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"No, but usually I know what I'm dealing with when I'm talking to someone, but you don't even appear human..." He backed a bit away, making sure the demon's arms wouldn't mess with his pack, then he noticed something, a campfire's glow. "Hey! there's people over there! I'm going to go chat with them... maybe see where I am... I forgot to bring a map..."

Clem walked into a clearing, where some border guards were. the same ones, in fact, that Irwin, Cedric, and Tanessa saw.

"Hello sirs, would you happen to have a map of the area? I believe I'm lost..."

---

Irwin shrugged, "I'm here because this is my home... It may have turned against me, but this country is still where I was born... I suggest heading down the river... hey... It looks like a magi just walked into their camp... Bright green hair, and he's alone too... what's he thinking?!"

---

(I was thinking DUNE...)

Aria looked at the worm, "Oh no, not again..." She locked the sail in the direction towards the city, stomping her foot on a small metal panel that depressed. In response, a metal arm with a ball socket popped up, but what was on the socket was the important thing. It was a harpoon gun without a string, springs pushed back and ready to pop forward. a supply of harpoons was revealed in the area the weapon had been stored. she swung the harpoon gun towards the worm. (that's the only weapon the skiff has...)

"Alright ugly, get away from my boat!" she aimed carefully as it jumped an arc and fired a barbed harpoon at the creature, sinking into the beast's hide. "That was a warning shot! the next ones are poisoned!" she shouted at the worm, as if she expected it to understand her.

she looked at Dakon, "I've done this before, but last time we had three skiffs, and we used poison from each launcher... When we're done we'll need more harpoons..."

She turned toward the cabin then, "Vinn! Get your lazy butt out here and steer my boat! I'm shooting at worms here!"

"Yes sister..." Came a response as Vinn came out of the door, grabbing specific ropes and unlocking the mast, "Sister do you-"

"Yes! Just do whatever you do to make the skiff faster!"

"Alright..." Vinn pulled something from his pocket, a ball with a pin in it. he looked over at the worm, then stuck his thumb in his mouth. he took it out, closed his eyes, and held it to the wind. Then he opened them, grinned, pulled the ball's pin, and lobbed it in the air, directly in front of the worm so it swallowed it, then grabbed the ropes tightly.

"Aria! Brace for the shockwave!" He didn't say it, though it was implied Dakon should too.

(In case you didn't know, he's thrown a magically augmented explosive. BIG boom to follow.)

(erm, can I control the guards?)

Farfarello could not help but positively howl with laughter; humans are such rediculous creatures! Even better still, the funny little biologist was in there. An incredulious urge began to creep up on Farfarello's concious; to sweep down upon the camp and snatch the trinket as he left. They were all very drunk, he noticed, but rationalized that he didn't need such a bauble nor did he even want one. Normally he wasn't one to rationalize any thought, though with his power bound he still wasn't quite sure what his limits were. It had been easy enough to hide himself from the guards before, but they may have just been unobservent. But I owe it to myself, he thought, this one little bit of fun. But it was this kind of thinking that got him captured in the first place.
It was quite the delimma to the mischief maker.

((She's not online most of the time. You'd be waiting for a while. Just... do what you would normally do with your characters, and then when you finally FIND them (They're in Eopia, Techni figured it would still be awhile before your chars got to hers, since they're still in the heart of the Baelta mountains), you can basically control them. Don't have them go and make any life decisions or anything like that, but I suppose you should PM Techni with a general summary of how you plan for your plot to go, in general. She also asked to be informed of any occurrences with her characters, I believe, which I can do.

And piebald: I KNEW Farfello would want to do that! xDD))

((I'm sorry, SPI, I didn't see this post until just now. What were you planning to do with the guards?))

It was a little past midnight when Raedou woke up with a start and frantically looked around, breathing heavily.

"That dream again..." he mumbled, "Telgove... what do you want from me?"

He stood up and limped to his pack, grunting with pain as he carefully sank to his knees to search it for breakfast supplies. He pulled out a small pot and a cloth sack of oats, and set them next to the fire pit. He noticed Perrault, deep in slumber, a faint smile on his face. Wrapped in his arms was Raedou's tattered bronze helmet. It was very easy for Raedou to see that Perrault was dreaming about being among the Ganzis, mostly because of the occasional mumbles and slurs in the ancient Ganzian tongue. It reminded Raedou of home, where his family cared for him, and everyone knew his true name...

"No."

Raedou shook his head and growled with anger.

"Stop it. You left home because of him, so just shut up and forget..."

He tried his best, but he could not forget. All at once, memories came flooding back, forcing their way into his mind, driving him insane... Finally, he would have no more of it.

"ENOUGH!! LEAVE ME ALONE!! TRAITOR!! MURDERER!!"

Suddenly, it stopped. Raedou calmed down and limped back to his sleeping area to lay down, and try to get some rest.

"I will have my revenge, Telgove... Someday..."

Soon enough, Erebus was in sight, and Perrault broke into a sprint towards the city gates, leaving the slow Raedou behind. It was only when they reached the gate that they realized it was closed, and locked fast with dozens of gears and other metal objects. To say that it was frustrating would be a major understatement.

"I do not understand," said Raedou, "It's not too early... The gate should be open by now..."

He pounded on the gate.

"Hello?! Is anyone there?! Please, let us in!"

No answer. Raedou scowled and tried again.

"We seek shelter from the Horde! We are heading for Eopia... Please, is anyone there?!"

Still, no answer.

"Damnation!"

Raedou growled and kicked the door, which hurt his foot quite badly. He
howled in pain and held onto his foot, cursing under his breath.

"Perhaps there is some kind of event...?" Perrault said, frowning.

