Wot, das it?", he perked up when the wizard lass said they were done. "Y'dragged us back in this hole fer just that? Demons already spread through the land...Sera, I'mma call you Sera, demons are out n about and I'm pretty sure we're "led" by someone worse. Least a demon can't help be what they are, right?".

Freshet KnightOfNight

 

[Freshet]

"Kaaaaay!" Trinity responded to the request delivered by the lead homunculi on the behalf of the Master of Homunculi. So it appeared that something from that batch was of some importance. Perhaps the Lord Librarian Zharkov was already prepared to give her cake for the discovery of the item, whichever one it just so happened to be. Her boots sloshed through the sludgy marsh as she eagerly stomped her way back to the Wizard of Wizards. Once she approached she leaned her head in to stare at the slate.

Something about demons coming to terrorize the land? Trinity blinked before quickly wondering how good that shell was. She shook her head as she clutched her artifact armored hand into a fist. Shortly after balling it up into a fist, Trinity Tercet Thricecoined thrust it into the air, causing it to whir and glow faintly orange as was the wont of Branrig's lost contraption. "Yeah! Thanks!"

She then focused her attention to Mickey MacRory, "Well, uh, yeah probably true. Like they are like uh, rats I think? Like demons, far as I know, are just like meaner unusually sized rodents. And like, if demons are coming out to play we need to stop it, like a bug-hive! Cause if a bug-hive gets too big, it starts ruining things for normal folk who just happen to be kinda close to them."

With that piece said, Trinity placed her unarmored hand on her hip while pointing at Zharkov with her gauntlet. "...Plus I don't think she'll give me cake unless I do this... Despite finding something valuable!"

Zerohex KnightOfNight

 

[KnightOfNight]

The Wizard Of Wizards shut her eyes and rubbed her temples while she tried to think of a way to explain the importance of dealing with this now rather than later, but just decided to do it as bluntly as possible. She opened her mouth in what appeared to be an attempt to speak but once again no sound came out. Frustrated, she quickly touched her throat and tried again, with this time a light rasping sound coming out. Again she touched her throat and spoke, this time the word "Idiots" coming out. Her voice was a low, husky tone at odds with her appearance. "The smartest people here, not counting myself obviously, are still violent idiots. If I leave this up to the boy king and his thugs, who knows how much knowledge will be lost? I wont risk it, especially not when these satans are involved. They make people even dumber than usual and get stronger for it, plus they can't simply be punched to death." She sighed and paced through the room. "One of you will have to take credit for this, I don't need these people barging into my library seeking my help for every little dumb thing. The soldiers will be useless in confronting the satans but might be able to put down any riots their victims start. Magic can hurt them but it's better to just heat them so they can't maintain their form."

Zharkov paced faster and faster while tapping her forehead, trying to remember every detail about the demons. "As proper satans, they're superior to your every day demon. Both in power and intelligence, so always be on guard. I think that's everything you would need to know about them. There's more, but it honestly doesn't matter. Now go tell the others." She tapped her throat one last time and left the fortress ruins.

Freshet Zerohex

 

[Gaius Danius Griinia]

On the other end of the bridge was Izuru and the Twelfth Legion. Otonashi had left to go pursue some kind of lead for a case he had been working with Chiho. Chiho was entrusted to manage the Ravens, a shadow organization dedicated to keeping Sumaru safe from certain threats. Not even Rinzler knew about the Ravens and she was their best friend. Otonashi had sent a message to his sister using one of her actual ravens. Whatever those two were working on would be important later, right now Izuru had to put the North back under his control. Then he inwardly smiled at the mental statement....HIS control. Ever since losing Yuki, Izuru had felt lost. His plans were going to crap and he had lost respect from his soldiers. In addition, his skills had degraded from rivalling one of the Four Swordsmen to "Hit stuff til it dies". Lupa had been right, he had become weak and cowardly. Inhaling the freezing air, Izuru tried to exhale all his worries. He felt as if he was so close to an answer. An answer as to who he should be. Then the enemy stepped out into the open...

