Welcome to Gaia! ::

The prison was surrounded by a sturdy wooden palisade, which formed a wall around the entire complex. Sationed on the wall were the female soldiers sent by the Eldric estates to watch the prison. This was typically a pretty menial job, as the prisoners didn't have the strength to resist whatever enchantments the sorceress in charge put on them. However, each and every one of the soldiers was fully battle trained and ready. Thus, the order from Aemelia to mobilize as quickly as possible met with little difficulty. The women stood on the walls, bows out and arrows nocked. They stood several to a wall, keeping an eye out for whatever could be attacking. Most assumed this was a drill. Most thought that even if they were under attack from some enemy, unless they were a large enough force that would have been detected earlier, they would be unable to breech the fortress through the wooden wall with spikes lining the bottom, making climbing near impossible without being able to clear them. Most would be wrong. The blast of fire backlit both the force advancing and the reptilian neck. The soldiers, though prepared and trained, faltered. This was a dragon. An honest to god Dragon. And they thought their wall would do something. The archers in the front screamed a warning and a direction to those around them, alerting all of the wall guards to the danger. As the others made their way forward, the first volley of arrows was released, aimed squarely at the dragon.

Fennian, currently patrolling the wall looking for suspicious activity. She saw the dragon and the fire and swore covertly under her breath. She lept from the wall and ran to the courtyard formed by the wooden wall. There was where Merideth had been stationed.

"Merideth, it's true. There is a dragon here. And it's *attaching us!*" Fennian said urgently as the arrows were released. They've got a small force out there, but they have a dragon to back them up. Think we should make ourselves known?"

"The commander said not to engage until we know what we're up against. Let us observe for a while longer, then slip out and begin our counterattack. Sae, I know you're listening through your allies, so can you relay this information to the commander?"

A small chirp from behind Merideth indicated one of Sae's messengers had left to find their commander and fill her in.

Too much was happening at once. The archers, normal women with barely adequate training, held as best they could. Despite being fully trained, most were unprepared for real, bloody combat. Their arrows went awry or at the wrong targets. Only about a third of the soldiers kept their cool long enough to form any sort of organized resistance. A few went around cutting the ropes thrown to the top of their barricade while others shifted the focus of their arrows to the soldiers. That is, until the dragon itself approached. Even the most dedicated soldier stood in terror as the gigantic shaped loomed in front of her. Those of weaker heart broke ranks and began fleeing to the relative safety of the inner compound. A few stayed, trying to get the one in a thousand shot that would bring the dragon down. They aimed at joints, wings, and eyes. When the dragon reached for one, she dove, trying to avoid the terrible grasping claws. She was not successful and was raised into the air by the dragon. As a last ditch attempt, she took the dagger from her belt and threw it at the dragon's face.

That's when they heard the explosion. They'd forgotten to watch the other walls in their panic over the dragon. Several of the guards that had been stationed inside the prison itself were making their way onto the roof for a better vantage point to aim their shots. A few of the paniced guards made their way to the roof as well to collect themselves and continue to fire. Their shots were aimed mostly at the dragon still, but a few fired at the soldiers making their way into the compound.

While the common grunts went about their retreat, the Black Ops squadron began their moves. Aemelia had been briefed on the situation by Sae's ally and made her way down to the common area connecting the wings of the prison, where the terrified guards had begun to gather. She glared over the huddled soldiers then, with an imperious voice, shouted "You lot! Are you soldiers or are you cowards? You cower here while your own fortress is overrun by scavengers barely able to make themselves weapons. Now half of you get on the roof and give cover fire and pick off who you can. The other half, prepare yourselves for if the doors are broken down. MOVE!" With the voice of authority shouting at them, the soldiers began their assigned tasks. Sae made her way through the ensuing chaos towards her leader, her usual perky happy attitude replaced by the serious mein demanded by actual combat.

"Ma'am. It's not looking good outside. The perimeter is breeched at two places. The creature in the front, and an explosion from behind. Merideth's gone to check behind and Fennian has begun a flanking move to take the creature on its blindside. The enemy have moved a few of their forces into the inner wall and are attempting to find a way into the prison."

Aemelia sighed and ran a hand through her hair. They'd never be able to keep the integrity of the prison now. While the connection they guarded at the moment was the only true way into the prison, if they had access to explosives, they could blow pieces of the wall off to release the captives. Something needed to be done to pick off those wandering the inside. "Sae, I need you to make two friends. One to stay here and help guard those within and one to prowl outside and attack the enemies. I'm heading outside to see what I can do against them. Also, I need a look at this...creature. Can you handle that?"

"Yes Ma'am!" Sae said, before closing her eyes in thought. She inhaled deeply and when she exhaled, it was a white and red mist. The mist soon separated itself into two clouds. The white condensced into a glowing white humanoid. This figure had no arms and no eyes. It wore a dress of the same glowing material it was made of that fluttered in an unseen wind. Six large glowing shields rotated around the figure, expanding and contracting as the creature inhaled and exhaled.

