Lord of Azure Flame Chapter 20: Bait and switch

[Dark Sage]

"Yes...I see," said Njordjenka. He began the incantation, starting the spell circle, trying to remember the right way to do it.

"Deus of thunder ancient res of lux lucis , phasmatis of levitas , voco a catalyst of putus vox of levitas! Phasmatis of thunder , EGO queso vestri ventus voco a tempestas of mico quod offensus. Intentus , attero target per vestri putus levitas quod thunder!"

Unfortunately, his hand messed the incantation enough to cause merely a glowing orb of lightning to appear like Elle's...and then dissipate.

"...Well this is why we're practicing."

[Snowy_One]

Esphyr and Altion were out in the courtyard as well, ready to go.

OOC: I need to sleep. My mind is shot and I fell asleep at the keyboard raiding.

[Inactive Account]

OOC: ...I'm bored. And this is somewhat relevant.

Amari charged back towards the group. The shrieking, sharp one had been terrifying, but the humans had won; this one was also terrifying, but not sharp. She could work with that, and Kelas needed her...

Drawing nearer, she heard the sounds of stone on stone: she would not be able to hurt this one, and to kick it might even break her leg. Fire, maybe...? But then the red man was falling, so that was out-- Kelas was running to help-- idiot, run! Amari told her with a shrill whinny. She was still too far to help when Kelas went down.

The healing-stick one was there, and then the red one was back on his feet, trying to protect Kelas. Not so bad, maybe... But then he got hit again, and the healing-stick one was taken out soon after. The entire herd, wiped out... Kiev was trying to protect his rider... Amari had to do the same. She planted herself between Petros and the spot where Kelas and Isotov had fallen, shaking slightly: she was terrified, she couldn't fight this thing, but she'd damn well protect her rider and whoever else tried to protect her, if she could.

[Snike]

Indeed

A ghost of a smile crept up Elle's lips, as she witnessed Njordjenka trying so hard to cast the spell. This was quickly banished, as he turned back to her. "... I think it only works like that, because I have a guiding ring..." she said, showing the mage her ring. "It helps me manipulate the mana easier..."

[-Cynthia-]

Petros had eliminated the squishy humans, but their animals appeared to be defending their masters from further harm. Loyal to the very end it appears he thought to himself, throwing a massive boulder at the nearby wyvern.

"The time has come, warp us now." Morgan said, telling Stephanie the group's location. She looked around, not everyone appeared to be prepared, but they would simply have to go with a majority of their strength, time was of the essence.

[Dark Sage]

"A guiding ring!" Njordjenka said in awe, surprised by this. A guiding ring was only used by powerful mages, at least 4th or 5th circle, and used by sages. This woman was very powerful it seemed.

"A guiding ring...what circle are you in TISME? And how did you get that guiding ring?" Njordjenka questioned, forgetting that she lost her memories.

[Phoenix]

WARPAGE

Stephanie: It seems we are ready to depart. Very well then! (Come on, Stephanie, you can do this!)

Lev: Hey wait a second, wasn't someone supposed to empower you fir-

Suddenly a bright flash shot into the ground and fanned out in a wide circle encompassing the entire group!

Lev: Ahhhhhh sh*t-

As the light overcame them, the guards at the castle watched in utter shock and amazement! They'd never seen an entire battalion warped all at once and by a Priestess no less! Elsewhere, Iso was looking up at Petros completely unable to move. His ribcage was barely breathable and he was going to pass out soon! Irina was stable but couldn't do much without another healing and Charlotte was already down! Kiev snarled at Petros aiming to at least save Irina! He continued snarling until Petros picked up a large boulder and hurled it at Kiev! The boulder shattered against his head and his eyes crossed as he toppled over, completely unconscious!

Irina: Gaaaah!! Kiiiev!!

Suddenly a short distance away a bright and massive circle appeared on the ground and lit up the whole area! The light rose up off the ground and vanished a moment later revealing the group! Irina looked up in surprise! So did Iso, but not with much enthusiasm.

Iso: Bout ... time ... duhhhh-

He quickly passed out while Irina hauled herself to her knees and held onto Kiev for support. Suddenly Stephanie collapsed to the ground! Lev smacked his face with his palm.

Lev: I knew it.

Viveka looked over to see the others completely downed and sighed.

Viveka: So did I ... they just couldn't last til we got here could they? Are they even still alive?

Lev: Irina is! Come on guys! Get in there! I've got Stephanie!

Viveka: Jasmine! Go help Irina and who's still alive!

Jasmine: Yes, Sir-Ma'am!

Viveka quickly launched a preemptive attack to give the others an opening! As soon as her lance struck his armored body she could feel a crack in both him and her lance! She flew up and came down right on top of him hoping to score a better hit as the others moved in closer! The second strike was almost as hard as the first but she was unable to put much force behind it as her lance snapped in two from the shock!

