Novam Initium

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Shel wearily walked home, satchel of medicinal salves and herbs she'd collected ready to bring to her village. She sighed at the thought of what her village had become - and how she was now the last of the medicine women of her tribe. Warlock magics had taken definite root in her hometown, and while not everyone turned from the old ways in favor of the demonic magic, a good portion of them certainly had. "oh, all-father, give me a sign, something to show that not all is darkness, and that the light may yet glow and spread once more." Shel Pleaded, looking up to the sky, as tears ran down her cheeks, the stress building within the old orc woman finally being released.
Shel asked for a sign, and, seeing a twinkling in the sky, she soon wished she hadn't. A ball of flame and rock headed towards the planet, blazing brightly with an orange light. Hitting the ground, the massive meteor revealed itself to be incredibly large, creating a massive crater where it hit. though Shel was not near the impact site, the shockwave nonetheless shook her off her feet. Then, the crater, as quickly as it hit, seemed to disappear and crumble, as a massive blue light shot from the heavens, striking and dissolving the meteor in a massive burst of energy.
And that energy was what finally revealed the world of Novam Initium to the universe...

"ahhh, now that's a more complex question." Tsubasa admitted. "Those I can't save, I'll admit I regret upon, particularly some days, where I'll wake up and focus on what I could have done different, or better. And yet, I know I do all I can, and I know I do what I can to get stronger, too, so that I may be more use to them. It only lessens the blow, but... there's something to be said for the strength one gains from moving on, as well.
Besides... I can say I'd regret ten times more just one I chose not to save, than a hundred I at least tried to. I met a pale swordsman once, who walked that exact course, and I saw where that road drives someone, eventually. Last I checked, he's one of Exitius's right-hand men.

Wynn listened intently to everything Tsubasa said, but remained motionless and continued to only acknowledge him through words. However, when he mentioned a pale swordsman being Exitus' right-hand, her head suddenly dropped down.
"Goddamn it..." She grumbled.

"Eh?" Tsubasa quirked his head at Wynn's sudden response. "Do you know of whom I speak?" Tsubasa began to worry. The last thing the people here needed was for the gods to start another war here. Moreover, if he was here... "What's going on?" He said with some concern apparent in his voice.

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By the time Rorek, Onyx, and Kael had gotten to the briefing, Anima had already vanished from where she stood, with a worried shale standing there. "sigh... what gets her concerned gets me a heck of a lot more..." he muttered. "Seems Anima's a bit too busy to confer, but long story short, we have a someone to go find." Shale said, walking forward and out of the area. "Just follow me, I'll explain on the way to the portal."


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Efah surveyed the lands from his perch, their lush, if harsh life, the horned ape standing a hundred feet away, watching them.
"It will be good, to regain this prize for Exitium, and to mark our first conquest on this world. It's far too lush for my tastes." Efah said, observing the reapers, and judges below him. While he could not get many advanced soldiers from exitius, he boasted a host of second class reapers, a smaller amount of first-class, a pair of assassins, a few judges, and managed to even gain a cerberus. Of course, the largest part of the army was actually one he called to the field himself, and remembering this, he moved his arm down to affectionately pat the being below him, the undead snake Oroboros. The creature hissed, eager for blood and conquest, as it regularly gained alongside Efah. The two had a curious but undeniable kinship, though whether there was true affection there or not was hard to tell, or a simple meeting of goals. Either way, one thing was certain. Blood was going to stain the plains of Novam Initium this night.
The only question was how much of it would be orc and how much of it Exitium.


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"My lord, I believe we have found this... Human.... that you seek. He is held within a fortified city of our hated brethren, those who follow the shaman." the warlock burst in, telling Xaldius. "He is being kept as a refugee, seeking assistance from some injury, or so our divinations have told us." the warlock told him, seeming to be reluctant to continue "But... While we will march on your command, exalted void father, we are unsure on whether we can breach the defenses. Our magic outdoes theirs, but they have ogres, and have tamed the animals of the land to fight beside them..." the warlock trailed off.

She lifted a hand and punched the side of the tree. "I HAD THAT SON OF A [censored] RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!" she shouted. "I COULD'VE KILLED HIM RIGHT THEN AND THERE!"
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Rorek was the first to start walking toward the portal. Despite having been woken up from a deep sleep, he seemed to get back to his old-self again in a hurry. "Well, what are we waiting for then?" He said with a grin.
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Tyrath looked up at the sky as he listened to the warlock. A storm was quickly brewing over their heads.
"Well done." Tyrath replied. "Now it is time I give you what I promised..." He said with a certain ominous tone. "Gather anyone of you that wants my promised power in the streets."

Tyrath stood at the center of all the orcs in the village that had been gathered. The storm that had been brewing above them had now begun to drizzle a bit. A flash of lightning lit the area up around them.
"As I have promised, the time has come for you to have your power. You have proven your loyalty, and earned what I am now going to grant you." He spoke to the crowd. He looked at all of them.
He raised his hands straight out to his sides as his cape ignited into flame. It would take on the form of fiery wings that he flapped and used to fly up into the air above the buildings. A black aura around him would begin to swirl from his body around those of the orcs.
"I give you my knowledge of the ancient art of my world: the Thu'um. You shall hear the words of the draconian language in yourself, then speak them. Speak them and let your voice herald the inevitability that awaits all mortals that is death."
As he spoke, the orcs would look at each other, worried since they, themselves were mortal.
"And now, be free of the chains that bind you to the laws of nature..."
The clouds would begin to swirl overhead in a whirlpool-like fashion directly above Tyrath. He would shout three words in the dragon language that the orcs would recognize, despite never actually hearing them spoken any other time before.
"VULOM FUNDEIN SLEN!!!! (Darkness Unfurls Flesh)"
As Tyrath spoke the last word, lightning would begin chaotically striking all around them. The drizzle would turn into a torrential downpour of side-ways rain. Under each of the orcs, black, cold crystals of ice began to form out of the ground. Being close enough, they could feel that these crystals were insanely cold. However, when it grew onto their bodies, they would feel nothing. As they became entirely encased in a block of the abyssal frost, they would feel themselves changing both physically and spiritually. Then they felt one thing: power.
The orcs would break free of the ice to find their bodies changed into suits of armor made of the dark frost. They would feel invincible.
All around within the crowds of the knights, the orcs would begin shouting in the dragon language, crashes of thunder echoing all around not from the lightning, but from their own voices.
"NIR DAAR JOOR! (Hunt this mortal!)" Tyrath shouted in the dragon language for all to hear. "GAHROT OK SOS! (Take his blood!)"

