Return of the Emblem Chapter Eleven: Unleash

[Phoenix]

Travel

Reign accepted the blueberries for the time being, but since he wasn't particularly hungry at the moment offered them to Raquel and Robin. Raquel was a little too distracted by the thought of another random newcomer to really notice. Well I suppose it's not that surprising. This happens pretty regularly. Though I'm surprised we have two black pegasi in the group now.

Life Without Healers

It was an extremely short battle; Amon came to only to find Fizza and Malik so badly bloodied and injured that he couldn't even tell if either one was alive until the latter began moaning in agony. He began crawling over since he was too dazed to stand and walk. He was crawling over patches of blood well before he reached Malik. Once he made it to this fallen ally, he realized where all that blood had come from. His arm had been broken and torn open in several places. His chest and stomach had also been slightly nicked by the dragon's claw and were still bleeding. <"M-Malik ... ">

<"Is this what you wanted? For us to die for nothing ...? Is it?! Argh-it hurts so much ... Damn your stupidity, Amon!">

Amon took a moment to glance at Fizza now that he was at least in a position to tell if she was still alive or not. She was, but she didn't look responsive at all. She was staring blankly at nothing and clutching her wounds to slow down the bleeding.

<"This is ... your fault ...">

<"No."> Amon forced himself up onto his feet and struggled to keep his balance for a second before continuing. <"It's that dragon's ... and he's not getting away with it ..."> Amon then fell onto one knee and nearly fell onto Malik. Instead, he managed to steady himself and said, <"I'm going after it. Take this ... it's the best I can do until we can get the rest of the medical supplies,"> With that, he carefully handed off the rest of his vulneraries to Malik who could only take them with his right hand.

<"Helping them was a mistake ..."> Malik muttered before closing his eyes and going limp. Amon thought he'd passed out or worse, but upon closer inspection, he realized the sancturan was still conscious.

<"Malik, heal yourself and then help Fizza, alright? Can you do that? If not then I'll try to heal you both before going after that thing.">

<"Just go, you ignoramus.">

That being all he needed to hear, Amon stood up and took off running, stumbling a few times to his left and right as he got up to speed. Despite the rough start, he eventually reached a full sprint and raced off down the road.

Row Row Fight the Dragon

"Rrrrrr, I'm gonna kick your ass for that! Argh," Haythem yelled as he and Isis charged at the dragon in midair, only about fifty feet above the road. Haythem had suffered a minor head injury and blood was running down the side of his face over his right eye and onto his armor and cloak. His biceps were covered in cuts and bruises from the tree branches he and Isis had been sent tumbling wildly through. He didn't care though. What he was doing now was for Amon, Malik and Fizza. He'd seen how the dragon had swatted the latter two and had returned just in time to find Amon unconscious before it all happened. Seeing all of that, there was little other choice for him but to challenge the dragon himself with Isis and do whatever he could to bring it down.

As the two opponents closed in on each other head on, Haythem prepared to skewer one of the dragon's eyes out, but he hit nothing but air as the dragon was pulled into its own warp spell and vanished. "Damn!"

"Hahahahahahahah-" the dragon was in near hysterics when it reappeared off to their right and flying parallel to them.

<"Isis, we're going in!> I'm coming for you!" Haythem steered Isis toward their opponent so he could attempt to stab them again, but the dragon took that time to roll right over them. Now he was on Haythem's left side instead of the right. Haythem, being right handed with a lance would have to get back onto the dragon's left side or charge him head on to have any hope of landing a blow. He'd tried to land a blow as the dragon rolled right over their heads, but he wasn't expecting it and so his attack had missed. "You're not getting away!"

"I'm not running," the dragon shot back, half amused, half annoyed. Haythem didn't realize that the rebuttal was all the warning he was going to get before the dragon's next attack until it was too late. He tried to counter whatever the dragon was attempting by flying upward a short ways so he could roll to the right and stab low. If he was lucky, he could hit a vital point or damage one of the wings. He hadn't been so lucky, though, and the dragon rolled over so that its stomach was facing Haythem and the sky and snatched away his lance like a toothpick. The force of having such a heavy weapon yanked out of his hand sprained his wrist, and the dragon used its other paw to slash at Isis' neck. It was a solid strike that sent quite a bit of blood into the air. Then, while Haythem was still trying to figure out a way to stay in the fight, the dragon grabbed Isis by the torso and forced a rotation that placed him on top and her on bottom. That left Haythem struggling to hang onto the saddle and harness or risk falling to his death. The dragon grinned in amusement, because now he was free to try something he thought would be fun ... at their expense.

They had almost caught up with the wagon during their battle, and Pa and Shaun could see them from the roof, getting closer and closer. What didn't make any sense is that the dragon was forcing Isis to fly toward them upside down while Haythem struggled just to stay on.

