Dragoknighte

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

"Do you think of it like that? From my perspective, you managed to single-handedly defeat two foes who were both better equipped than you and were adept at working together. I may have lent some unintentional assistance, but your quick thinking allowed you to take advantage of his lack of focus." As she listened to Fiona talk about her past, she idly licked the wounds on her arms. They probably would not see adequate healing until tomorrow, when her abilities would refresh, and saliva was an efficient way to clean them. In fact, it was practically routine for her to do this. IN the middle of licking her arm she remembered that humans thought this behavior odd and stopped herself. Vaeri smiled nervously at Fiona before answering her question.

"I was not always a holy woman, in my younger years I was something of a wild child. I picked up the axe because of its versatility and power. Nobody else used the axe other than for chopping lumber, so I taught myself from the beginning with wood cutting techniques and went from there." Vaeri followed Fiona as she idly chatted. Alone she probably would not have the focus to free these people, as aside from being injured Vaeri had been awake for about 20 hours now and after the adrenaline faded it had begun to affect her. She figured that she would be able to help and carry conversation well enough, but not too much more than that. "I have had a bit of divine guidance since then, but for the most part I'm self-taught and still learning. Of course, I have had far more time to hone my craft than you. I do not know if you have met any of my kind before, but we live much longer than you do. I'm currently 148 years and five moons old. I would suppose that would translate to about 26 years at the rate humans age. Truth be told, the axe is not actually my best weapon, that would be the short bow. I've been using it for as long as I can remember, as all children in my village do."

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

Made a short post

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

The glow coming from within Vaeri faded almost immediately after she finished off her foes. Divine Might, while a powerful spell, did not last long and she could only maintain it for about a minute as it stood. For several seconds, she just stood there catching her breath and watching. Fiona was leaning against a tree, her right arm torn and bloodied; Sana was crying over a dead man's body. The green dog-man had vanished into the forest before the fighting began in earnest and Drizzak was facing a mysterious woman who wielded two silver swords. Mostly confident that there wouldn't be any more combat in the nearby future, she shoves her axe back into her backpack, freeing up both hands to help with freeing the former captives and anything else she may need them for. Slowly, Vaeri limped over to her robe and picked it up off the ground. She placed her left hand on her thigh and healed up her leg before she walked over to Fiona.

"Allow me to heal your wounds," Vaeri said to Fiona, her right hand glowing gold. "I know you are about to say that I need it more, but I can't heal much more today. It would be better to get you back into top condition than to partially mitigate the damage I received. I'll be fine." If Fiona accepted the healing, then Fiona would fix her arm quickly, and still turned it down, well at least she tried. Maybe Lob or Drizzak would need the magic more. "So..." what was her name again? Scarlet? No, that was her keyword that was connected to, "Fiona. You appear to have be rather skilled with the blade despite being so young, who did you learn from?" Now probably was not the time for small talk, but Vaeri preferred it to waiting in silence on a battlefield with a complete stranger.

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

@Billsomething, it's because you have something called common sense and a will to live.

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

Vaeri did have to commend these men on one thing, her foes were professionals. They did not speak crudely like all their companions seemed to, and it was easy to tell from the way they were looking at her and each other that they respected her abilities as a fighter and each other to cover one another. They slowly circled clockwise around Vaeri, who rotated in place at the same pace to keep one from being able to properly attack her back. They were certainly cautious after seeing how quickly she took down the dogs. They were looking for a weak point in her guard, physically or mentally. And that chainmail would be difficult to get past with her weapon. Fortunately, Vaeri already had a plan around that.

