xenon

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Zool@Loksfjoer@Saiyan@Teyao@Zapdos@Jay009@Dark Cloud

Footsteps. My executioner.

Slow, repeated double-streams of steam continued to release from the lower part of Zigmund's visor. Soon, the Elite Unit of General Saladin's Scout Force, saw the man who would kill him. The ring of water absorbant roots began to sap the water amongst the blood all over Zigmund's armour, draining the last of his life force even quicker. A few spots of morning rain began to hit the ground. What little of the precipitation landed near the ring of roots would take that too.

Himmmmm.

Him. Such hatred surged within Zigmund that the twin-streams of steam breath was stronger upon sighting the Druid. The spots of rain went from very light to suddenly heavy. Such was the season in Mytheria. Sunrise had come. And morning rain was upon them.

The twin streams of steam began chugging quickly, as if Zigmund was coughing.

Adam aimed his hand and Earth Domain Source coalesced in front of his palm. The rained poured. Zigmund's chugging became loud.

It was not coughing.

"Huhuhuhaha..."

Adam's Natural Energy Beam fired and there was a massive explosion of force. Anyone within 20 feet of Zigmund and Adam were flung over 30 feet away.

As far as damage goes, those who were caught in the blast would take more damage from the landing after being flung than the explosion itself.

The rain poured hard and heavy. As the steam and smoke cleared, everyone would see Zigmund stood tall, holding Adam up high off the ground, by his throat. The ring of roots could not absorb the rain fast enough. Spinning blades of water upgrade-transformed to steel circulated and cut down all roots around them. Zigmund's body - armour included - was regenerating at frightening speed. The rain that bounced off his head, shoulders, arms and ground around his feet... became a perceptible barrier around his body.

"You thought you'd done it," Zigmund said to Adam as he choked the man. "You actually thought you'd defeated Zigmund Mugba-Zarak." He chuckled. "Let me see that Bear transformation again, Druid."

Anything Adam tried would be cut off easily and effortlessly. Roots from the ground - spinning blades. Another energy beam - a simple twist of his body or tilt of his head.

After a few more moments basking in the glory of complete and absolute power, he let go of the Druid's throat and let loose a hurricane of punches before the man had even hit the floor. Adam was sent flying by the last punch. Zigmund was quickly walking after him. He grabbed the man by his jacket began punching him into oblivion - face, chest, stomach - until he felt he'd gotten enough of an appetizer of the dish they call 'Revenge.'

Adam was bloody and bruised with broken bones. Zigmund's power was so much that Adam was knocked out, woken up and knocked out again, at least twice over. He would be out of the fight for 2 Rounds, or 1 Round with medical attention or healing magic.

Zigmund looked up at the rain clouds. Under his visor - his perfectly repaired helmet - he was smiling with glee.

There would no more chances for Second Chance.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Zool@Loksfjoer@Saiyan@Teyao@Zapdos@Jay009@Dark Cloud

How? When? That damned Druid. His tricks know no bounds. I was hasty. Foolish. And he was ready for me.

Zigmund had been taken completely by surprise. The last thing he expected was that Adam would be capable in melee combat, and so Zigmund's attempts to attack were so laced with shock that they were feeble and did nothing. Not even with his Strength boost. He could barely move to dodge or parry. Not even with his Speed boost. He couldn't do anything. And now he he was on the floor, shaking as he struggled to to stand, lamenting how badly he'd played his cards this battle.

He even Shapeshifted back to his human form. Right as I was ready to counter a Bear-form charge with my Explosion attack.

Adam had indeed been smart or lucky not to continue in his ferocious Shapeshifted form. Giving in to the loss of self-conscience that usually comes with a first-time attempt at Shapeshifting would have given Zigmund a chance at an eventual counter attack that would have been regrettable for the Druid - The same counter attack that began the demise of Aurok the Maneater.

"I think this is as good a time as any to finish this fucker, once and for all. What do you say? Let's fucking do this!"

"Heh...Couldn't have said it better myself. Let's."

Zigmund took his eyes from the fiercesome Adam and looked to see the four adventurers who formed another wave of assault.

The unswattable fly. The one who I killed. The blue whirlwind. The loudmouth with MY sword. I'm in bad shape but I can contain them. Just wait for the mistake.

Magical water pauldrons covered his forearms for blocking purposes. His left fist remained covered in a steel punching weapon. His right hand formed a water blade upgrade-transformed to Titan Rock. Zigmund let them come to him, remaining perfectly still until the first attack on him burst him into action.

