Fire Emblem: Curse of the Goddess [IC / Conditional Acceptance / PG-16]

[Tiamat's Circus 117]

Citron couldn’t believe her eyes as everything played out before her; the creature was damaged further, but moved on as if nothing was wrong?! Even more, the statue’s symbol that seemed to be the source-- It was moving? And Alois’ Axe was returning to him? And-- Now, as they attacked it, it was rearing back and whipping the weird, glowy, tenta-tail towards them? First one of The Foxes, then Penelope… Her stomach sunk as it turned towards her, eyes growing wide. 

“Down, now!” She shouted out, much louder than intended as she practically forced the wyvern’s head down, pressing on the pink scales much harder than she had intended. The wyvern responded by diving, the tail-end of her tail getting caught by the blue, glowing whip; causing her to screech out in pain as she spiraled towards the ground, unable to feel the limb. Luckily, she managed to land, but not without a heavy crack from either the stone, or from her, as she came to such a sudden stop. Shaking a bit as she tried to figure out what was up with her tail, Peaches whined as she stared at the statue, simultaneously scared, yet also angry at the statue. Processing all of these was getting too much for the overgrown lizard, so, in a desperate bid for some clarity, as she reared back on her haunches to let out a screech.

Citron was doing… Just slightly better than the bleeding wyvern, her ribs aching from the sudden stop, and her head spinning all the same as she held onto the wyvern currently in the middle of a threat display. “Gh… Sorry, Peach, but,” Citron groaned, stroking the wyvern’s scales. “Think you can get into the air for one more go, should we have to follow it or dodge?” She asked, caressing the side of the wyvern’s neck.

The words rang hollow to the wyvern, as she couldn’t quite grasp their meaning, but the gesture she knew well enough. Nodding her head in an exaggerated manner, the wyvern let out a reassuring screech as she kept her eyes focused on the statue, watching as everyone got ready for a coordinated attack.

“Actually... If it goes skyward, when they attack,” Citron paused, tapping the back of the wyvern’s head. “I need you to fly us there, even if it’s nothing more than just propelling yourself into the sky in a lunge.” Citron pointed above where the statue was, as her wyvern readied for any sudden take-off commands..

[Asriel Dreemurr 38]

Edrick was surprised by the result of his attack on the statue. Both because of it rotating its weak spot directly towards him, which unfortunately he could not really take advantage of, and how it seemed to react when the lance stuck into it. It lodged into the empty space as surely as it would flesh and bone, which had him stopping and staring. Something which at first seemed like it would spell is downfall, with the strange blue glow beginning to rush down his weapon. And then he saw the Goddess's protection in action. The icon began to shake, and for a moment he could have sworn he heard the crowing of ravens filling his ears as he watched that cracked head begin to split further and further apart. Eventually he drew back from the statue, knowing he had to brace to make the next attack on this enemy, and readied himself to do just that. Even now he couldn't quite shake the thought of hearing ravens, which brought him no comfort. If anything he was close to panicking. Which came at the worst possible time.

The statue stomped, and the force of it shook the ground beneath him. He was a strong young man indeed, but this managed to knock him off his balance and send him tumbling onto his back. But it seemed he was in luck, as instead of coming forward to finish him off in his helpless state he watched the statue lash out with its magical tail again. Even so his breath was coming faster by the moment, and he was starting to scramble unsuccessfully to try and get to his feet.

"Look out!" Catriona's voice drew his attention towards her, and he saw her laid out unable to stand apparently after being struck. He also saw Link stooped over her trying to attend to her, and that shook him out of the moment of fear. His worries did not matter right now, their lives were on the line. He grit his teeth, swallowed the stress, and forced himself to his feet just in time to catch some words from the others.

"Listen up, I know it's a strange foe, but the goal is simple! There's only one target to reach. Destroy the symbol. That's it! It may be large and dangerous yet if you focus on that you'll see it's not as bad as it seems!"

"Link, get ready to hit that side, one of you two get ready to hit the opposite. Eddy! Get ready to stab it in the face. You heard the princess, we've got one small target to hit, and if it wants to move all around then we'll just have to hit it from every angle we can." Those two made a decent complement to each other... no he wasn't jealous! Well it was a good plan either way. But he could think of one way to improve it.

"Hey you stony piece of crap!" He bellowed at the statue as loud as he could while he got to his feet, brandishing his lance and the icon of the Goddess upon it as threateningly as he could. "Don't you forget about me!" If he could get it to focus on him again, maybe its head would stay in one place long enough that one of them could get a solid hit on that symbol. He was ready to try himself, and the second he got a good look at it and a clear strike he lunged up with all the force he could muster. Maybe he would find more success here, using the icon as a weapon. He could only hope.

[Cheshire Toon 141]

Link narrowly avoided the bullwhip of a tentacle. He had fully expected the attack and watched the statue rear back to strike him, and the blow still came at him so quickly he could barely react. 

He grit his teeth out of frustration. His sword was next to useless at the moment. All of his years of battle experience were pointless. What was he supposed to do, staring down a titan that was the ultimate in defense and offense? Alois was trying to organize a coordinated attack. Link hesitated, gripping the hilt of his Slag Blade, then shook his head and shoved it back into the sheathe. There were enough people on the attack already. His duty was to Princess Catriona… who was currently crawling away.

Link lifted her off the ground as gently and impersonally as possible, murmuring, “excuse me, princess,” and darted toward the door that lead to the backroom. The statue was distracted enough by the others that he made it without issue. “Sorry,” he said, propping her up against the wall when he laid her back down. Had she always been so light? Had she lost weight? … Something in the back of his head told him he had gotten stronger, not her lighter, but the harder he tried to place the memory the fuzzier it got. 

“You’ll be safe here for now, your majesty. Leave the rest to us.” Link saluted and quickly turned to head back to the battle. Hopefully everyone was still alright. 
 

Edited March 3, 2020 by Cheshire Toon

[Saikazo 241]

The ground shook, but it didn't affect Shiro. After all, he was already flat on the floor, it wasn't as if he could be knocked down any further. A tendril was coming his way, but it was nothing he couldn't dodge just by turning back into human, letting the thing fly over his head. As the rumblings ended, Shiro stood back up, seeing that the symbol was now moving around. What the hell? He really was beginning to hate magic.

"One of you two get ready to hit the opposite. Eddy! Get ready to stab it in the face. You heard the princess, we've got one small target to hit, and if it wants to move all around then we'll just have to hit it from every angle we can." Alois called out. Shiro nodded as he crouched down, eyeing his target. It seemed Link had refused to work with them, instead opting to protect the mother of his future child (someday he'd stop mentally making fun of the two), so Shiro decided to cover the side the solider was leaving opened.

He sprang forward, turning back into a frog, ready to smash into the monster's side. He only prayed this would work.

[Sethera 290]

So I decided to use the same BGM across a single fight because that's what the Fire Emblem games do...

Perhaps, had she been a regular noble, Catriona would've been embarrassed at being lifted by an unmarried man as an unmarried woman. But this wasn't the first time she had been handled thus. Carrying wounded soldiers away from battle was one of the duties of an able-bodied soldier, so she was instead embarrassed for a different reason. That she had to be lifted at all.

She wasn't the best fighter out there. She knew that. There were plenty of people that were stronger than her. But those people were all older and more experienced. Every swing of their sword was made with the weight of the extra years they had spent training. Among her age group, Catriona was one of the best.

But lately, she had been missing her swings. Had been fumbling where once she would've followed through. She could try to pass it off as a result of her worsening condition, of the state of blind fear and panic her mind had been left in recently. But those would just be excuses. And she was never one to grant herself a way out, not when she could see the truth of it herself.

She was lacking. In training, in skill, and in discipline. And what had happened here was the final straw.

