Lord of Azure Flame Chapter 20: Bait and switch

[Script]

Luc Altair

In his little time away things had certainly grown quite chaotic. Bolts of lightning swirled around, barely missing members of the group. Were they under attack again? Luc reeled about looking for the source until he saw Arrin. Standing up. That lightning, was red. So, if he was the Crimson Thunder Tome's master he had just recovered it. Good.

The Fargo

"Gah! What was that?" Fargo yelled in a panic, nearly dropping his other passenger. "Oh jeez."

[Mercakete]

ooc: Alrighty, I'll reply in this post and send Beau in on annother. (Missed the battle, darnit.) I've been spending the day with my lil' sis, so I'll head off again after this post.

After the display of demon-fighting and random shocks of crimson thunder, Tas and Namid were both equally convinced: This group was not in any way run-of-the-mill. In fact, most of it's members were likely insane. The hatchling squieled in a sudden terror and hid behind Tas, curling his tail tightly around his torso once more. Namid himself was quite unnerved by the thunder magic and balked a little, only kept from a sudden takeoff by his trust in his rider. Tas himself couldn't help but stare at the boy who had just been struck by lightning and yet seemed to fare better than prior to the bolt! Subconciously, Tas reached behind himself and lightly touched the bundle that held the three eggs. They - and the hatchling - were safe. That was good. If he had done any fighting, they might have gotten damaged and the infants within might have died or been born crippled. Seeing the condition of both his fellow humans and the animals that they worked with made him also glad for Namid's safety...and, admittedly, his own. Still, the feeling of being warmed...it was a little disorienting. He had never been in contact with magic before, after all. Not even that of a staff.

[Dark Sage]

"Wait...what the hell am I doing? Aw geez. I'm sorry kiddo," said Alferis, shaking his head and pulling out the few bandages he had.

"Ok, who needs healing?" he called out, getting up. "Sorry. I don't know what came over me. But I still need to talk to you later er...Arrin?"

[Inactive Account]

Arrin quickly took in the situation. He was outside, and he had Daranau back; given the latter fact and how famished he felt, he was probably no longer sick. There had been a fight; Aiya was injured. What about...

...the others... Arrin scrambled to his feet, barely registering Alferis' shouts, and looked around. There were wounded... Tessa was all right, he saw, but Kelas... was unconscious. He ran over and crouched down to see if there was anything he could do, but it quickly became apparent that her injuries were beyond the reach of a vulnerary. Isotov, collapsed nearby, was possibly worse off. Arrin stood up, face pale. "We need a healer, fast!" he called. Did they get hurt in order to help me?

[Script]

Luc Altair and the Fargo

Luc and Thunder trotted up to the little group surrounding Arrin. But the Thunder Mage wasn't the reason he was there, nor was the boy acually there when Luc arrived. "Fargo," Luc said. "Did I give you permission to drop him?"

"No sir," the cavalier responded.

"Very well. At least you held unto her." Luc turned towards the nearby Alferis. "Alferis, take Reika off of Fargo's hands if you would."

Fargo let out a breath of relief. But Luc was still cautious. This was always the time when things were most dangerous. "Fargo, once you hand her over begin patrolling. I don't want anything sneaking up on us."

Fargo opened his mouth to complain, but thought the better of it and clamped shut after mouthing off an "aye sir!"

Luc couldn't heal, or tend wounds. But he could try and prevent any new ones from forming immediately. If only he had any actual command, he could speed this up. But such thoughts were useless, for now at any rate.

[Dark Sage]

"Sure. Not an issue," said Alferis, taking Reika off the steed. She was very warm, sweating and appeared to be asleep, thrashing about even. He sighed. They better find out who the leader is and find him.

Upon hearing Arrin shout out headed towards Kelas and held out the bandages.

"Shit. Don't worry kid," said Alferis, kneeling over Kelas. Examining her and checking her body for wounds, he found her bones were broken. He didn't dare try to set the bones, not knowing whether or not he'd kill her if he tried.

"You heard the kid! Get a healer here! Now!" he called out, gritting his teeth.