The red mist formed a very different sort of creature. Though it seemed at first to form a human shape, the back erupted into a long trail of mist that snaked along the ground. When the mist hardened, the figure was that of a Nagha, a snake woman. The head of the beast was that of a woman, and it had an entire upper torso. This figure wore no clothing over its bright red skin and powerful muscles could be seen rippling beneath the surface. In one hand, she carried a giant spiked mace and in the other, a barbed longsword. From the waist down, however, her body was that of a giant snake. Patterns of red, black, and white could be seen playing over her scales down her body. The snake portion was thick and powerful, and looked to have the strength to constrict an opponent, if need be. As soon as she appeared, she let out a barking laugh, as if challenging the world to try and take her down.

"Rage, go with Aemelia. Clear out those who seek to enter the prison. Security, stay here and guard those who protect this place." Sae opened her eyes, expecting to see Aemelia. But the commander was already gone and Rage was snaking out the door to get to her assigned task.


Elsewhere, Fennian decided that she had made a colossally bad decision. She had snuck over an ignored section of wall around to the side of the invading force. As of yet, she had not been noticed. This wasn't surprising, considering the considerable distraction her foes were creating for themselves. Just a few more hay bales and she might be able to sprint to the dragon. From there, she had no plan, but at least then she'd be in a better position to try something. Three deep breaths and she was off to the next haystack.



Merideth raced along the wall towards the explosion. That side of the base was virtually unguarded and they'd paid the price for it. Merideth didn't lurk on past failures, however, and began to assess the damage. The real threat was that now foes could get through that gap easily. Who knew how many were out there. Merideth had no idea, but was intent on getting there herself to find out. When it came into sight, she saw no grand army pouring out, just one figure racing away from it. While not discounting that a force could be coming, she decided to take care of this one threat, to remove it from the equation. He ran along the wall as well, so it was probably too late to avoid detection. Instead, she sprinted fully at him, staying low. When within an arm's reach, she aimed an open palm strike to the middle of his chest. The hit itself was not what he needed to worry about. The real threat was the magic carried in that hand, which had been prepared to sever the connection between his optic nerves and his brain for a time, rendering him blind. Once he was so disoriented, locking down his other senses would be child's play. Then not only would he not be a factor, there would be a sujbect of interrogation after the skirmish was ended.

Thing were going to hell, and there was no end in sight. Merideth had landed her hit on the unknown assailant, rendering him blind. His reactions were hampered by this, but still showed the training of a soldier. His grab at her arm succeeded. She had been caught and was being pulled towards him. The follow-up was a little less successful. Merideth saw the other hand coming at around the same time she saw the masses of soldiers climbing through the gap in the wall. She knew then she didn't have a whole lot of time to spare, so she was forced to dispense with the man here. As the hand came at her chin, Merideth moved her own hand to meet and block it. She used the momentum of his punch as well as a well timed jump of her own to lift herself over her attacker and throw a quick kick at his side before she landed. Blind and alone on the wall, he'd be much less of a threat to anyone than those rushing in through the walls. So she ran from him along the wall to a position neary where the invaders were entering. She had spied Aemelia and an emotion approaching and decided to allow them to take point. Instead of charging in herself, she would provide some modicum of support. The soldiers worked on opening wide the hole in the prison wall to allow those who were incercerated to escape. She had managed to stay out of sight, it seemed.

It wasn't her favorite method, nor her most effective, but Merideth could project her sense-killing magic on a group from a distance. The effect would likely last only a matter of minutes, but that would be more than enough time to disorient those who had entered, confuse orders, and allow the striking team to hit them at their worst condition. The only question is, what sense would she it. Smell is inconsequential in this situation, as it often was in combat. Touch, while exceedingly disorienting, would be more of a bane than an aide. They wouldn't feel the pain of the attack, but they would see and hear their foes and their orders. Taste fell into the same category as smell. No, the only two worth getting rid of would be sight or sound. Sight often proved the most useful sense to destroy, as the victims couldn't see what they were hitting. The problem was that killing sight, for whatever reason, always took more energy and concentration than other senses. If she were to use it here, her personal energy would be dangerously low and she may not be able to use any more magic for a time. In addition, the duration would be shorter, and Aemelia might not make it before it wore off. Merideth had made her choice. She gathered her energy in her hands and began weaving it into a mesh to settle over the people in the area. She took a quick look down and let it loose. The hearing-killer settled over the crowd. Some might resist it, but the chaos had begun. The prisoners in the nearby, broken cell had been affected as well, either by design or chance. A few had sought to aid those breaking into the cell, but many had not. Once their hearing died, the inside of the cell went berserk. Those who had stayed away from the conflict found that they could no longer hear the soldiers or the other prisoners. This was quite disorienting and frightening. Several took it to be a punishment from their captors for staying inactive and they lept into action on the side of self-preservation. A bbrawl broke out in the prison between those who sought escape and those who believed that they would be given their hearing back only once they had proven their loyalty and service. A few kept to the edges of the cell, but made no more attempt to widen the hole, fearing that they would be dragged into the fight like those before. Whatever help outside came, there would be little action from inside the prison at the moment.

