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 Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:24 pm
There was, naturally, another symphony of pain from the many throats of the abomination as it was consumed by another intense Flametongue. Two Flametongues and a bolt of Charles's magic seemed to do the job. At least for the heads. The now-indistinct faces flailed around at nothing as they squeaked or whimpered or gurgled or groaned, the limbs failing underneath the assault on its (admittedly already faulty) nervous system. Some of the heads had gone totally limp on whatever necks they head, quite possibly dead.
One tail failed and a few limbs also ceased to move. But surviving heads, feebly moving their jaws in an attempt to regain feeling in their faces, seemed only capable of processing anger and retaliation rather than fear. Or was it hopeless struggling? The beast reared and swung out blindly in all directions, stomping around, almost tripping sometimes, moving away from the Fire Dragon in one moment and stumbling toward him the next.
The skies turned red.
Where there had only been darkness, now the area was brilliantly lit up by a shower of flames plummeting from above. Far, far above raged an entirely different battle, an exchange between cataclysmic powers that would test magic against magic, two ancients embroiled in a gripping contest of uninhibited obliteration. And it seemed a side effect of their battle had sprung to life.
The remnants of meteors toppled for the sands, brightly illuminating the darkness with blazing trails of fire and general death-from-above. The projectiles were completely scattershot so that their proximity from the combatants ranged from harmless to RUN FOR YOUR ******** LIVES. The abomination had no awareness of the new threat, stumbling in and out, somehow managing to avoid them.
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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:56 pm
The moment the word 'go' hit the lion's ears, he began to snarl. The moment the flapping of wyvern wings began to reverberate into his ears, he was gone, running down the sand dune, with Scar apparently holding on for dear life. The wind of momentum blew through his crimson mane, sending sand off in streams behind him. It was all over his mane, after all. Plus, he was kicking it up all over the place while he was running, so he had a neat little dust cloud forming behind him.
Once he got about halfway down the dune, he let out a savage, ground-shaking roar. Okay, maybe not ground-shaking, but it's loud. The lion rocketed down the dune further, breaking into a full sprint as he reached more level footing. Once more he roared, but it was this time deafened by the monster's howls. And he didn't have to be one of those scholarly Goldoans to know that something was going sour.
So, when the sky decided to turn an angry red, like his fur, almost, and rain Ashera-damned fire from the heavens upon the battlefield, Baldric was marginally prepared. So, he went for the biggest heap of cover he could find: the ******** monster-thing. With a leap, he shot towards a rather sturdy arm protruding from the lower half of the monster. It was slightly curved, like the blade of a scythe, except without actually being bladed.
The lion tackled the limb head on, hanging on for dear life as he was flung side to side. His claws dug into the skin-like surface, in a desperate attempt to move faster than he likely could. If he could keep moving, he might not be in as much danger of those <******** balls of angry hot flames of fiery pain that descended upon the battlefield. So, he continued hanging on, not even giving a thought to the girl that likely fell from his back sometime when he was in the air. She should be okay, right?
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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:13 pm
Now I'm stuck here
But I don't belong here 
~Ninian~Hikaru's flametongue was truly a powerful thing, made even more powerful by the combination of her dance and her ring. I am glad he is on our side! Ninian thought, taking an involuntary step back from the flames.
Unfortunately, the creature was not felled by the fire blast. Isadora fell back, somehow falling off her horse; how, Ninian did not see in the chaos. Hearing Hikaru's roar and understanding, Ninian kept back and out of the line of fire. Literally.
The beast was still alive and well, though obviously not happy after being hit by two flametongues and another spell Ninian did not recognize. It seemed to be going crazy, probably from the pain.
"I don't know how long we can keep up," Isadora said, once she had made her way over to the dancer. "However, we need to find a way to kill it."
"Yes," Ninian agreed, "but how?"
Without warning, the sky turned red. Ninian looked up and around, afraid and confused. A shower of flames fell to the ground, meteors plummeting to earth from above.
Run, a voice--her instincts--screamed. Get out of the way! She stared at the incoming projectiles, waiting to see which way she would need to run to avoid any that would come her way. She did not think she could stop a meteor with her scarf, even if it was Briseschal, and she was not going to try. I wanna be where you are
Maybe I'm not so far from home
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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 8:19 pm
Isadora continued watching from the view. Despite how powerful their allies were of trying to defeat the monster, it seemed that the monster would not fall. She carefully looked at the monster from top to bottom, trying to find its weakness. There was no way any enemies could live without a weakness.
Just then, she heard Ninian agreed to what she said earlier, along with the question. The paladin didn't answer but continued observing the monster. So far, she couldn't tell. She then replied. "I don't know, Lady Ninian.... I don't know."