"Twelfth Legion! Raise Standard!" The Standard-Bearer, Jacob raised the reforged standard of the Twelfth Legion. It was a black and red wolf with silver eyes. It hummed with magical power as Jacob repeatedly tapped it against the ground. "Legionnaires of the Twelfth! For too long you have been the butt of many jokes. At the Battle of Warkens Lake, we were mocked as incapable of beating back the tide. However we ARE the oncoming tide now, for we will not be beaten. During the Siege of Hexapolis, we were called brutes incapable of true sorcery. However we proved that we have power which rains destruction upon our enemies! While we may not have succeeded in proving our worth against Grigori... we have absolved ourselves in slaughtering the Traitors of Fort Trihaerd!!!" Izuru rode Ghost from one end of the formation to the other. Izuru gestures to the werewolves who seems ready to defend their home. "Do you know what lies there...within that fort of ice and ruin?...IMMORTALITY!!! Take it! Its yours!" Izuru shoots a pillar of fire into the sky with Erika. The werewolves run at the assembled troops. "Twelfth Legion! Phalanx!" Izuru yells as the frontline men proceed to form a wall of shields. "First Volley! Fire!" Sections of the wall open up to reveal Archers with arrows notched. Firing the silver tipped missiles at the advancing enemy, an entire row of werewolves are killed. "Second Volley! Fire!" Positioned behind the first row of Archers were a second group of Archers. They fire their arrows into the next group of werewolves, decimating them. Izuru began alternating between the two groups of Archers. Whenever one was finished firing, the other was ready to fire. This kept up until some of the wolves reverted to their regular forms and decided to shoot arrows at them as well. However the missiles of the enemy harmlessly bounced off of the tightly knit Phalanx. With fewer combatants in wolf form, Izuru had the Phalanx reform into a Testudo. Marching along the bridge, the werewolves were pushed back by the silver edged weapons of the Twelfth. Werewolves who got too close were immediately stabbed to death by the spears of the First Cohort.

When they had the lot of them backed into a corner, Izuru yelled "Standard-Bearer! Crimson Lightning!". Jacob slammed the Legion standard against the ground and it crackled with scarlet electricity. A bolt of bright red lightning came down and struck the ground where the Werewolves were cowering. They were violently thrown to the ground by the shockwave and whatever injuries they got were healing. The Twelfth seized upon this moment of weakness and stabbed them all to death. Making his way inside with the Twelfth, Izuru snatched an arrow out of the air and broke it with one hand. A group of Werewolves slowly backed away from the heavily armed group in fear. "Conquer or Die" Izuru said as he gave the order for the Phalanx to reform. Werewolves attempted to jump into the gaps made for the Archers, though they were quickly speared. Finally, Izuru had another volley of arrows wipe out whatever forces they still had there. Splitting up his Cohorts, Izuru had each of them sweep a different area. Any enemies that thought they'd be weaker in fewer numbers made very fatal mistakes. Finally they came upon a room of women, children and elderly. It would seem these savages had at least the decency to hide their loved ones. Izuru considered wiping them out right then and there. Then a young boy ran at him with a knife. No matter how many times Izuru knocked him down, he got up again. The fierce way he growled at Izuru reminded him of Lupas pack. So Izuru had the lot of them chained up. These younger pureblood lycanthropes would be integrated into the Imperial Army. The boy who attacked Izuru struggled against his bonds and tried to pounce at Izuru. Izuru promptly kicked him to the ground. Regrouping with the rest of his Legion, Izuru marched into the throne room of Lycaeus.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chiho smiles at Kai and waves at him "I'm Chiho, Rinzler and I go way back".Chiho suddenly remembered why she had come and pulled a large metallic cylinder from her bag. Inside looked like a miniature storm cloud. Occasionally it would form a face and stared at the people around it. "Lord Stormageddon of Rainfell was keeping extremely powerful storm spirits locked away in his tower. This large concentration of weather magic is what causes the constant rain in his town. However... they escaped a short time ago. Otonashi eliminated quite a few of them in an ambush and we managed to capture this. These creatures are part of the Satan geneology. This means that the more fear and panic they stir up among the masses...the stronger and harder to deal with they become" The Storm Spirit struggled inside of its prison.

