Forum Wars - Civil War

On board the Armstrong, things were looking grim. Vincent Kilmister was hunched over a control panel in the back of the cockpit, flicking a seemingly random sequence of switches - random at least to the untrained eye. His droid, the Armstrong's mechanic NV-32, looked over his shoulder. Vincent sighed.
"What did you say the damaged feeds were again?" he asked his metal companion.
"Answer: Feeds C and E, master," came NV-32's reply.
"Well, that'd explain..." Vincent trailed off as he flicked another two switches. A low hum filled the air and the ship's interior was suddenly bathed in dim red light. The backup generators were online and they had emergency power. NV-32 was at the computer terminal as soon as it finished rebooting, activating a full ship diagnostic.
"Analysis: Master, it would appear that the primary generator and both ion engines are damaged. It will take approximately one 24-hour day to complete repairs. However, the coolant system is irreparably damaged and we do not have enough spare components to install a new coolant system."
This was bad news. Spending a day planetside to fix up the engines was fine, they had enough supplies on board for a few more days yet. However, finding replacement parts for the coolant system could prove to be a nightmare, especially on a planet like this with relatively little advanced technology.
"OK, I need you to stay here and get on with repairs. I'll venture out and see if I can make contact with some non-hostile locals who might be able to point us in the right direction. It'll take a bit longer to finish the other stuff without me around, but we won't get getting very far without that coolant system... we probably wouldn't even make it to orbit without overheating."
"Answer: Affirmative master. I strongly advise caution, however. If you require anything, please contact me."
With his gun ready just in case, Vincent opened an access hatch near the centre of the ship. Another hatch beneath that allowed him to drop down to the planet's surface. He looked around at the wasteland they'd found themselves in. Interestingly, he heard sounds of battle coming from the direction of the tower which shot him down. Maybe the tower's occupants had mistaken him for enemy reinforcements, or something. At any rate, there had to be someone friendly in this warzone. He began walking, aiming slightly to the left of the tower, hoping find someone at the edge of the battle. He hated having to enter such a dangerous situation, but there really was no other choice. The next settlement could be dozens or even hundreds of miles away for all he knew.

 

​

Ien had been made to regret her attack almost the instant that she had done it. Having completely missed the slash, she was in quite the predicament now as the man was at her side, and there was still some lag time before she could bring her sword to defend herself from the mighty blade of this beast. As such, she had lightning charge through her body once more to heighten her own speed, as she swiveled her body to face him and jumped back and away from the blade. Of course, while her reaction was quick, the blade still had left a slash mark across her side, and blood started to flow out from the wound. A pained expression briefly crossed her face at this injury, but there was no time to take her attention away from the fight. Knowing that he would simply do what he did before and gain a large momentum off of a relentless charge, Ien couldn't afford to let something like that happen again. As such, she charged her blade with electricity, having it crackle with the blue lightning once more again, and she herself charged electricity throughout her entire body in order to have her speed greatly increased once more. Rather than blocking against his slashes, Ien started slashing back, meeting each of his strikes head on with one of her own. As such, the two continued to be evenly matched as their blades clashed against each other.

Ien recognized that this only delayed the problem, however, as the man's own blade had the greater reach, thus making it harder for her to even attempt to close the gap between them. However, she would not accept defeat so easily. She was to become the Storm King of legend, a swordsman without equal, a being whose very power was unmatched against any and all. To lose to such a feral creature like this, especially in a sword fight, was not something she could accept. And so, electricity continued to charge through her, keeping her at a constant boosted speed, as she set to shatter the momentum this man was trying to establish.

After clashing with another of his slashes, Ien stopped wielding Raikiri in both hands, and as she did, she reached to her side to grab the scabbard at her side. When the man came back in for one more slash, Ien attempted to both dodge the blade and parry it away with her scabbard at the same time; after doing so she then struck at the man with her lightning charged blade and then proceeded to go into her own flurry of blows. Continually going to parry the blade with her scabbard and slashing with Raikiri, she had continued this process in her frenzy for many times until things seemed to come to an abrupt stop. Sweat was profusely dripping from her forehead as her wound hadn't quite stopped bleeding, and was no screaming at her. The over use of Shippu Jirrai (speed boost thingy), had left her somewhat exhausted and there was no way she could keep the same pace that she had prior. Needless to say, this was a bit of a problem.

