Mas Bagus

Sovereign's Will: The Edge of War [Looking for new players]

The last hit created the opening they needed, allowing Jazdia to shape the detonation behavior in her arrow so it would not blast anything behind it. Still maintaining her composure, Jazdia's purple eyes flickered as she aimed. An arrow glowing with violet luster had already knocked into her bow, and with its strings fully drawn, Lurea sang again in the darkness.

Jonas delving gripped his partisan tightly, trying to ignore the pain from his stomach. He managed to refocus his sight on the enemy, prepared to raise his shield defense. But what came next was another purple light.

Enough of that!

He hardened his shield, ready to take that blow, but it wasn't an arrow this time, but rather the spearhead from that cat-eared shieldbearer. Out of rage, he leaned forward and swatted the incoming fiery spear with his shield, while at the same time, a wayward icy war staff flew behind him, tearing the skin from the back of his head.

Still not done, a stray mutt, after a failed attempt to bite his shield went to his leg instead.

Jazdia's arrow concluded that coordinated strikes by detonating itself right on Jonas' midsection. The blast knocked him several meters away. The Delving patriarch knelt, his entire body was covered in goldish light, but some of his armor and pauldron fell off, revealing the burn marks on his arm and upper torso. Blood dripped from his lacerated nape, staining his tattered cape.

Trembled, not by the wounds he sustained, but rather by great anger, Jonas Delving absorbed some of that light and gathered it in his right palm. His shield shrank, but almost immediately it expanded itself before turning into a form of brilliance pulse that spread wide and bright, so bright it felt like the sun had dawned in that courtyard.

Brilliance light fluttered around him. The ground where he stood cracked. The radiant pulse blasted the warg and dispelled its entire existence, the purple fire in Athena's spear extinguished. Jonas Delving stood like a beacon in the field of light, his partisan glow brighter. He saw another dot of purple coming through, a color he despised so much. But no more guesswork this time.

The pesky archer stood in the distance, fully revealed by his light. He tightened his grip on his partisan and launched it with all of his might.

The crystal arrow and the partisan collided, but the explosion only did little to hinder its flight. Almost at the speed of thunder, the brilliant lance struck the archer on the right side of her torso.

Another lance made of brilliant light replaced it, and Jonas reconjured his shield, ready to attack.
___
On the west side of the field, Yvonne's attempt to cave his skull in resulted in the terrifying sound of clang, but the head didn't give in on the first try. Only by the second, it managed to crack, a red crystal jutted out from the wound in retaliation, but as the place suddenly engulfed in bright light, the crystal stopped growing. the enraged suddenly let go of his grip on Evan's coat and ceased to move, suddenly and abnormally as if the entire bask of light stunned him.

On Louise's side, the Squire tapped into her inner power, channeling wind magic toward the incoming enraged. A strong gust of wind manifested between her and the enemy and climaxed into a burst of air so strong it lifted and knocked the enraged some 10 meters away. Another shield made of air swirled around her, but what was the use if the enemy had been displaced that far?

On the east side of the field, both the warg and the enraged struggled to keep each other pinned. The enraged's hand violently clawed the warg's throat, trying to rip away anything he could grip. His other hand brought the warg's front leg closer to his mouth and, returned the favor by clamping it with his jaw.

Sovereign's Will: The Edge of War [Looking for new players]

@Lewascan2
The room behind that bar looked more like an antechamber with one additional room to its right serving as a small barrack for Delving's hirelings. It has a large table in the middle with a lantern, some emptied tankards, and playing cards lying around on top. When Veronica opened the door, the door let out a rusty creaking when pushed in.

Luckily nobody was alerted. A very loud snoring could heard from the small barrack.

Beyond that room, they would find two corridors leading to two different places. The one to the right led to Stritzel's manor while the left led to the laboratory.

But suddenly they heard heavy footsteps coming from the right corridor. One of Delving Usuals addressed the guards stationed there and ordered them to gather at the manor.

"That's Lord Delving's order. Everyone is to be assembled in the Manor's Great room to await further instruction."