"We're not stoppin', man, are you nuts?!" Greta refused Garrimor's request.

"... Grit ... that dragon's ridin' a wyvern now," Pa warned, looking completely disillusioned.

"W-wha?! Wait, Pa, did that thing catch up to us already?!"

"Sis, go faster! Go faster! It's about to catch us," Shaun pleaded. "Go faster!"

"Oh dammit!" She tried to get the horses running faster, but they were giving it all they could on that terrain. The dragon then rode Isis nearly all the way in and released her just above the wagon, where she wouldn't have enough time to recover. Haythem knew he was going to die if he didn't let go of her right now, and so did, hoping that he would land on the wagon's roof. Instead, he overshot the wagon and fell right between the horses, slamming into the wagon's tongue by his legs, and falling underneath half a second later. When he hit the ground, he curled up in the hopes that the horses wouldn't trample him and the wheels wouldn't crush any of his limbs. He was still knocked around quite a bit as the wagon passed over him and ended up sprawled out on his back by the end of the ordeal, his armor concealing a few fresh new injuries. The horses began trying to stop as quickly as they could when Isis crashed in front of them coming to a long, bloody, and dusty stop. The dragon also came to a sliding stop a short ways up the road road and was facing them when he finally got some traction and came to a stop.

"No no no no no no-" Greta's thoughts mimicked her horses' as they desperately tried to stop. They were either going to manage the feat, or gravely injure themselves and crash the wagon against Isis' downed form.

"Slow down, Grit," Pa pleaded futilely.

"Urrrrrrrrr-damn," were Greta's last words before the crash. The horses couldn't stop in time and broke their forelegs when they hit Isis. The wagon came to an immediate stop and Greta, try as she did, ended up falling from the wagon and onto one of her horses. Pa fell off of the roof and landed on Isis' side and injured his shoulder in the process. Shaun had been lucky due to being so low and only got thrown forward a bit. He managed to at least stay on the roof, though he was thoroughly scraped up after the crash.

"Where do you think you're going, hm?" the dragon mocked.

[Toogee]

"Are those people gonna be okay, Jamilla?" Shaun fearfully asked, only lifting his face up from hiding long enough to hear what she would say.

“Hey, they were chosen by the queen herself,” Jam reassured Shaun, continuing to stroke his back. “I’m sure she wouldn’t just choose a bunch of random beggars to go about the countryside. They have to be the elite of the Rexian army. If anyone can take on a dragon, it’s them.”

Of course, that was before the aforementioned dragon came barreling through the sky upon an upside down wyvern. The dancer could feel the panic in the air as Greta drove the wagon faster and faster. Jam grabbed Shaun’s hand, mostly out of fear. She squeezed tighter as Haythem passed over them, only to be seen again in the distance, sprawled across the ground. Not even during their last battle did she feel this way. For the first time on this trip, Jam was truly afraid.

Then the wagon crashed. Jam was thrown across the roof along with Shaun, slamming her forehead into the roof. She lied sprawled next to Shawn, not moving yet eliciting a moan of pain. She could hear bits and pieces of what was going on around her: the commotion within the cabin, the agony of the injured horses, and the mocking laughs of the dragon…

[Snowy_One]

"Thank you Reign." said Robin as she took some of the berries. With a small sniff to make sure that they actually were blueberries and not something mistaken for them, she quickly popped one into her mouth.

[Ether]

"A shadow dragon... are you serious?" Angelica noted with disdain... how could such bad luck hit so close... perhaps these people were cursed? It wasn't something she really wanted to consider, but as the wyvern crashed in their path, and the wagon slammed into it, it became more and more feasible.

"How the hell are we supposed to fight a shadow dragon?" She cursed, as she scanned the surrounding area for some way out of this mess.

***

"There seems to be no end to the absurdities you face, Greta." Circe noted to the merchant woman after the crash. It seems fleeing wasn't going to be an option anymore...

"I don't know what business a shadow dragon has ambushing hapless caravans, but with the horses and the wyvern injured, it seems attempting to overcome this is our only course of action..."

'I suppose this is the real test, isn't it... I very well may die trying to do this, but if we don't do something about that dragon, we'll all die anyway...' Circe reasoned to herself... a chance at surviving the overload on her body was preferable to nigh certain death at the hands of a malign and vengeful dragon.

'The theory is all there... I know how to do this, the only limitation is the scope of my own power. All there is to do is to create the singularity and...' With that, the spell began. There was no time for doubt, if the dragon became aware, surely he would evade and it would all be for naught... in a single burst...!

