Defence of the East Gate

[Deleted]

Lilith's vision remained blurred, in and out of darkness as her eyes fluttered shut. She could barely feel the tearing of her limbs as the pain had gone as far to numb her. She felt her magic being used ever so slightly as her connection to her earth gem was spiked. Someone was using her staff. She forced her eyes open again to catch a glimpse of a white haired man using the scythe around her, before removing the creature on her. She heard his voice, though it took her a couple moments to fully register the words he had spoken. He wanted her to stay with him. What did he mean? Did she know this man? Lilith closed her eyes again, not able to move anything else, and felt herself falling asleep-- or thats what it felt like anyway. Oh... That's what he meant. Lilith tried to pry her eyes open, still able to hear his voice, though just barely. By the time she got her eyes open again, she was being lifted up and pulled away. She coughed, no longer being mauled by the creature, and was able to force her magic into her-- something she knew better than to do, but she knew her body well, and much more and she might have been dead. She felt the slightly tingle of her healing powers running through her, and she was able to think just a bit more clearly. Her eyes remained open now, the purple iris's gazing around her in a slight daze. She tiled her head away, back towards the hoard, and saw the King, thrashing about. What had triggered this?

More voices. Lilith turned her head back towards the man with white hair. He had wielded her scythe well, magic included. She coughed again and called out to him; Thank you. Her voice was hoarse and she wasn't able to make it louder, she just hoped he heard her, and if not, that she would have the chance to thank him better. She wanted him to continue using the scythe, it could probably help him.

The soldiers led her away from the fight, back inside the city walls. She was rested down around the other injured people, and she was sure she'd seen Sima around her somewhere. She made sure to not talk, and if she did, very quietly, just to be sure he didn't hear her and freak out like he always did. Water, please. She whispered to the man who had laid her down. She wasn't sure where Diamond went, but she hoped he would be okay.

[Deleted]

As Diamond fended off several zombies until allies came and saw that a woman and a few guards came over to the two of them. The woman started to use some kind of healing magic. As the mercenary was about to move he heard Lilith barely say thank you and gave her a nod of his head. Diamond got back up and still used the scythe felling zombies and other manner of undead. Then as he fended off he saw several dragon riders come flying in and started to burn the hoards of undead. But that was a moot point as the demon of a man had started to attack the dragoons. It made him sick that this kind of brutality would be done to others. It was now chaos and there was no commander to lead any of these forces. Diamond took a deep breath and his eyes went fully battle hardend and turned to the many soldiers and mages that were in the grips of terror. "HEAR ME BRAVE WARRIORS AND MAGES,DO NOT GIVE INTO FEAR REMEMBER WHAT YOUR FIGHTING FOR! YOU FIGHT FOR YOUR COUNTRY, YOUR LOVED ONES, AND THE INNOCENT. RALLY AGAIN AND STRIKE DOWN THESE UNDEAD! WE WILL WIN THIS BATTLE. AS THE FLAMES OF HOPE AND LIFE STILL BURN WITHIN US! WE WILL BE VICTORIOUS THIS NIGHT" Diamond roared as he went to rally the troops again he raised the scythe above his head. As he did a bolt of lightning struck behind him as if a sign of the gods had not forsaken them yet.

"I WILL HOLD OFF THIS FIEND, YOU ALL CONCENTRATE ON GETTING THESE UNDEAD FILTH DOWN" he yelled and turned over the scythe to one of the guards and told them to give it back to Lilith. He pulled out two Diamonds and used his crystalmancy to make gauntlets. He then bravely walked forward and into the ring of death that Noku made. Then slamming both fists together "You there, I will be your opponent" he said issuing a challange to the enraged Noku. Hoping that he could either make this thing pass out or buy time for others to fight the undead off. There was tingle that went down his spine as this was truely a fight he had been waiting for. Diamond had wanted a challanging foe to face, to see if he had become stronger over his travels to Nova.

