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((Before the Lock))

A slow and steady darkness billowed midst the love house. It spiraled upwards and flowed out to create a darkening cloud across the floor.

Love? It had seemed like such a novel concept at one point. In the tranquility of Barton Town...a place where couple could come together and release their deepest desires. To escape reality and to hold each other in their own arms. In the past...it would have been so, but an evil had taken hold. It was abandoned now...desolate as such. And the 'bad' guys found it quite confertable.

The shadows crept their way up a nearby collumn, one with those fancy looking cupid statues atop it. The symbol of love, besides the heart of course. The darkened tendrils snaked themselves around the head of the beloved child-like figure. Its placid smile forever resonating even though shadows obstructed its face.

A smile, no more.

The tendrils recoiled from the crumbled figured, returning to its home. From which, a figure would rise up, and emerge. A main figure, with eyes glowing in the darkness. Behind which figure would rise up four skeletal entities. Lifeless, other than the will to stand.

When the darkness retracted completely into the void from which it came, Menos would be standing...slightly crouched, in the midst of the room...with two skeletons on each side of him.

Word had it that he'd be setting off from this location once Drae decided to move. Even though he arrived a tad late...he never enjoyed playing waiting games.

Besides... he brought rope.

Neither obstacle was hard to see coming, how often do you see a pile of bones resting in the middle of Barton after all. As for the Drow, they were an assualt on Reinhart's senses, nearly all of them. Besides, only a handful of people knew Reinhart had eyes everywhere and most of those people were dead. Standing from his seated position he took a normal stance just behind Maximos, the two were now literally back to back.

As the weapon was drawn from it's sheath Reinhart knew Maximos' intent, he too had one of his own. Eyes closed his head lowered slightly, his arms hung relaxed at his sides, and his form seemed to be struck by mild winds. It was preperation pure and simple. Soon after under the red locks of hair that veiled half his face a faint blood red glow emitted. Smoke like energy seeped from his covered closed eye as if it were open and then sword met bone.

Throughout this short moment Reinhart held his ground not concerned in the slightest about everyone around him. As this happened...




..his eyes shot open, his head raised, and the light in his eye intesified. EVERY SINGLE BONE was caught, suspended in mid air for only a moment before it was shot up and over the rest the bone that came. The purpose of this was to shoot every bit of bone at the Drow like bullets. The effect was pretty simple really, sliced bits would were redirected as they past Maximos' blade. Like a wave crashing onto the side of a cliff it crashes, shoots up, then back till it returns once more from where it came.

With a little added force behind each piece of course. If Boneyard was made of the bones of a 1000 corpses then there'd be alot of jagged bone bullets shooting at the Drow. They'd come over them like a wave threatning to shoot through them anywhere they hit. By the amount of bone the monster was made of it was safe to say it tear them to shreds if they didn't take cover. When Maximos' blade exited out the tail side the last bit of bone was flung along with the rest.

Looking at it from the side it'd look like a half circle. The bottom part of it being Boneyard, the top being it's pieces shooting at the Drow. Whatever casting was being done would surely be disrupted by the hail of bone.



We don't think so.

Reinhart's strike was taking place at the same time Boneyard's and Maximos' was and ended only when their's ended. Simply put, as Boneyard's head was split the bullets of bone began to assault the Drow. Not enough time for them to finish anything, only enough time for them to scatter or defend.

"Ah, yeah, I'm sure she'll have so much trouble keeping up with me..." Owle replied sarcastically as she continued clinging to Kalis in fear of the motorcycle beneath her. But after that, Owle would leave the spirit alone, only keeping an eye on her now and again.

Owle hadn't really met many other spirits, save one. To her, every mind felt unique, so if there was something any stranger about this one, she put it down to it being weird.

...which was to say that on Gaia, it was absolutely normal.

Please don't let us die here!

Owle didn't know what was going on, and at the moment she didn't care. She was just praying to whatever power would listen that Kalis would get them out of this safely.

It would have been both easier and more effective for the man to have cast a magic missle spell or something along those lines. Because the effects of such a spell was instantaneous, and it took absolutely no casting time at all.

Instead, he opted for some fancy s**t which wasted time and also gave off an obvious large flux of energy for the drow to see what was coming beforehand. Like when someone throws a haymaker; an extemely fast and powerful punch, but the wind-up motion it uses allows others to see, prepare, and avoid it with ease.

