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The Chosen [IC / Not Accepting / PG-16]

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"Me?" Reinaan returned Keres' question with an admittedly puzzled response. His vision was fine as it happened and she was completely unharmed where he'd been injured in a few places. He blinked a few times realizing he may have gone a bit overboard for all this. But aside from needing a bath he didn't feel too particularly bad. "Yeah I'm fin-" he started as Keres interrupted herself and took her attention to the remainder of the fight. The boy's body tensed up again, knowing he still had something left to do when he saw Pyrrha on the ground and not moving and the others fighting off the Gnoll leader and his mount. He hadn't been able to see much of the fighting going on the other side with the number of opponents he'd been scrambling with. But even from a ways away both the Earth and Wind Chosen seemed to be in a bad spot. Geoff and Lindow both seemed fine though they had the large foe to deal with. Getting the leader off Ryia and Pyrrha seemed like the priority for the moment.

"Keres!" he called to her as he took off running. "Follow me but don't get too close. When I've pushed him back some try to get Pyrrha out of there!" Reinaan yelled out his plan.  He hadn't noticed the girl freeze up but hopefully his words would stir her to action. The draken ran as fast as he could, which was never all that fast compared to others in the group. He watched every exchange between Ryia and the Gnoll, attacks and successful guards and dodges. As he got closer he saw a spear plunged into the girl's chest which sparked angry flames escaping the edges of his mouth as he continued moving towards them. He readied his halberd, holding it overhead. As he got close enough to engage he moved his arms further back to more fully wind up and swung down with all his might as he leaped forward to attempt bring the ax of the weapon down upon one of the gnolls arms. He'd made sure to approach such that the swing couldn't hurt either of his companions on accident. At the least he needed to get it off of Ryia and take over the fight for her.

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"Leave. Leave food. Will eat you instead if stay." The warg snarled at the two men as it took a step backwards.

"You wouldn't happen to know where we could find the Demon Gate, would you?" Lindow met the warg's sharp gaze with neutral expression. He figured that with the creature's senses, it wouldn't be completely absurd that it might know something. If it was smart enough to try and negotiate, perhaps the warg could be of use for something more than testing his new blades...

"What is....gate?" The warg tilted it's head in confusion. 

“Demons." Resting the Bandit Cleaver on his shoulder, Lindow smiled. If he had absorbed the Nature Spirit, would he be able to talk to animals like this all the time? There was something oddly charming about the warg's brutish nature, and it made him wonder if most animals had the same air about them but lacked the means to convey it. "We didn't come out here looking for you... we're searching for things that don't belong to this land. Have you noticed anything strange, friend?"

"Am hungry. Don't care about....belonging. Just food." The monster responded with a growl. 

"You can have the food." He lied. It was possible that the effects of the Demon Gate were causing it's hunger...

Lindow toyed with the idea for a moment before dismissing it with a sigh. None of the gnoll seemed to be twisted like the bodies of the creatures that were effected during the fight with fire mage. The creature was probably always hungry, and was simply doing what i thought was necessary for it's survival. "Just tell me what I want to know and it's yours, along with your life..." 

"Too much talk! Go or be food."

"Alright." Negotiations were officially over. Shrugging, Lindow shifted his stance to one more suitable to counter rather than attack. "Come then... I've got a new trick to teach you." He said with smile as he watched the warg with eyes that also seemed to be hungry. "Let's see you play dead!"

Spoiler

Lindow chatted up the warg. He is now prepared to counter next turn.

 

Edited by Hollow

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Geoff watched the conversation with some confusion. "I do not understand why you would be searching for that, surely even if you found it you couldn't do anything about it. It takes spirit magic to break those, didn't you know?"

Either way the man prepared to take on the worg. The beast didn't seem to be concerned about him as it lunged at Lindow, going in for a quick finish. Attempting to bring the man down and tear into him.

Geoff's blade spun and carved two deep cuts into the beast's side and caused it to back away from its attack.

It growled and watched the two, crouched low, slowly moving backwards while keeping its eye on them.

Over to the side the gnoll pulled his arm back as Reinaan tried to slice through it. He snarled at the draken but didn't make another move at first. Then he glanced over as he saw movement.

Keres wasn't sure what Reinaan meant by not getting too close. Especially as the draken ended up stopping mere feet from Pyrrha's prone body. She didn't have a choice but to get near if she was to do anything about her. She warily approached, not wanting to get attacked by the gnoll as she got closer, and knelt near the elf.

Multiple wounds. She had lost a lot of blood. And was still bleeding.

She couldn't move her. Not without risking more damage. But she could help the healing process. Holding her hands above the wounds she created a small amount of water and charged it with magic. The water spread along the girls wounds. It wouldn't heal it but it should at least keep them from bleeding and clean them out to prevent some sort of infection. Even so Pyrrha would need to be properly healed soon. Perhaps one of the healing potions, in case Lindow couldn't do it?

The leader seemed to grow more concerned as the third enemy drew near. Even if she didn't do anything. He wanted to attack her but...these two were far too close for that.

With another snarl he swiped his axe at Reinaan and, almost at the same time, went for a thrust towards Ryia's throat.

Immediately after he'd try and break away and call for the worg to join him. Which it would unless either of them were stopped.

Spoiler

Shorter post but not much to do. Basically the gnoll and worg will attempt to reunite and he'll mount it once more.

Map

"destination" is where the two intend to meet.

