TheHangedMan

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

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Marduk

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Marduk chuckled at the antics of Lavinia, and was going to give her a thumbs up before realizing he still couldn't feel his right arm. He frowned for a moment, before quickly returning to a hearty grin and using his left hand instead. "Thanks Vinny, we'd be totally lost witho-" His attempt at humoring her was cut short as a loud boom drowned out his voice, accompanied by a crack of lightning in the shape of a man.

Emerging from the dust of his landing, Marduk's eyes narrowed at the new arrival. He was someone that Marduk knew, and if not well, then certainly more so than any of his guildmates. Ajax Thera, second ranked Wizard Saint and therefore, one of the current Gods of Ishgar. A formidable man in both power and presence, he was one of the few in the council that he felt wanted to do good.

Of course, how he went about it was always a matter of contention between them. While Marduk respected his power and his strict adherence to his moral code, the man was too harsh by far. He took justice into his hands far too often, and his classification of good and evil was as black and white as it got - and anyone he considered to be on the side of evil was shown no mercy.

To put simply, the man had an enormous stick up his ass.

The old man frowned as the man approached them. There are many ways he could think of him taking this situation, and very few of them were good for them. If Ajax decided that they were his enemies, there was absolutely no way they'd be able to stop him. Forget fighting him at full strength, let alone how injured they were at the moment, the man was in a league of his own. Even back when he was a Wizard Saint he would have second thoughts about facing him one-on-one.

For a hot minute it felt as though he might have to do so anyway as Ajax forced his usual charming self into Holly's personal space, only to be confronted by Grasidia. The stand off between the saint and the guilds S-class members got him to break into a cold sweat. His guildmate's were brave, and all of them had great potential, but they would have no chance against Ajax if they came to blows.

Thankfully, it looked like a fight with him wasn't in the cards today, as the man backed off, his tone changing at the last moment. It even seemed that they had earned his respect, which meant that they were in his good graces for the moment. It also appeared that he had realized that the thing they fought wasn't actually a dragon - which of course he would. The both of them had fought enough magical constructs to recognize them, and he was a dragon slayer besides. As he made to leave, their eyes met, and Marduk nodded as recognition flashed in his eyes.

Something would come from that, he was certain.

Once the man was out of sight, Marduk turned to the crowd that had gathered around them. "Alright people, kindly move out. The dangers' passed but we've still got work to do!" He turned to the Rune Knights. "We'll help you clean out the rubble and look for survivors. There's a fair bit of damage to the city, but we've managed to put the fires out so it won't be spreading further."

Marduk returned to his guildmates. "Luke, Cloven, Grasidia. Ready to help with the S & R?" He left out the others on purpose. The two boys were the least hurt and he needed Lavinia and Asher to look after the others who were injured. Grasidia's magic was also invaluable at clearing out the rubble. The sooner they were done the sooner they could return home and celebrate like mad.

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

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Marduk

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It... was over? By the Dragons and Saints, it was truly over?

Marduk looked at the where the 'dragons' corpse lay battered into the ground, defeated by the herculean efforts of his guildmates. The beasts body slowly began breaking apart and dissolving into the air. There his eyes narrowed. That wasn't natural, and in that instance he concluded that this was no dragon at all, but rather a construct. From that conclusion he reached another one - that if the dragon was indeed a construct, that meant there was someone behind the constructing. There could be more of those things lying around, or more in production.

He let out a deep breath. This bore investigating. For now however, he would simply enjoy this victory properly. With a grin, Marduk raised his arm into the air, and let out a cry of victory amidst the pouring rain.

Speaking of rain, he'd tend to Ria and the others. They needed to deal with the aftermath as well. It appeared Grasidia was of the same mind, as she immediately approached him. "Felix was badly hurt. Holly pushed herself too far as well. Gwen still hasn't shown up," he replied, neglecting to mention his own injury - there was nothing they'd be able to do about that. His heart ached as he looked at Felix. The fool boy! Why did he have to be so hard headed?

He sighed. There was nothing to be done now, except deal with the aftermath, and hopefully he'd learn his lesson. His eyes narrowed upon noticing Ria; she was shaking badly, and had to catch herself from falling over herself as she tended to Felix.

The old man threw his cloak over the girl, his left hand on her shoulders trying to stead her. "Easy Ria, don't push it. Take a break for a moment. I'll go look for your sister." He nodded at Grasidia, leaving her with the others as he found a place on top of a building to look for their absent member.

