Zool

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

She awoke with a deep breath, snuggling the thick, nice-smelling jacket up to her chin and almost dozing off again. Without even opening her eyes, she knew it must be still dark, for surely the eastern light would be doing it's best to ruin her half-asleep comfort right now. There she stayed for a while longer, but no more sleep was to be found. This is not the most optimal position for rest, her back told her. Who does this jacket belong too? her nose asked. Thank the lord we might go back to Valhiem and have a few days off, said the scabbing slash wounds on her waist and forearm.

When she finally opened her eyes, she saw a paling sky. Sunrise was approaching. After standing up, she stretched her arms and tried to work out the kinks in her neck and back. The coat she had in her hand was instantly recognisable and she smiled. Adam. Of course. He must already be up, she mused, although looking around, there was no sign of him.

However, something did catch her notice. Her sharp eyes saw a figure at the bottom of the hill. There was a person just standing there, and it felt like they were looking right back at her. And then she saw the red light - coming from the facial area - and it felt like she'd just been washed over by a bar-code scanner.

"Sacre bleu!"

Instantly, she turned and sprinted toward the temple, adrenaline flowing like white-water rapids. "EVERYONE!!!" she screamed as loud as her lungs could manage as she passed under the entrance. She kicked every door in the entrance hall open, shouting over and over, "THE NINJA! THE NINJA IS HERE!!!"

Could they even hear her in this massive place? She dared to run further into the main corridor to scream her lungs out yet again. But she dared not waste anymore time. There were still a few civilians in the temple who'd chosen not to go home in the night. Imagine if the ninja got inside the temple and she lost track of him in this maze of a temple? The havoc he could create! She could not - would not - leave the entrance to the temple unguarded! And so she ran back outside and stood her ground in front of the large religious building.

"Calm. Focus. Don't forget to breathe." The Olympic archer in her coming out. Come on, guys, she pleaded, her heart pounding.

By the time the metal ninja was in front of her, her weapons were brandished, crossbow ready and bolts between the fingers of the hand holding her dagger.

"Once a party of 9..." Yes, talk. Need more time. "There are less of you now. And the wizard girl will sadly not be joining you again either."

MacKensie gasped, her bottom lip shaking. "Lillianna."

"I had a lot of fun with her. A shame that her fragile wizard body could not last longer."

Her eyes watered and her legs felt weak. Her stomach churned. She even had to look away, chin-to-shoulder as his words shook her core.

"I saw how you survived Aurok. One of you gave your lives. I seem to remember snapping the neck of one of you too. Hmmm... consider those weaklings the lucky ones. Back then...? I was at less than half of my real strength."

Lies! she had to tell herself as her emotions channeled into anger. She looked back at the ninja, determined to be strong, fury fuelling her stand.

"NOW WITNESS THE TRUE POWER OF ZIGMUND MUGBA-ZARAK!"

His display was like he was daring her to call his bluff, but she refused to allow it to affect her building rage and mental strength. She did not avert her gaze, she used all the time that he would allow to keep building and building... Lillianna! ...and building and building... Clive! ...and building and building... Arthur!

His attack triggered her into action, she ran at him. But as he jumped and summoned the biggest weapon she'd ever seen, her agility and reflexes allowed her to react, although there was no possible way - not even with her speed - to completely avoid damage and she was knocked flying from the impact of the crashing attack. She bounced like a ragdoll as her body hit the ground, but the second time she hit the ground she was rolling back to her feet, ignoring the pain and ripped sleeve of her tunic. She ran towards a flanking position, firing off shots, then as she saw the roots come out of the ground, she realised who had joined the fight.

"Adam!"

And she reacted, firing her grapplehook at the ground between the feet of Zigmund, then leaned back and surfed the dirt at high speed into close quarters combat. If he moved, she would adjust. Once in range, she flew into dagger attacks and close range shots.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

I thought I would have time to post this morning and have MacKensie scream into the temple that Second Chance has company, but I will be busy with Mother's Day duties for me and my fella xD

I will post tonight, but if you need to go before then, assume MacKensie is alerted to the danger and has time to announce that it's party time! Or have your character sound the alarm. Anyway to help us all get realistically to fighting words xD

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

It was true; being a hero had an incredibly fulfilling aspect to it. Her parents had always taught her, "The key to happiness is purpose. The key to purpose is duty. The key to duty is discipline." Her mother had even once told her that even the beauty of marriage was almost as much about duty as it was about love. It had sounded so strange to her at the time. It still did. But when it came to this Gold Contract, the discipline and duty they had shown had brought them success. And a heroic purpose certainly did feel like happiness, even the with injuries and fatigue. In this moment, she felt an extra pride to be a Trydant. She missed her family so much, but she knew she would be making them proud, if they knew what she was going through.