 

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There seemed to be something to this gnoll's position as leader of the pack, as it managed to dodge not one but two of Reinaan's attacks. It had managed to pull it's arm back out of the way as the boy approached and his halberd swung down on thin air. The creature then with a weapon in each hand attempted to attack both the Fire and Earth Chosen to which Reinaan readied his weapon to ram the spear into the thing's gut, only for it to manage to shift out of the way in time while staying true to its attacks. The halberd thrust into nothing and the gnoll's ax landed a hit on the Draken's chest though didn't manage to go in very deep through the magically reinforced scales. The thing immediately pulled back like it hadn't intended to follow through on either attack and called out to the giant wolf the others were fighting.

"Get back here!" Reinaan roared as he grasped the gnoll's right arm with his own left hand and pulled on the limb as strong as he could. With only the one hand it wasn't quite the limb removal the boy had been secretly hoping for but it was enough to not only stop the creature's retreat but bring it back Reinaan's way and making its footing unsure. In the process the Draken boy spared Ryia having to take direct action against the attack against her. It still attempted to stab out with its free hand but to no avail due to nearly tripping over himself. Reinaan dug his claws deep into the thing's forearm and began twisting the limb. He'd keep going til the boss gnoll managed to escape his grasp, died, or something snapped; whichever came first. The reptile raised his halberd with his right hand to prepare to intercept any other attacks but was more intent on keeping the thing anchored in place for Ryia to get easy hits on. But every bit of pain he could put it in would make the fight easier. With a deep breath Reinaan released a stream of fire at the creature's head. A distraction and overall unpleasant experience if ever there was one.

Spoiler

-Reinaan stabbed at the thing's stomach and it missed, got a light ax hit to his chest for his troubles
-Grabbed its arm and yanked it back to stop it running away to his wolf friend.
-Gnoll boss's attack on Ryia was disrupted by these shenanigans so that wont hit whatever she does
-Currently got a good grasp on its arm and holding it in place while spitting fire to help Ryia get some clean hits in

 

Edited by Fisho

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Lindow ignored Geoff's question entirely. The lion's share of his attention was on the warg, and when he noticed that the creature seemed to be planning to slip away, the man quickly grabbed another throwing knife and tossed it towards the beast's fast. Seemingly ready this time, the warg used it's head to bat the tiny blade away before it could do any damage. Though Lindow had suspected this would be the case, and as he watched the warg deal with the throwing knife, the man was already preparing for his next attack. 

Quickly switching the Bandit Cleaver over to his left hand, Lindow dashed forward whilst drawing his longsword with his right. He tilted his body to delver an upwards stroke with bandit cleaver, but before he could follow through, the warg shot forward to slam it's head into his chest. "Oof" He wheezed. With the wind knocked out of him, Lindow was sent stumbling backwards as the warg took off towards the other battle. Gritting his teeth, Lindow struggled to regain his footing before taking a deep breath to steady his breathing. 

"In coming!" He called out to the others before shooting after the warg at full speed with both weapons at the ready.

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With the draken boy coming in to aid her, Ryia watched as the boys halberd was brought down to strike at the gnoll leader. As the dexterous beast managed to avoid the attack Ryia got herself ready to raise her shield as he went to attack at both of them with both of his weapons. Thankfully, gnoll's body seemed to jerk away from her, causing its attack to miss, as she saw that Reinaan had grabbed onto its arm. Taking the chance to move to strike at him herself, the girl moved around, to the creature's back, swinging her mace at it. With her hit landing solidly the creature was far from giving up. 

Despite all of the pain it had been feeling, the grip on its arm and the fire in its face it still went to strike at Reinaan with his spear. Ryia was in no position to actually absorb the blow for the boy, nor did she have any tricks up her sleeve to stop the attack soundly. However, as the gnoll began to move his arm to strike, the girl knew that from her position there was only one thing she could do to prevent him from being struck. Raising her mace, the girl struck the shoulder of the gnoll solidly, causing the creature to let out a whine of pain as it dropped its weapon. With the creature seemingly at its wits end of options, the gnoll spoke out saying, "stop. I'll leave the food." 

Ryia's eyes grew wide as the creature spoke towards her. The grip on her mace tightened and wordlessly she pulled her weapon back. That it was bargaining for its life, now that it was nearly dead and all of those under it were already slain. Now that it had harmed all of her companions, nearly killing one of them. And that it had probably been on the winning side of this battle before, thinking that all that mattered was the food they had stumbled upon was what was important here, the girl couldn't help but feel a swell of anger go through her. Smashing her mace into the creature's back yet again, the gnoll let out yet another yelp of pain as it fell to its knees, still conscious and propped up by Reinaan's grip on his arm. 

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The leader of the gnolls, on his knees, one side of his face covered in a burn, some of the fur along its face still with wisps of flames on it, seemed to be beaten down in all senses of the word. Yet still the humanoid warrior let out a low growl. An almost instinctive reaction to the hostile enemies around it. While its spear was on the ground it still hung, perhaps in desperation, to the axe in its right hand.

Yet they didn't attempt to stand. Merely trying to focus on staying upright in any regards.

The worg was on its way out. The intention was to meet up with the former rider and then make the next action from there. The only problem was the rider was not where he was supposed to be. Head whipping to the side the worg saw what had become of the gnoll that previously rode with them. It hesitated for a moment and tried to decide to continue or not.

As it seemed that they were yet being pursued they turned abruptly and went for the armored one bashing at the leader.

With a snarl the worg lunged and bit down onto their shoulder, biting down and starting to tear. If he injured one of them perhaps the others would be distracted while trying to keep her from bleeding out.

Lindow was moving fast but Geoff had begun moving first. As such Geoff made it to the worg first. While Lindow was only a few steps behind. In fact he would have to avoid crashing into the man as Geoff brought his weapon down across the back of the worg. The beast snarled but wasn't deterred from its attempt to rend the girl's armor. And potentially her shoulder as a whole.