 

Throda Bronzebeard's PoV:

As the stocky dwarf was entering the tower, an explosion threw him sideways. Snarling, Throda pushed himself back onto his feet. "Somebody take those projectiles out! Some of us aren't talented vertically." This was the closest Throda would ever get to calling himself short. He slung his shield upon his back and was about to enter the tower when he heard a wrathful racket behind him. A young soldier was charging towards him, axe held high, all the while screaming at the top of his longs. The Hammer soldiers moved to intercept, but Throda waved them off. With a casual swing, he deflected the soldier's swing and grabbed his collar, pulling him in close.
"I like yer style lad," he said with a gruff grin, "the art of surprise is for pansies."
The befuddled young Shard was at a loss.
"Keep up the good work boy! Practice makes perfect!" Throda shot him a friendly wink.
A confused smile began to spread across the young man's face...
Then his eyes rolled back in his head, Throda's head making heavy contact with the much younger warrior.
The kindly dwarf set him to the side, hopefully out of harm's way and entered the tower.
Throda looked around the room, which resembled a basement. An ancient basement, he thought, brushing a cobweb out of his face. "Well, start at the bottom I suppose, then make our way up. Worked for my father, pretty well." Throda chuckled. He continued to peruse through the dilapidated room while Jayce spoke to Vasher and The Black Rose. "Blast doors eh?" he asked, stroking his beard, "that actually does sound a bit tricky. Not all doors can be knocked down I guess," Throda lied. You just need a big enough hammer. "Well I, speaking for all of us, am tired of this scenery. And I may not be the best at, err, stealth takedowns, but I can still open a door." The dwarf picked up a large barrel, hoisting it above his head and hurling it at the basement door with a mighty roar.
He turned back to Jayce and the soldiers, a devilish grin on his face.
"The art of surprise is for pansies."

 

"Stop right there, intruder!"

BANG!

The Shard soldier was down, a gaping, bleeding hole where his heart used to be. Some fool hiding behind the barrels had decided to come out and play. He hadn't played for long until his bedtime. As Jayce lowered his arm, he heard the unmistakable crash of Throda bashing through the basement door. The dwarf was barring his shining teeth at Jayce and his soldiers.

"The art of surprise is for pansies."

"Let's hope the noise keeps the heat off of Rose," Jayce patted the dwarf on the back, leading his soldiers up the staircase.

They emerged in one of the corridors of the tower. The left would take them to the entrance hall, the way they would have come in if they weren't murdering the inhabitants. It would also take them to the staircase, no doubt still blocked by the blast door. Still, he had his best man (and woman) on the job, so it wouldn't be secure for much longer...

Or would it? He had no doubt Rose was currently carving a path to the control room, but what of Kalak? The only response he'd heard back from his nephew was a strange growling sound, followed by the clashing of sword on sword. He was no doubt locked in some conflict, most likely with one of the Shard's upper-tier warriors. He hoped the lad was okay. He didn't want to lose the only family he had left.

You still have-

"No, I don't," Jayce muttered under his breath, before turning to his troops.

"Lieutenant Rin, take half-a-dozen men and assault the armoury. Distract their troops as long as you can, then pull back to the blast doors at the staircase. We need to buy time for my assassin to reach the control room."

Rin saluted her commander, dragging her forces along with to the armoury... most likely to certain death. Jayce had no idea how heavily guarded the armoury was, but it wasn't a sure victory without Kalak alongside them. They just needed to give Rose her window of opportunity.

"The rest of you, with me! Let's go get the b**** who keeps blowing up our troops!"

A round of cheers emerged from his steadfast warriors, as they began the charge to the upper floors.​

 

Ran ignored the woman and focused on focusing the stick. Suddenly the rod thrummed and guided Ran towards the Airship. It was glowing brightly, that was good "Just as I thought, there's valuables on the airship" Ran looked around with his goggles it appeared that most of the forces of the Order of the Hammer were out of the airship by now, although a sizable section of the guard were still there "Cover me" He muttered to the woman as he began to skitter towards the airship, trying to stay as stealthy as possible.