Tsubasa smiled sadly. "Perhaps, but perhaps not. That one is slippery as the meanest eel. I made it my quest for five years to defeat him, in my youth, in vengeance. I never did succeed, though that might be better after all." He explained. "If I'd managed it, perhaps I would never have found the inner realizations that allowed me to temper my heart."

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Shale seemed almost hurried, a first for him. "So, it seems we have two missions in the place we're gettin' to. For starters, we need to find more about the place we're gettin' to, as it's a new world for us."
"What? A new world? We haven't found one of those in a decade!" Kael exclaimed. Worlds weren't oft newly found, though some were left inactive due to lack of interest or resources at times.
"yeah, and it seems the gods are interested in the natives. From what our most advanced scouts tell us, it's one of the lahgest gathering of orcs they'd seen in a while.
"Orcs?" Onyx asked, with confusion and hope both apparent in his voice.
"Yeah, seems that way. millions of 'em. More than we've ever seen, matter o' fact. But that's not the only thing we're bein' sent for. We're to find someone important, and bring 'em to Anima."

agentaaa wrote:Tsubasa smiled sadly. "Perhaps, but perhaps not. That one is slippery as the meanest eel. I made it my quest for five years to defeat him, in my youth, in vengeance. I never did succeed, though that might be better after all." He explained. "If I'd managed it, perhaps I would never have found the inner realizations that allowed me to temper my heart."

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Shale seemed almost hurried, a first for him. "So, it seems we have two missions in the place we're gettin' to. For starters, we need to find more about the place we're gettin' to, as it's a new world for us."
"What? A new world? We haven't found one of those in a decade!" Kael exclaimed. Worlds weren't oft newly found, though some were left inactive due to lack of interest or resources at times.
"yeah, and it seems the gods are interested in the natives. From what our most advanced scouts tell us, it's one of the lahgest gathering of orcs they'd seen in a while.
"Orcs?" Onyx asked, with confusion and hope both apparent in his voice.
"Yeah, seems that way. millions of 'em. More than we've ever seen, matter o' fact. But that's not the only thing we're bein' sent for. We're to find someone important, and bring 'em to Anima."

Wynn finally turned to look at Tsubasa. From where he was standing, she was giving him the look of someone who wasn't sure if they were serious, or stupid.
"You really have no idea how big this is, do you?" She said bluntly, but she didn't complete the thought.
She stood up on the branch and ran across the branch she had been sitting on before she reached the end of it and jumped. She began moving through the trees at near-super human speed, but never actually flew or used any powers: she simply ran like a bat out of Hell.
She would begin dashing her way through the trees back to the town as fast as she possibly could.

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Rorek grinned. "Well, what are we standin' around for?" Rorek inquired in a jovial tone. "Let's go make some new friends!" He would sprint through the portal ahead of them.

"well, when you don't explain that there's a situation to me, how could I?" Tsubasa muttered, as she disappeared. However, Tsubasa'd already been slowly connecting dots as Wynn had spoken with him, and began moving himself - in a direction similar but different from the one Wynn took. He'd had a feeling Efah was here - Ever since they'd first met, they'd had a shared connection, of sorts, though Tsubasa rarely listened to it.
Though vengeance was no longer an issue, if that man was threatening innocents again, Tsubasa knew he had to do what he could to stop it.

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Onyx followed behind Rorek, but Kael trailed behind.
"Do you know what to look for with this person? or are you just following an energy signature?"
"A bit o' the first, but mostly the second." Shale told Kael, slowing down just as Kael said such, before they both quickened their pace, exiting the portal just a little while after the rest did.

Wynn would arrive back in the village in a very short time. When she arrived, she simply jumped from a tree branch, onto the town's wall. She jumped from the wall onto a roof top, and then down into an alley way before hurriedly making her way back to the shaman.
She entered quickly, put the book she had been using down, and began frantically searching for anyone who would be there, hoping that no one had already gotten to them before she had returned.

Efah's army marshalled, sitting only a couple miles away from the village at this very moment. "Take them out. all of them. Survivors cannot be afforded." He told them all, though, he belatedly realized, the order was hardly necessary. Exitium soldiers killed everyone in their path unless it was explicitly stated otherwise. On that note... "With the exception of our target, of course." Efah thought to himself on just how valuable this boy must be to Exitius, to garner such interest. Efah would make sure to do all he could to deliver him to his lord - he could do no less.

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Wynn would step in to see an excited Fas, white glowing faintly around him. "In all my days, I've never seen the spirits of the wind accept someone so freely. you're a natural, Fas." the old shaman told him. "I Can feel everything around me so clearly, it's amazing..." Fas breathed, seeming to take in all that was around him. both were sitting in a well-lit area of the hut, Fas seeming to finally be calm for once.

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At the moment, Tsubasa focused his emotions tightly, thinking on his need to save the village, the urgency, to stop that man... he knew he needed more, needed the power necessary to pull off this foolhardy move.
"Just as long as I get him away from that snake..." He thought to himself.
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Onyx got through the portal first, running with enthusiasm. To him, seeing others of his kind again, even if they weren't of his tribe, was a dream come true, and while he was mindful of their mission, his enthusiasm was nonetheless undampened. Rorek would be only a few seconds behind, followed by Kael and Shale ten seconds later.
"seems we've arrived." Shale would say, looking around. though the ground here was brown, trees grew everywhere despite the apparent dryness of the place. the fauna was rather normal and green, however, and it would seem they'd appeared in a forest.