“You’ll be safe here for now, your majesty. Leave the rest to us.” Link saluted and quickly turned to head back to the battle.

Each word that came from his mouth, every soft-spoken, raspy word, hit her like a hammer to the chest. Safe. Leave to us. As if she were a frail maiden to be saved instead of the strong soldier she had trained for so long to be.

This was unacceptable.

She couldn't walk, but she could still crawl. There had to be something that she could do, in this state.

And then she saw a blue light from the corner of her eyes. There, coming from the mass congregation of bouquets. A blue glow, much like the glow from the other room. "What...?" she murmured.

--

In the main room of the town hall, most everybody had been knocked down by the shock wave created from the statue. Adel was one of those most affected, being flung into the other room, though on the other side of where Catriona was. She knocked her skull against the corner of one of the wooden crates there and fell unconscious. Cora, another of those who had fallen over, crawled toward Acantha who currently sat underneath one of the long benches. The beaver had been knocked off the ground, hitting the surface of the bench above her. Groaning in pain, the animal shook its head to the girl's question.

Above, the blue glow surrounding Alois's axe had finally faded, but by now the boy had stepped forward to attack with his other axe. With him and Penelope shouting orders, and Edrick providing distraction, most everybody's attacks managed to hit the statue consecutively, rather than all at once. As soon as Shiro lunged forward from the right, aiming for the symbol, the head rotated, so that the symbol faced Sienna. The Protean threw a fireball at the statue, but once again, the head rotated, facing Tsetseg this time. It was then that Tsetseg fired an arrow, but the statue once again rotated its head, the symbol facing Penelope now, who fired off a Wind spell.

By now, the statue had moved toward the nuisance in front of it, slicing down at Edrick with its sharp front talons. Its tail swept from left to right, Sienna to Shiro, this time avoiding Penelope, though it did hit the base she stood on, causing it to glow bright blue from where it had made contact, quickly spreading across the base and toward where Penelope sat. The effigy paused its attack as the Wind spell came at it, but rather than rotate its head, this time it crouched down and flapped its wings before launching itself into the air. The head had, by now, shattered into multiple fragments from the force of everybody's blows, each piece connected by glowing blue light. While difficult to tell up close, from a distance it would be obvious that the fragments came together, like a mosaic in three dimensions, to form its original figure, that of a reptilian-shaped head.

One piece in particular stood out--the one holding the strange symbol. While the piece itself was small, the symbol was still intact.

The statue roared then, whether as a response to Peaches or something else, and dove for the wyvern and her rider, its tendril-tail whipping about at a blinding speed. Literally. The onlookers would be hard-pressed to resist becoming dizzy and disoriented from the fast movements of the blue light. Meanwhile, the effigy looked as if it would crash right into Citron, pieces of its head moving to form what looked like an open mouth, with crackling blue energy darting from fragment to fragment.

--

Outside, Ciela had hit her head against the hard cobbles of the path, falling unconscious in the process. While this had not been immediately noticeable, both Gunther and Abdul would realize this as she fell over slightly from the vibration in the ground, face tilted up and eyes closed.

---

OOC

Spoiler

Ciela and Adel are knocked out. Sienna and Shiro have a tail/tendril swipe coming their way. Edrick has a claw attack coming his way. Penelope has blue light coming her way. Citron and Peaches have fragments of the stone head coming their way. Abdul has the danger of being left outside coming his way. And everybody inside the room has the danger of being confused from the light coming their way.

Also the statue is flying in the air. And its head looks like an asteroid belt in the shape of a head right now.

Edited March 4, 2020 by Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd

[Tiamat's Circus 117]

Everything had gone so fast, so quick; it was as if time had accelerated, yet… Citron knew for a fact that wasn’t what was going on. How had she even got here? In this moment? She had given Peaches the prep-commands, that much was clear, but the light made it hard to recall the exact details. She had even given Peaches instruction on where to go! And as the statue roared back, leapt into the air, she was on point! Citron had given the command, and they were off! Peaches, despite her wounds, had leapt forwards, and into the air! Was on a bolting course, a veritable lunge towards the statue…So why was the statue diving at them as they did the same?! She had expected to reach it, but not this quickly! 

Heart pounding, as the world around her seemed to slow as it tends to do when life-or-death fueled adrenaline kicks in, Citron’s knuckles grew white around the handle of the axe; and her breathing grew… Sharp. Immediately jerking Peaches’ neck to the side, she did her best to steer the wyvern to the left of the statue, but there was barely any time; at best, they would scrape against it's side, at worst, due to the state of Peaches' tail, they would still experience still a head-on collision, but she didn’t have time to worry about that. “Just… Just like chopping a log!” She reminded herself, rearing back as they were set to near each other, and swung, for the glowing symbol, the piece everyone was aiming for in the sea of rocks and marble!

Edited March 4, 2020 by Feral Pistol

[Otaku-sama 31]

Abdul quickly realized that the girl had fallen limp from the impact of her fall. Mustering his loose grasp of medicine, Abdul checked the girl’s pulse and breathing, breathing a sigh of relief when he felt the girl’s pulse and faint breath. Luckily, her mount had not killed her outright in its flight and the fall had not split her skull, incidents he was well familiar with when fellow caravaneers were too rough with their animals.

Just as he rose to see if the knight had moved from his post, the whole village was rocked by a momentary earthquake, sending Abdul back down to his knees. Looking towards the town hall, he saw that the situation within was only worsening for the warriors. The golem continued to prove itself a source of shifting and chaotic danger, now spinning its ghostly tendril into a whirlwind of ghost light, felling the poor souls caught in the scintillating maelstrom. They would not last long without more help.

However, Abdul also saw that the knight had also been caught off guard by the quaking ground, still attempting to regain his balance in his heavy armor. Abdul saw his chance to potentially saw whoever the knight was imprisoning. Quickly regaining his balance, Abdul bolted towards the second pair of double doors. As he slipped past the knight’s grasp, he heard the sounds of yelling, but its words were drowned out by the cacophony of the battle before him.

Several warriors had been crippled by the statue’s vile magic, but the ones who still stood fought valiantly despite their injuries. The wyvern, now carrying its rider, had taken a desperate dive towards its stoney counterpart, which had leapt to meet it. The scene was almost too much to for Abdul to see without his vision blurring. Putting his eyes into his sleeves for a moment, he could see the afterimage of the statue’s tail, shifting and contorting like a fortune teller’s bonfire.

“This devilry affects the mind as well as the body!” Abdul thought as he attempted to regain his focus, “What kind of being could animate such a thing?”

As the golem came back into focus, Abdul saw that the golem had not gone uninjured. Its head was now smashed to piece, only held together by the vile magic animating it that was centered on a single piece covered in occult signs and sigils. The warriors clearly knew that they needed to attack that source of animating magic, but their attempts were likely foiled by the golem’s raw ferocity.

However, despite the chaos of the melee, Abdul saw that once the golem landed from its leap, it might be unable to strike immediately upon hitting the ground. With this moment of weakness, he knew that he could strike deeply into the golem’s center of power, if not disable it outright. Taking out his tome and knife, Abdul started to speak the words of power written within its pages.

“From the wells of night to the gulfs of space, and from the gulfs of space to the wells of night, ever the praises I give to you, great master of eternity,” Abdul chanted in the ancient tongue as he cut his finger in a well practiced manner, drawing blood that evaporated into shimmering purple light, “Your servant offers his blood to cast this spell! Bestow upon me the power of the children of the stars and moon!”

Upon uttering the last words, six starry black orbs emerged from the tome,  surrounding the golem in a deadly orbit before suddenly streaking towards its head.

 

[LordCowCow 840]

Damn it! Gunther cursed to himself as the stranger ran past him and, predictably, ignored his shout to stop. "Heads up!" He shouted towards the others, hoping at least to make them aware of the man.

