Apostles of The Way (In Character)(Completed)

Novama

Edgepeasant
Original poster
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. One post per day
Online Availability
7pm-10pm est
Writing Levels
  1. Beginner
  2. Elementary
  3. Intermediate
  4. Adept
  5. Advanced
  6. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
Genres
Fantasy, Scifi, Magical
This is a fantasy adventure RP that follows a group of magic knights called 'Apostles' as they battle and persuade their way across the land in a quest to retrieve a stolen relic and see justice carried out.

If you wish to join us, have additional questions, or simply want to chat, you can find additional information and a link to our discord server in the first post of our OOC here:
Apostles of The Way (Out Of Character)
 
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TL:DR
  • Shurik eats his herbs, Marks his Quarry and begins shrouding himself in armor.
  • He then yeets himself up and over the enemy.
  • Shurik fires a cannon blast at the portals.
  • He then, fully clad in armor, uses the fall speed to aim a massive attack for the thief.
Shurik Plate 500.png


Shurik kept fighting the creatures that where before them. There seemed to be a small reprieve between when the chaos beasts ended and the new hordes of the damned began. The others seemed to have caught up to Ren and himself by this point and he was happy for that. Now, he could be reckless. Shurik’s focus turned toward the thief, his body just visible through the miasma of the portal. Each ripple as the phalanx of undead approached them from whatever darkness they had been summoned from. Despite the blurred vision, Shurik watched as the man splashed Labra, as, only in his eyes, the thief began to glow red as Shurik marked his quarry, and how being so close caused his blood to boil.

Shurik tongued the mush of an herb in his lip into his mouth and swallowed before disengaging the enemy. “I got her. Get to the portals.” Black mists spewed from his heels and began to raise along his legs, leaving a thick armor in its wake. Shurik’s eyes started to go wild and as the mists covered up to his waist, he took a sudden, short running start and then launched himself into the air. Unhindered by body limitation, Shurik was able to get much higher than normal. The mist continued up his body, cascading down his arms, and Shurik wielded his sword in one hand as his other opened up and revealed the cannon. Shurik took aim, center mass, on the center of the portals and then growled out as the Abyss armor fully covered his body “Zharr.” And the same charge he had fired in the mine shot from his wrist and would hopefully collide with the platform where the portals were, the result would hopefully be a massive explosion one way or the other.

Shurik used the force from his blast to flip in the air, using the hang time to spot his quarry the thief, before coming around the flip, fully clad in his abyssal armor. Shurik took aim with his sword and as he fell, he prepared a weapon attack on the man in his throne, hopefully using the chaos from his blast as a distraction in order to land a decisive attack.

Interactions:
Ren, Jeremiah

Mentions:
Labra
 
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Euthalia Apricot

TL;DR Alone At The High Ground, Part 2:
Euthalia tries to bring the number of enemies down and/or keep them occupied.

As luck had it, Euthalia’s poisonous fragrances could actually deal with these creatures. As luck would not have it, or however one would say something along those lines, she would end up risking her teammates health if she kept using her poisonous fragrances as she was using them right now. She glanced over at what her teammates were doing. Labra seemed to have ventured out on her own. Jeremiah and Diana seemed to have jumped ship, or rather, jumped bridge. Jeremiah was also hallucinating about Euthalia giving him herbs, rather than Labra giving him plants. Lilirel was trying to deal with some more bridges and Shurik was trying go start a rather explosive battle. In other words, it didn’t look like there was much of a structure/tactic going on right now.

Well, Euthalia figured there was only one thing to do, which was to see if she could buy her allies some breathing room by thinning out the number of opponents. Rather than keeping up with her allies, which would now be pretty difficult considering they were going all over the place, she went towards the highest density of enemies on the higher levels to stop them from crowding around and possibly raining down upon her allies from above. Considering she was distracting more than exterminating, she kept her poisonous fragrances output relatively low, only using it to surround herself so that she wouldn't be easily murdered by overwhelming numbers of enemies. With some luck, Shurik and/or Labra could go for being the MVP’s here.
 
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Situation
Time: 8:50 AM
Date: October 20th 327(CE)
Weather: Cloudy and chilly with a light mist hanging in the air and limited vision
Those Involved: @CaptainLiterally @TheEccentric @Huntress @The Last Curse @Karyra @slifer @DangoYumi @DrabiaTheKiller @TheCrimsonFker @Elvario
TooLongDidn'tRead: Taking the fight to the thief, the party blows up a platform, but the last battle had only just arrived at the final stage......

