In the midst of the fights, Jacques wasn't sure how he was still spotted. Olivie's voice carried over the hall and for a moment, his eyes turned to her instead. But he couldn't afford to get distracted in the middle of casting a spell. That would be a problem to handle later. Instead, he raised his hand, curling up his fingers until only his point and middle fingers remained and the blur of a button spun in front of it. As soon as the spell ended, Jacques didn't hesitate to launch it as Mateo finished his rant to Sasha. He had new allies now. Better to take care of the ones he knew wouldn't kill him - or worse.
Jacques let out a huff as he fixed the glove on his hand as the bullet hit its mark - straight through Mateo's head in an attempt to take him out in one go. Quick and painless, as Jacques believed. He paused and watched as the hole itself began to close. He knew that Mateo was a skilled healer - among one of the best, he would reckon. But to be able to cast a spell in a split second before the death of the brain was something else. However, the moment should provide Sasha with enough time to finish him off.
He cast another spell and heat began to roll off him in waves, distorting the air around him. When he moved, the distortion moved with him - surrounding him in all directions. Jacques let out a sigh, turning back to Olivie and giving her a two-fingered wave. "Hadn't expected to run into you all so soon." He admitted, keeping his eyes on his old friend but attention spread across the field to see if anyone needed any support. Though, now that he had been noticed, he doubted he'd be able to provide it. "I think I have a perfectly valid explanation for why I'm here and for my actions. But I'm sure the Prince-General has provided a dishonest answer for it." Provide a distraction. Hopefully, it would be enough for Fa Leng to make his action. At the back of his mind, however, he really did wish that she'd hear him out. Maybe then, he could avoid fighting her. After all, she was the only one among them who didn't consider themselves 'saved' by Thibault.
Fa Leng had expected his comrades to steel their resolve, and to get into more favorable positions. He certainly had not expected them to all leap into the fray with wild abandon, some more wild than others. The draconic denizen's eyes narrowed in bemusement at Revan's transformation, and narrowed further at the small woman whose fists alone could knock him back. It was a wide world, and their employer's business rival most certainly sent individuals with suitable might to take Addrick's head.
Though something told him that the once-imprisoned prince was the strongest one here. Warrior's intuition, perhaps.
As two rose up to face him, Fa Leng let out a shake of his head, emitted a sigh. "It is pain indeed," he gestured, "that we've come to lethal blows. Doubtless, that if calmer minds prevailed, it would not be this way. But I am not, as they say, a bitch." His head pointed right between Eco and Olivie, eyes tracking both of them at once as his upper arms swept to his sides, fingers splayed. A posture reminiscent of a conductor, moments before the crescendoing start of an orchestration. The denizen bared his teeth. A smile? A snarl? "So if you point swords to me and mine? Two words, kindred."
His eyes crinkled. It was undoubtedly a smile.
"It's showtime."
Ydran's gift flowed purely through Fa Leng's veins, the flood of divine grace immeasurable and infinite yet dammed just enough so that his mortal form could contain it without self-destruction. The might of the great predators of the skies, the unrivaled lords of the highest peaks, surged without, his mirror-polished scales attaining a sheen resplendent and terrifying. And with the blast of Jacques' Force Bullet sound past him, Fa Leng charged, his clawed feet tearing into the mansion's flooring without remorse. The ten meter distance separating the dragon from the knight was covered before a second had elapsed. One thick upper arm slammed right into Eco's two shields before gripping onto the belt of his tunic. The smaller lower arm shot up, catching the wrist of the closest sword arm. And from behind, Fa Leng's tail, a massive bundle of flexible muscle, pressed against the flooring and pushed.
"Revan!"
A titanic mass of scale and muscle leapt up over the balcony of the second floor with Eco in tow. Propelled by the great depths of the Goddess's boon, he sailed through the air, smashing the knight into a hanging chandelier before the two fell towards the ground, surrounded by a thousand crystal shards. In that moment, the scaled denizen was unequaled, unrivaled by all within the mansion.