As she watched the scene before her, she noticed something odd. The battle.... It was becoming brighter and visible. How could it be? It was still darkness when they battled.
Isadora looked up at the sky and saw that the sky had become red. Then, without warning, she saw something fallen from the sky, covered in blazing flames. She gasped as her eyes widened.
"Lady Ninian!" Isadora shouted as she grabbed the dancer, pulled her up behind the paladin, and began to gallop amongst the dunes. Just like back in Elibe, her instinct told her to protect the royal Pharaen family. Even though the dancer did not carry the royal Pharaen blood, she was still part of that said family.
"Use this to protect yourself," Isadora said as she gave her shield to Ninian. She then scanned the area to find a place for cover. The dunes were big, but they were not enough to cover them from the meteor. The only big coverages were FD and the monster.
One meteor struck near where the paladin and the dancer were. Tuomas let out a frightening neigh as Isadora pulled the reins and continued charging, trying to outrun from the showers of meteors.
Sands began to fly into the air like geysers from the impact of the meteors. Bits of glass shards were flying too due to the heat of the meteors. The crushing noise made loud thunder to the paladin's ears as the rocks smashed against the sand. Isadora could also feel the heat as they passed by. She weaved and turned to dodge the shower despite how the sand slowed her speed. Isadora refused to let Ninian and herself be crushed from the fallen boulders.
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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 8:26 pm
Charice brought Mihira over to Aruna, only too thankful she'd found a healer in time. It was a little strange, seeing a woman with a snake's torso among them, but from what she'd seen, Aruna lacked the snakes Gorgons had on their hair and, like the Fire Dragon, was clearly on their side.
It's much more difficult to pay heed to race when other races are doing so much to help out.
Having nothing else to do, Charice opted to fly back to the battle... unfortunately, this happened just as the skies started turning red and spewing freaking meteors at them! It wasn't much trouble for Aphrodite to dodge the flames--they weren't THAT close together, and being able to fly made plenty of breathing room for the pegasus and rider. But both could feel sweat on their bodies--boy, was it getting HOT! At least this... firestorm's not going to reach the rear, Charice thought. They're too far away from the tower.
Speaking of the tower, she couldn't see any visible damage on it--not from the meteors, at least. What the hell kind of tower is this, that can take such punishment? I've never seen anything like it before. Is there really any way in...?
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:38 am
By this time the meteors were gone, the behemoth crippled and squirming feebly upon the sands. The remnants of the shower had dissipated as though the meteors had never been there. Clearly this had been sorcery of some sort. But the effects were very real, for the monster had wandered into the path of a meteor or two and suffered for it.
Now their enemy lay hoarsely groaning in a settled pool of low, dying voices wracked with defeat. No, it was not dead yet, but it may as well have been. After the combined efforts of the group (whether shown or not) and the halfly unfortunate, halfly very fortunate incident with the meteors, the abomination was rendered harmless. Most of the heads had grown still and a few limbs wagged uselessly to the side. It was lying on its good wing, which visibly twitched beneath its bulk.
Still, there seemed to be some fight left in the creature. Or maybe it was just belching. Even though it lay in apparent defeat, one head — not the leading one, to be certain — opened its jaws in a crackling roar and spewed forth a jet of what at first looked like purple fire, extending an impressive range, and then curled and coiled like smoke when it reached the end of its stream. The attack had an acidic effect on the skin and would probably not be good to make contact with.
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 2:12 pm
The monster's shaking about had successfully given the lion the luck he'd needed to evade the flames from above. Of course, on the other hand, he had a nice dizzy spell from being swung around. This let the toppling goliath's fall easily throw the lion from the nasty, disgusting limb thing he'd grabbed onto. As he landed like a typical feline, on all fours, upon the sands, he looked about, searching for his charge.
But, deeming that it wouldn't be as useful to just stand there, Baldric began to absentmindedly wander around, looking for Scar. Hopefully, she didn't get crushed or something...
The carnage behind him continued to unfold. The Druid spared not a single glance behind him. He knew they could handle that thing, since they'd been through worse, for sure. He nimbly skated around the meteors as they fell. It was really just like dodging a typical fire spell, except the fireballs were much, much bigger. But, the swerving seemed to have paid off, for Rei managed to meet up with Alihi, Abel and Ephraim at the base of the tower.
With a leap, he landed in the sand next to them, and began gasping for air. He didn't even realize how hard he was pushing himself! But, he ignored any possible looks from his comrades, and took a moment to catch his breath. Then, he simply looked up at the trio with a slight smile. "Okay, we're here. Now what?"
