To Slay a Dragon

Matthias's eyes grew wide as the ghoul crashed through and lunged his spear, barely missing Matthias's nose. He looked over at Lirrin as he spoke the word necromancy.

"Necromancy....... was legalized? I have been wandering for to long since the-" Matthias was cut off suddenly by Bleeds raven call. Lanier's eyes grew wider than before with a mouth gaping, almost hitting the floor as his ears heard that oh so familiar spell.

regaining his composure quickly Matthias jump from his chair, knocking it to the floor, drawing fenris and aniu, the two extravagant black steel katanas. Hissing he commandedm, "Who are you, and why do you know that spell? There is only one man that knows spells like that. So the next question is are you him or did you actually convince him to teach you?" Lanier's swords pressed against Bleed's throat and almost sounded as if they were howling for blood.
 
"nghk...sir.. i know not what grudge you have with the ravens call... but sheath thy swords, this is NOT THE TIME!" he said. watching the ghoulish knight continue to ravage the people. Meanwhile the main door rattled from scratches of more demented creatures. Bleed felt the blades start to scratch a gainst the chainmail around his neck. the blacksteel grinding against the blacksteel swords.

"I.. i was taught... by my projenetor.. now let. me. go!" he garbled, lying out his teeth.
 
Sepulchral Slaughter


"Gods, shut the hell up you two, we're moving!" yelled Kroylrev as the hidden knife flew. Like a bolt of blazing gray and gold it flew through the air, clearing the space between the barbarian and the skeleton in the blink of an eye. A piercing *crack* later and the suddenly a pile of bones could be seen soaring through the air, breaking into pieces in its flight before crashing in an unceremonious mound of shattered anatomy by a wall. The knife could be seen still embedded in whatever was left of its now-mostly-detached rib-cage.

The warrior was on his feet and his arm still in the last position from when he threw the assasin's blade; straight and outstretch.. His eyes had become dark, sullen, smouldering. He wasn't the raucuous and good-humoured giant of a man; no, now he was the warlord once more. Over the increasingly loud thumping of a necroticizing mass against the front door, he figured now was as good a time as any to take command and get the rag-tag team moving.


"Gather your possessions and get moving. Looks like our little meeting is postponed." he shouted overr the undead moans and groans. The attack had just started and it'd be some time before far deadlier necro-forms made themselves known.


He hurried towards the back of the building, taking note of a little-used and rather poorly maintained rear entrance. Yet rather than out-stretching a hand to open it, he cocked a meaty fist back. Outside the door, a small crowd of festering revenants were sent back by the raw force of the door simply exploding. A splitting crack resounded as the carnage unfolded in mere seconds. Heads detached from barely-connected necks, stinking cadavers fell apart in mid-flight, and chunks of meat flew all around as Kroylrev's blow effectively cleared out the back engrance. Walking through a lit fog of splinters and dust, he shouted directions to those still inside.


"The welcoming commitee's lesser in number here; get a move on or I'll drag yer arses out myself!"


The mostly brainless horde had accumulated at the front but a few were starting to slowly approach this far less used exit path. Kroyrev drew his blade, a mighty blade as tall as a man, resonating with bizarre energies as if some malicious spirit inhabited it. Both hands gripped around its hilt, he stood ready to cut down whole scores when the time came.
 
BLeed slipped out from under Matthias' grasp and flew forward with inhuman speed, standing instantly next to the warlord. " Lead and i shall follow...this time." he laughed, undoing his lower mask plate, revealing his fangs and braided goatee beard. Bleed then forced more greenfire magic into his blades. an impish ghoul leaped fromt eh shadows, met by the flat of Bleed's blade as it fell to the ground, and before recovering, its skull was smashed by a heavy foot and its back pierced by the magic draining greenflame bath as the large greatsword plunged throguh its back, disintegrating it.


"THis sword may be slow, but it be steadfast and its flames powerful." he smiled.