It wasn't long before he found her, lying down and surrounded, the ground around her covered in a thin sheet of ice and hoarfrost. Wasting no time, Marduk took a portal to her side, and placed a hand over her face, checking her vitals. Though it was shallow, she was still breathing. Her vitals were also fine. She had no signs of obvious injury, which puzzled the old man. Did she perhaps faint from exhaustion?

He placed a palm on her forehead and clicked his tongue, picking the girl up and making his way back to the others.

"I found Gwen, but she's out cold." Cold was an understatement. Her body was freezing!

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

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Marduk

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The guild was doing surprisingly well for the opening stage of this fight. Marduk hadn't expected them to catch it so badly off guard, and at times it felt like they were pushing it back.

The stronger members of the guild peppered it with magic and blows, doing everything they could to damage the creature. From the very start they moved at a frenetic pace, one he was only too glad to assist. He'd find debris and pelt it at the dragon. It wouldn't hurt the damn thing but it would serve as a distraction. Every single second where it wasn't focusing on his guild members was precious time bought.

He whooped excitedly when Lavinia managed to take out one of it's eyes. That some quick thinking from her, considering they had no time to coordinate that.

A quick scan of the field found Leon healing Grasidia. Good, where he close enough he would have nodded in approval, they needed Grasidia back in fighting shape as soon as possible. He frowned as Grasidia seemingly rebuffed him. What was she being stubborn over?!

In the meantime, Marduk positioned himself on a nearby rooftop, looking for a better vantage point. From there, he opened portals for fleeing civilians, in an effort to get them out faster. The sooner they were out of the way, the more space they would have to fight!

Perhaps it was feeling pressured by their constant barrage, or perhaps by virtue of its wild instincts, but in that moment the Dragon roared. The breath of flame was devastating in scope and shocking in intensity. Right away Marduk position a portal in front of him, letting the heat eject harmlessly behind him - however, the sheer heat radiated by the surrounding flames was sweltering, and perspiration dripped down his brow as the fire washed over. His vision went hazy with the heat and his breath labored from the lack of oxygen. It felt like an eternity had passed for what was only a moment of danger.

When he flames dispersed and his vision refocused, he was treated to the heart-stopping sight of Felix taking a roundabout method of suicide - via dragon.

He was about to move the boy out of harms way, when Zenith jumped in. Marduk sighed in relief, and privately resolved to speak with Felix after this was over, if Holly left anything left for him. He'd also have to apologize to her and Zenith.

"But," he shook his head, "that was for later." He had bigger things to worry about.

He'd thought they'd been making headway. The dragon was visibly affected, struggling even. It screamed, a horrible, deafining sound that physically bore down on him. His teeth clenched reflexively, and he opened portals right next to his eats to ease some of the pain, but even still, the pressure it exuded was unbelievable. Still, the danger passed and the dragon fell silet. Holly and the others could damage it, and Grasidia was doing a hell of a job holding it down. For moment it felt that they'd be able to end this soon, and get a resounding victory. Then the moment passed, heralded by a gout of flame.

More and more black thorns grew from its body, twisted and menacing, freeing it from the plant mage's grasp. As if to insult all of their efforts until now, the beasts wounds began closing, sinew and scale growing over them until it was as though they had never existed. The dragon lowered its head, and breathed.

What happened next was pure destruction.

He caught a glimpse of it before Grasidia's brambles rose up to protect him. The winds and flame buffeting the plant mage's protection was magnitudes more intense than the one he had powered through earlier. The scream that followed, he was better prepared for. The shield his guildmate created held well, but it did little to stop the next blow.

Rising into the sky and crashing into the earth like a raging deity, the earth rumbled and cracked, sending debris and shrapnel flying. Marduk's reflexes were not what it was, so though he managed to create a portal to get out of the blast radius, the old man felt his shoulder jolt and shudder, before pain shot through it.

He knelt down, looking at the limb. A line of rebar was sticking out from his right shoulder, red liquid blossoming outwards and trailing down. Marduk glared at the sight, before gripping the rebar and pulling it own. Fire magic quickly sealed the wound, and he looked to survey the damage.

The dragon had followed up its monstrous jump with an equally devastating swipe of its tail. He didn't have vision on any of his guildmates.

Marduk's teeth clenched in worry, until a blooms of red spikes appeared around the dragon, damaging it further. Lavinia's work, no doubt. Good, that was one confirmed safe.

Holly was not far behind either, and not to be undone.

The show of magic that followed in her wake would have troubled even a Wizard Saint. A hail of everything around it buffeted the overgrown lizard, knocking it every which way. It look like something he would have done in his prime!