"They've escaped to almost every region in Sumaru. The negative emotions they absorb are strengthening them to alarming rates" Otonashi walks out of the shadows. Yamato is in its human form as Yukiko Kozuki. "My Master apologizes for being so abrupt... however the Emperor required his assistance" Yukiko respectfully bows on behalf of the Kamukura Swordsman. Then she walks over to the Knight of 0. "The North has attempted a rebellion against the Empire... the once respected Northern Rangers bared their fangs at our Emperor. They are traitors who have given themselves Lycanthropy. In response, the Twelfth Legion annhilated almost all involved. The only ones who survived were the Rangers who surrendered. As we speak, Emperor Izuru is launching an invasion of the Lycanthrope Headquarters" Yukiko says this to Rinzler in hushed tones.

"The problem facing us right now is the Venti, the Storm Spirits. While we cannot track their exact location. We have ascertained their general location in Sumaru" Chiho continues to try and draw attention away from Rinzler. Izuru entrusted her with being his Spymaster, so she had to keep his battles in the North a secret. Celestis the Naiad walks out and creates a three dimensional map made of water. Pointing to multiple areas around the land, Chiho informs one of her ravens to find the other Knights so she can assemble them about where they could start finding the Venti. Otonashi and Yukiko begin walking away, intelligence had just come in about two dangerous individuals involved in the destruction of a town...

Interactions: Amaya Himura Gohan510

Mentions: Juju Gohan510

 

[StrayTheCat]

Erina silently followed her strange benefactors, who had paid her plenty, yet after an entire month they had yet even needed her services once. Not that she complained, but it seemed strange that neither did they, nor did they do anything like lessen her pay which many tried to get away with on long jobs like this one. In total, it was a small group of demons, about five, and they were heading north. She had encountered one of them in a tavern in the capital on her day off, wanting a healer as an escort on their journey. She wasn't told much about their goal or purpose, not even the exact location of the destination, but Erina didn't ask. They agreed she could leave them at any time, and she left it at that. More than once however, she noticed they were more than just jumpy at the sight of any of the country's guards.

She suspected at least one of them may have been a criminal, but Erina was careful not to ask questions, as the less you try to learn about those kinds of people the longer you'll live. In general it hadn't been too hard of a job, but it certainly was one of those that made her slightly paranoid about how peaceful it was. They were currently camping just a mile away from Hexapolis, the capital of witches and demons, a place she had yet to have been. She quietly watched the campfire, when one of the demons grunted at her, which seemed to be a grunt of confusion. "I didn't say anything." She answered, which seemed to satisfy whatever he had wanted to convey, as he continued to poke the campfire with a stick. This bunch wasn't very talkative when she was around, and the few times they tried to start a conversation she kept it short, simply because whatever it was they were involved in she didn't want to somehow be dragged into. Also because if anyone questioned her about them, she wouldn't have to lie about anything.

 

[RatKing]

After successfully getting the attention of the wizard of wizards Septimus received an answer to his question from one of the homunculi and quickly felt quite silly for overlooking the fact that the homunculi couldn't have read off the scroll as they had no eyes. Though he did wonder what the point of unrolling of the scroll they had was. Perhaps it was just an aesthetic choice. Regardless of whatever the reason may be, it had seemed that they did possess spare scrolls though apparently they were written in a long forgotten language making it unusable for Septimus and thus pointless for one to be given to him.

Of course it is… he sighed as he stopped following along. “Well it was worth a try I suppose” he said under his breath as he started to make his way back while trying to go over the wizard of wizards name in his head.

Over head Septimus heard the cawing of a raven. It seemed like it was coming from the camp and was trying to get his attention as it circled above him before flying off toward Grigori’s fortress where the wizard of wizards and the Knights of 2 and 3 had gone off to. “Guess I better pick up the pace then”

Now back in the camp, Sept spotted Kai and Rinzler who were still in the center of camp and were talking to two individuals. The four appeared to be looking over a map made of water.

“Hello there” he greeted Chiho and Otonashi as he approached. “Was that your raven I passed on my way back here?” he asked as he looked over the watery map wondering what it was being used to show.

Gaius Danius Griinia Gohan510 Amaya Himura

 

[Juju]

The crone smiled once more. “Please, be our guests for the night. There is a vacant hut near the edge of the forest, you may use it. Anya will make sure you have food and a hearth.”