"To be honest, MacKensie - and this is gonna sound pretty mad - but I'm over the whole 'getting hit by a bus' thing. Truly. I'm a pretty simple guy. Adaptable. And I'm here now, dealing with it. And I can live with that."

How!? A question she found herself asking over and over when it came to this man. Underneath all that bravado, it would seem that he really was as tough as he portrayed. Physically and mentally.

"...Especially with you around."

And always knew how to make her go red as a beetroot. Thank goodness it was dark and they were out of eachothers sight. After a silence that was very awkward for her, he continued, and she would agree quite emphatically. "Yes, I do not intend to go anywhere else in Valhiem until we find out what is in that Source Comm. I must know who or what is behind all of this." She was so deadly serious, but couldn't help but chuckle at the previous phrase that had been rolling around in her mind since he'd said it. He'd turned her special attack into a McDonalds icecream product. "A 'MacFlurry.' When do you have time to come up with this nonsense?" Her smile was for the dark, but indicative in her tone.

"Thanks too," he admitted. In her surprise, she looked in his direction, although from this position, she was simply looking at a view of stone. "For blowing up at me on the temple roof, this afternoon. With great power comes great responsibility. Sounds pretty damn cringe, but it's true."

"It is not cringey, I do not think," she answered sharply, straightening up with an air of haughtiness. "It is noble and dignified. We are heroes now and we must act accordingly."

"Being a hero ain't half bad. I'll try and take a little bit more seriously." And of course, he couldn't help himself and added, "A teeeeeny little bit."

She shook her head. "I suppose every journey starts with a small step in the right direction."

"How about you doll? You doing alright?"

She sighed. "I will be fine, I think. I am not so adaptable as you. Many things weigh on me. And I miss my family so much. My friends. My life. I am not sure if it is fortune or misfortune that; I do not have much time to dwell on these things. My problems in this world are as much as I can handle. But I can and will handle them. I will do my part for the success of our team. For the friendship and bonds we have."

"You manage to stop overthinking that problem of yours?"

"Oh, ummm..." And she thought of a way to lie without lying. "Actually, yes. And I have you to thank in many ways for it. Whenever I had time to think, my balance would fail me. My reflexes. My agility. The deaths of Clive and Arthur had made me so fearful of my life. I became so precoccupied with failure to execute my Ranger abilities. The more I was careful... the more I concentrated... the worse this problem became. I was certain I would never be able to be zooming and flipping around like I was in our previous battles. But I realised that in last battle just now: When thinking about every aim, every foot-placement, every precise angle of my grapplehook... it is impossible." Her mind went to when James called out to her to go get the phylactery. How she responded. "But when all of these thoughts simply cannot be organised - or even thought of, in the first place, for there is simply no time - that is when I can be MacKensie Trydant, the Ranger." She knew that he would understand, in spite of her long-winded and possibly confusing explanation. "I must sometimes trust 'not to think,' when it comes to my ability."

And now she was the one who could not help herself, and added, "I must be a mindless gorilla like you." She covered her mouth to hold back any noise of her laugh until she could control herself. "Now go and get some sleep, Zell Brooks. I hear it in your voice - you are dying in pain just to stand there. Go."

Whether he left or not, for her she would stand for a while longer at Temple Hill steps. Eventually she would grab her bedroll and make a semi-comfortable seat at the foot of the pillar, wrapping her cloak tight about her and maybe managing a few hours of sleep.

One thing was for certain: She would not be caught dead sleeping in that Temple. It creeped her out, to no end.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

MacKensie went to go and eat after leaving the shrine room. In the kitchen, she sat and processed Barracker's words, his emotions and his demeanour. What that led to was rather unexpected. She thought that sympathy would dominate her conclusion, but while that was most certainly present, it was not what grabbed her. What grabbed her was a momumental admiration for Barracker Kassel. How could a man whose life had taken such a bad turn manage to maintain such composure and level-headedness... such honour and unshakeable principles? It could have been so easy to throw away everything in the face of such persecution and prejudice. But he hadn't. He was a rock of righteousness. Of course, it could not escape her that he'd lost his true love in this process. Perhaps one day, when she knew him better, she might suggest - convince - that he should reconnect with Evelyne. In truth, it was none of her business, but she felt a duty to her sense of romance that she bring up that conversation one day in the future.

With everyone settling down to sleep, she decided to go outside to be alone. It felt like a victory in itself to just walk out of the temple entrance, after going in and facing what they did. There was pride too. Pride to be in such amazing company. Everyone in their group was such an unbelievable person of strength and character. She would die (again) for her new friends. They all meant so much to her and she would strive to meet their standards - to be worthy of them.