​

"Sad? On the contrary miss, I find no greater pleasure than serving someone, it is how I was made" The woman suggested they go somewhere safe, which was probably a good idea come to think of it. Golly, wasn't his mistress smart! "Indeed my lady!" Timothy quickly scooped up the woman and began to run on mechanical legs away from the battlefield. Once they were safe Timothy put her down again "Apologies but as you quite rightly stated, it wasn't safe there" They were far away from the tower now, behind an ashy dune. "If you do not mind me asking, and without meaning to sound rude, who exactly are you?"[DOUBLEPOST=1452352478][/DOUBLEPOST]Jayce Reaver's earpiece crackled as a new voice came through, a feminine voice. This voice spoke calmly but with hints of bitterness, but its sound was harmonic and melodic, almost as if in time to a silent tune.

​

"Hello Cousin" the voice greeted "So sorry I've arrived late, I was dealing with an bit of dischord caused by the Shards in the West. You'll be happy to know the deviants have been dealt with" The voice was not apologetic, and gave no hints that it cared about Jayce's happiness to recieve this information "I'm sending the Knighthawks in now and will shortly be arriving at the Valiant to survey the battlefield". Ashleigh looked down upon the battlefield from the hill she and her horse were sat atop. The horse, its name was Symphony, was black as coal with glowing purple eyes, nobody was quite sure where she managed to find it. But even odder were the two heavily armoured figures with her, the Knighthawks. Ashleigh herself was not sure where they'd come from (not that she'd admit this) but they were fiercely loyal and that was all that really mattered. "Anthem I want you to go assist the insurgents infiltrating Sky Tower. Requiem, stick with me. We'll be heading into the Valiant, I'd rather stay far from the actual battlefield" Ashleigh spurred on Symphony and began to ride towards the airship, the Knighthawk called "Requiem" following closely behind. Suddenly she stopped as she noticed a lone figure wandering around the edge of the battlefield, "Stay in front, Requiem, I don't know who this could be" Slowly they approached the figure, he looked strange, almost as if he was from another planet "Halt!" She called "You are approaching a contested region between the Order of the Hammer and the Shards of Hope, which faction do you belong to?" In front of her the Knighthawk raised his polearm threateningly to the figure.

Meanwhile the Knighthawk named "Anthem" was rushing into the battlefield. It came across a group of enemy soldiers who were not expecting attacks from this direction and Anthem easily dispatched them all with deadly wave of its pike, cutting a swathe through the lesser humans. When it reached the tower it was a simple matter of following the path of destruction the dwarf had caused. Upon hearing the mighty roar of Throda Anthem responded in kind. The Knighthawk let out a deep, low tune that echoed around the tower, it was a powerful purcussive sound that easily drowned out the dwarf's voice. As the sound waned the heavily armoured figure arrived in the room, silhouetted in the shadows, its glowing purple eyes hinting of something not quite human. It stared straight at Throda, towering above the short bearded man. For a while he just glared threateningly, before reluctantly bowing.

 

​

Kala felt herself picked up suddenly, and gasped when the mechanical man started running. It was fast. She giggled, staring at the ground as it rushed past, forgetting to be bothered by the fact that someone had touched her, was touching her. "I've never gone anywhere so fast in my life!" When the mechanical man set her down, she danced and twirled for a moment to get rid of her exhilaration. "That was amazing!" So excited was she, that she almost didn't hear his question. "I'm Kala! And Kala is me!" She stopped twirling to look back at the mechanical man. "Do you not like people either?" She asked Timothy. After all, from his words it appeared that people enslaved him.

 

Corruption: 18%

Vasher had never met a mortal like this before. Even as he was beating down upon her with vicious strikes that would normally fell anyone that he faced, she refused to die. Instead, she counterattacked, wielding her scabbard to block his strikes. For once, the savage warrior was forced to stop his offence. Instead, the Demi-God stepped back, a look of fury etched on his face. Each of her strikes came in as fast as his might do and even as he attacked, she parried and got closer to him. He couldn't defend fast enough. It was a desperate effort to manage the strikes that she was making. Slowly, but surely, she got closer. With every step his main advantage disappeared. He couldn't think of what to do at this point. She had the tools to deny him his main advantage, and defence wasn't his strong suit. He had to think of something. That scabbard... It was easily the most annoying element. Vasher started changing his attacks, focusing his attacks on her sword arm's side. She couldn't effectively block and attack. The heavy onslaught continued and he was still forced to take steps back. One thing he knew for sure- He could last longer than this girl. He was a Demi-God! He was more than that! He was ancient and powerful! This body might be young, but the spirit inside knew more than they could possibly know! Secrets beyond imagination!

