Slaughter in the Snowdrifts (Eris/Semi-Open)

[Eris Coulson]

Have you ever been struck in the noggin by a wyvern's wing? Eris learned that it stung even worse than the whipping she got from the beast's tail. All the noise in the area blended together for a few seconds. The sounds of the battle beyond their position, the shrieks and hisses of the wyvern, along with the stomping of it's feet, followed by the whooshing left from it's tail and wings. She then heard something like metal scraping along towards her fallen body.

Eris forced her eyes to focus and saw...ah, her lance! Minerva must have pulled it free and slid it towards her. Eris staggered to her feet, gripping the pole-arm and refocusing on the wyvern as Minerva talked to her, the woman's voice starting off as muffled nonsense but eventually evolving into something significantly more sensible. The woman wanted to freeze it? Hah, sounded like she banked on putting Eris' life at risk for it. Not only did she need to charge the thing head on for it to work, or at least lure it to her, but she'd have to make sure she didn't wind up frozen.

And Eris sure as hell did not plan on becoming a popsicle.

Regardless there weren't many other options. It was going to be Minerva's magic that brought the beast down, not her spearmanship, loathe as Eris was to admit. So Eris didn't even give a reply, she just gave the mage a nod as the beast turned it's head to her and let out an irritated hiss. Damned thing couldn't seem to choose who to attack now. Looks like Eris would have to make that choice for it.

Stepping forward she thrust her lance right at the wyvern's throat, but it's instincts were sharp and it reared it's head back to avoid the danger. Pressing the offensive wasn't an option now, lest Eris wind up battered by the things wings, so she backed up just as the winged lizard curled it's neck downward before crawling towards her. It's crawl was not like the crawl of a wounded human or a small child, but nearly like the jog of a bear. For such a cumbersome beast designed for the air moreso than the earth it could move damn fast on the ground.

No wonder Bernese soldiers loved 'em so much. These things really were gods-damned fearsome.

Eris wasn't going to outrun the thing, she was already beginning to grow fatigued. Between all the running, the shaman, this creature's rider and the beast itself, her stamina had been pushed rather hard. But she'd been trained for this. Trained for long campaigns, for drawn out battles. Eris wasn't a soldier anymore...she was-

The wyvern snapped it's jaws at Eris, narrowly missing her leg, and Eris took advantage of the moment. She skidded to a halt, nearly slipping on her heels, twirled her lance in mid-pivot so that it would be aimed in time for her half-turn, and with a rather fierce battle cry she thrusted the lance right at the creature's eye. The maneuver was too quick, too sudden, and thus her aim was off...but not by enough to stop her goal! The spear head slid right along the wyvern's eye, and it shrieked in agony and shock as blood began to gush from it's right eye.

Yeah, Eris knew how that kind of pain felt.

In it's rage it swung it's neck, it's head catching the soldier right in the stomach - HARD. The wind was literally knocked from Eris' lungs, her body sent prone through the air until her back connected with the wall of a house, hard again. She slunk to the ground, gasping and wheezing for breath, dropping her lance and staring wide-eyed at the wyvern. It was flailing it's head still, blood dripping from it's fresh wound onto the snow covered ground beneath it.

[Minerva]

Eris went careening into a wall, dropping her weapon yet again. This time, though, she’d sliced the thing’s eye, and it was in great pain. Blood was pouring from the wounded eye, and the beast was shrieking and rampaging around, thrashing and writhing in pain.

Minerva took advantage of the situation, charging forward. As she was approaching from the right and the rear, she was confident the half-blinded beast couldn’t see her. With the path clear, save the thrashing tail, the mage was able to duck under the whiplike swings and found herself once more under the wyvern. This time, though, she took her time, breathing deeply and collecting herself before shrieking herself, yelling out loudly as she slammed her hands into the body of the scaly, riderless mount.

There was a brief flash as the air seemed to collect around Minerva and the wyvern, swirling for a second in a tiny vortex of snowflakes and ice crystals, and then a solid spike of ice erupted from the mage’s hands, pressed firmly on the underbelly, puncturing through scales and flesh and emerging from the back of the wyvern with a ripping sound quite appropriate for the situation. The impaled wyvern shrieked once loudly, and then once faintly. Its head jerked back and forth on its neck a few times, and its teeth snapped in a pitiful, futile maneuver before the life faded from its one good eye.

The magical spear of ice sizzled and melted, hot blood pouring from the wound onto the cobblestones as Minerva let her control of the magic fade away. She stumbled out from under the creature, taking a step before falling to the ground as the wyvern’s tail slumped down over her, pinning the exhausted mage down. The rest of the creature slowly fell sideways, crumpling in an inelegant, still-bleeding heap, its scales motionless and its charred and torn wings crumpled over its body. There was a puncture wound in its hind leg from Eris’s spear, its left eye was slashed viciously, and there was a hole through its torso from the mage’s ice attack.