It all happened in an instant, the destruction sphere slamming dead center into the shadow dragon, along with a rain of every other type of spell the druidess had the knowledge to conjure... hopefully it would deal enough damage to either force a retreat, or allow the others to slay the beast. As the convergence of everything the woman had to muster came upon the shadow dragon, her vision, her hearing... everything went black before she could witness the results of her own work, her own body immediately shutting down from the outrageous expenditure, as she fell to the ground with a thump. Not officially dead as of yet, the woman would assuredly never awaken, the only thing noting her continued life were shallow, barely noticeable breaths, her only connection to the world of the living the numbed hardness of the cold ground beneath her.

[Parrhesia]

Wilhelm smashed against the far side of the wagon and rolled to the ground. There was a cut just above his eyes, and he swore profusely as he groped blindly for his mace.

[Phoenix]

Retribution

There was a lot of yelling after the crash. Even Greta's own horses were in hysterics and struggling to move in vain, but what caught and kept her attention the longest were the throes of the dragon. She looked up to see it wrestling with a destruction sphere while standing on its hind legs. There were a few plumes of smoke rising from its body, but beyond that, only the dark spell remained, and the dragon was slowly getting it off of his chest, literally. As soon as he was able to keep it at a short distance from his chest by pressing away with his paws, he warped off, and the destruction sphere rushed to fill the space he'd left.

"Oh no ..." Greta's eyes began darting all over the place to try and find the dragon, but she didn't see anything at first. Just as she was about to try and get off of her injured horse, a great shadow fell over the wagon. Before she could even react to that, a thick fog made up of the dragon's own dark energy fell onto them and engulfed everything and everyone nearby. Only Haythem was outside of the almost blinding miasma, and he was still too dazed by his ordeal to do anything other than writhe. "Everyone get outta here," Greta called out, but it was already too late for that, it seemed. By the time she'd finished her sentence, she felt her body being reaved by the darkness around them.

Pa was trying to help Shaun and Jamilla up so he could at least shove them off of the wagon and out of harms way but was quickly paralyzed by the pain of being drained of massive amounts of life force and fell onto his back. Shaun fell right back down as well and curled up on his side as the enormous nosferatu spell continued to reave every living thing on, in, and around the wagon. Just overhead, the dragon was beating down his wings repeatedly to stay aloft and absorb all of that stolen energy to heal his wounds. As their energy was siphoned away from them, the horses grew quieter and quieter and the dragon's large chest wound began to close, leaving only the missing scales behind.

As soon as the wounds were closed, the spell ceased, and the dragon beat his wings down one last time to get high above the wagon. Once he was up higher, he flew away a short distance and the dark energy began to dissipate. Greta was struggling just to stay conscious, Shaun was in tears and unable to cope with the pain, and Pa was completely unresponsive, gazing lifelessly toward the sky with Betsy tightly clutched in his arms. A ways up the road, Amon was growing tired. He hadn't realized how far ahead the wagon had gotten during the fighting. He wasn't sure what he could do if anything when he caught up to them. All he had was his knife. He only arrived at the wagon once the dark energy had completely dispersed, and he was horrified by what he saw.

[Toogee]

With the help of Pa and Shaun, Jam was getting back on her feet, but only briefly. The dragon had appeared right above them and began casting some sort of spell. By the time she had realized what was about to happen, everyone fell to the ground in pain. Jam screamed as her life was siphoned away. Though in extreme pain, she managed an attempt to protect Shaun by lying on top of him. She hoped her affinity to light magic would somehow provide some resistance for the both of them. It certainly didnt feel like it was working, perhaps due to their proximity to the dragon. The pain worsened as the spell continued; she couldn't even bring herself to cry out in pain. The dancer blacked out before she could see the end result.

Edited June 20, 2013 by Toogee

[RPG]

When the wagon crashed, Garrimor first smashed his head against the ceiling, then was sent careening into the back wall. With a snarl he tried to force his way past the other passengers and towards the exit of the wagon, despite the throbbing in his skull.

He made it outside of the wagon in time to see the dragon getting assaulted by dark energy. Seeing his opportunity, Garrimor began to dart forward, axe in hand, but he didn't make it to the dragon before it cast its own spell.

Garrimor was stopped in his tracks, and fell forward onto all fours. He could feel the energy being sucked out of his body. Fighting to stay conscious, he began wildly punching the ground beneath himself, howling like a wild animal. Soon he would black out completely. As the edges of his sight blurred, Garrimor's thrashing slowed down and his mind slipped in and out of consciousness, the dark dragon looming in his frame of vision.