Edited October 10, 2010 by Yoshimitsu

[Psych]

Pary:

Pary stood up from kneeling over Charlotte. He had finished healing her, but she hadn't woken up yet. He rushed over towards Kelas, avoiding Alferis. "I'm sorry, I was a bit busy saving the princess of a country and one of our other healers." Pary knelt down, and began healing Kelas.

[Script]

Luc Altair and the Fargo

"Good," Luc said as Alferis took responsibility for Reika. "Fargo, get moving."

"Yes Captain," the cavalier said and took off to patrol the area.

Now, what should Luc do? There wasn't much besides patrolling for him to do, so really, he should be joining Fargo. Luc spurred Thunder around and the two galloped away. As they departed from the bulk of the group, a growing pain manifested itself in Luc's side. It seemed the demon's hit was harsher than Luc had initially thought. But others were wounded far more severely than him, he would wait. Until then, best to make himself useful. Luc cut Thunder's quick pace to a more gentle travel, no use making any damage worse from needless jostling. The two began to circle the wide area the group encompassed, with Fargo a fair bit more outside.

[Inactive Account]

As Kelas' injuries were healed, she stirred, opening her eyes. "Arrin... that you?" she mumbled. "You all right?"

"I'm fine, I've got Daranau back," Arrin replied. "Don't try to get up-- you're hurt--"

"The others?" Kelas propped herself up slightly to look around. Immediately she saw Isotov next to her, unconscious. From the way they'd fallen, it seemed that he'd been trying to carry her out of danger. As quickly as her newly-healed injuries would allow, she turned towards the source of healing, which turned out to be Pary. "Heal him," she demanded, before slumping over again. As Arrin ran forward, alarmed, she muttered, "Don't worry, I'll be all right now... just need to rest a bit..."

[Dark Sage]

"Ok then. You stay there Arrin and don't overextend yourself. I need you right now. Same goes for you Kelas. Both of you just rest up for now. You've earned it."

"Who else...Ah, Morgan," he said, heading towards her and sat down next to her.

"Ok. What bones are broken? Lemme help ok?"

-----------------

Horror

The scraping sound continued for awhile and Reika clutched her dagger very hard. Keeping out of sight, she looked into the hall, gasping at what she saw.

It appeared to be a large, hunchbacked man, wearing a smock out of human flesh and carrying a very large and phallic spear. There was no human head, only a red octagon.

"...The hell is that?" she said. Could the thing have gotten Daniel? What was it doing?

And suddenly, from behind, a horde of nurse clerics began to climb through the window.

"Great..." she muttered. If she was going to die, she was going to die swinging. But surprisingly, the monsters didn't attack. They just stood there.

One of them even waved hi. This cleric had hair, golden with a feather in it.

In fact, Reika knew for sure that wasn't a cleric.

"...Tessa?"

And suddenly the Octagonheaded thing came in. It lunged towards Reika, but she dodged, stabbing at it with the knife, glancing off the skin.

"Oh crap."

The octagon head swung around towards Reika and reached out towards her, while stabbing one of the clerics with the spear. It gave a very loud cry and he twisted it further through her chest, the cleric kicking and screaming until it died.

Reika backed away towards the cupboard at the sight of this.

And then suddenly...

"NAKED ZOMBIE SEAN CONNERY!" a voice cried out.

"'Cause this is thriller, thriller night

And no one's gonna save you from the beast about strike

You know it's thriller, thriller night

You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight" a voice cried out and right on cue, the nurses did the Thriller dance. Even worse, a bounding mostly naked guy except for his some rags on his lower body came in, throwing battle axes randomly while bounding in the air to the music.

".....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Well I'll never sleep again," she said in a flippant tone despite her eyes wide with horror at the very silly and disturbing sight.

In the real World

"What the hell's...a Sean Connery?" Reika murmured.

OOC: Yes, I deliberately made a Big Lipped Alligator Moment. This is the next to last dream post for now. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Mercakete]

ooc: XDDD Wow did NOT see that coming!! Beau-post now~!

Suddenly, a calm, faint light enveloped Luc and his side began to heal. The source of the healing would be unknown to the cavelier, seeing as he was actually quite distant.