As he started to get to his feet the Knight punched the ground in frustration. He hadn't even been able to stop a single man. What use was he if even a simple task, a task he had been trained in, was too much for him. Getting to his feet he saw the man didn't seem to be taking action against his comrades. He also saw the statue taking to the air. It looked to be...shattering? He couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing. But it seemed that they were managing to at least damage the thing. How they managed it was beyond him though.

He started to move when he remembered something else. Ciela. Where had she gone?

Looking out the door he saw her body laying outside on the ground and his heart sank. Did that man...

He should help the others. But he knew he'd be worse than useless and he had to make sure...That his failure hadn't resulted in the death of one of their companions.

Once there he could tell she was still breathing. He knelt down to move her to a more stable position, letting out a sigh of relief as he realized she was only knocked out. Picking his lance back up he made it back to his position and, tense as he was, made his way for the rest of the group. Hopefully he'd figure out what to do on the way.

---

Well now this was getting rather silly wasn't it? Penelope watched the beast move about from her perch on the altar and pursed her lips. What a vexing creature this was. It was as if it was designed just to protect the symbol. Thus far the creature hasn't done any overly lasting damage, providing Adelaide's injury wasn't severe, yet it had withstood so many attacks. Even their somewhat coordinated assault hadn't helped.

Perhaps it wasn't just the symbol that was the issue? The magic that was keeping the stone together seemed to be somewhat familiar. "Perhaps there's an alternate power source, and the mark isn't the only way?" She pondered out loud.

She jumped a bit as the beast took into the air. Which proved to be a bad idea as, given the numbness, she was already unsteady. Still she tried to fire off another magical attack at the statue, hoping to give it at least the slightest bit of pause. It was then she noticed some other magic forming around the statue. What was that? She didn't know any in their group who "Eeep!" she hadn't realized how close she was to the edge and, as more of her body felt numbed, she started to fall off from her position.

---

As it turned out Acantha also didn't know what to do. Which left Cora at a loss. Especially as the evil thing went into the air. How could she combat it if it was capable of such movements? The bandits she had fought off never had flying mounts and even if they had she usually would have a lance and her mount to help fend them off. But now? With just her blade?

She got to her feet and heard a shout from behind her. Turning she noticed a man in rather unusual dress rushing past her. What was that? She didn't recognize them, so they weren't a villager, then what? She let out a gasp as she noticed the man start to chant and wondered if she should try and stop him and tackle him to the ground. Before she could decide he launched an attack. It looked to be aimed at the statue. But then again maybe it was meant for that girl on the wyvern?

"Eeep!"

Hearing the noise Cora looked back over towards the altar. Where the girl who had proclaimed to be a princess was falling without a way to catch herself. Without thinking about it Cora was running towards her and, with a slide, caught the girl before she hit the ground.

This was becoming a trend, wasn't it?

"Oh, why thank you. That was embarrassing." The girl said. With a disarmingly calm tone. "Now, could you please set me back up there so I may continue the fight?"

Cora stared for a moment. Was she serious? It seemed that Penelope could only somewhat move her limbs and she was asking to get right to it again? No, that didn't seem right. "Sorry, er, lady Penelope, but I think it's best you take cover." Upon saying that Cora, crouching, moved between the statue and the alter. Despite Penelope's instance.

If Cora couldn't fight that thing then at least she could make sure it didn't crush anyone else.

[Skaia 578]

After Alois had told everyone what to do, the boy briefly glanced towards Penelope as if expecting something, though quickly turned his attention back towards the dragon. As all of the creature managed to avoid all of the attacks they sent at it, Alois let out a sigh saying, "you have got to be kidding me." As the dragon began to climb into the air, Alois couldn't really keep his eyes on the creature, instead looking down only to see someone new walk in. As the man started to say something weird and cast some kind of magic, Alois couldn't help but ask, "what the- who the hell are you?" 

Before he could get his answer, though, Alois heard a concerning noise from behind him. Seeing Penelope about to fall, Alois began to make his way over to where the girl was, only to see that Cora had already beaten him to it. Letting out a sigh of relief as he walked over to the two, Alois sheathed his axe thinking it would do him next to no good. Giving a thumbs up to Cora, he said, "nice save." He then walked over next to Penelope saying, "so, you think there's something else we have to find right? Well," he gestured over to the room behind them. "Still want to take that flower test?" With a smirk he looked back to Cora saying, "you don't mind if I borrow her right?"

Tsetseg hadn't managed to get a clear shot at the super wyvern as the symbol seemed to continuously evade them. Frustrated, the girl shifted her weight around before getting from knees back to her feet. Pulling her bowstring back, the girl took aim at the super wyvern, feeling a little queasy as she did but still managing to keep her aim steady. As the attack of Citron went towards the super wyvern, Tsetseg fired her arrow towards the opposite end of the dragon's head, expecting the statue's head to rotate again to dodge her attack. As she saw the dark orbs form around the super wyvern as well, Tsetseg was immediately filled with a sense of dread, looking to the side and seeing an Isaurian man using dark magic. "Ah!" The girl let out a yelp, shouting, "a-another one!?" 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Skaia

[Wind Rider 10]

Sienna growled out of frustration, this living statue was constantly moving around, evading the attacks that we're meant for the sigil on it's back. The statue then attacked again, aiming for her and Shiro. This attack was particularly fast and even though she jumped to dodge the tendril, it still managed to scrape her front leg. Sienna let out a whimper as her leg went numb from the attack. This was bad, now she was more likely to lose her footing if she were to keep dodging the statue, and if she did, the statue's tendril would definitely do more than scrape her.

She gritted her teeth and prepared another fireball. Her ears twitched and her attention was taken from the statue for brief moment as she noticed unfamiliar magic welling up. A strange man had joined the fray, and he was casting a dark spell, but on the statue. A new ally? Or simply someone posing as one? Sienna shook her head and aimed back at the statue, if that man was fighting with them she had to ignore him for now and focus on the true threat. She finished preparing a fireball and sent it flying towards the statue's head

[Asriel Dreemurr 38]

In spite of it all, it seemed nothing was working. Their unity of purpose succeeded only in further breaking apart the stony exterior of this statue given life, and doing remarkably little to achieve their objective. Yet he was not giving up. Even if all he could do was crack the rock into smaller and smaller pieces, the lancer intended to do exactly that until either his body failed him or they achieved victory against this thing. He felt a familiar fury rising within him, and it made him careless. Mindless to anything except the destruction of what stood in front of him. So much so that he barely noticed when the claws came down on him, and when the beast leaped into the air he stood there for a moment trying to stab at its underbelly in the hopes of achieving something. But then his attention once more passed to the others, in particular how many of them were rendered unable to fight my the magic. Wait... magic. Of course! Nodding to himself, he reached into his pack and retrieved the decorated bottle of blessed water, a plan forming in his head.

"Catriona!" He shouted as he turned from where he had been, running to her side. The statue was in the air for now, and while Citron and Peaches were in for a rough time dealing with it, this gave them a chance to regroup. "Hold still, I have an idea!" He still hadn't realised exactly how badly he was hurt just yet, but everyone who now had a fine view of his chest could see he was looking quite bad. Stony claws had torn clean through his gambeson, as well as the shirt he wore beneath it, and the rents left in his body were bleeding badly. It was something of a miracle that he wasn't slipping in his own blood right now, but purpose gave him strength. The reckless adrenaline and utter lack of concern for his own well-being helped. All the same, he knelt before the princess, set down his lance, and unstoppered the bottle. He took a moment to look it over and grimaced. There was only enough to do this three times. Well, better late than never then.

