Psyker Landshark

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

I lied, it's up now

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Grandmaster Safina

"Sound off. Is everyone here?" Safina planted her hands down on the table in what passed for a war room within the Concord's Odonfield cell hideout. Nigh on a dozen hardened veterans of thievery, assassination, and espionage of varying races voiced assent back.

"Good. Try not to make any trouble for the Odonfield cell while we're here, we're occupying enough of their space as it is. Now, on to business. Our illustrious employer wants the target's vault emptied. Kaput. Of course, she didn't specify what to do with that lucre after. Pull this off, you'll all be getting no small share of the loot. Incentive. And motivation to not screw this up. We clear?"

A round of nods across the table, with more than a few eyes glinting in mixes of avarice and caution born of experience.

"Right. We'll need a few things. First, a man on the inside. Can't risk more than one, it'd be too obvious. We'll need our best social adept on the job to blend in, get us a lay of the land. Rhinecliff is out of town, distracted with our client's other ventures. This gives us a brief window to get the job done. Those little pets She keeps ran afoul of him, probably."

Roles were given, plans were made, and tasks were set. Just another job. One more difficult, complex, and daunting than most the Concord undertook, but it'd be a cold day in hell before Safina said her people couldn't do this.

SPIRITUM

Kalina Kovalic

Kalina nodded along passively to the princess's explanation of Vangar internal politics, her eyes kept straight on the road. Convincing the Emperor to make overtures at peace was all well and good, but that implied Rassvet would even be willing to trade any amount of their most important strategic resource to a nation that had just been trying to conquer them. Money was one thing, but even if Rassvet mercantile interests were stupid enough to try, the military would sort that out in an instant.

She would have thought further on this, but the appearance up the road of a sudden wreck put a kibosh on that. Kalina frowned, parking the truck some distance away in case there were hostiles. The RV was of no concern. Stray fire could set the Etherium fuel tanker alight, probably taking the Barghests and hanger-on in the explosion if they were close enough.

She exited the truck, gunblade in hand as Justice gave her orders.

"Roger." Kalina nodded, checking the chamber of her weapon before stepping forward. Ideally, they'd try to drive around this whole mess. The truck could handle a bit of offroading, and surely the leaked fuel plus the tanker didn't cover every single bit of path they could drive through, right?

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Alright so we determined we aren't doing a collab this round, I'll have an update post on my end within a day or three, sorry for the delay.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

I believe we are just waiting on the Psykers x ERode collaboration now?

@Estylwen

Not for another few days afaik

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Renar Hagen

Fortunately, Thrinax hadn't attempted to waylay any of the distraction team as they moved into place. Unfortunately, the dragon went for the next worst target possible: the captain. At the very least, the aforementioned along with Gerard and Rolan were already reacting quickly, giving time for himself and Fleuri to move.

Renar caught Fleuri's eye from a distance away as Gerard dashed forward, nodding to the former.

"Do as you did with the griffin!" Was all he had time to say before charging forth, moving to help encircle the dragon and hoping Fleuri got the point.

The front, flank, and one hind leg were under assault. It was distracted. Regardless, Renar held no illusions of being able to land a telling blow without risk. Against a dragon, that was a fool's wish.

“There are too many things in the world that can attack you even if they leave themselves open to injury. Magic armour, vampires, wild monsters in general…”

“Most of what the Iron Roses deal with are normal humans or similar. But you’ll need to be ready for those that aren’t, who won’t be impaired the same way. How you learn to deal with that is up to you, but try not to learn on the spot. Doing it that way hurts.”

Perhaps not all of Tyaethe's advice was applicable in this situation, but he parsed the gist of it. Renar made for the dragon's hind leg on the opposite flank as Gerard was attacking from, closing the distance as quickly as he could while Thrinax was still otherwise occupied. Instead of attacking from the ground, however, he slung his poleaxe up across his back and leapt up, attempting to climb atop the dragon using its scales as hand and foot holds. They wouldn't get anywhere presenting a credible threat from the ground alone, and thankfully the only member of the Roses that had any amount of experience with mounting flying beasts wasn't otherwise engaged yet.

