Imperium - Anima Aeternum
Florence watches as Gryff winds up for the charge and unsheathes his Gladius. He demonstrated the ability to evade and resist the chains before, likely allowing him to help Gryff slip in amidst the chains. As they charge however, a large stone block falls from the ceiling only a couple feet away from Aslo as a Skuva leaps out at Florence. Florence leaps aside, evading its initial landing. The Skuva clambers to its feet, only to stumble forward and fall forward dead, the corpse twitching a couple times with a throwing knife quite clearly in the back of his head. Looking up at Aslo, Florence nods in appreciation.
Arachne's eyes open widely at the sight of Gryff charging her with his lance out. As he descends into range, she lets go of her hold on Nyla to throw all of her chains--long and short--at the incoming centaur. He is stopped as they wrap around his torso, equine back, legs, and arms. Being lifted into the air a couple feet off the ground, everyone in the room would hear an unsettling, feminine whisper echo across the cold, hard stone, it seemed to come from the walls themselves.
Power word: Kill.
In a single moment, every single chain constricts at once, and Gryff's body is contorted with in a single, violent twist. Every single bone in his legs is promptly shattered as his back is broken in three places: Like a child twisting a plaything until the wood snapped beneath their hands. Gryff's body is then dropped unceremoniously to the floor, and while he was technically still alive with uncontrollable twitching, he wouldn't be for much longer.
With her entire focus centralized on the figure she just tenderized, Murderok's minotaur instincts kick in and he froths into an insane rage with his charge. He takes his oversized spear and with a blood curtling scream impales Arachne in the side. The spear head shreds through her skin and tissue, viciously tearing through a pair of her internal organs and causing her to flinch. Gremlock then follows up, taking the opportunity and lack of Skuva attention on himself to throw his flask at her. Unable to focus on her magical chains, the flask shatters against her unprotected face and with a hiss her flesh molts beneath the unrelenting power of fire.
Screeching in rage and unimaginable pain, she speaks in an incomprehensible language, and the remaining two Skuva burst out from the ceiling a few feet from Gremlock and start moving across the ceiling towards him.
Nyla unsheathes her gladius and charges, having finally regained her morale as she saw the powerful creature suffering. With one arm dangling uselessly to her side, she ruthlessly attacks the creature's legs, cutting one off with a spray of green blood and damaging another. Before she can attack the third leg, she's sent sprawling backward as the leg comes out and strikes her, though with Arachne's legs maimed she couldn't turn to face Murderok and being blinded and in severe pain she couldn't wield her chains properly.
Rheinfeld - Sheideweg
The Republican soldier looks over his shoulder to Draza as he obeys his orders in tying up the prisoner, Eustice. Finishing with the various knots, he gives Eustice a good, solid kick in the side, then looks back to Draza once more.
"My name? I am Eric Vadlegarf, at your service ma'am." He bows politely, then picks up the prisoner and forces him to follow them.
"I don't want any songs. I just want to get home to my wife and son." Eustice laughs bitterly before Eric hits him. Reaching down to Draza, he picks her up and helps her onto his back before looking down the steep hill.
"I'll just slow you down, you should probably--" Eustice isn't able to finish his thought as the Republican tosses him down the hill and watches him roll before running down after him.
"Don't worry, he won't die from that, just a few more bruises and maybe a cracked rib for the priest later." Eric states as he descends quickly, only a minute or so behind Kasim.
Kasim arrives first at the meeting tent, there he would find several corpses, mostly mercenaries, though the occasional templar or republican could be found among the dead. Alida Spiegal was among those still standing, albeit breathing heavily with a great deal of blood upon her blade and shield. Looking to Kasim she blinks and nods.
"You took down the mage." She states bluntly, causing the Republicans around her to cheer.
"The mercenaries are also starting to retreat from the camp. However, I cannot find Taigyn." The cheering ends as one of the Republicans speaks up.
"I think I overheard him saying there's another mage nearby on the road! He sent some Templar to take care of her, then left for the armoury!" Alida frowns. That was twice now that Taigyn easily felt something she failed to detect. Alida looks out towards the medical camp motions for the Republicans to follow her in that direction.
"Quickly, lets secure the wounded men!" While she says this, Kasim would see the sky overhead darkening once again.