An attack slipped through. Somehow, the girl had reached him and with a slash, cut into his armour across his stomach. There was a scything lance of pain as she broke the skin. It was nowhere near fatal, though it pained him, but it was a hit. An impossible hit. A hand fell from Duskfall and he touched the wound, to see if it had truly hit. It had. Blood lay on his hand. He looked up. The girl charged one more time. He threw himself to the side, rolling and getting back to his feet. Then, the girl had stopped. He saw her exhaustion. Sweat poured down her face and she looked out of breath. Vasher stood to his full height and snarled.
"I am from the Age of Gods, girl. I shall not be denied!" Vasher roared. He sheathed Duskfall on his back and extended both of his hands out. Twin swords appeared in his hands. He would have to change his fighting style. While she wasn't going to be as quick, he would overwhelm her now. Duskfall was fast in his hands. These lighter weapons would be even faster.

Vasher would carve the girl to pieces for her nerve.

He charged her again, a bellow howling from his lips. He leaped into the air and swiped downwards as he approached. Upon landing, he became a furious whirl. The twin swords rained attack after attack upon her. The red light in his eyes glowed brighter than before. Vasher could feel Kalak trying to get some word in, some say in action, but crushed that. It wasn't time for him. He could take over again later. Right now, he had to make this woman pay for humiliating him in such a way, Now that she was exhausted, he would drive her before him with an unceasing flurry of blows. He would knock that sword and that infuriating scabbard away from her. Then, she would die alone upon this battlefield. He would see to that.




Carissa couldn't get a shot off at the moment. She stepped up and fired one bolt before the fire below turned to her. She gritted her teeth. The situation was getting progressively worse. More and more were breaking through and there was nothing that she could do now. The tower itself would need defending inside. They were vulnerable to attack. If they didn't hold them off then... They were going to die. What was everyone else doing? They had to hold this, yet nobody seemed to be bloody helping! It was as if she, Ien and Aster of all people were the only ones that were trying to defend this. If they won, she was going to execute them unless they started to put in. Albeit, at this rate, she wasn't going to get the chance. Something gave her the impression that this battle was lost. She had no idea about Aster's progress in that stupid bet, which she started to regret. Her head wasn't in the game now. She shouldn't have distracted herself. The Huntress stayed down for now, biding her time. Those soldiers would report if something was coming. That would give her time to prepare. She gripped the crossbow that bit tighter.

Carissa Kill Count: 20​

 

▂▃▅▇█▓▒░۩۞۩ ۩۞۩░▒▓█▇▅▃▂Shards of Hope▂▃▅▇█▓▒░۩۞۩ ۩۞۩░▒▓█▇▅▃▂


Onamakritos had followed Carissa, unsure of what to do or what the plan was. He was attempting to analyze the situation, and Carissa had been shotting the people below. He was trying to figure out what attack he could use from all the way up here. "Fire God Slayer Secret Art: Flame God's Explosive Flame." Onamakritos got into his battle stance and a giant black ball of flames was shot out at some of the soldiers they were shooting at Carissa.

"Captain, we're going to be flanked soon. We should go down there and fight it out, there are two of us, uh, Ma'am."


[♥]]] [♦]]] [♣]]] [♠]]]The Order of The Hammer[[[♠] [[[♣] [[[♦] [[[♥]

Theodosia followed behind Jayce, using her pistol and runes when necessary. "Dark Écriture: Suffering." She used her Quill to write this attack on a group of soldiers, who put their hands and screamed in anguish.

Spoiler

"Commander, may I suggest that when you go to fight Carissa you do a duel, you against her in a duel to the death. That gives the rest of your men time to plunder the rest of their resources and take over the tower as you keep her busy. That also gives the men she was blowing up a chance to recover since whoever is up there with her will stand down since this would be the deciding battle, that is if they are truly men of honor."

 

Throda Bronzebeard's PoV:

The dwarf cheered alongside the other men, inspired by their glorious leader. "Blood n' guts boy, blood n' guts!" Throda laughed primally. He turned to exit the basement when he was accosted by a large creature who seemed to lack common courtesy. The threatening stance was not lost on the dwarf, but Throda decided to ignore it anyways. "Good to meet you, that was quite impressive, that, uh, sound you made." Throda awkwardly smiled, "well that interaction was weird..."
He made a mental note that the armoured figure had failed to check his surroundings before entering the room. Amateur.