He held his arm out and a raven flew to his arm. he whispered to it and threw it off his arm.

"The North has the least amount of resistance!" he yelled, a flock of birds hovering overhead and in the dying trees.
 
"Damn!' yelled Matthias, "The bastard's slippery as a snake."

Matthias ran out, following Bleed and Kroylrev. "Well gentalman wat shall we do know? I suggest we run soon, if not now, as fast as possible and find us a new base of operations. What say you?" Matthias questioned looking from one man to the other, while seathing his blades.
 
Vivi jumped up from her chair, a hand around the hilt of her sword. She didn't trust her claws anymore and was much too accustomed to the use of this weapon. Her life was behind it, and sometimes, the lives of others. Even though her guild was a band of ruthless thieves, they were still a team, so she knew very well not to run away in fear.

Undead, though... That was always a frightening thought. Necromancy was not something she took a liking to, yet here they were, getting surrounded by the use of it. She took her hand off of her sword and looked to Lirren with desperate eyes. Vivi was used to following a leader; she was nowhere near bold enough to go out herself. While it was nice to finally be able to depend on someone, a decision had to be made quickly!

She watched as a couple of them went ahead out the door, then looked back to the rotten smelling figure that burst through their hideout. Vivi rushed outside, standing inches away from the entrance. Taking high grounds sounded like it would give her the advantage, so with the nearest tree in her sights, she ran to it and squatted over the ground. Her powerful legs sprung her into the closest branch, allowing her to sit upon it and watch from above.

From there, she listened to a conversation between her comrades that weren't far. She was ready to jump, ready to dismantle any sack of bones that threatened them.
 
Lirren quickly went upstairs and retrieved his pack--it contained some food, some paper, and more importantly, his sword. Then he followed the rest outside; there the group found several more moving corpses. There weren't as many of them as there were in the front, but there were enough to be trouble. They began to form a semicircle around the group's position...Lirren wasn't sure how much control the necromancers had over them, but it was apparently enough to declare enemies and apply general strategies.

One of them attacked the werewolf before long, striking at him with a longsword. Lirren parried and turned his sword back in on it, remembering to stab it through instead of stopping and declaring a point. It required force to pull the sword back out of the still-moving body, but the same force knocked it to the ground in front of him. He had to jump back as it tried to grab hold of his legs.

Not far from them was the noise of another scuffle: claws and fists against bones, one or two barks of pain. The werewolves usually slept during the day in small, separate groups, which in the event of a normal attack worked rather well. They could howl to one another the positions of the enemy, where they were approaching from, and gather to hit them head on or flank them as they pleased. This was no normal attack, however; the dead had risen from all over the forest, every bit as scattered as the werewolves, and far more numerous.
 
Sonya began to cautiously look at the surroundings as she approached the tavern where the rebels were to meet. Something felt suspiciously still, an eerie silence filling the atmosphere. Out of nowhere, a ghastly being came from a bush. Covered in rusty armor, the undead warrior held a long sword in his bony hand. Writhing towards her, Sonya instinctually aimed her crossbow at him. Gales of wind whirled around Sonya, dust kicking up from the ground as she fired off a few wind arrows at the skeletal creature. Without a shield, he was simply pushed back by the wind, his arms getting battered and flung in random directions until his right leg came off, making the summoning fall with a few cracks to the ground. Desperately, it continued to crawl toward her, only for Sonya to give the thing a cruel smirk. She simply continued firing off wind arrows until the bones of the undead warrior were scattered about.

Moving along, she then noticed a semicircle formation of the undead about what was assumedly a group of people. Seeing that there was a tree whence she could aim, she began to climb it. She made her way up to where she could simply aim and fire while seated. Knowing that action needed to be taken quickly, a spark flared on her crossbow, quickly turning into a flame in the shape of an arrow. She fired off a fire arrow at the undead warrior that had tried to take hold of a werewolf's leg a few moments before.

