A Brisk Pass (Open)

[Loreley]

From her place atop the ruined structure they'd forted up in the islander had a good view across the clearing and glade around them. It was a powerful scene before her. Surrounded by abandoned structures so familiar to her in a sense, they gave a false sense of security against the onslaught of the alien nature of the hideous, fearful, and single minded creatures seeking to tear out the life around them. The lone unstained spots of life in the green around them all.

And that sorcerer had the audacity and the nerve to challenge her heritage in the middle of a battle. No, not a battle. It was a hunt, and they were the prey, whatever the beast rider said. He was right in one thing though. This prey had claws. She felt her teeth gritting in anger at the sorcerer's criticism and accusation of her. He may as well have called her a coward to her face. That wasn't always wrong.... Fear had taught her much over the years, such as when it was prudent to run. She was proud of her accomplishments and her heritage though, and there was an alarming heat burning in her heart and eyes at the challenge. She whipped an arrow out, and took measure of where he was standing as she looked down at him from up atop the ruin. If they both survived this, she'd have some harsh words and maybe more for him.... She cut off those angry and violent thoughts as she balanced on the roof, twisting to take a shot at the next wolf to make it around the corner, catching it in the shoulder and knocking it back. She was about to let fly another arrow when she felt the shudder of a fiery explosion, and saw the flash of the caster's fire. It was enough to throw the wolf back against the wall nearby, but it was impacted on the building. She watched as debris shifted in the ruins, old fragments of the roof and walls falling away on those beneath.

"Watch out! This place isn't stable!" With a quick gesture, she hooked a foot under a sturdy piece of scrap to hold herself in position, and then leaned out past the edge a little to get a clean shot at the targets below with a half draw and a sharp twang of her bowstring. An arrow sprouted from the skull of the head of next wolf to turn the corner, and dropped at the feet of the recklessly destructive sorcerer.

There was another crash from below, bigger than before, and Lore felt the roof shift under her as more of the scraps fell away. She gave a yell as her foot fell through the roof. Breath left her with a healthy "Whuf" as she hit the "deck", but she was already pressing herself up and out of the mess before she'd hit the ground. The roughened surface of the roof leaving its mark on her cloth wrapped palms. The roof was growing less and less stable, and less and less friendly as things continued to slam into it. She looked for a spot that looked safer, and recognized a hatch from below not far away. She wasn't a carpenter, but she knew that there would be more support and construction around any kind of door, so she made for that point believing it to be steadier. That was when the hatch opened up from the bottom, and a head poked through. The hairs on the back of the the sailor's neck stood out and her golden eyes widened as she took in the armored knight and the glowing red eyes peeking through the helm.

She leapt away from the hatch quicker than the west wind, and found herself still atop the ruins and back on unsteady and spotty footing. "Trident perserve us, What is that?!" She yelped. She didn't wait for an answer, slapping an arrow on the bowstring and snapping a halfdraw shot off towards the head and chest visible from the hatch.

[Derick]

"W-wait! She's actually from the Western Isles she's..." Derick's words petered out as Ravvus ripped into Loreley. The imminent danger of the wolves was the only thing that prevented Derick from clapping a hand to his face as Ravvus continued to heavily imply Loreley was a coward by doubting her heritage. Derick sighed at the exchange, and mumbled under his breath: "next time, I'll just leave the lineage explanations to her..." Further self-reflection was cut-off Ravvus clapped a hand on Derick's shoulder. That was a quick change of tone. Derick couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the mage's about-face. At least we're on good terms...?

