Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar kept silent because he kind of really didn't care about things at this point. Sure he kept an eye open for any advantages to exploit... but it probably wouldn't come to that. Probably. But there was one little thing that interested him now. "Flying swords huh?" Gar carefully commented. "Know anyone famous with the same trick?" he awkwardly threw that option up.

[Toogee]

Eli was very much disturbed that the flying swords were being thrown directly at healers. The enemy was certainly not following any code of honor he knew from school. It was only a matter of time before the blades turned on him. That is, unless he stayed far, far away from the battle.

So he did. If need be, his healing magic would just fine from a distance. This wasn't cowardice at all! It was just...giving his enemies a wide berth. Or something that didn't give negative connotations to his character.

[roymbrog]

Katrina

Kat winced as another sword flew through the air, embedding itself in another mage. Her decision to protect Zachary had left others unguarded, but rather than lament the fact she decided to make the most of this trade off. As she spoke behind her she made sure to keep an eye on the knights lest they attack whilst she was distracted. “Zach, if I hold one of them off, do you think you could get a good shot off?” she asked. She was planning on charging the knight that they’d already attacked to prevent him from throwing his sword. He’d need it if he was going to hold her off.

Katrina defends mage man!

---

Synthia

In the split second Synthia's vigilance dropped, the knight's sword shot through the side of her abdomen like a lance. The shock had her fall to her knees, clutching her side due to the mindnumbing pain and need to stem the bloodflow. It took a moment to even register that Raquel had called out to her. She was likely useless for the rest of this confrontation -- and likely to pass out in the next few minutes from pain and bloodloss -- but the mage had the presense of mind to assess her own injuries and sound reasonably convinced when she shouted back to Raquel, "I'll live!" Though it was followed by a much quieter, "I hope."

[scorri]

Lumi saw the healer near her take a sword to the side and rushed over immediately. Slamming up a thin shield of ice that wasn't enough to actually stop the sword, but hopefully enough to direct an attack to someone else, she quickly said, "Here, hold on a second." Pulling out one of her vulneraries, she did her best to gently rub it into the woman's wound. "I'm sorry I can't do more than this, but hopefully this will be enough to keep you up until someone can heal you."

[roymbrog]

Synthia was surprised to see a wall of ice spring up in front of her, but very grateful for the help. She removed her arm from the wound when Lumi pulled out the vulnerary, and allowed the girl to apply the medicine. The cut was extremely deep, so it wouldn’t heal it completely, but the vulnerary would at least help in stopping bloodloss. “Thank you,” Synthia said, sounding relieved.

[Eail]

Struggling to get up, there was a rage present in Zachary's eyes as he stared down the two knights, not really sure which one of them had nearly killed him. Taking his hand off the still bleeding wound in his side, which seemed to not be fatal thanks to the bit of healing Nadya had managed to give him, the pages of his tome were already being flipped. "I could have been back at base... taking care of MY kid... but no, now I get to deal with you assholes, you're officially on my shit list." He seethed, sparks already starting to appear around his hand, causing it to twitch a bit.

"Katrina now!" He shouted as shot forth from his hand at the somewhat injured knight, better to focus one down that deal with both.

[spoiler=Rolls]

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4421371/

Zach deals 16 damage.

19-6=13+3=16.

Kat deals 3 damage

7+2-6=3

Koray 12/51

Katrina is dealt 17 damage and heals 1

8/24

Edited March 5, 2014 by Eail

[scorri]

Hoshi

Spying the knight taking another set of hits, Hoshi quickly formed a sphere of dark energy and sent it hurtling into the knight, knocking him down and out of the fight. She grinned slightly to herself. One down. She'd survived this far. Hopefully she'd continue to do this well.

[spoiler=combat]

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4421389/

Hoshi hits!

18+3-6=15 damage!

Koray is ko'd

Lumi

Shaking her head slightly, Lumi smiled at Synthia. "It's no problem, really. Just... try and stay behind me, ok? Stay safe. You're already pretty hurt. No need for you to risk yourself any more."