Upon impact, the arrow burst into flames upon the undead warrior's body, singeing it as the flames danced around for a few moments before dissipating. However, the others that were still up took notice, seeing Sonya in the tree. A few went off towards the tree she was in, approaching her. Soon, the tree she was now trapped in was surrounded by a few undead warriors, just waiting for her to mess up and fall. Hmm, I guess I'm in a spot of trouble.
 
Necromany, even the smell of it was disdainful to Nimba. When he was young his shaman had tried to teach him the arts of summoning the dead by having him crush a bird than bring it back as a mockery of its former self. It took time to gather a large force of undead and even longer time to conjure ones that weren't weak brainless corpses. He had quickly turned down any further training down that school of magic. At first he had watched as a few skeletons had caused a slight commotion but the gravity of the situation sank in between the new comer 'Bleed' had mentioned hundreds and the howling signals of the werewolves in the surrounding forest. As he made his way towards the back door one of the skeletons 'decided' to make a lunge at him. The creatures slow movements made it a easy to spin out of reach, his tail sweeping down underneath the legs as his staff curved at one end grabbing the rib cage and pulling it away from the rest of the falling body.


Emerging into the early day light behind the rest of the group he grunted at the form of undead trying to create a half circle to wedge them back into the building they had just removed themselves from. As somebody mentioned north Nimba made his mind of that being the direction they should head and probably in haste. Stepping forward he swirled his staff through the air than pointed it at the nearest ghoul creature. A lightning bolt ripped from the top of the staff, slamming into the ghoul and nearly vaporizing it where it stood. As the bolt passed through the ghoul it divided bouncing into several more of the undead that had surrounded the first one. The small area of destruction had broken a portion of the formation directly to the north of where they stood.​
 
the instant the first undead smashed through the wall Horic was on his feet his he hand to the hilt of the short sword at his waist. "Necromancy..." the word slip out of Horc's mouth as he drew breath preparing to draw up magic energy. a sort of multicolor flame burst form around his hands and forearm, the flame was his manifestation of counter magic and the surface constantly shifted colors like the surface of a soap bubble view from different angels. in the current raw, uncalibrated, state the magic wasn't very effective it could break the shape of magic but the energy required for even a simple fireball would be ridicules. to be truly effective at breaking spells the magic had to be calibrated for the spell he was breaking. blinking Horic activated his innate ability to see magic. suddenly auras of magic were visible to him, and patterns appeared in the auras describing the magic therein. the undead that were now all around them creeping in through the doors and smashing their way through the rotten walls had these auras. disturbing dark complex patterns shifting around them. Horic had never seen Necromancy before, he would have to study those shapes before he would be able to shape counter magic to send them back into the grave. "SH**" Horic breath as he studded the shapes in the aura of a ghoul before him, "Necromancy is incredibly complex! on par with selective barriers!" Horic followed the others out the north side of the building eyes shifting from undead to undead as he studded the patterns with the counter magic glowing bright around his arms, color constantly shifting. The warrior types were blazing a path through the undead but the severed parts kept moving sometimes he saw parts come together again forming a working torso here or a functional leg. he needed to figure out the shape of the necromancy fast and start disabling these corpses permanently.

the shapes formed in the black and purple auras of the undead were complex but he had worked on spells of this complexity before, though necromancy seems to be completely different form any field of magic he had ever studied thats why it was taking him so long. slowly he began calibrating the counter magic, tracing the patterns the the undead's auras and reversing them to from the spell that would un-summon them. the counter magic around his arms stopped changing colors took on a color of it's own, the purple flames with a black fringe flickering in the morning light.

"there perfect," Horc extended his right arm and pointed at a nearby undead. a thick stream of the purple flames floated off his arm and formed a ball about fist size in front of his finger, suddenly is streaked off, flashing towards the undead and striking it in the chest. the purple black flame splashed around it and seemed to be adsorbed into the figure, a half second passed without the undead moving and then it crumpled into a heap where it stood nothing more than a useless pile of bones once again. "Yes!" the shout of triumph was only momentary as there were hundreds of the things out there crawling around in the morning light. a hopeless cause to fight them all, but at least he could stop the ones they did defeat from rising again.