Keres cringed at the violence before her. From the Draken, human, and worg alike. But it was only a momentarily flutter of emotion before she was back to her normal expression. She saw the worg lunge. And was forced to act. Moving from keeping the elf stable, though her magic should last for some time yet, Keres directed her water towards the worg. She didn't have enough to pull it off but if she could wrap around the upper and lower jaw perhaps she could pull it open for long enough that Ryia could slip out.

She didn't like having to get closer to both of them. But she had moved before she had even realized it.

Keres could only hope they didn't come for her next. Unlike Ryia she wouldn't even have a chance to defend against such a brutal attack.

Spoiler

Map

 

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With the gnoll leader taking up the majority of her focus, the girl was slow to realize that there was a loud noise coming from behind her. Turning around the girl was barely able to see the rushing worg strike at her from behind. As the fangs of the warg sank into her shoulder, the girl let out a yell of pain. Feeling her legs buckle as the tremendous pain began to course through her body, the girl was barely able to keep herself standing. Looking back, seeing water start to push against the jaws of the creature, the girl tighten the grip on her mace as she looked back to the warg. Bringing her arm up, the girl smashed her mace into its face with a loud grunt of pain. The creature's grip on her shoulder loosened and he let go as the creature backed away. 

With the warg no longer help prop her up, though, Ryia felt her balance waver and the girl collapsed onto the ground. With her shield arm beginning to feel dumb as blood continued to flow out of her wound, the arm hanging at her side the girl struggled to keep herself upright. To that end, she dropped her mace and used her good hand to keep herself from falling over completely. Though she was injured and barely able to keep going, her breath ragged and vision blurring a bit, the girl continued to look around between the gnoll and the warg, still trying to keep mindful of them.

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Reinaan had succeeded in holding the gnoll leader mostly in place as Ryia reengaged it. Thought both Chosen were taken aback as the thing spoke, begging them to stop and that it would leave the food. After all this it had some gall to expect them to let it live just so it could attack people again. Nevermind the damage already done to the group. The draken's anger was steadily boiling yet he was surprised to see the same reaction in the Earth Chosen. In fact it seemed more intense as the boy had not known her to ever really be visibly angry, at least not to this extent. He watched with admiration as she struck her mace into the thing's back several times, causing it to go nearly limp. He held it in place though, not wanting the girl to have to exert herself that much to beat it down. But as it went on it became clear the warg was on the move and before either Chosen had time to react teeth had sunk into Ryia.

Still sensing some strength in the gnoll leader's arm, spent largely on retaining the ax in its hand, Reinaan moved to quickly dispatch it. The last thing he needed was an ax in the back while dealing with this beast. With his readied halberd the boy made a decisive chop into the leader's neck. The blade sunk well enough in and upon removal life had all but already left the hyena's body. He quickly dropped it and readied his weapon again to see that Ryia had managed to get the warg off of her. How he hadn't entirely pieced together but he didn't need to. Now it was his turn. Running in front of the girl he charged the wolf, reading his ax for a repeat of its most recent kill. The beast raised a paw to swipe at him which he deflected with the shaft of his weapon. But this didn't stop the creature from moving in to bite at the boy's side. The spear of his weapon pierced the wolf's chest at nearly the same time the wolf's teeth bit deeply into the boy's side. At least as yet he wouldn't start bleeding out.

"That's right, eyes on me!" he snarled back through ragged breathing as he looked the warg in the eyes. One hand held his weapon firmly in place while the other reached for the face biting into him. Reinaan began clawing at it, reaching for the uninjured eye. Whatever damage he could do he didn't care. He just needed to hold it in place. The others would be able to get more sure hits in like this. And he knew Ziiyol was nearby, she'd been following him since his tussle in the wagon. He'd keep the ace up his nonexistent sleeve for as long as he could.

Spoiler

-Reinaan killed the gnoll leader with a chop to the neck
-Charged the warg, batted away a paw and plunged his spear into the thing's chest while getting his side bitten real bad
-Is currently clawing at the thing's face, looking to get the other eye lindow didnt hit
-Will try to keep the thing in place so go ham folks.

 

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Lindow shuffled to the left to avoid crashing into Geoff when the other man went to slash at the warg. Grunting, he quickly continued his pursuit. He wasn't able to make it in time to stop the beast from chomping into Ryia. Though luckily the Earth Chosen thought quickly on her feet, and was able force the warg to release it's grip on her before it could cause any damage that couldn't be repaired. Lindow's eyes lingered on Ryia for a moment whilst Reinaan finish off the gnoll leader and made a move towards the warg. The girl had sustained far too many injuries and would need about the same level of treatment as Pyrrha at this point. 

This battle needed to end. Seeing that Reinaan had managed to get a grip on the beast, Lindow promptly closed in for the kill. Hastily returning his longsword to it's scabbard, the Thunder Chosen approached from the side with cyan lightening furiously chirping in his palm. "Die." His tone was cold has he stepped forward and swung the Bandit Cleaver towards the creature's legs, before going to pierce it's chest with the Third Blade.

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Growling, with Reinaan's body muffling the noise, the worg closed its eyes as Reinaan clawed at its face. With Lindow approaching the worg pushed Reinaan to the side, sending him stumbling towards Lindow, and kept Lindow from cleaving into its legs.

As it tried to back away the electrical blade stabbed into its side and the electricity rushed through its body.

Snarling with pain the worg slowly began to back away from the group. Keeping its eyes, one of them with a claw mark across it, trained on the group.