Aemelia raced around the corner, now just a short distance from those who had attacked her new sanctuary. She saw them milling about in some form of confusion. Reaching into a pocket of her jeans, she opened her dimension and took from it her jian, a thin chinese style sword. Drawing her blade, Autumn Rains, she dropped her sheathe back into her pocket, where it was claimed by her magic once more. She took the sword in hand and raced towards the mass of soldiers, ready to cut through the unguarded flank. Rage slithered ahead of her, weapons raised and ready. She screamed in frenzy (to any left around that could hear it) as she swung her spiked mace at those soldiers closest to her.


Fennian was finally within striking distance of the dragon. She unslung her chosen weapon from her shoulder, a sturdy lance. It was a high quality lance, decorated with carvings of roses and vines along both the handle and the base of the lance itself. It tapered off to a sharp point, which Fennian hoped might penetrate the scales of the dragon where nothing else had.. Fennian wasn't one of the bright stars of the black ops unit. She was a common member, but had something that the other more gifted members might lack, the ability to peacefully, covertly coax information out of a hesitant subject. Her magic ran along the lines of the basic magic of Feretris, that affecting emotion and the mind. She was not one of the highly specialized paincasters that were used for war or discipline. Oh, sure, she could amplify pain, but not create it as easily as others. She could covertly enhance how much people liked her and how much they were willing to trust her, but that served little purpose here. That is, unless she decided to talk to the dragon and ask it ever so politely to take a hike. 'Yeah...that's exactly what I ought to do.' she thought to herself. 'I must be insane. I'm fighting a creature that doesn't exist, yet is tearing our defenses to shreds. But if I sit here doing nothing, then the dragon and those inferior plainsfolk will win, bringing a humiliating defeat down on my head.'

Fennian cracked a smile to herself as she looked around the edge of this final stack of hay. 'Aw, what the hell. I knew Black Ops was going to be dangerous and probably fatal. If I've got to go charging blindly and stupidly into a battle that may kill me, I might as well make it a memorable one!' Fennian stepped back to psyche herself up for what needed to be done. She rocked back on her heels three times before propelling herself forward as fast as she could, lance aimed right at where she hoped the achilles tendon was in the dragon's back right foot.

Sae and the archers perched on the roof were the first to begin to see the retreat. The dragon had reared up for a moment before the soldiers began to flow from the fortress. The beast who had destroyed much of their frontal defense reached near one of his back legs to catch something. Sae realized with a sinking sensation in her stomach that it had Fennian in its mouth. There was nothing she could do at the moment. She allowed one of her flight eyes (A piece of Foresight, whose main form was located upstairs in Sae's room) to wait nearby to follow the dragon. Otherwise, there was no way that an emotion would be able to rescur Fennian safely. Sae just had to wait and pray. The archers, on the other hand, just had to aim at the fleeing soldiers and prisoners. A few prisoners had managed to squeeze away from the brawl and out the hole to freedom. They retreated along with the army. Only a few more were brought down by the roof arrows.

Merideth observed the retreat and leaned herself back against the upper ledge of the wall. The fight seemed to have deteriorated into an unorganized retreat. As such, Merideth would have time to recoup the magic she had spent deafening the crowd. Such a task was never easy on Marideth's reserves. She had far less magical energy to draw on than many other sorceresses. So she did her best to conserve it with single targets. Larger groups werre harder, especially for the complex senses. She kept a wary eye out for anyone who would approach her, friend or foe, and rested for a while.

Aemelia and Rage continued to fight, even as the soldiers fled from them and the fortress in general. Many now lay dying or dead at their feet, and a good number were wounded on the ground. Once the last of the enemies had exited from the courtyard, Rage let out an inhuman scream that the soldiers were now able to hear. Aemelia simply wiped the blood off of Autumn Rain on the cloth undershirt of one of her fallen foes. The battle was won. Now was the time to count losses and put things together. No small task at the moment. She shouted to the archers on the roof "I need you down here now. A few of these will survive to give us information and I want them secured before we check them out." There was a rush of activity as the soldiers rushed to obey her new commands.

Fennian was doing far less well than her companions. Her lance had struck relatively true, but the jerk following the entry she should have expected a little more. She was lifted into the air, along with her lance. And she had had no means to attack the dragon head that loomed nearby afterwords. It was a pity she wouldn't be able to drag the lance out and thrust it into the unprotected throat, but there was no way she would accomplish that. Instead, she tried releasing her grip to fall to the ground, but ended up caught in midair. She had expected to be eaten the moment she landed in the mouth and had closed her eyes so not to see her doom. When said doom was several seconds late, she opened an eye to see the hold-up. All she saw was a giant tooth looming right above her head. While the dragon hadn't killed her, it obviously could at any moment. As such, the wise course of action was not to fight back, for the time being.