Edited June 20, 2013 by RPG

[scorri]

[spoiler=Lumvi vs Aneda]

Lumi paused and then shrugged. "Well, I guess I can do one more round. Do you mind if I use magic though? I'm more comfortable with that, so it should be more of a challenge that way."
Spear tip pointing at the ground, "Whatever you want to practice with, Miss. Hell, if you want to practice fist fighting I'd be up for that!" Aneda said with an inviting nod and smile, her stance shifting to and fro in an anticipation.
Lumi grinned. "Well, you keep your lance. Let's see how this goes." She gestured, caught the ice spear, and quickly threw it at the other woman. It caught her in her non dominant arm, leaving a medium sized gash. She grinned and then settled into a defensive postion. Before the other woman could attack though, she quickly gestured again and a wall of ice raised up in front of her. Well, hopefully this will help protect me some against that lance of hers...

[spoiler=roll]
Full shift, mag=10, def=5,
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4093906/
(8+5)-13=0, hit!
10+5-4=11 damage
Aneda: 7/18
Lumi: 18/18

"Ah!" she yelped, oddly unprepared for the FIRST BLOOD that Calumeina drew. That wall of Ice is gonna be tricky... but then again it's pretty short! Taking a quick breath and then charging forward, Aneda vaulted over the wall, bringing her lance butt down in a wide slashing arc which must have seemed strange, but Aneda was strange to begin with.
http://invisiblecast...r/view/4094780/
She wasn't done yet though! Now that the wall wasn't an issue, Aneda... well she kinda forgot how much her arm actually hurt thanks to the slight numbing that the ice did to her, so her next attack, while it might have actually won the battle if that weren't the case, she winced as she brought the lance's butt up again in a quick jab to her back.
http://invisiblecast...r/view/4094784/

"Gah! Nice... Watch out though, I've got one last trick..." Lumi quickly dropped to the ground, planting her hand firmly and then snapping out a kick into the other woman's knee, knocking her down. Starting to stand, Lumi grinned. "I won..." and then collapsed down next to Aneda. "Well... I sorta won. Shall we call it a draw?" She reached over and offered her hand to the other downed woman.
[spoiler=roll]
Full shift to magic
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4094787/
hit
10+5-4=11
Aneda: 0/18
Lumi: 1/18

"Ha... a draw, yeah. Works for me, heh!" If there was a bitter tone in her voice, it was accidental, "You're not bad, I'll give you that. Your ice wall needs a bit of work though, or maybe I'm just too good at maneuvering for it to matter~" she bragged for no reason. "Either way, I didn't think that first shot you got on me would've affected me so much... props for that,Lumi." she took the offered hand and got herself up.
"Heh, yeah. It's supposed to be more of a last resort thing, but I'm trying to make it more useful in everyday battle. Can't say I expected that jump though... We'll just have to spar some other time." She grinned at the other woman and then set off to find Pete and tell him all about her new companions.

"Ugh, a funeral? I figured they would have realized I ran away... It's not like me and Star both disappearing on the same day was a coincidence... They were going to force him into the military, Eli. I couldn't just stand by and let him... I raised him. He's not a fighter. And if I'd told people... they would have followed me. I couldn't have that, so I just left. I'm sorry, I know that you... well, clearly you've been doing just fine for yourself. Still practicing your magic I hope?"

[Toogee]

"Ah, well, if it's any consolation, there probably isn't anyone hunting you down to bring you home," Eli replied, hoping to bring an optimistic spin to the news. "In any case, it's very nice to see your face again."

Eli never thought that he would see Lumi again. Yet there she was, electric blue hair and matching eyes. Ever since she helped him tame Betty, Eli had harbored a small crush for the girl. Of course, he would never ever admit it, much less act on it. Saying what he did say probably crossed the line, in his opinion. He quickly changed subjects as a result.

"So, uh, yeah, I've improved my staff skills. With this physic staff, I can heal from the sky without getting Betty in too much danger. It looks like you have quite a few people with staves already. I wouldn't think a merchant would need such a large guard, even in this part of the country..."

Little did Eli know that these were no mere bodyguards he traveled with.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Toogee

[Eail]

Alphonse didn't even have time to react as the Wyvern from Amon's group was dropped in front of the wagon, not even able to brace himself before the collided and he was sent hurling from his position at the drivers bench. Colliding with the ground after being twisted around in the air, landing on his back and rolling a few times, never loosing his death grip on his sheathed weapon.

Coming to his senses just in time to see the shadow dragon warp away from what appeared to be some kind of very powerful destruction sphere, Circe, likely. Before he could climb back to his feet to try to mount some kind of offense against the beast Al felt something ripping through his body, feeling as though his very life was being taken by the force.

'Nosferatu.... it has to be.... what the hell is this, I've never been hit with something of this magnitude before!'

