For a precious few minutes after Althalus and Mar went up the stairs, there was a moment of relative peace. There was nothing attacking, no one was screaming, and their lives weren't being directly threatened. The guide took this time to relax a bit, leaning against the wall. "What do you think the odds are of them dealing with the necromancer before the undead break in are?" He asked, glancing over at Leith. A silver flash in the air distracted the man for a moment, but whatever it was was gone before he could identify it. Not that it mattered, as a broken, battered, and generally mangled hand chose that time to burst through their barricade. The cries of the undead outside took a more bloodthirsty turn as many more, equally mangled, hands began to widen the hole, heedless of any and all attacks against them. Soon there was a big enough opening for someone to stride through and first through was one of the Yarosmerian soldiers, holding his blade with evident experience. "Who wants to have a go first?" He asked, giving as close to a smile as rigormortis allowed, as more undead came through behind him. "Fuck." The guide said, with considrable feeling. --------------------------------------- Leith shrugged at the guide's question. [color=#00FFFF]"I dunno. I'd like to hope it's pretty high."[/color] He looked at the barricade [color=#00FFFF]"It's going to happen soon, though."[/color] Almost as soon as he finished speaking, the undead started ripping their way into the house. Despite all of the effort Leith put into preventing the horde from entering, they still did. When the undead Yarosmerian made his way in and spoke to Leith, he had an idea. It would be a good way to stall for time. Time that they desperately needed. Leith stood before the soldier. [color=#00FFFF]"I will."[/color] He looked at the mass of undead behind the man, [color=#00FFFF]"Although, it wouldn't be that much of a fight if the group behind you joined in, would it?"[/color] He held his arms out to the side. [color=#00FFFF]"What do you say; One last fight before you're dead once more?"[/color] --------------------------------------- The smile stretched a little bit wider, as Leith offered a duel. "When I first started out in the profession of murdering strangers on the battlefield for coin, that would have sounded like a good idea. After all, more honor and glory for killing the strongest warrior on my own. However, long years of fighting and death have put a new perspective on things. Win and complete the job, at any cost." He gestured forward with his sword, and the horde turned to the guide and began moving towards him. More curses spewed from the man's mouth as he raised his blade and retreated. "But I'll give you a few moments, before you too get ripped apart." Raising his sword into a guard, he chuckled. "After you, hero." Unnoticed in the many feet, the upper half of a child pulled itself towards Coco's unconscious form, a broken knife in one hand. ------------------------------------ Leith sighed when the horde started advancing towards the guide. [i][color=#00FFFF]'Oh well, It was worth a try.'[/color][/i] He nodded at the soldier and without another thought lashed out at the man, aiming to cut the man in half. He needed to protect Coco and the guide. ------------------------------- The corpse tried to bring up his blade fast enough to block it, but rigormortis doesn't allow for quick movements. He was able to bring it up to change the direction, losing his leg instead of his midsection, but that was about it. There was a loud clang, the sound of the blade slicing through the bone of his femur, and then a thump as he fell to the floor. "Well. This is awkward. I don't suppose you'd let me reattach my leg somehow?" The guid was still retreating, and running out of room as he did so. "Gods Damn it. I knew I shouldn't have taken this job.." ------------------------------------- Leith shook his head with a small frown [color=#00FFFF]"I was trying to stall and prevent the other undead form attacking for a little while, but that didn't happen, so I've got to end this quickly."[/color He pulled his sword out of the floorboards and cut the man into three pieces. He fought off the revulsion he felt from the action and thought he heard something whisper "Alive" He looked around the room to see the guide run out of the room with half of the horde following him. The other half started advancing towards him. He started making his way over towards Coco and tripped over something and fell backwards, His vision blurred as his head hit the ground. A look towards his feet showed him that he had tripped over a child that was holding a knife. The child grinned savagely and started crawling towards Leith. The horde was upon him as well. Panic started creeping up his spine. He struggled to get up but the undead pushed him down. He couldn't die here. There were so many things he still wanted to do. With a shout, he pulled his left arm free and reached into his pocket for Sephira Sword, the Daemon Artes he had collected at during the demon attack. But by the time that got the trinket sized sword out of his pocket, the horde were no longer holding him down. In fact, it looked like they were dead again. The child had been stopped. That was the only reason for the undead to be dead once again. After a few gasping breaths, Leith pulled himself off of the ground. He was covered in congealed blood and other filth. After a glance down, he noted that it looked like the filth was bubbling. As he noticed that, his head started to hurt. [i][color=#00FFFF] Ah, I must have been using my blood in my panic.