"Let's go then."

"Should we wake Oglef up?"

"Nah just let that lazy bum sleep. Let him deal with the quartermaster himself

Sovereign's Will: The Edge of War [Looking for new players]

It was supposed to be a simple task. Louise only needed to keep the thug locked and steer him so his back would face Jazdia's direction. However, to the elf's dismay, the squire picked the hardest method, and that was by letting go of her weapon and making a charge-and-retreat movement.

With a new weapon in hand, the enraged swung the sword by the edge and tried to bludgeon Louise with it. But the squire was quick to duck, stepped aside, and moved backward, more came and she evaded all.

Meanwhile, Jazdia watched their erratic dancing with frustration she had never experienced in a decade. What the hell was she doing? Anyone with half their brain would immediately understand that she needs a target that didn't move too much

Her fingers were already red from the bowstring's tension, and Louise wasted that precious window already. Jazdia shifted her attention back to the Delving again. There were so many things that happened at once there.

____

When the Delving patriarch pressed the attack to tear down the bulwark, he noticed the incoming danger coming from the top. He ceased his attack and raised his shield, hardening it as the spear propelled itself down. The ice spear bounced on the first attempt, but it persistently tried to pound the defense again, seeking any weak point. On the third attempt, Jonas lowered his shield a bit and timed his swing to swat the incoming spear with his glowing partisan. Severing whatever magical connection it had with its caster.

As the ice partisan landed some 30 meters away from him to the east, and before he could reposition his shield again, another purple arrow pierced him on his left stomach, punched through his polished mail like it was made of butter. The searing pain from the fresh wound stung him like never before, and it was the moment when Jonas almost lost his footing. His partisan was now a mere prop to keep his balance, and his shield lowered, presenting a perfect moment for his enemy to strike.

It was wise to not show your back to the enemy. When Evan was busy walking toward Yvonne, he was running. When Evan Noticed his heavy steps it was already too late. The third enraged closed the gap and slashed him on the back. His icy armor negated that reckless strike, but the enraged with his free hand grabbed him by the coat and prepared to wrestle him down.

The first warg tried to tackle, and this time it managed to pin down one of the enraged, but what was the use of their enemy was even more durable than before?
Yet that didn't discourage the beast from using its claw to try to rip open the enraged chest. And same as before it only managed to dig through skins and some flesh. The enraged grabbed the overpowering beast by its front leg and pulled it closer, and as its maw opened to retaliate, he stabbed his searing hand into the beast's throat.

The second warg managed to escape the flanking and was now on its way to attack the now-vulnerable Delving patriarch.

Sovereign's Will: The Edge of War [Looking for new players]

When the wargs stopped to wait for the impending explosion, the enrageds they attacked before managed to catch up. Hell-bent on continuing the previous onslaught, one of the two swung his sword haphazardly at the beast, while his partner, moved to the side to flank them.

Things weren't looking very good for Evan. His ice failed to kill the abomination on the first try, and he decided to give up.
And so, he walked, forward, like a moth distracted by a bright lantern. Despite all the sizzling and cracking around him, he strode, vision tunnelled solely on the gilded figure of Jonas Delving.

The second enraged finally broke free from his ice prison. Louise reacted but did not say anything to the young man in a coat. She was immediately occupied with tackling the sizzling threat. And so she performed a similar move set, repeating a similar mistake as well.

Spinning to cut down ligament, her already blunted sword met with hard crystal this time rather than ice, and when she recovered to stab the enraged thug's heart, her blunder was clear: The enemy was not immobilized as the first one, and now had free rein to block her thrust and grip her blade.

It was at that moment she heard an arrow whiz in the air. It punctured deep into the enraged's torso, but he did not die. The shot missed just a few centimeters away from his glowing heart.

