Lord of Azure Flame: Chapter 10: Flying Supermodel Assault!

[Ansem]

Helios entered the inn. He flinched when the person inside dropped his axe.He heard someone mention the mans name. "General Conrad Helios said extending his arm. Your legend precedes you. I trust your journey here went smoothly".

Edited June 26, 2010 by Kai

[Snowy_One]

Esphyr gave a small shrug before she stood up and picked up her own sword from its resting place beside her. Slinging it over her shoulder in a relaxed manner, she made her own way outside of the inn. With a calm aura she stepped past Eric and unslung her sword, dropping into a ready position a decent distance from him.

"Rules: No shots to vulnerable area's, no slashing of clothes, no serious wounds, if your opponent stays to stop; don't ask questions just stop. Okay?"

[Inactive Account]

Kelas looked around, wondering why nobody besides Arrin had answered her. "Hey you lot, I said have we-- oh," she broke off lamely, spotting a man who was clearly the general. "Think I'll go deal with rooms, let you all make the deals. Arrin, come help-- eh, never mind." Arrin was staring at his notes again, clearly not paying attention. "...Right, I'll get the food checked for you, too," Kelas muttered, heading over to speak with the innkeeper.

[Snike]

Eric

"Alright then," Eric said, taking his weapon off of his shoulder and lowering it, keeping the tip level with the ground. "You first," he continued, waiting for the first strike.

[Snowy_One]

"Only if you're ready." replied Esphyr. It was a rhetorical question though, and she knew it. With a quick motion, she spun her blade about so that the tip was low to the ground as she lowered the shoulder on her opposite side. A quick plum of dust sprouted up as she suddenly barreled forth in a outright charge. Or at least what seemed to be a outright charge. As she approached Eric, she suddenly swung her blade about, bringing it around to present the flat to him as she leapt into the air with the sword held vertically to deflect any incoming blows as she descended down upon him.

[riariadne]

"Colonel Kleine, then. It appears you are in charge of this group of... "fire bandits," was it? Ridiculous name, I think, but it worked to cover up your status as a Haltonian soldier. I apologize for the tremor. It's one of the axe's powers. I'll be meeting with you again tomorrow, I would expect," Conrad replied.

"Smoothly indeed," Conrad said, addressing Helios this time. "Who are you? Better yet, I should probably learn all of your names..."

Edited June 26, 2010 by Lightning

[Ether]

"If speaking now is an impossibility,then that will have to do,I suppose." Damian replied to Conrad.

"And you needn't worry about the tremor.My father forged that axe,I know full well what it can do."

[Snike]

Eric

"Neat trick," Eric commented, as the mercenary jumped at him. Stepping to the side, he parried the strike with his sword, and stepped away from Esphyr. All of a sudden, he rushed at her again, darting out of sight, just before nicking the swordswoman's hand. Reappearing, he lunged at his opponent from directly in front of her, not really intending on hitting her.

Edited June 26, 2010 by Snike

[Snowy_One]

As the blade struck her, Esphyr grimaced in slight pain, but she was not going down so easily! Her blade was still held before her in its defensive pose and she was going to use it! As Eric lunged forth at her from the front, she slanted her blade to one side as she shoved the flat forwards to greet his weapon head on. The sound of metal striking metal filled the street as the two blades met and his was deflected to the side. As his blade moved out of the way, Esphyr quickly tilted the pommel of her own weapon towards Eric's gut as she quickly thrust it forwards, hoping to smash him in the belly.

[Snike]

Eric

Taking the blow, Eric grunted, and staggered back, clutching his stomach. Stunned for a second, he dodged the next blow the merc sent at him, then parried the swing after that. He swung a few more times, forcing Esphyr to evade them, then saw his opportunity when she swung back. Blocking the blow with his sword, he held it, as to provoke a clash. The traveler allowed the merc to overpower him a bit, and when he saw that she was unbalanced, he broke the clash and flipped over her, smashing his elbow back in an attempt to knock her over.

[Snowy_One]

Esphyr grunted in pain as she stumbled forwards, suffering from the blow to her backside. That blow hurt! She could feel slight bruising upon the flesh where she had been struck. Yet she wasn't about to give in. Far from it. However she wasn't about to out-muscle Eric, and she could see that. Too bad for him she was not a muscle type. Aggressive, yes. Muscle? No. She needed a plan. A quick thought flickered through her mind, a possibility for victory. She just needed the right setting. Turning about to face him, she dropped her stance into a more traditional swordfighting one. Carefully approaching him, she entered into a series of easily predictable strikes, perfect for him to counter.