The lady from the bridge finally spoke up, despite her status as a secretary, Throda had noted she did appear to be doing fine amidst the discord of the battlezone. She made a suggestion to Jayce, that he should engage "Carissa" in single combat. Whoever that was, mission briefings were for pansies. Just kidding kids, stay in mission briefing meetings, those are important. "An interesting idea for sure, but perhaps we might end the battle quicker if all..." Throda attempted to count the people in the room but quickly gave up, "if all ... er, of us attack her and end her quickly. We should be able to overcome her in a matter of minutes, based on the situation on those battlements. From there we can sweep up the remains of Shards who are still fighting."

 

​

The Andaran prince had succesfully covered the two non-combatants away from the danger having collected a significant portion of the blood price he had come to collect. Either side seemed to be completely oblivious to the man reaping the lives of others oh so ar from home. He hadn't thought his position had been optimal but he had been proven wrong. The battle seemed to turn into the attackers favour, the Hammers would win, the victory would probably boost their morale and they would most certainly come back for the Andaran Highlands, something he could not allow. There were still a good amount of troops outside, more than he could take on by himself but he could atleast assist as the troops were trying and to be fair succeeding in pinning the defenders on the walls. The Andaran Prince took a deep breath and stepped up his game, firing as quickly as his weapon allowed him to fire accurately. If they hadn't noticed him before, he doubt it would make much of a difference to increase his rate of fire. A soldier's throat was ripped open blood gurgling, another had the round slam in the side of his skull just next to his eyes, another had the round tear into his chest. The Prince kept on firing his rifle booming with every shot, but he figured that in the sounds of battle it would be drowned out.

 

​

Lucien had simply been following behind the group of Hammers who were being lead by Jayce and Throda, that had just been tearing through everything they saw. Lucien didn't really feel the need to do much at the moment, as the situation seemed to be pretty much under control, and spawning unnecessary enemies in a space like this was pretty much against the rules anyway. He eventually made his way to the front of the group as they had started to discuss just what needed to be done about the whole situation, especially in regards to Carissa. After Throda spoke he said, "ah come on, my stout stalwart comrade, just overwhelming her with numbers like this ain't any fun at all. Besides, knowing the shard's tenacity, we'd probably just lose a bunch of these guys before actually getting the kill." Waving his hand as if to dismiss the idea he then said,
"it'd probably be just be better if we took her on with a handful of us then a whole army."

He then turned to whatever her face was and then basically shot down her idea."And you, little Miss Three Dimensional. You make it sound like Jayce couldn't kill her on her own, and that sounds very upsetting to our fearless leader here." He turned to Jayce and playfully asked,"aren't you upset by that assumption?" He then turned back to the girl and said,"besides, we gotta play a take no prisoners game here. If they were really 'men of honor' that surrender with a leader's death, then this whole conflict would have been over a hundred fifty years ago." Of course, killing Carissa could also just turn her into another martyr quite like Alpha had turned into, but Lucien figured voicing that opinion would just be trivial. And so he didn't.

​

Ien was feeling the fight quickly shift out of her favor. As her exhaustion seemed to manifest itself, the beast before her most certainly took notice of it. He seemed to be getting ready to come at her once more, replacing his two handed blade for two much lighter looking swords. She couldn't do much but brace herself as he had bellowed at her, claiming that he wouldn't be denied, before the beast charged at her with a ferocious fury. She was powerless to fight against the flurry of blades, as he had slashed at her with an unrelenting torrent of shadowed steel. All she could do was continuously try to use her blade and scabbard to block both swords as they came at her. Of course, this wasn't even a perfect defense as all the slashes she couldn't block ended making cuts here and there across her body, and there was quite a number of slashes that she could not block.

As the onslaught continued she couldn't help but think about how helpless she was. She was merely a pretender king against an ancient force. A mortal against unyielding existence. As the slashes continued to come at her, eventually her grip on her scabbard was loosened, and the metal sheath was knocked from her hands and onto the ground away from her. Despite this though, she didn't buckle under pressure. Even her blade's scabbard was knocked from her hand, the grip she had on Raikiri never got any looser. In fact, she had gripped the blade with both hands now as she continued to block the incoming slashes, and the grip only seemed to grow tighter as the attacks came.