[Deleted]

Melda had been at the western gate, much like Diamond, however when it died down a bit, and things seemed to be shifting over to the Eastern gate, Melda headed over herself, shortly after Diamond left. She couldn't move as quickly as she would have liked, having injured her ankle, but she was still able to fight. Melda got there in time to see her white haired companion helping a woman, though she couldn't see her very well, and quickly became preoccupied by various undead creatures. She warded them off with different ice spells, wind spells, and trashing of her spear, but she couldn't help but notice her king, in a rage. She didn't know why, or what had occurred since she was gone, but things were getting more than intense.

Soon she saw her guard move towards Noku, shouting at the men helping them fight, and she felt a pang of pride in her chest. He was a true leader, and she doubted he really knew that. She almost felt selfish for keeping him as her personal guard; key word being almost. There was no way she was just going to let him go, he was far to... useful...
It seemed he was going to confront Noku head on, and Melda wished him the best, still stuck warding off her own battle.

[Noku Noru]

As the drake lay writhing and squealing, holding onto life by a few strained threads, Noku was suddenly hailed by a man with white hair, wielding a scythe. He issued a challenge and readied himself, apparently prepared to set himself against the blade of the cursed demon king. Noku took little notice of his challenge, understanding only that he had been hailed, and another target had presented itself. His eyes peering through the eye holes of his royal helm, gold disk locked onto its target like a predictor. He leaned forward as to charge his new contender, when a storm of rotting hands fell, now upon his shoulder, now against his breastplate, now at his heels. The horde had closed in tighter since his bout with the drake, indiscriminately attacking every living thing. Noku snarled; they were on every side, clawing, gnashing, moaning their horrible utterances. He struck out with both his swords, cleaving behind him in an arc at the first point of contact, strewing limbs and blood behind him as the surrounding undead were thrown to the ground by the impact.

He turned to the man with the white hair, vaguely aware of an aggression directed towards him, and was met by a particularly robust ghoul with gaping jaw and oddly-hooked limbs. A secondary pair of arms projected upward from its back, the hands grasping about, seeking a target, and its thick legs each terminated into a broad, three-toed "foot" that proved to be three fully-formed human feet fused at the ankles on closer inspection. It grappled with the king, roaring a sickly sound, and bit at his arm with its vicious jaw, rending the steel and revealing the dark metal. Noku raised his arm, and the ghoul with it, above his head before driving it to the earth with a palpable thud. The ghoul's hellish body crumpled, it shrieked, foaming at the mouth, and raged back at Noku, who applied a secondary, horizontal blow to the fiend, decapitating and silencing it. Blood splattering against the polished armor; the beautiful dark crimson liquid staining and decorating the metal completely from his head and torso. Holding the twin blades aloft once more, Noku began to twist and contort, projecting an odious, guttural howl as the steel went to work, felling the approaching horde-now grown so thick as to pile the cloven carcasses in an ever-increasing ring just within his striking range.

-- Meanwhile....

The castle was in a uproar! The invaders were beginning to become more hostile and the civillians were beginning to become un-eased with the sound of battle echoing just outside the great walls that protected the main city. Most of the farm land outside the city had already been struck by the hordes, as crops and live stock were brutally devoured and slaughtered in their pens and fields.. An what made matters worse is that no one could find the king within the castle. It was like the man had disappeared and no one knew where he had gone until hours later when reports started pouring in about the battle. The king had joined the ranks and by the time this information reached Breton- The scream bellowed through of the castle and kingdom.

Breton froze in his place within the hall of the palace echoed with the demonic scream. In his right arm he held documents that fell to the floor when his arms dropped to his side. papers scattering everywhere on the marble floor as Breton turned to look out the window to his side. He stared out towards the south-east towards the direction that the scream traveled. His eyes wide like saucers and his mouth gaped in slight horror. THE KING WAS IN THE BATTLE?! Noku was fighting?! Breton nearly choked as a audible 'Uuuuuuuuuuh' sound came from his throat as his jaw dropped even more as the 'uuuuh' sound continued to draw out. Brows twitching as he continued to stare in disbelief, frozen in his own downward spiraling thoughts that all came up with one conclusion.