[Dark Sage]

Seeing that his info was ignored, Alf went out to the streets. He decided to stop at the festhall around here. Apparently Travis was a frequent customer. Maybe there he could get some info or he might spot an associate of Travis. It was worth a shot.

He entered the festhall and grimaced. He hated festhalls. He hated pimps, scum of the earth who had no life to live. He hated the people who allowed this. He hated the customers for making this exist. He couldn't tell Esphyr that he was here, or at least, he would have to phrase it very carefully. He crept around, listening to bits of conversation. Nothing interesting yet.

[Snike]

Eric

Surprisingly enough, Esphyr broke into standard sword swings, almost exactly like the ones Eric had been taught initially. Suspicious, he blocked them easily, but didn't go in for the knock-out blow just yet. Instead, the swordsman played along with traditional counters, waiting for the pattern to break.

[Snowy_One]

He didn't counter. A thin smile of disapproval crossed Esphyr's face as Eric calmly parried each blow, but didn't try to counter. Still, she had a backup. Launching into a second sequence of identical blows, she seemed to be simply repeating, until she hit the third strike. Instead of a downwards blow, she went into a blow designed to trap his sword as he parried so that she could step inside and deliver a quick punch to his gut!

[Phoenix]

Isotov and Irina

After putting Kiev into the aeries that the town just happened to have, Irina accompanied Iso and Katie into the inn's common room. While Katie rushed off to improve her cooking skills, Iso sat at a table reading through Proxima again. A dozen more read throughs and he would finally have every last word memorized in exact order. Irina sat down next to him and leaned forward with her hands under her chin. It was incredibly obvious that she was worried about something. Rather than asking her what it was, Iso ignored her and kept reading. Eventually she decided to speak up without being provoked.

Irina: Do you think they sell chickens here?

Iso: ... ... what?

Irina: Chickens. Kiev's been eying the mounts lately. He hasn't had enough to eat.

Iso: Send him hunting like Ulfhrahn.

Iso kept reading through his tome and flipping the pages as he reached the ends while she explained.

Irina: I can't. It's not like with Lev and Krin, or Aiya and Ulfy. Kiev is really young, not quite an adult yet. His instincts can still sometimes supercede my commands. If he starts hunting he'll eventually stop listening to me.

Iso: ... ... ... well that's quite the dilemma.

Irina: I've got to start feeding him properly again, but I'm out of money.

Iso: Don't you work for Morgan? You've got a job, but you can't afford to feed your wyvern?

Irina: I didn't negotiate continued payouts because I was grateful for finding my dear brother and forgot.

Iso: I wonder how that will effect your dealings with Morgan in the future. I doubt she cares if your wyvern goes hungry, and she obviously would prefer to not pay you if she doesn't have to. I'd see that as a lack of respect.

Irina: *sigh* ... it's my own fault. I can't blame her for being human. And shut up! You're being a jerk right now.

Iso: No, just stating the obvious.

Lev

Lev decided to have a seat outside the inn, while Krinkov kept watch. That wyvern wasn't the type for being tied down, and tended to be the wyvern equivalent of a Doberman Pincher.

[Psych]

Cess walked into the inn. He wanted to find his room and relax. He decided to grab a bite before heading off, so he stopped into the kitchen for some soup. Katie was appearently bothering all the cooks, and kept having to shove her out of the way to get to their pans. He threw his pack onto a nearby dining table, slightly falling open, and walked over to her.

"Well chef, I'll have your soup of the day."

[Snike]

Eric

The merc had something else planned, as she trapped Eric's blade with her next blow, and sent a fist straight into his gut. Groaning, he staggered back, barely blocking the next lunge. Regaining his breath, he feigned weakness, and, when the merc came in for the knock out blow, he suddenly blocked the blade and aimed a gentle kick at her stomach, knocking her over. Backing off, he waited to see if Esphyr would get up.

[the_whistler]

OOC: This Esphyr versus Snike duel is going to go on forever like the one between Heinz and Esphyr.

With the majority of the group focussed on General Conrad or somewhere around the inn, Heinz had plenty of time to finally send off a response to his first employer and complete his job. I have the information on who exactly wields which weapon, as well as their descriptions and current location, so it's time to finish this job and get my money. The group still has to stay here to rest for awhile, and even if they move on, it shouldn't be hard to track them.