[/color][/i] When he thought about the fact that he had almost died and felt hopeless against it. With a grimace, he clenched his hand into a fist. It was just like the demon attack. He had felt helpess to the entire thing. Never again. Never again would he feel so helpless. If he had anything to do with it. He was brought out of his thoughts from the sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs. He brushed his clothes off and turned towards the stairs and smiled. It wasn't until the first person was in sight that he remembered he had Sephira Sword in his hand, he put the sword back in his pocket and felt something new in his pocket. He pulled it out and discovered that it was a ring. [color=#00FFFF]"Huh, weird."[/color] ---------------------------------------------- Mar was among the last down the stairway, her tail slow in climbing down as it was up, pausing a glance at the chaotic mess on the ground floor. Grey had chosen to haul the unconsious boy but her eyes showed her nervousness. Her brown irises followed the tall, bulky man just infront of her and tense, ready to prevent an easy kill. Grey had already tried to murder their attacker once and she didn't put it past him to try again. Males were rather strange that way. Her hand was steady on her scythe, her tongue firmly stopped with a tightened jawline and spared the distain scent of long dead blood. Something about necromancy was terribly wrong when it came to animating the dead, something she couldn't fully shake, though it seemed their attempts to prevent more life lost had worked. It was a relief in more then one way. Ears caught Leith's words then shifted her eyes to him. Like a snake to a mouse, her look was serious and intense but her words were human. [color=f7976a]"At least the undead stopped, but we still need to figure out what happened. Namely the cause. The boy's information was rather... confusing and to piece it together might take too long. Though it seems one of us should've stayed down here after all." [/color] She rotated her head to see the complete gore of the battle result. Her head then twisted briefly to Althalus, slightly accusing him and laying some blame at the feet of his need to babysit her. Emotions were rather strange... especially her own. ------------------------------------------- Grey remained silent, taking this moment of calm to think to himself. Despite himself, he was still quite angry at the situation. Because of a combination of cultural differences, his armor refusing to obey him, and a less than balanced individual super-imposing her child's face onto this monster, said monster would likely escape the just death he deserved. However, he was bound by his word. Regardless of his feelings, he had sworn that he would not harm the boy, and apart from the (incredibly satisfying, to tell the truth) headbutt he intended do do so. Still, if Mar refused to listen to him about the previous issue she could at least respect his word... Her gaze was boring a hole in his neck. ---------------------------------------------- Coco lied immobile. Face bruised, yet the sap wasn't flowing free anymore. Now, it was merely an oozing wound. And suddenly feeling came back to her. At first she only felt the dulled tug and pull of her twitching leaves, unsure of which of her confused emotions to respond to. Then they were her hands to clench into fists. Then a high pitched buzzing sound rocked her head, and her necklace lit up. Then the sound in her head settled into the background, and she remembered. With a start, she shot up onto her feet. She couldn't keep her balance though, so she fell onto her knees. "Tree-" Coco said, her speech cut abruptly by her fleeting thoughts. She had little time to focus as a tall and fat dead man holding what sounded like a metal bar stood over her. He lifted the bar up high over his head and in a strong movement, brought it down--Or so thought Coco. In fact, the man had dropped the bar and fallen to the floor, as if he was indeed dead. For a few moments, Coco stayed on her hands and knees, back arched. Her neck burned and her face hurt like hell, while her leaves twitched like crazy. Then she brought a hand to caress her scratched neck, flinching at the feeling of the warm sap that had seeped out and started to harden. She did the same with her face, but that time her leaves stayed puffed out. "It feels so gross... I'm gross now." She said in a low voice, following by a shiver. Coco then lifted her head and straightened her back, leaves slowly settling back onto her head. "What hap--this hurts so damn much it hurts like that time i s--pened?" ---------------------------------------- As soon as Leith picked up the ring, it wrapped around his finger, the metal flowing like water around his finger until it met on the other side. For all intents and purposes, it looked like a normal ring again. Except, of course, it wouldn't come off no matter what Leith did. Oh, and the voice that began whispering in Leith's mind as soon as Grey came into view. [i]Grey, molded by the Wild. Very important. Ensure he does not die.