 ' Not good. '

If the king became hurt, then the kingdom would be in more danger than just a siege of un-dead. This terrified Breton as he forced himself to move and pick up the papers as fast as he could. There was no time to waste if that was indeed his majesty. While he clung to the papers that were no where near organized; Breton sprinted down the halls to his office. Once he reached his office door he twisted the handle and pushed the door open with his shoulder. The door swung open and Berton flung the papers out all over the room. He skin pale as he rushed over to his desk to scramble through the contents to find the vial of Rhual toxin dust he had stashed away for emergencies; such as this one! He grabbed hold of the bottle and bolted out of his office. He ran from the castle all the way down to the first district. Breton pushed himself to run as fast as he could down the cobble streets towards the horrid screams of what he believed were...Dragons? Had the king already transformed?!!!

This was NOT GOOD!

Breton's heart dropped as he reached the wall and climbed up the archer towers that were connected to the wall. He climbed the 60 steps that led up to the top of the wall and stood near the small troupe of archers that were firing down upon the un-dead that were trying to surround the bloody figure in the ring of corpses. To his horror the Regent stared down at the scene before him with disbelief. His grip tightening around the bottle's neck as he trembled at the sight of the mess that was being made. Helena no doubt, which meant he needed to stay sharp as he tried to figure out a way to get down to the king and douse him with the contents of the vial. Time was running out and it already seemed that some people had already caught on and realized the King's change. His emerald eyes searching desperately through the battle field when he noticed the closes person to the wall was also someone that was advancing on Noku for combat.

" YOU!! TAKE THIS AND POUR THIS ON HIM!!" Breton yelled out at the top of his lungs, jerking a archer's bow out from their hands. He approached the edge of the tower and tied the vial off onto the arrow before drawing the arrow back and firing it at Diamond's feet. The arrow making contact with the ground with a thud and the vial secured at the center of the arrow- the contents within the vial jostling about and shaken from the impact.  It was all Breton could do at this point, it would be up to the soldiers to deal with the King to sedate him long enough to gather some back up to extract the king from the battle field.

[Deleted]

Diamond was pissed off that the demon of a man had ignored him but was dealing with a rather nasty ghoul. But put the undead being down for the count and was being savagely being ripped apart by the twin blades. As he was going to get ready and pummel the living hell out of the man. The mercenaries instincts in battle got alerted though as he been so focused on the battle. His tuned ears could hear an arrow screaming to him and landed on his feet. He could hear a man screaming to use something on the demon. Diamond leaned down and picked up the arrow and a vile of something, and took the vial. He gave a thumbs up in the direction of the scream. Seeing that the being was too distracted with the ghoul that he was dismembering, the white haired mercenary had a very crazy idea. He safely put the vial away into a pocket and dashed forward using all of his agility Diamond jumps and moonsults over the demon warrior and lands on his feet with a cat like grace. Then grinds into the ground a bit almost on all fores with his mane of white hair and his serious look on his face he looked like a wild animal. With a howling warcry Diamond lunges forward with all of his might. Timing this as Noku was in mid swing and cocks his right arm and soon as he was within the range of the twin blades. Diamond swung with his full force and his diamond guantlets, breaking through the plate and to the gut of the demon. As the deffening blow to flesh could be heard and Diamond had to move quickly after this.

The mercenary stepped back and got that vial and used it on the posseded man as instructed. Since this guy would have to breath in after getting a blow like that. Diamond did hope that he would not be effected by whatever was in the vial. As whatever it was, it was a powder like substance. While this was going he looked around "I NEED SUPPORT FIRE HERE, TAKE DOWN THE UNDEAD! I REPEAT THE UNDEAD" Diamond was barking out since he knew that some kind of military unit would be out there to give him support and retreve this guy. Even then hoped that he would be able to continue the fight. As he had used a lot of energy from moving to one battlefield to another. But there were a lot of undead still in the area that had to be put down.