One of the men stepped in, thrusting his blade forward, Vaeri responded by shoving the haft into his midsection, making him step back out of striking distance. At that time, the other man began moving forward. Vaeri aimed the pointed tip of her ax at him, trying to pierce him through one of the gaps in his chainmail, but it was a feint. The man sidestepped and slashed her thigh which was unprotected by armor. Vaeri stepped around and backed up to face both men. Her movement would be limited thanks to this injury, but now she was no longer flanked. She readjusts her grip so as to hold the bottom of the haft while keeping the same space between her hands, increasing her range and power further, but diminishing her ability to quickly maneuver the weapon. Each strike would have to be more deliberate. Any time one of the men would move in to try reestablishing the flank, a quick swipe of the ax would stop them in place.

Soon the men came to the nonverbal agreement that they would not be able to use the same tactics as they had begun with and shifted their stances to more aggressive ones as they charged in, weaving around and feinting as they went to throw off Vaeri's ability to defend. Instead of backing off as they thought she would, Vaeri advanced, taking a large step forward. One of the swordsman tried to stab her, but she let go of the ax with her left hand and grabbed his forearm before he could finish the thrust. In a moment of visible panic, he wildly slashed at her, cutting her face straight down the cheek, her right arm horizontally below the shoulder and the arm that had an iron grip on his. Each blow was like a hott needle being dragged across her body, but Vaeri maintained her composure. It did not matter if her limbs were injured, for her strength did not come from her muscles but her faith. And in the heat of battle, even the most grievous could be ignored.

With a mighty roar, Vaeri threw the man's arm to the side and grabbed him by the neck. That roar only grew mightier as she lifted him into the air and in a move that mimicked the previous fight with the dogs, threw him at his advancing partner. The human was not as agile as the hound, they slammed into each other into a groaning heap on the ground. Vaeri then extended her left hand, facing her palm down at the men on the ground.

"Perish! Flame Strike!" A beam of light pinpoints the men on the ground before a pillar of fire descended from the sky, scorching everything withing a 10 foot radius of the designated center of impact. Metal armor would not protect them from the holy flames, but would only serve as a conduit to better kill them. When Vaeri looked around, there were no more enemies to face. All the other men and the few remaining dogs were preoccupied with the other members for the hunting party. No longer in immediate danger, Vaeri silently prayed in thankfulness that she had been granted a spell that allowed her to dispatch the swordsman quickly, for they were skilled. Without Flame Strike, she might have even lost. Might have.

Does the Devil Value your Soul?

Well, I have an idea that comes from a book series I read in middle school. There could be planes of existence layered on top of each other, like in photoshop. Layer one, that everyone can see is the material world. The more layers you can see, the more spirit activity becomes visible and the closer you get to the "true world." Spirits disguising themselves only masks them on certain layers. The better the disguise, the more layers they pass for human or whatever on. Gaining powers by selling your soul could automatically grant you access to being able to see the second layer, which would show which humans have their souls or not and allows them to see minor spirits and weak disguises. Or something of that nature.

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

Vaeri let out a small breath of relief that her words did not cause Sana to become even more angry than she had been before. In fact it seemed like the anger she showed in the face of Tobias' accusations were partly a snap retaliation, and partly a facade to cover her emotional turmoil at nearly losing a man she clearly held dear. Guilt for actions that one didn't quite have control over was a common reaction Vaeri had seen during her travels. Although it was true that had Sana not called out for Hugh, he may not have been injured, it was a certainty. Had she not called for help, she might not have been able to avoid capture or injury herself. And it was not her fault that Hugh walked out into active combat unarmed and unarmored, but none of that was important when combat would soon be upon them.

Vaeri had seen and heard the anguish of those held prisoner in slave camp before Sana or Fiona did, and so had more time to steel herself. Silently, she gritted her teeth together. Brutality in combat was one thing. It was a life or death struggle, and limiting yourself with too many rules was a good way to be injured by less scrupulous opponents. And Sana's execution, while less justifiable, was a single decision and had been a surprisingly quick, clean kill. What these slavers had wrought upon their captives was not a single hastily made decision, but a routine. Cruelty made consistently over a long term due either to a lack of empathy or suppression of such. She was not quite sure which one was worse. Back in the village, Vaeri had resolved not to underestimate her next foe like in the previous fight. Now she resolved that she would not show them the mercy of a painless death.