With blocks, parries and attacks, he fended off the main three as best he could. But with their enchanced power and teamwork, and the constant threat of Fenna on the perimeter, Zigmund could not keep up. MacKensie's head on attacks would draw his attention enough that he was off balance enough to have to pick his poison: Be struck by Zell and The Black Sword, or hit with a kinetic haymaker from Clive. He managed to hit them back occasionally, but slowly and surely he was losing. Fenna's precise and patient attacks seemed to land every time, whether they did respectable damage or not. Clive's kinetic punches would ripple through his body when they landed. Zell's attack's were prioritized to be blocked, due to the power of the sword. MacKensie's accurate targetting of his weak points were forced to be priorities too. But even the latter two landed sometimes.

The flurry of fighting would leave Second Chance with injuries. Zell was stabbed right through the leg, entry wound and exit wound. Adrenaline would only mask it for so long. MacKensie was punched in the eye. Over the course of the action it would swell shut. Clive's lack of technical prowess compared with the other two meant that he took the most damage. He would have to wear broken ribs and a grievious stab wound high up on the chest, next to the shoulder, and another deep laceration under his armpit that was bleeding badly. Fenna's wise strategy of patience meant that she escaped any injury in the chaos.

After parrying Zell, only for the man to back out, catch MacKensie's hand and swing her around to come in with a strong flying kick - Zigmund barely had time to get his hand up and only half blocked it, the head-kick making him stumble sideways into Clive, who socked him with a kinetic punch that slammed him into the ground.

Zigmund hurried back to his feet as Clive came at him with a kinetic combo that hurt even to block with magical pauldrons on his forearms. And that was just the beginning. Both the other two came over the top of Clive - Zell first, slamming a powerful aerial strike down on Zigmund who could only block it enough to save his own life, diverting the aim at his head onto his shoulder. The dark steel-orichalcum alloy of The Black Sword cut his shoulder deep, creating another splash of blood.

"Argh!"

And then MacKensie who'd come over the top of both Clive AND Zell, fired a bolt that penetrated his helmet and lodged into his skull, then landed behind him and thrust her dagger into his side.

"Arrrgh!"

Fenna's patience was once more rewarded and her thrust came next, right into the chest of Zigmund.

"Urrgh!"

I am done. Defeated. How it is possible for one of my calibur to so CONTINUALLY underestimate my oppoenents? Regret is pointless - but it will haunt my afterlife.

All adventurers backed off a step as Zigmund, who was clearly finished, managed to stumble a single step before crashing to the floor. His pain could be heard as he lay on his side, plate steel armour covered in blood and water. He strained loudly just to turn onto his back, steam blowing from the lower part of his visor, signalling heavy, labored breaths.

Your majesty... I've failed you.

All that was left was the killing blow..............

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Hmm, does the backstory need to reference the lore? Or can it be disconnected?

@Ariana Grey

Hi there! I sent you a PM to talk further.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

<Snipped quote by xenon>

At this point we are just tossing around a corpse. 😂

@Dark Cloud

Rofl still, no auto-hits unless you get a PM unique for the round!

I will get Saiyan to edit his his post to "If Clive throws punches, then Zell..." rather than "When Clive throws punches, then Zell..."

If you post with that in mind, it should make sense by the time Saiyan gets the message.

Enjoy!

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

The way Zapdos and Saiyan's post have started the round, I'm guessing there will be no room for Zigmund responses this time. Interesting turn of events and I look forward to seeing how everyone integrates into this!

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Teyao@Zool

Just like MacKensie: Zigmund was brought back from his stupor by James yelling. His head turned sharply toward the Cleric and the impending danger in the form of a Ranger and an anchor flying toward him.

Fast but not fast enough. Not as smart as I thought, yelling like that. Bringing me back to my senses.

His body turned to wat-

What!?

The molecules of his body blinked into H2O and right back to flesh and steel, his very being feeling the handcuffs of the Counterspell.

That insolent little...!

Zigmund adjusted instantly, throwing up crossed forearms in an X-shape, a Water Ward materializing just in time for the giant anchor and a hail of iron bolts hitting it. The anchor was of the Water Domain for sure - the large weapon sticking to the ward, grinding as it tried to break through, bits of hoarfrost covering the weapon and turning bits of Zigmund's shield to ice. At the same time, the bolts of MacKensie were hitting the shield and chipping shards of ice off it.

As the combined attack ended, Zigmund stumbled backward and his Water Ward disappeared. The armor on his forearms was full of cracks.