Shaking in pain and unable to move while the dragon's spell tore through his body, Alphonse was left a sweating, panting mess by the time it was over. Stabbing he sheath of his sword into the ground to help get up, which even then was taking too much strength for his liking.

Finally back up Alphonse glanced around.... everyone else was down, if they were dead or not he couldn't tell unless they were twitching from the pain they were in. Clutching at his chest where he had been wounded two days ago Al could see someone coming towards the scene.

"Amon, over here!"

[scorri]

Lumi

"Yeah, I uh... I dunno. I just met up with them a couple of days ago. They seem nice though. Had a couple of good bouts with some of em. They seem like nice folk. And it is good to see you again Eli." She reached over and ruffled his hair a bit. "So you're joining up with these guys for good then?"

Erion

"Goddamn horse stop that right now. We need to go back. Our group is in danger!"

No they most certainly did not need to go back. Hadn't he seen that dragon? It would eat them both whole and still be hungry. Pips shook her head and continued charging down the path away from the dragon as fast as she could. Erion glanced to each side, hoping to find a soft patch where he could jump off, but there was nothing but rock, more rock, and then the occasional tree. Tearing around the next bend, the horse suddenly pulled to a full stop that sent Erion flying over her head, and landing in a disgraceful heap on the ground. Glancing up to see what caused the sudden stop, he saw a large party of well armed folk just down the path. "Oh. Well. That's nice. You guys wouldn't be any good at dealing with shadow dragons, would you?" And with that, Erion collapsed in a heap.

[Phoenix]

Kudos

Amon heard Alphonse calling him, but slid to a stop beside Haythem, who was much closer after getting run over by the wagon. <"Haythem?! HAYTHEM!!!">

<"... you're finally up? Good,"> Haythem's reply was weak and he didn't bother moving or opening his eyes afterward. <"Can you do me a favor? Can you make sure Isis is alright?">

<"Of course, but I need to make sure your injuries aren't serious, Haythem.">

Greta meanwhile climbed off of the groaning heap that was her wounded horses and Isis. Once she was on solid ground again, she tried to stand up straight but ended up on her hands and knees again. "Dammit ..." She began looking around to see if Pa or Shaun were in sight but didn't have a good view of the roof from where she was. The fact that Pa hadn't warned her about the cursing had her worried and so she struggled on over back to the wagon to try and get to the roof.

At around the same time, Shaun's pain subsided enough for him to start moving again. He took one look at Pa and went pale. Jamilla was still with them, but if that dragon returned before they thought of something, they would probably all be dead. "Jamilla, wake up. Please wake up, we've gotta do somethin' or we're ... gonna be like Pa soon ..." His face was covered in tears again by the time he got around to shaking Jamilla in order to wake her. He couldn't help it at this point.

"I have to hand it to you wayward whelps ..." The dragon's voice grew louder as he swooped down nearby. He paused only to land, and oddly enough, afterward, he laid down beside Isis with his forearms crossed one over the other. His wings folded up neatly to his sides, and his tail curled inward on the wagon's side, a potential weapon in and of itself. "That little spell really hurt." Isis immediately hissed violently at him, stretching her neck out as far as she could as if she was trying to bite him. She couldn't quite reach him, though, and so he didn't react at all at first. "So, which one of you had the gall to go and try that? I'm curious."

Greta managed to reach the roof, even ignoring the dragon in order to do so, but when she arrived, she saw Shaun trying to wake Jamilla and crying all the while ... and her father, dead. "Pa ... no."

"Sis, we've gotta get the others and get outta here ..." Shaun pleaded.

Par For the Course

Raquel kept her eyes on the road ahead, becoming wary of the increasing number of trees showing up as they rode up the mountainside. If they were going to get ambushed again, this was as good a place as any, and she hated that. Instead of an ambush though, she saw a man on a horse ride out into view farther up the road. He almost immediately fell from that horse. "Wow ..."

"Oh what now?" Reign irritably asked, noticing the failure of a rider as well.

"Hey! Somebody ride on ahead and see if he's alright," Raquel more or less ordered. She hoped she'd raised her voice enough for one of the mounted people to hear her over the Dauntless' noise.

"... there's a dragon nearby," came Ayano's voice. By the third interjection, Raquel was sure she'd worked out the girl's location, likely on the roof, carefully balancing over the edge, somehow.

She couldn't worry about pinpointing the Hidden right now though; her news was a much more pressing issue than she was. "Dragon?"

"... dragon ... or a bunch of dark mages performing a rite. Probably a dragon, though," she replied inattentively.

It's going to be a long day, Reign mused.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Dragon!?" she asked from on top of the wagon. "I thought dragons didn't live in Ursium...we should probably try and steer clear of this if possible," she advised, furrowing her brow.