The mage acknowledged Derick's instructions, and advised him to due the same before turning to address the approaching group of wolves. Derick stood a safe distance behind Ravvus, glaive held at the ready as he rotated his gaze between studying the approaching group and scouting out groups flanking from the right. Fortunately, Ravvus was handling the first group quite capably. The mage chained spells together as he sought to kill the group's front-runner, the wooden structure creaked and groaned as the explosion resulting from Ravvus' work slammed against the makeshift wooden barricade. '

Derick watched the skirmish hungrily, he forced himself to block out the astonishment that came with seeing magic for the first time in favor of remaining focused. A second wolf broke from the approaching group, splitting out in a wide arc to align itself with striking at Ravvus' side. The beast sprinted ahead of its companions despite the arrow sprouting from its shoulder. Perhaps it knows its time is coming. Derick regarded the approaching foe callously as he re-positioned himself to intercept the charge. The beast streaked toward Ravvus, unphased. Derick thought he could hear the walls of the fort creaking again, to his right this time. That spell might have damaged the whole fort...

The beast came into range, Derick lunged forward, his back hand thrust the sword-like tip of of his glaive forward, directly down the beast's throat. Derick chuckled at his good fortune and took another step forward, forcing his spear deeper as he did so. The Mauthe Daug cried out, gargling on its rotten blood, and attempted to back-peddle. Derick twisted the glaive in the beast's innards, and movement ceased. Derick took a deep breath, a sigh of satisfaction, but his bliss was quickly interrupted as the world stopped.

The fort wall behind the soldier exploded, Derick raised an arm to cover his visage as he was showered by splintered wood. The screams of a woman and a griffon's cry mingled with the cacophony of shattered timber. Normally, Derick would turn to see what the distress was, but his attention was seized by the source of the fort's damage. "W-what is th-that?!" Derick's tongue clumsily tripped through the words, addled by his bloodthirsty state. Before him, a creature stood on its haunches, appearing almost passive as it stood amongst the wreckage it had just created. The new beast dwarfed Derick, standing a few feet taller than him, and easily tripled Derick's weight with its bulk and muscle. In comparison to the Mauthe Doogs, this creature seemed healthy, save for the black ichor streaming out of its chest and its eerily vacant expression

Transfixed by his new adversary, Derick tugged on his lance, ignoring the squelching sounds that accompanied the separation of his glaive from his previous kill. Claim another. Kill. A laugh rose unbidden from Derick's chest as he launched himself towards the new target. Control slipped away from Derick's grasp at last as he aimed a flurry of blows at the bear's torso.

[Ravvus Wiseau]

Wood groaned and splintered against the fireball's explosive force. The explosion had plastered the wolf against the wall, all but taking it out of combat, but had also done serious damage to the building. The structure shuddered, threatening to collapse if its' integrity became any more compromised.

It soon would.

Another wolf, just as nimble, as it's predecessor broke from the pack and barreled towards Ravvus. The mage was in the process of reading a counter spell when an arrow unceremoniously ended the creature's charge. The creature's limb body tumbled end over end before falling in front of the mage's feet. The Nabatan had started pulling her weight.

The mage turned around. He readied another snarky comment for the Nabatan only for his cruel wit to be interrupted. In spectacular shower of splinters, the wall behind the mage and the lancer split apart. Standing in the sundered wall's wake hulked massive black bear. Except it wasn't black of fur. Darkness, the nether itself seeped out of the undead creation's chest cavity. A black aura emanated from the decaying mass in a translucent fog. The mother of the woods stood on its' hind legs at what couldn't have been anything less than eight feet. Its' eyes, or eye rather, balefully glared down upon Ravvus and Derrick. The mother bear hungered for combat. Ravvus could feel his twitching arm tense up. This was it. Ever since the Killuan archives. This was what he needed. A worthy foe.

Behind Ravvus the mauthe doog groggily peeled itself off the wall.

Venford's bir- griffon was the first to engage the creature, piercing through the sky in an inexorable dive. Derrick followed shortly afterwards, gripped by a maniac thirst for combat. Who was Ravvus to behave any differently?

The fire in the distance had grown. It's burning flames, towering amongst the trees, cast an orange contrast on Ravvus' wicked grin. The mage brought his right hand high and held it as if he were wielding a spear. An engine of flame started in his palm and eeked out in opposite directions before finally forming a flaming lance, complete with pointy tip. The man's right arm lurched forward.