Horic turned to see Lirren accosted by one of the beings and just as he was about to blast the think with his newly constructed counter undead magic a bolt of fire streaked from a tree to consume the thing in flames. As he jogged over to join Lirren he watch as the attacker's tree was surrounded by undead, they were in need of some help as it was unlikely they could defend from so many attacks, at the very least they would be stuck up in the tree until the undead below were defeated.

as he slowed to a stop next to Lirren horic raised his arms, the purple counter magic blazing around his fist and forearms. "Lirren there is way to many of these things to fight even if I can destroy them permanently with counter magic. we need a new safe or semi-safe location and fast." mid sentence Horic started firing. the purple balls of fire launching from both hands and covering the distance between him and the undead surrounded tree in less than a second. each struck true and the undead crumpled into heaps where they stood. eight, ten, fifteen shots he fired clearing the tree for the person to escape.
 
Bleed put the lower plate back on his mask, the sinister steel smile glowing in the moonlight. his blades green licking flames causing a little smoke to trail up from its length.

"ah... the children of the night... Nights like this make me thirsty."

Bleed looked to Matthias. his eyes still familiar to the Warrior of fortune. he took a pose, holding the massive blade like a cutlass instead of a flamberge and breathed out once.

"Art thou ready... Matthias Lanier..." he said simply, glancing over once, his eyes flashign as he lept forward to the line.

"CHARGE WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT AND BRUTALITY!" he yelled. Every swing was laced witha trail of green energy, but no strike set aflame the living corpses. Every slash hit like a massive axe, but no resistance was found until his blade struck the third undead.

It wore a large chestplate and had two short axes, but its rusty plate took hold of bleed's sword and bleed was struck heavy in the armored shoulder, rattlign his body as a scratch came diagonaly over the bloody red cross etched ont eh blackmetal surface. Bleed paused for a moment and headbutted the figure, its head flying off, and let go of his sword, leapign up and smashign down his bodyweight on the fiend as its body crumbled beneath his platemail boots. he tore the blade out of the crushed armor and defended against a strike from a greatsword from another undead adjacent to him.
 
There was a sense of familiarity of the spells and the way this daemon spoke to him that ate at Matthias's brain and soul. Things that scrathched at the very tendrils of his memory. But he couldn't think of such things at this moment there was a duty to be completed.

"i am, good sir." Matthias yelled in reply "Let these unholy entities return from wence they came and rest in eternel slumber once again. Fenris howl with bloodlust and eat the empty souls of thine enemy. Aniu bay at the moon for protection of those that fight with us so we may grow stronger and prevaile."

Matthias jumped from the dismantled porch and corkscrewed towards his two choosen opponents. spinning to the unlucky ghouls slashing both simultaneously. landing in a squating position he jumped up and up-wardly slashed with one blade cutting the first vile ghoul leaving a gash that felled the beast, while using the other sword to block an attack from the second. Lanier broke the short stalemate with a thrust from Fenris to hold the disgusting creature and a slash with Aniu at its head with the intent to end the quick skirmish.
 
Bingles had no time to respond to the threatening man before all hell broke loose. He watched as Kroylrev threw a knife in to a skeleton, causing it to crumble. Bingles drew his dagger, knowing that it wouldn't be much use in a fight. He looked around and saw Kroylrev breaking open a door. A way out. Bingles ran towards the exit as Kroylrev shouted "The welcoming commitee's lesser in number here; get a move on or I'll drag yer arses out myself!".
 
Bleed held his blade steadfast with the other undead warrior in stalemate and slipped between it and its blade, stabbing its head with his parrying dagger, its unlife energy seeping out from the magic-cutting power of his greenflames. the creature fell to bones and bleed regrouped himself, now back-to-back with Matthias.