Still locked in a battle to take back her own weapon, the shagreen on her sword's handle started to burn, and she could feel the heat searing her gloved hand. Meanwhile, in the distance, a faint glow could be seen as Jazdia channeled magic into her arrow again, ready to shoot.
____

Evan's ice finally reached its breaking point. The third enraged who were imprisoned after receiving an uprooting blow from Yvonne finally broke free. With his sword in front of him, he rearmed himself and dashed toward the pale man.
____

Jonas could not remember the last time someone shattered his light, but today it happened. Part of him knew it was a reward of his hubris, another half of himself remained in denial, insisting that the blow was delivered dishonorably.

His ears were still ringing when he heard a taunt.

"...should've killed me when you got the chance, old man."

"How despicable!" he said brusquely before spatting blood from his injured gum. His glowing shield cracked, but only temporarily for he immediately channeled more energy into repairing it anew. The Delving patriarch was quick to regain his footing. His eyes searched for the two violet rings in the distance, but he could not find them.

And so his gaze fell on the Rosenving Daughter again, who now stood behind another female shieldbearer.

Well... well, look at that. He chuckled, not because of the familiarity, but rather because of how inferior her shield looked compared to his own. A filthy impostor, doing a disservice to themselves.

The spearhead of his partisan glows with a faint light, and to demonstrate his point, he took a flash dash forward and rammed his partisan on the magical bulwark. The strike penetrated easily and battered the physical shield behind it with full force. And as his opponent was left staggered by the recoil, he swung his partisan sideways, tearing down the rest of the bulwark.

"Very well. I will slay you like a disgraced mutt you are."

Sovereign's Will: The Edge of War [Looking for new players]

Even after decades of experience in this line of work, Jazdia could not master the art of commanding the "irregulars".

Sure she could prattle a long detailed plan during a briefing, and everyone would then nod in agreement, but in a real-time battle, that capability diminished somewhat. She had her own reasoning for that; barking a command in the middle of combat can be distracting for those who were usually out for themselves. And God forbid her sternness could often make people feel antagonized. She would rather not risk it.

So, when something disastrous like someone miscalculating and ending up injuring their fellow teammates happened, Jazdia would rather remain focused on the immediate threat. Scolding could wait for later.

Her arrow radiates in a purple light.

For now, it seemed Jonas' attention remained focused on Yvonne, who was now pointing her sword at the old man himself. A weak stance, intended to distract the opponent while her other hand reached for a healing potion. Looking at how severe the damage to her tendon and the amount of blood spilled from it, imbibing one of those pots was indeed the wisest course of action. The question was, could Yvone get enough time to administer it?

The Delving Patriarch stood still. His mustache moved. What did he say to her? Jazdia could only guess. A deadly guess. And of course, she wouldn't take that chance.

****

Jonas Delving lowered his partisan. His eyes remained alert, and his attention divided. One for the incoming cat who was now running toward his side, two for the sleazy ice mage, and three, and most importantly for the brave woman in front of him.

"Go on, Rosenving. Take your medicine, or risk it. Your call."" He gloated. Though deep inside he wanted to praise her for that slick evading movement she did, he knew such appreciation would be premature at best. The fight was far from end, and he still had more tricks up his sleeve. He would see that the opponents would do the same.

He would get just that.

From the darkness, a violet trail of light whizzed toward him. Promptly, Jonas raised his energy shield and let the arrow penetrate halfway into the panel, entrapping the crystal arrow inside the solid manifestation of radiant energy and having its brilliance color utterly outshined by it. He had deliberately skipped the part where he should harden it, all to prove his point. That he could catch even the most unexpected attack, and he was superior in every way to them.

A smug smile bloomed on his face until he realized that this tiny crystal arrow was one of the few things his magic could not snuff out.

A pair of violet eyes glowed in the distance, and from that direction, he heard.

"Yona! Back off now!!"

****

Ignoring the enraged thugs, the wargs made a quick beeline toward the standing captain, who fruitlessly tried to stab one of them, only to be staggered by the other. Tired and outnumbered, the next tackle finally brought him down to his knee. One of the wargs quickly seized his arm to have him release his weapon, while the other swiftly sank its partially melted teeth into his neck.

