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From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

heh

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Artemisia de Chauret

Cecilia commanded, and Artemisia followed. It was not an arrangement that they had exactly planned, but at the moment it seemed to work, and that was what mattered. Galloping after the speeding spearwoman, her horse somehow managed to keep the pace, likely spurred on by the urgency and chaos around them to her incessant cracking of the reigns. Her spells flew out at the designated targets, smacking against any adventurer, soldier, or miscreant that threatened to slow their advance. When they’d needed it, she shot out the occasional healing spell or buff, making sure everybody was in tip-top shape to continue their push. Despite their unfamiliarity with each other, in the heat of the battle, they seemed like a well-oiled machine, the trademark of a set of well-seasoned adventurers.

Artemisia cracked an offending man’s helmet open with a lightning strike, sending the man sprawling permanently on the ground. She stuck mostly to the trademark spells of a common wizard; although she had a couple more interesting spells up her sleeve, she wasn’t sure how well accepted they would be between Cecilia and Locke. Regardless, their reckless dash towards the center meant quick, simple spells were more efficient, anyway.

Thankfully, the need for more powerful or complex magic was obviated by the path Cecilia had chosen; except for the odd adventurer or squad of soldiers, the resistance they encountered was few and far between. When they did encounter resistance, however, it was quite annoying; perhaps, their attire and belongings stood out just a little bit too much.

With their route, they somehow made it to the center of the ruins, and even better, it appeared that they might have beaten everyone to it. Trotting to a stop on her horse, she gave it a well-deserved rest before breaking out her own hydration, breathing out deeply after she’d had her fill. Looking at the landscape of the interior ruins along with her fellow noble adventurers, Artemisia could see the ruins of a once great castle. More curiously, it seemed to be dominated by glowing crystals that littered the ancient stonework, possessing an energy that was no doubt of the magical variety.

“It would be better if we stuck together. I’ll continue to follow, at least as much as I can on horseback,” she replied, still unwilling to leave her steed unattended. “Now, these magic crystals don’t natively grow here. I wonder if it’s an affect of our little heavens rock?”

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Sounds like an impressive way to get an equally impressive coalition against you after you accidentally murk a bunch of foreign soldiers or an adventurer or two with high enough connections~

Or they could be me in my Byazantium run right now and completely dismantle any silly coalition that dares to interfere with my mission to remove kebab.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

I think we're just about wrapping up our collab, so that should be coming up soon.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

An absolute ghost town.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

I'm fine with either.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Nah, Kaze has it right.

Faeries delenda est.

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Dunno, fairy squishing sounds pretty tempting~

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

Artemisia de Chauret

Artemisia, of course, didn’t lack the self-awareness to know that riding into the ruins on horseback was an impracticality near short of a folly. Nearby adventurers didn’t hesitate to call her out on it either, but she knew that leaving her horse behind to graze on the fields was tantamount to letting it be stolen. Bringing it into the cramped but still sufficient ruins was manageable, although at the acceptable expense of the comfort of her fellow adventurers. To her, it was just like riding through the throngs of a very crowded city boulevard. Perhaps, in the ancient past, there were similar scenes in this city.

She had been making slow, but steady enough progress towards the center of the city when things began to develop.

Of course, she had been aware of the generally precarious balance that existed here. The Imperial Army was here, and so were elements of the Palagrian military, among those of several other countries. The presence of that many unaffiliated militaries, together with the fickle nature of the mercenaries and adventurers that were also present, meant that the ruins right now were a downright powder keg. She had not, however, ever imagined that the situation would deteriorate to the point where things developed into an outright melee.

As a noblewoman, for a moment, she was outraged to witness the Imperial Commander cut down in such a manner, but those emotions had quickly been replaced by an urgency to leave the second the second she saw the imperial response and the subsequent chaos and bloodbath.

“Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war,” she muttered under her breath, watching the imperial advance. She tugged on her horse’s reigns to turn and leave.

However, being mounted on a horse in the middle of a crowd that was quickly turning unruly meant that it was difficult to leave, and it could even turn her into a natural target for both sides. As she tried to clear her way of the surging adventurers, she ran through the scenarios of how she could come out of this situation in one piece.

She still dressed like a noble, and carried herself like one. As a member of the aristocracy, there were certain proprieties of war that she could rely on. For example, on the battlefield, it was considered distasteful to outright kill an officer of war –an atrocity of which she had just witnessed, in fact—as it was to end the life of a man with noble blood. If she could bank on her appearance to get captured instead of slaughtered, she knew the magic words that herself and many of her peers had memorized for times of war; for her, it went something along the lines of ‘I am the Marquess of Estiegnac. Spare my life and there will be a handsome ransom.’

But how much magic could those words work on this battlefield? It could only be reliably used if she wasn’t struck down to begin with, and only if captured by an actual military, and not the murdering adventurers she had just witnessed. Even if it was a military, it would likely be the empire in this case, and as a powerless noble of an equally powerless kingdom, she didn’t place much confidence in them valuing her life much, either. If she wasn’t ransomed, the best she could probably ask for was the noble privilege of a formal execution by beheading rather than being strung up like a common criminal. For once in her life, there was a type of magic that Artemisia did not place much confidence on relying upon.

No, the only obvious solution was to somehow fight her way out to a safer area. Drawing her sword, she casted the most powerful shielding spell she could manage. In a battle as large as this, a stray spell, slash, or explosion would end her life in an instant, and if her horse went down beneath her, she could expect a similar result but in a longer and more agonizing path. The stronger the barrier between her and that eventuality the better. Spurring her steed into a gallop, she charged through the crowd of adventurers, looking for any possible avenue of escape. Just as Artemisia feared she’d lose her momentum, her eyes locked onto what appeared to be an open alleyway that had enough room to fit a mounted person. She made a beeline towards it...

And found that two others had the same thought. Artemisia looked down at the two from up above. She would have thought the two were together had it not appeared the two had just collided with each other; they both wore clothes that gave them an appearance of a higher upbringing. If they were adventurers, it looked like they would, at the very least, be more reliable than the murderous mob just outside. More reliable in getting out of this place alive than if she were to try to continue doing it alone, at least.

She butted into their conversation. “You two seem... reliable. I’d like to assume the both of you are interested in getting out of here alive? Because I certainly would be.”

From Oubliette to Oublioth [R.I.P]

<Snipped quote by Xaltwind>

he'll let her squish the fairies

@OwO

Sounds lewd