"Not bad, soldier." He chuckled. He then shoved his blade into the ground beside him, shielding himself from an arrow sent from a not-so-distant zombie-like archer.
 
The situation was seeming to get a bit dire as the undead began to claw at the trunk, making honest attempts to ascend her only apparent life-line. Sonya was about to point her crossbow at them, but she knew it would be of no use. She eyed the closest branch of another tree, considering making a jump when purple flames suddenly appeared around the trunk of the tree, making the undead collapse and become the mere bones that they once were. Noticing that quite a few of the undead were out of her way now, she took the chance, quickly descending before making a graceful landing. I can't let my guard up now, not until I'm out of this forest.

Her dark hair whirled around as dust began to get kicked up in a wild gust. Aiming for other undead warriors approaching Lirren and Horic, she commenced firing off many wind arrows. Each sounded like a howling gale ripping past Lirren and Horic, alerting them to the raven-haired girl's presence as she walked cautiously towards them. After about 15 shots, she managed to dismember 3 undead warriors or so. They probably already know, but we need to get out of this forest quickly; it would be impossible to fight these things constantly for more than a few hours at the absolute most. Sonya glanced at the two with solemn eyes before continuing to walk towards them, occasionally looking all around to make sure that other undead summonings were not too close for her to fend them off.
 
Dead And Dripping

Surging forth like a storm of steel, the Warlord Of Mars showed no mercy to the decomposing horde. Towering over both friend and foe, he seemed less like a man, barbarian, or warrior and more like a primal force of destruction. In wide sweeps of his unearthly blade, scores of the undead fell in powerful single strokes. Rusted plate, sinewy flesh, bleached white bone, all fell before the sweeping horizontal arcs of the two-handed sword, the Usurper.

A rotting cadaver, eyes dripping out of its sockets, swung its arm at him, flailing here and there. Its fingers had been reduced to pointed edges, grimy black and ridden with disease. A single cut could infect a man with a necroticizing disease that would kill him in a day. Yet it lasted less than an hour upon the increasingly gore-splattered battlefield. Shambling towards the towering barbarian, it raised a rotted claw to slash at his exposed back. His attention was on a horde of fleshless skeletal dead, long-dead warriors from the emperor's border-guards still clad in dirt-covered faded-red battle-gear.

Clumsily the mortal shells of the returned warriors swung and stabbed with the same weapons they wielded as mortals. Clumsiness however was a fatal mistake in the face of a savage from the wilds of Megiddo. A sword slashed diagonally at Kroyrev's shoulder, yet in a blinding flash of light as two blades met, the undead terror was unbalanced as the barbarian executed a sudden reverse strike, slicing upwards in a diagonal arc. The raw force nearly tore off the arm of the backward-stumbling soldier. High above his head, the sword twirled in his hands and his whole body shifted to the let, spinning once and sending the great blade right through the body of a spear, seemingly shocking the skinless terror before the blade removed its upper torso from the rest of the body, bones cracking as it travelled through. The sword-wielder had only just gotten back on its feet when a booted foot smashed into its stomach, shattering its form. Its sword flew out of its hand and Kroyrev snatched it in his left, before using his momentum to turn around and split the skull of the plague-ridden corpse behind him.

"Keep clearing them out! We need an exit point for the whole gang!" he yelled at the others. He could spy some larger necro-forms emerging from the rotting attacking force, but he knew it was best they escape to the forest ASAP.
 
Matthias looked around to grasp the situation that the group was in only to notice Sonya's apparent trouble. The ghouls gnashing and clawing at the poor tree that could drop at any moment.

"JUMP!" yelled Matthias. He ran over to the slew of ghouls that paid no head to his command. Lanier ran over to the almost detroyed tree and stopped half-way as the purple flames engulfed the brainless corpses giving them no time to react to the terror that would behold them.