[Deleted]

Astra heard the call for support fire and had to grin a bit as she danced through the undead, using her movements to add speed and force to her flame laced whip. Cutting a swath through them to get to Diamond who had called for aid in cleaning up the rotting mass around him and the man who had been on a rampage.

The closer to them she got the more manna she drew in, pooling it to start up another of her protective flame barriers. She was definitely going to have to take a few days off and get some heavy drinking done after this, and one very long and very hot bath. She got close but not close enough that she would be in target range should the berserker go off again. Curling up her whip she used both hands to erect a wall of flames that turned a blue color as she pushed their heat higher aiming to turn the undead to ash or at lease make their heads pop. "Call out if you need entry and I'll open the flames for you," she called out to any that might be moving to support them as well. She looked over at Diamond, "I will bail if he goes off again, I'm not able to fight something like that..."

[Noku Noru]

The blow from the man with white hair interrupted the whirlwind of steel, planting the final blow directly into the earth with a deep thud. Noku staggered from the blow that rent his armor, but remained unphased, instead becoming enraged by the assault. Turning his attention fully on Diamond, a strange sensation began to make its way through the haze of Noku's fury, spreading from his lungs outward through his chest and into his limbs. At first, it was an unpleasant, prickling sensation, then it developed into a pulsing, throbbing pressure before fading completely away. Noku lunged at Diamond....or, he intended to. The effect of gravity seemed to be far more restrictive than normal, bringing him to his knees instead of to his assailant. His arms dropped to his side, and the weight of his helmet caused him to pitch forward. The last meaningful thought that passed through his mind was a reflection on how absurd it was to be taking a nap in the middle of a battle, and that it was unkingly to be sleeping on the job. After this, however, the exposed metallic bands began quivering and sliding across one another, gradually giving way to flesh. All around the circle of undead corpses, the sounds of battle raged, Noku concealed by the ring and confusion, hidden from view of all but Diamond and the Regent.


MEANWHILE



A white-haired man skirmishing in the battle below had heard Breton's entreaty, and successfully administered the Rauhl poison, much to his relief. At the same time, he barked at the platoon of soldiers below the wall, on the inside: "YOU MEN!! FOLLOW ME, BY ORDER OF HIS MAJESTY'S REGENT!!" Bounding down the steps all the while, Breton hit the granite at the bottom at full stride, without even waiting to see if the men were following. The command startled the soldiers, but the lieutenant seconded the order and brought his men to charge, running after Breton, without gaining on his blistering pace. Arriving at the gate, he thundered again: "GET THIS THING OPEN!!" The soldiers standing guard looked bewildered a moment, then, noticing the advance of the platoon following the regent, snapped to. "SIR! Uh...yes, right away!" The boards and braces were quickly but haphazardly removed, and as the grand doors creaked open, Breton darted directly into the fray, after a brief but noticeable incantation. Leading the platoon, he sprinted along the wall, calling for covering fire from the archers above. In this way, the group moved unimpeded to the place where Noku now lay unconscious. As they approached, a potent wall of flame rose before their eyes, to Breton's delight, cutting through the horde and causing the surrounding soldiers to rally. Pointing at the large pile of corpses, Breton grasped the lieutenant's shoulder and ordered: "Over that pile, soldier; retrieve his majesty immediately!" The lieutenant started, his eyes wide, then seemed to grasp the situation, and, accompanied by his platoon, scrambled up the near part of the pile. As he ascended, Breton waylaid two of the soldiers and communicated by his actions the need to create an exit hole, himself flinging aside body parts and gore to allow a quick exit for the platoon. In moments, the necessary breach was accomplished, just as the platoon emerged, Noku in tow, carried between the lieutenant and Diamond. Once again leading the charge, Breton dashed along the wall as arrows rained on the advancing undead. Approaching the gate once more, his voice rallied the soldiers to action, creating a path for the platoon through to the safety of the inner walls. Once inside, he turned to the soldiers and pulls a piece of parchment from within his tunic and uttered in an otherworldly voice: "RRRA-KA!!" while arching his hands over his sternum; The parchment bursting into flames and crumbling into ash to the floor. A soft, golden light surrounded him as well as the platoon, throwing eerie shadows outward at every angle, while glowing runes shone from his brow and fingertips. Bewildered, the soldiers halted during this action; afterwards, Breton explained: "that should protect you all from any further effects of the Rauhl toxin, for now. We must get each of you to the healers, though, immediately!" And he was off again, at his former blistering pace.