What was a king to a god? Nay, what was a mere man to do in the face of such raw divine power? What could one little girl do against someone who was both god and beast at the same time? The answer was one simple word. "I! Am! Human!" Fight. "And I will defeat you!" As she declared this, her blade ignited with more electricity than ever before, and lightning could even be seen flowing across the girl's body. The demigod had been assaulting her this entire time with those twin blades. He wasn't relenting on the offense. He was fully aware of the momentum he had, which meant there was only one thing he wouldn't expect from his opponent. Faster than any speed she had been moving at prior in the fight, Ien ducked under the swing of the man's blade before pushing off the ground. To the outside observer, it would look as though had slashed through the man, (when in reality all she had done was slash at him as she moved past him.) Feeling her legs wobble and gasping for air, the lightning around her quickly vanished as the exhaustion of the girl was far worse than before. Looking back to the demigod she muttered, "go back to the rotten age you came from, beast." And with that, Ien lost all strength in her legs and passed out on the ground.

 

Corruption: 18%

Vasher's grin only widened as he began to gain the advantage. Finally, this irritating mortal girl was where she was meant to be. Falling back, being overwhelmed beneath his raw force. The mind of the ancient spirit never considered once that it was a weakness that Ien had found. He presumed that it was his arrogance, his laxity that would lead to the grievous wound he would take. Kalak, a prisoner inside his own body, could only watch as events unfolded. That confounded scabbard was gone and Vasher was pleased. He was impressed with the mortal's determination. As far as mortals went, she was certainly a worthy foe. This one perhaps, would be worth his remembering. The one who managed to land a blow. She was paying for that. Smaller cuts, wounds that snaked past her defences and would wear her down slowly, but surely. Perhaps she would bleed to death before he was able to land a decisive blow. Now that would be something worthy of remembering. He was struck by her resistance, her unwillingness to back down. But right now, she needed to die.

And then it happened. Even as he hammered down blow after blow, the girl would not relent. Her voice full of pride, she spoke out against him. Declaring that she was human. He had never seen a mortal move so fast. His body lunged into the attack, drawing him into her strike as she ducked beneath his strike. A perfect manoeuvre, executed with skill and precision. Raikiri cleaved through his chest and through his lower ribcage. A little higher and perhaps she would have struck the heart. He fell to one knee, the swords disappearing into midair and he clutched his side, trying to stem the gushing blood. An unearthly howl was ripped from his throat. Vasher wavered, and Kalak broke through.




Corruption: 19%

All vision blacked out for a moment as he reasserted control over his body. The redness faded from his eyes and skin and his clothes returned to normal. The darkness seemed to lift away for the most part, leaving only a faint shadow hanging over him. Kalak looked down at his wound. It was bleeding, profusely. He remade his armour again and wove some of the black material back into his wounds to stem the bleeding and hold himself together. The battle wasn't over yet. Another fight like that and he may rip the wound open again. The Demi-God looked back at the girl he was fighting, she had collapsed. Logically, he should kill her. Perhaps it was some of Vasher's influence, but she had earned the right to survive the fight. Besides, it looked like they were breaking through. She could be a prisoner yet. He stood up again, groaning and headed towards the breach in the tower which Jayce had made quite obvious by now. Jayce. He called.
"Jayce, this is Kalak. What was it you needed?" Kalak asked as he drew closer to the entrance. "I'm nearly inside. Got held up." That was the understatement of the century.



Once Onamakritos has fired off that blast, it caused some chaos below. The soldiers, now unsure of what happened and confused as to where to direct their fire, were halted in their onslaught of firepower. She was able to get up and fire off another five shots from her crossbow, and another five fell. However, as she did, she saw soldiers falling. But it was from the wrong direction. Curious. If they survived this, she would have to look over in that direction. Now that she noticed, there were a few bodies that had fallen in that direction. Someone, she had no idea who, but someone was helping them. She came away from the wall and looked at the man speaking to her, feeling a little relieved. The fact that they were getting fire support was invaluable.
"Yes, we'd better intervene personally. They'll be coming soon. We should get ready." Carissa reloaded her crossbow with one of her Magic Supression Bolts. I know you're coming Jayce. It's time I dealt with you. "I doubt he's alone. Take no prisoners." ​

 

Many things had transpired en route to the blast door.