Yuki turned to follow, but was caught by the crone’s hand. “E'mani coiasira uma an niasa yassen mor agar y'rauko? Hmm?”

The kitsune blinked in surprise, before her expression turned to anger. “Amin uma mani amin var Yakul. Eller naa n'uma n'at men. L'aran gurtha.”

A soft chuckle escaped through the woman’s lips, a knowing glint piercing through the clouds of her eyes. “Eller naa n'at men...nan amin've coie an faarea sint-lle uma ildura amin.” She placed a small leather satchel into Yuki’s hand and closed her fingers over it. “A-ah. Coiasiralle anta lant-e'a quanta huine a'elea i'me'a.” The crone then turned back to her fire, throwing in another log. She took a long breath from her pipe, leaving Yuki to think about what had been said.

As Yuki exited the elder’s hut she noticed a small cut on the side of her hand, the black blood already starting to clot. The crone must have nicked her when she passed her the flowers. Yuki frowned down at the satchel in her hand, the crone’s words stinging in her head. She opened it and found three ebony spheres. They looked familiar, though she didn’t quite recognize them. Saving the mystery for a later time, she tucked the bundle in the folds of her cloak and caught up with Kuto.

Outside the hut a child was waiting for the two. It was the girl from before. "This way!" she trilled, waving for Yuki and Kuto to follow, ‘"Anya says you guys are gonna be staying the night in the old hut. That’s so cool! We haven't had any visitors in years. Well… except for Varian and his mom. They live in Bruscar but they come up here every summer to trade. Varian’s really good with magic and this summer he promised he’d show me how to do that wind slice trick!" She mimicked the movement with her hand and made a 'swooshing' sound, "We’re gonna be wizards when we're older!”

The boy from the village sprung up in Yuki’s mind, the ash on his face stained with tears. A pang of guilt clawed at her stomach for a moment but she shook it off by the time they reached the hut. Inside there was a fireplace, two beds and a small table in the corner. A pot of soup was already boiling in the fireplace, filling the room with a soft aroma. It teased the hunger in Yuki's empty stomach, but she didn't feel like eating.

Once the two were inside, the girl gave a cheerful good-night before skipping off.

Spoiler: translation (for those not fluent in kitsune)

Elder Farwind: In what age does the inkblood ally with demons? Hmm?
Yuki: I do what I must to save Yakul. There is no other way. The empire must fall.
Elder Farwind: There is always another way… but I’ve lived long enough to know you don’t believe me.
Elder Farwind: A-ah. Sometimes you must be consumed by darkness to finally see the light.

Gohan510

 

[Ixacise]

Lance traveled through this new land looking for his destination. Having only been hired some weeks ago by some representative of Sumaru to add foreign fighters to the war effort. It was a boring and lonely journey through a rather bland landscape. He examined his compass to check he was going in the right direction and continued moving. It seemed it would take a while to get there and he wondered if he should burn some energy and move faster. As he walked through the wilderness he saw a light in the distance. This attracted his interest and he decided to immediately approach it. An incredible lightness filled his body as he began to take long flowing leaps towards the light. He eventually saw something in the distance around the light. As his eyes focused towards the site, he eventually made out a campfire and some figures sitting around.

He slowed down a bit as he figured a random person running towards them would be weird, or rather even more weird and suspicious than if he calmly walked towards them. He jauntily walked up and said to the group, "Hey there travelers I mean no harm towards you. I just want to ask a single question, you wouldn't be fellow mercenaries traveling to the Sumarun camp?" As he said that he immediately unfolded a piece of parchment demonstrating his contract. He then added quite calmly and directly, "If you're not, then apologies on me intruding on you all." He glanced at the people around the camp. It was demons and a human it seemed. He stood there calmly as the wind brushed through his blonde hair with arms clearly away from sword, as that could be seen as a threat towards them.

