[center][b]Forgotten Ruins, East roads & alleys, near the East[/b] Gate[/center]

[i]What's up with these guys? They tell me to go running in and drawing all the aggro, then they start yelling and whining when I do? Jeez, it's not like they didn't have time to get ready while I was standing around, distracting that fool on the walls... They're like total AFK'ers, getting pissy about someone pulling a mob just 'cuz they stood around, twiddling their thumbs and watch8ing shity reality shows when they should be focused on the dungeon... No wait, these are real people, right? ... Doesn't that make it worse though? If they can't adapt, how have they all survived!?[/i]

Many throughts were flying through the dracokin's head, as she stood silent and unmoving while the oncoming bulk of the Imperial guards charged at her. That is, until from a distant part of the area, she could hear the paladin-dude's voice. He was shouting something about a monster who had killed hundreds of people and ate the hearts of men and kicked little white puppies, or some such. The implication that this person was Serafaye herself completely flew over the girl's head though, so she remained confused as to what he was trying to do or accomplish with this stunt.

Vani, in turn, would find that the Imperial troops had little interest in anything anyone who wasn't a member of their army had to say. To that end, the paladin would have been pelted with a storm of arrows, had it not been for the rising smoke created by a certain masked mage. The black, billowing smog was far more distressing to the soldiers than the ravings of some random elf... Well, at least as far as the archers were concerned. The remaining dozen or so grunts still on the ground, who had remained by the gate, now began moving towards the elven knight's positiion, inten t on apprehending him the same way their much larger force intended to apprehend Serafaye...

... Until a certain monstrous reptile-man suddenly leapt from the shadows and started flailing about, smashing metal armor as if it were paper and picking up grown men and using them as whack-a-mole mallets [i]against their fellow soldiers[/i]. At the sight of the surreal scene, Serafaye could do little more than stand and stare in sheer dumbfounded disbelief. If there had ever been any doubts about this still being Oubliette Online, they had been thoroughly smashed to bits by this sudden act of gratuitous violence - because no class, no job and no matter what level you were, there was nobody who could pick up other players or monsters and use them as make-shift crocket-mallets...

Glancing backwards, Serafaye noticed that the hoity-toity horse-riding woman had put up some sort of shelled dome... A strange thing to do, considering the archers couldn't very well fire that far back into the alleyway, nor were any of the soldiers - who were now being tossed around and gut-punched by Kaze - advancing far enough to even get close to that position. In essence, it was a complete waste of both time and amgic and wasn't condusive to their plans at all.  If she had magic to spend, she should be attacking, not playing defense... At least, that was Serafaye' humble opinion on the matter.

However, even if things hadn't gone exactly as planned, the bottokm line was that all of the guards and soldiers at the gate were currently summarily distracted. Be it by the smoke, the obstinate horned girl, the berserkign lizardman or the raving paladin elf, it was safe to say that the Imperial garrison at the east gate had been truly and utterly occupied with a variety of scenarios and distractions which had left them in a bit of a mess. This state of flustered confusion and chaos leant itself well to the plans of Cecilia, and her intent of attacking the archers while everyone else acted as noise. Along with Annabelle and the little blob-creature Carpenter, the two spellblades sprung to action and, each using their own method, advanced forward and managed to get onto the gate walls proper.

Though while things were working out for the two ladies, Kaze would be grimly reminded that even if you were big and burly, charging into a mass of armed men - even if you had protection - wasn't always a good idea. While initially his attack had caught the soldiers off-guard and his sheer, massive visage had instilled momentary fear and hesitation, the Imperial soldiers quickly responded to his vicious attacks with their own. True, many of the swords that attempted to strike the reptilian warrior glanced off his armor, or failed to break through his scales... However, Kaze would learn that spears were still not his friend, and the men who had been at the very back of the advancing force had drawn theirs, and were now using them to keep distance between themselves and this new adversary.

While Kaze's use of the human cudgel was... Effective... It also meant that, even with his greater than man-strength, his movements were slower and more predictable, which leant itself to the spearmen being able to mostly avoid any incoming blow from their brother-in-arms-turned-blackjack. Small pokes, sharp thrusts and quick jabs, the lizardman was being porcupined by the spear-wielders. Meanwhile, the swordsmen who had initially been caught next to him, began to back off and give as much berth as they could, though the alley didn't exactly give them a lot of room to work with. Still, it was enough for most of them to get out of harm's way.... Most of the one's still concscious or able to stand, at least... The pile of crumpled bodies on the ground spoke volumes for the lizard warrior's brute power.

"Hey! Lay off the lizard-bro, you jerks!" Serafaye suddenly shouted, angrily stomping her foot, as a beligerent child would do when upset.

Little attention was given to the girl though, as the men and women of the Imperial forces now focused their attention on bringing down the scaly behemoth before them! ... That is, until Serafaye picked up one of Kaze's crumpled victims, as if he was a ragdoll, and tossed him at the opposition, causing a crashing and clanking of metal as two soldiers collided with one antoher. heads turned and eye stared in disbelief at the little, waifish girl, who had just thrown a fully armored man as easily as she would have thrown a pine cone...

"What the hell are these guys!?" A soldier cried out, face pale and eyes widened.
"Stand your ground! Bring down the lizard first, then we deal with the girl!"
"Is she really a monster like that guy screamed!?"
"No, it's the lizard who's the monster! S-She'll eat us!"
"Don''t falter, fiii-uuuurghh!!"

The last man got cut off, as a side-swipe from Kaze caused him to collide witht he human cudgel, sending him careening across the street. As the morale of the men fighting Kaze and Serafaye faltered, the reamainign dozen soldiers heading for Vani quickly approached. And now with Cecilia and Annabelle atop the walls, the archers would soon find themselves in a tight spot. Still, if Artemisia or Locke were intending to offer any additional support for their allies, the time to do so was now...