The young priest had felt that something was terribly amiss and upon investigation, was nearing the sounds of battle. Now, however, the fighting had stopped and an injurred man, who seemed to be riding away from the battle, had come into sight.

"Remember kindness, Beau."

The words echoed faintly in his memory. Closing his eyes, he put his physic staff to work to heal the cavelier from a distance. (If he doesn't see me, I don't have to get involved. He can take it as a gift from the godess if he wants to. I'll just keep going after this...)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Tas was very uncertian what to do. He didn't even know half these people, yet there were pleanty injurred. For now, it seemed he was still under Lev's command, in a way. So, he had Namid glide over to the wyvern lord and land near him. It was a disturbing sight: a wyvern rider Levski was tending to was terribly injurred and her wyvern was unconcious. Concern likewise washed over Namid as he made a small inquirry whine in his throat to the fallen plains wyvern, the meaning being "Are you alright?" as he dipped his head closer to the fallen one's. "Levski," began Tas. His question suddenly changed from his original intent of asking what he should to to, "Is she alright?"

[Phoenix]

OOC: Quick post before bed ^_^

She'll Live

Lev: Oh, Tas. There you are. Yeah she'll be alright, she just forgot she's injured. Once the healers get over here we'll get this closed back up. I'm not gonna let this one bleed out let me assure you, hahahahah.

Irina: D-uuuuugh ... who is this? You two know each other?

Lev: We met last night. Irina, Tas. Tas, Irina. Tas is a wyvern egg courier we're going to be making a purchase from soon. ... Irina's a damsel in distress.

Irina: >_>

A swift elbow that caused her more pain than him caused him to chuckle in response.

Lev: Niece of the IM's leader Ivanko, and one of our fresher mercenaries, heheh.

She wanted him to stop chuckling but he was in a good mood. She could have been killed. Things had gone surprisingly well for the mercenaries that day, though he didn't yet know that Isotov was no longer breathing and neither did she just yet.

???

A quick glance revealed nothing but empty space in the distance with an ocean of crimson fire expanding out forever and ever. Iso looked up and panicked.

Iso: Oh crap! If I'm seeing fire then I'm dreaming again! SOMEBODY HELP!!! (Oh sh*t oh sh*t oh sh*t! The last time I was like this Ixion saved me from dying or ... or so he said, but I'm not linked to him anymore and he can't possibly know what's going on ... right? I passed out but how long ago? How much time do I have?) Ohhhhhurrrrrg! This is a pathetic way to go.

He kept flailing his arms in protest as he stormed over the fire in nervousness.

Iso: Okay calm down ... you're dying ... not dead. There's a huge difference ... sort of. Oh ... man.

He came to a long stop and then fell to his knees.

Iso: I feel really ... tired all of a sudden.

OOC: Quick explanation of why this is now a live/die scenario: When Petros punched Iso, it cracked enough of his ribs for the entire front half of his ribcage to crush and crumble in. The fact that he fell forward when he lost consciousness caused the cage to just break apart on the front end. He has about three more minutes or so before he dies of oxygen dep. Now I'll wait to see how this turns out. Goodnight. See you and whatever happens to Iso in the morning :D

[Balcerzak]

Helios had been more disoriented from the warp than he cared to admit, even to himself. It wasn't as if he'd never warped before―far from it, the Toran prince was well experienced in the matter. However, at the time the spell had cast, he hadn't properly prepared himself for it, he was looking around the field, trying to track down someone who had been missing earlier in the morning, who was still missing. Getting transported unawares is an entirely different affair than if everything is properly controlled. Not to mention, that priestess Stephanie was overexerting herself, trying to handle the entire group.

Shaking his head, the wind mage quickly conjured up two swirls of razor-sharp wind about his hands, ready to engage the demons. Yet there weren't any demons left... only the injured and the wounded. He saw Lev hoist Stephanie atop one of the wyverns, and her condition didn't look particularly good. I'll bet she overextended herself, and kinked up her mana network... maybe there's something I can do about that, he thought to himself, dismissing one of the wind-blades and lessening the intensity of the other while moving off in her direction; his plan of action was clear.

