Doggo

Among the more obvious targets but happy to see it regardless. But did ya have one of the three Lycanrocs in mind?

Interacting with Ryia proved to be about all Reinaan's small bit of stamina was good for. He managed to get mounted up on Kloqah as the group began on their way out. But rather than lead the way the mount hovered in the back of the group as they set out back into the searing heat. The Draken slept the majority of the first day away, essentially hugging the base of Kloqah's neck. Her slower pace was part not having him to direct her where to go and part not wanting to wake him. And so the lizard duo simply followed the rest of the group until Reinaan roused from his sleep, feeling somewhat better. At the least he was in a lot less pain. But even accounting for day old puncture wounds and burns something felt odd. After a bit it registered that he felt a bit more aware of his surroundings than he ought to have given he wasn't particularly focused on anything. Maybe his body was just still in its flight or fight response since he was hurt. Reinaan had Kloqah move to the front of the group again now that he was conscious. Looking at them all, most everyone seemed okay. Everyone except one that was. Gilly had yet to wake up from the shark attack toward the end of the battle at the gate. Given the group's track record in this desert he feared the worst for the girl but with the whole of the group watching out for her she seemed to stay somewhat stable through the trek. Hopefully the village could offer some help when they returned. The trip itself was largely uneventful, the increasingly intolerable endless sun overhead aside. Eventually the small desert town came into view on the horizon. The group was met at once by the village Elder, complete with two young guards. Gilly was quickly whisked off to the healers of the town. Perhaps they would know something of how to help. But given an attack from a demon gate altered beast had done this to the Ice Chosen, Reinaan wasn't certain anyone would know exactly what to do. He thought of his own arm for a moment but felt his fellow Chosen had done about all that could be reasonably expected for it at least until Lindow had time to really regain his energy before attempting to use light magic on it. Before much else, Ryia produced the Sun Orb as the Elder called it which brought much relief to the old man. He wished to take it to its shrine immediately and the Draken could understand why. He was deeply curious about the object and how it worked as well so he decided to follow the man to the shrine. "I'm gonna go with him. Make sure no funny business happens on the last leg of things." he said to the others. The boy dismounted Kloqah and it was only then that something else registered. The group seemed smaller than normal. He could see over Ryia's head where he was pretty sure they'd been the same height before. What's more he could just barely see over Lindow's head and he knew the man to be a fair bit taller than him. The observation left him on edge but Reinaan chose not to devote too much mental energy to it for the moment. Instead he simply followed close by the Elder and his guard. It wasn't too long before the fire spirit manifested to the townsfolk again however, a question in mind. "My, how ever did you humans manage to put a piece of the sun into that sphere?" came Ziiyol's awed musings. That an object existed that seemed to be the essence of warmth itself was fascinating to her. It seemed like something everyone would want simply because fire was wonderful and no fire shone brighter than the sun. "The sun isn't inside the orb itself. It's merely a magic device that absorbs energy from the sun and uses that to connect with it." was the Elder's reply to the spirit. That raised questions to both of the fire duo but Ziiyol seemed content enough to simply hover about observing it in the man's hands. "So how does it being gone keep the sun up all the time?" Reinaan asked in turn. A device to harness the sun's power was one thing, but an object that once removed stopped the sun from setting in a certain region seemed beyond anything most races were capable of. "That...I don't know." the elder responded. "Long ago there were rituals involving this orb but those were lost over time. I had no idea it had such power." The people didn't know how their own relic worked. That was understandable. Reinaan's own village had remnants from their founder which he knew next to nothing about why they did what they did. But then maybe the knowledge of the Sun Orb wasn't lost to everyone. "Maybe that crazy Auran knew about them. I'll have to ask Keres what all she found in his stuff." Reinaan pondered aloud. He'd