Viveka: ... ... ... dammit.

A loud crash sounded as Petros slammed his fist into Susann's gut and sent them both tumbling through the air crash landing near the main group!

Viveka: Argh!! Be careful! Normal weapons are junk against that armor! Sunny hold on, I'm going to get you some help, okay?

Viveka rolls 5,5,5

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2718749/

HIT 8 vs Evade 2(?)= CRITICAL HIT

DMG 10 vs DEF 9 = -1 hp

VANTAGE Activated

Viveka rolls 3,2,4

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2718753/

HIT 6 vs Evade 2(?)= HIT

DMG 4 vs DEF 9 = BREAK

Petros rolls 4,3,4

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2718755/

HIT 12 vs Evade 6 = HIT

DMG 9 vs DEF 0 = -9 hp

Viveka hp 3/12

Petros hp 23/24

+10 exp

Edited October 10, 2010 by Phoenix

[Ether]

As they rematerialized, Aiya urged Ulfhrahn towards the rock demon. It seems the advance group had been completely wiped out.

"Irina!"

Ulfhrahn swung his tail at the demon as they descended, however, the large being stopped the powerful strike cold! Using his grip on the bull's tail as leverage, Petros slammed Ulfhrahn into the hard ground!

"Nngh... no, not yet..." Aiya let out, ignoring the pain for a split second. She was close enough to swing her Zweihander at the demon, connecting this time, and chipping a piece off of it's rocky armour, dealing some damage!

"Ulfy... you okay?" Aiya asked the bull, concerned. With a vigorous roar, Ulfhrahn got back up on his feet and stared the earth demon down.

Combat Phase Start

Aiya(2,3,5) 2 Hit - 2 evd, miss! D=

Petros(4,5,4) 9 hit - 4 Evd, hit! 13 mt - 6 Def, 7 Damage!

Aiya(5,2,3) 5 hit - 2 Evd, Hit! 11 Mt - 9 Def, 2 Damage!

Aiya(8/15)

Petros(21/24)

Roll

Aiya +10 Exp

Edited October 10, 2010 by Ether

[Script]

Luc Altair

Luc didn't have time to contemplate the feeling of the warp. There was fighting to be done. But he couldn't do that with Reika weighing him down. Hoisting her off unto Alferis wouldn't do any good either.

"Fargo, take her as well!"

"But! Oh never mind..." Luc handed the girl off to his already burdened comrade.

Luc charged ahead, seeing that the advance group was already wiped out, and by only one demon? It certainly looked fearsome enough for it. Luc would have to try distracting the big one long enough for the others to preform a rescue. Even if it wasn't full plate, his armor combined with his reflexes should be good enough to take a hit.

Luc let loose a flurry of attacks with his Halberd, but a flurry of attacks held little power and he didn't even chip a rock of the thing's hide. But the demon did more than that. He sent a blow that blacked Luc's vision for a few seconds. When he recovered Lc and Thunder were a fair bit away.

"We need to get the advance party away!" Luc shouted. Someone quick should try at least.

Luc has 12/12 HP.

Luc attacks Petros

(Luc rolls 3,3,1)

Luc attacks and deals 0 damage. ((3Roll+4Str-9Def) = 0 Damage.)

Adept Activates!

(Luc rolls 4,3,2)

Luc attacks and deals 0 damage. ((3Roll+4Str-9Def) = 0 Damage.)

Petros has 21 HP.

(Petros rolls 1,5,6) ((5Roll+8Str-5Def) = 8 Damage)

Petros deals 8 damage.

Luc has 4 HP.

Luc doubles Petros.

(Luc rolls 1,3,4)

Luc attacks and deals 0 damage. ((3Roll+4Str-9Def) = 0 Damage.)

Petros has 21 HP.

(Petros has 21/24 HP.)

Luc Gains 10 EXP

Edited October 10, 2010 by Script

[Snike]

Charge!

As the light dissipated, Derek caught sight of the stone demon, and charged directly at him. His first blow glanced off of Petros, which allowed him to daze the cavalier a bit, but the second seemed to have some effect!

[spoiler=Roll][6,1,2]= Hit! 5-9 = no damage!

[4,2,6]= Hit! 10-6 = 4 points of damage!

[4,2,2]= Critical! 1 point of damage!

Derek 8/12 HP +10 EXP

Petros 20/24

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2718763/

[-Cynthia-]

Morgan warped in and began blasting away at the earth demon, who she noticed was holding Daranau.

(1,4,5)= 4 damage

(4,5,2)= Morgan 1/9 HP. Miracle activates.

(4,3,4)= 2 damage.