There was a soldier leaning against a wall, her lance on the ground and her breath most likely just returning to her. And there was a mage, laying on the ground under the wyvern’s tail, her spiritual energy drained by her outpouring of magical power.

[Eris Coulson]

It took about a good minute for Eris to really get control of her breathing, way too damned long for her liking. She had worried that she had a collapsed lung, that some or even all of her ribs had broken and punctured the vital organ. It was likely just shock, a reaction to the pain and sensation of literally being knocked off of her feet. Add in a little adrenaline in there and...yeah, basically the perfect cocktail for an absolute crap storm.

Eris was no longer gasping as she pressed her sore, tender back against the wall, but she was still breathing harder and heavier than normal. With a quiet groan she arched her back, wincing at the sharp pain that shot throughout her torso, and rolled her shoulders a bit. Yeah, she could move...and she hadn't been eaten alive by a wyvern.

Eris glanced over at the winged lizard just in time to watch it impaled from below by a large spear of ice. Minerva must have managed to get beneath the creature and take it out. At first she winced, at both the brief flash from the magic along with the visceral sound the ice made; slicing through scale, flesh, and bone. The wyvern shrieked in pain, it's head turned up to the sky, but yet it could not even move to writhe in agony. Then came it's death rattle, as it's thick blood poured down the big-ass icicle. As soon as the ice came it disappeared, melting far faster than natural ice, and once enough of it had evaporated into the aether the wyvern finally fell to the ground, limp.

Somehow, despite it all, Eris still managed to give the beast's dead eyes a smirk. Damned lizard wasn't so tough after all...of course, as if on cue, another throb of pain assailed Eris' back. She leaned forward, reaching around to firmly rub her back, but there was of course the layer of armour and padded fabric beneath it to prevent her from truly applying any sort of relief. Without the armor she'd have definitely fractured her spine, probably even outright broken it.

"Damn..." She mumbled under her breath, gritting her teeth as she forced herself to her feet. The sounds of battle were not as strong as they had been before. Not as loud. But Eris could still hear them. Battles never ended that quickly, nor that cleanly. Even if one side was defeated, even if they surrendered, there would be some that fought. Blood would be shed for the rest of the day, even longer.

As much as it...as it pained her, really, Eris just couldn't afford to be a part of that. She needed to get to somewhere where she could lie down. Rest up.

Eris looked over at Minerva and walked towards the mage. That icicle looked as though it took a lot out of her, so she probably felt as shitty as Eris did at the moment. So she extended a hand to her and said, simply: "Let's get the hell out of here."

[Minerva]

As Minerva lay on the ground, her eyes closed and her breath coming in shallow, ragged gasps, she inwardly attempted to curse herself for using such a powerful attack, the beast for bashing her, and the soldier for not getting in more damage. All she managed to do, however, was blankly recall over and over that she was alive and that the wyvern was dead.

And then the hand came, and the voice with it.

“Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Through half-shut eyes, the mage took the proffered hand and stood shakily, a small moan escaping as she forced her body to comply. Collecting herself, she took one deep, solid breath, and then opened her eyes, standing upright and looking straight at Eris before saying something completely out of character for her.

“Thank you.”

The mage dipped her head in thanks to the soldier, becoming focused and businesslike once more – or at least as focused and businesslike as she could be in her battered and smashed state.

“We’re not far now. Come on, let’s go!”

With that, she started in what she hoped would be a run but more accurately was a hobbling, lurching half-jog. The edge of town wasn’t far now, and if they could get through a gate or over a wall then they could disappear into the forests and the snow to wait out the battle and lick their wounds.

She just had to get there, and make sure that the soldier did too. That was the final hurdle.

“Stick with me. We can get out of here. We didn’t come this far to end up dead.”

[Eris Coulson]

Eris had to admit, it was refreshing to not hear back talk from this mage. Either way she could respect her more than before. For all her bitchiness she did manage to take down that wyvern, and she survived getting knocked around by the the thing too, and Eris now knew for herself just how damned painful that could be.

As Minerva attempted to jog ahead Eris followed after her. The mage was her guide out of the war-zone the town had become, but she was definitely worse for wear than Eris. Then again Eris was a trained soldier turned...gods, what even was she now? A question for another day, the point was that Eris could walk just fine, though it hurt, whilst Minerva limped on like...like a woman who got knocked around by a wyvern.

Realizing that this was problematic, potentially detrimental to their successful escape, Eris quickened her pace and easily matched Minerva's, striding up alongside her.

"We can move faster if you let me support you." Eris didn't like the suggestion, but it was better than letting a limping woman take the lead. Speed and efficiency were the key to their escape and survival here, not comfort or dignity. She just hoped the mage would see reason and lean on her shoulder for support. "Just loop an arm around my shoulder and take the weight off your injured leg. Limping on like that's just going to make it worse later, and if you're leading now you'll be easy pickings."