Wynn saw Fas in the aura, but did not seem the least bit surprised, as the next thing she said would come off as extremely urgent.
"Listen, we need to get the hell out of here!" Wynn exclaimed. While she didn't have any ability to sense things, something was prodding at the back of her mind, telling her they need to get as far away from the town as fast as possible. She turned to the Shaman. "You should come, too."

As Wynn spoke, the light outside would fade very quickly as night descended upon the village in a matter of minutes.

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Rorek would be grinning, just happy to be among friends. However, the sky would begin to darken, and his face suddenly went to that of slight horror. A fog would begin closing in around them. It didnt feel natural. Simply being in it, they would be able to sense a blood lust from unseen entity, even without having the ability to sense power in the first place.
"I know this fog..." Rorek said somberly. One would easily see the dread in Rorek's eyes.

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Tyrath stood on a high cliff over looking the village below. He was looking around at the entire valley, and knew that he was going to need to work fast.
"Lord Tyrath," One of the black frost-clad knights began. "What is your command?"
Tyrath silently looked at the valley. He didn't know where exactly it was coming from, but he could sense the presence of two entities that walked in the shadow of death. "Where are you..." The black-armor clad demon muttered. He remained silent another moment.
"Lord Tyrath?..." The icy knight inquired again.
"We need to be discreet, and fast..." Tyrath began. He turned to face the small army of knights that he had created only hours ago. "I want to avoid collateral damage, not because I care for these mortals, but there are other forces at work here. I'm sure you all sense death's shadow looming over this land." He turned toward the village and walked to the very edge of the cliff. "I want Fas dead while attracting as little attention as possible. Do not engage anyone unless necessary. Kill Fas on sight... I will join the assault on the village if subterfuge should fail, I won't blend in as well as all of you will in your original forms."
The first frost knight bowed slightly . "Yes, my lord."
The Abyss Knights would begin moving toward the village, leaving Tyrath to watch from the cliff above.
"VEN MUL RIIK!" He shouted. In the nearby forest, his voice would boom very loudly, but it would be broken up long before it reached the village or Efah's forces.
All throughout the valley, an eerie dark violet fog would begin to cloud the forest and darken the sky. Despite being mid-day, it would become as dark as night.

"Indeed. Take him away from here, before the battle begins. As for me, however, I'm afraid I'll stay here." the wizened old woman told her. "With the coming battle, my own powers will be needed. Besides, here is where my husband is buried. I won't let those who stink so of death desecrate it without a fight." she told her, with a face that brooked no further argument. "besides, even if we do lose here, by some miracle, there's no chance we'll leave them with enough forces to pursue you."

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Tsubasa focused, seeing Efah finally come into view. his aim better be correct, or he would be taking a rather nasty tumble for nothing.

Efah felt the surge in power before seeing Tsubasa, but knew it was him by the familiar energy. "How did he reach this plac-"

Tsubasa let go of his energy, allowing himself to soar into the air. Striking Efah with the force of a rocket, he sent him skyrocketing into the forest, before following himself, glowing the entire time with a yellow aura. Landing, he rolled for twenty feet before his momentum finally stopped, leaving him with a feeling of minor exhaustion.
"I can't tell, were you expecting that move to be more graceful, or do you simply enjoy looking the buffoon?" Efah asked him.
"I don't really care how I look, but I know that Oroboros alone'll have a time trying to command Exitium forces. I know where you're going, and I don't intend to let you harm those people." Tsubasa retorted.
"Hmph.
Always resisting your fate. I've repeated this over and over to you." Efah said, drawing his blade. Brought off his knees, he was nonetheless already standing by the time Tsubasa'd regained his vision. Drawing his blade, the dragon-tooth weapon looking almost like steel if not for the lack of sheen, awaited.

The blade itself was made in an elegant style, the sword just slightly shorter than a long-sword, and the hilt, remade when Efah entered Exitium's service, was Black iron, with a red leather wrapping around the handle and a curved hilt pointing upwards.
the bottom of the handle had a black dragon's-head coming from it, and the blade itself had the marking of a jaw-less skull inscribed in the blade, near the middle. Such marked it as the blade of a Ghost-knight.

"So, your blade's as pretty as ever. I wonder if it'll still hold up to Ever-ice, though." Tsubasa remarked, drawing his glittering scimitar. The blade seemed much like a regular scimitar, though the blade was a little longer and wider than average, and the hilt was very small, with rounded, simple ends. Most important in the difference, however, was that the blade appeared to be made entirely of ice - snowflakes slowly falling from the end of the blade, as a matter of fact. Tsubasa's second sword remained sheathed, but a subtle glow from the wooden scabbard seemed to imply that it was just as eager to be within it's master's hands, sensing the combat to come.

"Enough babble. I will remove you from my path, for the final time." Efah remarked, as Tsubasa and Efah both walked towards each-other, seconds away from the duel they'd been waiting for, for a long time...

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"Hmmm? Friend of yours, Rorek?" Shale asked, confused as to the origin of this fog just as much as the others were. Kael seemed unperturbed, but Onyx seemed quite shaken... and, to a point, angry...

Wynn remained silent for a short moment. Then quickly interjected, "Let's go, kid!" She grabbed his arm and began pulling him toward the door.

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Rorek shook his head, still staring at the fog around them with disdain. "No...." He mumbled. "Quite the opposite... If I'm right, this is the work of Tyrath... but we banished him..." He shook his head. "LOK VAH KOOR!" He shouted. The fog would part in front of him, allowing it to brighten a little more than the pitch-darkness that was engulfing them. He began sprinting through the opening.

As he began moving, though, the bloodlust they sensed intensified and almost seemed to focus on them. It was no longer this indiscriminate feeling, their hairs would stand on end all over their bodies, and their blood would go ice-cold.

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Tyrath's knights moved silently through the forest, approaching the village, as well as some approaching entities they sensed in the forest. They ran as soldiers, but calculated their movements and staggered themselves like a pack of wolves preparing to strike its prey.

Tyrath continued to watch from the cliff. Unlike the other beings of this world, he would be able to see through his own oppressive fog. In fact, he actually began to sense the individual beings in the mist more clearly now. He began to pinpoint every being that moved through it. He began telepathically communicating with his knights.