Petros 14/24

Petros staggered under the unexpected rain of assaults, dropping the tome he was holding in the process.Better to cut my losses he thought, burrowing deep into the ground and moving far away from the group. Megae must have retreated as well...she should have been less hasty

Edited October 10, 2010 by -Cynthia-

[Script]

Luc Altair

As Luc turned around for a second pass at the demon, he saw the creature burrowing beneath the ground and out of any attack Luc could use. Was it retreating? Was it waiting to attack again? Luc should return to the others at any rate and he ushered Thunder forward. As the duo charged back Luc grasped the side that the demon had slammed. It hurt, obviously, but there didn't seem to be any broken bones or severe injuries. The armor was tougher than he had realized.

[Ether]

As the earth demon escaped by burrowing away, Aiya let out a sigh, followed by a pained groan.

Adrenaline fading, the pains associated with being slammed into the hard earth from wyvern back grew very apparent to her, pain coursing throughout her body.

"Oh great... I think I might have broke something... quite a few things..." Looking around, she saw the devestation of the advance group. All of them were knocked unconscious, but signs of life were apparent in all of them. It seems death had been evaded this day.

Then she noticed it. The book laying near the hole left by the demon. Staggering over, Aiya picked it up.

"H-hey! Is this Daranau?"

*************************

Turning to leave, Damian saw Karina again.

"She brings up a good point. Are our rooms yet decided?"

Edited October 10, 2010 by Ether

[Inactive Account]

OOC: Script said I could so HERE

"That was quick," Fargo remarked, relieved. "Er... so should I just put him anywhere?" he asked, lifting Arrin down from his saddle and setting him on the ground. "What else are we doing here?"

[Dark Sage]

"DIE DEMON!" Alferis shouted, when the warping was complete. He charged towards where everyone was and saw...nothing?

"Huh? Where'd he go? Dammit!" Alferis shouted, rage at the possibility of losing Calamity.

"YOU COME BACK HERE DEMON! YOU COME BACK HERE! I'LL KILL YOU!"

[-Cynthia-]

Morgan noticed that her bone structure was rather compromised by the blow she had taken, but that could wait until later. "Yes, that's Daranau. Give it to Arrin." Morgan said to Aiya, before falling onto the ground. She was still conscious, but standing up appeared to be far too difficult in her current state.

Edited October 10, 2010 by -Cynthia-

[Ether]

"Right." Aiya replied, seeing Fargo put Arrin down.

Staggering over to him, Aiya placed the tome on his chest, and moved his hands to cover it.

Turning back to Morgan, Aiya asked her a question. "Is there anything else I should do?"

Hearing Alferis yell, Aiya turned to him, irritated.

"If you have that much energy, help out someone who's hurt Alf!"

[Dark Sage]

"Where is he headed? Who's his master? Answer me damn you, answer me!" Alferis raged, clenching and unclenching his fists.

"Heal everyone up guys. And make sure the kid's fully recovered. I'm gonna need him for some demon hunting," he growled, heading over towards Arrin.

"Hey kiddo, wake up boy. Wake up. I need your help."

[Phoenix]

Initial Aftermath

During the fighting Jasmine has flown over to help Irina to her feet only to nearly drop the poor girl in response to what had happened to Viveka and Susann. She was able to keep hold of her in the end though and when the intensity calmed down and Petros had fled, she waited for Lev to come over who had Stephanie sleeping peacefully on top of Krinkov's saddle. He led her and the wyverns over to Irina and Kiev then gave Jasmine a thankful nod letting her know he would take it from there. She rushed over to Viv's side while he took Irina.

Irina: Y-you guys ... made it.

Lev: You alright?

Irina: I ... I guess I am but Iso and the others. They all took such a beating.

Lev: What exactly happened just before we arrived?

Irina: We ... well we were fighting the one with the swords at first. Eric was taken by surprise and knocked out right from the start, but Iso, Kelas and I tried to fight her off while Charlotte kept us up. We caused a lot of damage but she didn't die until Iso completely set her on fire. I went down too and didn't get completely patched up before that huge demon showed up and finished the rest of us off. He smashed a rock over Kiev's head right before you guys got here. I think they're still alive but they need help right now. I'll be alright I think. The bleeding stopped, but Eric still hasn't woken up, Charlotte doesn't have a lot of stamina, and Iso and Kelas fought the hardest and the way they went down was ... horrible. Ug.

Lev: ... oh man, Irina, I'm so sorry about all these.

Irina: It was our plan right? We knew this might happen but-

Lev: I should have protected you from this. I can't let anything happen to you no matter what.

Irina: *sigh* Yeah yeah, Ivanko's niece. I get it. Enough of that. It's just ... weird.

She hung her head not liking the over protectiveness. She wasn't some damsel in distress so she didn't want to be treated like one, especially not by her womanizing best friend whom to her it was completely out of character for him to do ... unless ... she was missing something. That thought stayed with her for a few minutes and she couldn't look him in the eye for fear of seeming suspicious.