He didn't make it, though, as suddenly there was a shriek, then the uncomfortable sensation of massive static filling the air, which was only resolved when arcs of crimson lightning had discharged themselves, playing across the ground as they struck out again and again from the source, dissipating the tension.

"Whoa, kiddo," he called out, as the source of the disturbance started moving about again, "You need to practice a bit of control there." Looking at Arrin with a hint of condescension, Helios found himself a little relieved that the boy was alright, but mingled in with that was a bit of superiority. Hellsety was still his: safe, and as obedient as ever.

In the ensuing bustle of activity, trying to get people patched up, he held back. This was the sort of thing he wasn't good at. All he knew how to do to heal was to hit someone with a nice sharp blast of wind, and there didn't seem to be anyone who might be helped by that... except... Remembering what he had forgotten, he turned again that direction. "Oi, Lev. How's the priestess? Do you think I should try to help her out?"

[Snike]

A swift victory

As he went for another run, the demon had burrowed into the earth, ending the battle. Dismounting, Derek went to help some of the fallen. After bringing Cess over, and setting him in a stable position, the cavalier turned to Isotov, who was lying motionless on the ground. He swiftly checked for breathing and a pulse. The first was absent, but the second was rapidly failing.

"Pary, get over here," Derek said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "He needs to be healed, stat." His voice wasn't panicking, but you could hear the urgency in it.

Circle 5

"... I don't remember...," Elle said, pulling back part of her hood, to reveal a fifth circle emblem on her shoulder. "...Though, I suppose that means I'm a sage, so, I must have got it from TISME..."

Edited October 10, 2010 by Snike

[Psych]

Pary:

"Pary do this, Pary do that. I'm trying to save people one at a time here. Charlotte's still unconscious, and I can't find Tessa....Do I have to do everything?" Pary grumbled to himself, before standing up from Kelas, and hurrying over to Isotov. He knelt down, and started healing him.

[Phoenix]

Life

The thought of Stephanie being in anything but good condition made Lev's face churn. He'd been trying to play it off but she was either unconscious for the moment, or in some type of magic related coma which was not his forte and there was literally nothing he could do about it. He sucked it up and turned to Helios with a slight bit of concession in his face.

Lev: If you've got an idea let me know, because we only have one healer up right now and I don't know what to do for her. We could really use her help right about now.

Irina: Stephanie's hurt too? How'd that ha-

Derek: Pary, get over here! He needs to be healed, stat!

Irina took a quick glance at the sound same as a few others and then broke off from Lev in a mad panic rushing over to Iso and somehow ignoring her own wound! Lev reached out for her but quickly stopped and let his hand drop and sighed. She'd get brought down by her own pain again at some point. Kiev quickly woke up stirred by the noise but didn't rise or move his head. His tail slowly waded back and forth searching for some kind of indication where he was. The last thing he remembered was some kind of rock monster throwing another rock at him, and then everything tasting purple for a moment. What was "purple" he wondered to himself. He knew what it was when it happened, but now he was just confused.

When Irina made it over to where Iso was being healed she immediately shrieked lightly in pain and fell onto her hands and knees close by!

Irina: Ack! Why do I keep forgetting ... urroooh.

At the very least by the time she arrived, Pary was already working, and Iso's chest had reformed properly. What happened next was ... to be expected though ...

???

Iso: First I felt sleepy ... now I feel like someone punched me in the ... hurg .... Urrafhd-

Wide Awake ...

Iso: ARRRRRRRRRRRUUUUAAAAGH!!!

Iso let out a glass shattering scream as he came to and gripped his recently destroyed chest in sheer agony! Normally he wouldn't have been in so much pain, but he'd never been so injured to date and his adrenaline levels had long since stopped coming up and gone down him having been unconscious for around five minutes! Once he couldn't cry out anymore, the pain overwhelmed him and his body went limb as he passed out again! Irina came closer just thankful that he was still apparently alive but shaken to her core by what had just happened and wanted answers now!

Irina: Pary is he alright?! Tell me he's alright! For the love of wyverns what the hell just happened?!