Also, the drow were really going nowhere, because the ones in the front line were there to defend while the casters in the back did their magic tricks. Because they were already positioned for this and all. They would each raise their left arm, forearm bent vertical with a blocking motion, and press against the inside of the forearm with their right hand, where a blue stone would be located. By doing so, a metal sheet would fan open, attached to the back of the forearm, opening into a full circle of thin metal plates. Of course, such puny shields were really useless against anything, being so lightweight, small, and thin. But like most drow tools, they were enchanted.

These shields produced a barrier four feet in diameter, centered on the shield. The barrier itself possesses a slightly dome shape, as round shields are usually made in order to most effectively lessen the impact of blows due to a strike at an angle rather that directly.

Now, it must be noted that in this day and age, where weapons were that of guns and whatnot, easy to use tools to point and shoot, whose bullets moved so fast the eye cannot even see or track, one must defend themselves against such things; this is especially true for people who had no previous experience or knowledge of using such weapons and left them to use what they used best; close quartered weapons like blades. The shields of course, did just that, creating s barrier of sorts for that specific purpose. The barrier protects those behind it from low mass projectiles; bullets, arrows, bolts, throwing knives. Though it can not stop larger items such as hurled spears or a tank shell. The barrier repels low mass projectiles back the direction it came from, though at one one-hundredth of its original velocity, like a spring, which really doesnt even count as a reflective attack. Stuff just didnt stick onto it.

The casters in the back row would have some protection from the soldiers in front of them.

Since the bone shrapnel would begin to rain down on the drow when the boneyard began to be split in half, and the wall of stone and prismatic wall would be erected after the boneyard would be split in half, this meant that the time of the shower would last all of the time it takes for Maximos to swing his weapon straight down for 'one of the most powerful cuts', which can be assumed as very fast and all, velocity being a factor to power and such.

At a downward angle, the bones would rain down at the drow, who would tilt their shields upwards to meet the giant mass of shrapnel. Of course, there would be some which were slow and would not manage to do so in time, since the shards were like bullets and all. Additionally, there was also the head of the boneyard to consider, which was a very large item, even split in twain, which of course, was easily a large enough to bypass the shields. As for the smaller bones, they would bounce off the shields, flying through the air at whatever angle back, clashing with other pieces flying forward and all that chaotic s**t, which means even for those who managed to get their shields up in time, and were busy protecting the spellcasters with their shields, they could not completely protect themselves with the limited size the shields provided, which left shrapnel digging into their legs, or a stray ricocheting piece flying in from the side.

However, the main point was to protect the spellcasters, because a prismatic wall could buy the injured time to go see a healer or something, as there werent any here, since it was a sweeper unit built for combat rather than an independent force which could act on its own.

*Remainder of post pending on casualties.

((Two rows of ten, four casting wall of stone, two casting stone shape, two casting prismatic wall, two extra casters unaccounted for. Will be eliminated in an even spread of; wall of stone, stone shape, prismatic wall, wall of stone, extra, wall of stone, stone shape, prismatic wall, wall of stone, extra*.

*Last column saved for making a report or somesuch.))

Six of the drow in the front lines would be dropped from the spray.

Two of which were the lucky winners which would each take the large mass of a split skull moving at speeds like that of a bullet, plowing right through the lines as the soldier and caster behind him were blasted off wherever. Presumably as mush. This took out two of the casters; one of which was casting a wall of stone spell, the other being one which was casting a stone shape spell.

This left four more in the front ranks to drop.

Three of which would be the unlucky ones unable to raise their shields in time, taking a showering for a split second before dropping and letting the casters behind them take a light spray and break their concentration. This included another who was casting a wall of stone, one which was casting a prismatic wall, and one of the flankers which was not in the process of casting anything at the time.

The last ranker to fall would be one who had the fun job of being surrounded by two soldiers which fell to either side of him. With bodies being filled like a pincushion, and shields facing all whichever way, bones would be flying and ricocheting in whatever direction off each other as they moved back and forth, catching the dark skinned elf from either side around the shield he had up.

By the time he fell however, the remaining five drow casters would have finished their spells, since this all took place in whatever time before the prismatic wall stopped the rest of the spray.

