Leaderboard

Ryia had stood silent, barely able to watch what had happened. She felt that there was something wrong with the whole situation. Monstrous as the lycans may have been in legend, speaking with them now she could tell that they weren't just mindless beasts. That they had some form of rational thinking capability and that maybe, somehow, there would be a way to reason with them. If at all possible she would have wanted to find out what that reason was, why things between the wolves and elves the way they were and why the wolves were as violent as they were. Perhaps it was just in their nature to be violent or to hunt whatever was in this forest. Perhaps they did just have some kind of thin veneer sensibility to cover up the monster that was truly inside. The old adage of a wolf in sheep's clothing, though they were hardly sheep when not dressed as wolves. If that were the case it was perhaps wrong for the girl to try and speak with them in the first place and naive to think a peaceful solution could've been found to start with. And, if they were just monsters what was the harm in actually killing them? It wasn't like she hadn't fought beast's with no regards to their feelings before. But she also didn't just kill the dragon because it was a monster, one that could very well cause a lot of harm in the future. Her mind was whirring with what ifs and trying to sort through her own feelings, as Reinaan stepped up to challenge the leader. And her thoughts came to a halt as she saw the sheer gulf in strength between the Draken boy and the Lycan man. She had enough sense to respect the duel to begin with, restraining herself with each hit that was delivered to to either side and only growing more uncomfortable with each time Reinaan was bested until he was finally laying as a heap on the ground. As the man began to undergo some kind of feral transformation, Ryia felt herself step forward no longer to hold back before that too was interrupted. Damien had appeared to save Reinaan though he had also seemed worse for wear himself. It was also clear that he had been in some kind of struggle before actually interrupting Lucas, as she learned the leader's name to be, and started conversing with him. The situation was slowly deteriorating though, as the lycans had begun to emerge from the forest and as Keres had mentioned there was no running from this fight. Ryia was getting ready to enter combat, reluctant as she had been, only to pause as Lucas had referred to himself as Damien's uncle. The girl's head was already whirring with a bunch of questions that were likely not to be answered any time soon but all of those had come to a halt at this revelation. She looked at him, eyes wide with surprise. "Uncle?" The girl questioned, half muttering. She couldn't really piece together what her feelings were at this very moment. She wasn't sure what to make of Damien either. He had always been mysterious with little to be known about him. Ever since they had met, ever since he had pointed a sword to her throat, every time he seemed to get distant or simply vanish there was something off to her in all of his actions. And now it was revealed to her that he had some kind of monstrous blood flowing through him. As such it was only natural that her eyes had some kind of fear of him. But, beyond that, there was something else. A different kind of fear. A fear for him. She didn't really understand it herself, she didn't really understand anything about the whole situation they had found themselves in, but she had found herself at something of a breaking point. The bandits. The gnolls. The minotaurs. The sharks. The bird. The scorpions. The reptilian beast. The giant crab. The elves. The ghosts. The dragon. The lycans. The bloodstained blade he carried. All of it came rushing through her all at once, only for all of it to just as suddenly blank out and pause. She broke her gaze from Damien. Her fear and confusion faded from her face as she did. She locked eyes with the Lycan behind Lucas, her expression becoming one of frustration and anger. Her grip tightening on her weapons as she banged her mace against her shield shouting, "fine!" The werewolf took to this challenge immediately, bounding forward and on all fours towards Ryia. Though she had certainly lost her patience, the Earth Chosen hadn't lost her sense, instead stepping forward to meet with the wolf head on. "Ackrin." The spirit, at her call, merged with her body providing an increase to her durability. As the distance closed, the wolf brought its claw up and went for a quick swipe at Ryia. Stepping into the attack, the girl brought up her shield, blocking the attack and holding her ground if only barely against the weight of the beast's claw. She could tell already how powerful a foe each of them were, and could tell that she was already fairly ill suited to fight them but didn't back down regardless, swinging her mace into the creature's ribs. The Lycan, surprised by the girl's strength, took the hit though continued to go on the offensive, opening its mouth to take a bite of her. While Ryia herself was unable to act against the lycan's attack it didn't matter. A wall of light was erected between the two, keeping the werewolf's mouth forced open as it tried to simply chomp through the wall itself. Taking a step back, Ryia reeled her arm back and as the wall of light shattered the creature's efforts were soon met with a mace striking its face. The beast's head was forced downward, blood trickling from its nose, before it raised it back up and went to pounce at Ryia. Rather than trying to artfully dodge or defend against the attack, she instead met it head on, smashing the creature's face yet again as it grabbed her arms and threw its body weight against her. Pinned to the ground, though the situation looked bleak, Ryia continued to angrily and defiantly stare at the creature head on as it opened its maw to attempt yet another bite. However, this time it was thwarted as its head was suddenly encased in water. Trying to push through it quite like it had the wall. Ryia could hear the sounds of effort coming from Keres and knew this wouldn't last forever, so she attempted to force her arm out of the grip of the lycan and smash her mace against its mouth and teeth.