But he was no longer in his prime, and he could not afford to sit still and watch either.

He watched Holly collapse, most likely from exhaustion, but he couldn't rule out an injury either. He created a portal right next to her, lifting her in a bridal carry and belted out orders.

"Luke! Keep that horny devil occupied!" Looking down at Holly, he said in a quieter voice. "Hold on lass, I'll get you to Leon. We'll get you back in the fight, don't you worry."

He created a portal into the air, free falling and eyes flicking through the wrecked battleground. His guildmates were battling hard, doing their best. They were beaten, bloodied, but still bringing the fight however they could. His heart sunk as he saw Leon, his hands full as it were. There was no way he would be able to handle healing Holly as he was now. His eyes flickered, back and forth between his comrades, mind racing and weighing his options.

Zenith, Felix, Leon, Lilliana, Cloven, Gwen, Lavinia-

"ASTORIA!"

Marduk roared stepped through a portal, right as she got her cyclone started. The old man set Holly down gently behind Ashers bulwark.

"Ria, she needs your healing. We'll run out of people that can hurt that thing at this rate!" His right arm had gone numb. The blood was coming out wrong. He ignored it. "You were stopping the fires right? Leave that to me. You and Leon are our only field healers. Focus on healing and let us do the rest!"

With that being said, Marduk could only hope Astoria knew what needed to be done, because he sure as hell didn't. He'd only heard about Ria's healing abilities in passing, thanks to Gwen. It was laughable: he'd known her longer, but he didn't know nearly as much about her abilities than he did Leon's. He was so fucking conceited wasn't he? For all that talk about bringing back that the old ways, he was really horribly inept at it.

Now he knew he had to make sure they won this: No way he'd be able to rectify that if he was dead.

This would take a helluva lot of concentration and more power than he felt he had. Taking a deep breath, Marduk surveyed the battlefield once more. Right now they were lacking coordination. They'd done well at the start by sheer virtue of their upper-tier mage's power, but that had been wasting the abilities of everyone else who had come. But magic power was not what determined a fight. Sometimes, all it took was a little courage. The determination to keep going, the resolve to just to show up. They had all shown that spirit, and he couldn't be prouder of them.

He would not let their spirit go to waste.

A portal opened in front of Zenith, sending the gout fire towards the dragons rear end.

A portal opened below Felix's unconscious body, dropping him next to Leon.

And smaller portals the size of a plate opened right next to Lavinia, Gwen, and Zenith. His voice echoed through them less than a second later:

"Gwen, load up all the biggest, baddest spells you've got. When you give the signal, fire below you and I'll open a portal from there to its ass ! We're sending this thing overgrown lizard to hell! Vinny, Zenith, join Luke! I'm counting on you three to keep that thing busy until then, do you understand?!"

His vision blurred. Not good. Need to focus.

He opened a portal next to where Cloven and Asher were.

"Cloven, find Grasidia! We need her help! Asher, protect Astoria like your balls depended on it!"

Hehehe, he was getting crude now. It's been awhile hasn't it? Well, might as well go all the way!

"MAGES OF FENIXTEAR, BITCH SLAP THAT DUMB FUCKING SORRY EXCUSE FOR A DRAGON!" Now, to put out some fires.

Realism no Mononoke: An Urban Fantasy RP

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Abe Yuuto

Burgeoning Onmyoji
_{Asahi - @RolePlayerRoxas}

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"You can add whatever Asahi is to that list president," thought Yuuto, resisting the urge to chuckle as the young woman hid behind him, much like Tomoko and Akari. It was also fairly embarrassing since she was really close but pointing that out would embarrass her in turn. Anyway, they had more important matters to discuss.

Th information provided by the spirit was worrying. At the very least it provided confirmation that the incident they were investigating was supernatural in nature. The information she had given that was invaluable - a woman spirit was here at the scene of the kidnappings. That was a huge lead, and something they'd have to follow up on quickly.

Yuuto's fist clenched and he took a shaky breath as the girl painted the scenario of that day. He could just imagine it. A child simply enjoying themselves, playing games, while blissfully unaware of the danger they were in. The child disappears and the parents look around, at first exasperate that their child had gotten lost, until that exasperation quickly turns to fear as their child fails to show any sign of himself, and no trace of them would be found for days and days.

This scenario had played out seven times now, he thought, and for a brief instant he saw red. His viewpoint overlapped with another's from a time long ago, carrying with it the emotions of that time.