"Primește nota-" he faltered for a moment, in the middle of tracing out a sunburst in the water on her forehead, and perhaps the others could see him panicking for a moment. Was it right to invoke her? Was it even safe to do so? He felt he was beginning to understand why so many outside of Pontus were afraid of even hearing her name spoken aloud. The pause ended, he finished the emblem, and said in a shaky voice, "Soarele." Purely descriptive, but the intent was all the same. To pass on whatever power was held in the water to protect her. He believed it would work, even if he was spiting Inera through it. "How... how does that feel?"

[Saikazo 241]

Shiro really hated magic.

Sure, one could say that Proteans were magic, but really, it was just an ability they were born with, one that humans could not achieve naturally, so it was called magic. No, magic truly twisted the natural, doing things like bring the dead to life, or stone to life. And right now, it was perhaps the most annoying thing, seeing as no matter how they attacked it, it just wouldn't go down.

As if to drive that point home, another attack came at them. Sienna seemed to have a limb hit by the attack. Shiro on the other hand, did another hop, one much smaller than his first, in order to clear the attack, the tendril so close to grazing him, but the centimeters of space between frog and attack meant he was not hit.

At this point, another man had ran in, attacking the beast with magic. Well, he supposed it was helpful, but it was another human. Joy. He turned back into his human form, standing on two legs again. His size wasn't helping here... maybe if he could sneak around to the symbol. He quietly ran around, heading to the back of the monster.

Edited March 24, 2020 by Saikazo

[Cheshire Toon 141]

“What…?” 

Link pivoted toward the princess. Left hand resting on the hilt of his blade, he followed her gaze over to a massive assortment of bouquets, a painfully bright array of pinks, yellows, and whites. He had seen them when he entered the room but dismissed them as unimportant. Did the princess notice something that he had missed? There! In the center of the arrangement; a bouquet was glowing with the same ghostly blue pallor as the statue’s tendrils. 

Careless. This is how you get people killed. Pay attention!  The soldier scolded himself. The mistake was a slap in the face. He was supposed to be the eyes and ears—what kind of scout missed a bouquet that was literally glowing?

Link shook his head and sprinted toward the floral arrangement. “. . . .” He pushed the rest out of his way to reach the enchanted bouquet. He wasn’t really sure what he planned to do; the first step was obviously just to grab it, but judging by the glow it was probably going to numb his arm if he touched it. He doubted his gloves would protect him either, since the magic seemed to ignore armor. Maybe he could try and lift it with his blade? That would prevent him from coming into contact with the flowers. The backroom suddenly shook and he could hear frantic shouting from outside. Link swore. He didn’t have time to sit around trying to debate the safest options while everyone died around him, damn it!

He drew the Iron Sword from his hip and slipped it beneath the bouquet. “What?!” Before the soldier could even attempt to lift it the glow started to travel up the sword, and despite instinctively dropping the sword, his left hand suddenly went numb and within seconds the rest of his arm followed suit. 

Link snarled and drew his Slag Blade with his right hand, throwing caution to the wind and just stabbing it into the bouquet. A brief pulse of energy exploded upwards. A thunderous roar came from the other room, and then his right arm went numb and he tumbled backwards, releasing the blade, which caught inside the bouquet and dragged it to the floor. The predictable pink, white, and yellow flowers scattered, but additionally, Link saw little red spheres that looked like cabbages rolling across the floor. His Slag Blade was still impaled into one of them.

He had no idea what they were, but the dragon had roared when he stabbed one with his sword, so Link tried to stomp on another. 
 

Edited March 18, 2020 by Cheshire Toon

[Sethera 290]

I wonder if anybody reads these...but yes it's the same BGM

The statue held up well under the onslaught of attacks. While Citron's attack did not hit the symbol, it did a different piece of stone, smashing it into little more than marble dust. Soon afterward, Tsetseg's arrow came soaring toward where the symbol was, but as the statue had not needed to rotate the symbol, her strategy to anticipate another rotation failed. Soon afterward, Abdul's attack surrounded the statue before suddenly streaking toward its head. While some of the orbs managed to hit their mark, others did not, and none of them hit the shard with the symbol on it. The Wind attack from Penelope did little to stop the statue as well. Instead of rotating, now the shard just seemed to swerve out of the way before moving back into place, connected to the rest of the pieces by the crackling blue light. Sienna's fireball was also avoided in this way. The head being shattered into pieces had only given it further flexibility in avoiding their attacks.

The pieces of head moved around to form what looked like an open mouth that let out an angry roar. The effigy smashed into Citron and Peaches, set to slam them into the ground, tendril lashing angrily as it did another wide sweep of the room, aiming for first Alois, then Shiro, Penelope, and Cora. Then it swept through Sienna, Tsetseg, Abdul, and lastly Acantha, who had crawled out from underneath one of the pews.

In the other room, as Link turned toward the flowers, Catriona fought back the familiar, painful swell of emotions rising in her chest. She could not give them a name, but she knew them well enough regardless. They were nothing but nuisances, signs of weakness as her father had once said. Rulers could not afford to be swayed by such things. They led to foolish choices and paralyzed the mind, bringing needless regret afterward. She had been found lacking as a fighter, but she would not be found so as a leader. There was still something she could do to help the group. Taking in a breath, the woman closed her eyes, and when she opened them, they were like chips of dark blue ice.

Now is not the time to dwell on past failures.

The lord had just begun to crawl toward the flowers when footsteps echoed against the wooden floor from the other room. The door, which had been closing, swung open once more with a loud creak, and soon the muted thud of steps sounded against the hard stone floor. Immediately after, Edrick entered her line of sight. The boy was a mess, with four large gashes scored down his front. They had torn through both the gambeson, shirt, and the skin beneath, leaving jagged wounds on his chest. The skin was slightly puckered at the edges and stained a cherry red, providing a startling contrast to the wine red, almost black color of the blood burbling up from the wound itself. The lancer appeared oblivious to his situation as he knelt before the princess, working to unstopper a blue glass bottle.

Catriona opened her mouth to say something, but closed it when he managed to open the bottle and begin to apply the water to her forehead, tracing a symbol lightly across it. The woman felt a tingling sensation from her forehead, which then spread to the rest of her body. She paid that little mind though, more preoccupied with the words the other was saying. Pontic. She recognized those flowing, almost swaying syllables, like reeds bending in the wind. She could admit that the language itself was pleasing to the air, but it also carried with it certain connotations that she could not forget. It was impossible to get used to it. No matter how many times she heard Edrick speak it, she could not help but begin to reach for her sword every time.

Except now, when it was literally impossible to do so, crawling on the ground like a worm. Her legs lay still and useless behind her, though she was sure, after recognizing the bottle for what it was, that Edrick's intent had been to restore their movement. Still, for one wild moment, she had wondered if he had been about to perform a Pontic ritual. Indeed, she was surprised he didn't invoke the goddess Herself in his chant.

"How... how does that feel?"

"There is nothing," Catriona replied flatly. She thought for a moment before adding, "The gesture is appreciated, however you should look to yourself first." She stared meaningfully at his wounds. Did he even have a vulnerary? "Let me--" she cut herself off, realizing that she, herself, had used the last of her vulnerary during the battle against the Awakened back in the shrine.

The clatter of metal on stone caught the lord's attention then, and she turned toward the source of the noise. Link had dropped an unfamiliar-looking iron sword, which now was glowing a familiar bright blue on the floor. Snarling, the man drew the crude-looking blade that she had seen him use in his recent battles, stabbing it down into one of the bouquets. That was strange enough, but what was even stranger was the backlash of energy that buffeted against the mercenary. One of the bouquets fell over then, scattering cabbage-shaped blossoms in various colors. Catriona had seen flowers like these before. They were well-loved by noble families, though she couldn't remember what they were called for the life of her.

At the same time, a loud roar came from the other room. The mercenary stomped on another flower then, which seemed an odd decision, odder still because nothing happened for it.