[/i] It repeated this process for Althalus. [i]Althalus Marik. Brother to Fredrick Marik. Touched by the Wild but seems to have both no power from it, and a decided hate from the experience. Inconsequential, can be ignored.[/i] Another perk would be the fact that Leith's buzzing had stopped. Even when Althalus drew near, there was nothing but silence in his head. Althalus gave a low whistle as he walked down the steps, viewing the pile of corpses around the Guide and Leith, while keeping a sharp eye on Mar. He could sense her nervousness. He took a small step behind her whispering "Don't worry. Grey is a man of his word. An utterly goody two shoes, obey the law at all costs man, but one who won't break his promises." He backed off, looking around. "I must admit, I expected things to be much more bloody and violent. But this is all rather neat. I'm impressed Leith, and our guide, you managed to fend off an entire horde by your selves." He raised an eyebrow at Mar. "Oh yes, pardon me for having concern about the mad Necromancer with powers that should have killed him. I should have just let you slowly make your way up the stairs in your unbalanced and upset state. That makes perfect sense!" More quietly he added, "I'm not letting you go alone into danger. Get used to my presence." He gave a small smirk, before turning to the recently awakened Foreas. "Oh, and Coco, you were knocked out and saved from a horrible death by Leith and our guide. Also, apparently who ever destroyed the village is in the woods. Or so the boy claims." -------------------------------------------- [color=f7976a]"Males tend to have their uses, I won't deny that. However, cockiness will likely end with you sleeping outside the den or worse, a dirt ditch."[/color] Mar commented coolly, her eyes shifted to his current position. Her inside betrayed very little of her current reaction to his whisper, namely his closeness and fact he was just within her range. Just. She knew Althalus had done that on purpose, even ready to pull back should her tail attempt to swipe at his feet and knock him back on his ass. She noted the Foreas' unsteady standing which made her eyes follow Coco. For the moment her eyes seemed beyond human but in reality she had only concern for the 'female's' well-being. Unlike Coco, Mar suffered only shallow wounds and would heal in time. Namely after Althalus bandaged her up in private. ------------------------------------------------- Grey ignored Mar's comment, setting the kid down as he set about having him bound. He had a set of manacles in his pack, quite oddly designed ones. He had expected to capture less... crazy mages, but he would at least be able to use these. They were like normal manacles, apart from the fact that they were a set of three latches, not two. He clamped them around his wrists, and then bent him forward so the third would reach around his ankle. This way, he'd be unable to run off or something if he'd just bound his arms. ------------------------------------------------- "Oh. Thank you, Leith!" Coco said towards Leith's general direction, then held her head in both her hands and stood up unsteadily. "Wait... You just said that a mass murderer is in the forest? Right where other Foreas live? Where the Great Tree is?" Coco shivered and walked over to Althalus, stumbling a couple times, and putting her hands on his shoulders. "We have to go there and stop this murderer!" And then her leaves puffed out a bit too quickly, and a sharp pain on the side of her head made her hunch over and hold her skull. "We can't let this murderer burn the forest-" She mentioned through static, her necklace having it difficult selecting the thoughts she meant for it to communicate. ------------------------------------------------- Leith sucked in a breath when the ring melted as began to wrap around his finger. He flung his hand as he tried to shake the liquid off of his finger. Nothing worked, and the ring became a ring again. He looked at his hand and the ring that was wrapped around his middle finger. With the way the ring wrapped around his finger made him think that it was there to stay. He looked up from his hand and flinched when a voice began whispering in his mind when he made eye contact with Grey. It took him a few moments to realize that the buzzing in his head had completely disappeared. He looked at Althalus, who was close enough to cause discomfort with the buzzing, but it wasn't there. Instead, the whispers started again. What was the Wild? From the sound of it, Althalus knew about it. Leith was going to ask him about it when he had the time. When Coco thanked him, Leith nodded before realizing it was a wasted effort. [color=#00FFFF]"You're welcome. It's good to see that you're awake."[/color] He watched as Coco walked to Althalus and tried to convince him to go after the murderer. Stepping forward hesitantly, Leith cleared his throat. [color=#00FFFF]"Murderers, Coco. Four of them, if what the kid said is correct. Speaking of kid, this is him, then?"