The elf jumped off the back of Rodger as soon as they had entered the bandit camp. The dogs would almost assuredly attack the horse, and although it was a powerful beast, she doubted that it would be able to handle so many hounds at once. If they needed to retreat, an injured horse would only slow them down further.

"Lady Menhet, give me strength!" she shouted, casting off her cloak as she began to glow with white light. These slavers would know the full extent of Vaeri's Divine Power. The cleric gripped her axe two-handed with about a foot of distance in between them, a good deal of haft on both sides. Her power and range would be lessened with a grip like this, but the maneuverability and speed would prove invaluable against the dogs of war. The first dog leapt directly for her throat, Vaeri responded by thrusting the center of the haft in between her hands into the beast's neck, knocking it straight back. At the same time, another dog ran up and grabbed ahold of her left forearm, drawing blood with its teeth. She grabbed the hound's throat and in an instant crushed its windpipe the same way one would snap a toothpick. The beasts did not know better than to protect their masters. Their deaths would be swift. Vaeri tore the dog off her arm, causing further damage to her appendage before throwing its body at the one that had attacked her first.

The dog managed to dodge the body of its fallen packmate and charged again in a fury, only to be met with the blade of Vaeri's axe that split its skull into tiny shards of bone, blood and brain matter. She looked up from the corpse of the dog to see two men, each equipped with a knife in each hand flanking her, one to her left and the other on her right.

"You will not receive the mercy your hounds did." she spat at them, bringing her axe back up into a guarded position.

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

I'll take 1

Does the Devil Value your Soul?

Mat took a second to analyze the position he was currently in. One, he was in a dark alleyway where nobody was likely to hear or see anything that was going on. Two, he was not the only other living creature here, there were three others, and only 2 of them could be considered hostile. Three, he had super powers that he still wasn't 100% sure how they worked. Four, everyone else in this alley also had superpowers that they seemed completely confident in using. Five, Pitambara and some weird cat-woman-thing were about 20 feet away, the former pinning the latter to the ground and repeatedly punching her in the face. Six, some guy had just leaped 10 feet into the air and was flying towards him like it was a National Geographic cover.

Hastily, Mat stepped to the side, mostly avoiding the pouncing attack, but still receiving a few cat scratches on the cheek that drew a single drop of blood. On a normal person, that same attack probably would have ripped off their face. Pitambara stopped punching the cat demon below him to shout at his contractee.

"Hey, your defense is sloppy! Don't let your guard down!" Right as he said that, the cat demon bucked the spirit off of his position, sending him tumbling down the alleyway. He stood up to find the cat demon pouncing at him, probably aiming to do what its contractee did. What she got instead ws a boot to the face that stopped her cold. The spirit looked over at Mat's fight to see the human flinch from receiving a ghost blow to the face for perhaps the 30th time in the past 5 minutes. It was an obvious opening, but Mat didn't take it. Pitambara pondered that perhaps he should have searched a bit longer for potential contractees. Maybe find a streetfighter or boxer instead of the first compatible good person available. The cat demon stood back up and hissed at Pitambara like a common house cat. Pathetic. The spirit ran up to the demon and kneed her right in the face.

Mat noticed that the man he was fighting suddenly recoiled from what was probably a really painful attack from Pitambara. Maybe it broke a bone. He took a moment to step forward and uppercut the guy before throwing a barrage of punches with his left hand that sent the man flying to the other side of the alley. He looked over to the cat-woman-thing that Pitambara was fighting to find her passed out cold, but far more battered than her contractee.

"So," Matt said to a creature that certainly looked mostly human, but wasn't quite right, "are you finally going to explain to me what's going on?" The metallic gold on Pitambara's arms dissolved as he shrugged nonchalantly in response.

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

@Melkor Dance floor.