One of the deathly entities is on the opposing side of the village advancing towards it. Seeking the same target as we do, no less. Investiagte him, if he wants Fas dead, do not interfere. If he wants him alive, eliminate him.

One knight volunteered himself to this task and muttered silently, "Yes, my lord." This individual knight of the abyss began making its way to where Efah and Tsubasa were now locked in combat.

As Tyrath used a kind of sixth sense to see every being in the fog, he spotted something that was most unusual. It was a dragon of his own world, a powerful one, no less.
"Tahrodiis dov..." He grumbled. He jumped from his perch and dove straight down toward the forest before his cape ignited into flames when he was in the fog, just above the trees. He would fly straight for this dragon he was sensing.

As Wynn left, she would notice something, however. The orcs, seeming to have been warned by the shaman, appeared ready for combat, wearing leather armor and wielding huge axes, forming up. some stayed behind those ranks, instead of having an axe only having small knives for sidearms and a quiver of large spears, obviously meant to be thrown. these were not the most impressive thing, however, as much of the wildlife in the area appeared from the forest, Wolves, Elephant-like creatures with horns on their head as well as tusks under their nose, And dear-like beings with horns larger and thicker than their heads. as this happened, chanting could be heard from the old shaman, as a white, silvery barrier began forming in the air, before moving all around the encampment. Wynn would find that she could easily enough move through the shimmering barrier, but should any enemy missile strike it, it would find no passage. Ogres, as well, appeared, in less numbers but much larger than the orcs. As tall as the orcs are, the ogres appeared to be more than double their height, holding crude clubs, some wooden with spikes, while others appeared to be no more than rocks tied to a stick.
Most impressive, though, and sticking above the wooden walls, would be the gronn, walking towards the camp-site. as tall as the ogres were, this ancient being seemed to be the same height as a upright oroboros, easily five times the height of the ogre. A large club, appearing to be, on closer inspection, simply an ancient tree uprooted to serve it's purposes, was lazily held with one hand by the being, and parts of his body seemed made of rock itself, or nearly so.
There was a reason, that the gods desired this world's people, after all.

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Tsubasa and Efah clashed, the latent energy given off enough to intimidate most spell-casters.
Tsubasa began the attacks, sending a quick slash to Efah's midsection that his opponent merely shifted to his other knee to avoid, the tight stance he was keeping allowing such movement, before blocking the second of Tsubasa's strikes by slapping it away with his heavier dragon-tooth blade. Raising his blade to Strike, Tsubasa stopped him mid-motion by bringing up his hand, electricity sparking along it. Efah raised his in turn, shadows seeming to congregate along it, as a black mist formed. A bolt of shadow struck a ball of lightning fired, and both were pushed back from the impact.
Tsubasa, concentrating, brought a fine mist about the two of them, before using his own speed to appear at Efah's back. slashing for Efah's back with his scimitar, He was surprised when Efah's second hand drew his knife partially out of his sheath, the blade somehow blocking his enchanted sword.
Tsubasa noted that there was a shadow around the blade just in time, as a needle of darkness suddenly shot out towards his heart. Tsubasa, moving out of the way, focused his own power, and his blade began to crackle with electricity, Striking out with a strike even Efah's blade would be unlikely to block, he was surprised to see his strike manage to cut him in two - only to see a black shadow fall to the floor, rather than blood, as he found out too late that the efah he struck was only a fake. Dodging to the left, he still gained a cut on his shoulder from a seemingly bored Efah.
"Power without focus is only wasted. And falling into an obvious gambit is also a waste." Efah said, his dagger, wreathed in darkness, held by the blade between his fingers. He threw the deadly weapon directly at Tsubasa, who just narrowly dodged the incredibly fast blade, only to find that it somehow bounced off of a rock right back at him, as Efah made a hand-signal. Tsubasa, holding his hand out at the last moment, manipulated magnetic force in his hand, causing the blade to repulse away at the last second, but it was obvious by his look afterwards that he was more tired than Efah was.
"At full strength, our powers are close to equal, but after wasting all that power getting me here, the same may not be said.
"Hmph. you still don't get it." Tsubasa said, looking at Efah, and drawing Everice once more, before charging, bringing his blade to bear against Efah's. The clash of both made a sound comparable to a gunshot, and they quickly parted, before re-entering the combat.

Tsubasa deftly dodged a stab, before slashing at Efah's sword-arm, which was quickly drawn back for a slash at Tsubasa's mid-section. Tsubasa blocked the strike with his own Scimitar, bringing it around in an arc and knocking the blade away, before Punching at Efah's mid-section.

Efah with-drew from the punch, before slashing at his opponent once again, the shadow beneath the blade raising up and coming to a point in order to stab Tsubasa's leg.

Tsubasa found himself caught, and though he managed to stop the slash, the shadow stabbed his leg directly, leaving a gash in the side of his thigh.

"Fool." Efah said a second after, drawing his blade up. "At the least, you've made yourself a place of great standing in the underworld. Take comfort in the fact this is the last suffering you will feel." Efah said, planning to swing his blade down and end the life of the injured swordsman.
Tsubasa, drawing his second blade quickly, created a blinding light, showing even through the darkness, that could be compared to a flash-bang in terms of brightness. though the white glow did not hurt Tsubasa's eyes one bit, Efah was caught off-balance by the coloration. Tsubasa, calling on the force of lightning, brought his scimitar Towards Efah's knee and unleashed a small bolt directly at his knee-cap, the small but still powerful strike causing Efah's knee to buckle.
"Sorry, you know me. I just don't know when to quit."

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Onyx shivered involuntarily at this, and Kael kept a tight grip on his weapon, though Shale appeared no more than battle-ready. "It's been a long while since I felt this kind o' bloodlust. Brings back memories." He commented, seeming unintimidated. "Not to criticize, but if this is that Tyrath ya were talkin' about, I don't feel you did that good of a job sealin' him."