StrayTheCat

 

[StrayTheCat]

Erina watched as a strange man approached their camp, and the first thing she noticed was how friendly the guy was. The second thing she noticed was when the man mentioned the Sumarun camp, the demons quickly began to throw glances at each other as if on some signal. One of them stood up, and opened its arms as if for a hug. "Why yes! We were just lost on our way, would you mind joining us? We were going to help on the war effort, as we were all raised to-"

Erina cut the demon off without worrying about whatever it was the demons were planning. "How much would they pay for a healer? Your side of the war I mean. If you can't give me an exact number, then how about a round-about guess? My name is Erina by the way." She asked the man, calmly keeping her gaze at him while the demons all blankly stared at her. Ixacise

 

[Gohan510]

Listening to all that was going on he walked through the small village as he reached the cabin. The night sky was soon to come as time would go on through the day. Kuto sighed once Yuki caught up to him. As they reach their destination he noticed a little boy go on about magic casters. Kuto’s body under his neck was covered by his cloak. He walked up the steps as each step of the old wood cranked. Reaching the door he slowly pushed it open, the wind that exited was unsettling. No matter its a place to say for the night.

A hawk was hovering above the village it was Kuto’s. Once he walked into the cabin he opened the side window by removing the wooden plank blocking it as the hawk flew in. It landed on the table dropping a note. The note contained of asking of Kuto’s and Yuki’s success in destroying the town. Why was the master so concerned? He pulled the monocle from the inside his cloak placing it on the table. Kuto walked to the fire place creating fire to set warmth in the cabin. It wasn’t night but still extremely cold he didn’t want Yuki to catch a cold. Walking back to the table he sat at a chair. He didn’t notice the smell till now, it was mushroom soup. He remembered this smell from his past. He shook the thought out of his head looking at the artifact. It kept shining from the top left. It detected a special item in this cabin.

Kuto got up putting the monocle on as he saw it was embedded in the wall. Walking over to the spot he created a small fire to burn the wood. A scroll fell out, as he caught it. “A summoning scroll.” He said under his breath. The hawk landed on his shoulder looking confused. He put it in his coat hiding it before Yuki could notice. He walked back to the table as if nothing happened. ‘That knight from before, he said something that spiked my interest.’ He thought to himself. He leaned back in the seat and sighed.
Juju
——————
Kai noticed the map and his eyes shined like stars as he was walking in circles around the group trying to see every inch of it until Septimus appeared. Kai then stood there listening to the situation. “So we get to fight again?” Kai caught his own fist as he smirked. “That’s better then us standing around we get some action. Right big sis Cy- Rinzler!” Hoping no one cought onto his almost slip he didn’t want her to know he knew her real name. Kai knew it wasn’t right for him to say it so casually as Septimus doesn’t know it yet. Surprisingly a breeze came by but Kai seemed unfazed from it. “So all knights gotta stop a storm monster?” It wasn’t catching on to Kai yet what exactly Izuru was doing or what their mission was. And why it consisted all knights, was it a powerful monster? Hopefully there was multiple Kai hates teaming with others. He enjoys defeating his opponents on his own, from simple pride of being “strong”.
Gaius Danius Griinia RatKing Amaya Himura

 

[Ixacise]

Lance's relaxed himself the moment they didn't seem to go openly hostile. He had no idea what was going on with the demons and the redhead woman. He couldn't tell if she was their hired healer or if they were the muscle to accompany her to who knows where. It was odd but not exactly his problem so he wouldn't do anything for now. "Good to know." He said addressing the demon before turning to the woman.

"Why are you asking me about pay rates? You're part of the group heading out to camp so you should know how much your contract gives." He looked at her slightly unamused. He knew there would no doubt be plenty of amateurs running around tying to take advantage of the war, but this is some basic stuff. "All I know is this country is currently embroiled in chaos and that means there's opportunity's for a job and general shenanigans." He took out his compass once more to double check they were on the right direction.
StrayTheCat

 

[StrayTheCat]

The demon who had spoke up to the man smiled, while Erina frowned slightly. She couldn't tell if this guy just assumed the best in people, was as dense as a rock, or both. When he checked his compass, she saw the demon pull a dagger hidden in it's boot. Without getting up, she pointed her staff at the man and chanted several words before a small blue light surrounded him. The demon with the dagger glance towards her as the other demons split up and ran away from the camp.

She jumped up instinctively thinking the other demons would take her down, and hesitated for a moment when they didn't, which gave the demon with the dagger time to lunge at her instead of the guy with a sword and a protection spell on him. Ixacise