Note From The Author: (Here we are. I knew you guys could handle it. Just a bit more.)
Post Listening:


1168147-1920x1080-[DesktopNexus.com].jpg


Forest Village of Pinnacle

*Crunch* *Bang* *Snap* *Pop*
A monstrous Lilirel emerged from the mists below to land on a relatively large set of platforms. Hitting her body on several things between the fall and the climb, she would prefer to not flying into things anymore if she could help it. She would have to reorient herself for a bit before she could catch up with the party, wherever they may be.

Labra was like a mosquito: quick, annoying, and comparably harmless. Perhaps it was for the best since she drew the attention of a couple hags with her aerial maneuvers and swats. They started to conjure the dark magic that had killed Jeremiah once and a took the lives of a few more of her comrades in the mines. Little did Labra know, she had allies moving in.

Diana was first to arrive on the scene. Her vines, branches, and other animated plantlife successfully carried her to the underside of the platform with the thief, the witches, and countless undead soldiers on it. For the moment she was hidden with no one but Jeremiah even aware that she left the bridge. The monsters that had tried diving after her were held up by stella's light dome or simply lost over the edge. Now the question became, what could she do from under here...

Jeremiah was obviously too late to reel Diana back in. However, he would have seen the vines she had offered to him before she moved on. Fortunately, he chose to move to support ren and shurik who were about to be surrounded and overwhelmed. With a back attack, he was able to sweep a handful before they few that remained could even to put up a proper fight. Now defending Ren and Shurik's back, the two were able to continue focusing on the grew ferociousness of the skilled and equipped undead now marching to them in formation.

With most of what was left of the party gathered, the thief and the relic in sight, and the combat leading to its climax, Shurik was able to leave the fighting to Ren long enough to buff himself and leap into the air before bombarding the platform. The explosion rocked the platform made of plant life. Bone warriors not instantly reduced to black dust were launched off the sides from the blast. A crater was left and the platform was now catching fire in a few places. The portals shimmered and danced in place, seemingly unaffected by the blast. However, the horde enemy was momentarily dispersed and nothing else came out of the portals for the time being. All that remained was the 4 witches and the thief that remained on his throne. the witches were disrupted from casting their magics on labra, fortunately, but now shurik had the attention of all as he came down, out of the sky, to cleave the bone throne in 2 down to the platform base. With a single strike and an audible boom on impact, Shurik might start to rise as the throne would crumble and fall apart. However, no thief occupied the chair except for the severed sleeve of his coat.

Before Shurik could fully stand or swing around to find where the thief had went, the platform collapsed. The 4 hags, Shurik, and Diana, who was under the platform, are now all in free fall. Meanwhile, the portals remained in place in the air. Occasionally, a monster would move through one of the openings only to fall, screaming, into the mists below. The undead army, the witches, most of the monster hoard, and the portals were neutralized for the moment. All that remained was the thief, now standing on a branch just over one of the buildings that made up the ring of businesses around the plaza. Without the platform that made up the plaza, the group was currently cut off from the thief and would have to go around unless they tried leaping the large gap or flying. There were several ways around however, clogged with what remained of the monster forces.

Euthalia would continue to struggle on her own and would seemingly do alright for the moment, far enough away from her allies so as not to harm them with her poisons, but also not be much assistance to them other than keeping aggression from the top tier enemies on herself.
Lilirel and Euthalia could hear the boom and resulting destruction from where they were.
 
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Screenshot 2019-10-17 at 9.14.03 PM.png


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Tl;DR: Ren keeps fighting, eats the Labra Plant, and asks what to do next​

Cleaving through the monsters was easy... if there had only been one it would be already over. She and Shurik were a force to be reckoned with, but there were limits to how many monsters one could take out at a time. Thankfully they all died to mist. Them rose up as the skeleton creatures. The forward momentum stopped for a moment... until Shurik blew up the platform.

Blissfully, Ren was only a little knocked around as she avoided the worst of the explosions. She was focused on the nearest witch, deciding to take down the threats nearest to them before they did what they did to Jeremiah again. She reached out to stab the witch through the heart...

When the platform collapsed.

Ren flailed and reached out to grab something. Anything. Her hands slid on one branch... then the other. Finally she gained purchase on one, barely managing to begin pulling herself up. The battle had tired her out, and she was only barely hanging on. Now would be the time for that plant from Labra.

Ren managed to find enough footing to grab the plant -with not a small amount of bacon mixed in- and stuff it in her mouth.