(( Movin' this along to the best of my ability. Don't think it'd be that much to say that the tower group got there by now... ))
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 3:31 pm
Upon the horizon of the sands, too far away for the battalion from Learania to see, two cloaked figures on horseback, each concealing their face, appeared and looked out at the battle in front of them.
"Tch! Looks like they killed off the last of the monsters." One of the mounted duo spoke, with a hasty, and reckless tone of voice. "Dirty Learanians! They're not even supposed to be here, they were supposed to be distracted from the prison break. Well, whatever, all the distractions are gone, now."
"Then we shall give them another." The other responded, with a much calmer, and monotone expression.
"Alright, we're heading out? That's more like it, I was getting tired of just watching!"
"We are staying here. The troops will be deployed."
"What?! Come on, Mende! I didn't come all the way here, to do nothing!"
"Brother, our secret battalion has been kept from the brigands, because we traveled across the Estarcian border. If our involvement in this skirmish is discovered, it could prove... problematic, in the future."
"...You know, if I'm ever right about something for once, I'm going to hold it over your head for the rest of our lives."
"Unfortunately for you, we are only given one lifetime to live."
"Yeah, if only- Hey! That was uncalled for! Don't you think you can just up and insult me so suddenly!"
"Our troops will serve as a distraction, as that Siegell fellow reclaims the mask, for the Baroness. That is all they are; sacrifices for the greater mission. It is why we did not bring our finest with us. They will serve their purpose well."
"You all and your secret tactics... I wish you would inform me, earlier! And don't think I've forgotten about that crack you made!"
"Epimetheus... the troops."
"Yeah, yeah... Okay, men! Your enemy is before you! Charge!!"
As the louder horseman turned back forward, after facing his soldiers, tiny black dots began to come into sight beside the two mounted figures. The many armed men resounded a chorus of battle roars, then charged down the dune, creating what looked like a large, dark sheet being blown across the sand, from the sky. Their armor design was obvious, to those who would know what it meant. To all others, all it meant was there was now a battalion of armored soldiers charging at them. A new enemy has arrived.
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 4:02 pm
Charles was having the time of his life. Meteors, sand, monsters, cavalry; you name it, he was getting ******** by it.
And his arms were no longer his. He only cuddled by his arms, letting the fireballs throw sand about, coming very close but missing him entirely.
He was buried completely by a few inches of sand, and he started getting nostalgic. Thinking of where he erected, how it felt to be under 10 feet of dirt. That lead to his realization that he was really glad to at least find Domanova, a familiar face. Heavens knows what would have happened otherwise, what with stereotypes and such.
So he planned to stay there, pretending dead. Of course no one would bother to check if he were alive, he was dead already, unless it was a friendly ally. Charles' plan seemed foolproof.
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 6:18 pm
When the meteor shower was done, dust began to clear slowly. As the dust began to settle in the sandy terrain, Isadora stopped her horse and scanned the area.
There were huge fiery boulders everywhere. Pieces of glass shards were surrounding the boulders, glistening from the flames' lights. Further down, far away from where the paladin and the dancer were was the monster lying down. Was the monster still alive? It was hard to tell from the distance? However, seeing the purple flame firing out from the beast and later acid spewing out, the paladin didn't want to go and investigate. She hoped that the monster was dead from that meteor shower.
After five minutes passed, the paladin was fully confirmed that the monster was dead. She then turned to the dancer.
"I think we're safe for now," Isadora assured Ninian as she helped the dancer get off her horse. She then looked around the area again to see if there was any monsters or another surprise left. There were none.... So far.
"It seems we're done with the monsters. I guess it's time to save the others." Isadora looked down at the dancer and smiled. Now that the monsters were clear, it was time for them to rescue Amara and Blossom. But how would they ever get Razevi to come out?
Before the paladin could figure out, she heard screams. It wasn't the cries of help or pain. It was the cries of the battle. Isadora looked around to see where did the cries come from. She then saw movement coming from the dunes far from them. Could it be bandits coming for revenge? Or was it the Sentria troops coming at them for trespassing? Whatever it was, Isadora was not happy of what was coming.
"It looks like our work is never done," Isadora commented frowningly as she watched the troops coming toward them. She knew full well it couldn't be their troops. There was no way, Rath or the others would send in this much for the mission. In addition, her supplies of weapons were getting low due from attacking the monsters. Isadora turned to Ninian.
"I'm afraid I will need my shield for the upcoming battle." Isadora spoke as she grabbed her shield back from the dancer. "In the meantime, I suggest you'll pull back and keep your distance from the battle. We don't want you to get hurt."