The wall of stone would be erected in front of the speeding truck, spiked forward, though with considerably less mass with the lack of three of the casters, cutting down its form to half of its original, though this would simply mean that the wall of spikes would be less wide. But it was not like the truck would be turning out of its path at the speed and suddeness of it anyway.

As for the prismatic wall, it's surface area was not affected by loss of one caster, however, the amount of damage it would have produced was. With two casters braiding the spell together into one spell, but more powerful, losing one meant that the spell was simply that of a normal powered one.

So truck -> stumpy wall of stone spikes -> epileptic rainbow hippy wall.


Casualty report from east sweepers: six soldiers down, five mages down, one mage injured.

The report would be sent via a simple message spell to the other forces.

But wait, wasn't Joseph allowed to act too? Was the CEO who had faced danger before afraid to move? Would this be the end of Iron Man?

No.

Joseph did watch what was going on and seeing the group of hostiles up ahead he did what any sensible person would do in his situations. Act. He would grab one of the durable twist'n'explode A~E bombs, twist, and throw the grenade towards the drow.

"Rain, may want to do that too. You've got a better arm than me."

Now, Joseph's arm was no slouch and would have landed somewhere near the drow, but as his allies were up top being super flash Joseph's simple solution would be even more effecive. Caught in Reinhart's psychic storm, the bomb was now bouncing around waiting for the mechanism inside to trigger the chemical reaction. Rushed along just below the bone shrapnel thanks to the cab window being lower than Reinhart, the bomb would happily land in the midst of the drow and forming cyclops.

Then it would explode.

"If this doesn't work we bail."

Though the fighting in many parts of the city was creating quite a clamor, in the areas where everything alive had already been crushed and everything dead had already moved on there were still those that remained. Behind the front lines where the corpses of friends and allies turned against their former family there were still those that enjoyed the dead silence of the city streets as they went about their own, personal business.

The wheels of a cart squeaked as it rolled down a side road; stopping every dozen feet or so and then starting again a moment later. It was preceded by the methodical steps of the unalive. It was followed by the shambling footfalls of the undead.

"That one."

There was silence in the streets as the wagon stopped again. Then the footsteps of the unliving broke it once more. Something was lifted and tossed, and the wagon creaked once more as the weight of another body was piled upon it.

"Forward now."

And the procession did as told. Wagon wheels, heavy footsteps, and the shambling gate of animated corpses trailing behind.

There was one among them, though, that still lived. The one giving the orders and the puppet master for this funeral procession. His orders were issued in a rough, cracked tone and his steps were synchronous with the light clack of armor as the group carried on through the streets... harvesting.

Let those who saw fit to squander their resources do the fighting. Meaningless battles meant nothing to Gavin, he was only interested in the corpses left behind. He had been running low on parts lately, and his shopping list was quite extensive.

Meanwhile, the siegepig was making a moderate-speed escape. Heading west away from the square so far, so successfully unimpeded. Getting out of Dodge and making a plan in a place not being filled by more and more brain-hungry zombies was a far better plan than being a large pig-shaped target in the middle of New Zombieland, trying to make a plan.

Besides, it was easier to siege cities and castles from the outside. Because it's not a siege when said castle is built around you.

"Yeah, yeah. Gears and armor is more important than all that extra leg room you humans need." Dvalinn spoke without turning; just yanking lever after lever to keep the piggy motivated. He seemed to be picking up the pace, though.

Leg room would be a luxury for everyone save Dvalinn. The ceiling was several inches over his head when standing. Who said it wasn't spacious?

Due to the author of the past Joseph Brown post being cranky from working a shitty job for longer than he should have been he wrote a much more bitter post than he should have. Upon revising he realized that mixed words would not help the situation much he deleted much of the post. In this deletion some details about the bomb were lost. These are those details reconstructed in a semi-clear mindstate:

Joseph snapped open the breifcase of explosives, and made a quick glace. Each had a coloured strip to designate what type of bomb they were. Fragmentation, incenerary, smoke, they were all there. Since it seemed to be infantry they were dealing with Joseph went for the fragmentation. For all intents and purposes it behaved just like a fragmentation grenade, with a wide area of effect but of course the shrapnel would be more spread at the fringes.


And for the rest of you waiting for posts elsewhere: The author worked even longer today. He's gonna rest.