[/color] Leith approached the child that had sent the undead horde after them. [color=#00FFFF]"I still don't understand how he pulled it off. By all accounts, it should have killed him."[/color] Leith looked from Mar to Grey to Althalus. [color=#00FFFF]"Did he say anything that could have explained his power?"[/color] -------------------------------------------- The ring seemed fixed on staying with Leith though Mar couldn't begin to understand why and her inner Naga instincts hissed, her fang ready to bare before she had realized it. Before she determine a method to remove it, the student asked a question. She allowed herself to be distracted and relaxed only slightly. The ring was something that made her uncomfortable due to the odd way it reacted and even worse, the fact it didn't want to remove itself. [color=f7976a]"Yes. He was acting strange as he seemed to hear the voices of his dead family. Kept arguing with them as he tried to shut their voices out."[/color] Mar started then added more to answer Leith's question. [color=f7976a]"His eyes were glowing a strange purple and mentioned something about being promised untold power for a price. Some old source or something promised power to him by sending its servants. He needed it for some Inferno lord coming to raise and war started to spill into his village through stories and other experiences. He wasn't beyond killing his family for it which is a matter he'll have to live with for the rest of his life,"[/color] Her eyes softened a moment when they looked at the boy, feeling an emotion she wished wasn't there. A voice, venomous and spiteful, hissed. Ellys' sharp words sliced into her mind like a blade cutting a point into her weakness, threatening to divide it from the rest of her. [i]Emotions are weakness... Too...human.[/i] She fought to keep any traces from her words while adopting a monotone in the rest of the details. [color=f7976a]"Those who came slaughtered the village people against the boy's wishes and left this mess. The boy thought those Yarsomere soldiers and we were with the master. We learned the location but nothing useful beyond that."[/color] Her body seemed to shout signs far beyond discomfort as it curled inward. Her eyes seemed to have found the floor where they lingered, no long looking at Leith or the others, and curling her arms to cross in front of her. Her weapon was still held tightly in her hand but the fingers had taken on a pale coloring from the strength in her grip. The room seemed to feel like it was it closing in on her and she couldn't stop it. -------------------------------------- Grey looked to Mar with a raised brow, but sighed and shook his head. She was likely just having a panic attack or something similar. Regardless, there was nothing he could really do about it. He'd try to comfort her, but the two were not exactly on good terms and it was likely he'd just upset her more. He tapped Athalus on the shoulder, and when he got his attention he simply flicked his head towards Mar, staying quiet so she wouldn't react and say something unreasonable. [b][color=92278f]"That's about all we know, I think."[/color][/b] He stated to Leith. Mar had already said anything he felt he could have said, so he didn't really have anything to add. He strolled along, stopping near Coco. He gently turned her toward him by the shoulder, and remembered she didn't have eyes, so getting down to eye level to speak to her was a little pointless. Regardless. [b][color=92278f]"Relax, Coco. Nobody's going to burn down the forest. We'll make sure these murderers pay, but we need some time to recover first."[/color][/b] He said, in as calm and soothing a voice as he was capable. ------------------------------------------------- Althalus glanced sharply at Mar as her voice took monotone, his attention taken from Coco's ranting in his face. Something was wrong, even Grey could tell that, by the way the guardsman tapped his shoulder. Althalus gave him a sarcastic look as if to say 'no, really?' before whispering in the man's ear. "I need you to get everyone out of here. Even the kid. Naga don't like having others see their wounds treated, so Mar won't let me if you're all here. Plus, if you're all gone I can calm her down and find out what's the matter." He turned from Grey to Coco. "Perhaps it'd make you feel better if you were outside watching the forest to make sure it's not burned down. Mar and I will stay in here to see if there's anything useful inside. You all can check outside." The assassain began gently but firmly pushing the Foreas towards the door, gesturing for Leith to follow suit. He glanced pointedly at Grey, as their Guide shrugged and cleared an easy path out of the house. --------------------------------------------------- Grey sighed, he'd never really understand these Naga. [b][color=92278f]"Come on, we'dbetter go check on the forest... Give these two a moment."[/color][/b] he said, standing up and loosening his arm as he went to get the prisoner. He followed suit, leading Coco out. He was sure he didn't need to babysit Leith either, he wasn't stupid. And he'd be surprised if the guide hadn't already ran to the cart.