Blinding pain shot through the mage's right arm as a a set of venomous jaws sunk into his elbow. Ravvus' eyes bugged out, his focus, and by extension spell, shattered. The flaming ends of the spear lashed out like uncontrolled whips. The earth before him was scarred with ash, the haywire spell barely missed Derrick and the mother bear. Behind him, the back of the spell had shot upward, biting clean through what was left of the doog's rotting tail. The undead wolf's weight sent both of them crashing to the ground.

The doog's jaws unlatched themselves from Ravvus' elbow. Were in not for his leather armor, the creature's teeth might have struck bone. The wolf regained its' footing. Three of its' four legs stood firmly on the earth. The fourth flopped about, broken and bent at odd angles.

The mauthe doog lurched forward.

[The Madness]

The good thing about Mother Bear's new, undead state was the fact that bright flames and noises and other such things couldn't scare her like they used to. Her sense of danger had rotten away, along with some of her other higher emotional functions such as care for her cubs or such similar things. While a sad tale for the now dead bear, there was much more use of her now that she had lost all of her feeling. The Mage's bright red flame did not scare her, nor did it's sudden disappearance into the surroundings as the mage's arm was bitten into by one of the rotting hellhounds. While the fires burned bright the mother bear released a loud, guttural roar, charging for Derick.

Think fast. The sudden arrow coming for her head caused Madness to dissipate the shadowy mass for just a split second, enough for the arrow to fly right trough it and down the hatch, plinking down against the ground. She felt disoriented. While her body (the shadowy, nethery parts at least) could disappear and appear at will, the process would cause dizzyness upon her body each and every time. As her head appeared once more she groggily climbed up upon the tower floor. She could feel it moving. It'd fall, it'd fall. And it might bring her down.

"That wasn't very polite of you, bronze woman." Her calm voice betrayed the dizziness she was going trough at this very moment. One hand gripped Seelenschmaus as she took a step forwards, then another, dragging the nether spewing blade of the spear across the wooden floor, calling out an ear piercing sound. Each step was slow but determined.

[Deleted]

Yeah, all hell had officially broken loose. The fort was practically crumbling apart, the four-legged fiends behind them were still charging onward, and now they'd been attacked from behind. As Prince soared closer to the fort Venford finally caught sight of what had stirred him so. It was a rather large bear, but something was off about it...wait, was it like the dogs? Undead or whatever? Good god! Prince wanted to fight THAT!?

The worst part was he was not alone in that desire. The stutterer had already engaged the creature and attempted to deal with it via his odd pole arm weapon. It...it didn't look like the man's strikes had all that much of an effect. Still, it was dangerous to keep their backs to the hounds...could Ravvus hold them off on their own? Wait, where was Ravvus?

“Crap crap crap...” This situation was spiralling so far out of control. Venford was very much focused on his immediate surrounds, his sword readied as Prince closed in on the large bear. However he was worried about other things. What of the cute archer on the roof?

“I'm REALLY starting to think that running is by far the best course of action!” Venford shouted as Prince dive-bombed the bear's left flank, swiping a talon out fiercely. Something about this creature really shook the griffin up. He was always fierce and prideful, but this was almost reckless. Still, Venford kept a vigilant watch on the bear's movements, swinging his sword at the beast's left shoulder. If it was undead it probably didn't feel pain, but he could still try to ruin it's ability to fight. Take out it's limbs.

“Hey, stutterer! Keep your feet moving!” Venford called back to the spearman as Prince looped around behind the bear. He tugged firmly at the reins, halting the griff from making another dive. “Aim for this things throat or limbs or something! Not the chest!” He was running out of ideas fast, yet his mind was running a mile a minute. Adrenaline was fully kicked in, and he didn't have much of a filter left. Everything that went through his mind he either acted upon or spoke immediately. He couldn't hesitate like that if he wanted to survive this.

[Loreley]

Loreley took another step back in fear and shock as her arrow sailed straight through the strange nightmare in front of her. The thing, whatever it was didn't look harmed, and only slowed briefly. The quiet and calm voice that came out of it seemed to slow her down a little though. It was... a woman's voice, and so at odds with what she was expecting that it stopped her from turning to bolt, as she'd been planning.