Wynn would lead Fas out of the village and led him a ways into the forest.
"Alright, seeing as you're not as experienced as I am, this is going to take longer..." Wynn said as she looked up at the forest canopy. "But staying on the forest floor is suicide. Follow my lead, I'll lead you through the easiest climbs through the trees." She would climb up a tree that had multiple stubs sticking out that would be relatively easy to climb, even for someone who may have never done it before. She got up to a high branch and waited for Fas to follow her. Surely enough, they could hear inhumanly-fast footsteps of multiple beings approaching them.

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Out of nowhere, a large humanoid creature would run into Tsubasa and slam him against a tree. As the body came into contact with him, he could feel the majority of his own body heat sucked from him. The being backed up, then turned to face Efah. In the darkness, it would be hard to make out exactly what it was, but it seemed to be wearing some kind of icy suit of armor.
"State your business." He said to Efah in a calm, but authoritative tone.

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Rorek shook his head as he moved. "No, I'm sure we sealed him." He replied. "Hell, someone volunteered their soul and went into the void after him and sealed it from within... which is why this makes no-"
He would be cut off by a booming trio of voices speaking together. One was a deep, possibly human voice, the second was far more deeper and perhaps of some kind of animal, and the third were whispers that repeated what the former two said and echoed. "DOE VAH KEEN!"

Rorek stopped dead in his tracks at that, despite the words seeming to be gibberish.

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Tyrath flew above the trees and focused on the draconic presence he sensed in the fog. He was livid that one of the dragons had betrayed him and come to Avalon in some way to escape him. However, he noticed something was out of place: as he got closer, it became apparent the bearer of this dragon soul was smaller than that of an actual dragon. It was a dragonborn.

Tyrath screamed in anger as he was now bearing down on the source of the draconic presence, enunciating each syllable very carefully. "DOVAHKIIN!!!"

Fas climbed up with difficulty. "This is a bigger work-out than gym class..." he mentioned. "Why are we doing this?" he asked. "Why doesn't anyone tell me what's going on?" he said, coming with her. "I'm running right now, and I don't know from who or what he wants with me, or why he's chasing me in the first place!" he continued, obviously a little angry.
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"Is that that dragon-speak you've used a couple times, or does this guy just have a thing for deer?" Kael asked, though the joke was said rather flatly. "He'll be no problem. Even if he's as powerful as you say, we're not without strength of our own." he reminded him.

Onyx gripped his Axe, and Kael shifted his grip on his blade. It's obvious that they're more relaxed to even the untrained eye. An enemy, no matter how strong, that they could fight together, they would feel no fear against. The bonds of comradeship that held the two together, at least to their own eyes, were unbreakable.

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"Pardon? It's unusual to see someone of such low power acting so strong." Efah said, apparently not amused by the interruption. "Though, I suppose that one is just as bad..." Efah said, turning his head for a second to regard Tsubasa, who had just gotten up. "That was nice and cool." Tsubasa noted. "but who are you?"

Wynn would hold Fas against the tree's trunk to ensure he didn't fall, but she then hit him low in the abdomen, knocking the wind out of him and shutting him up just in the nick of time. Beneath them, glossy forms would sprint past them. They appeared to be of a human shape and of similar size to the orcs of this world, but their glossiness was extremely unnatural, given that it was as dark as it was. It looked like ice almost, and it moved at speeds that Fas could see he would never outrun.
After she was sure the creatures had passed, she let Fas go and began creeping her way to the end of the branch, then hopped across to another branch. She waited, crouched low on the edge of the opposite tree's branch and held a hand out for him, implying that he needed to jump as well.

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Rorek looked around. "'Dovahkiin,' he repeated quietly. "It means 'dragonborn' in the draconic language. He knows I'm here..." He put his shield away, and gripped his sword with both hands, expecting a Wyrm to swoop down on them at any moment. He brought the Zweihander off to one shoulder in a confident stance.

"DOVAHKIIN!" The voice repeated, even louder and closer this time. "HIM NIS KUN MAHFAERAAK! (YOU CANNOT HIDE FOREVER!)"
Rorek's posture tensed up a bit.
"Get ready..." He said in an almost leader-like tone.

Moment's later, a flaming form shot out of the darkness and shouted at them, "IISS SLEN NUS!" A blast of frost would fly forward, Rorek jumped aside, but failed to do so fast enough, and his right arm and sword were instantly encased in ice. The form's flames dissipated into a cape. It moved at unreal speeds, kicking at Kael, and sending him sliding or flying back depending on whether he blocked it or not. When Onyx and Shale inevitably came after him, he would back-hand one of them aside, then grab the other by the throat, and hurl them straight down into the ground.

"Dovahkiin!" The being shouted as it walked toward Rorek, who was struggling to get up with one arm effectively dead weight.

"FUS RO DAH!" Rorek shouted. It sent a blast of energy at the newcomer, but it did little more than blow his cape in the wind, as he approached. The knight grabbed Rorek by his throat and threw him into a tree. The ice on his arm would shatter on impact.

"Drey Vires daal aan kendov onik krii? Mey... (Did Vires return a warrior of old to kill me? Fool...)" Tyrath mused.

Rorek would struggle to his feet and redraw his shield, seeing that he was facing a humanoid now, and looked to see if the others were getting back up from their initial injuries.

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The icy form looked at Efah, then at Tsubasa. It spoke once again, this time in slow, emphasized syllables. "State. Your. Business."
Although there wasn't a huge amount of power emanating from this knight, something about it was extraordinarily unnatural, aside from just how cold it was when it came into physical contact with Tsubasa.

Kael slid back, using his great-sword to block the kick just so, Whereas Onyx was backhanded to the ground, but tumbled to his feet. "I need to thank Kael for training me on falls, later..." Onyx muttered to himself.
Shale, on the other hand, stood back. watching Tyrath's attack, he seemed interested, but not overly concerned, as his cloak billowed behind him from the air released by the attack. his hands crossed, it, surprisingly, seemed as though he had no intention of moving.

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Shortly after the creatures passed, Fas ended up vomitting, the hit to the abdomen apparently more than he could handle. Still, after cleaning his face off, he ended up following Wynn, though with an obviously grumpy face. This definitely was not what he expected to wake up to this morning....