The damaged maws didn't make quick work of ripping away the captain's throat. The wounded captain had to witness it all, listen to his partner scream and gurgle, see him gone into the darkness as they dragged him farther to rip him apart. Terrorized beyond measure, he helplessly ran back toward the inner courtyard.

When Evan tried to melt his own ice, he should have known that the process was accelerated beyond his calculation.

When he tried to stab the second semi-incased enraged, his psychokinetically-controlled sword could not penetrate the ribcage. It immediately lost its solidity in the first attempt and became dull and eventually shattered for the subsequent stabbings.

But... it wasn't all. With no magic instilled to keep the ice blocks frozen, they were left alone to combat the smoldering heat from the enraged's augmented body. The second enraged thug started to break free. What remained of his skin had boiled and melted away, revealing reddish and hardened muscle beneath. The third thug was still imprisoned, but his icy prison too was undergoing a similar process at an alarming rate.

Sovereign's Will: The Edge of War [Looking for new players]

The stomp alerted the Rosenving Heir just in time, and either by pure instinct or keen timing she took advantage of that split-second delay to react; her main weapon was abandoned, and she drew her sword to intercept the incoming thrust and shoved it aside with its fuller.

With harm already out of the way, she swiftly lunged forward, dull amber burned within her eyes, feral rictus twisting her face into a violent mask as she led her sword to get through the old man Jonas' defense.

All of sudden, Yvonne felt the terrible sting and cold on her calf, and something landed behind her with a heavy thwack. The unexpected attack threw Yvonne off balance, allowing the opponent to retreat a step backward. Jonas Delving was not pleased with such interference he halted his combo and stared darkly at the petite noblewoman with a bleeding leg. A blue spear, a replica of his own, stood at an angle behind her.

He stood still, while most of his attention locked on Yvonne, he noticed a tiny silhouette of a cat advancing toward him.
__

The ice grew rapidly from the enraged thugs' ankles, forming imprisoning cubes that completely halted their advance.

On the other front, the wounded warg changed its strategy by striking the first captain's elbow. His sword dropped, and he downed again. It was at that moment the warg used its powerful jaw to twist and crush the captain's arm.

Just in time, the second captain came to aid and stabbed his pike at the shadowy animal's shoulder. The warg released its hold and retreated, dislodging the pike in the process, but the second captain's assault was not yet over, he thrust his pike again, hitting the now staggered warg on its neck this time, and like a nightmare, it suddenly disappeared.

The wargs were not the only ones that could attack coordinatedly. Seemingly ignoring the relentless bites and tackles, the enraged thugs moved closer to one another. When a warg attacked one of the thugs, his brethren quickly provided a counter-attack with his weapons. Some blows managed to land for every assault launched, yet the enraged remained unflinching, not even when the oversized wolves tried to chomp down their wrist in an attempt to disarm them.

The more injury they sustained, the more they looked like animated statues. Fumes started to vaporize above their heads, the wound glows even brighter as if their blood was made of the hellfire itself. Every bite and every mauling were rewarded not only by hardness but also by smoldering searing heat.

___

Three of the enraged thugs now stopped dead on their track, and seeing the opportunity, Louise let go of her musket and drew her broad sword. Swiftly, she pirouetted to cut the thug on the back of his knee, only to hear the violent clanging when her sword hit growing ice. The thug remained standing, his arms reached to block, but Louise did not lose her momentum, retreating a step, she then drove her sword precisely to the enraged's heart.

The feedback felt like she was stabbing a cluster of glasses. The enraged being let out a coarse scream, his hand clawed the air before it went limp. Not giving Louise ample time to examine the death of her enemy, or even to draw her sword back, the ice had encroached on the dead thug's chest and trapped her sword with it.

___

Sovereign's Will: The Edge of War [Looking for new players]

"O-oh, y-yes, that's me, my Lady Widernia's humble servant! It's awful! I just got here, and someone's attacking the place! I-I'm not much of a f-fighter, you see, e-even with this horribly cumbersome thing,"

"Oh yes! Wonder where they came from." said the second guard, walking closer to Veronica and making a flexing gesture. "sorry for the ruckus, but all is well. Our leader is here. And you sweetheart got reliable lads like us guarding the doors... should come the inevitable."