In the main room, the blue light went out for a second. The tendril disappeared and the stone statue began to plummet to the floor. However, before it reached the ground, the light returned with a vengeance, the statue giving what sounded like a pained roar as it flapped its wings, rising back into the air. The effigy appeared distracted now, releasing its grip from Citron and turning its attention toward the back room. At that moment, the fragment with the symbol carved on it lay perfectly exposed to the rest of the group.

---

OOC

Spoiler

Citron has been attacked by the statue, and the tendril has swept through Alois, Shiro, Penelope, Cora, Sienna, Tsetseg, Abdul, and Acantha. The statue has now turned its attention toward the back room as well.

Edited March 18, 2020 by Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd

[LordCowCow 840]

So now what? He saw what that statue had become, a writhing mass of magic and stone, and he realized there was even less he could do to it than at the start. Not only was he unsure his lance would damage the thing at all it now was in the air. He could try to throw his weapon but without great strength and aim it would do nothing.

He kept moving towards it nonetheless. The mysterious mage was right there but Gunther knew he had to take the risk and present his back to him as he walked past, lance in hand, advancing without any actual idea what he was going to do.

So he did the only thing he knew how to do. He watched the thing. Waiting for it to attack one of his allies on the ground. And hope that once it did he would be fast enough to get in between the thing's attack and their less armored bodies.

Perhaps he should invest in some javelins once this all was said and done.

---

"Interesting. Very interesting." Penelope muttered. The creature was fragmenting which proved only to give it more weapons to attack them with. If that were the case continued attacks would be wasted unless they were certain to hit the intended target.

Though something happened that caused a change. The statue faltered for a moment. She hadn't noticed any of them do anything to cause such a reactions so... "Those who had left must have found something. In that room, based on the statue's reaction. So perhaps the true source wasn't the statue itself after all. Still, we can't let it stop them...."

Not that she could do much from here. Despite her best efforts she couldn't even stand so she was stuck in this position. Thankfully this meant that she didn't have to move to the side much to avoid the tendril, thanks to the alter that was on one side of her. It could only attack at one angle so she knew where it would be coming from.

Penelope took careful aim. She didn't want to cause more damage without knowing she could hit it. The mark wasn't moving as it had been before so perhaps now was the time... And when she was able to get sight of it she let loose a blast of more powerful Elwind.

---

Cora was getting rather tired of this. She hadn't really done much of anything this entire time and, as far as she could tell, neither had anyone else. But she did know that there was something going on with the creature. Meaning hopefully despite appearances something had stuck.

That still led to the problem of what to do with that thing in the air. It was trying to attack again as well which forced her to move.

The two issues combined together in Cora's mind and she acted. A rather foolhardy and ill-thought-out action but she couldn't think of what to do.

She clambered on top of the place the statue had been standing on before, crouched down, leapt up with all her strength and swung her blade at wherever she could reach on the statue.

[Wind Rider 10]

This was getting irritating at this point, the statues head was such a mess of fragments that it was becoming impossible to hit the symbol on it. Her fireball had completely missed her mark, and now the creature was attacking Citron and her wyvern. It wasn't done yet as it proceeded to lash out with it's tail again. Sienna could barely dodge at this point, and while she did manage to jump away, the tendril still got another of her legs. With a painful yelp, Sienna fell to the ground, any attempts to get up just resulted in her falling over as a front and back leg were both numb beyond all belief.

Panic was starting to set in her mind, if that creature made another attack she was done for. She couldn't even imagine what would happen if that thing landed a hit on her head or body. She looked around frantically, looking for someone that could help her, but then her ears perked up to the sound of a painful roar from the statue. Looking over, she noticed that the statue started to fall as the blue energy around it faded away for a brief moment, before reigniting and landing. It looked like it was in pain as it went back into the air and turned it's attention to the back room.

Sienna's eyes then lit up, the fragment with the symbol on it was off the creature and laying on the ground exposed. She mustered what strength she could to hold herself up and threw a fireball at it. (Please work!) She thought.

[Skaia 578]

As Alois was ready to get a move on, the boy's plan had a damper put on it as the dragon seemed ready to attack them all again. With the tail lashing out at them once again, Alois swore under his breath, diving forward and tumbling over the floor to avoid yet another part of his body being numbed. Lying there for a moment, Alois tried to push himself back up only to realize that he was lying on his useless arm. Letting out a sigh, the boy shifted his weight and rolled onto his stomach, using his one good arm to push himself back up. Getting onto his feet, Alois raised an eyebrow as the dragon seemed to start falling, though he didn't start to move towards it. He didn't think he'd be able to run towards it and make sure his axe hit in time, so he left it in the hands of the people who could. Though, the boy's mouth went agape as his old friend leaped forward towards it, nodding a bit impressed at her moxie. 

Tsetseg frowned, annoyance clear on her face, as her arrow had sailed past the creature's supposed weak point once again. One after the other, her arrows had proven to do little to the super wyvern but as a huntress once she had locked onto her prey she wasn't going to stop until it was brought down. Or at least not stop until this one was brought down! She also couldn't help but take a small amount of joy in the new mage's dark magic being ineffective as well, now more fired up to kill the super wyvern before he could.

 As the creature lashed out with its tail once more, as it swept towards her, Tsetseg dropped her bow and bent backwards, reaching with both of her hands to push off the ground and roll away. As she did, landing on all fours, the girl then scrambled forward and picked up her bow before getting back to a standing position. Seeing the creature sputter and begin to fall, Tsetseg drew an arrow once more. As the wind, fire and nice girl with a sword were all being sent towards the creature, Tsetseg as well added to the mayhem, firing yet another arrow once Cora's slash had finished, trying not to shoot her by accident. 

[Tiamat's Circus 117]

Was this how it ended? No, it couldn’t be. Sure, it was… Terrifying, sure it was… Stupid, what they did. Sure, her head was spinning from the force of the impact, sure they had missed their target, but… So many stories in her grandfather’s diary must have went like this, without him saying it. Deep down, even if she had never thought about it, that was something Citron knew; he was an adventurer, he saw the world. There must have been many times he thought it was the end, after doing something stupid, but it wasn't, right? If he could do it, so can we. Citron braced against Peaches as the effigy grabbed hold of both her and Peaches, set on slamming them against the ground; heart pounding as they fell…

Only for it to stop, if only for a second. No, they didn’t stop falling, neither did the effigy, as they hurtled towards the ground together. But the pressure of it’s grip lessened with the light. The pressure. For a split second, it was gone. Of course, they couldn’t pull up now, they were crashing, the ground was approaching much too-fast, and Peaches was much too hurt to right them now. But… Even as the grip returned, for a moment, something had happened to concern the statue, the effigy. Something had happened to distract it. If they could maybe... “Play dead.” Citron murmured under her breath, a hand going slack at the wyvern’s neck, lightly stroking a scale as they fell, her vision going dark... as the statue let go, completely, with a roar, and left them.

The impact with the ground, was what hurt the most that she could recall; not just now, but every time. When she was younger, and her little brother had thrown stones as a joke, or had been trying his best at target practice… When she had first tried to teach Peaches tricks, when she had met the group-- The ground never got softer. As she laid slack beside Peaches, thrown off by the impact against the stone floor, she would even wager that it had gotten harder. But maybe, if they just played dead a little longer-- If the group could recreate whatever it was, that made the light disappear, if only for a moment…

This wouldn’t be the end.

[Otaku-sama 31]

Abdul gasped as the golem only waxed in its swirling, chaotic might as his magic shattered the creature’s head, turning it into a maelstrom of stone shards and baleful energy. The thing let out another earth-shattering roar before sweeping the room with its tail. Abdul barely had enough time to dive backwards to avoid it, landing harshly onto his back, leaving him to writhe in pain on the floor.