Heinz grinned happily as he walked away from the group. I wonder what I should do with the money this time? I'm still hired by Morgan, so I'll have to travel along with them, but after that job's over I can take a nice long break from looking for work and relax for awhile. There are still some places out there which I should visit. Walking over to the slums of Alburny, he kept his senses focussed around him on anyone who might be trailing him. Knocking on the door of one of the ramshackle houses there, he quietly entered into a simple, rough hewn room with a merchant inside.

"Send this over to the cloaked man on the border of Elyisima please, next time you travel there," Heinz said, pressing a handful of gold coins into the merchant's left hand while putting a scroll in his right. The merchant jingled the coins in his hand. Looks like they're all real. "Consider the job done." The merchant smiled back at him, revealing a small gold tooth. "It might take awhile for them to get the message though, I don't travel there everyday."

Heinz nodded in response. "That's fine, as long as they receive the scroll." Turning his back on the merchant, he took a roundabout route out of the slums, saddened by the loss of gold coins but happy more were on the way. He arrived back at the inn in short order, sitting down in a chair. I probably still need to be healed properly myself, wonder where the healers wandered off to?

OOC: I'll wait till the group gets healed before I do anything, but there's no guarantees after that.

[Inactive Account]

The innkeeper hadn't been too hard to bargain with, and Kelas got enough rooms for the group at a decent price.

Returning to the common room, she overheard something worrying: "...eyeing the mounts lately. He hasn't had enough to eat." The speaker was Irina; that made the subject of conversation Kiev.

Kelas walked over and tossed a few coins to Irina. "Here. This should get you some chickens from the market, and I'd really rather not have to deal with my horse getting eaten."

[Ansem]

Helios got bored after a while. He exited the inn and headed to a shop. It was across the block. He entered the shop. This time the shopkeeper was a frail old lady. Helios picked up a vulneraly. He dropped 5 gold on the counter and exited.

[Snowy_One]

As the kick connected with Esphyr's belly, the mercenary girl stumbled backwards, coughing loudly as she fell to her hands and knees. She was gasping for breath and her face was turning slightly blue. It seemed that Eric's blow had nailed her right in the diaphragm! With her breath coming in short, ragged gasps that could in no way support her, Esphyr suddenly collapsed onto her side. "Give!" she wheezed out as she tried ever so desperately to regain her ability to breath once again.

[Dark Sage]

"She's so pretty, I want that one."

Just hearing that made him feel dirty.

Alferis was not having much luck here. Nothing on Travis, nothing on his men, except stuff he already knew. Nothing new or interesting here. He was just about to leave when he bumped into a man.

"Hey watch it buddy. You blind?"

"I'm sorry. I must not have been paying attention."

"Ya know, that's why I hate punk kids like you, just staring off into space like that, think the world owes you something. I'm gonna teach you a lesson."

Alferis picked up the man by the neck, an expression of pure rage on his face.

"Try it. Please."

"Hey! He's messing with Manly Mark!"

"He's our best pimp here!"

"Let's kill him!" said a man pointing at Alferis.

[Kanami]

Reika watched as Heinz walked past her, apparently heading back to Alburny. Something about the man bothered her, she'd noticed that look of interest on his face when crimson weapons were mentioned. And had caught him looking at her more then once when she summoned Calamity. She frowned and wandered down towards the way the man had come from hoping to find where he'd been, but didn't notice anything worth taking note of. Only a merchant bum and a few kids.

Sighing she turned back and headed towards the inn. Perhaps she was over-reacting? Though it was probably a good idea to keep an eye on the man, he seemed to be the quiet type, but it was clear something was happening inside that head of his.

She noticed Conrad and Damian nearby and rolled her eyes, the man didn't look like a messenger, probably meant he was some sort of military leader, who surely had a few goons hidden here and there. She frowned, contemplating what she should do. Killing a few soldiers in her free time would relieve her of the irritation she was feeling towards Heinz, surely. Killing soldiers always made her feel better.

[Ether]

As Aiya stepped out of the Armory,she saw Esphyr fall to the ground,her face turning slightly blue.

Rushing over,she dropped beside her. "Esphyr,are you okay?What happened?"

[riariadne]

"Ah, you're Berthold's son then, yes? Interesting. I heard he passed away. Sorry to hear that. Anyways, I'm expecting someone, so I really can't work this out at the time. So long for now," Conrad said to Damian, then picked his axe off the ground and rode off down a street to the side.

"... I hate it when that happens with the axe," Chase cringed. "Always scares the heck out of me a bit."