Revan was stunned for but a moment by the surprisingly powerful blow of the smaller girl who leapt out in front of him (Anya, apparently), giving Eco time to get out of his way. Revan slid back, his claws digging into the floor of the lobby area as he shook his head, his snout stinging from the force of the strike he was belted with, a growl escaping his throat as he finally looked up to look at the woman who'd punched him. She'd certainly be regretting that soon. "Does it matter? You'll be leaving this place in pieces when I'm through here!", he replied, quickly leaping forward and swinging a torso-sized paw at the cretin, sending her flying into the the side and out of his path as he looked ahead, spotting one had already lost his head, and it was beginning to return... Something close to a grin formed on his face as he spotted the defenseless man healing back his injuries. "Oh... no, you don't...", he said with a laugh, and charged forward, grabbing him as his head began to become recognizable.
He threw his head back and shook it, his teeth sinking into the soft flesh and organs, quickly ripping his belly open as he shook his head back and forth, sending cascades of blood gushing down onto the elegant mansion flooring, as well as flung onto any watchers-by as he howled, delighted to be treating the defenseless man like nothing more than a dog's chew-toy, which... in a sense, at the moment, he was. An arm flopped off to the side, as did one of his legs by the sheer force of his teeth and the shaking. Once he was nearly bisected by the wolf's powerful jaws and strong shakes, he threw him to the floor with incredible force, sending anything that had managed to stay inside him for the ride splayed out onto the flooring as he pounced on him with his claws, crushing the man's ribs under his weight and eviscerating what was left with his claws. His torso was all but an unrecognizable pile of meat at this point, and Revan was completely soaked in blood and viscera, unidentifiable bits of organ stuck to his fur as he went for the final treat, plucking what was left of his previously regenerating head into his mouth, and chucking it over to one of the individuals who'd dared to enter the mansion so boldly before.
"See what I mean?", he cackled, his eyes glancing over to the smaller one he'd sent flying. "Our employer is going to have to hire a cleanup crew when I'm done here...", he stated, his lips curling up to bare his blood-soaked teeth as he snarled, his eyes whipping back from Anya to the one he'd just tossed the head of their ally. "Of course, if you feel like running, and Addrick feels merciful enough to not send me after you, you might make it out of here alive... Just tell that weasel Thibault that we'll be coming, and he'd better have better fodder next time.", he ordered, his hackles raising and his tails swaying as he watched the knights who had witnessed the grisly scene scatter.
After throwing her knife, a vine suddenly grew from the floor, grabbing Sasha's arm and nearly pulling it out of its socket. She looked up at the mage and did her best to look offended, "Look, I've only assisted in destroying one clockwork goddess, and it was in self defense, so I think that hardly warrants being called a heretic." Before the man could reply, a bullet of some kind went through his head. He somehow was able to recover from the wound, but it gave Sasha enough time to free herself from the vine. She straightened and ran forward, intending to finish the job, but Revan appeared and completely demolished the poor man. She threw up her arms up to block the gore from her face but was still covered when the ordeal was over. She picked the bits of magician off of herself and threw them at Revan, "You, sir, are a VERY messy eater." She wiped her bloody hands on her bloody pants the best she could, "I just bought these clothes."
The (rightfully) terrified knights scattered, giving Sasha a clear path to the mage on the broom. She raced up the bannister, shouting, "I do expect you to pay me back!" to Revan as she passed him. She had been planning to jump and make a grab for the mage's ankles, but slipped at the top. Rather than admit to her own clumsiness, she blamed Revan for making her boots slippery with blood and quietly cursed him under her breath. In a rather ungraceful maneuver Sasha managed to grab on to the railing right before she face planted, and scramble back on. After catching herself from her fall and finding her balance she stood up on the top of the bannister, pretending nothing had happened. She looked up at Olivie, "Does your broom fly by itself and if so how much do you want for it?"
As she was making her way toward the point where the drone was disabled, Justine saw someone carrying the broken drone in her direction. At a distance, it was easy to recognize the dress the young bespectacled woman carrying the drone was wearing as the Montacier Academy's women's uniform for students, save for a few details: some red streaks along the collar of the uniform. Each time the drone seemed to be trying to restore its operations, its inner workings were being halted by an unseen external force. The girl walked unsteadily, her head tilting heavily to the right every few seconds before she jerked it back in its place, and kept her march steady even as she came right in front of Justine, as though she didn't see the young bodyguard before her. As the student got closer, the red streaks on her clothes seemed to be slowly staining more and more of the uniform.