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"I've no intention or reason to respond." Efah said coolly to the being in front of him. Despite it's threats, it would be plain to see that Efah was entirely unimpressed. Stepping into his defensive stance once more, one knee sticking out slightly, while his other appeared to be directly behind it, he held his blade pointing to the side.

Rorek would charge forward and thrust his sword into the center of the knight's mass. However, the knight would use just the side of his gauntlet to parry the strike, and delivered a hard punch to Rorek's face.
Rorek recoiled back from the strike, while Tyrath took the opportunity to conjure his greatsword. Mid-conjure he would turn and swing his sword across himself, sending a rupture of air at the idle Shale, then turned and slashed downward in Onyx's direction, causing the ground to explode in a line in front of Tyrath. For whatever reason, this knight was particularly blood thirsty even though they had never met him before.

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As they made their way through the tree tops, Wynn and Fas would hear the battle in the town begin to erupt. Screams of soldiers could be heard even as they got very far away.
They would eventually cross far enough that they came to a wide river. Wynn crept her way to the tip of the branch, just over the middle of the rushing water.
"Is there a waterfall near this area?" Wynn inquired as she stared into the river water.

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The creature would conjure a halberd in its right hand and a greatshield in his left hand in response to Efah's statement.
"Then I have no intention or reason to let either of you live." The knight replied coldly. It would turn and thrust the halberd's blade at Tsubasa, and quickly spin and slash across at Efah.

Shale didn't move from his spot, as a blade of wind hit the air blast and seemed to split it away from shale. The wind-blade came from shale, yet except for a short glint of metal, no one would see the movement.

Onyx, using a mix of his energy and communion with the spirits, managed to calm the earth, stopping the fissure just short of reaching him, Just as Kael, jumping from his spot, struck from just above Tyrath, both hands on his blessed great-sword of Anima.

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"Bad move." Tsubasa said with a smirk, stopping the thrust and hooking the blade with his longsword still drawn. unable to charge, he instead grabbed a hold of the halberd. while not metal, it still had some conductivity to it, proven as Tsubasa's hand glowed full of energy. the energy grew to a crescendo, a great light going through Tsubasa's hand, before the electricity, seeming as a ball, went down the being's halberd and created an explosion slightly larger than a hand grenade.

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Fas shrugged, though he realized Wynn's comment probably wasn't meant for him anyways. By now, he was cynically resigned that he would be following this woman's lead for what seemed forever.

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The Exitium troops and the orcs clashed, the orc's magical barrier keeping the majority of the exitium magic at bay, but regrettably did nothing to stop the soldiers themselves from walking in. Though the orcs kept a defensive line, the exitium hit hard, using their wings to outmaneuver the lines. The nearby Gronn was currently fighting with Oroboros' himself, the snake and the creature seeming evenly matched, though it seemed the gronn was more exhausted by the combat than the snake. Though the gronn was strong and resistant to the undead snake's attacks, Oroboros was both quicker and smarter, dodging the gronn's attacks at every interval.

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Rorek would charge forward at Tyrath and bring his Zweihander around and spun in a full circle, bringing his sword around in a ferocious horozontal swing. Tyrath quickly realized he would not be able to dodge both attacks, and dove to the side, tucked and rolled, then got to his feet. As Tyrath recovered he raised his sword over his head, and pointed it straight down at the ground. A sickly, thick, black liquid began collecting around the tip of the blade.
Immediately after seeing this, Rorek would turn and shout "WULD!" and blink a couple dozen yards away, a clear indicator that he saw something big coming.
When Tyrath would ultimately bring the sword down into the ground, an 'explosion' of black energy would erupt all around. Eerily, however, as it destroyed things around him, it made absolutely no sound. Trees splintered, and fell but there would be no crashes as they slammed into the ground. Anything directly in the area of effect would simply cease to exist it would seem, except for the knight who caused it who stood at the center of a pool of the black liquid that corroded any living thing that touched it.
Rorek would sprint at him, then stop at the edge of the pool of raw, negative mass. "JOOR ZAH FRUL!" A bright blue wave of energy would fly at Tyrath, and struck him. His entire body flashed the same color as the energy that hit him. The knight fell to one knee for a moment as a blue fire burned violently all around him, causing the substance that had corroded the trees to subside and disappear.
As all the others would likely charge in to finish the job, Tyrath would stand up, reabsorbing his sword and brought his arms up in what seemed like a defensive x formation in front of his torso. Then he swung them back down to his sides, an energy that almost seemed like a tainted holy spell would explode, and send them all flying backward.
When the knight cried out at them, it would be the three voices that had spoken in unison and echoed one another when he was infuriated.
"DUR JOOR!!! (DAMN MORTAL!)" He screamed seemingly at the top of his lungs. "WHO TAUGHT YOU THOSE TWISTED WORDS!?!?"
Rorek would shout the same words again, "JOOR ZAH FRUL!" As the energy flew at Tyrath again, the latter would cry out in an ungodly way that sounded more like a beast than a sentient entity. The area around him exploded, sending earth and splinters in every direction, but more importantly, snuffing out the energy that was intended for him.
Through the dust he would fly charge the nearest one of them, being Onyx and conjured a massive axe and brought it crashing down on him when he reached his target.

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Wynn would stand up slowly, now standing straight up on an impossibly thin section of the branch they were on. It didn't even seem possible that she hadn't lost her balance and fallen yet. She would reach up and break a large branch off from a higher part of the tree, then crouched back down. She hurled it into the river much like one would a spear and watched carefully. It went into the water, then she counted the seconds off for how long it took for it to resurface.
"Three seconds..." She murmured. She turned to Fas. "Come on." She stood up on the branch again and jumped forward. She would jump forward, and do a half-flip and stop when she was facing down at the water. She kept her body bent back slightly, but stayed relatively straight the entire way down. She would slide into the water, and make a barely-noticeable splash, either visibly or audibly.
She would resurface in the darkness and would raise her voice enough that Fas could hear her. "Come on!"

