Smiling back at death [ Open ]

[Tantallos Forsaken]

It was just another day like the others, at least for a wanderer it was. Tantallos could be from a noble family, but most of people considered him a nomad as he was always found wandering, but that was him, he liked to explore and find new libraries and learn more, after all Dread dark magic was not the only kind of ancient magic, even if it was the most common. The shaman was about to get close to a small village when he heard some people yelling and laughing, his curiosity took the best of him, instead of going away he moved closer to find out what was going on. His light blue eyes widened when he saw a group of brigands close to the village.

Most of the brigands were using iron axes, their leader had a mask over his face, some of them were sitting close to small bags of gold. "Good job boyz we got some money from those lozers! Now letz steal some stupid mercenaries!" The leader raised his axe and gave a loud war cry and soon was followed by the other brigands yelling and moving their own weapons up.

Tantallos blinked and shook his head a bit, he was not going to let them simply escape like that.. and they would serve the Plague Dragon so well! Killing in his name was always welcome, but even if he was wanting to get into a fight, he needed to check if he could kill all of them or at least kill enough of them to make them pull back. For now, he kept following them until they finally began to spread the group, now that would be the perfect time. The shaman moved in the bushes and looked at the brigand who seemed to be...licking his axe..? and moved his hands up, casting Flux, making a dark energy ball grow in front of him before falling to the floor like a goo and slide towards the brigand until it was under his feet just to emerge and explode on him.

"Ahhh that hurts! Who did that? GUYZ WE ARE BEING ATTACKED!" due to his lack of resistance to magic, the pillager barely could move and was breathing hard, the others who heard him tried to reach him, but before they could do that, another dark explosion surrounded the brigand's body, spilling blood on them and on the grass, the lifeless corpse fell on the ground, this time the sadistic shaman could not keep his cover, he gave a loud laugh. "Hahaha yessss... blood.. blood for the Plague Dragon! How I love killing.." Now it was too late to escape, two of the brigandss were there, and they seemed really angry about what he did, now he could just hope he would get some help.

[Tantallos Forsaken]

The brigands ran towards him to attack, he managed to dodge the first strike making the clumsy axe thief shove the blade of his axe on a tree. The second strike managed to hit Tantallos' shoulder, making him groan in pain and annoyance. "Excuse me, but I will need this mantle yet." The shaman moved a hand up and kept with his hand open casting another attack, the dark energy fell on the ground and went towards the brigand who managed to hit him. On the same second he closed his fist, the dark energy exploded on the enemy, making him fall to his knees before standing up. "You will have to do bette' than thiz to get me down"

Tantallos did not even reply to his comment, he just moved away to get some distance and began to cast Flux again, finishing the arrogant brigand, watching more blood fall on the grass with the corpse. "Foolish... you can't face dark ma-"Before he could finish his comment, he was hit by a hand-axe on the back, making him fall to his knees, not too far away from there, the leader was clapping his hands with the clumsy brigand behind him. "What a surprise! You just made our job eazy, kid, we are gonna get everything you have and sell it.."

During the time the leader had been speaking, he took a vulnerary and gulped it down, but he did not stand up but began to spell Flux, just waiting for the right moment. He wanted to have the surprise attack advantage. When the masked brigade moved close enough, he launched the attack, letting the magic do its trick on the enemy, this time, he just grumbled and ran to attack, Tantallos tried to give a second attack, but missed, even if brigands were not knew for being good at dodging, it was their leader, he had some brains.

"Yer tricks won't work with me, kid. I am tougher than theze stoopids" The leader slammed a fist against his own chest, trying to show he was superior before going for a attack, sadly he was using a steel axe, so even if he could land deadly blows, the weapon was too heavy, Tantallos managed to dodge the attack easily, making the mask guy roar in anger at his failure. Again, the young shaman attacked, this time, the tough guy was already struggling to keep on his feet, the explosion produced by the attack managed to push him away a bit. "NO, I won't die to some stupid noble! You are just some newbie, you will DIE!"Surprisingly he managed to land a hit with the weapon, and that was some painful attack that forced Tantallos on the grass, he groaned in pain, his eyes were barely open, he watched the leader getting closer, already moving his axe up for another strike.

The shaman's eyes widened and he quickly moved a hand up to send another strike, the attack was so violent that the brigand yelled in pain for many seconds, watching parts of his body spilling blood after that cruel attack, soon he was just another corpse on the floor. Tantallos stood up with some effort and gave a sadistic grin. "Well.. looks like death decided to smile back at me after all.. thank you for protecting me, Plague Dragon."He looked around to check if there were things to be grabbed and gave the money of the village back to them before proceeding with his objective of learning more. The last brigand ran away not willing to take the risk of being killed as well.

[Nevermind, proceeding with the thread for now.]

[Tantallos Forsaken]

Tantallos proceeded with his travel, looking for a interesting place to pass by, time to time talking to some merchants during his path, not really important, just random conversations to find out how the economy was going on that area of Etruria, some of them seemed surprised to see a shaman wandering by himself due to the risks of being attacked by thieves and brigands in general. He did not care at all, he loved to "test his limits", even if sometimes it could mean almost get killed, the leader with the steel axe was a good example of his insanity, even after almost being killed, he kept wandering like if nothing happened. The shaman finally found a place that seemed to be interesting, there was a large library build with stones and a ample wood door, time to time the door was opened by someone, some of them leaving, some of them entering.

He moved in and kept with his hood on, even inside of the library, some people gave him offended and suspicious stares due to his lack of respect about some "rules' that were applied, like taking helms or their hoods off if they were in a public area, Tantallos could be a noble, but he never liked that rule, he preferred to remain on his own little insane world and hide his face expressions. Giving almost noiseless steps, he made his way towards the tomes and books related to ancient magic, willing to learn more about them. With some effort, he managed to carry four thick books over a table and opened one of them to read about the kinds of ancient magic, dread magic was not enough for him, he needed to learn about the others. On the book there were information about some of them, like Swarm and Carrion, easily taking his interest.

He moved a hand over the page and drummed his fingers, just getting some time to think about where he would managed to find those tomes, some of those were weak compared to Flux, at least when it was about raw damage, but they always had a special effect, like poisoning the enemy, driving them insane and making them attack his friends.. ohh..that was so good, he could even think about how great it could be to have those tomes on his hands. A wide and creepy grin grew on his face, if he wanted to kill the Forsaken who betrayed their group, he would need to be better than him, stronger than him...he could not believe that one of their Arch druids decided to go against them to look for MORE power and conquer other lands, that was against everything that they teach and it would ruin the Forsaken's reputation.

Giving a sigh, he kept reading the book, studying every magic on it, maybe he could get some of those tomes around, who knows. After finishing reading the book of spells, he took a old one, covered by some red marks, it was the book related to some legendary creatures, besides monsters in general, his finger passed over the words until he found "Plague Dragon". "The Plague Dragon is always related to death and cruelty, the undead creature is no myth, a long time ago, it used to protect the Forsaken group in exchange of souls, which happened to be the souls of those who were trying to attack them in the middle of a territory war, they had success, but the green field used on the fight turned into a rotten and dead area after the after due to the large number of deaths and how the beast was feeding on them. Some began to call it by the "Undead's nest" due to its unpleasing appearance, it is highly recommended to avoid it, it is said that some of the soldiers who died there may raise from their graves to kill others in a attempt to get their life back, even if it is impossible. Many enemies were unsatisfied with the beast's presence, so they called all the priests and clerics they had to force the Plague Dragon to move away, since that they, the Forsakens never saw him, but they knew he was watching them, and they would keep giving him more souls in exchange of power, intelligence and safety.