This seemed to leave Draza and Kasim with three options: Investigate the second mage before the templar get there, move to the armoury in search of Taigyn, or keep Alida safe from any potential threats on the way to the medical area. Either way, the battle was coming to a close soon, meaning whatever decision they made they couldn't go back on after.
It seemed that while the mercenaries had the edge of surprise, they weren't meant to defeat Rheinfeld's punishing meat grinder military of heavy infantry.
Meanwhile, at the medical camp, it was clear that the free holder Zin was facing had never squared off against a vampire before. He stared into her eyes and stood still as a gargoyle statue, causing his injured friend to become confused at the sight. Looking at the vampire, he, too, amusingly, became affected and froze still. The squire stares, eyes wide in surprise as he scrambles to his feet. Bringing an arm up to avoid looking at her eyes, he quickly moves past the assailants, who would be stuck like that for several minutes.
"Furchtsame Frau. (Scary woman.)" He mutters before looking past her to see Davian.
"The tent, we should go." It was clear he struggled with the common tongue with his thick Rheinfelder accent. He points to a nearby tent, where male priest stuck his head out from behind the covers and ushered them in quickly. There were perhaps more mercenaries nearby, and reinforcements had yet to arrive. Inside was a simple bed where Davian would be laid. It seemed that the initial shock of the wound was wearing off as well as Davian attempted to dismount to go to the tent, only to fall off onto his back and groan in pain.
Liveria - Heaven's Haven
Andrea's magical draw lures the spider through the woods as she climbs and hops from tree to tree until she lands in front of the drow. Her legs held a great deal of tension, like elastic bands, and to everyone's surprise it manages to utter, with great difficulty, the common language.
"Llolth-mother. Service. Hungry. Pain." Looking over its legs it was fairly clear that it was being ginger on its pair of rear left limbs, one of which had a rather disturbing looking, hardened spike in it. It was made of some form of flesh, though it looked like the sewn remains of several different creatures' skin stretched over some kind of extra hard bone. Judging from the venom that seeped from her fangs, this spider was likely highly venomous and meant to prey on people.
Ceann would find not abnormalities with the wolf after giving it a quick look over, though she was no medical expert and was better suited to identifying weaknesses than anything auspicious about wounds. The wolf however held no malicious intent, instead tucking his tail between his legs and whimpering in pain. Gabriel steps over and kneels beside the wolf, though before he could lay his hands on the wolf to mend his injuries the wolf perks his ears and growls as he glares northward. Gabriel looks around the area, summoning his shining blade and shield. The wolf's fur then seemed to glow a little, briefly, as a response to the holy energy nearby. Gabriel blinks, then opens his eyes widely.
"Keep that animal alive, drow, and you may earn yourself a spiritual wolf, since it seems to have taken a liking to you."
Elrbetrt could hear something coming, from the direction of the road. It was drawn to them for some reason, it seemed, as she could hear it moving straight toward them, though it was still far enough to give them a chance to lay an ambush for it or attempt to bolt deeper into the forest. She could also tell that whatever it was, was not humanoid, or really any kind of shape that made distinct sense, making it difficult to tell how big or heavy it was. She could tell exactly where it was coming from: The north. Droka'tha smells the air and growls lowly, looking around the forest, uncertain of where it was coming from but also able to detect it.
Meanwhile. . .
As Molkar prepared his spell, Helénē picks up the equipment which Elrithos took off and then nodded to the orc shaman indicating she was ready. Making a few hand motions, she is lifted from the ground and starts slowly floating up the cliffside at the same pace as Elrithos was climbing it to ensure she wouldn't arrive alone. Still, Molkar couldn't help but lean to peek up her skirt, only to grunt in disappointment.
"Too small." He says with a wry grin as his hands had a slight, violet glow to them. Glancing over Rayvon, he then chuckles.
"Just right."
Whilst floating up the cliffside in silence, about halfway to the top, Helénē sighs and looks at elf. Managing a small, shy smile, her gaze then wanders to her damaged sleeve.
"Thanks for convincing me to take the herbs, Elrithos." Moving to the top, they both arrive at the same time. The princess' breath catches in her throat as she spots something that made her face go pale.