It took Abdul a moment to recover from the pain that paralyzed him, eventually rolling onto his front, facing the door. His heart dropped as he saw the knight he had evaded a moment ago approached him with lance in hand.

“No! It is far too soon! Not now!” he thought to himself as the figure, shadowed by the sunlight, plodded towards him. However, the cold steel of the lance never came as the knight walked past, bracing himself against the golem’s next attack, almost as if to protect him from it. Shaking his head, Abdul grabbed his scattered tome and knife before rising back to his feet.

The golem had devastated the warriors’ formation once again with its scintillating tendril, not showing any sign that the coordinated attack had any effect as it moved to crush the wyvern and its rider against the wall of the cathedral. However, before it could complete its maneuver, its power appeared to fade for a heartbeat, causing it to fall to the floor before its power returned to keep it from colliding with it. Abdul could have sworn he heard the sound of shattering glass, but the sounds of the struggling warriors and the golem’s subsequent roaring kept him from focusing on the sound. At first he doubted he had heard anything but the sound of one of the stained glass windows falling to pieces, the golem’s reaction suggested something behind the altar was affecting it.

Abdul wanted to rush behind the altar to find whatever had caused the golem to pause, but he knew that if he were to run, the golem was faster and would likely kill him before he could find its true power source. However, the sturdy knight standing in front of him may stand a better chance.

“Did you see that?!” he shouted at the knight before casting another spell, “Something behind the altar caused that thing’s power to stop! I will distract it! Go quickly and find its source!” Abdul then raised his hands, calling forth more starry orbs to attack the golem, aiming for its glowing core within the cloud of marble shards.

 

[Cheshire Toon 141]

Link lost all feeling in his foot when he stomped on the red-cabbage-flower. He was so frustrated by all of the magic he nearly screamed; how were they supposed to destroy something they couldn’t even touch? He was rapidly running out of ideas and limbs to test them with. Both of his hands were useless now, as well as one of his feet, and he had gotten nowhere. 

Focus. Don’t panic. You’re the veteran here, Link thought, trying to ground himself. It wasn’t working.

He was familiar with the signs of his waking dreams by now—his heart pounded painfully against his ribs, every breath was harder than the last as his throat started to constrict, and the roaring of the dragon and the shouting of his allies suddenly seemed distant. No. Not now. Please not now. Link was visibly shaking as he struggled to wrestle control of himself away from his demons. People are depending on me. Please, please not now! His pleas went unanswered. He squeezed his eyes shut to try and block them out but his attempts were in vain; he could see them more vividly when he did that.

His waking dreams were always brief. Small snippets of past events that he would be stuck reliving for as long as it took him to ground himself again. Sometimes they were from his own perspective, other times, he would see them from an onlooker’s perspective. This time he was an onlooker, watching himself in the battle that had killed Rohns. I’m not there anymore. I’m in Histia. I’m with the princesses. 

Nothing he did mattered. The emotions from that night overwhelmed him all over again: panic, fear, and desperation. I left the military. Epona died and I went to Ithome. Link bit through his cheek in a last ditch effort to ground himself, and the pain gave him a temporary reprieve, enough for him to see Edrick come flying past the flaming brazier toward the princess.

An idea struck him. Link jumped on it to keep himself moving. “Edrick!” he hobbled over to the two, startling the boy just as he was about to dismiss Catriona’s concern for his health. “We don’t have a lot of time.” 

“Link, what do you mea-” he was interrupted by Link, with some effort, wiggling his backpack off his arms and dropping it onto the floor in front of them. 

“Get into my bag and grab the blanket. Take it to the fire, light it, and then use it to burn all the flowers. ” He was speaking briskly, still shaken up by his waking dreams.  “Make sure you don’t touch any of them. You’ll lose feeling if you do.” The confusion on the young Pontic’s face was, in a word, obvious. He didn’t quite understand what Link thought he had figured out, and then he saw the flowers scattered over the floor and noted the momentary dimming of the blue light from the other room. They were somehow connected to whatever devilish magic had animated the statue? Well, there was one thing to do.

“Excuse me, Princess.” The boy said as politely as he could, standing from his stooped position and seemingly not caring for his wounds. “I need a moment.” He looked down at the water in the vessel, and saw how little was left. Only enough to anoint two more persons. So he nodded, stoppered the bottle again, and instead untied the iron emblem of the Dread Raven from his lance only to retie it around his neck. He winced as it fell into one of the wounds on his chest, and fresh blood stained the intricately cast feathers. 

Link kicked his backpack over, spilling the contents across the floor. “You don’t have a moment.” He was unnecessarily sharp when he addressed the boy. He sorted through the contents of the bag with his foot until he found the bundled blanket, then kicked it over to Edrick’s feet. “You wanna learn to be a soldier? Lesson number two: every second in a battle is like a day in real time. Unless you want a death on your shoulders, get a move on.”

“It’s not wasting time!” The boy responded, kicking the blanket up into one of his hands, bleeding on it in the process. “This is magic and--”

“I don’t care! Move!” Link snapped. No. No, don’t freak out. “Hurry!” Edrick was already moving by the time that Link had actually screamed at him, lance left behind while his blanket was in one hand and the other clutched at his emblem. He remembered it lessening the blow of magic before, and while he wasn’t sure how to replicate it now he could only hope that it would extend to him as it had his spear. So he stood, perhaps a bit too long, with the blanket held over the flames until it caught and then made to hurl it at the scattered flowers.

[Saikazo 241]

Shiro watched as the creature's head was pounded into dust, watched as it reformed back into something more monstrous appearing. So even destroying its physical form wouldn't be able to help defeat the beast. To make things worse, it once again swung one of those damn tendrils at the group. Shiro attempted to leap over it, but because he was in his human form and not his frog form, he didn't go as high as he needed to, and the attack hit his left leg, making it go numb instantly.

Shiro grunted, but adjusted his weight so he fall forwards, landing on his hands and performing a handstand. He then slowly lowered his body, letting his right leg take all the weight. Well, he didn't embarrass himself like earlier, but until he got some sort of feeling back into his leg, he wasn't going to be any help.

“Something behind the altar caused that thing’s power to stop! I will distract it! Go quickly and find its source!” The new human called out. Shiro sighed to himself. He could do that... but... With a grunt, he began to hop on his one leg, turning himself around and hopping straight to the altar.

[Sethera 290]

Don't click if you don't want to hear the same BGM

The statue moved toward the altar, and then past it. Crashing into the wall, it stopped, turned, and headed for the large, stained-glass window in the center. The window showcased a large, serpentine figure that looked much alike to the statue, except rather than a uniform grayish-white, this figure shone in all the colors of the rainbow. Variegated spots of color appeared on the statue as it moved toward the window.

At that moment, the first of the attacks hit the statue. A blast of Elwind that sliced the stone a fraction of an inch away from the mark. Cora's swing was next, and while she missed, her strength caused her blade to cut into the stone body of the effigy. Then Sienna's fireball came, flying not right at the mark, but close enough. As the symbol became slightly blurred through the flames, the statue let out a roar of pain. Still, it moved forward, pausing only when an arrow came whistling through the air to land in the exact center of the mark, cracking the stone. Its roar turned into a screech then, but it continued to stubbornly move forward, crashing through the stained-glass window with a tinkling sound. For a second, the hall was awash with all the hues of the rainbow as the window shattered into pieces, each individual shard sending out beams of color as light shone through them.

The statue let out another roar as it saw Link and Edrick moving toward the flowers, but before it could do anything, multiple dark orbs flew at the cracked fragment of stone holding the symbol, disintegrating it into marble dust.