"No.... Stay back!"

The thing's tone had sounded like an old friend chiding ill manners, until the spear started dragging atop the structure. An unholy shriek like a bat out of hell ripped into Loreley's mind and ears, prompting her to try and clap a hand over the side of her head for protection. Not a winning proposition. The archer could hear sounds of battle raging from below and all around. Their refuge was turning into a besieged fort, and it was falling all around them as they were overwhelmed, and she had some strange night terror stalking towards her. They needed to move again!

She turned with the intent of running, and saw nowhere to go since things had begun falling due to the force of the flames. Just down into the fray. That would have to do. Without looking too hard at where she was going, she dropped, jumping for clear space. It wasn't so clear as she was falling though. She braced for an impact, and felt something land under her. A yelp and a crunch later, she knew what it was: The bristles of fur remaining on the putrid hide of the Doom Wolf scratched at her arms and legs where she'd landed on the creature. She thought she'd be ill... but the head snapping back up and trying to eat her face off encouraged her to roll off as fast as she may. It didn't follow. It looked like she'd broken the creature's back when she'd landed on it from overhead. Even so, it still flailed wildly after them.

She rolled to a stop, and saw Ravvus on the ground. She really hoped he was still up and alert. His fire was their best shot where it came to getting out of this. "Ravvus! There's something on the roof! You need to bring the house down on it right now!" That wasn't alot of explanation, but the wildness in her golden eyes would convey enough of the panick there. She didn't want to come to face whatever that was again.

[Derick]

Blood pounded through his veins. The screeching howls of the Mauthe Doogs and his companions' calls fell on deaf ears as Derick closed in on his target: the mother bear. Derick's restrained demeanor was gone, his eyes widened and glassed over as he anticipated destroying his opponent. His chest heaved as deep, calming breaths were overtaken by excited panting. Derick's hands tightened around the haft of his spear, and his teeth split into a maniac grin as his mind's eye pictured rending the Mother Bear like water.

Unfortunately, Mother Bear was built even stronger than the wall it had just shattered. Aggression clashed with aggression as the beast met Derick's attack with a ferocious charge. Derick's strike landed first, his lips parted in grim satisfaction as he felt his glaive's tip slice into the beast's torso. The smile vanished as the haft slipped from Derick's hands. Mother Bear's charge had developed into a full tackle. The bear's shoulder slammed into Derick's chest, with the force of Mother Bear's weight and momentum behind it. The breath in Derick's chest expelled in a lame huff. Derick cried weakly as his body was flung through the freshly ravaged wall, but the cry was cut short as he made contact with the fort's stone floor.

---

Darkness, and the light. Conscious thought returned with vision as Derick lifted himself from his prone position, groaning as he did so. What just happened...? Derick experimentally flexed his muscles as he stood. No sharp pain. Good. But what...? His eyes widened as recollection set in. No sense, no glaive, and a whole lot of bruising, courtesy of the stone he was now standing on. The cacophony of combat still rang in the air. "I couldn't have been out for more than a few moments..." Derick crept towards the wall he had came through, trying to avoid notice as he searched for his weapon and awaited his chance to rejoin the fray.

[Ravvus Wiseau]

Any and all bloodlust released its' grip on Ravvus as black venom slithered through his veins. The punctured skin of his wound screamed in pain, bending his left hand to keep pressure on it. The mage could feel his lucidity slipping. This wasn't good.

The doog was too close. Ravvus cast his arm up in a horizontal block. A desperate and confused attempt to defend himself, but it was all the mage could do. Anything else would have left him exposed to a lethal bite.

The undead wolf leapt into the air briefly, before crashing back to the earth. Another creature, bronze-skinned and golden of hair, had fallen on it. Was that the Nabatan? Was she dead? What in the name of the Eight was going on? Ravvus' worries were quickly dispelled as the woman rolled off of the undead creature's body. She blathered something about a monster on the roof. The mage glanced at their not-so-safe haven. He could see nothing at the top of the structure, but had little reason to doubt Loreley. The woman may have been a coward, but there needed to be something for her to be afraid of to warrant her running away from it.