Raedou shook his head.

"The only thing similar to an event happening here is the Magica Irradicata," he mumbled, "which would not draw the attention of the south-western guards, especially since this is their busiest gate..."

"Let's go around and seek out another gate." said Perrault.

Raedou nodded, and the two began to walk towards the cement pathway
to the straight-southern gate. Suddenly, the ground started to rumble, and small openings in the ground revealed themselves.

"Oh, no..." said Perrault, as he grabbed a handful of curser out of his pack.

"Brace yourself, Raedou! Draw your sword!"

At that moment, several large, hideous creatures shot up from under the ground, and started to slowly close in on the two travelers. The creatures were a pale brown color, with a pair of small beady eyes and each side of their faces. Thin spikes protruded from their round, pod-like carapaces, gradually becoming smaller as they reached the bottom of their backs. Each creature had six long legs, four of which they seemed to be using to support their large, heavy bodies. Raedou knew what these beasts were... he could tell just be looking at them. Sentinels of the Horde.

The Sentinels whistled and clicked at each other, as though they were talking about who to kill and who to eat. Perrault was struck with fear, and could not move... this was one of those times where he wished that he never learned the Horde's language.

"I gEt tHe tInY fLeShInG! YoU cAn HaVe ThE tAlL bOnY oNe!"

"wHy?! I tHiNk I sHoUlD gEt ThE sMaLl OnE!"

"DoN't StArT a FiGhT wItH mE, yOu SoN oF a SaNdWoRm!"

"I sHoUlD rIp YoUr HeArT rIgHt OpEn!"

"YeAh?! TrY iT aNd SeE wHaT hApPeNs!"

"wHy, YoU lItTlE..."

Raedou was puzzled, for he could not understand what the Sentinels were saying; all he could see was a group of giant insect-freaks quibble and quarrel at eachother. Eventually, it got boring.

"What the hell are they talking about?" he asked.

Perrault sighed. "Well, apparently, they are fighting over who gets to eat me, and who is left with 'the tall bony one', which is obviously you."

Raedou growled and drew his sword.

"Let's end this and get to Eopia, on the double."

Perrault nodded. "Agreed." he said.

The fight ended with the larger Sentinel killing the other. It then turned around toward it's fellow insects.

"I gEt ThE sMaLl OnE! AnY oBjEcTiOnS?!"

The other Sentinels shook their heads.

"gOoD! lEt'S kIlL 'eM!!!"

The Sentinels raced toward Raedou and Perrault, savagely swinging their arms and gnashing their long, sharp teeth. Perrault held up a clear, pink curser and activated it.

"REPHO VAAS!"

The curser started shining and unleashed a wide surge of energy at the Sentinels, blasting them away from Perrault. Another wave, and another, and another... The spell pounded away at the Sentinels until there was nothing left. More Sentinels spiraled out of the ground; at least threefold the amount of the last group. The rushed toward the two travelers, mouths open wide and fangs bared. Raedou ran toward the monsters with sword in hand, while Perrault prepared another curser.

"FAYT RYYK!"

An orb of shining light sizzled and popped above the Sentinel's heads, blinding them and making them writhe and stumble around in confusion. This was Raedou's chance. He ran towards one of the Sentinels and brought down his sword with a mighty blow, cleaving the beast in two. Another Sentinel swiped at Raedou with both of it's arms, missing by a hair. Raedou crouched and thrusted his sword upward into the creature's face. A sticky blue substance sputtered out from the Sentinel's head, dripping down Raedou's sword and splatting onto his armor. The Sentinel then fell to the ground, and Raedou carried on to the next one.

The way he fought with the sword was graceful, yet fierce and prominent. Because of the swift, jerky movements that he made, it was clear that Raedou was using a Ganzian swordplay style, and that he was quite skilled with it. The technique consisted of mostly spinning attacks, and wide slashes to the left or the right. The attacks worked well, but more Sentinels appeared and ran towards Raedou, only to be vaporized by a fiery blaze from one of Perrault's cursers, closely followed by more Sentinels. Eventually, Raedou and Perrault realized that there was no end to them.

"Any ideas...?" panted Perrault, exhausted from using too many cursers.

Raedou was tired as well. Although his fighting technique was effective, it's berserk nature took a considerable amount of energy.

One of the Sentinels pounced him to the ground and slashed him across the torso. Raedou managed to kill it and shove it off of his body before it could get another hit in.

"Not at the moment..." he said, "They just keep coming... I don't know what to do..."

At least seventy Sentinels were closing in on them now. Suddenly, Perrault got an idea, and began to frantically search through his pack.

"Found it! Use this curser, Raedou!"

He tossed a glimmering orange stone at Raedou, who caught it and examined it. He recognized this stone from Perrault's diagram, and remembered the proper words. He help it up, tapped it twice and spoke.

"PYR AZULAS!"

The stone burst into several small fireflies that quickly melded with his sword. The ground trembled and the wind blew violently as Raedou's sword began to twist and glow. Out of the tip os the blade shot forth an enormous beam of light that towered over the mountains, glowing with many different colors. Raedou swung the mighty weapon at the Sentinels, wiping most of them out in one sweep. He was amazed at how light the weapon was, but he soon realized that the beam itself was weightless.
Raedou laughed... magic never ceased to amaze him.

He continued slashing away at the Horde, swinging the weapon furiously in every direction, but did so with more grace than you would expect from a weapon of that size. The battle raged across the great opening in the mountains that led to the city, where hundreds of Sentinels came and quickly died, followed by hundreds more. Raedou kept attacking, however, and the mighty blade could be seen swinging at it's targets all
across Mythicaa.