Her silent Ranger footsteps, in the night, made her nigh undetectable. This was probably how she managed to get to the steps of Temple Hill without alerting the other man out here. And perhaps it was her preoccupied mind that was the reason her Ranger perception did not sense him.

When Zell sighed loudly, "Eek!" MacKensie jumped out of her skin. "Zell."

Of all the people to run into, he was one of two she'd rather have avoided. Hard to run away now. "What are you doing out here? You should be resting your injuries." She shuffled a bit of dirt about with her feet, until finally deciding to walk around to the other side of big pillar he was leaning against, then mirrored him and leaned against the stone, lightly grinding her thumbnails against eachother and looking out into the night as they conversed.

"How are you feeling?"

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Clive's return is literally about to get a bunch of trialled and publicly executed. Also; First person to return from dead... twice.

All feats worthy of Clive the Legend xD

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

u've done a good job with him. He's the party do-gooder type. James is kinda that too, but with some extra layers and a crazy side. But Adam is strictly, reliably, consistently, plainly Mr Morality. Every party needs one of those.

@Saiyan

Ahem! MacKensie is of high moral character too, thank you very much! ;P

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Hi everyone, that was great writing from everyone. I loved reading the posts. I am so glad to be here and to be part of this group.

@ZoolI will write the idea we discussed ages ago, seems like a good time to get it out in the story.

@Jay009

As it is the end of the week and I wasn't sure if the story is getting pushed forward, I kinda rushed out a lot of conversational dialogue. But I've left lots and lots of gaps for you to insert whatever actions and dialogue you want into it all. And there's a lot of 'ifs' too, in case there's stuff you don't want to use. Please use my post however you want, control my character if needed.

If I messed up in any way, let me know and I'll edit xD

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

She felt that she'd not got across her point properly. The fact that; without Barracker here, this would not have been possible without another death in the group. Perhaps; victory would have been possible at all. And so when he disappeared through a door, she went after him. He was out of sight pretty quickly and she lost him, so it took her some time to catch up to the room he was in. And what she saw...

"Oh my gosh," she gasped.

She'd only ever seen him properly in full armour. And here he was with so much skin showing, such pale skin with such darkened veins bulging like leeches about to burst. He was shaking uncontrollably. And when he heard her involuntary gasp, she saw the eyes of a monster. A demon.

“MacKensie.”

That voice. That voice brought her from her mental hysterics. He was no monster. He was no demon. He was Barracker, their new comrade and friend. And when the Paladin turned away in shame, she felt shame herself, for even thinking all those bad things about him. And still.... even though her mind changed, her stomach did not. She was sad to admit that she was repulsed by him in this moment, and perhaps that made her overcompensate, because she marched straight up to where he was sat, leaned on his back and wrapped her arms around him.

"It's okay," she whispered frantically. "It's okay." She was terrified, repulsed, ashamed, determined, queezy... so many things, all at once. But she held on tight to him, fighting one set of sensibilities with another set of sensibilities. "It's okay, my friend." She was reassuring herself as much as him. "You are not alone. We are Second Chance. You need not turn away. It's okay."

She wasn't sure how long they spent in this position, but she was glad that he could not see her face, because she'd been white as a ghost for the better part of the pose. Her face would have betrayed her visceral reaction to him. But she calmed down the longer she held him. Any self-demeaning comments from Barracker would be wholly rejected by the Ranger. "You are not a monster. You are a righteous. You are a defender." Anything he said that denoted shame would be answered with equal gusto. "It is not your fault that you carry this affliction. You are no less a Paladin. The gods allow you. A hero who protects the innocent."

Once there was silence - once Barracker had accepted that MacKensie would not abandon him - she finally let him go and sat down beside him. She remained silent for some time, so anything he had to say, she gave him the floor to speak. If he said nothing, then she would sit in silence with him. If he spoke, she would listen intently.

If he had not answered these questions already, then she would pluck up the courage to tentatively ask:

"How did it all begin?"
"Is there a cure?"
"How has it affected your life?"

And finally, at the end of their conversation, she would let him know; "We are from another world. I died in my world. Second Chance really is my second chance at life. At companionship. Please, Barracker... let it be your second chance too."

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@SaiyanGet well soon, madlad xD

It seems to me we're in the same boat. I cannot, for the life of me, think of suitable ways to add to MacKensie's abilities that don't involve magic.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@Jay009 Also...

"James Sirius has brought down the power of Mother Iris from the heavens and I, Barracker Kassel, come with The Reaper, Hades, from the depths to meet her," - "And you shall be caught in the middle!"

“For someone so new to battle, you have shown your quality, my lady...”

“...Until then, if I may be excused, captain?”

It is so awesome having the most Paladin-y of all Paladins on the squad lol. Barracker is such a great addition to Second Chance xD