ERode

Edged Horizon

The first round of lightning, their preemptive attack, proved to be less effective than she had expected. The mage on the side of the invaders seemed to be well-versed in defensive magics, and, as a result, the follow-up attack by the knights didn't deal as many casualties as she would have liked. Quickly enough, the enemy had recovered, and now, they were bringing it into an extended brawl. The commander, this time taking an overhead view of the situation, realized two important facts.

The majority of that woman's defensive magics were concentrated skywards, as if she had somehow already known about the possibility of Einzershalt's bombardments.

There was a second group of invaders who were rejoining the main group, adding to the offense.

While the number of casualties still favoured the side of the knights, with the majority of the unarmored invaders showing just how inexperienced they were, they were still outnumbered by a reasonable amount, and every extra knight that fell just widened the numerical disadvantage.

The woman touched the pulsating glyphs that ran across stone surface, before issuing new commands to her men.

Keep them packed close, knights, but prioritize your own lives and stay light on your feet. Mages, switch to ground-based attacks. Start off by destabilizing the terrain. Focus on support, not offense.

---

Amongst all the carnage, within the din of combat, Yazu was absorbed in her own world. Or, perhaps, it was the world of others that she was absorbed in. The conditions for the curse that afflicted her had, despite her best attempts, triggered once more when the round of lightning had scattered everyone's shadows. And in just the briefest moment, she had stepped into the shadows of one.

She didn't know his name beforehand, nor did she care, but now, she knew everything about him. Every small lie, every past transgression, every itty-bitty sin that Chad had committed.

That ship captain's words fell onto deaf ears as, for the first time in a long time, the half-elf being was wrapped in the past of another person. And, as blurred shadows struck her again and again, she could feel her own morality and consciousness becoming swept away. The waltz of blades around her served to latch more and more knowledge onto her, until she was smothered by the weight of everyone's pasts.

Her mind was seared, and she could feel the kiss of a cold blade dragging across her flesh, letting out her black blood.

And slowly, unperturbed by the injuries that she bore, the injuries that she attained simply by standing still, Yazu made her judgement.

They were all bad people, and all bad people should disappear.

The ground trembled as blackness seeped from her body.

---

Rilolia wanted no part in the battle, and the vampire was pretty certain that even if she did, there was little that she could do. The invocation of the dead took too long in the middle of a battle, and while she could once hide within the heavy armor of Dead Gear, now, she was virtually useless. She never was one to fight with her barehands, even when vampires were physically stronger than the normal human.

Retreating backwards from the fray and wincing at the first roar of clashing metal, the vampire instead ran around the battlefield, scattering into a swarm of bats as she flew low and spread out. Lyra was, thankfully, doing a good job of mitigating the damage of those lightning strikes, or Rilolia would have to run all the way up over the summit. From her bat's eye view, she wasn't exactly sure who was winning the fight, but hopefully, Chad would order a retreat when he remembered that they were there to rescue Vance, not to fight Astopolian jailers.

Cresting low, the swarm could visibly see the ground tremble as another act of magic was done, no doubt to disable the slight edge in mobility that the airship crewmen had. She had hoped that the effects would be minor, but it was clear that the sudden change had caught the men off guard. More were cut down, and her sensibility to the dead had allowed her to see their souls leave their bodies right at the moment of their death.

Perhaps she should have felt some sadness, but she couldn't. She barely knew them, after all, and those that she DID care for were still alive and fighting.

The swarm of bats packed close together once more and melted into a pillar-shaped blob. With the excess of the dark materials shedded as black fog, Rilolia returned to her humanoid form again. Spotting a lonely hole on the peak of the mountain, she immediately dashed towards it, sliding onto her knees. She grabbed onto the iron gridding and peered into the hole. There was only darkness present, and realizing that even the eyes of a Talze Uteran couldn't discern the contents of that dungeon, she called out, hopeful and hopeless at the same time, “Vance, are you there? Don't g-”

An unnatural scream echoed behind her, cutting her off.

---

A man was crushed, his body flattened and smeared against the ground, as if a child was painting clumsily with their hands.

“Free free free free money! Five thousand three hundred and triple dozen coppers reduced by ten thousand more and scattered in Hope and Haven and Safe and and and and and and and!” She clenched her hands over her face, as if trying to pull it off.

Swathes of corruption spun around her, dark whips sending people flying through the air like rag dolls.

“Evict evict evict evict allllllll the bad guys! Kill the wifey, eat the mother, set fires, party hard, let's have a fun time and feast going down the zero from minus 1 for every stubble on the chinny chin chin!” She clawed at her throat, tearing out strips of red flesh that regenerated moments later.

Dark, thorny spikes rose from the ground, skewering whomever it caught and scattering their organs into the sky.

“Monster monster monster mother father a-a-a-a-ah I can't see dark scared black black black all black sins what no stay array may leave me alone no stay here leave me not together cold ah hahahahahahahaha why don't you just stay today after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day?” She fell onto her knees, crying out thick globs of dark ooze as she scraped out her eyes, only for them to come back moments later.

Underground, the commander watched all this madness, watched as friend and foe alike were ravaged by this madness, before hardening her heart and sending out a new message, to a safer place, a far away place.

Einzershalt, begin bombardment.

---

From underneath Koestace, a rift was opened and another monster was unleashed. A beast that had only been encountered once during the entirety of the Talentless Strife. A monster that brought fame to Knigt Commander Mirelle, but served to make her into the same type of monster.

The gargantuan rift-beast known only as the World-Eater stretched out one of its six limbs and smashed through the side of the mountain. An avalanche of boulders and dirt swept over it, but it disregarded such a minor obstacle, as another of its gray limbs pierced through the side of the mountain.