"I didn't know that plants could taste like meat..." Ren mumbled to herself.

She wasn't sure exactly what to do next, the thief was too far away and the forces remaining was... not small.

"Now what?" Ren yelled to the others. "Anyone got any Words?"
 
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TL;DR: Estella's light dome flickers and goes off at the explosion, and decides to immediately turn back to help Euthalia as she would not be able to really help the frontlines at this point in time.

Stella had put up her light dome when they were close enough to the portals, hoping that Diana would somehow make it in with some of the frontliners, but she immediately lost vision of her ally, causing her to panic slightly. While keeping her light dome up, she looked around the area, trying to make sure of what was going on. She noticed that everyone was busy fighting their own battles, and before she could really pay attention to what was going on, a loud sound followed by the plant bridge rocking intensely shook her to her core. Stella tried to keep her balance and her attention wavered, causing her light dome to flicker and go off, but thankfully the enemies were mostly knocked off or burnt by the gigantic explosion. She crouched down and placed her hands on the plant, steadying herself with them. It was then that she could tell that there was a gigantic gap between themselves and the portals that were floating nonchalantly in the air. She cursed under her breath, and millions of thoughts started running through her mind. There was no way she could really make it through the gap, as it was immensely huge for someone to simply jump over without a proper boost. She tried her best to figure out what her other teammates are doing but due to the mist she was only able to make out figures and silhouettes of her teammates moving around. She did however, notice that there were quite a few people at the front where the battle was happening, and thought that the best thing she could do right now was to back up and see if Euthalia was doing alright. It would be difficult on them if they lost Euthalia, as she was their only healer right now. She also felt that she would be more helpful if she went back and tried to keep the top tier enemies away from what remains of the platform. 'If going forward isn't a thing for me, I will go back.' she thought to herself, watching what seemed to be the silhouettes of Shurik, Ren and Jeremiah rush forward. She got up and turned back to run towards Euthalia, wincing slightly when she heard the screams of battle fade behind her.

She ran towards the location that Euthalia was at, and once she was close enough to see the silhouettes of her enemies, she summoned her light bow in her hands, firing her light arrows at the enemies who were above Euthalia's supposed position. Due to the lack of vision, she wouldn't want to accidentally hit Euthalia, but she didn't want to get too close knowing that it might put her in danger as well. She continued to fire arrows at the top tier enemies, shouting at Euthalia at the top of her lungs while she did so. "Euthalia! I'm here to help! Are you alright?"

Mentions: Everyone
Interactions: Euthalia @Elvario
 
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Euthalia Apricot

TL;DR No Longer Alone, But Still At The High Ground, Part 1:
Euthalia suggests teaming up with Estella and making their way to the rest of the group.

As her teammates were being various flavours of epic and cool, Euthalia was trying to do her part by simply bringing some chemical warfare to the table while social distancing herself from the rest of the team. Then again, isolating herself wasn’t the most ideal, as her teammates might end up needing some healing, which she was the only one capable off. Luckily enough, there was a light in the darkness, a brightness capable of realising the situation and acting on it, truly a glimmer of hope on the horizon that sparked into shining action, a luminosity that lit up Euthalia’s way… In other words, Estalla called out.

Although Euthalia had heard the sounds of the main battle going on, in particular some loud boom, she wasn’t sure how to join the final stage with the end boss. Estella’s arrows provided an answer. “Yeah, I’m okay.” Euthalia took a quick look-around to see what their best possible location was to meet-up on the higher levels, preferably one that was on the way towards the rest of the party. “Let’s meet up and try to make it back to the others together.” Of course, Euthalia would stop emitting poisonous fragrances once Estella was close enough to risk exposure. Instead, she’d focus on her brand new spear combat with some back-up from Estella, so they could try making it over to the rest the old-fashioned way.

Who knew, maybe Euthalia could arrive as epically late as during the previous battle, only now Estalla could give her the spotlight such an entrance deserved. That, or they’d be late and everyone would have died before then, or they wouldn’t arrive at all, or the mission would’ve already been won by then. Who knows.


--------------------------------​
Mentioned: -
Interacted with: Estella @DangoYumi

(Italics are thoughts, bold is speech.)
 
TL;DR: Labra yells a lot, follows the falling people before asking if they're okay, tries to impale a witch on steel, goes back up to face the theif. Makes amazing discovery, and the questions begin.