Immediately afterward, almost as if somebody had blown out a candle, the blue light that had been keeping the statue together and the glowing blue tendril winked out of existence. Everybody standing nearby would be blown away from the magical backlash, but when they were able to look again, they would see that what had once been a powerful enemy was now nothing more than a regular stone statue. It lay motionless on the floor, surrounded by pieces of marble with various designs--a piece of its mouth here, a claw fragment there. The blue glow from the statue was gone, but everybody would be able to see that a single bouquet in the other room was glowing with that same blue color.

Soon, however, the fire from the blanket engulfed the bouquet, the flowers blackening. Those who knew their flora would recognize them as roses, the only ones they had seen in this building. All the others were snapdragons, gladioli, hyacinths, or daffodils--native Histian flowers. As the roses went up in flames, the blue glow faded, and then brightened in one last magical backlash. This one stronger than the one before as everybody was blown off their feet, their eyes forced to close or risk blindness from the blue light.

In the unsettling darkness that followed they would all hear a distinctly feminine voice. "You took much longer than I expected to deal with a mere imitation. Still, I will grant you this small victory." As the light faded and the group was able to open their eyes once more, the voice spoke again. "Do not think that this is the end. I am sure we shall meet again, Dragon seekers." The voice faded away then, too, till there was neither blue light nor sound to be seen or heard in the place.

Catriona, who had lain paralyzed on the floor, felt feeling return to her legs then. She was the first to recover from the numbness, though the others soon would as well. Stumbling toward the flowers with a toddling, unsure gait, the lord looked at the bouquet, which had burned itself out. The flames had spread to the other bouquets, however, forming a giant bonfire that threatened to spread to the wooden furniture as well. "It is done. We should put out the fire."

At that moment, shouts could be heard from the main room. The woman turned around in surprise, only to see three extra people in the building. While they were strangers to her, both Alois and Cora would recognize them at once.

The first was a young woman with a sword standing near the front wooden bench. Her outfit was similar to Cora's, but she looked different in every other way, from her shock of strawberry blond hair to the naturally fierce expression on her face. However, she appeared more awed than fierce at the moment. "This...I'm back to normal?" she murmured.

The second was an older man with a frown wearing fur-lined robes and a brass necklace. He had several frown lines on his forehead, but he, too, seemed more shocked than anything. "It is over, then. We are saved..."

The third she could only catch a glimpse of before he was out the door, but the main thing that stood out to her was his bright, greedy eyes and the look of absolute paranoia and fear on his face before he left. Those who turned late to look would miss him entirely.

Catriona frowned, ignoring the man's disappearance to focus on the other two as she entered the main hall. "How did you get in here?" she demanded, attempting to stand taller. "Who are you? Are you..." she trailed off, thinking. "You said it was over. Do you mean that you are...?"

"Who do you think we are?! We're the animals who were helping you before, of course!" the woman interrupted. "Egad, for a princess, you sure are dumb. I thought they taught you to be smart in those fancy-pants palaces of yours."

"Acantha!" the older man scolded. "I am sorry for that," he turned to the group, making what looked like an attempt as a smile but which came out as more of a grimace instead. "We are unused to receiving royalty in these parts."

"It is fine," Catriona replied. She was used to such attitudes from her time in the Garou, after all. And it wasn't as if every member of the party treated her with all due decorum, either. Not that such things mattered that much while traveling on the road, even less when it came from somebody not even of Galtea.

The man gave a short bow. "I am Dresogon, mayor of this village. You have my most humble thanks for breaking the curse inflicted upon us." His grimace smoothed itself out into a small smile that disappeared soon after. "We cannot do much to repay you, but feel free to stay for a celebratory feast before continuing on your journey. Though I suspect we villagers will be busy cleaning up this place for the rest of the day first," he cast a grim eye on his surroundings.

It was only then that Catriona realized just how much of a mess they had made of the hall. The bonfire notwithstanding, the main hall was in shambles. Pieces of the statue lay scattered over the floor alongside colored glass shards. Multiple windows had been broken, as well as a couple of the benches near the front. The stone flooring and wall were cracked in places, namely where the statue had walked or where Citron and Peaches had crashed. Even a part of the vaulted ceiling was cracked from where Shiro had crashed into it. Scorch marks and nicks from missed attacks covered the room, and Alois had yet to pick up his hand axe which still lay fallen on the ground.

The woman coughed, a little embarrassed. "My apologies. We will assist with that."

"No, no, I couldn't let you do that, not after everything you did," the mayor shook his head.

"Do not discount your own contributions," the princess argued. "Were it not for you or Cora, we would not have known where to go to break the curse."

Acantha scowled at Catriona. "You're weird. What kind of princess volunteers to clean? Just accept our thanks, gads." She ignored the lord after that, approaching Cora and beginning to look her over. "Looks like you're in one piece, at least," she muttered, before turning to Alois and looking him over as well. "I suppose you're fine too? I'm not surprised. Stupid people tend to live longer for some reason."

The woman glanced at the others then, her gaze lingering on Gunther for a second longer before turning away. "I'm not going to bother worrying about outsiders like you. You can drop over dead for all I care. Don't get the wrong idea just because the mayor's being nice. You just happened to break the spell. We would've figured it out ourselves eventually." She sniffed, "You should probably get yourselves looked at though, especially them, or you really will drop dead," she nodded toward Edrick and Citron. "There's one that looks like she's at that point already," she finished with a glance at Adel, before turning her head away with a huff.

---

OOC

Spoiler

The battle is over! Thus ends my litany of links to the same dang youtube video. Also, it looks like Acantha and Dresogon are back to normal as well. Feel free to react to stuff and interact with each other and/or the NPCs.

Edited April 2, 2020 by Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd

[LordCowCow 840]

“Something behind the altar caused that thing’s power to stop! I will distract it! Go quickly and find its source!”

Gunther wasn't very comfortable taking orders from this strange, and still suspicious, man. He glanced over to where he last saw Penelope and realized he couldn't see her from his position. Though despite this hesitation in the short moment where he was deciding if he should listen to the man or not it seemed to no longer matter.

The light faded even faster than it had appeared and Gunther saw, mouth slightly agape, that the threat had suddenly passed. Evidently someone had gotten to the source before him. The other light soon flared up and he winced. Then a voice spoke. A feminine voice. One that, due to their words, seemed to be the one they were searching for. Gunther gave an awkward glance towards Abdul.

He still was an unknown but, unless this was quite the trick, he didn't seem to be the one who caused this. Though the Knight didn't feel like his response was the wrong one he only wished that this voice would have sounded before this all started as it would have saved him some embarrassment.

"It is done. We should put out the fire."

Catriona's order snapped him to attention. He would leave dealing with him to the princesses. "Right, on it." Gunther said. Looking around for something to help smother the flames. Which was when he saw...them. The people formerly known as badger and beaver. The town's mayor and...some girl.

As she looked his way Gunther's eyes widened in realization. His mind went back to earlier when he was petting several beavers. Did that mean...He blushed and looked away. Continuing his quest to help get rid of the flames.

---

"Well, wasn't that interesting?" Penelope said as she got up, the numbness fading, and brushed the dirt from her skirt. So much more information to process. The woman had, in a way, revealed themselves. She would remember that voice, those words, and be on alert for any future attacks. She was quite excited for the day she could confront whoever that had been.

She also took note of the man who had ran out. Likely they had been some sort of small animal that was hiding during all this before the curse lifted. His face was an easy one to remember. He'd be sure to find them after this and question them. Though for now there were others to get answers from first.

Not the girl, though Penelope couldn't help but but slightly amused hearing her attitude towards Catriona. It was rare one spoke to her elder sister in such a way.

The mayor was the one she was focused on now. "Speaking of everything we did." She said, approaching him with a friendly smile and a frosty gaze. "I think there's a few things that you should elaborate on, Mr Mayor."