The cavern entrance was large, and several feet inside was a magical barrier that a single creature was maintaining. Standing eight feet tall with purple coloured scales, the lithe, male creature was an incubus, the male counterpart to a succubus. As Elrithos begins to climb over the edge, he would notice four, short imps staring at him and the princess, remaining perfectly still. As Elrithos stands, the princess holds out his equipment for him, only for the incubus to turn and face them.
"Ah, visitors..." He flicks his wrist and summons a two handed blade into his hands. It seemed to keep the magical field it, it was decimating his ability to use magic, giving the duo a fair chance at killing him.
It was also clear that there were two Mechanist devices on the floor behind the incubus. They appeared to be maintaining the field in his sted: If one were damaged, the angels would surely be free.
Or it would explode violently and horrible injure the person to damage them. Perhaps both.
Down on ground level, Rayvon and the orc shaman would hear growling coming from the nearby treeline, followed up with four corrupted wolves leaping out: Two on each side. While they didn't pose a significant threat, Rayvon could sense the evil force above her as it no longer tried to hide itself. These were meant to slow them down, it seemed.
Free Holds - Devil's Children
Aëyr ducks and weaves through the crowd, past fighting soldiers and bodyguards. All around her, bodies were dropping, sanguine liquid sprayed to the floor and stained many fine things. Some screamed, some were silent, nonetheless, it was a bloodbath, and darting through such a dangerous area still caused her to get cut across the cheek by a stray crossbow bolt. It was largely superficial, but deep enough to leave a permanent scar, and to cause a warm liquid to trickle down her face. Yet her determination couldn't be measured in pain, and she made it across the crowd to impale the struggling guard in his neck before he could do any significant damage to Fahim. He pulls himself back together and smashes the lock, with Eüchia immediately bolting out of the cage and over to Aëyr.
"Your cheek! I'm so sorry, this is my fault, this is--" She jumps in surprise as Fahim grasps her shoulder lightly, and manages a smile.
"Calm yourself." Eüchia nods quickly and stays close to her shoal sister. Fahim quickly looks across to where Mikan was, she and Barthelo had easily dispatched the threats by them and had managed to gather a couple crossbowmen. He narrows his eyes suspiciously: She was planning something.
"SOLDIERS! DEFEND THOSE CROSSBOWMEN!" The Renaltan nobles quickly repeated those orders, though there was one thing that allowed them to succeed in moving to defend the crossbows.
The orc and Child found themselves surrounded. Their challenge had been heeded and the pair were grinding through men like cattle to the slaughter: Ouchi Maru moved in tandem with Child's every movement, and Child's every movement was self preservation in the face of absurdity. Yet, with a few well placed shots by nearby Renaltan crossbowmen, and the great skill both had at close quarters combat, and within seconds they were surrounded by twenty corpses, panting, with splatters of blood on both of them. Child had a few minor cuts, and the orc had a spear tip lodged into his stomach, but other than that, the two remained standing. The rest of the Free Holders near them broke and began fleeing out of the room en masse, out the front doorway. Ouchi Maru howls with testosterone and adrenaline, and turns to face the succubi.
"YOU FACE GODS OF WAR NOW!"
The succubi glared at them all and howled, causing some of the Renaltan soldiers to flinch. Her tail lashes out at Mars only for him to duck, which was followed with a swift kick to his chest. Lifting off the ground and stumbling a couple feet back, he was dazed, one of his ribs was cracked from the blow. Just as the Succubi lunged to finish him off however, a human blur tackles him out of harms way: It was Mikan. The succubi then gets hit with a pair of crossbow bolts, with a third zipping past her and hitting Mikan in her lower right side, in her back. The succubi, realizing it was heavily outnumbered, slips back into the hallway. It was injured, at least, though pursuing it might risk encountering reinforcements on her side, or being trapped in the keep as Deimos' more loyal forces assembled outside.
Still, killing it would deal a significant blow to demon corruption in the Free Holds.
Mikan rolls off Mars and pulls the crossbow bolt out of her backside, gasping in pain as she does. While she was not crippled and her immediate life was not in danger, she was not in an optimal fighting condition. For the moment, the interior was secured by Renalta's forces, though who knew how long that would last?