Labra huffed out a small breath, hovering above the theif once more. "MOON FUNGUS JUST DIE ALREADY!!" She yelled at him before almost being blown away. "Whaa-?" She tumbled through the air before stopping herself on a branch. Grabbing hold of it and crouching, releasing her Wingless Flight, she shoved her hood out of the way and looked around for who made the big wind. Spotting Shurik, she brightned briefly before the platform collapsed. She squeaked in horror and quickly activated Wingless Flight again to fly over and and see if she could spot them. Glaring at the portals and the thief, she ignored them for the time being and dove down into the hole. She dropped her spell for a minute, and let herself free-fall, but controlled it.

"WEEEEEEEEE~!" She shrieked, having fun despite what was happening. Flipping around in the air, she laughed before colliding with the back of one of the witches. "Oh-hi there!" She said cheerfully before pushing the woman into a sharp edge of steel that was sticking out of the mist. Still laughing, Wingless Flight activated on insticnt and she hovered above where she could still see the shapes of her family down below. "YAH! YOU GUYS GOOD? I'M GONNA GO SEE WHATS HAPPENING WITH THE THEIF-NO DYING ALLOWED!" She yelled after them.

Labra hovered there for a second before speeding back up, her face set with determination. She cleared the broken platform and went a bit higher, hovering for a second before diving towards the theif. She stopped with thirty feet in between them and glared at him, her wand clenched tightly in her fist.
"Mister theif-" She started to say before stopping, and reaching out with her mind to brush against his again. She shot backwards in confusion. She recognized this man. "W-wait! I know you! Aren't you Zaro? Why are you here? And what are you doing with Master Abbot's relic?" She questioned, her black eyes flitting around before resting on the man again. She crept closer just a bit before stopping and staring at him. "Why did you steal the relic? What good is it for you to have strayed off Master's path?"

Interactions:
@TheCrimsonFker - Shurik
@Novama - Theif and Witch/Hag

Mentions:
Those falling down the hole
 
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TLDR: Jeremiah has a plan- he tells other his plan to the others, and then he acts.

Jeremiah looked out across the chasm, seeing the thief standing, by himself. A plan formed in his head- he may not have been the most perceptive guy, but he had grown up in a warring culture, and he had learned strategy from the people. Which was why his brain seemed to turn, the gears in his head spinning up a plan. "Ren, I think I can make him give up the cup, if he gets distracted. Labra can catch the cup. We also have to save the others. Make a ladder for Shurik. I can " Using his magic, he froze the water into little ice slats on the side of the chasm, so Shurik could easily climb his way up with the newly-made handholds. He stuffed his mouth with the herb, chewing it to give him some strength. He then sang out, a test to see if the thief could hear him, so he could weave his dark spell on the thief. If needed, he would defend himself from any Chaos Beasts that came towards him.

Mentions:
@Karyra
@Novama
@MiniTyphoonMaker
@Shurik
@CaptainLiterally
 
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TL;DR
  • Shurik is le mad. Leaps off falling platform and manages to catch a platform with his sword, saving him from falling too far.
  • Shurik Surveys the fastest way to get to his mark so he can, hopefully, butcher him.
Debris and ash settled around Shurik after his attack from above. The mass of armored parts shifted and settled back as he began to stand back up among what remained of the throne the thief had inhabited. He knew the man had moved. The being was marked and he had felt his presence leave the chair as Shurik had come crashing down upon him. He felt the pull of his mark on the man somewhere near, but as he moved to stand up further the platform gave way under the stress of his assault and plummeted Shurik towards the mists below. Shurik looked up and managed to catch the Thief above in the trees as he began to fall. The armored mouth spread open and exposed jagged black teeth before the scream that left the maw of the armor pierced through the forest.

As soon as the man realized he was in free-fall, he launched into action. Using what was left of the platform underfoot, Shurik braced himself and then jumped once more into the air off the falling platform. He felt his legs crack under the stress of such a jump, but managed to throw himself into the air enough before the platform fell out of range, to drive his sword into the side of another platform and catch himself. His legs hurt, but the armor numbed the pain to a dull roar as he quickly hoisted himself up and took survey of his situation.

He had ended up on the wrong side of the falling platform. He could feel the pull of his mark farther away. And it seemed there was no easy way of getting back to his target. Shurik growled and hoisted his sword up behind him. From what he could tell, most of the others had survived and made it to one end or the other. He took a break for a few moments as he planned which way would be the quickest. He only grew angrier at the thought that he had missed his target by what felt like only a breath.
 