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The knight's halberd would explode, breaking off a few chunks of his armor in the process, however it would also send shards of the ice it was made off in every direction. It would be as if a grenade had detonated in Tsubasa's hand.
The knight staggered back, and held its now empty hand out, and conjured a simple sword this time, and charged at Tsubasa, shield first. He would bring the shield aside that the last second and slashed from the lower right to the upper left.

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As Oroboros terrorized the village, a new group of knights clad in icy armor would charge through the fray. They would only kill the soldiers that targeted them, and only sought a certain target they had not named. They would enter the houses and tear the interiors apart to find whatever they seek. Curiously, the did not even pay Oroboros any mind.

"Gotta take this guy out fast, before he knows what hit him... yes, I can use that..."Onyx thought to himself, his axe beginning to glow as Tyrath charged at him. The axe itself would glow a bright green energy, a bright but condensed Aura, and as Tyrath charged he might feel an incredible amount of power suddenly stored within the Axe. Swinging out, Onyx would likely cut through not only Tyrath's axe, but Tyrath himself behind it, as a huge explosion of powerful energy burst out from it, Onyx's ultimate move.

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"Och, high prices today, everything costs an arm and a leg." Tsubasa quipped, though he winced at the numerous cuts the halberd had left in his hand. Seeing the soldier charge at him, Tsubasa took out his enchancted longsword, the everpresent glow of the blade still in existence. Getting ready in a loose stance, he moved to keep his injured leg most outwards, as it was the one that would give him the least stability.

Efah, for the most part, merely watched the exchange, seemingly uncaring.

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The orcs gave some resistance to the invaders, though the exitium soldiers seemed not to care. these were not the ones they were ordered to destroy by their masters, so what they did was of little conseuquence. The united orc forces were mighty indeed, and did what they could to push the invaders back, but while they would have been a match under ordinary circumstances, the siege was just too much.
Those that got through would end up entering many buildings, yet when one of the cold knights went to enter the shaman's hut, they would be blasted back by a pure, holy bolt of energy the size of a man, knocking them away. "Ohhh, what men are we raising, that their opponents are so bored as to attack an old woman." she growled, and it was obvious that the healer from before had been the one responsible.

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Fas tried to jump in, but the action ended up being falling instead, more or less. he flailed for a few seconds trying to get his head above water, and finally ended up managing it, though spitting up some water. "Where are we going?" Fas asked, still confused by the situation he was in

Tyrath would bring his own axe to guard the attack, and would stop the swing cold. However, he would not anticipate the explosion, and would be sent flying back into a tree. Surprisingly, though, despite how pained a pose he made when hitting the tree, he would land back on his two feet calmly as if nothing had happened.
He switched his axe to his left hand and re-conjured his greatsword. Rorek would bring his Zweihander over his shoulder with both hands, and swung downward and sent a shockwave at Tyrath.
Tyrath stabbed his greatsword into the ground in front of him, and it would stop the shockwave. The dust would cloud his next move, in which he brought his axe over one shoulder and sent an air rupture wide enough to hit all of his targets.
Rorek would block the attack, but would roll backwards from the blow.
Tyrath would put his hand on the greatsword in the ground, but his head suddenly turned in a direction which no one was standing.
"Aan?! (What?!)" He said aloud.

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As the knight swung his own sword at Tsubasa, his shield would suddenly morph into a spear that the knight would quickly jab into him just before finishing his sword swipe. After finishing the two, his sword now changing into a shield. The knight was now holding weapon and shield in the opposite hands he had started with.

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The knight that attempted to approach the house would be blasted back with great force. Many chunks of ice would fly off its body. It got back up, but it was blatantly apparent it was a lot less bulky from the rune.
The frost knights would immediately converge on the house that had blasted one of their men back. The lined up in front of the house, and prepared to attack together. Dozens of voices would shout in unison, "YOL TOOR SHUL!" A literal wall of fire would explode forward from their combined voices, likely vaporizing the house and its inhabitants at once. What could not be seen by any of the soldiers is their telepathic communication among themselves and their master.
Tyrath, we believe we've located the human.

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Wynn rolled her eyes at Fas' tumble into the river. However, she would not say anything about it. Instead, when Fas asked her where they were going, Wynn would gesture with her head to go down river and say, "With the current, nice and quiet." She would slowly begin swimming with the current, moving faster than they would have on foot without being a terribly easy target to find.

While the house itself would be burnt to ash, the people inside, many injured, would survive, a faint glow surrounding all of them - including one angry shaman. "So, you seek to kill the weak and injured?" She asked. "Spirits of fire and earth, heed my call!" she said in anger, the spirits, feeling such unnatural beings, responding instantly. Immediately, large gouts in the earth appeared, spewing incredibly hot magma from the earth's core at the beings. then, the ground itself below them would open up to allow rocky spires to stab at each one.
"Go!" the shaman said to the injured few beside her. even this much left her exhausted at this age, and she knew she could only hold these off for so long... the rest retreated, save for one.
"I said go!" she barked harshly at that one, for he could not be allowed to stay in the fray, especially against opponents like these. No, regardless of how much she cared for her honored grandson. Perhaps if his arm hadn't been injured in the last battle against their tainted brethren, but for now, the chieftain of the village had to be saved. He reluctantly left, though grief was painted upon his face.

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Onyx, seeing Tyrath land, was entirely shocked. "No way!" he exclaimed. He'd dealt with superior opponents before, but this was the first to block that attack so easily.
"Don't lose your head, just focus." Kael remarked to him, bringing his blade back up.
Kael would be sent backwards, despite blocking the air rupture with his great-sword, but Onyx would manage to hold his ground - in good part due to the fact that the ground was holding him, the bare rock wrapping around his feet.
pointing his axe at Tyrath, though hesitating for a second when Tyrath spoke, expecting an attack, used his Axe's tremor capability to rip a boulder from the ground, telekinetically, that was then flung at his opponent.