Back where Anthea, Theo, and Arturo were chatting, a pair of young men shambled down the stairs, having taken to the new fashion trend among students, wearing dark red flourishes on their uniforms. The two were chatting with each other, though most of their speech was incomprehensible. The few words that could be understood interlaced between the inarticulate rambling were "school", "annoying", "tired"... Just as they got to the bottom of the stairs, a bright red light flashed in the hand of one of the two. In a quick but sloppy swing of the arm, he threw the ball of light toward one of the guests who had arrived for the lecture. The elderly lady, who was known around the Academy by every student past their first year as Professor Sendleton, recoiled in anticipation, but the ball of light merely rested on her forehead. After a second of confusion, as she raised her finger to start yelling, with a thunderous clap, the ball erupted in a violent burst of power, leaving no trace of Sendleton behind, and throwing the other guests she was speaking with across the room. As the attacker seemed to be slow to recover from the heavy swing, the other student started preparing a similar spell, with a blue hue.
In the meantime, upstairs...
Montacier, Academy Library - 14:13 June 16th, 1532
As Willow looked at the bookshelves, a distant shattering glass echoed through the library. Henri LaFramboise had already left in a hurry, and one of the two knights by the doors hurried toward the source of the noise. "You're looking for books?" asked the young boy to Winona, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "What kind of book could you be looking for?" The snideness had already returned to his voice.
- - - - -
While trying to impress her elder, Willow, with a paper airplane display failed miserably, it did succeed in drawing the young mage's attention towards the gathering of people below. There seemed to be more present than there had been before. The overall average of body protection had gone up as well. Leaning onto the railing of the platform, she kept her gaze locked onto the guards that had joined the group. Heavily armored, weapon in hand, moving around frantically.
"Bad guys…" she muttered quietly, her otherwise cheerful voice now filled with contempt. She didn't know these people personally, but growing up in a war-torn land made her distrustful of any 'suits'. Feeling increasingly concerned about the ongoing situation below them, Winona turned to her elder. Her words would either calm her nerves or convince her to engage the enemy.
"Willow… Hey..." she kept her voice down as she pulled on Willow's arm in an attempt to redirect her attention from the bookshelves to the floor below them, "Look, soldiers, are they bad ones..?" While her tone seemed predominantly concerned, her stance was anything but meek. Instead, she seemed to be bracing herself for whatever the response would be. Her locked gaze kept track of the potential threat as she awaited her partner's answer.
The sound of glass shattering broke her line of sight with the guard. Moving her eyes towards the origin of the noise. "What's going on..? Something broke."
The lack of info on the ongoing situation 'forced' her to turn to her last resort; Michel. Who was quicker than her in firing off a question. That by alone already bugged her, but the question itself added an extra scoop of annoyance to the irritation sorbet. "I won't tell! …unless you know why those soldiers are here, then maybe I'll tell."
- - - - - -
Willow risked the peek down every now and again. She trusted Arturo and Theo to stay out of trouble - unlike her own risks that she was taking by accompanying a stranger to look for a book she didn't even know. Still, it was Winona's tug that fully caught her attention to observe the growing group around her friends.
Templar Knights?
It didn't seem like Winona was the type to worry about the Templar Knights. As far as Willow was concerned, she was just some Enian who went to the library for knowledge. She instinctively tugged down on her sleeves and fixed her glove, the only things that were hiding the incriminating marks that had thrown her in jail in the first place.
"Not… necessarily bad. But definitely not people we should mingle with." Though, it didn't seem like the situation was going to turn sour. Arturo seemed to know whoever the Templar Knight was and there didn't seem to be a hint of trouble. Two more had joined their group but Willow, regrettably, couldn't hear whatever they were talking about. It was at times like these when she thought that learning telepathy might have been a good idea.