"Some have to pursue her while others stay and hold the keep long enough to ensure she dies... She has to die, or this will repeat again." Mikan looks over the corpses, many of them were neither slavers or Renaltans...
Amazons - The Greatest Hunt
Naream shouts back something in the drow tongue at Alexandria, though from the sounds of it, it wasn't language one would use around children. Wielding his magic he attempted to keep his skeletons going, though they were easily destroyed by the succubus. One shot rang out from Maeven's rifle, and it struck the succubus in the chest, causing her to fall to one knee and panting: She was unable to stand again. Something was holding her down.
Looking beneath her, Maeven would see Unamo floating about a foot off the ground, murmuring an incantation over and over again as she stared at the succubi. The combination of the wound and Unamo's control was keeping the succubi from going anywhere.
Unlucky for Tasha, all four jaguars responded to her charge in a pack-like manner. Whilst managing to impale one, the other three get on her and rip into her flesh: She dies mere feet away from Rashan, who could only helplessly watch on as her friend died before her eyes.
The Agent of Greed manages to turn just in time to see Alex take off his head. Stumbling backward, the body had no skull to tell it what to do, and so it simply twitched about on the ground. Astonishingly enough he wasn't dead yet, though he was harmless in his current state.
Princess Ethlinn responded to Tasha's fall with bloodthirsty rage, impaling one jaguar and straight through its chest and then smashing the base of her spear into the skull of another, cracking the skull and causing severe brain damage. The last jaguar hesitates, then leaps back, waiting for an opportunity to attack either Alexandria or Ethlinn.
Fafnir's descending attack with flame breath took out one of the elite hounds, burning it to a fine crisp. The other one however managed to evade this attack, and dashed around Fafnir, directly towards Unamo. The Doom Guard protected the succubus from the attack, then as Fafnir landed attacked the metallic dragon with his mace. Fafnir would be sent several feet closer to the abomination, out of the way of a direct path to shaman, necromancer, and sniper. With clawmarks in the dirt showing his attempts to hold his ground and one badly damaged wing, Fafnir could be thankful that he was made of metal and had reinforced fuel lines: He was sturdier than your average golem.
The golem that Esyllt summoned fell from the sky, landing on one of the skeletal minions and smashing it to several pieces with its sheer weight. It then proceeds to fall off the abomination, as it was an uneven surface that was difficult even for normal humanoids to stand on. Falling down onto the ground, it gets up only a couple feet away from the damaged mechanist dragon.
All the while this was happening, Alicia had charged out from the underbrush to attack the skeletons working on the creature. They had already begun to move off of it, though only five moved toward Alicia rather than six. Her charge is an easy success on the first one, though she quickly discovered an alarming quality about it: Taking off its head didn't stop it from moving. Being animated purely by bone, it was merely clumsier, though with a couple more with strikes she was able to finish it off. Still, that delay bought enough time for the other four to descend upon her all at once, armed with short, sharp tools. Desperately attempting to fight them off, she manages to destroy one more and damage another before the final two tackle her down and repeatedly stab her in the chest, destroying her heart before one shoves a short blade up into her skull through her neck.
There were simply too many for her to kill them all alone, though at least she delayed them from coming to the aid of the succubus or the agent of greed.
Just as it seemed that they wouldn't have enough time to kill the abomination drake before it awoke, there was a loud whistling sound followed up with the satisfying
thunk of an arrow, followed with a small explosion, destroying the damaged skeletal minion and getting the attention of the two remaining ones: Three Imperial Scouts and a woman with a blonde pony tail, brown eyes, and tanned skin was there.
"The Imperium is here to help its military allies and neighbours! I am Egidia Merryweather! We'll keep the abomination down for you!" With that said, the other two Imperial Scouts fire their odd looking bows and strike the Drake's face, then wind cables attached to the arrows down into the ground. The old Imperium were experts at fighting monsters: It seemed this new Imperium was well versed at it too. The Drake had awoken, but was still drawing strength back after hibernating: The cables were effectively slowing it down.
Princess Ethlinn was taken aback, but quickly looks to Alexandria.
"Kill the abomination, you're on your own!" With that said, she bolts, attempting to intercept the hound before it could take Unamo's life. Alexandria would have to attack its skull repeatedly to have a shot at killing it, as the rest of its flesh was simply too thick to dig through.