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"Well, isn't that dandy..." Tsubasa said, as he held his scimitar. At speeds faster than the eye could track, he blocked both strikes of the abyss knight with the same arc of his scimitar, using such delicate timing that the spear would almost appear to strike Tsubasa, before shifting his body to the side, coming forth against the abyss knight with blinding speed, cutting with his scimitar with a low strike that aimed for his opponent's shin. In the same motion, he brought his injured hand forward, the blood from the hand likely striking the opponent, as a distraction and possibly to get into it's eyes.

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Fas moaned in pain a bit, but decided to keep moving, anyways. He didn't like this situation or anything about it, but he at least had the sense to know it would only get worse if he didn't continue following Wynn.

agentaaa wrote:While the house itself would be burnt to ash, the people inside, many injured, would survive, a faint glow surrounding all of them - including one angry shaman. "So, you seek to kill the weak and injured?" She asked. "Spirits of fire and earth, heed my call!" she said in anger, the spirits, feeling such unnatural beings, responding instantly. Immediately, large gouts in the earth appeared, spewing incredibly hot magma from the earth's core at the beings. then, the ground itself below them would open up to allow rocky spires to stab at each one.
"Go!" the shaman said to the injured few beside her. even this much left her exhausted at this age, and she knew she could only hold these off for so long... the rest retreated, save for one.
"I said go!" she barked harshly at that one, for he could not be allowed to stay in the fray, especially against opponents like these. No, regardless of how much she cared for her honored grandson. Perhaps if his arm hadn't been injured in the last battle against their tainted brethren, but for now, the chieftain of the village had to be saved. He reluctantly left, though grief was painted upon his face.

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Onyx, seeing Tyrath land, was entirely shocked. "No way!" he exclaimed. He'd dealt with superior opponents before, but this was the first to block that attack so easily.
"Don't lose your head, just focus." Kael remarked to him, bringing his blade back up.
Kael would be sent backwards, despite blocking the air rupture with his great-sword, but Onyx would manage to hold his ground - in good part due to the fact that the ground was holding him, the bare rock wrapping around his feet.
pointing his axe at Tyrath, though hesitating for a second when Tyrath spoke, expecting an attack, used his Axe's tremor capability to rip a boulder from the ground, telekinetically, that was then flung at his opponent.

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"Well, isn't that dandy..." Tsubasa said, as he held his scimitar. At speeds faster than the eye could track, he blocked both strikes of the abyss knight with the same arc of his scimitar, using such delicate timing that the spear would almost appear to strike Tsubasa, before shifting his body to the side, coming forth against the abyss knight with blinding speed, cutting with his scimitar with a low strike that aimed for his opponent's shin. In the same motion, he brought his injured hand forward, the blood from the hand likely striking the opponent, as a distraction and possibly to get into it's eyes.

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Fas moaned in pain a bit, but decided to keep moving, anyways. He didn't like this situation or anything about it, but he at least had the sense to know it would only get worse if he didn't continue following Wynn.

A majority of the knights would be taken aback by the attacks and be recoiled or outright launched into the air by the spikes. Many of them would be visibly damaged even in the darkness of the fog. They would two would remain on the ground, too damaged to get up without help, but the rest would recover. They stopped with their weapons trained, and shields prepared to block attacks, but none of them advanced. They almost seemed to be waiting for something.

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Tyrath would be too concentrated on something else and didn't even notice the incoming attack until he was slammed against a tree under the force of the boulder. For a moment it seemed to have finished the job, but the boulder would explode, and the knight would still be standing tall, but something would be different about him. His body seemed somewhat lopsided: the last couple of attacks had broken some of the armor plates off his form. The knight raised his sword, still apparently not damaged enough to stop fighting. However, he looked off to the side again, distracted by something else that was happening that they could not see.

The knight suddenly shouted out, "TIID KLO UL!!!" Immediately after, he would regrow his fiery wings and shoot up into the air at such a speed that his form blurred from the ground skyward. He would visibly be headed in the direction he had been periodically looking in.

"Aww, [censored]..." Rorek swore, despite the knight's sudden withdrawal.

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The knight would not be able to move it's massive shield fast enough to deflect the blow at his shin, and it would create a deep gouge in the shin. However, he stood strong. When Tsubasa swiped at the knight's face, the blood would land in what appeared to be the eye sockets, but the knight wouldn't even take notice of it. It didn't seem to need physical eyes.
"FUS RO DAH!" Its voice boomed. A wall of energy, while nowhere near as powerful as what his master could call up, would emit from the knight and smack into Tsubasa at point-blank range.

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They would swim for a long time in the darkness. There would be no sound other than the crickets chirping and the occasional wind through the leaves of the trees on either side of the water. However, after what seemed like an eternity, the fog would dissipate, and they would emerge from the mist. It was early evening now, and the sun was just above the hills.
Wynn would then lead Fas to the bank and get onto dry land.

"So, did we win...?" Onyx would ask. Kael merely slapped him in response. the slap could not truly hurt Onyx through his thick skin, but he still acted pained by it. "More importantly, where's he going? And why did he leave? Rorek, is that damage critical for him?" Kael asked.

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The shaman readied herself, meditating in order to gain a strong connection to the spirits. "This... is my last battle, isn't it." The shaman said, though with her astral form, rather than her physical.
"Your sacrifice means much to the future." a head appearing from the rocks said, though none of the knights would see it.
"We will be with you, the entire time." the water seemed to swell in front of her, though none of the knights would see this either.
"It is time for your wind to die down into calm." the air seemed to whisper.
"Flames do not die, they simply become something different."

lastly, what appeared an orc, though in all reality something so, so much greater, appeared to her.
"I will be here to ensure safe passage. you will go to your ancestors, when this is done. Go, and make the last mark in the universe that you will. when all is finished, he will be waiting." the orc told her in a voice that could also have been a humans, or an elf's, or a dragon's, or all at the same time.
"Are you ready?" the spirits all asked her, seeming pensive. "The twilight of your life is about to turn to night.
"Yes." she rasped. "I'm at peace."
Time would resume for the woman at that last statement, and she felt the spirits all around her, lending her their power. She would not waste it.


Tsubasa was knocked back by this, but got up shortly after hitting the tree, raising his blade yet again. He would murmur something, and his blade would get an odd glint over it, before he charged yet again.