Matthias continued to his destination, only to have a ghoul jump from the shadows clawing matthias's back. The gash was deep almost deep enough to immobilize; luckly matthias rolled out of instinct to avoid or it may have been as bad. Without thinking Lanier threw aniu at the half decayed body peircing its shoulder and sticking it to the ground. He was sorrouned damn thought Matthias taking Fenris in both hands and moving his feet into stance.

"Come at me, if you dare." said Mattias to his enemies though he knew they did not understand. The front Ghoul lunged at the warrior, but to no avail as Lanier side stepped and slashed downward on the ghouls back severing the spinal cord or wat was left. Sadly the three claw marks on his back weaked him and he lost focus. Looking to his right Matthias saw a giant fist flying his way. Not a second later he was flying through the air and smacked to the ground by another fist. He staggered to his feet and readied for the next round. "Round two, you hellish devils. Lets go." He said trying to chuckle.
 
"ANd clear them out we shall!" Bleed stated, now more action, less talk. oncemore his spellcutting blade shattered the magic of creatures made alive by magic. Any cut deadly to a mortal woudl be deadly to these diseased re-animated corpses.

One fell toa severed head, another to a parry dagger to the skull and the skull was thrown to knock prone another that was squashed under a heavy foot like the insects they were. a blade scraped his metal mask, and the parry dagger was thrown To strike the archer not so far away. Bleed made a risky move and shifted beneath two attackers, then another small group, now in the middle of a horde, slashing at the archers to stop teh rain of deathly arrows.

BLeed was surrounded. ... ... ... Perfect.

((ENgaging SHADOWLANDS stealth Ability))

BLeed... disappeared. int eh shadowsd around the horde came licksof green flame thatt h creatures could not see. a space started to open up as the group of thirty started to fall over dead one by one. Bleed laughed as the third one fell.
 
Protected from danger for a moment, Lirren quickly spoke: "Tyrant though he is, Tarimel wouldn't risk an all-out undead invasion. The spell's range is likely bound by the forest's edge, but we can't make it all the way out on our own. You hear those howls? They're gathering, and represent our best bet for getting out of here alive." He was listening as he spoke, and about to point the direction of the alpha's howl when his hearing was interrupted by unnatural wind. Turning to the source, the werewolf found a young woman he'd not seen before firing elemental bolts at some of the undead, shattering them. That was good, he gave her a nod. When there was a reprieve in the noise through his ears he listened again for the direction.

Finally he pointed..serendipitously, it was the same direction that the enemy's lines had been pierced through. "That way! Follow us if you'd prefer to live!" he shouted, the latter part for the benefit of the strangers that had been appearing. Without hesitation, he then ran in that direction, expecting the others to go as well.
 
Sonya finished firing at the skeletal summonings, noting that one of them gave her a nod while she was firing. I guess I should stick with him and his gang; but then again, like there's much of a choice. Sonya noticed that the blond man pointed in the direction that the enemy's line had been pierced. After shouting out, he ran off in the direction that he had pointed. Sonya was about to run when she took a glimpse at what was behind her. Seems the other person that came's in trouble. Hmph. I'd feel bad letting somebody die to some measly summonings such as these.

Sparks danced around Sonya and her crossbow, forming an arrow made of fire. She aimed at the group of undead summonings surrounding Matthias. Instead of releasing it right away, she let it charge for a bit, the arrow's size building up as the flames began to spring off of the crossbow in an erratic nature. Eventually, the crossbow was forced to spring the arrow forward, a small blast that resembled a small-scale explosion pushing her back almost a meter. Bang.

The fiery projectile raced through the air, consuming the shady forest in a bright light. The large arrow of flames burst upon the back of one of the ghouls, bursting up in a violent cloud. Flames danced around the undead summonings, rapidly spreading from one to the next until they fell to the ground. Most, if not all of the ghouls that had surrounded Matthias were at least injured enough to give him an opening to escape. Sonya simply nodded before recalling the direction that the werewolf had run and running in that direction. Let's hope this person's leadin' me outta' here.