[Phoenix]

Last One Standing

Zachary and Katrina tried to launch a counterattack once the former was able to fight again and despite the tremendous damage a thunder spell like that must have done to him, Koray was still on his feet. Not only that, but he would have cut Zachary down immediately if Katrina hadn't intervened and taken a bad hit in his place. Koray wasn't given a reprieve and was immediately flanked by another attack. The knight forcefully adjusted his footing to remain standing and then relaxed, standing tall with his sword held loosely in one hand.

"Now's my chance," Shadrak smirked, readying his own spell. Then, to his and Raquel's surprise, Koray lifted his sword up so that the blade would face the ground, and then knelt down, allowing the sword to rest like a cane in front of him. "What the-" Shadrak was immediately cut off by a torrent of dark energy that erupted from Koray and almost flooded the whole area in a dark fog. All that energy began to settle just off the ground after billowing out from Koray and the inside of his armor began to give off a faint purple glow.

The event brought Shadrak to a disturbing realization. They weren't fighting humans. There was far more than enough dark energy pent up inside Koray's armor to kill anyone wearing it at the time, and with that glow showing the way it was, he knew there was very little inside to block it. Maybe--he conceded to his former assumptions a little--the armor had 'something' in it, but whatever it was couldn't have been a living person. They were essentially fighting dolls. His gaze eased over to Tuncay next, being careful not to draw in another attack. "Is he a fake too ...?" Who could have done something like this? Io?

Nadine was wondering what the hell had just happened and hadn't caught Shadrak's question. Reign was confused, but had his own suspicions and Raquel was coming to similar conclusions as Shadrak. She'd never seen that much energy in one spot before; you could infuse ten tomes with the energy Koray's armor unleashed.

Simon wasn't completely sure of what was going on but he still had this to say ... "So much magic ... just gushing out like that ... ... that poor fellow couldn't have survived. I believe you have ... k-killed him." Fearing that everyone was going to get themselves arrested for this--himself included--he looked to Io, who was just sleepily watching the whole thing. She didn't react at all to Koray's defeat and didn't look all that interested to begin with. Maybe he didn't have any idea what was going on, after all.

Tuncay stood alone for a moment before changing his stance slightly. The next attack would be up close and personal. "We need to finish this before anyone else gets hurt," Shadrak called out, glancing at those who'd already taken a beating. Or killed ... I can see why they're so quick now despite the armor.

[Oersted]

"Wow," Orville muttered at both the display of power from the knights, but also at the teamwork being displayed by the others. Hell, they'd already taken down one of the knights; however it appeared that it still had some tricks up it's sleeve as it unleashed a massive amount of dark energy. What... what the hell was that? Now more eager than ever to end this as quickly as possible, Orville formed an orb of dark energy and launched at the remaining knight. It was definitely a hit, though it didn't seem to do much other than alert the knight to his presence if the sudden, intense pain in Orville's side was any indicator. Orville grit his teeth sent another ball of dark energy at the man, but it seemed to do even less effective than the last.

[spoiler=combat]
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4421644/

Orville does 5 damage.

9+2-6=5 damage

Tuncay deals 11 damage.
16+2-7=11 damage

Orville deals 4 damage.

9+1-6=4 damage

Orville: 13/24

Tuncay: 39/48

Edited March 6, 2014 by Oersted

[roymbrog]

Katrina

As Kat waited for confirmation from Zach she tried to come up with a plan of attack, but when the mage was ready she immediately fell back on her mainstay of ‘charge and smack something’. She closed the distance quickly; once Zachary’s thunder spell went off she was nearly on top of Koray, leaving him the options of either fighting her off, or being left weaponless if he threw his sword somewhere else. Katrina was planning to take the hit regardless, even if it meant diving into the way of a flying blade.

As she managed to land a hit on Koray, she took a nasty blow to the chest, and though it didn’t pierce her armor, it managed to dent it and likely break several ribs. Winded, and in more than a little bit of pain, she tried to somersault back onto her feet as the force of the swing knocked her over. Unfortunately all she managed to do was tumble farther away and land awkwardly on her back. She was never good at those acrobatics things. In the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter, because she had bought time for both Zach and Hoshi to down the knight, and for that she was quite pleased.