seen Keres reading some of the writings the man had left behind in the rock. He hadn't paid them much attention given his illiteracy in all but the most basic of ancient Draken. He still needed to get on learning to read human script from the others now that he thought of it. Maybe they'd have some time while recovering here. Regardless, these were all thoughts for another time. "A crazy Auran? Is that who did this?" the elder asked of the boy. Reinaan realized Ryia hadn't described a ton of the situation while handing over the orb. The Fire Chosen had to ask himself if he was even certain the fire mage had been an Auran. He'd only really gotten up close and personal with the flaming skeleton version of the man. But even from a distance he seemed something like the Auran in the council they'd met. And he had the trademark colored skin corresponding to an element. It seemed to fit well enough with what he'd learned of the other races without directly meeting them all. "Yeah, some fire mage had the orb and was keeping it by the gate. Dunno why but he was really into keeping the sun up forever." Reinaan replied casually. Unless the man's reasons were to be found in his writings the boy would have to attribute most of his actions to madness, probably from being so close to the demon gate. "I've never heard of an Auran thief before. There was an Auran who came here long ago, he said it was official business, but he never so much as asked about the orb and when he left it wasn't gone." the Elder replied. An Auran on official business sounded reminiscent of the council and regardless of if he was part of it or not it cast a shadow of mistrust on the Draken's end of things. "Huh... did the guy have red skin?" Reinaan asked in turn. This was the only real trait he had to go off of to look for a connection. It seemed to be lost on him that this might not be the all defining trait he was looking for given his own majority black scales despite being aligned with the fire element. "I think...yes, I believe so." the older man said after some thought. "Might have been him after all. Either way I'm glad we could get it back for you." Reinaan thought. It made enough sense that if the Auran stole the orb he'd wanna scope the place out a bit first. But before he could linger on it too much another thought clicked in the boy's head. "Oh right, you guys didn't have any bandit problems while we were out did you?" The elder shook his head. "I don't know if there are any still left around here. It's strange, things being so quiet. Maybe we'll get travelers again." "Heh, figured they'd all run off after their boss dropped. I don't blame them for not wanting to fight a dragon!" the boy bellowed. He was puffing up his chest and flexing a bit to look a bit more imposing. Ziiyol giggled some at the sight though seemed to have her attention caught up in examining him in general. She'd probably say something about it soon enough. Reinaan then visibly winced as he moved his left arm without thinking. The scorched skin was incredibly tight and trying to move his hand had tugged on the whole of the badly burnt arm to some mild discomfort. "Such a young group. Tasked with such a mission. The older generations have failed greatly." the Elder said with a frown upon observing the state of the Draken's arm. "Hey don't worry I'll be fine in no time. And I'm almost an adult... I just don't look it. But I'm getting there. At least I think I am. I don't remember being this tall last week..." Reinaan rambled. This elicited more laughs from Ziiyol and even the Elder. "You're all young compared to me." the older man said as the boy got caught up with his Spirit. "You've definitely gotten taller Reiny. I can see it in your legs and hips. They don't look as squat and childish. The rest of you is growing into it. It's quite a jump you've made in very little time. I wonder what's caused it." she softly questioned as she ran her hands all over the boy's body. "H-hey cut it out! It's already hot enough without your fire hands everywhere!" Reinaan protested. The two bickered a bit more and lagged behind the Elder and his guards as a result. They squabbled about the Fire Chosen's height some more. Then Ziiyol naturally had to bring up her theory from before. Reinaan argued it had to be wrong given he'd been naked when he got the worst injuries thus far on the trip. But the spirit returned fire saying he'd intentionally hurt his arm with her power and her theory was that unlucky things happened while he was clothed. There wasn't gonna be an end to it for some time it seemed. The past days had been busy with battles and traversing the desert and had left little time for these antics. They had to play catch up now.