The entourage made its way through the chaotic streets, the echoes of the battle gradually fading though still abundant amidst the stone streets and buildings, eventually arriving at the castle. All along the way, Breton called out orders to persons of rank; to a nurse from the healing squad: "RETURN FROM THE STOREHOUSE IMMEDIATELY WITH FRESH LINENS AND TONIC TO THE ROYAL INFIRMARY!!"; to a mage transporting a bundle of miscellaneous vials and powders: "SEND ME THREE ABLE MAGI TO MY QUARTERS RIGHT AWAY!!"; to a servant he nearly bore down as he rounded a corner: "GET WORD TO YOUR MASTER THAT THE REGENT DEMANDS A PERSONAL AUDIENCE WITHIN THE HOUR!"; to a sergeant leading a small squad toward the gates: "FOLLOW ME; SEND ONE OF YOU TO NOTIFY YOUR POST OF THE CHANGE!!." He was in a frenzy, undeterred, and unimpeded. All those he spoke to obeyed implicitly, as if compelled by more than rank to achieve the task given. The platoon, followed by the supplemental squad, led by the regent, wound through the hallways and under the arched doorways like a disjointed centipede, slowing and speeding up as it came to each juncture in the corridors. At length it arrived before Noku's royal study, and the regent halted its procession. Addressing the sergeant, Breton resumed his tirade: "YOU! Clear this room for occupation; just move the furniture against the walls. We need room for a patient and a small healing squad. Afterwards, form shifts and establish a 24-hour guard in front of this door. No one in or out, unless at my orders." The soldiers quickly fell to the task, and the room was made inhabitable. Noku was placed on a bench, the largest piece of appropriate furniture, and Breton gave him a thorough examination, checking his pulse, breathing, and circulation. The platoon was ordered to remain present until they each received adequate healing and decontamination, a task speedily dispatched by the healers in the infirmary. A private assembly of healers tended to Noku separately, behind barred and guarded doors.

Meanwhile back at the Gates, the bodies of the undead began to fall to the earth wherever the red mist faded. The battle over and the victor looked to be the kingdom for now.

[Deleted]

Not one to interfere with the matter of the mortals she did however watch the battle from high in the sky, her great wings carrying her in circles above it all. From start to end she had watched it, yet the appearance of the Drake had caught her off guard and she had faltered in the air. "Al nindol orn tlu folbol terini'nestg ulu tjeak wund." (Well this will be something interesting to check into) She all but purred in Drow as she flew, making sure it was safe to land she pulled in her wings she started to descend. The wind tugged at her auburn locks as the she sped at a deadly angle straight down, a couple hundred feet above the ground she respread her wings and slowed her descent. Landing lightly on the tips of her feet the angle folded in her wings and eyed the bodies of the undead, narrowing her eyes she tilted her head to the side and all but growled out how disgusted she was with the smell. Granted by now she should be used to it but still, even fresh dead bodies smelled hellish. This, this was even worse.

Turning her head she studied the tall figure in the center of the most bodies, having seen him from a distance and knowing of who he was she held a bemused smile on her face. With the graceful movement of silent feet and agility that many women AND men envied she walked forward so quietly that not even most seasoned mages with amplified hearing could hear her, her eyes flicked to the undead and those who had died from the fighting. Narrowing her eyes she twitched her clawed fingers, crouching down next the body of an undead she poked at it with her claws. Movement out of the corner of her eye made her look up, she watched while the king was carried off. Not even hesitating she spread her wings and flew after them, she had questions for the man.