Ravvus pushed off of the ground, groggily coming to an upright position. From the corner of his eye, he could see the forest fire coming closer. One of the towering trees had toppled over and ignited the section of forest between the structure and the waterfall.

The mage's legs trembed. He shouldn't have let himself get bitten. Whatever diseases that dog carried in its' maw were quickly debilitating him. That dog. The hot-tempered mage could see the crippled mutt snapping at him and Loreley. Ravvus lumbered forward and brought his boot down hard on the creature's skull. Small vengeance for his injury.

His knees still shook. ”Not feelin' so good. Lend me a shoulder.” Ravvus muttered, placing his hand on Loreley's shoulder. With his free hand, the mage fumbled to an open page, as the nether-spawn bear casually tossed Derrick into the nearby structure.

They needed to end this battle. Ravvus could barely stand, Loreley, despite her proven skill with a bow, ran at the slightest hint of trouble, and Derrick, unless he had the grace of Elimine and the strength of Hartmut, had surely been killed in that last tackle. Who knew how long it would be before Venford suffered a crippling wound. Ravvus had miscalculated again. Just like in Ilia with George and Donovan. He'd overestimated himself once again, and once again the tides of battle turned against him.

He didn't know if anyone in this company was as altruistic as George. If any of them were willing to give their lives for his, but he wouldn't give them the chance to find out.

”I hope you're dead in there blondie. But if you're not, I ask that you forgive me.” Ravvus pleaded as his fireball took form. The mage sent the blast forward, into the other side of the structure, making ash and splinters of the final supports and sundering the building in a final orange explosion.

Ravvus felt one of his legs buckle. His hand slipped from Loreley, hitting the dirty ground in a dull clap. There was no time to be dumbstruck with the collapsing building. The venom was getting worse. The mage stood back upright, eliciting a groan from his weak leg. ”We need to get out of here.” He muttered to Loreley. ”I'm gonna need your shoulder again.” Ravvus spoke in a tired voice, offering his arm to the Nabatan. ”If they surround us, you leave me behind.” The mage didn't expect this fear-stricken woman to give her life for his, but he wouldn't take the chance. He refused to ever suffer the indignity of another dying in his place again.

[The Madness]

[post theme just because HYPE www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgfID_z1C0s]

There was a flash. The bronze woman had leaped down onto the ground, landing on one of the plagued doogs that ran across the land. They had been here even before she came to Ostia, yet she could feel and control them to a very minimal level. If she wanted some of her own, she'd have to kill wolves and dogs that were alive, and that was not her duty. Harming nature any more than what was necessary would have driven her to a sorrow unseen before in this world, and that sorrow would rise and consume everything here. Her king would not want such a thing, not now and not ever. Madness raised her lance and chucked it towards the woman, but it was too late. Seelenschmaus stuck into the ground, nether seeping into the land as the building collapsed around her, burying Madness under it.

She could feel all of her limbs pressed against the ground under the rubble. There wasn't any light besides the dim red hue of her eyes that shone on the ground. She tried to move her head about. She could manage a bit. There was a small crack that revealed the outside, with fire burning in the distance burning trough the treeline. She could hear some faint noises. Whispers from somewhere far away. Was her destiny to fail in such an embarrassing way such as this? To disappear to the annals of time as a little footnote, the one who was slain under a falling building? No. That was not her destiny. Her king would flay her soul for two thousand eternities if she failed in such a manner, not in battle with the humans, but under bad carpentry. Her hand reached up onto a plank of wood. She began to slowly pull herself upwards.