The teen smiled at the ghost, trying to put on what he hoped was a reassuring smile. It felt so, so brittle to him. "Don't worry. We'll get to the bottom of this. P-president is reliable after all, and I'm rather handy myself."

First things first. They had to find that woman. It was likely that she was the culprit, but also a big chance that she wasn't, and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. If she wasn't the culprit, then at least they would have another potential witness. If she was...

The sooner they resolve this incident, the better.

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

Marduk

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A small portal opened up, the thermos going through it and ending up falling into his waiting palm. He nodded in appreciation.

On to the matter at hand, it was a fairly predictable that the others' would take issue with Felixs' inclusion, and honestly should anything happen to him responsibility ought to fall on his shoulders. The boy was right after all, it was at his word that he was included in the team, even if Holly did veto it. It was his own bias that prompted him to, because regardless of what they did, Felix would be Felix. To exclude him now would cause that resentment and recklessness to build up, if not now, then later when, or especially, when he was out of sight.

Marduk supposed this was simply one of the challenges of a magical society. The proliferation of magic tools might have given society as a whole access to the wonders of magic, but it simply didn't compare to being a mage yourself. Once the amount of personal power a mage held reached a certain point, the rules would inevitably change to suit them. Had Felix S-Class power on par with say, Torys' or even Holly, then regardless of experience there would be much less hesitation to bring him along. That he did not have that power did not make that point moot - rather it emphasized what kind of life he would be living from now on. These fights would be unavoidable, so why avoid them? Better to have an eye on him, then. It would be up to them to keep him out of trouble, and hope he grows from the experience.

If he voiced these thoughts, it would probably sound like shallow justification to them, but he did not feel as if he was wrong in this. Felix was in a rush, and he did not need them for the goal he had set for himself. If they pushed too hard, he could just leave, and that would benefit nobody and may even leave him in even more danger from himself.

He cleared his throat. "I'll keep my eye on him, so don't you worry Holly, Zenith. Leon, support them well. Focus on that, and keep your wits about you."

With his piece being said, he joined Felix outside, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Felix," he said gravely. "Your excitement is commendable, but I ask you remember what's at stake here. There's more than danger to us here - recklessness and failure mean that a dragon will run rampant in Era. Focus on what matters, let glory come later."

He hoped he understood him.

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Era. It had been awhile since he'd been here. He'd love to say that the city hadn't changed, but it was on fire.

The dragon was a sight to behold - every bit worth of the legends that came with its race. Gargantuan in size and the sheer pressure that came from its presence was stifling. The fact that it knocked them out of the air so violently did little to help that impression. As he got thrown out of the Grasidias' leaf, he opened a portal close to the ground, landing on his feet and facing the beast. He checked on the status of his fellow guildmates; safe thankfully, either caught by Grasidia or else recovered under their own power.

Speaking of Grasidia, they really ought to talk more. The girl had done a marvelous job for their initial contact, and even now was holding the beast down.

"Alright, let's try and lighten her load, shall we?"

There was an awful amount of smoke going around here. Be a shame if it got in that things eyes.

Marduk took note of the buildings on fire, the trails of smoke and the direction of the wind. Opening up wide entry portals over the smoke, the exits portals created were smaller, almost almost pin-sized, and were created as close as possible to the dragons eyes. Hopefully the pressurized smoke blown into its eyes would distract it for a moment.

"Holly, Zenith back up Dia! Leon, if you've got something to patch her up, do it! I'm counting on you to keep them fighting!" he barked, projecting as much authority as he could. "Felix, I'm leaving you to on search and rescue! Do not engage that lizard directly!"

Ah, his blood was pumping now. How long has it been since he's been under this much pressure? Not since he joined the guild, that was for sure.

Realism no Mononoke: An Urban Fantasy RP

Sad so see you go.

In other news, I'll be having a post up today,

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

Marduk

Ah, so clearly their young-at-heart guild master wanted them dead. Well, now was a good time as any to beg the council to take him back in.

Joking aside, the sudden return of Torys had been accompanied by some amazing news indeed. The week long drought of jobs seemed as though in preparation for this sudden storm of events. Their guild master certainly knew how to pick them. What happened next though, would be crucial. He'd never fought a dragon before - plenty of demons, a handful of dragonslayers (artificial or otherwise) and even a trio of godslayers, but no dragons. He knew how to fight them in theory, and even that felt like a daunting task.