[Inactive Account]

With a bit of a struggle, Kelas pulled herself into a proper sitting position. The healer was working, no need to panic now... "You've got your tome back," she stated with the beginnings of a smile, reaching out to hug Arrin. "We... I guess we won, sort of."

"...Don't get yourself hurt so bad," Arrin replied worriedly, delicately returning the hug-- he didn't want to hit anything still sore from the healing. He let go and stood up. "I should try and help the others... but you need to rest."

"All right, you do that," Kelas replied. "I'll stay here." She scooted over to make sure Isotov's healing worked out all right.

A scream rent the air: apparently the pain of Isotov's injuries had registered as the healing woke him. As he slumped over again, Kelas clumsily reached out to catch him, propping him up against her unhurt shoulder. "I'm sorry..." she mumbled, moving to better support him in case he woke up again. "I'm sorry..."

-------------------------

Arrin took a proper look around this time: Charlotte, Irina, Cess, and Eric were still injured, though they'd received at least a little care. There were a few more injuries, and it looked like the only healer currently available was Pary... wait, who was that boy with the staff over there, standing a ways off from the group? Arrin broke into a jog, heading to greet the boy. He looked to just be a traveler, but perhaps he could help? "Er, hello," Arrin called as he got within earshot. "Um... I'm sorry to bother you, but... are you a healer? We have injured people..." He wasn't really sure how to ask for help in this situation, but he had to try.

[Snowy_One]

Behind the group, curled up in pain, was both Esphyr and Altion. "Nyuggg... That... Urp... That didn't feel so good." moaned Altion, falling back onto his rear, his hand clutching his armored belly, unable to rub it through the plate armor. "Oh my... I'm... I don't feel so well." he groaned before bending forwards, loosing the contents of his stomach upon the ground in a mighty wave.

"Did... Did every little bit of me... make it?" asked Esphyr, stumbling about as a sharp jabbing pain shot through her back before she collapsed backwards, sure that somehow, some part of her body had been stolen by the warp.

[Psych]

Pary:

Pary stood, wiping the sweat from his brow. "I doubt it. But, he's in stable condition. When he wakes again, don't let him fall back asleep, whatever you do. I doubt he would wake up again if that happens. Now, I need to go see to the others." Pary walked over to Morgan, and started healing her.

[Dark Sage]

"Ok then. Looks like I'm not needed," said Alferis, who had been trying to find a good way to mend the bones without hurting her.

"Ok Pary. I know you hate me, but I wanna help healing people here, so is there anything I can do?" said Alferis, not believing he'd even talk to Pary.

[Balcerzak]

Helios smirked a bit. He was needed, and had important ideas that would help. Or would they help? A momentary falter in confidence caused the smirk to slip into a scowl, but he didn't let that deter him from his task.

"Speaking from experience, I can say that extreme expenditures of magical energy can upset the balance the mana network and it directly affects body. For instance, that time when I was forced to take Colonel Kleine down before he went rampaging completely wild... I don't think you were there to see it though, were you, Lev? The best cure is of course, healing magic, but in lieu of that I was trying to get the headmaster to hit me with a spell to knock things back into place. She didn't oblige though..."

Raising his hand, light wind energy still swirling around it, he added, "I don't know if I can hit all the right zones, but do you have any better ideas?" Jerking his other thumb in the direction of the priest he added, rolling his eyes slightly, "Somebody's got their hands full, and taking their sweet time with things."

Edited October 10, 2010 by Balcerzak

[Psych]

Pary:

"If you couldn't stop the bleeding from when Aiya had stabbed you, theses wounds would be far above your head. Just don't move Morgan until I say so. And go....get some firewood or something." Or can you not see it with your mask?

Pary ignored the rest of the bandits comments, and wondered over towards Eric to heal his wounds.

-------------

Rita:

Rita felt dizzy. They were in the courtyard, then all the sudden in this field. It was a bit mind-boggling. Rita looked around, noticing the people who had been hurt. They must have been too late. Then she noticed Cess over near the side. "Cess!" She ran over, and picked him up, carrying him on her back towards the others.