@Crimson Paladin @HereComesTheSnow @VitaVitaAR @Eisenhorn

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Oh hey, was there a word chosen to put the kiddos to sleep that I might have missed? Lol

@Donut Look Now

<Snipped quote by Donut Look Now>

I'll let you come up with it. It's probably something pretentious and overly academic, considering who did it.

@ERode

shikanoko nokonoko koshitantan

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Ranbu no Izayoi

Eliane would not have thought that they would have been back in Kugane so quickly, but ultimately, she found herself pouring a cup of tea, not coffee, this time.

Sometimes, she truly surprised herself.

It took her a moment to decide to enjoy outside in the courtyard. She thought it was strange that a safehouse would have an actual courtyard, but since it existed, she would make use of the amenities. It seemed like the Skaelan officer wasn’t alone outside though, as she noticed team Kirin’s older swordswoman swinging her weapon where she had decided to take a rest.

That reminded her of something she saw during the fight with the revenant that had bothered her. She gave Izayoi a nod, but Eliane decided not to immediately approach, taking a seat to the side to enjoy her cup of hot sencha as she allowed for the other woman to finish.

Disrupt. Cut. Pierce. Disrupt. Cut. Pierce. Izayoi finished up the last of her katas and wiped the sweat from her brow. Still nowhere at the level she should be, but sparring with Robin and all of the exertion in the desert resulted in minute improvements from the last time she’d been training in Kugane before they left.

She’d noticed Eliane in her peripheral vision partway through her exercises, of course. Her senses weren’t completely gone, at the least. Izayoi sheathed her sword and turned to face the sollan, waiting.

”Is aught amiss, or am I simply blocking your view?”

For Eliane, it was always interesting seeing Izayoi practice her moves, given how different her style was compared to her own swordplay. Finishing off her tea, she shook her head. “No, the view is perfectly fine. I’m surprised you’re already back to training, though.”

”The desert made it abundantly clear that I cannot afford to make even the slightest pause in attempting to regain my former strength.” She sat down next to Eliane, a person’s width away.

”I put my master in the grave when I was but eighteen summers young. To be unable to replicate the feats I could perform at that age is shameful.”

Eliane frowned at that. “You and I both know well that doing it so soon after such grievous injuries is a detriment, not a boon.” She left it at that and moved on, though– she wasn’t Miina nor a doctor. She canted her head slightly as she looked askew at the other woman. “Which is actually what I wanted to talk about.”

”I am recovered.” Was all Izayoi tersely said in response to Eliane’s first statement. It was true, even. Given that the return through the desert had been far less fraught with dangers considering the swathe they’d cut through the Blightbeasts one way, she’d had plenty of time to heal on the march. ”But go on. I’d been wondering if someone would have noticed what went wrong during that battle.”

The pink-haired woman fixed the Mystral woman a stare at that. “That was a clusterfuck. Everything went wrong,” she bluntly replied. “Tactically, however, I can’t see much that any of us could have done differently except to have never engaged in the first place.” Of course, hindsight was always 20-20, and there was an argument to be made that it might have been impossible in the first place, given the Valheimian airship in play.

She got to the point. “You were already injured before the battle. You were coughing up blood and that thing cut you down because of it. What happened?”

”I meant the latter, yes. But no, I was not injured beforehand. The blood was from overstraining my body in attempting to save your lives.” Izayoi looked up towards the midday sun, frowning.

”That attack demands an excessive amount of fortitude from myself, both to keep time halted in a given area, and to move quickly enough to execute every strike while maintaining that magic.”

The Wild Dance wasn’t an attack she liked to have to use at any point in her career. Between killing her master and the start of the war, Izayoi could have counted with only half a hand how many times she’d been forced to utilize the one limit break that hadn’t been a technique passed down to her.

”I developed it to defeat the attack he would have slayed the rest of you with. Regardless, does that satisfy your curiosity? I will not be coughing up blood again lest I have to resort to it before I return to some measure of my full might.”

Enlightened, the Skaelan officer nodded her understanding. “Yes, it does. I wasn’t aware.” She considered the Revenant, and then their current skills, fully aware that they would likely face that thing again. “Then I will have to hone my own skills as well. Would you like a spar?”