Katrina’s feeling of accomplishment soon turned to confusion, however, as a black fog radiated out from the kneeling suit of armor. “Is that… dark magic?” she asked, pushing herself off the ground. She stared for a moment at the clouds pooling around her feet. Was this stuff dangerous?

---

Synthia

Synthia would’ve much preferred to follow Lumi’s suggestion, but her reason for coming along hadn’t been to keep herself safe, and she said as much. “I came to make sure no one died. So if there’s something I can do to help, I will,” she stated. Staying behind Lumi sounded like a perfectly good idea at the moment, though.

It appeared the fight might not last too much longer either, as one of the knights, after taking many blows, appeared to be laying down his sword. The release of dark magic that followed was entirely unexpected, but did cause several things to make more sense. “They’re not alive…” Well that was an interesting development.

Edited March 6, 2014 by roymbrog

[scorri]

Lumi

"I... no, you're right." Lumi glanced around and seeing those around her who were bruised and bleeding, she couldn't really have any grounds for stopping Synthia from healing them. "Here. Whoever you need to heal, just... let me cover you while you do, ok?" She did her best to smile, but she had to admit that the number of people getting badly injured was higher than she expected. Not that she thought her attitude was wrong, it was still just surprising.

Hoshi

"Dark magic? What... Hmm. I wonder how..." Hoshi shook her head. She couldn't let herself get distracted by what was going on inside these knights. She needed to focus on staying alive and hopefully finishing this last... dark magic thing off sooner rather than later.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar cackled at the absurdity of dark magic palling out before them. As if more proof was needed. "Anyone wanna wager our little goal is connected to these things?" he snickered at a question everyone would probably ignore. But it was too deliciously absurd not to say.

[-Cynthia-]

Nadya would normally have objected to random strangers grabbing her elbow, but considering the man stopped her from being impaled by a flying sword it could be forgiven. She decided to stay back for the time being as not to get attacked again.

Veronika felt that she should be surprised by the knights actually being made out of dark energy, but she wasn't. They were moving too quickly in all that armor to be human...

[roymbrog]

“I appreciate it,” Synthia replied, attempting to stand back up. It wasn’t a good idea to move much with her injury, but Kat had landed not too far away. The girl was one of the sturdier ones around, and though the mage could tell she was injured, it also looked like she was about to run off again anyway. “Katrina!”

Indeed, Kat had been about to charge down Tuncay on her own. Some guy she didn’t know had just peppered him with dark magic, but the knight didn’t look ready to fall like the other. When her name was called, however, she stopped and turned to see one of the injured healers (the one who was a jerk) waving a staff at her. Kat crossed the short distance between them with a neutral expression, though she sounded decidedly impatient when she requested, “Make it quick.”

Synthia raised an eyebrow at the wyvern rider’s attitude, but complied nonetheless, and gave Kat a once over with her staff where she had been struck. The entire exchange took all of a few seconds, before Katrina immediately darted off towards Tuncay.

Synthia heals 15hp

Kat HP: 22/24

---

Kat attacks Tuncay! Roll: 5,3,5

Autohit!

7+3=10 – 6= 4DMG

Kat heals 2HP, new HP 24/24

Tuncay counters! Roll: 3,6,5

He hits, can’t miss (the jerk)

16+6=22 – 8 = 14 damage

Kat HP: 10/24

Tuncay HP: 35/48

[Snowy_One]

Tia gave a small yawn as she closed yet another book before placing it on a small pile of books that she had finished already, this most recent one being an observation of various farming techniques throughout the years.

"Uggg... That one was so boring." she said with a small whine. "But knowledge is knowledge. Whenever there is a book to be read, to spurn its knowledge is to make the world a dumber place. That's what master always said. Why can't there be more fun books though? Or books you can read with other people?"

She then gave a small whine as she practically collapsed backwards onto the floor of the library. "It isn't as fun just reading these things as it is being able to talk about them with other people. Why do I even need to know about growing corn, master? Why can't I just put it down and move on to something... more fun?"