The sound made Willow jerk up, hands ready at her side to cast a spell to protect herself and her current charges. But nothing came from it. Curiously, as Winona questioned Michel about the presence of the Templars and whatever was happening downstairs, Willow watched as one of the new group members stalked over to where the sound came from as well as where the drone had flown off to.
--- "Like I care if you tell!" Michel blurted out in response to Winona. He folded his arms and jerked his head away pouting. A moment later, he dropped his hands to his sides again. "What's that sound?" he asked Willow. A very quiet splash could be heard not too far off. It seemed to come from just around the corner from where the three stood. A hollow thud was then quickly followed by what sounded like the start of someone about to say something loudly, but it was cut short abruptly and completely.
Montacier, Beaureve Mansion Rumble - 22:11 June 15th, 1532
Jacques Lumoise's former colleague and classmate's eyes shot wide open as she saw the man she had trusted for so long blow her friend's brains to the floor. Olivie made a twisting motion with her hands as she saw the beast-man approach Matteo, but before she could do anything else, she saw him rip the inquisitor apart. Her head quickly swung back to Jacques, and in a fit of rage, she swiped at the air toward Jacques. Before her hand stopped, a larger arm appeared behind her, several times larger than her, glowing an ethereal blue. As the arm mimicked her motion, it ran through the walls beside them and swept up the former Templar, launching him across the large ballroom, toward the wall near the entrance downstairs. Olivie gritted her teeth and yelled at the room. "Enjoy your victory while you can," she bellowed. Just as Anya made her way out of the rubble and charged at Revan again, she disappeared in a blue flash. "We'll be back for you lot!" Eco vanished after having been stuck into the floor by Fa Leng, leaving a small crater behind. "Especially you two," she said glaring at Revan and Jacques, her voice lingering a moment after she vanished in the flash as well. The surviving knights scurried out to the best of their abilities. The broom she had been floating on was the only thing that remained, simply levitating in place, several meters above Sasha.
A minute later, Addrick announced his presence with an impressed whistle. "Quite the bloodbath," he said with a wide grin from behind the railing upstairs. "You lot sure are efficient, aren't you?"
Whilst Justine was drone-hunting, Anthea was able to proudly look at Arturo's acknowledgment of her drone like a mother showing off her first-born child. Needlessly to say, his compliment landed quite well, whilst the following questions would release the floodgates. "Oh, that was such a pain to get to work! The weight limit was awful with minimal magic input, yet increasing the magic input required stronger materials, yet stronger materials were heavier and required more magic input, leading to a vicious downwards spiral, until I settled on something in-between. I'm sure there's lots of advances that can be made there, but what I'm looking for first and foremost is increasing their command range and their effective working range. Imagine being able to employ hundreds of healing drones to decrease casualties in wars or general combat, or imagine being able to map out entire regions by using a small army of scouting drones to record every nook and cranny of the area! If I'd also be able to keep the expenses down and make using them easier, some amazing things could be done with them!" She continued a bit under her breath... "Although most of the funding is just meant towards making them explode with a bigger blast..."
On the topic of blasts... Anthea was shaken up by one such blast happening a little too close for comfort. She had been a little too focused on her rambling about drones to immediately figure stuff out, but seeing the guests having been thrown around the room was clear enough to trigger a fight or flight response; in her case of the flight variety. She activated an explosive drone, just in case, but didn't sent it flying as of yet. She didn't have a good enough grasp on the situation to start blowing stuff up, sadly enough. For now, her first and foremost goal was to see where this attack came from, identify any other possible attackers, and to stay out of their sight.
[Scouting drone – broken in the hands of an unknown woman near Justine.]
[Healing drone – following Justine.]
[First explosive drone – activated, still with Anthea.]
[Second/third explosive drone – inactive, with Anthea.]
Shards of glass fell off Fa Leng's scales like a thousand glittering diamonds. Before him, there was only a hole in the ground where a four-armed Templar had been, and as he swiveled his head from side to side, he saw that the other enemies were gone as well. Revan, coated in blood that wasn't his, and the miserable stain of a denizen left in the wake of the beastkin's rampage. Impressive, if a bit extreme. More importantly, however...