Isadora then pulled her reins to have her horse face the upcoming troops. Pulling her spear out and gripping her shield, Isadora wondered how long would the battle be. If more waves of attack were to come, she would have to call in the retreat for everyone's safety. Their chance of winning looked pretty slim to her.
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 7:26 pm
Lethe began to breathe heavily from all the intense battle. Her energy was running low. For now she would need to shift back to her humanoid form. The pouch of Olivi Grass she had carried into the desert had only one more use in it. Deciding it would be better to save that last bit for a more desperate time, she kept it at her waist. The scales of this fight seemed to be tipped into the Learanian army’s favor thanks somewhat to a group of outside warriors.
As she was getting ready to retreat back, Lethe heard a loud, deep roar unlike those she had heard in quite some time. That resonating battle cry could only come from a certain creature; a lion. The Gallian captain completely froze as she saw Baldric’s red mane. A royal beast was here? But something was off. She did not recognize him, which made her feel a bit ashamed. The cat served her country’s monarchy all her life. She faithfully followed King Caineghis and recently his successor, King Skrimir. To receive their praise was the greatest honor a laguz soldier could earn. Deep down she craved that attention only a sovereign could supply. What soldier didn’t? For that was one of the mighty driving forces behind their resolve. Although a proud fighter like herself could not identify this noble feline. This brought her distress.
Lethe stuttered from shock. She could barely speak in beorc tongue. “L-Lyre, do my ears and eyes deceive me? A-a member of the lion clan is present?”
The cat laguz was so preoccupied that she didn’t notice the new enemy battalion charging or the purple poisonous fog emitting from the giant disfigured monster.
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:01 pm
9x The balcony crumbled underneath their feet before Razevi’s blow could strike, and both magicians found themselves falling rapidly to the ground below. Razevi twisted her body around, dress rippling around her, and folded both her hands together to fire a stream of flame at Bramimond. She was caught rather off-guard, however, when Bramimond opened a pair of large, leathery wings and slowed his descent, effectively avoiding her assault. Razevi growled, throwing a larger, faster fireball at him. It raced toward the druid, but her attack was proven useless when he instantly formed a circular magic formation around himself and disappeared from his place within the air. Razevi swore loudly. Then, turning her attention to her descent, she focused her will to summon a great molten geyser from the ground below, in the middle of the fray.
She fell upon it and, instead of it scorching her body, it served to slow her fall as she sank within it, falling to the ground below. With all the visitors who had come to this tower for whatever reason they had chose, and without Bramimond to complete the spell to the power she wished, she realized that her plan here had failed. But she was free now. That was exactly what counted at this moment.
“This isn’t over!” she called to the people around her, the flames protecting her from any assault. They exploded in intensity, burning greatly for a moment, and when the fire had cleared, she was gone.
---
Outside, the realm was falling apart. Having had its power sapped, normal sky was beginning to shine over previously darkened sands where it hadn’t in several weeks. The tower was falling apart, piece by piece, the larger chunks only disintegrating once they’d fallen to the ground. Around the spire, the ground that had been warped by Razevi's final spell was resisting change, but slowly turning back to its original form as the power faded. The base of the spire was beginning to disappear, and the true core of the spire was revealed. There was a portal, shimmering, distorting the general area around it with a vague greyishness. Vika, Blossom, and Amara appeared at the entrance to the tower, and Vika was immediately faced with Alihi, the mother of the child she had kidnapped. She took Amara’s hand, let her over to the tactician, and gave the woman a quick hug. “I’m so sorry,” she apologized softly. “If you’ll let me explain later, and let me apologize…” She pulled away. “But… right now, we need to take care of the real reason this is all happening.” She pointed over at the opening to the tower, which had fallen open when the tower had begun falling apart. “Through that portal is the other source of all these disturbances. Since this side of the disturbance is dying, that one is growing in power...” She glanced over at Blossom. “We need to get everyone through there quickly if we’re going to stop it.” You can end it now.
The colorless threshold to the conclusion of this fiasco. It pulsates serenely now that the obsidian tower has dissipated, twisting the images beyond its form in a curtain of black and white. All is quiet, all is still. Even the beast cannot be found among the shards of glass that have been formed in the sands.
End it now. Enter if you do not desire the continued existence of these phantoms!