[Balcerzak]

Theodore hadn't been a target in the last round, nor had either of his charges. For now that was all well and good. The coordinated assault on one of the tin soldiers gave way to some intriguing, but not entirely unexpected results, with a wave of dark fog and energy radiating outward. There was no time to ponder whether the phenomenon just witness was due to a breakdown of the Abner Effect, or some other reaction entirely, Farnesworth had to remain focused on keeping a pair of Dark Spheres ready and able to be used for interdiction of any self-propelled swords headed in the trio's general direction.

Theodore defends his combat team

[Phoenix]

Ice Breaker

Enemy Phase #3

Gar's line seemed absurd, alright. "Of course our goal's connected to these guys," Shadrak scoffed, "the emblem's right on the other side of that door they're guarding!"

It was probably because of all the weird stuff that was constantly taking her by surprise, but Raquel wasn't jumping to any conclusions right that moment. "What do you mean, exactly?" she asked him, looking away from the fight for a moment. While that question hung in the air, dark energy lurking over the ground was starting to remind her of that dream battle at the coliseum. That dark energy had condensed into a kind of liquid and this was nowhere near that concentrated, but given that she couldn't see the floor clearly through the fog just yet, it was certainly similar. It was slowly dispersing, but even once the stuff was fully spread throughout the area there would probably still be visible traces of it for days if not weeks, and they hadn't defeated Tuncay yet, which would only add to the amount present. This place was going to become really hazy soon, she feared.

Since the injured were all covered anyway, Tuncay set his sights on a previous target, someone he could still reach if he acted right this moment. The rune knight faced Lumi and Synthia, the former his obstacle and the latter his target, and charged at them at high speed. Once he was close enough to leave almost no warning for either of them, he threw his sword at Lumi's ice shield, and then, through some strange means, slid around her in a semicircle to reach Synthia, creating sparks as he did. Once the distance was closed, the rune knight grabbed her by the throat and slammed her to the ground, beneath that hanging cloud of darkness. Just as she hit the ground, Tuncay raised up his right hand to receive Cynthia back into his hand. The sword arrived just in time and Tuncay would lash out at anything that came to stop him.

Nadine had to hold Raquel back again as she immediately tried to run over there to help. "Somebody do something! An emblem piece isn't worth this!" If Synthia died all so they could defeat a pair of armored dolls and maybe get an emblem piece, she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to forgive herself. Her body was already beginning to give off its golden glow again, as if she was about to warp right out of Nadine's grasp to try and intervene.

"How the hell did he do that?!" Shadrak snarled. No more trying to play strategist. Shadrak was going to hit this bastard with the strongest spell he could conjure before anyone else could get attacked. He wasn't waiting around for cover, either. Once he was finished preparing the spell, he was going to let it fly.

Tuncay attacks Synthia! Rolls 3,4,1

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4423364/

-14 hp KO

Enemies:
Koray 0/51
Tuncay 35/48 Erratic
--------------------
Allies:
Shadrak 21/21
Eva 23/30
Erion 24/24
---
Nadya 1/21
Theodore 21/21
Hoshi 8/18
---
Eli 18/18
Katrina 8/24
Zachary 13/18
---
Synthia 0/15
Lumi 18/18
Orville 10/24

Player Phase #3

[Nanami Touko]

Eva didn't really get what was going on with all this crazy magic, but that wasn't her concern. What was on her mind was how much fun she was having! Entirely ignoring Erion's warning, she shouted at the doll, or whatever they were, "<hit me again! I'm still standing! You're doing a pretty piss poor job of protecting this place if you can't even knock me down!>" Sword at the ready again, she was determined to get a hit in on this thing.

Eva Bulwarks her team.