He only stopped when his friend, the first and bigger guard, shushed him. Then he too turned to Veronica.

"Got a lot of explaining eh? Miss Widernia only told us to expect a courier to come to get her things." The guard looked at her suspiciously and kept his weapon gripped. While his friend walked slowly toward Veronica and leered like a thirsty animal.

There was an awkward silence until he continued with a less tense tone.

"But... as usual She never specified. So I guess you are enrolling for an assistant job too? I see no reason to hold you any longer then. Feel free to lay your weapon on one of those crates. Ain't nothing to be forgiven. The fight will end soon anyway. Hey Pintel! Stop making the lady uncomfortable!"

Sovereign's Will: The Edge of War [Looking for new players]

Varya Chandrar

Thankfully Veronica's plan to distract the guards worked, albeit not in the way she had expected. The mooks had their attention focused on her, allowing Varya to sneak around and past them. Once Varya reached the door he sheathed his blades and took out his precious bar of soap. He began to lather up the door hedges in the cleansing substance in order to reduce the creaking of the door once it was opened. After this was done Varya would look through the keyhole of the door if it had one to see what was on the other side, otherwise he would place his long ear against the door to listen.

@Nightknight

For a secret base, the place didn't seem to have the tightest security. If Varya noticed, the door was unlocked and could be immediately opened if he wished so.
The corridor ahead was a set of stairs leading further into a deeper underground level. Multiple lanterns hung on its sides, ensuring sufficient lighting. On its other end there was a door made of metal bars There seemed to be no activity in the corridor behind that door, either the guards were someplace else or they deliberately didn't station someone there.

Sovereign's Will: The Edge of War [Looking for new players]

'Hey! Who's there?!"

The guards readied their weapons and walked slowly toward the lonely black figure with a scythe. At the same moment, another boom echoed from the distance, fully alerting them.

"You don't look like one of 'em Rascade blockheads! Who are you and what do you want? Are you Lady Widernia's messenger?"

The entire basement was properly lit, with many crates and barrels piled here and there. For one with keen smells, the pungent smell of herbs and chemicals was apparent, along with the smell of blood, a familiar smell of blood, coming from that door behind those guards.

The guard's friend joined the fray, but he appeared to be more relaxed.

"Damn girl you look fine. Would you put that thing down, please?"

Sovereign's Will: The Edge of War [Looking for new players]

Seeing how his friend got dragged away by a seemingly invisible force, the second captain rushed to aid first one. At the same time, nobody knew since when, the Delving Patriarch had already stood not far from Yvonne. He only grinned briefly at Evan's pathetic attempt to mimic his armament, but his attention now was fully at the Rosenving. Another noble, a formidable fighter. Old Jonas knew how to appreciate a good fight, even if chaos unfolded around him he wouldn't waste the opportunity to get one.

Some entertainment before he had them all killed.

Stomping his feet, Jonas thrust his partisan at Yvonne.

****

Jazdia prepared her magic arrow. Initially, it was intended to be shot at that swashbuckling Delving as a retort to his insult. But then she heard a thud on her right. This close meant someone had broken into their formation, and true to that, one of the berserkers had landed a blow on Louise. Luckily her armor did its job well.

Her crystal arrow gleamed with explosive enchantment, ready to be unleashed.

Concluding that eliminating the closest threat was not an option, Jazdia aimed at the then-kneeling thug, mentally ignoring the incongruity of how a human can survive a musket shot in the neck.

The arrow hit and swallowed him in a fiery blast. But what was revealed after the smoke settled was even more horrifying. The thug knelt again, with the result from the explosion apparent in his body. But from the ghastly wounds, his blood coagulated rapidly, replacing the missing chunk of flesh. Screamed in pain, his eyes glowed red, and they wept crimson tears.

Fully alerted, Jazdia knocked an arrow on her bow and activated her eyes. Whatever standing there now was no longer a human.