[Dark Sage]

"Asshole," Alferis muttered. Pary as usual treated him like an idiot. Of course he could treat his knife wound. Aiya just came first was all and by the time he was ready to pay attention to it.

"What would firewood do anyway?" he said in a loud enough voice for Pary to hear.

[Mercakete]

Seeing the rider - Irina - run off and hearing the wind mage speaking to Lev, Tas felt a little out-of-place. Everyone was either injurred or helping out, though, so Tas began thinking of how he could help. (Well, I've grown up around wyverns and that one there is injurred, so I could check for specifics, I suppose.) While Namid continued to studdy the younger plains wyvern, Tas dismounted and carefully aproched Kiev.

"Hello, there," Tas' voice was gentle as he carefully approched the fallen wyvern. He knew that it was rude and even dangerous to approch another rider's wyvern, but no one else was tending to him and he did have the know-how. "My name is Tas and this is Namid. You don't have anything to worry about," continued to coax Tas as he knelt down in front of Kiev's head and began to look the forehead over, "Let's see, here... You hit your head in combat, did you? Protecting your rider, I assume... Hmm... It looks like there are some scratches, but nothing major... The best thing for you is for something cold to be put on that sore spot. I don't know if we have anything like that with us, though... For now, keep your head down. If you get up too quickly, then you'll just fall again anyway."

The hatchling was still gripping Tas with tail and talon, looking curiously at the injurred plains wyvern.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Hm?" the younger boy looked over at the one adressing him. (Drat. Someone saw me... Oh well.) "Who are you?" asked the young staff-wielder, seeming a bit annoyed and even a little pompus. Still, he allowed the other boy to approch him.

[Phoenix]

Fixing The Warp Battery

Lev: Well, you can give it a shot then. Just be sure to remind her that we need her help when she wakes up ... just in case she's in any pain. God there's nothin worse than one of her rants about personal injuries.

The Kiev Part 1 (hah)

While Irina was away a new human had approached who seemed friendly enough. Almost like one of the healers. Unfortunately he didn't have the time to merely sit down and idle. Anything could happen and he needed to be ready.

The Isotov

Irina was still in pain but came a little closer still trying to see if Iso was alright. He was sleeping about as peacefully as he could have been at the time, and there wasn't much else to do until he woke up. She looked down at her wound and decided to take care of herself.

Irina: Kelas, look after Iso for me. I should really do something about this cut. Oh ... and thanks, Pary.

Her tone of voice was down and out but she wasn't going to let anyone try to cheer her up at the moment and quickly walked off toward Kiev who was now heading over to her anyway. When she reached him she gave him a big hug, a sigh of relief, and then reached over and yanked out on her old vulneraries.

Irina: I don't really know what to do for you, Kiev. You either got a concussion, or are perfectly fine and have to just walk it off.

Kiev stood firm. No concussion would stop him ... whatever that was. He was a wyvern. He was hoping Amari was close by watching him act tough though his head was still killing him.

The Kiev Part 2

Kiev then took a look at where Irina had just come from. When Isotov screamed, Irina went right to him. The fireproof Isotov couldn't take a punch or two? Humans were a bit too squishy. If Isotov was going to be more useful to the group, Kiev would have to find a way to trick him into putting on some of those human made scales Irina and Levski always wore. That would help, right? Irina could take a punch and so could Levski so that was most assuredly the answer.

Next he looked back toward Irina seeing her applying the vulnerary to herself and turned around to face the other way leaving her on the opposite side of the saddle. He sat down and looked over at Tas. Irina looked at the both of them while applying the vulnerary and then raised an eyebrow.

Irina: What is it?

Kiev gave her a look expecting her to somehow communicate who the new rider was. They stared at each other for over five seconds and no one said anything at first.

Irina: Tas. His name's Tas according to Lev.

She then cringed slightly realizing that she'd just referred to someone while they were close enough to hear.

Irina: Uh hey, Tas, could you come here for a second? Kiev's obviously not used to you yet so we'd better get that out of the way.

EDITED: Put in a response to Tas that might actually turn into something useful.

Edited October 10, 2010 by Phoenix