"Was that it?" Fa Leng dusted off the last bits of glass off his kilt. "A dozen sorrys, Addrick. If it was known to me that Thibault's professionals were such...what's the word...yellow-bellied jellyfish, I may not have gone so far as to ruin your fancy lamp to prove a point. Could you point us to the bathroom that'd be the easiest to clean for your servants though?"
The draconic denizen turned one yellow eye towards the bloodstained beast, his fangs baring themselves into a smile.
"It'd be an intellectual's belief that Revan gets some touching up before he can make his debut back to polite society."
Before Sasha could get a reply to her question, the flying lady, as well as all the others disappeared in a flash of blue light. She stared at the floating broom for a moment before pulling out some non blood-stained paper and a pen out of her pocket and drew a long hooked pole and then used it to pluck the broom stick out of the air. On second thought, flying on a broomstick might now be the most suitable for someone who fought in close combat, like her. However, she decided to hold on to it still. It was possible she'd be able to get some good money out of it at the pawn shop, or find some other use for it.
Broomstick in hand, Sasha jumped nimbly off the bannister and looked down at her blood stained clothes, "Look at my clothes! I just bought these! And I didn't even get to do anything! She turned and pointed at Revan, "You! Pay me back!" She swiveled and pointed at Addrick, "And you! Let me use your bath!
I am online all the time, my sleeping schedule is fixing itself good enough. (The Online all the time might change. Since I need to start working Part Time Jobs.)
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Sci-Fi, Space Opera, Magical, Fantasy, Modern, Post-Apocalyptic Themes, Alternate Universe, Alternate Reality, Horror and Any Anime Fandom
Justine saw someone who looked like a student at the Academy, but there was an oddity in how the school uniform looked. She doesn't think most school uniforms have red streaks along the collar. It felt odd that something was blocking its operations every time the drone tried to reactivate its operations. ' How is that even possible? She's just a student at this Academy.' Justine thought to herself. Her mouth slightly agape by as the girl was hobbling, and the student's head was tilting heavily to the right every few seconds before The Student jerked it back in place. It felt like this student had something enormously wrong with her, and it was eerily creepy to her made her shiver down her spine. Justine noticed those red streaks on the clothes were going much more everywhere on the girl's uniform.
Justine was a bit creeped out, but she's here for Anthea's Clockwork Scout Drone. She was thinking to herself, it's a bit reckless to do this, but no matter. All Justine wants is to feel alive, and this would make sense to wrestle or at least hinder the one who's holding Anthea's Drone. " I have to say, will you let go of the drone, or will I have to get my hands dirty?" Justine asked the student. She wanted to at least ask nicely before getting on it because the student was ignoring her. Therefore, if the girl didn't get her warning, she unsheathed her Wrathful Mithril Blade with a smile.
It would be better to fight to get back the drone than allow this creepy student to pass her on whatever way she's going. ' Good lord, why do you have this sinking feeling something is happening elsewhere in the Library?' Justine thought to herself. She thought that she heard a magical explosion somewhere else in the Library. However, Justine didn't take her sight off of the girl but was worried about Anthea Ferreira. ' Shit. What's going on now? Where the hell are the Templar Knights?' Justine thought to herself. She was a bit irritated and looked even more grumpy than usual. Her smile did slightly vanish but returned since she can feel alive for the reasons of fighting and seeing blood come off on her blade.
Justine did keep her guard up, but while holding the Wrathful Mithril Blade in her usual combat stance that she uses. She wanted to attack before this undefinable creepy girl attacks her first. All so she could free the Clockwork Scout Drone from her grasp. However, there was some hesitation in her act in wanting to fight this girl. It was from all the training she got in her family's territory about underestimating your foes will get you killed but don't go overestimating them either. " I do hope you are prepared to face my Wrathful Mithril Blade, Bitch." Justine said in her usual tone while holding her sword.