Keres watched the beast warily and decided it was in her best interest not to initiate combat with it. Instead she cautiously made her way over towards Reinaan. Blood was flowing from the bite on his side and, as she got near, she raised her hands to cover the wound with her soothing water. Stopping the bleeding and dulling the sharp pain.

Still the worg continued to back away from the group. Watching them for any forward motion.

"Is it retreating?" Keres said. For the first time in a while she brought out some papers and began noting down what she had seen of the worg. Trying to get as many details as she could. Were it to attack now she would be defenseless but the urge to record the information took over.

Spoiler

No map cause pretty simple layout atm. The worg is backing away but hasn't left yet. Its wounded but still alert enough.

 

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While she was still conscious, Ryia could barely do anything in her current state. She knew that the other chosen around her were still fighting the worg and they had seemed strong enough to handle it themselves. All the same, Ryia so long as the girl could move her body and so long as the beast was still around, Ryia couldn't afford to simply lie down and stop. However, this was much easier said than done, as the Earth Chosen's breath was running ragged and her balance was only still intact due to being both on her knees and having one hand to the ground. Her second arm wasn't going to be any help in lifting her up at the moment, and in fact was making balancing more of a struggle then anything else, and her legs didn't really have the strength to lift herself up either. 

All the same, Ryia did her best to pivot around slowly. Though it seemed to take a great deal of effort for her to do, she still managed to face the now retreating worg. With fatigue present on her face, and her eyes still only seeming half opened, the girl still stared down the worg silently as it backed away. 

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Reinaan stumbled back a step or two as the worg released its bite on his body. Only now was his brain processing the pain of the attack as his own blood started freely pouring down his side from the several holes left by the fierce teeth. Lindow had managed to hit meaning the boy's gamble had mostly paid off despite all this. Now it scanned the group while backing up itself, as if considering fleeing. How many more gnolls might there be he wondered. If it was left alive it would surely come back for them at some point. It seemed in everyone's best interest to kill it now. The boy readied his weapon anew in both hands, the movement spurring on more bleeding which caused him to stagger for a moment. However Keres was soon at his side, and before he visually registered what she was doing the pain in his side had subsided some and the bleeding had stopped.

"Thanks..." he managed to grunt out to the girl as he was able to resume his proper stance due to her aid. He locked eyes with the warg for a moment before speaking again. "But you should see to Pyrrha and Ryia before me." Reinaan told her. It was clear enough he intended to keep the fight going and wanted the others treated before him. He looked then to LIndow, to see if the man was on the same wavelength as him on all this. Geoff was still in fighting shape of course but the Thunder Chosen was the one Reinaan most trusted on the battlefield. Their cooperative efforts before were the reason either of them were still alive. This time wouldn't be any different. But however they went about it this next interaction needed to end things.

"Ziiyol, let's go." the Draken said calmly. The spirit nodded and disappeared into his body, causing sparks to beging dancing off the boy's scales. He didn't produce the signature flame claws yet. That needed to remain a last second surprise for one so quick as the wolf. With his halberd ready Reinaan charged the wolf again. He would do his all to create a fatal opening for Lindow this time.

Spoiler

Heyo quickie from me. Reinaan's charging the warg, ready to swing the halberd in again. Go crazy Hollow and feel free to either bug me or get cow to bug me on what specifically Reinaan would do here if you get up to that. Or stop him if we're more feeling a disengage here.

 

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Lindow dipped to the side to allow Reinaan stumbled past him as the warg began backing away from the group. Whilst Keres began jot notes about the creature's behavior, both Reinaan and Ryia took position to face the beast one last time. However it was painfully obvious that the Earth Chosen would be relegated to the sidelines due to her injuries, and judging by the way he was moving... the Fire Chosen also wasn't in the best shape.

Having barely sustained damage yet himself, Lindow knew that it would be up to him to be the deciding factor this time around. The thought of the effort he was about to put forth for this simple beast caused him to sigh, yet even so he took a low stance and placed both hands on the Bandit Cleaver's hilt. When Reinaan looked his way, the Thunder Chosen responded with a nod. Watching as the boy charged forward to meet the warg head on, Lindow's eyes narrowed as the creature lunged forward at the draken just as one would expect from a cornered animal.

Lindow winced at the sight. Though collision happened far too quickly for him to do anything to help his comrade deal with the initial impact, the man made up for it by closing on the wolf's flank just before the creature had a moment's reprieve. A crimson mist took the air as his first slash bit into the warg's legs, causing the massive beast to fold over and tumble to the ground. With a blur of movement and two flashes steel, Lindow skillfully stepped in, swinging the Bandit Cleaver upwards to slash at warg's exposed belly before quickly bringing the blade down into the creature's neck. He left it there for a moment. Exhaling deeply as he watched the last traces of life leave the creature at his feet. 

With with battle finally over, Lindow yanked his blade free from the warg's corpse before turning to the rest of the group. Swinging the Bandit Cleaver once to clean its blade, he began walking towards Ryia with a strange expression. "You won't be able to continue like that, my dear..." He said in grim tone. The blood from his last attack had left streaks of crimson that were now dripping down his messy locks as the man peered down at the Earth Chosen with a shark eyes. Lindow would loom over her like this long moment before slowly reaching out...

Ryia would feel the warmth of the Light Spirit's magic wash over her immediately. Smirking, Lindow let his gaze soften as he began studying her wounds with a friendly smile. "You're rather good at playing the diversion, Reinaan. Remind me to take a turn next time, yea?" He called back to the boy without looking away from his current task. "Let's get our new friend over her too before we need another replacement..."

 

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"But you should see to Pyrrha and Ryia before me."