Deal the deets dude.

Natasha (Sacred Stones) Heather (Radiant Dawn)

Reinaan had passed out somewhere along the line. From his position he'd still managed to absorb his portion of the boss soul and felt the activation of the Demon Gate as Keres destroyed it. But lifting his head to actually observe these events was beyond him. When next the boy woke his wounds had been tended to so far as they could be for the time being. Though brief the sleep had somewhat restored his stamina. He was bandaged up where there bone shards had pierced his flesh, by who he didn't know. At the least moving didn't send pain coursing through the wounds. Ziiyol was happy to see her partner awake and she had been keeping close watch over him. Kloqah too wasn't far off. With the gate gone she had calmed to her usual temperament though perhaps with a touch of annoyance on her face over her smaller lizard's injuries. Despite the fire spirit's objections the draken eventually pushed himself to stand. A touch of panic set in as he looked to his left arm. He couldn't much feel it and almost thought for a moment it was missing. It was still very much there but was missing scales and skin with the exterior pretty thorouHeygh charred from what he could see under the bandages surrounding it. "Really did a number on myself there huh..." he pondered aloud before his attention was caught by Ryia who called for the group's attention. There seemed to be some opening into the rock formation they had fought the elemental on. The auran must have made his residence here right underneath the gate he gave his life to preserve. Among the objects and scrolls one thing stood out. A glowing orb that seemed to carry with it some of the intensity of the desert sky. Ryia began a thought which clicked in the boy's head. "This must belong to the village! The thing that'll stop the endless day..." Reinaan said while recalling conversations with the elder. Returning it was the obvious decision as the Earth Chosen said. Reinaan eventually made his way back outside as the group gathered up what they would from among the auran's things. He took note of the two non-bandage items on his body. The mostly cracked magic amulet about his neck and the fire resistant ring Ryia had given him just prior to his clash with the elemental. The amulet he removed and placed into his bag that was resting atop Kloqah's back. Once Ryia emerged from the rocks he approached her to return it. "Hey, thanks for loaning this to me and stuff. It sure came in handy." he said with a grin as he extended his hand, palm-up with the ring in it for her to take back.

Yolo Micaiah (Radiant Dawn) Edward (Radiant Dawn)

Artur (Sacred Stones) Tana (Sacred Stones) L'Arachel (Sacred Stones) Lethe (Path of Radiance) Maurim (Path of Radiance) Jill (Path of Radiance) Haar (Path of Radiance) Nailah (Radiant Dawn)

For all his efforts Reinaan had done little more than leave a trail of his own blood smeared out across the rock. But he had managed to drag himself to his spear which he now needed to use to prop himself up to even just sit to see what was happening. As he turned about he saw Lindow conclude his bout with the elemental. There was nothing left but the skull lying on the ground which alarmingly burst into flames before it burst apart. The Draken boy could hear nothing for a moment but his own ragged breathing as he stared at what was left behind. It was another object like what the snake woman and bandit boss had left. Each had sent a surge of strength into the boy and this one seemed bigger than either. While the sense of imminent danger was gone, the looming dread still sat heavily in the lizard's heart. The demon gate was still here. And if left alone it was probably going to mutate Kloqah into a horrific monster within the hour if the sharks were anything to go off of. Reinaan thought to call the mount to him but decided against bringing her any closer to its influence. His mind had thought of his salve but no quantity of it was going to stop his bleeding or save the non-existent scales of his left arm. It was all the boy could do to just keep still where he was sitting near the platform's edge. Movement only shifted the bone splinters in his wounds drawing out fresh pain and more blood. Ziiyol hovered about him in clear distress but then Reinaan being hurt was the only thing to elicit such responses from her usual carefree self. He simply focused on his breathing. Every breath meant he was still alive. That was the focus. This continued for a moment until a voice caught his attention. Ryia had ascended the stony steps to see the end results of the fight. "Pretty sure... it's dead..." Reinaan gasped out between heavy breaths in response to her question. Attempting to talk proved more draining than he'd thought and so he stopped straining to support himself with his spear before slumping down onto the floor face-down.

Ziiyol had begen reforming in the air above where her Draken companion lay. She would normally be laughing but she felt as though their connection had been forced apart rather than Reinaan simply releasing her power. What could have caused that she could only wonder. It took her a moment but eventually here eyes caught her partner. He was sitting up but then that was only because there had been a wall in his way when the explosion of the claws had sent him flying back. There were several deep wounds were parts of the shattered elemental had pierced through his scales, all of them slowly leaking blood down the boy's body and onto the ground. Something seemed off with his left arm in particular. It was still black in color yet it didn't seem to be scaled. And towards the elbow actual pink flesh was visible. His scales started again just above the elbow. It wasn't taking the spirit long to realize what the boy must have done with her power. But what was there for her to do about it? "Reiny!" she called in alarm as she hovered near. She reached a hand out toward him but hesitated to actually do so. Reinaan meanwhile coughed some, sending jolts of pain through his body from the various puncture wounds. Lindow's words brought some form of sense back to him. The boy was honestly surprised to still be here and wondered why his left arm wasn't hurting. But it only took a glance to realize it was because his scales had been blasted away and the flesh of arm was covered almost entirely in third degree burns. The claws on that hand had been torn apart as well, several now streaming blood into a puddle on the ground as the quick had been breached. He didn't dare try to move the limb but did use his still decent right arm to accept Lindow's shoulder. "Heh... This? Kill me? It's gonna tak-" the boy struggled to speak. And in fact he didn't have long as Lindow soon left his side entirely. The sudden movement left the Draken unbalanced and his legs gave out on him as he stumbled backward into a sitting position on the ground. Even after Keres' attack the elemental lived and looked to continue its assault. The Thunder Chosen interrupted and began struggling to push it away from Reinaan. The boy wanted to help, but his body and injuries disagreed with the idea. He looked around for his spear. He'd been holding it in his good hand. He caught sight of it near the rock formation's edge. Definitely out of reach. Despite his condition the boy attempted to crawl with his one good arm and his legs towards his trusted weapon. What he thought he could do with it once he had it he didn't think about. He just couldn't leave his own defense entirely to his friends who were each tiring quickly as the battle dragged on.