First, his cousin decided to show up from wherever she'd run off to. Whilst she would be bringing some welcome support in the form of her Knighthawks (he still despised that name), he couldn't help but scorn her internally for not arriving sooner. Her spells would have proved to be quite useful during the main assault.

"Thank you for sending Anthem, Asleigh," Jayce replied, trying his best to keep the mean out of his tone, "I look forward to meeting with you after the battle."

Next, Theodosia, his loyal "aide de camps" who he hadn't even seen following, had suggested challenging Carissa to a duel. He chuckled. As if it would ever come to that. He knew Carissa's type. She'd never take him one on one, even with her reputation. Heck, back in the old days she'd had her own squad to help with her dirty work...

Kaia had dragged them down with her.

"Do you honestly think the huntress will accept such a proposition?" Jayce shot back at Theodosia. His other allies, Throda and Lucien, voiced their support as well.

"Lucien is right," Jayce nodded in regards to his comments in particular, "I can handle Carissa, but I won't be challenging her to a duel. With the five of us here, we can overwhelm anything she has to offer."

"I am in. Activating now."

Hmm?

Clink.

The blast doors began to rumble, a deep echo shuddering throughout the entirety of Sky Tower. The old machines and the rusted gears, kept sturdy by spell after spell, began to voice their frustrations, as they raised the blast door separating them from the upper floors. A new hallway was opened to them, revealing the passage that would take them to the summit.

"Sir, at the end of the hallway!"

His men had spotted it before he had. Three men, fleeing the scene. Rats delivering word to their master no doubt. A swift bullet from Jayce's gun caught one of them through the throat, but the other two were out of sight before he could stop them. Curses. Carissa would know they were coming.

"Move out," Jayce told his forces, but before he could continue, an all too welcome voice buzzed in his ear. Nephew.

"Jayce, this is Kalak. What was it you needed? I'm nearly inside. Got held up."

"Make your way to the upper floors," Jayce replied, "Rose, that goes for you too. My squad will lead the initial attack. You two move in to support us if things go sour."

He marched down the corridor, his thoughts momentarily drifting from the battle. If Carissa did truly await them, she would not be leaving Sky Tower alive. He'd consider sparing any single one of her men. Heck, he'd even hold at putting a bullet through Jaden Samarost's skull if he were to surrender...

But now her. Never her. When Kaia had died, he felt as if he'd been fired upon with his own gun. He'd carried a wound with him since that day. Paining him. Draining him. When it all became too much, there were days were he couldn't move. Barely think. Shadows overwhelming him and threatening to consume him forevermore...

He could fix that that though. Just needed to splatter Carissa's brains first. Yes. End her existence. Maybe then he'd get some damned sleep at night.​

 

Throda Bronzebeard's PoV:

The proud warrior coughed, "Ah yes, quite right. These numbers would just clog up the narrow battlements." Hopefully no one would know he actually meant the five of them when he was trying to count.
Just kidding, he's smarter than that.
Throda's mind resembled a mighty stone wall, simple but strong. A good artisan might view this wall in a different light. For though this wall did nothing but stand, it only stood by the cooperation of thousands scintillas of rock, together for a united cause. Yes, this cause was simple, Justice, Honor, Strength, Camaraderie, Stalwart, Revelry. These words lined the wall, written by the formation of rock. They were not chisled, or forced into being. They were forged by the wall, they were the wall.

Throda entered behind Jayce and watched, unable to interfere, as the soldiers made a hurried exit. "They'll be ready Reaver, but they'll be scared." Throda pointed his hammer at the downed Shard's body, "We're here and we won't be leaving until our tour is complete." Throda twirled his hammer deftly, "The Shards have opened hell, they will exit this world through the door they themselves created." Throda sniffed, "That was damn near poetic. Nobody remember that."