But you were the one who's bleeding. Is what Keres would have said had she spoken up before the Draken ran off. It wasn't as though she didn't want to help the rest but she could only do so much...

She watched, somewhat disturbed, as they continued the fight. Didn't it make more sense to let the creature leave? Rather than risk injury that is. Yet it seemed those two wouldn't rest until the worg was dead. In the end their attack worked and the beast fell in a pool of its own blood. She didn't say anything but instead just went about checking on Pyrrha to rouse her from unconciousness. The blood loss would leave her woozy for a while but she should be stable enough to move about.

Meanwhile Geoff was leaning on his weapon and surveying the scene. With a whistle he said "You sure gave it to that beastie didn't you? I'm impressed, I can see how your group managed to survive out here. Seems I didn't have to worry about you tagging along with someone such as I!" He then gave a whistle and his buffalo, mouth full of vegetables, meandered his way over to him. "Now then....what is it we were here for again?"

Spoiler

Yeah it's rather short I know. But now's the time to get patched up and decide where to go from here. I can give information as needed as always. Also yes, Yui, your break is over, time to get back to it.

 

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Hv8FblW.png

Three weeks ago, Nina Varan had been kidnapped. Five days ago, the guards had pinpointed who was behind all this and where they were. Three days ago, a team of twelve was put together to storm the lair of the witch responsible, retrieve the kidnapped children of Peats, and set everything right again. Two minutes ago, the people were gathered at the edge of town to meet everyone. But with the rest of the crowd here, she couldn't see everyone past the rest with her tiny child's body.

Right now, her elf ears could hear some of what the guards were saying.

"...to be..."

"...Varan?"

"..."

Pyrrha was getting a bad, sinking feeling in her gut all of a sudden. She couldn't just sit here listening to only fragments! The small elf girl nudged her way through the rest of the crowd, eager to meet the faces of the guards and children who made it safely back to Peats. One, two, three... seven guards. All human. Zero children to be seen. Of course, how foolish! It made sense some of them would be a bit behind the rest to make sure the children were okay.

In three seconds, Pyrrha would ask the guards where her parents and sister were. In seven seconds, they would dodge the question. In ten hours, Pyrrha would draw a harrowing, heartbreaking conclusion. In eleven hours, she would vow to personally exterminate any witch she came across. In two days, Pyrrha would be told to live with one of the guards who had lost a daughter of his own. In one week, she would ask to be trained by him and other guards on how to defend herself. In two weeks, she would have the basics down. And from there...


"...see to... ...fore me."

"...our new friend... ...before we need another replacement..."

"...nnnnnngh..." What had even happened? She was feeling dizzy, but Pyrrha thought back. Right. She'd tried to help Ryia, maybe a bit too directly. Strange. She always imagined nearly getting torn apart on the battlefield then passing out from blood loss would be a bit more painful. She felt weak. Not just in the combat sense, but physically. Probably from all the lost blood. Pyrrha put the blade end of her axe against the ground, using it to keep herself balanced as she got back up. She could stand just fine. Walking didn't seem like a problem. Despite the weakness and having just taken so many injuries without any armor, she actually felt just a little bit revitalized.

Truly, power naps were incredible things.

"Now then....what is it we were here for again?"

"Necklace," Pyrrha answered, gesturing around her collarbone as if she was wearing one herself. "A woman in town wanted us to find her husband, and said he was wearing one that looked like hers. Last she saw of him, he was heading to a farm that should be in this direction." Pyrrha surveyed the bodies of the gnolls. No necklace to be found, let alone of the description Pyrrha was looking for. But she did find the arrows she'd shot early in the fight. Two of which were still usable. Wonderful. She plucked the arrows from the fallen gnolls, tucking them away in her quiver.

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Ryia didn't do much but just sit there as the chosens of fire and thunder moved in to kill the warg. While she was relieved that it wouldn't give them any more trouble, Ryia as well couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilty as she saw Reinaan get bit by the creature. Though she knew that it was due to her own inability to continue fighting that lead to her being unable to charge it in his place, the girl didn't have much time to lament on her own shortcomings as Lindow had come over to her. She weakly looked up to the man, as his dispassionate gaze fell down on her, the girl not really sure what to make of all of it. She, in fact, had trouble making out what it was he was saying as well as reading him any deeper as she was struggling keeping her eyes open at all. Soon enough, though, her eyes became more alert as she suddenly felt a warmth wash over her body.

The girl winced as she felt a stinging sensation start to radiate through her arm. It was certainly an improvement from the numbness that was there not moments before, though her arm certainly wasn't thanking the man for it at the moment. Her ragged breathing steadied a bit and the girl managed to keep her balance better, albeit falling into more of a sitting posture with the fight done, as she looked to the others. Discussing with what needed to be nodded, Ryia nodded at Pyrrha's statement. "Well, this is where we needed to get to but um," with the fight having been finished Ryia was able to examine the area around them more clearly now. 

They were indeed at the farm they needed to get to, only there hadn't been any signs of life aside from them and the gnolls here. While her first guess as to what was going on here was the most obvious one, being the gnolls, it was weird to her that the most recent conflict was the only one with any signs of having happened here. Add to that, the gnoll was looking for food, so if they had raided here then they wouldn't be looking for food in a place they had already raided clean. Looking around, the girl managed to notice one thing that stuck out to her among all others, though. Blood on the ground. While not uncommon given the most recent struggle, these ones seemed to be moving in almost a trial outside of the farm. Lifting her good arm and pointing to it, a clear look of concern on her face the girl struggle to move to her feet saying, "we- we should probably keep looking."