Lindow's magic had further reduced the flaming skeleton's form. And yet it still moved to attack the Thunder Chosen despite only being a spine and skull. Reinaan used the moment to examine what he could. Water was going to be their best bet and Keres seemed just as aware of that as she prepared an attack. Yet she didn't immediately unleash her attack, making the boy think she lacked confidence in it hitting as things stood. He'd need to stop it from moving in some way. As he examined the spine of the thing he noticed amidst the flames a chip missing in the bone that unknown to the Draken Damien had made earlier. Would cracking the spine further halt its movement? That much he didn't know. But maybe he could do more than crack it. He could feel the time he'd spent combined with Ziiyol straining him. But this strain gave him an idea. He looked at his left hand for a moment before extending the flame claws off of his fingers. "I need everything you got Ziiyol..." he thought as he turned to the elemental again. Maybe fire couldn't directly injure this thing but the boy doubted it would hold up well under an explosion. Reinaan charged the elemental from behind, his only goal to thrust the flaming claws into the chipped section of the spine. He'd push every ounce of Ziiyol's power out that he could. He'd make the backfire explosion happen. He'd take the injury to his hand so long as it shattered this annoying monster to pieces. "Lindow! Keres! Get ready!" he called out as even now he could sense instability in the spirit's magic running through his body.

The Fire Chosen held on despite the growing flames and the exertions of the creature he clung to. He could tell this wasn't sustainable as the ring and amulet were the only things preserving his life. But still he clung to it as he wrapped his hands around the closest bones. Reinaan pulled and struggled amidst the flames, attempting to dislodge whatever bone he could but to little effect. The spear he held would likely fair no better in this effort. But still if he could impair the thing's movements at all and give the others the opening they needed he'd do it. Keres took action first and doused the torso of the creature with her water magic. Lindow went in for a strike to the exposed portion of the bone. The Draken more felt the man's words than heard them as he realized the attack that was incoming. Right as Lindow closed the gap, Reinaan kicked off the creature's back and away from it to avoid the coming surge of electricity. His landing was less than graceful but it was better than the alternative. His inability to injure the thing directly frustrated him and so he readied himself for when the area was clear of Lindow's discharge. Whether by spear or claw he intended to run the monster through if it survived the Thunder Chosen's attack.

I see my face over Gamora's, Cow's over Thanos' and I start getting reaaaaal worried about a certain character of mine for some inexplicable reason.