Meanwhile Viveka came off of Susann only to find herself in a great pain and fell onto her lap! She looked down to see that her leg was horribly bruised from the same impact that hurt Susann. She'd been graced by it.

Viveka: ... I hate working with these people. Urg. This is starting to hurt worse and worse.

Jasmine arrived around the same time and knelt down to take a look.

Jasmine: You didn't notice that welt before?! You got most of that hit you know! I'm surprised your leg isn't broken.

Viveka: Like I said ... I hate working with these people. I hate it, I hate it, I absolutely positively hate it. I am not a goddess damned grunt!

Jasmine: I know, I know.

Vacancy

Karina: Would you like me to take you to your room now, then? If so follow me.

She began heading off down the hall and after a few short minutes arrived at a vacant room and silently peeked inside.

Karina: Huh. Good enough. And here you are. I'll come get you if Ixion needs you for something. Don't worry about me not being able to find you. I have eyes in places you wouldn't expect.

She smiled and casually trotted off.

EDIT: Gave Damian a room and made it obvious that Karina's actually in charge of the whole damn base.

Edited October 10, 2010 by Phoenix

[Ether]

"Alferis, calm down. We don't know what shape Arrin will be in when he gets up, and we have a lot of injured people... I don't think we can do any more searching today." Aiya said to the man, astounded he was trying to enlist Arrin while the boy still lay in comatose.

*************

As he was lead to his room, Damian looked inside. Rather standard issue, bed, walls, ceiling...

Her comment intrigued him. Damian figured he should be grateful she bothered to tell him, but still...

"Eyes where I would least expect them, huh? Does that mean you're worrying about little old me, or do you just not trust me?"

Edited October 10, 2010 by Ether

[Dark Sage]

"I'm going to find those demons till the day I die," he growled.

"You know who the leader of them is? Tell me! I'm gonna hunt 'em down."

[Inactive Account]

Arrin's hands convulsed and gripped the tome tightly, and the force of the reaction lifted him a few feet off the ground, static crackling around him. An inhuman shriek escaped his lungs, somehow not stopping even after a few seconds. The air around him took on a red tint, and lightning from nowhere struck at random around him, somehow missing the members of the group. One bolt struck one of Megae's abandoned swords, blasting the reddish metal black. The final bolt hit Arrin square in the chest, and he fell silent, abruptly crumpling and falling to the ground.

After a moment of alarming stillness, Arrin blinked, then tentatively sat up. "...Er... what happened?" he asked perplexedly. "Um... I'm hungry... anyone got anything to eat?"

[Dark Sage]

"Whoa...heheheeheheheheh..." Alferis began to laugh. Good. This boy was needed for his cause. Nice to see that his magic was strong still.

"Here you go kid. Some jerky. I'm gonna need you here. I need you to help me. I need you to help me go demonhunting," he said, pulling some jerky out of his bag and handing it to Arrin.

[Ether]

As the reaction began, Aiya yelped in surprise and fell back, landing on her back, and barely evading the wild bolt which shot past her head and zapped the forgotten sword in the distance.

As the boy sat up normally, and acted as normal, Aiya let out a relieved sigh.

"You're alright... Arrin, we got Daranau back... everything is gonna be okay now."

As Alferis spoke, Aiya's irritation grew again.

"We don't know, Alf! There is nothing we can do right now. That demon got away, we don't have any other leads yet, and a lot of people are hurt..."

As she said this, Aiya's own injuries sparked once again, sending her into a painful spasm, clutching her midsection.

"Y-yeah... definitely b-broke something..."

[Phoenix]

Arrin Rebound

As the crimson lightning flared out in numerous directions, Jasmine toppled over Viveka in a jerk response and both women fell down having narrowly been missed by the lightning!

Viveka: What the hell was that?!

Jasmine: Ahhhhhhaaahaaahhhhhh!! They're attacking us again!!

Irina saw the display from behind in front of Lev and quickly shoved him aside as a bolt came speeding at them! It flew right by her head and streaked off to scorch a patch of ground! She'd winced fully expecting to be hit but was surprisingly unharmed. She turned to Lev who'd narrowly avoided falling flat on his rear from her hard shove.

Lev: Nice save.

Irina: We're even now. No more weird protecting me stuff okay?

Lev: Heheh. I'll pretend I'm not but ... ... you'll know.

Irina: ... mmmmgh >_>

Her attention went back to the lightning or rather the fact that it had stopped and Arrin had risen again. That's when she realized their mission was actually a success and immediately shot up throwing her fist into the air and jumping right along with it!

Irina: Yes!!

Right when she came down her wound reopened and she fell to her knees in agony!

Irina: Nooooooo, hurg-

Lev facepalmed and knelt down to help her before she keeled over.