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Reinaan had been ready to wrestle with the worg if needed but found Lindow was effective in dispatching it after he had clashed with and and been pushed back. He looked on as life left the creature's body and breathed a sigh of relief as he dismissed Ziiyol from his body. The Fire Spirit formed at his side, seemingly confused at how short a time they'd been together. With the area safe for the moment the boy planted his weapon's shaft into the ground and leaned on it for a moment to catch his breath while the Thunder Chosen approached. He couldn't help but smile at the man's comment.

"It's something of an art form. Don't get mad if you're bad at it for a while." he fired back while Lindow went off to offer healing magic to the others. Reinaan for one didn't want to take from the man's stamina. For all they knew things weren't as over as they seemed at the moment. It occurred to him that they had potions on hand for such an occasion as this and so he slowly made his way back to Kloqah and the Mule who had managed to stay safe through the conflict. After rummaging through the mule's supplies some the boy found one of the healing potions and hesitantly chugged the thing. As he did a somewhat familiar sensation of his wounds beginning to supernaturally close set in. Maybe it wasn't as fast as the light magic, but from what he could tell he'd be fine in a few minutes.

"Well, what do you know?" he said voicing his surprise that people had managed to make such effective medicine. In the process of looking himself over he realized he'd like to clean up a bit while the others got patched up. He managed to produce a rag from among the things packed on Kloqah's back and used some of the water stored to wet it to begin cleaning off the dirt and blood. To his surprise it slid off rather easily. The polish was doing it's job and the Draken was happy to see that the shine of his scales was relatively intact after he cleaned them off. It took a while and some stretching to make sure he'd gotten every bit of himself but before long he was relatively clean and shiny again. His chest puffed in confidence which Kloqah huffed at before he went about searching the battlefield. There was little he found interesting among the gnolls. They had little in the way of equipment he wanted to use and nothing hiding on them that they weren't immediately fighting with. For that matter the carts had nothing but vegetables in them. It was a touch disappointing to be honest. Regardless he made sure to retrieve the crossbow he'd dropped part way into the battle and securely stored that away among Kloqah's load.

With halberd still in hand and eyes still scanning the area, Reinaan made his way back to the group. Pyrrha had regained consciousness which was a good sign. Ryia too seemed to be in better shape for all the injuries she'd taken while the boy was off fighting the rank and file gnolls. They had found no trace of the necklace the woman had told them about in the bodies from earlier and similarly found no trace of it here. But the Earth Chosen had noticed something that she pointed to while advising they keep looking. Following her finger the boy saw blood which at first he thought might have been from one of their fights. However, he quickly caught on to the fact that it seemed to look like a trail, leading away from the area.

"I'll give it a look." the boy announced as he set off in the direction of the blood. With the potion doing its work he felt it smartest for him to go for it. Lindow would be able to react quickly to anything that might attack the group behind him but tracking trails like this was his element. His eyes focused on the ground and his nostrils flared as he began trying to take everything in while advancing.

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Though none amongst the gnolls had proved to be a true warrior, this last battle certainly had kept the team active for a bit. Tending to Ryia's wounds with a disinterested expression, Lindow yawned as he watched the other Chosen begin to investigate the scene. With every moment he used the Light's Spirit magic, he felt more of his stamina slipping away, and by the time he had finished restoring Ryia to a point where she could travel without her arm falling off, Lindow wanted to do nothing more than take another nap. However, it seemed that fate demanded that the party to begin moving once again if they wanted to get to the bottom of this missing persons case. 

"we- we should probably keep looking." Seeing the Earth Chosen struggle, Lindow sighed before helping her right herself despite the weight of her armor. Sighing from the effort involved, the man shook his head and motioned towards Kloqah and Geoff's buffalo companion whilst Reinaan began to follow the trail. "I'm sure you know you'll be a liability if another battle breaks out, my dear. Why don't you take a break, and catch a ride with one of our friends for a bit?" He addressed Ryia in a polite tone. Though question mark was purely ornamental. He still had to tend to Pyrrha's injuries as well, and the thought of having to repair Ryia's arm a second time filled him with dread... "

You cant protect anyone if you're dead after all."

As the group continued to investigate the blood trail, Lindow let the others take point whilst he covered the flank and begun the process of restoring the Wind Chosen's vitality. 

 

 

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"That's right!" Geoff said, hitting his palm with a fist. "Necklace, yes, well, I don't think these scum care much about jewelry..." And true to that it seemed that not only did the gnolls not have the necklace they didn't seem to have much beyond the most simple of weapons. Only the leader had relatively well made equipment and even that wasn't much more than you could find in any city armory.

"I'm sure you know you'll be a liability if another battle breaks out, my dear. Why don't you take a break, and catch a ride with one of our friends for a bit?"

"I would love to but no one but me can ride upon my spirit. It's a Chosen thing, you see." Geoff said, patting the buffalo before nimbly climbing onto its back.

Keres moved over towards where the mule was and brought it over towards the Earth Chosen. "I can walk. Didn't get injured. Take the mule." She said as she held the reigns out towards Ryia.

She was tired but you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at her. Her expression remained unchanged and she moved slowly to not show any fatigue. Ryia had been kind to her before in the town so it was the least she could do. Quite literally as it wasn't as though she owned the mule anyway.

It seemed that the others had rediscovered the blood trail from before. It seemed to be an odd pattern. As if dropped from higher up. Due to the flatness of the terrain they could see that, while the trail stopped shortly before leaving the farm, it picked up again once more farther along the road.

Through their searching they'd find that at some point the trail, which seemed to be more patches of blood here and there, led into the grass. While not as tall as some they had seen it still went up to Keres's thighs in height.