 

Ms. Spooks' PoV:

Blast, she'd come just a bit too late it seemed. Ms. Spooks could hear the sounds of war going on in the direction of Sky Tower. If only she hadn't spent that extra hour baking a pie before she left the bakery. She'd wanted to arrive before violence ensued, and perhaps mediate a peaceful end to this before blood was shed. As she continued to walk along, the noises of battle getting louder and louder, she came across two people. One of them had long, golden hair, and she was quite pretty. The man was...an odd looking fellow, but she wasn't one to judge. Who were these people? "Excuse me!" she called out to them, hurriedly jogging over to them. "Excuse me, Miss and Sir, erm, my name is Ms. Spooks! May I please ask you some things? Or am I interrupting something? Eep! Please excuse me if I am!" Ms. Spooks bowed politely, hoping she hadn't disturbed them from anything important. Her soothing aura radiated a little stronger as she bowed, in hopes she wouldn't aggravate them in any way.

 

​

During his fighting, Reitan had ended up staying near the entrance to the sky tower, fighting off any hammer than had approached him. The lucky number that RNG had given him was 4 so that was how many NPC Hammer met their end against him by his mighty lance Mikazuki. Four corpses laid out around him, all both being burned to a crisp. All the while there wasn't a single scratch on Reitan. "This only further proves my point." If only his teacher hadn't died, then maybe he could get a answer as to what he meant with his words.

Reitan push these thoughts to the back of his mind so that he could focus back onto the battle at hand. Just in time too for another challenger was approaching the entrance. This one looked like he be an actually challenge and not just because his image was Archer, but he was a player character. "So you're the next person to what in, well least now I can actually put in an effort." His lance was moved to on his shoulder, a fairly casual position for the situation that was about to begin, but Reitan had a plan. Well a plan for throw to not get effd up with his lance in this position. Also Kalak was the one he was referring to in the post.

 

Corruption: 19%

It seemed that the universe was trying to inconvenience him indeed. Here, he was faced with another person. Like the girl from before, this one radiated a different sense that the rest of the Shards of Hope that he had encountered. Unfortunately, that last one had taken a lot out of him with her clever manoeuvres, so he was going to be fighting this one with an injury. However, he was confident that he could defeat a second one. He was a Demi-God, and he could rely on his magic to a certain extent. The mere thought of it made Vasher stir, which reminded him that he couldn't afford to let Black Vasher be unleashed again. Either White Vasher, or himself would have to fight this one out. He sized the other man up. Those around him were burnt to a crisp, which suggested that he was going to be fighting either some kind of Light magic or Fire magic wielder.
"Your overconfidence will be your undoing mortal. You've already let a handful of our best through." Kalak pointed out. He smiled. "I'll give you this chance though, as I gave to your friend. I'll let you live if you surrender and get out of my way. I don't have time to play." The Demi-God reached to his back and drew the Zweihander that was suspended there, narrowing his eyes. It was going to be a fight, he had no doubt. He'd let White Vasher take control. A peaceful takeover wouldn't be painful and besides, White was far, far more gentle.




As she headed down towards where she had set the soldiers, she heard the bursts of gunfire and nothing else but the pounding of footsteps. She readied her crossbow, but as the steps turned she saw two of the men she had dispatched. The others were dead presumably, and the reason was all to obvious. They were coming. They reached her and stood before their Captain, panting.
"Ma'am, it's them!" One panted.
"They're coming! They got Steven..." She looked blankly at the two of them. As if she particularly cared about Steven, or either of these two for that matter. Right now, there was bigger prey at hand and she fully intended to hunt them. Carissa reloaded, placing the Magic Suppression Bolt back in its quiver and replacing it with one of her most precious pieces of ordnance. One of the two Immuno-Collapse Bolts and she held a Magic Supression Bolt at the ready. She'd fire off what she could in rapid succession to cripple Jayce. The rest of them... She had Onamakritos. One thing did bother her somewhat. Where was He? He should be here, at least, she believed so. The one person that even she couldn't control effectively.
"Then you'll have your chance to avenge him. Onamakritos, you two, you're with me. We're going to meet them head on. They go no further." Carissa crossed the remaining distance between the corner. She took in a deep breath. From here, the intense fighting would begin. The Huntress tightened her grip on the crossbow and stepped around the corner. Immediately, she saw the group of attackers. One woman, Jayce, Throda the Dwarvern warrior and the other man, she believed his name was Lucien. And a Knighthawk, which meant Ashleigh Outnumbered, ****. And two Demi-Gods. I have myself and Onamakritos. I'll need to keep moving. She focused her eyes on Jayce, aimed and fired before diving back around the corner. Here we go.​