Nadya

Raquel asked for someone to ride on ahead and see if the man thrown from his horse was all right, but Nadya caught the word 'dragon' being thrown about and decided to move further back rather than charge forward. This group has like thirty people or somethin', I ain't the only one who can handle this.

Connor

Connor had finished the transmutations for Faatina, Mushirah, and Norbert over the past three days and was continuing research on other transmutations. He put on a thick helm to muffle the sounds of chatter from the group and so remained blissfully unaware of his surroundings.

Edited June 21, 2013 by -Cynthia-

[Parrhesia]

Wilhelm stumbled to his feet, ripped a dagger from a sheath at his belt and hurled it at the dragon, nearly pitching forward into the ground as he did so. He was already confident he was going to die here... may as well show some fight.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Furetchen

[ReformBlade]

Not exactly 'with it' as the cool kids would say, Aneda did pick up on the order to go check out the person who had fallen on the road. Urging Hannah ahead in a quick and graceful fashion, Aneda pulled up beside the man and dismounted, looking to see if he's alright. "Hey, you alright there mister? Horse not agreeing with you or something?" She knelt down to the man, still extending an arm.

[scorri]

"Muh. Head, ground, ow. Uh, oh. Dragon. Up ahead. Group could use a hand. You guys happen to be dragon slayers? And horse is a cowardly traitor. Been too long since I've ridden. But, right. Dragon. Help?"

Edited June 21, 2013 by scorri

[Snike]

Their luck was up. Apparently Schwartz was up ahead, or so invisible girl had said. That, or another of the incredibly rare shadow dragons had decided to go on a rampage this deep in Ursian territory. Axel moved up to the front of the Dauntless with some difficulty, then produced a bag of coins.

"Could someone come loan or sell me a light rod? Just so I don't get shot by the chimp?" Axel asked, entirely serious.

[Phoenix]

Dauntless (not Raquel segment)

"Okay then, I'm guessing it's this one," Schwartz pointed to Circe's fallen form with a single claw. When the knife came flying his way, he raised that same paw to block the attack. It stuck deeply into his palm and caused a wince. Being surprisingly gentle, he slowly pulled the knife out with his teeth and let it fall to the ground. "If that gets infected, I'm going to piss on your graves." Deciding to not just let that slide completely, he focused his attention on Isis and the horses, the former was still hissing at him. He enveloped all three of them in dark magic and cast another nosferatu spell. The wound in his hand closed before the spell had even finished, and only Isis survived the attack. She lost consciousness just the same, however. The wagon wasn't going anywhere now, even after the battle.

"What do you want from us?!" Greta yelled from the roof of the wagon. She had her gun out and aimed right at the dragon's eye.

"Sweat, tears, and blood, human. The sweat of your futile struggle, the tears of your loss, and the blood of your demise. Well then ..." Schwartz slowly began to stand up on all fours again. "That was a nice break and the pain's gone. Back to the slaughter?"

"Is this a game to you?! You killed my father, you bastard!"

"A game?! No, but that's the spirit," Schwartz exclaimed with a smile as he reared back for what looked like a pounce. "Any other kin here I should know about? Humans like you should always be the last to go."

"Shaun, stay down, dammit ... just stay down ...." Greta quietly insisted. She had no idea what she was going to do other than take a shot and pray that would somehow kill the dragon.

Not terribly far away, Amon tried to help Haythem onto his feet, but the sancturan wyvern rider didn't appear to even be trying anymore. <"Come on, Haythem!">

<"Help them, man. I can barely move. I'll just get in the way ... or worse ... get us both killed.">

<"Urgh."> What could Amon say? Haythem was right. He gently let his friend back down and hurried over toward the wagon. Even then, he didn't know what to say or do. He wasn't going to accomplish much with a simple combat knife and he'd left his salves with Malik. There's got to be something I can ... wait, what is that back there? Amon spotted the destruction sphere that Greta's party, Circe specifically, had opened up with. It was no longer a destruction sphere, but a regular singularity. Having grown large enough to sustain itself without the castor's aid, it was devouring every bit of loose debris in its area of influence as it roamed away from the scene, growing in size as it did. Without a castor keeping it aloft, however, it slowly drifted until it hit the ground, shredding over a dozen trees as it touched down a short ways off the road. Before long, it was digging into the ground and becoming unstable ....

Daunted (Raquel segment)

"So, what are we doing?" Reign asked. He figured Raquel hadn't made a decision just yet, but best not to let her get too distracted from the matter at hand, a dragon, apparently.