Typically, only a dragonslayer could, well, slay a dragon. Their magic was specifically meant for it after all. Dragons were nigh impervious to magic, fiendishly strong, and their own brand of magic would match a Wizard Saint for power on average. Even in his prime...

Bah! No sense overthinking it. They would either do this or not. Now the question was how to go about- and they were splitting into teams already. Well then.

He shrugged and approached Zenith.

"Ah, looks like you'll be working with the old man, Zen," he said with a grin. Turning towards the rest of the throng, he hollered: "Holly, Felix, Leon? What say you?"

He didn't really have a plan for this team. It was chosen mostly on a whim, with whoever was left over, but it wasn't a bad composition by any means. Zenith was a capable fighter, Fenix was a talented youth, and Leon tried his best- erm, that is, he was the only one asides from Ria that specialized in supportive magic, which was invaluable in team excursions. There wasn't much that needed to be said about what Holly brought to the table.

Hmmm... he'd need to prepare himself as well, if he didn't want to slow them down. It's been awhile since he'd exerted himself in combat.

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

Since I forgot to mention them in the IC: @Anza & @hatakekuro, old man is talking to you.

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

Marduk

^{w/ Zenith & Lavinia}

Turning to Zenith, the old man acknowledged him with a nod just as Gwen arrived. "A good morning to you as well, Zenith m'boy. A mug of coffee would be fine, extra cream and sugar, please."

Like a rumble of granite, Marduk laughed for a moment as the elder Ria displaced her clothes, much to the dismay of her peers and to his amusement. Really, the girl ought to turn it down a little; dear little Vin looked as though she'd eaten a chili! As for himself, well, Leons arrival proved much more distracting. The poor boy was a bit of a klutz and his 'friends' were not so helpful in that regard. He frowned as the pixie made her displeasure known in a manner he rather disapproved of - there's disliking food, then there's wasting it.

He was just about to offer the boy sweets to help him out when Lilliana arrived and promptly defused the bomb known as Gwen by throwing a robe over her head. It looked like their Guild members were arriving one after the other now. Now Lilliana was a member he wasn't well acquainted with, which, while regrettable, was also unavoidable. The girl had scarcely been here for 4 months, and a forth of that time was spent away on a mission. Not to mention the girl was hardly the most social creature - case in point, she'd just disappeared into her room without another word. Even the times when she was at the guild she spent socially isolated. He really ought think of a way for her to open up to the others.

Marduk would rather not be too intrusive, but well, he felt it might do her a little good. On a more personal level, Fenixtear was founded on the old ways - where the guild was more a home and its members more like family, sometimes more so than the real thing. It didn't feel right to have any member stand apart from the rest, even if it was of their own volition. It would be a bad joke to say he wanted to change the way the council, and magic society as a whole, worked if he couldn't enact the those same changes in his very own guild.

"Well, at least Felix exists," he thought jokingly as he watched the boys efforts to grow stronger manifest in the form of asking for Ria's hand in sparring. The younger Ria sibling declined, of course, but he was certain that wouldn't dissuade Felix in the slightest. The boy would probably turn his attention to Leon or himself next. He'd be glad to help of course, but first things first...

"Ah dear Vin, the effects of your diabolical machinations on this guild bring this old man to tears," of laughter, "I suppose I must resolve myself to a life in your service. Woes me." He sighed dramatically and took a delicate bite of his sandwich. Turning to Zenith once again, he said: "These are really quite good Zenith. Nicely done."

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

Marduk

Tip. Tap. Tip. Tap.

The tip of his cane clacked quite audible on the floor of the guild as he walked towards his comrades gathered about the bar. The old man had just gotten up from slumber himself. He found himself sleeping longer and longer hours these days. He'd like to attribute it to age, though it might also be from the lack of activity going around. There hasn't really been much going on, the past week. He kept himself busy when he could of course, keeping house and generally watching the door, but such activities didn't really get the blood pumping, not to mention dear Ria (bless her heart) did her fair share of chores, which lessened the amount of work he had to do.

He considered asking her to leave a bit more to him. With how things were, he may just end up sleeping all day, then he'd be an old man in mind and in body!

"I see you're all up and about," he chuckled as he came into view. He heard them before he saw them, and nodded to them all. "A good morning to everyone. I hope haven't missed anything. Sometimes it feels like I sleep for days on end, ha!"

The old man pulled a seat next Lavinia, letting his cane hang off the backrest. The girl was being her usual self, which was to say amusingly evil, and Marduk gave her thumbs up. "So how goes your hostile take over of our unfortunate guild? Not well I hope, I quite like it as it is."