She could feel the weight of the whole world on her shoulders. Planks cranking and crushing as the armored shadow of a woman began to push. She could hear their laughs. Hunger. The others. She could hear them all laughing and mocking her for her weakness while sipping their drinks, and she could see her King, shaking his head in such a disappointed way. That would not do. Her eyes lit aflame even more than before, driving her into an overdrive as planks finally cracked and broke above her, driving sticks and other such things to drop on the ground. A lantern shattered and fell. She could see the light. She could see him. For this world, she could see it all!

The first thing that broke trough was her fist, above the pile of wood. Soon, another broke out. They latched onto more planks and ripped them away until there was enough space for her to burst out of the wooden pile, leaping out and landing on the ground, a few steps away from seelenschmaus. If she was a human, she'd be panting. A step or two. She grabbed onto Seelenschmaus, yanking it out of the ground in one swift motion.

"For my king, I will exceed the verge of death. I will exceed every obstacle that is thrown at me, for him, for his love and for his care, and to save this world from vermin such as you. That is my mission, vermin... For I am the Madness inside each and every one of you. You are to be my puppets, and I am to be the hand that is directed by the head that is my King. I hope you say your last prayers, for I am a generous enough warrior for vermin such as you."

She prepared her spear, pointing it forwards. To exceed the verge of death.

[Deleted]

All hell had officially broken loose. Prince was still rampaging, seemingly desperate to rend the bear's flesh with his talons, but it was in vain. He'd flown too far into the building, and now it seemed as though the entire fort was falling apart. Prince finally began to come to his senses, and Venford quickly guided the griff backwards, wincing as he saw the Stutterer tackled aside by the bear. "Hey! Lance guy!" Damn it, there wasn't a thing he could do. Dismounting was the same as death, and Prince couldn't move around inside the fort.

Then he heard it, Prince's pained shriek. Venford's eyes immediately shot around, and to his dismay he saw one of those foul hounds, jaws locked around Prince's hind leg. "Oh sh-" Prince's reaction was instantaneous, flapping as hard as he could to back out of the fort and get higher. But the damned dog held on, vile drool dribbling from it's mouth, mixed in with Prince's blood.

Ven reached backwards with his sword with one hand, the other gripping the reigns for dear life, and tried his damnest to swat the beast off. It was just too far. "Come on, come on, come on!" Everything was spiraling out of control. Prince kept ascending, higher and higher, away from all of Ven's impromptu comrades and the fort below. At long last the redhead managed to stick his blade in the eye of the fetid hound, weakening it enough for Prince to kick the beast off, letting it fall all the way back down to the ground.

Ven wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but this ordeal was far from-..."What the hell?! Prince, down!" There was a crash, an echoing sound of stone and wood colliding. Ven managed to get the wounded griffon to descend, and witnessed in horror the crumbling fort. No, did everyone get out?! Wait...as he drew closer, he could see two of them. The mage and the archer, both exhausted. More dogs were en route. Only so many had wound up in the fort. Had the bear gone down too? What the hell did he miss?

And where was the Stutterer?

"What the hell happened? How'd it all collapse?!" Venford demanded, Prince bringing him just above the two's heads. Before he had a reply, of course, he heard it. The sound of metal scratching on metal, echoing in his mind. It was the sharpest sound he'd ever heard, and he had to bring his ears up to block it out. Opening one eye he saw a...a...thing, clad in armour blacker than shadows themselves. The sound was it's voice?! It clawed it's way out of the rubble, carrying with it a spear as dark as itself. There was no way this creature was human, but this was far, far more terrifying from any monster Venford could have imagined. And yet it stood before them, real as could be.

So much emotion flooded the man that he couldn't even take the time to think. With a wounded leg Prince had to stay airborne, and the griffon was no doubt tired. Could he carry them all out of here? There was no way they were going to win a fight. And what about the spearman?

"Gods damn it!" Venford cursed. "I told you we should have just run for it! What the hell do we do?!" He was stumped, and horrified. Not just at the black creature before him, but at the knowledge that he knew exactly what he ought to do. What he only he could do.

Flee. Abandon these idiots that tried to fight against these things, and flee. But damn it...every fiber in his being compelled him to do just that, and yet he did not steer Prince away.