"I don't know. We really shouldn't run straight into danger ... especially not after what happened abroad, but we'll be losing hours if we turn around now and we'll definitely have to camp out again. I'm not sure we won't end up getting this dragon's attention anyway. Also ..." she paused to look off to her left and right side to see how far away the edges of the road were. She wasn't too confident about this, now. "The road's getting kind of narrow. I'm not even sure if we can turn around without nicking the trees ... maybe? The Dauntless is pretty long."

"That reminds me; it's almost funny how this enormous vehicle has just as many inconveniences as conveniences." Reign cut his rant short to get back on the dragon topic. "Whatever we're doing, be sure we're ready for a fight. If there's a dragon in Ursium, it might be in the skotian military. An ordinary dragon's bad enough, but the ones in their military are a lot tougher, and they usually have people backing them up from somewhere." Reign didn't want to say the word 'sniper' and potentially start a panic; in a place like this, they would be pretty bad off in a ranged ambush and Raquel especially hated that sort of thing, so he left it at that.

"A rod? Well sure, I guess. They're interesting but I wasn't expecting ..." Raquel stopped, not knowing exactly what she was going with that. She wouldn't have gotten them if she didn't think she could sell them, so that wasn't it. Perhaps it was just the timing.

"Ayano, are you sure there's a dragon up the road? Wouldn't we have seen it by now?" Reign asked, trying to confirm at least that much.

"... just darkness. There's too much out there for it to be just one dark mage, even a very powerful one."

"A shadow dragon? Hmm ..." The chances of it being a shadow dragon that's not in the skotian military seem pretty low to me. If that's the case, then maybe having a group with this many skotians is a good thing. Can't be too sure though.

"Okay, I don't want to deal with this anymore," Raquel said, keeping her voice down. "We actually lost people the last time we got involved in something that didn't lead back to Sardis."

I guess Sardis was going easy on us, then ... Reign sighed at the thought and then flinched when he heard a very strong explosion. He wasn't sure if it was the beginnings of an earthquake, a ridiculous amount of explosives being set off underground, or both, but he knew it was very close by. A gust of wind blew over the entire area and got every last tree in sight rustling violently for a moment. In the distance, there was now a massive clearing of trees and debris being cast hundreds of feet into the sky. "Wow .... just ... ... yeah, I'll take a rod too, thanks."

[Mercakete]

Gytha had been ignoring the conversations going on but what she couldn't ignore was the sudden, violent explosion. She hadn't been expecting it at all so she jumped and yelped at the initial sound of it. When things died down again, she got to her feet and looked to where the explosion took place. "What in Leviathan's name was that?! Someone drop a light on a lake o' powder?!"

There was talk of dragons and there was that rider up ahead. Aneda was taking care of him, it looked like. There was some more back and forth of what to do about the dragon -- Norbert himself wasn't entirely sure. He would've alerted the military but the threat of the Wrathites made that a bad idea. -- and then there was a massive explosion. Rizen spooked, of course, but seeing as the ground was shaking and the wind was blowing strongly, her spooking just resulted in a shrill whinny and her shuffling around her wings and legs some in fearful confusion. When the environment calmed down a little, Norbert was able to actually work on calming her down effectively rather than just holding onto the reins with his hands and her sides with his legs hoping to not get thrown. Rizen's improved armor -- Connor had added some lightweight metal plating to her black leather armor on the 2nd day of their travels since the night of the fortress -- may have given Norbert some peace of mind regarding her safety but Rizen didn't know she was any more or less protected than before.

Once the pegasus had calmed down -- which, thankfully, didn't take entirely too long -- the pegasus rider rode up to the front of the Dauntless and informed Raquel, "I'm going to check that out. I'll be right back!" That said, Rizen took to wing and the two began flying in the direction of the blast.

"Are ye daft?!" Gytha called after him, but if he heard her, he sure didn't show it. As for Norbert himself, he wasn't planning on letting the dragon actually see him. He just wanted to get an idea of what was going on for himself, turn back and tell Raquel about it. If there was a dragon involved, they would have to be prepared. That was for sure. Right now how little they knew about the situation was bothering him, though. If Reign was right and the dragon had help, they would have to be ready for that too if they couldn't get away.

[Toogee]

Eli smirked as Lumi ruffled his hair, knocking his hat to the ground. He made was about to do the same to her when a giant explosion interrupted the conversation. The sonic blast that followed nearly knocked the rider off his steed. Even Betty stumbled a bit, nearly taking off for the sky before Eli pulled on her reins.

“What in the name of Mercy was that?!” Eli asked, still quite astonished of the seemingly random event. His question was quickly followed by the mutterings within the group. Somehow, in the middle of Ursium, a dragon was on the attack.

“Did they say dragon? Here? That can’t be! Lumi, I’m going to scout ahead and see whether these rumors are true. Care to back me up?”