[scorri]

Erion darted forward with Eva, calling out to her as he did, <"Be careful, ok?"> His dagger skidded off the man, not drawing any blood, but the spell on the blade still managed to suck away some damage. As he did though, Eva was slammed by the knight's sword. <"No! Are you ok?">

[spoiler=combat]

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4423383/

Erion autohits

9+1-6=4 damage

Tuncay autohits

16+4-9=11 damage

Eva misses

Tuncay: 31/48

Eva: 12/30

Lumi

"NO!" Lumi immediately destroyed the shield and started to form a long ice spear. Growling, she was about to lunge forward when others got in her way. She paused, waiting to see an opening.

Edited March 7, 2014 by scorri

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar was about to go and annoy Shade Drake with some clever insults, but bad things happened to one of the mage girls and Raquel looked ready to go all golden glow goddess on things. Any other time, that'd be fine. But right now? No. "Oi, knock the glow of war off Raquel!" he viciously shouted. "I'm laying odds these things are directly connected to our goal. Not just solely to safeguard the library depths. You glow all look-at-me and we may end up drawing a bigger response from these rat bastards."

[Nanami Touko]

Eva went in with a stronger swing this time, but without aiming like she had before, it went wide. Giving her little time to intercept the knight's swing, she took the full force of the blade against her chest, knocking her onto her behind a few feet away. Her armor had spared her, but it hurt immensely, and she was having trouble breathing. No matter, I've...s-still got a job to do. "<Y-Yeah!>" she choked out at Erion, "<I'm alright! Just keep swinging!>"

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika closed her eyes and sighed, this was getting difficult to watch. "Gar's right I think- if we don't stay out of this I think we're just going to make matters worse." As tempting as it was to run in there and at least do something, the threat of the other knights was too great to ignore.

Seeing that the remaining knight was distracted, Nadya took the opportunity to move over and apply her staff to Synthia's wounds. "Hang in there," she encouraged the mage as she attempted to stabilize her.

[Snowy_One]

Tia gave a small groan as she stood up and flipped open her tome, moving several other books out of the way as she, calmly, placed her hand upon the cover. She had long-since learned the various commands and incantations for the elements, but now... now she was bored. Raising one hand into the air she started to trace the motions with her hands as the instructions flashed through her mind before...

"THUNDER!"

nothing. Tia's hand held outstretched as if to cast, yet not a spark came forth.

"WHY! I did everything perfectly! I know it! Every motion... Why? Wind! Fire! Something! Anything!" she cried out as she made the casting motion again and again before, finally, a small gust of wind fluttered through the room as she collapsed down onto the table, her head in a pile of books detailed the intricacies of targeted thunder spells on the body, a small sob slipping forth.

"No. No. I can do this. It's all just theory and practice. You can master this, just like any other spell. You were told water was hard, but you learned it. You learned one of the hardest forms of water to master, and only the stupid struggle! You're not struggling. You just... just got something wrong. Hoshi isn't right. You can learn more magic, you can master it all... Even alchemy. I will not give up!" she said as she sat up and flipped open another book. "But there is just so much more to learn about magic. Why do I need to learn so much? Why can't I just have fun?" she said as she read the title page.

"Detailed accounts on the history of water magic, irrigation, and harvest results... Great. Well, better start. Maybe I'll learn how to imbue corn with water magic. Corny alchemy."

Edited March 7, 2014 by Snowy_One

[Balcerzak]

Theodore frowned a bit as one of the other healers was hit for the second time in a row. Had he grabbed the wrong woman to protect? There was no good way to answer that, besides trying to assure himself that if he'd picked the one, it simply would have been the other. Resolve still steady, he continued to be on the watch for the members of his team, advancing defensively as the healer he was guarding moved in close to the remaining knight to heal his most recent victim.

Theodore defends his combat team

[scorri]

Seeing that Theo was prepared to defend, Hoshi sent a flying ball of dark energy towards the knight. It slammed into him, but after the magic cleared, he was standing strong still. His answering sword slashed into Theo twice, while the adept was unable to damage the enemy.

[spoiler=combat]

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4423601/

Hoshi hits!

18+3-6=15 damage

Tuncay hits!

16+6-14=8 damage

Theo hits!

2+2-6=no damage

Tuncay hits!

16+1-14=3 damage

Hoshi: 8/18

Theo: 10/21 HP

Tuncay: 16/48 HP