”I would not turn one down, no. Live steel?” At Eliane’s nod, Izayoi reached for her sword.

___

”Huff…huff…yield?” Izayoi struggled to catch her breath as she put one foot on Eliane’s chest, her hand pointing the tip of her blade at the prone woman’s neck.

The duel had been a hard fought thing, far closer than she would have liked or expected. Neither woman was able to use their full strength, given the restrictions of live steel. Izayoi couldn’t risk her battojutsu against a target she wasn’t willing to kill, and similarly, Eliane couldn’t exactly shoot Izayoi. Nevertheless, Eliane earned her rank as Dame Commander, to be certain.

Flat on her back and breathing heavily from exhaustion, Eliane held up her free hand in a yielding gesture. “Yeah… I yield.”

Izayoi certainly lived up to her reputation. Although she had to yield in the end, it was a satisfying match; she was well aware her opponent was the superior swordswoman, and she knew that she had given a good accounting herself. All the better for practice.

Standing back up once Izayoi stepped back, she sheathed her sword and dusted herself off, taking a moment to properly catch her breath in the process. “That was enjoyable… we should do this more often.”

”Indeed.” Izayoi nodded, sheathing her blade. ”You possess no small amount of skill. A few more years of seasoning, and you may have given me quite the challenge at my peak.” She took a moment to wipe her brow once more.

”The others could benefit greatly from sparring with you, the younger ones especially. Do seek them out at some point.”

Eliane returned a small smile at that. Considering that her swordsmanship was only one half of her fighting style, that was no small compliment. “I will. I might not want to drill them like I would my own team, but with the trials we’re about to face, they do need the experience.”

Izayoi gave a slight grunt of agreement, turning as if she made to leave the courtyard.

”We’d not had the opportunity to discuss this, but you have my condolences for the deaths of your men. Take solace in the fact that your decisions had little to do with their passing.”

Eliane blinked, and then nodded. “Thank you.” With that, she turned to leave as well.

Bleach: Rise Of The New Generation

Ageha:

1. Snakes Without Sin
2. Tower Of The North

Iris Ascendis

Iraleth Kyrios

Iraleth grimaced in distaste as she beheld the Iris Record. Spectators? Really? This wasn't a competition to gawk and cheer at. This was life or death. Regardless of how many or how few there were, this was just obscene. What in Astra's name was the principal thinking? Nevertheless, she let herself be led to her waiting area.

A brief ping from her Adapa led Iraleth to check her mail, to which she tapped "woods" without further thought and turned away, falling to her knees and placing her hands atop her legs as she sat and waited.

Strategy. Iraleth had exerted herself as much as, or likely moreso, than Ciara throughout the day thus far, what with multiple uses of her Ethos. Fortunately, those hadn't been quite as full-burn as the previous day had been. Nevertheless, she wasn't quite fresh, no matter how much she'd taken the last few hours to rest and recuperate.

The witch wasn't stupid. She'd do something desperate to blot out light, give herself an advantage. That was fine. Iraleth was her own light. To be surrounded by shadow was expected. Both of them were melee fighters. Even if Ciara had any particular tricks at range, Iraleth had seen her fight already: she preferred melee. And up close? Iraleth was her better.

Ciara's best chance was to dictate the pace of the fight, suck Iraleth up into her rhythm. Conversely, so long as Iraleth powered through, this matter was finished. With the Inheritor's strength, that was a near guarantee. But it would also bear too much risk of striking a fatal blow. Iraleth's Ethos wasn't meant for anything but outright war. That idiot Bronsteel survived her yesterday by virtue of his contraptions taking most of the brunt of her blows. Professor Alto had still been her better, even with her Ethos. But if Ciara had any such protection or strength, she would have invoked it during either of those two battles. Or in the forest. No, Iraleth wouldn't call upon the Inheritor unless absolutely necessary.

Ten minutes passed, and Iraleth rose when she was bid to, following the guard into the arena without a word, her sword already drawn. They'd waited long enough. It was time to put an end to this matter.