Whether Lumi’s answer was a yes or no, Eli took off with Norbert, eager to prove his worth to the others. He flew over the caravan and ascended higher to get a view of the countryside. The rider followed the road to see what the commotion was about. He could clearly see the impact crater that preceded the large explosion, but that wasn't what had Eli’s attention. His eyes widened as he saw the bodies of soldiers littering the road ahead. In the middle of the mess, Eli could make out the large black dragon staring down a wagon. Flying hundreds of feet in the air, Eli had a hard time trying to make out the scene, but he had just the tool to help him out. The rider pulled out a small scope, extending it to get a better view. There was a woman with a mere pistol staring down the beast, the last of what appeared to be a large army. There were others around, but they appeared to be in no shape to defend against the dragon.

“I can’t believe it,” Eli said out loud. “A dragon, and not that far from home either. How is that even possible?”

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

Jam was beginning to regain consciousness, hearing Shaun’s pleas. She felt him shaking her and slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Shaun’s face drenched in tears. Next to her was Pa’s body; just as Shaun said, he had succumbed to the dragon’s magic assault. Finally, Jam looked ahead to see Greta staring down the massive dragon, pistol in hand. The dancer didn’t see anyone else around; she feared them dead. She was afraid that if she called for Alphonse, he wouldn’t come, only confirming what she feared. Jam had promised to help out around the wagon ever since Greta took her in. In their most dire hour, she would keep that promise.

Jam took Shaun’s shoulder to help prop herself up on her hands and knees. She looked up to the boy’s face and wiped a tear off.

“Listen to your sister,” Jam said to Shaun, “but be ready to run. I’m gonna help her out.”

With that, Jam rose to her feet. Immediately, she felt her side hurt, as if all the healing from the last battle was undone. Still, she walked across the roof, limping at every step. The dancer stood by Greta, her hands shining with whatever light magic she could gather. Her heart beat faster and faster as she looked upon the dragon. Jam feared him, but if Greta could stare him down, then that was enough courage for the dancer.

“I’m with you, Greta”

[ReformBlade]

Well this was confusing for the lady, "Dragon? Uhhhh... I know I ain't a dragon slayer but... Shit." She still held her hand in order to help the guy out. "I'm not sure we're ready for this amount of bullshit at the moment, but... who knows what's gonna happen."

[scorri]

Erion

Erion stared at her hand for a few seconds before reaching out and grabbing it. Slowly standing, he blinked a few times before continuing. "Shadow dragon. Knocked out a good half of our group that stayed behind. Hope Amon and his friends are ok. They stayed back to let us go. Then the dragon appeared. It can warp. You aren't safe. We need help. Please."

Lumi

Lumi watched as Eli flew off and cursed softly under her breath. "I swear if he goes and gets tangled with a dragon I'm going to kill him... If the dragon doesn't do it first."

Marella

Mar was watching everything unfold in front of her and finally whirled around and cried out to Raquel, "We can't just let it go! I highly doubt there was one person riding alone in this area. It's too bandit prone. He must have been with a group! They could be dying! We have to try and save them!"

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

Last time I thought it best to meddle in the problems of others, John and Sophia ended up dead. Dragons were involved then as well...although this seems to be quite different. I wonder if this dragon is part of the military or is a rogue...

"While this situation is unfortunate, I don't know what we can really do to help. Attacking a dragon, especially if it is a shadow dragon, seems like a suicide mission," Veronika said in response to various concerns.

[Snike]

"Don't bother trying to predict me," Axel responded, just before a large explosion occurred out in the distance. Well, shit. Reign suddenly wanted a rod, a few people took off as scouts, a female knight advocated going to the rescue, and Nika declared attacking the dragon a suicide mission. Time to step in.

"If that was because of the dragon, it's already too close to evade," the red armored man said, crossing his arms. "We need to get a few people with light rods, like what I was aiming to get, on the roof so they can attack the dragon if it attacks us, along with a few snipers or gunners to aim for its' team, since there is little to no chance that it is wild. Everyone else should grab wingslayers if they can and get ready for combat. Veronika, if it doesn't attack us right off of the bat, you should try to negotiate with it. You would be the one it would be the most likely to listen to."

***

And suddenly there was an explosion. That didn't sound good. Blake got up and began to go to the front of the Dauntless, but then remembered how useful he had been last time. The swordman then just made sure he was ready to get out at a moment's notice, and waited for orders.

***

The shock wave from the explosion brought Grant to his senses, and he instinctively produced two bolts from his pouch. No one had freaked out yet, but something definitely wasn't right.

***

Out of nowhere, an explosion in the distance rocked the group. Once Pete had recovered, he drew his bow and fell back to Lumi's location, where she was once again alone.

"Get ready," he growled, to his younger companion.