The cracking of the shark's spine continued well until it had snapped roughly in half. However, Gilly had still taken a hit from the upper half. The fall was broken by her companion but the two seemed down for the count. Ryia was hurrying over to their location. The boy stabbed the helpless upper half of the creature through the skull to put it out of its misery before retracting the flame claws, the flames dancing along his arm until they returned to his core. Stray sparks resumed jumping off the Draken's body as the fire spirit's power returned without shape into the center of his being. Not long after Reinaan heard his name and turned to see Ryia who seemed fairly battered. The girl called attention to the fires atop the stone structure and given the heat the boy had felt while not even being directly there he took her words to be true. The Earth Chosen removed a ring from her finger and presented it to him before assuring him she'd look after Gilly and Hob. "This resists fire doesn't it?" Reinaan pondered aloud as he accepted the gift from Ryia. He slid it over one of his claws, and after pushing a bit to get it onto his actual scales on the finger he felt for the first time he could almost shrug off the desert heat. Between this and what was left of the amulet he figured he had a pretty good shot at handling that crazy auron's flames. All of the sharks had fallen. For the time being it seemed safe to leave Ryia here. Still, as injured as she, never mind Gilly or Anis' conditions, the boy didn't feel right just taking off. But what could he do? He knew the Earth Chosen could take care of herself. She'd proven a capable warrior from their very first fight together at the Council's tower. "I'll be back soon." he said simply as he took off running toward the stone structure again. For a moment, the thought of how long he was going to sleep after this crossed his mind. But he was fast to push it away as it would do nothing but call attention to his fatigue at this point. The heat grew more intense as he finally began ascending the stone steps again and approached the raging fire at its summit. He returned to Kloqah's side. She hadn't moved much since first arriving on the stone. The irritation from earlier was still present, it was stronger even. The Draken had left all of his weapons on the mount while aiding Ryia and Gilly. Thinking of his next opponent's mastery over fire, he thought it unwise to use a magical fire weapon against him and so he began rummaging through his things when Kloqah snapped and actually caught the boy's hand between her teeth. The bite wasn't very hard but she was growling intently as if she'd meant to draw blood. "Don't do this girl. I'll stop what's bothering you soon." the boy said and stared with deadly seriousness into the mount's eyes. She released his hand as he found his trusty spear from home. It was comforting to hold it again after attempting to use Kha's great sword earlier to little effect. He thought for a moment if he ought to release Ziiyol or not but decided against it as the process often took his stamina and adrenaline highs with it; neither of which he could part with safely at the moment. Looking at his ways up and recalling the way the mage had attacked them before, he figured he'd run right into the line of sight of their enemy if he charged straight up. What this needed was an element of surprise. And so the boy took to working his way around to the monument's north side while also ascending. Once his eyes peeked over the edge the image before him nearly made him lose his grip. Gone was the auron and its place a half-flaming skeleton. Keres, Lindow and Damien all seemed to be okay for the moment. The demon gate was close by and the sense of dread seemed to be mounting within the boy at this close proximity. Still, the hunter had a target and that was enough to help him focus. "Now!" he thought to himself as he saw it lunge forward at Keres. The Draken charged and jumped into the creature's flaming back, looking to slam it down into the ground before it could hurt the girl.

Color me interested. LIkely in the camp of Advanced but either way waiting on more details to be sure.

8/10 Pretty nice. The hat alone gets 10/10 of course.

As Reinaan approached the final two Chosen still on the desert sands the sharks were already taking action. Both made use of their different weapons to fend off attacks. The strange forms the sharks had taken due to the demon gate's influence had their lower halves in the sand while their jaws launched out to attack. This exposed the spine and made it the most obvious place to attack if this was ever going to end. Ryia seemed to keenly aware of this fact but the halfling Giilly less so. Thankfully Hob was around and he always seemed to carry the more part of the common sense of the duo. The creature's charge was into the shark's spine and the Draken could have almost sworn in the midst of everything he heard the bone begin to crack. Such a small detail amidst this chaos had no real way of registering with him but he knew well enough what to do as the fish's mouth moved to bite at Gilly's back. "Behind you!" he called out to the Ice Chosen as he readied his flaming claws. The boy leaped forward to bring the fiery extensions of his hand down onto the creature's spine, just below where Hob had impacted it so as to avoid skewering the sheep or its rider in the process. His free hand grabbed the spine higher up so that he could push the bone up while his claws dug down into them. He needed to at least sever the spinal cord if not outright split the creature in two. In the exertion he gave his best impression of a dragon's roar which caught Kloqah's attention on the steps to the gate for a brief moment.

Wahoo, welcome aboard ya crazy old robot you.

Well folks, here we are on NCM now. But though our base of operations may have changed the Adventure at hand hasn't! Come brave adventures and resume your journey. The Pokemon world depends on it! Premise: RP Rules: App Skeleton: App Guidelines: The Helio Guild: Thicket Town: Accepted Apps:

Firebrand (now 100% more au naturel)

Howdy folks! Just an old relic of the RP section here. The old lurking grounds been dead for a while now but then I catch wind of a new version so figured I better check it out to see if I'll be taking up lurking here too. Also I think Cow would have probably threatened me with horrible things happening to my characters eventually if I didn't register and show up. Cow on fictional character violence is a serious issue and one we can't turn a blind eye to.