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Situation
Time: 9:00 AM
Date: October 20th 327(CE)
Weather: Cloudy and chilly with a light mist hanging in the air and limited vision
Those Involved: @CaptainLiterally @Huntress @Karyra @slifer @DangoYumi @DrabiaTheKiller @TheCrimsonFker @Elvario
TooLongDidn'tRead: While the rest of the party recovers and regroups, a couple members attempt various forms of dialogue....

Note From The Author: (There's a gap between the party and the thief, mental suggestions unlikely to work on this boss, and the boss has no intention of standing idle .)
Post Listening:



1168147-1920x1080-[DesktopNexus.com].jpg


Forest Village of Pinnacle

While several of the party members worked to group up with each other or with the party, the remaining monsters continued to apply pressure. However, their numbers were greatly decreased and were continuing to shrink as the party defended themselves. The furry creatures of fang and claw smelled as wretched as was the noises they produced in their violent attacks and death throes. Those fighting the monsters only had to hold out a little longer, but their stamina would be spent as a consequence.

Those not actively fending off the encroaching beasts had the luxury of focusing on the thief, which mainly consisted of those who nearly fell to their deaths or could fly. Jeremiah doubted the Thief couldn't hear him, but it was unclear whether the thief was unaffected or there was too much chaos drowning out his voice between the fighting and the destruction of the village. It also seemed he had to wait his turn as Labra was actively having a conversation with the thief.

"This cup doesn't belong to the Abbott and it was The Way that abandoned me. Not the other way around. You ever find it peculiar that no Apostle ever serves longer than 100 years aside from the Abbott? The truth is the retirement package for all those years of service is a joke. I found out before I left...would you like to know?"

Zaro replied to Labra as he stood perfectly balanced on a tree limb across the gap from the party a story up. He was clear he wished to sow discontent with his words.

"After 100 years of dutiful service, assuming you even live that long, you are thanked for your efforts by being told it is time to give up your power and your life and rejoin the Maker. If the Abbott is also ready to retire, you have the option of becoming the next crusty geezer that looks after the Abbey. Refusal is unheard of. The Abbey has secrets, dangerous ones. I barely escaped alive because of it. I only managed thanks to the relics I used on my way out. You'll have to forgive me, but my zest for life prevents me from allowing anyone or anything to tell me when my time is up."

It seemed as though Zaro was planning something. He had stashed the cup away on his person at some point while he was talking. Rolling up his sleeves, it looked as though he was preparing for a fight. Labra would know that Zaro's thirst for life and unwillingness to let it go were likely reasons he was no longer fit to be an Apostle and excused from further duties. Knowing that he was a former apostle near the end of his career would also warn her he would be considerably powerful.
 
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TLDR:
  • Lilirel watches and fights

YY53pcY.png

The fall and the way back up coupled with the transformation and multiple collisions had taken a bit out of Lilirel. After landing on the platforms, she found herself slightly dazed. Taking a couple moments to regain herself, Lily was glad to have some extra limbs that seemed to kick in on instinct and start swinging violently to keep the bugs from her feet. With a shake of her head she found herself almost back to normal before the sound of an explosion, coupled with destruction had her attention. Looking towards the crumbling platform, her demonic eyes watched her fellow Apostles freefall before they each managed to save themselves in an array of skilled and practiced use of their abilities.

Her side of the platform was still littered with chaos beasts and critters, all she could do was fend them off and try to pick up on any words being exchanged in the distance.
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Interactions:
N/A


Mentions:
N/A
 
Euthalia Apricot

TL;DR Euthalia tries for a coordinated attack with Lilirel.

As she was making her way towards the Thief (hopefully with Estella following along a level lower), she eventually noticed the Thief was... talking? She was still a bit too far away to figure out what he was talking about, but this wasn't a time to listen to the speech of their enemy. Euthalia figured she'd hurry up a bit more, for as far as the swarms of monsters allowed her to do so with her poison usage minimized as to not hurt her allies. That's when she noticed Lilirel had flown back up. “Lilirel!” If she'd manage to get her attention, without also drawing that of the thief and harem witches, she'd signal from herself to the thief in a bow from above then from Lilirel to the thief in a bow from below. With some luck, they'd be able to coordinate a pincer attack at the thief while he was distracted.

In either scenario, Euthlia would make her way towards the thief on the higher levels, and climb up another if that was needed to reach him. Once above the thief, she'd use her new speer in the most-epic style she could imagine, jumping down with it ready to pierce the thief through the chest from above. That is, of course, on the assumption he wasn't clearly anticipating her to do so. She might be a bit overconfident here, but she wasn't straight up suicidal. If he noticed her before she could do any epic jump-stabbing, she'd rather revert to just drawing his attention to herself by threatening to go for the jump-stab so that Lilirel, the actual warrior that should go MVP'ing here, would be able to attack him unexpectedly from below.