She noticed another among them she hadn't seen before. Likely the same source of that unknown magic from before. "And you would do well to introduce yourself, stranger." Her eyes lost their cool edge for a moment as she addressed him, however.

---

Cora hadn't fully thought this through. Sure she had cleaved into the thing but the fall was rather painful as she landed. She managed to hit the ground on her feet, with the support of one hand, but it still stung and shook her body intensely. And then the magical wave had come and knocked her over again.

Once she was up, however, she had discovered that the statue had ceased its attack. She let out a sigh of relief and almost slumped back down onto her knees. The adrenaline rushing out of her suddenly.

It was over. It was really over. They had defeated it...somehow. She wasn't really sure how it had worked out but as long as it did that was fine by her.

And then she heard a voice she thought was lost to her forever several times through all of this.

Acantha. And the mayor, she supposed, though that was less important.

She could hardly believe her eyes. She really had been a beaver. And was actually back!

The words she spoke towards Catriona choked the girl up. "It's really you." Cora muttered, eyes watering.

"Looks like you're in one piece, at least,"

Cora nodded, trying hard to keep from letting her emotions spill over. They were saved. The curse was gone. They had managed to bring the town back!

She couldn't help herself as she hurried over to her friend and touched her shoulder to get her attention. When Acantha started to turn Cora threw her arms around the girl, knowing she'd get an earful for this later, and delivered a crushing hug to her fellow guardswoman. "I was...so afraid." Cora admitted for the first time out loud. Her tears now flowing freely down her face.

[Cheshire Toon 141]

Link groaned. The explosion caused by the destruction of the statue hadn’t been enough to knock him off his feet, but the second, more powerful eruption at his back caught him off guard and—in a blinding flash of blue light that forced him to shut his eyes—plucked him up and threw him across the room in the same effortless way a gale scattered a pile of leaves. He instinctively tried to rise to his feet, but the world spun and it was all he could do to suppress the sudden urge to vomit. 

Then came the voice. It was obviously female; she didn’t have an accent he could identify, but she spoke with a particular cadence that he associated with high society. Not that knowing that helped all that much if he was being honest. He hadn’t met many farmers or blacksmiths that could read, and even fewer who could magick a statue to life, so it wasn’t exactly hard to guess at some area of the mysterious assailant’s background. What he really wanted to know was why she had revealed herself to them at all. What could she possibly stand to gain? He was slowly filling in her profile: the bandit he had interrogated had claimed a white blur had been present when they were hired, he had committed to memory the sigil that had been used to animate the statue (in the hope that such powerful spells were unique and that other members of the upper echelon of magicks could possibly identify it), and now he had a voice as well. 

It wasn’t a perfect scenario. He only had a few hunches of what “the white blur” part could really mean, no idea if his theories about the magical sigil would reveal any information, and a very limited amount of use when it came to the knowledge of what their assailant sounded like. Additionally, he had no way of proving that all of his info was tied together, or that this magician was also the “white blur” the bandit had spoken of.

What he did have was Licorice. She knew more about magic than anyone else in the group; she had acted as if she had an idea of who was behind this since they had arrived. If she really wanted to prove she was loyal, she would answer his questions, and he would finally be a step ahead of whoever was tracking them.

Link pushed himself to his feet. His vision was still shaky, but the feeling in his hands and feet were slowly coming back to him. The rest of the group seemed to be in a similar boat, save Princess Catriona—already on her feet and directing someone to put out the fire. Gunther immediately volunteered himself for the job before anyone else could, partially because most of the group was still suffering from a form of shellshock.

Link shakily walked toward the burning flowers to collect his swords. When the familiar weight of his Blade dropped into the scabbard on his belt, he breathed a sigh of relief, feeling almost naked without his sword. What use was a swordsman with no weapon? Not that it had really done him a lot of good in the fight.

Something in the main room caused a commotion after that. The soldier darted forward to find the human-again villagers fussing about. Or, well, most of them—Link didn’t miss the plump little man whose body language screamed ‘guilty’ rapidly retreat from the room. He resisted the immediate urge to pursue. He had more important things to do at the moment. 

“You should probably get yourselves looked at though, especially them, or you really will drop dead," one of the villagers said, nodding toward Edrick and Citron. "There's one that looks like she's at that point already.”

Link frowned. Ciela was nowhere to be found. Had she fled? He realized Licorice was missing as well once he had time to look around. A stone formed in his stomach. “Shiro, would you round-up anyone that can’t walk and bring them over here? I haven’t seen Ciela or Licorice. They may be hurt,” he said, looking at the frog Protean. Then, he turned to Citron and Edrick. “You two, on me. I’m no healer, but I know enough to patch up the worst of your wounds.”

He was tunneling. There was a lot to take in; Penelope was interrogating the Mayor (impressive initiative), and there was a dark-skinned newcomer clutching what was probably a magical tome he didn’t recognize. Threat priority was the key for now. No one was actively attacking, so until he had seen to the safety of his own, he would leave the situation alone.
 

Edited March 30, 2020 by Cheshire Toon

[Otaku-sama 31]

Abdul was stunned when his distracting spell instead became the killing blow, finally causing the baleful statue to fall to a heap of inanimate rubble. With the way now cleared of its threat, Abdul quickly made his way past the knight and the archer to see what the golem had been trying to protect from beyond the altar. The same ghostly hue that animated the golem now filled the back room of the cathedral, silhouetting yet another figure who stood in front of a mass of flowers that burned like will-o-wisps. Before he could reckon what he was seeing, he was suddenly thrown off his feet in a blinding flash of light.

“You took much longer than I expected to deal with a mere imitation. Still, I will grant you this small victory. Do not think that this is the end. I am sure we shall meet again, Dragon seekers."

Abdul could not tell if he was awake or asleep when he heard that ethereal voice, lost in the inky void of a waking dream. When he came back to his senses, he saw that all of the other warriors were subject to the same overwhelming burst of arcana, and he wondered if they all heard the same voice as he. Looking back to the back room, he saw that the room was now dark, illuminated by the mild sunlight streaming through the windows and a pile of flowers that was burning in a familiar and wholesome yellow light. Whatever magic had animated the golem had suddenly vanished, leaving only a sudden, oppressive silence in the cathedral, only broken by the heavy breathing of its remaining occupants.

As he slowly rose to his feet, Abdult noticed that there were more people rising from the feet than before. One looked like a fellow warrior, while the other two appeared to be more mundane folk. Abdul caught a fleeting glance of one of the newcomers before he escaped out the front door: a portly man whose feet carried him faster than a first glance would suggest. While the man’s sudden flight suggested his involvement and guilt, Abdul did not move to pursue him. If he fled the town, he would surely meet his fate at the hands of a wayward highwayman.

Instead, Abdul turned to look at the knight, who responded to the voice of what Abdul assumed was his charge within the back room. The knight’s overly protective attitude towards his charge gave Abdul the impression that he must be relatively green, unlike the seasoned and disciplined knights he was used to dealing with as a merchant, but thankfully not the executioner he thought. However, a knight of somewhat noble bearing suggested that this assorted group of well-armed travelers was no mere band of mercenaries, but the retinue or baggage train of nobility.

"And you would do well to introduce yourself, stranger."

Abdul turned to the source of the icy voice that addressed him. He immediately knew that by her dress and speech, this was no mere commoner, but one of the nobility and likely one of that knight’s charges. Dusting off his robes and sheathing his knife, Abdul put on his warmest of his merchant grins before addressing the lady.

“My sincerest apologies for my impropriety, my lady. My name is Abdul Jalal Al-Azif, a humble merchant and traveling scholar. I only recently arrived in this town when I heard your struggle, and I only approached with the intent to help whoever was in danger with what little magic I know. I hope you will be willing to allow me to make a more proper introduction for someone of your regal bearing once the situation allows!”