Spoiler

So...yeah, a trail exists, sort of. Let me know in chat what you all want to do before posting please.

 

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The group had come to the beginning of what looked like something of a trail of tall grass. The blood Reinaan had been tracking led into it but something was off. Nothing they'd just fought had fled this direction and then there was the blood itself. It looked like it had been dripping from some distance up. It was a shape the Draken boy had seen often due to the many winged monsters that called Blagos their home. Could something like that be here? He shuddered at the thought without a dozen or so of his fully grown Draken brethren to back him up. But still, the Chosen were by no means a weak group. So long as it was a solitary monster he imagined their chances would be pretty good.

After discussing what to do about the trail, the group decided it was worth pursuing. But not everyone was exactly in the best of shape to immediately go into potentially more danger. Reinaan intended to ride Kloqah in at the very least. Ultimately the group split up with Reinaan and Keres riding Kloqah into the grass, accompanied by Ryia riding the mule and Geoff with his buffalo. Pyrrha and Lindow would remain behind so the girl could recover. No doubt the Thunder Chosen needed some time to recover himself after the healing he'd been doing. The Fire Chosen was hesitant to split up the group but felt confident the two left behind would be safe. Lindow was a quick thinker, he'd get them out of danger in a flash if something happened.

And so the lizards with accompanying human girl led the way into the grass. Reinaan sat in front of Keres, knowing she would be uncomfortable with the situation regardless, figuring she might feel somewhat better to not be leaning back into him. This of course had his own tail directly in the way of her spot to sit but he'd try to keep it out of the way for her as best he could. They had been travelling for nearly an hour and still the grass continued. How far they would have to go or how long the blood trail would continue no one knew. But the boy was determined to track it so long as he could. But something soon caught his attention as Kloqah hissed in pain as her pace dragged to a halt. A large snake had bitten one of her hind legs before moving ahead of them in the grass.

"Snake! Don't let your feet down too close to the ground!" Reinaan called to the others once the group had sighted it. His halberd was ready to be used but seemed ineffective for the task. Jumping off Kloqah to fight it directly seemed foolish. If there were more it was inviting himself to get bitten. And no doubt there was poison in this thing. No, the weapon for the job here seemed to be the crossbow she still had with him which the boy readied to fire while tracking the snake's movements. It was going to be a touch tricky given the height of the grass, but this wasn't Reinaan's first rodeo when it came to hunting less than perfectly visible prey. The bidepal reptile fired his bolt after taking aim which lodged itself into the limbless reptile. More than that it seemed to pierce through into the ground as the creature was wriggling in place but not running away.

"Do we have something for poison?" Reinaan asked of the others, not entirely sure what everyone had bought in town. He was only assuming the snake was poisonous of course. But the fact Kloqah wasn't moving the bitten limb or putting weight onto it seemed to indicate well enough that it was. He readied another bolt and kept the crossbow trained on the snake while waiting for the reply. If there were others he wanted to be ready but he also didn't want this one suddenly getting free and attacking while they attempted to treat his mount.

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Ryia stood up, and upon seeing that they still had a good deal of land to trek through still. With Lindow's magic, as well as a healing potion from their stock and the small amount of recovery she had gone through, the girl managed to catch her breath well enough to start moving again. Of course, still not steady on her feet and this being quite apparent, Keres had walked over and offered to let her ride the mule. Ryia felt somewhat guilty about this, both for forcing Keres to walk in her stead and for having to have the mule deal with her weight again, but she as well couldn't deny how tired she still was. And so, nodding the girl simply muttered, "um, alright. Thanks. I'll uh..." The girl looked to the mule and said, "sorry again," before getting on top of it. 

Riding along, the group followed the trail of blood they had spotted, taking note of still how odd the pattern it was in was. The group eventually came to stop as the trail lead into a long patch of grass. After much deliberation on the matter at hand, the group decided to continue going on, though Pyrrha didn't seem in the best shape to continue. However, though Ryia didn't feel comfortable splitting up their group, she similarly didn't want to wait any longer in fear of what might become of the villagers if they waited too long. And so, reluctantly, the group split up, with her following Reinaan, Keres and Geoff into the grass. 

With Reinaan leading the pack, the group traveled for around an hour without incident but this was soon stopped as Kloqah let out a hiss. Suddenly becoming more alert, the girl had the sudden instinct that there was danger around, looking for it in every which direction, only to focus in on the snake as Reinaan had pointed it out. As the draken hunter took his shot at the creature, Ryia began looking at the mule and all of the stuff on it. Rummaging through it, she found a few doses of anti-venom and pulled one out. "Um, we have something, I think, for it. I'll just," slowly getting off the mule, the girl began to watch her step and be on the lookout for more snakes as she made her way over to Kloqah. The girl looked at the lizard with some uncertainty, not entirely sure how the lizard would take to being treated, but still went to give it to her all the same. 

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Keres wasn't entirely happy about splitting the group up. Though if she had to leave anyone behind this wasn't the worst option. She had planned to walk along but, given that Kloqah was able to carry more than one, and everyone else was mounted up, she felt it silly to refuse.

Even if it felt uncomfortable having to hold onto Reinaan's scaled body to keep from falling off.

Their journey into the grass went slowly. They had to make sure to keep on track of the blood splatter. Thankfully it seemed to be moving in a more or less straight path so the only real concern was that the trail would end in the middle of the grass without any more clue as to where it went from there.

Keres, thinking about what would be at the other end of this, suddenly jerked as Kloqah's hind leg buckled. The mage was almost tossed off the side but, clinging to Reinaan tight, she was able to keep from falling.

As it turned out a snake, rather large though not monstrous, had bitten the lizard.