--------------------------------​
Mentioned: Estella @DangoYumi
Interacted with: Lilirel @Huntress

(Italics are thoughts, bold is speech.)
 
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Diana's stomach soared to her throat for the second time that day as she plummeted towards her doom. The redhead, a scream stuck in her throat, reached upwards for some sort of aid to find that a green vine had was stretching towards her. The next sensation she felt was a sickening yank followed by a snapping sensation. She flinched once the sound of her scream found her ears and clenched her jaw to keep further noise from happening. Dangling by a broken wrist wasn't helping. Thankfully, the vine had continued growing and quickly coiled around her torso. She couldn't stifle a second scream when the platform she had just been under made an earth-trembling impact with the ground. She cowered, holding the vine close as she dangled precariously. She wasn't entirely in the open, though, as she was swinging around close to a cliffside of another platform- the one that the vine came from. The ginger looked up to find that a tree that had peeked several yards off the cliffside had been her savior. Diana cringed as she realized that summoning the wrong vine could have sent her smashing into the rock wall.

After taking a moment to recollect herself, she willed the vine to reverse its growth while keeping its strength to return her to solid ground. What took minutes felt like hours until she finally hoisted herself onto solid ground. Part of her wanted to melt into the lush greenery and maybe take a nap, but a much more powerful part of her forced her upright. Her arm hurt like hell and her hands still shook, but she wasn't in the worst shape she'd been in.
 
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Situation
Time: 12:00 PM
Date: October 20th 327(CE)
Weather: Partly cloudy with a warm sun that warms the morning chill to something comfortable despite the gentle breeze
Those Involved: @CaptainLiterally @Huntress @Karyra @slifer @DangoYumi @DrabiaTheKiller @TheCrimsonFker @Elvario
TooLongDidn'tRead: Down to the last of their numbers and strength, the party serve justice, but......

Note From The Author: (Thanks to all who participated. Onto more adventurers....)
Post Listening:


e63d5ced5d9436dbe8d7bfdafe98fd9b-700.jpg


Forest Village of Pinnacle and Beyond

It has been a long journey. The Apostles, individually strong, were like an army when together. Having contended with brutal weather, rugged terrain, and hordes of chaos beasts, they proved their worth and might. However, few of their number remained to the end of the mission. The few who were left were road weary and growing more so as they had to continuously contend with monsters. Most had been wounded along the way as well. It was with their goal in sight that their strength would give out.

Despite Zaro, the thief of the Chalice and former Apostle, being right in front of them, the party was unable to coordinate a final assault that would see their task part way complete. It was simply too much to ask. Having already fended of dozens if not hundreds of beasts that morning already and still having more to deal with, the party could not devote themselves or unite. Some of the more perceptive would know it was their habit of regularly splitting up that cost them. Whether it was the fields of Taruhm, the mines, or even here in Pinnacle Village, the party couldn't manage to stay together long enough to do much of anything with a coordinated effort.

With Euthalia and Lilirel leading the charge and Diana supporting, what remnants of the Apostles would take the fight to Zaro. But the man was powerful and not the least weary unlike the party. What's more, he had been waiting for them. The disjointed efforts of the Apostles were easily ripped apart by the supernaturally strong and quick Zaro who seemed to counter each individual effort thrown his way. Of the Apostles that were still alive after the initial exchange with Zaro, a final effort was put into play that would see what remained of the Apostles recklessly endanger themselves for the sake of overwhelming the Thief with their numbers....

Some time later...

The Village of Pinnacle was quiet. Nothing but the birds and gentle rustle in the trees could be heard. The mist had cleared and the sun started to shine. The forest floor that sloped with the mountain was covered in ruined village debris from above, black dust, corpses, and what was left of Zaro's body impaled through the chest on said debris. The light breeze whipping at his loose clothes occasionally revealing a shimmer, and then, suddenly, the chalice fell from his pocket to the blood soaked ground. An ethereal liquid flowed out and another portal sprang into being. A corrupted arm reached through the void and plucked Zaro's body from its resting place before withdrawing to the other side. Monstrous, intelligent eyes of unfathomable evil and malice could be seen coming through the portal as this adventure comes to its close....

The End

(thanks again to all who participated)
 
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