That was close. How does a weakling of a Cleric so powerfully wield the weapon of the Deep-One Reaver before him? It doesn't make s-

He wasn't allowed to finish his thought, because the blue blur that was MacKensie zoomed past him, even faster than before. Last sighting she was high up and medium-range distant. Now she was speeding low on the ground and right by him. And let off a hail of close range shots that he had no chance to counter. So many bolts. Half of which left little dints in his armour. The other half found the cracks that her fellow Ranger, Fenna, had created and burned into flesh. Some even found the new cracks in his forearms. Point blank power, they buried deep into his flesh.

"Ugh-ugh-ugh-ugh-ugh-ugh-ugh-ugh..."

The sheer force pushed him stumbling sideways. The attack felt never-ending, so he reached deep into will to power threw himself out of the line of fire, diving and rolling back to feet, but limping a little.

@Zool@Loksfjoer@Saiyan@Teyao@Zapdos@Jay009@Dark Cloud

I am... losing?

Blood and water now bleeded more obviously from his waist, abdomen and a single forearm. But he was by no means done.

Zigmund Mugba-Zarak will not be defeated so easily! Not by these novices! This I swear to her Her Majesty!

He let out in intimidating shockwave of steam that rushed past everyone on the battlefield, then activated another Strength and Endurance boost. The shockwave would do no damage, but it was enough of a show to allow him a single free attack at his closest enemy.

He launched himself at MacKensie and hit her with a head-punch, body-kick and spin-kick combo that sent her to the ground.

Activating his final boost - Speed - he walked toward to the floored MacKensie, listening out for her party members to rush to her aid, then dropped another small steam bomb.

Out of the steam he rushed at great speed towards his real target.

Now Druid: Let's see how you handle close-quarters combat!

The steam bomb ploy would undoubtedly give him time alone with Adam. And unlike Fenna, he was caster - A Mage - a handful of seconds would be all that was required. With Strength, Endurance and Speed Boosts - Adam would need a miracle to survive the pain that Zigmund was about to unleash on him. Around the ninja's fists water formed punching-gauntlets. One his toes and and knees, water formed puncture-spikes. Then all weapons upgrade-transformed to steel.

Time to end this pain in my neck for good.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Oh God, why are there so many puns!

@Teyao

First Jay with the Second Chance pun. Now the writer of James says Oh God?

A new challenger has arrived!

And there I thought we were in danger of it all getting a bit watered down.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

I added a small little change to my post, one that I knew I was missing.

@Dark Cloud

Rofl I love it, buddy! That's a Clive line, right there!

And - not to rain on your parade, but...

It never takes much to start you guys off on your puns smh lol.

@Zool

Too late, we're flooding the OOC!

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Dark Cloud

The vampire is down, at least. Now where is that Druid? There. He must go next.

But then something else caught Zigmund's attention. His ear turned towards the sound of...

Horses. Multiple, judging by the volume. Wait. No. Just one.

A faint red light rippled outward like an ever growing sphere to cover the entirety of Temple Hill. It was difficult to see as the orange light of the sun crept over the eastern horizon.

A Source Crystal User. Must be a villager I'd not accounted for. With two adventurers down and the Druid about to be next, they should be no problem.

But then he saw the horse and rider clear the summit of the hill, the horse whinny signalling their arrival on the battlefield. And the horse was itself was quite the sight, all on it's own. Zigmund had never seen anything like it. He simply had to assume it was some kind of Light Domain Magic Boost at work, for speed or protection.

But while an unobserved phenomena of a steed was enough to tingle a sense of anxiety, nothing could possibly compare to the spike of anxiety, anger and confusion at THE RIDER!

"You! How!?" Zigmund involuntarily took a step backward. "I killed you! I Felt you die in my arms!"

"Life is getting up one more time than you’ve been knocked down. An' I came back to be sure you never did."

Zigmund took yet another step backward, so shocked that he had no reply.

There was no more time for talking as Clive charged toward him and lept from the horse and served Zigmund a punch that sent the Elite Scout Unit flying. Then he tumbled and rolled across the ground for a length almost as far as he flew from the initial kinetic power. He couldn't dodge the punch. He couldn't even gracefully and quickly get back to his feet. He simply and slowly rose after spending a second in stillness. He was still shocked. There was a long crack up the side of his metal head-piece.

What am I fighting? What are these people from another world?

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

I'm not super pleased with what I wrote but I did my best.

@Dark Cloud

It was awesome! Clive the Legend, back in the game!