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:03 pm
As the meteor shower has come down upon the desert, FD switched back to his humanoid form, because, you know, a dragon is a REALLY big target compared to a person. Resistant to heat or not as a Fire Dragon, those meteors didn’t need to be on fire to be dangerous – they were meteors (and heat resistant does not mean heat proof)! He was harmless in this form, but there really didn’t appear to be any reason to be in his natural form at the moment – the chimera monster-thing seemed to have been incapacitated between the Flametongues, that really impressive magical attack that had struck it, everyone else’s efforts, and the meteors. FD ran back towards Ninian’s location, careful to avoid colliding with any of the meteors’ lethal trajectories. It was chaos, not knowing for certain whether you were safe or not from being struck down. As FD was nearing the dancer’s location, a meteor had struck uncomfortably close to where they were – the Paladin Isadora’s horse charged off, carrying both the Paladin and the dancer away, he realized as he saw her race away.
Said meteor’s impact in the sand spewed glass shards flying outwards. One of the shards shot directly at FD, slicing into his left leg. He collapsed over himself, into the sand. It was one thing to take a hit in his scaled draconic form. But taking a hit in this form? How did humans manage it? The pain felt unbearable, the glass still scalding. FD couldn’t get back up – he was a sitting duck if another meteor shot at him. But the onslaught of meteors seemed to have ended. Was their fight over?
There were screams growing louder, and not those from FD taking that glass shard, but from a hoard of troops approaching them. Not ideal. At all. FD wasn’t anywhere near the front lines, but that didn’t change the fact that he was wounded, on the battlefield, and unable to pick himself back up with one good leg. In theory, he'd be able to transform back into his natural form and still attack. But injuries from one form transferred into the other when he transformed, he'd learned from his fight with Misura. Still, at least in his dragon form he'd be able to move, with three of his fours. He just needed to get over the pain before he could get around to transforming.
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:10 pm
Now I'm stuck here
But I don't belong here
~Ninian~Ninian sighed. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. And this other was just as bad as the one. Maybe even worse.
She had been ready to stand and wait for the meteors to close in before she dodged them when Isadora had grabbed her, pulling her onto her horse and riding off, the paladin handing her shield to the dancer, which Ninian used to protect the two of them from the meteors as best she could. Thanks to Isadora's wonderful horsemanship and quick thinking, they were saved from the worst of the meteors, though a few of the smaller shards hit the shield Ninian held.
The monster had been hit by at least one of the meteors, though it was still a live somehow, or was it? But they had a larger problem to worry about.
Without warning, Ninian's headache grew to painful proportions. They were in real danger now. Isadora had stopped, helping the dancer off her horse. She said something, but Ninian barely heard her over the pain that pounded her head as if it were a drum.
Ninian heard the war cries when Isadora did. Numb, she handed the paladin her shield. She turned, stumbling back towards Hikaru, one hand clutching Briseschal, the other holding her head.
How are we . . . supposed to fight . . . against an army? she wondered, fighting to think straight.
And then she saw the tower. Or rather, saw what was left of it: nothing. The tower was gone, the giant monster dead and gone. Everything on that front was quiet.
She blinked, then ran to Hikaru's side. The dragon had transformed back into his human form to better dodge the meteors. And now he appeared to be hurt, glass shards sticking out of a wound on his leg.
"Oh no, Hikaru!" she gasped.
Moving quickly, Ninian pulled out a roll of bandages from her pack, tying a length around the dragon's leg above the wound. The glass would have to come out before any healing balm could be applied.
"We need to find a healer, quickly," she said, looking around. Rei had gone to the tower with Alihi. Who else could be found to help Hikaru before he--
Ninian stopped herself, refusing to complete that thought. She would not let her soon to be brother-in-law die, not if she could help him.I wanna be where you are
Maybe I'm not so far from home
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:05 pm
The soldiers charged onward, and met with the enemy on the outskirts doing them in rather quickly. The horseman made sure the fools were trampled thoroughly. They approached the main battalion, and watched as the pesky royal Guard logically formed up, and prepared for the conflict.
There was an ominous silence in the air, despite the battle shouts, as if it would be the most peaceful moment of the day, right before everything went to hell. And the moment passed quickly, and was followed by the eminent merge of forces.
Lances pierced into the underside of horses, generic men were trampled beneath hooves, and then eventually, metal hit metal. Enemy soldiers thrust their weapons at the Guard soldiers. The roars and shouts rang out as men from both sides were slew. Horses lay limp upon the sand. The blood splattered and stained the armor and faces of all. The true essence of battle shown through.
The soldiers payed no mind to the happenings of the tower. They did not react to Razevi's appearance and vanishing. That was not the task they were given. Surely, Siegell would be in enough rage, by himself, anyway. They would die for their Baroness, and they would take as much of the enemy with them, as they could. It was all for Her will. Their persistence and loyalty were most impressive.
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