Over and over again, it shattered the 'cage' that contained it, until the beast could finally stride out, the mountain trembling with its escape.

Above, was an unnatural thing, something that bustled with panicked life. The citadel of Koestace, known as one of the safest fortresses amongst all three countries.

Step by step, the World-Eater began to scale the mountain, ascending towards that puny fortress.

Far away, seated on the top most part of a tree, the man in red smiled.

A bit flashy, but it'd get the job done.

Tales of Adventure and Discovery RPG, an Epic Adventure RP

Now just waiting for ze Keia~

Tales of Adventure and Discovery RPG, an Epic Adventure RP

Allereun clicked his tongue, tapping an erratic rhythm as the three monsters rushed towards them. The first managed to inflict a nasty-looking series of cuts on Lyrisa, who took it without even a scream of pain, while the other two latched onto Leifr, who was fending them off quite handily until the Ugling struck. Watching in fascination as the humanoid freak invoked some sort of dark magic, the redhead was quick to note down the effects of its spiritual attack.

One skull was glowing, and in response, the righteous swordsman was in pain. There were two skulls left on the staff as well. If the Ugling was smart, it may use the rest of those infernal spells to incapacitate Fiore, severely crippling the fighting capability of the team.

Which meant that Allereun was going to have to make his getaway now, before he drew anymore attention to himself.

Two monsters on Leifr.

One to be split between Fiore and Lyrisa.

And the Ugling who...oh, that was very useful.

Another stranger, brandishing a crossbow of sorts, had attacked that Ugling magic-user. That abomination was now screeching with a knife in its shoulder.

“Seems like lots of strangers are appearing just when they can help out,” the apothecary murmured to himself, before changing plans.

He won't run away, for now.

Instead, he reared back his arm and threw the torch towards the general direction of those monsters, hoping that it'd serve to draw their attention away from assaulting Leifr, if only for a moment.

Grey Haven: The Witch Hut, School, and Sanctuary

The posting shall now begin.

Grey Haven: The Witch Hut, School, and Sanctuary

June Daze probably would have been a little more cheery, if it wasn't for the fact that she had spent last night unable to sleep. Being a Mahora Academy graduate would have already made her accustom to long stretches without proper sleep, but that night was special. That night was the night in which she learned that her younger sister-in-law was going to enroll in Gray Haven, and that she had been inflicted by quite an interesting curse.

Oh, the joys of finally being able to show her what she really did for a living~

The former Satan-worshipping witch was so overjoyed that she had spent the entirety of the night running laps around the school track, trying to rid herself of all the excited energy that was bouncing inside her. She was pretty sure that she had blanked out after the first five hours of her nighttime run, but hey, in the morning, her legs were still intact, and she felt just a little calmer than she was before.

As the day went on though, she could definitely feel herself nodding off during the whole inauguration of the new students. Her legs were dying too, and if it wasn't for how braindead she felt, the secretary-enforcer-assistant would have most definitely tried to magic those workout aches away.

Thankfully, the headmistress wasn't one for obscenely long speeches, and even gave June a chance to go off and do nothing. So that's what she went to do.

Sit in a corner and do nothing, because even Lyrica couldn't magically summon food that was as marvellous as hubby's.
~
Ah, Chrys wanted to die. She wanted to crawl into a hole and just die. She didn't want to wear that oversized witch's hat that her grandpa slapped on her head, but she also didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb when she took that hat off.

Pulling the wide brim of the black hat over her eyes, and hoping that it wouldn't make her too odd amongst the other 'first years' of this magical academy for fledging magic people, she considered getting a wig in the future. Dying her hair had no effect, other than the effect on her wallet, and going through the school year with hair that shone like a flashlight...well, Chrys liked to be in the center of attention, but even this was a bit too much for her.

Heck, even though her furtive glances towards her classmates had confirmed that at least a few of them were also sporting odd shades of hair color (seriously, what sort of person decided that it was fashionably sound to have pink-and-brown hair, split right in the middle), there was no doubt in her mind that she had the most 'unique' shade.

If 'sparkling diamond rainbow' was a shade at all.

Shuffling through the crowd that was settling down for a free dinner, the tomboy sought to make a stealthy, quick escape before anyone could notice.

And while she was a rather stealthy person...well, no one explicitly told her that dolls were going to be scampering around on the floor.

She registered the motion of her stumbling, and tripping over just in time so that she had enough time to pull the entirety of that over-sized hat over her head.

Tales of Adventure and Discovery RPG, an Epic Adventure RP

From what I have gathered, Keia is less interested in boobie monsters and lolis, and more interested in adult tomboy peeps who will call him names and abuse him.

Tales of Adventure and Discovery RPG, an Epic Adventure RP

Keia, I don't know if you know this at all, but I've always wanted a little sister.

Mainly because it'll balance out the little-brother-headaches I get.

Actually, why do you auto-assume that Renose's gifts should be used in a sexual manner? Disgusting. So much for being gallant.

Tales of Adventure and Discovery RPG, an Epic Adventure RP

Dat marshmallow hell.

Tales of Adventure and Discovery RPG, an Epic Adventure RP

Be posting in all ze RPs tomorrowish.

In the meantime, here's muh offering to you all.

Tales of Adventure and Discovery RPG, an Epic Adventure RP

Boo. My other point still stands though.

Though in retrospect, it might have been better if everyone did acrobatics or whatever and just vaulted over the palisades. Wonder if anyone has a high enough Riding stat to do equestrian stuff...