The rather large wolf howled in laughter at the remainder of the crew's hollow threats, watching them turn tail and leave with a big grin. Sure, his methods had been extreme, but he felt it'd saved them a longer battle, with possibly more injury on their side... He had used the opportunity and his imposing appearance to his advantage, something he had done many a time when shaking down innocents and the like for Morphi. Sure, he liked a good battle, that was in his blood, but he'd rather the audience here (and his enemies) think him a bloodthirsty, insane beast than subject the crowd here to being collateral damage, or suffer injury on the behalf of his friends here... they'd gained valuable information they could use when they weren't on the defensive, and could take the fight to Thibault... at the very least they knew who they'd be dealing with and some of their abilities.
Revan stretched, and in another flash of light, returned to his usual, still quite large, appearance. Sasha was pitching a fit over her new clothes, and Revan scratched his head apologetically, completely clean of bloodstains aside from those garnered from standing on a pile of gore, as apparently the blood had vanished with his wolf form. "Sorry, sorry, I know I got a little carried away... I'll give you a cut of my pay to have them laundered or replaced.", he answered, before looking over to Jacques. "Judging by the angle of that shot, it was you that gave me that opening... Nice work. His body served as a great deterrent for our enemies... To be honest, you did all the work there, I just took advantage of the opportunity. Doesn't seem like that'll be the last we see of them, though.", he paused to think on it, as he walked out of the splash zone, trailing more bloody footprints on the nice floor with his stained feet. "The woman there spoke to you, I assume you knew some of them? If we're to face them again, it might be helpful to know what they can do so we can counter it.", he suggested.
No sooner had Erica come into view of the main group in search of a knight or some other form of assistance than a student had committed an attack on a woman here. Erica gasped as she witnessed the ball detonate, taking the woman with it, and throwing the group into chaos. Luckily she was off to the side, having come out of a different aisle of books, so they hadn't seen her, but the other student accompanying the first seemed to be readying a similar attack, something she couldn't let stand. She had to do something quickly or risk more students being injured, so she sprung into action. She quickly reached for her rapier and drew, but in the panic, her shaking hand lost purchase of the hilt, and she ended up tossing it into the aisle with the boy, sending it clattering to the floor. "Blast it all!", she cursed shakily, before rushing the boy and pulling off her jacket as she did so, hoping her plan B would work in time. She rushed him and tossed her jacket at his hand, whipping it around towards his torso as she used her magic to transmute the jacket into a coat of tar, hoping to stick his hand to his body, but failed at that as well, whipping his torso with the jacket and missing his hand entirely as her jacket turned into black goop on his blazer and splattered on the floor. How could fate be so cruel to her plans? She'd completely flubbed her opportunity to stop the attack, but maybe there was hope yet...
"Intercept it!", she ordered, glancing over to where her homunculus had been idling in standby. It sprung into action from nearby the group and leapt into action, following her command and leaping in front of the two rogue students, and directly into the path of the spell the boy had just fired off.... Erica herself was close too, but at least she could minimize the damage to the group and prevent any unnecessary deaths, she hoped.
Cansu had watched Revan's bloody victory from a safe distance, experiencing it in equal measures of fear and excitement. Having powerful allies would be useful, but at the same time, she really didn't trust any of the people here, which made it difficult to figure out what to do. Should she really go back to Revan and hope that he wouldn't eventually use her as an afternoon snack or sell her to the Faerie-catcher he'd been with? Her initial plan to try to free him from his slavers and get him indebted to her was ruined by the fact that he was already free, while his hatred towards slavers and Morphi didn't seem strong enough for him to avoid aligning himself with them.
That's when she saw some of the 'regular' knights running out of the mansion, which gave her an idea. If she managed to get to know things about the people that Revan and friends were hired to fight against, she'd have something of value to offer, which would in turn give her a chance to make some sort of trade. She wasn't sure yet what kind of trade that'd be, but anything was better than ending up in a position in which she'd have to rely on the goodwill of these type of people.
She didn't think long before making up her mind, following whomever seemed to be the highest-ranked knight that ran away from the scene. She made sure to fly from roof to roof, never being out in the open for longer than necessary, as she didn't wish to be spotted by any of them. On the assumption that they'd eventually enter a building, she'd hide near the windows and listen in on whatever they'd be talking about. With some luck, she'd catch some useful information, either to make up her mind on what to do next or to have something worth offering were she to make a deal.