Reinaan had taken care of the snake and Ryia was in the process of administering the antivenom. She wondered if the girl knew how it worked but it seemed that Ryia had some experience on the matter.

Once they started up again the girl was much more alert. Between her and Reinaan they were able to spot any other such problem or pitfall before it happened.

The grass started to grow higher, until it was over their head, but as they had already gone this far they continued on.

Geoff commented on it, saying, "perhaps my next task should be cutting some of this grass. Imagine, a clear view all across the plain!"

Eventually the grass started to thin more and they emerged into a clearing.

It was a large clearing with several very obvious, and somewhat unusual, structures.

Pillars of rock jutted up from the ground. In the middle was the tallest, and widest, of the pillars. If it weren't for the grass they would have easily seen it before coming to it as it towered high in the sky.

On all four sides a multitude of smaller pillars were set. Growing shorter until the tenth on each side which was only several feet off the ground. Each of them seemed they'd fit two people standing on them.

In the middle of each row was a wider pillar, more than double in size, and there were 11 of these pillars in total.

The blood trail ended at the base of the largest pillar. And as they looked up, up, to the top of the pillar...

They would see a massive bird perched on top. Standing in the middle of what seemed to be a nest.

Keres knew what it was, from pictures in her books, a Roc. A huge bird that preyed mostly on large mammals. Able to carry off horses in its talons.

And it had spotted them.

The creature looked towards them as they poked out of the grass and let out a loud screech. Flapping its wings and getting up to its feet.

BGM

Spoiler

Due to size I found it tricky to make a map but in general it looks something like
Not to scale

And so you have found what caused the disappearance of the farmers. This one's a bit of a strange fight but I'm sure you can figure it out.

As for Yui and Hollow...just because you're not with this group doesn't mean you shouldn't post. Especially as its not every day you get to interact one on one.

 

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Hv8FblW.png

While Pyrrha was still out of it, it seemed the rest of the Chosen had found something. The exact details on it - as much as she hated to admit it - went in one ear and out the other. But alas, having just escaped death not long ago and still in need of healing, Pyrrha was in no condition to fight herself. Even if they'd asked her to tag along, she'd probably opt to stay behind to recover. Luckily, it seemed she wasn't the only one sticking around. Lindow also chose to stay behind, tending to the Wind Chosen's wounds. Of all the Chosen to be left behind with...

This was the one she most wanted to talk to.

"So, uh..." An awkward pause. Figuring out how to start this off was difficult. Maybe it would have been better to keep quiet until she'd figured it all out. Good job, me. Really nailing it. Well, she was already talking now. Best to just say it like it came to mind. "You know, uh, they told me a bit about you all. The Council. N, Not for any ulterior motive, though! I was the one who asked. Just for the basics. The rest of you were out adventuring and getting to know each other, and I thought it would be really awkward to have some newbie kid along who was out of the loop, so I wanted to know what surface-level knowledge I could get about the other Chosen. So, I've been wondering..."

Suddenly, the elf's eyes lit up. "Are you really a witch hunter?"

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With the snake dispatched, Reinaan remained alert as Ryia administered treatment to Kloqah. The lizard hissed a bit through the process but due to the numbness setting in she couldn't actually feel much so the protest was minimal. Ultimately, she let the Earth Chosen finish and after a bit of a time sensation returned to her leg and the group was able to continue onward. With a quip from Geoff about cutting the grass ahead of them they were off again without much incident. This was due to both chosens of water and fire staying focused on look out duties to avoid other unexpected run ins, snake or otherwise. The boy hadn't thought much about it until the grass started getting higher, but in trying to be considerate to Keres in their riding arrangement, he'd made it so rather than lean into him she now had to be nearly hugging him the whole time. He berated himself mentally a bit for not thinking about it more but at the same time he couldn't argue that, to him at least, the touch was welcome. It was something of a reminder of home.

As the group progressed, the tall grass became the even taller grass. So much so that eventually it began reaching over the heads of the mounted Chosen. The draken hated having his visibility this much reduced and was beginning to think Geoff had the right idea earlier. Cutting all of this down was feeling pretty appealing. Kloqah too seemed irritated with not being able to see where she was going but continued on all the same until it all began thinning out again. As they finally pushed through the grass, a strange structure came into view. A cross of spaced out pillars of descending height from the center. Even here the blood trail continued to the middle of the monument. Reinaan's eyes widened as a large bird monster came into view. Another reminder of home, but this one most unwelcome.

"Get the mounts back into grass!" he called out to the group as he nearly leaped off Kloqah's back, dragging along Keres in the process if she had yet to relinquish her grip. He hurried Kloqah back into the taller grass while readying his cross bow and halberd. He then had her sit down and told her not to move which she seemed mostly compliant with. From the edge of the grass the hunter readied the crossbow and took aim at the roused Roc. The important parts to fighting winged beasts was always having cover, and taking out the wings first. Once they were grounded, birds often found it harder to fight back as well. With such a large target the boy found little issue in aiming and sent a bolt sailing through the air into one of the roc's wings. The creature screeched at the attack but ultimately seemed largely unaffected by it.

"We can't be out in the open against this thing..." he voiced to the others while taking note of the rows of pillars. "Try to get to those," he said as he motioned to the structures. "Always have something between you and it." he said as he finished giving out instructions. Having injured the creature Reinaan assumed he would be its first target and so when he was ready began running as fast as he could, with crossbow and halberd in hand, northward to the row of stone pillars. He reached the gap between the second to last and third to last pillars in this line but wasn't planning to stay for long. He wanted the creature to see him for the moment so the others could get to cover safely too.

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