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Post by Gar on May 4, 2017 18:30:04 GMT -6
Gar and his crew had landed on an island of little note in the south east bay of Etruria. They were setting up a few tents on the shore for a base camp. The majority of the land seemed to be untouched by man, forest and animals still held their claim on the terrain. It wasn’t too much unlike Vinland, now that place brought up some memories. Gar’s nostalgia trip was interrupted by the bickering of a couple mates. “I know wat I saw.”
“Aye n’ I know yer a one-eyed idiot.” “What didja just say?” Gar sighed. Pirates will be pirates. “Oi, keep your mouths shut.” Gar tilted his head toward the forest. “We don’t know what could be out there.” The crewmates obliged with a palpable reluctance.
Why the caution? It’s quite unlike you. Gar sighed and laid his eyes upon the holy weapon at his hip. The turquoise clad berserker and his crew were here on a rescue mission of sorts. Gar had sent a scouting party to check this group of islands for a man who had launched an undead assault on his fortress. Suffice to say, they had not yet returned and Gar didn’t believe they were the type to bail on him. He didn’t quite know what had happened to them, nor why he felt the way that he did. There was just something off. The wind. It feels.. like it isn’t blowing right.
I’ve found pirates to certainly be a superstitious bunch, basing their action off feeling more than fact. But I am inclined to agree, there is an off-putting presence here. Gar nodded.Aye, stay close. The weapon responded with a small quip.
Not like I have much of a choice. Gar smiled at the comment. It was true that at the present moment they were bound at the hip, but he meant what he said. The berserker was going to have to rely on Junzentaru as his sole weapon today. He had left ‘Oscar’, his killer axe, atop a small tomb near his fort, in honor of the once figurine’s sacrifice for his friend, Aeos. As for his old iron axe, well, that thing was too small. It didn’t feel effective in combat anymore so it also got left behind. Today, it would just be Gar and June.
Time passed and the camp had been set up. The midday sun was high in the sky. Now was the best time to gather whatever supplies he was going to need for the night. Gar made his way to the edge of the forest, thinking of returning with firewood and perhaps some food. He turned to holler at his mates. “I’m going to search for some supplies. Try and catch some fish if you can.” Gar heard some mumbling about how he shouldn’t go on his own, but he ignored it. This was a simple process of gathering firewood, really what could go wrong?
Gar entered the tree line, finding himself fully shadowed by the branches instantly.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on May 5, 2017 14:05:33 GMT -6
Not for the first time since landing, Nayru considered a heaping helping of hell no to the idea of sticking around here. Not because she was scared of whatever dumb crap monster was lurking in the trees, not because she didn't have faith in herself without Remus or Shara around, or even because she was worried about getting attacked by a drop bear. Though the latter would admittedly suck. No, the problem was that she was within a stone throw's distance of god damn Etruria, colloquially known as 'that place that hates f**k**g everyone and will happily kill you for basically anything,' ands last time she checked they weren't real big fans of dragons, what with the whole 'their saint was a Scouring hero' thing and all. Plus - okay, it was a bit petty, but she just... really disliked Etruria in general. Having spent a fair bit of time there in centuries past, watching what the once-enlightened country had turned into, this militaristic theocracy, just cut through her spirit. A reminder of the horrific things that humanity was capable of choosing. That no matter what she did, how many people she helped, it was still possible that people would just decide NAH MAN f**k DRAGONS and go through with that again.
-But crusading assholes or not, she had been drawn here nonetheless by whispers of a beast that sounded uncannily similar to the monstrous chimera she had foguht in Bern. Not the EXACT same, there were less reports of any real element usage, but something big, something brutal. For now it was confined to this island, but the real concern was what happened if it was real and it got free - free to ravage a portion of Etruria and the innocents who lived in the less densely populated areas nearby, or any of the heavily populated cities within distance. She wished for nothing but the worst kind of tribulations to fall upon Kraft and his cronies, and Nayru thought little of the Etrurian people for choosing to side with that madman - but that didn't mean that they deserved to die in droves for making a stupid decision.
So the plan was to get in, investigate quietly, and get out. Easy peasy lemon squeazy. It wasn't until she'd landed and her ride disappeared the instant her back had turned that Nayru realized she didn't really have that much to go off of. She also didn't like forests but at least she could deal with them, Vinland was just still fresh on her mind and she swore to f**k**g god if she ran into another douchebag snake lady she was going to just punch them through the planet. But for the time being, she was just gonna hope Lafiel hadn't wormed her way here for whatever godforsaken reason and keep an eye out for anything particularly suspicious or monster-ey, and hope that she could take care of the problem before anyone else got there.
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Post by Mila on May 5, 2017 18:28:30 GMT -6
WHY AM I BACK IN ETURIA? Mila thought to herself as she rowed herself out to a tiny little island in the middle of nowhere. She had an escort earlier, a fisherman who was on his own boat. He guided her about half way through the water before giving Mila instructions on how to go the rest of the way. Ugh! The country was just as bad as she remembered. If not worse. Well no, that wasn't entirely true. The one area of Eturia she arrived in wasn't so bad. She had made her not so triumphant return to the country to pay an old debt to a woman who once helped her parents. What she didn't know was that the woman in question had died months before the letters had reached her. When she arrived at the village she was greeted by the woman's daughter. A cute freckled blonde who was married to one of the fishermen.
Sure the rest of the country had gone to heck under the thumb of a madman. But it didn't really affect the common man. At least not in the little village, sure it had its crazies. What village didn't? And it looked like the military didn't really pay any mind to this place. And she didn't blame them, the military probably didn't have time to deal with the antics of a little fishing village that was not only in the Etrurian equivalent of the boonies, but also dealing with a war. Apparently, the war and it's human resources were too damn important to be wasted on this village in the middle of nowhere.
So much so that when she arrived, she was seen as some sort of heroine to the people. That finally the capital had sent an academy researcher to help them in their time of peril. While it's true Mila once was an academy mage, a role she had long since graduated from, she didn't want to give these people false hope. But, when the green eyed sage tried to explain her real goal to the people that she was just here to meet an old acquaintance they dismissed it. Or rather they used it as further evidence of her arrival. They knew one of their former elders had sent letters out to someone in the capital. And it really didn't help that Mila sort of looked like an accomplished sage person now that she had newer tomes, clothes, and staffs.
The mayor had told her of a terrible thing that had been seen on one of their islands off their coast. Supposedly, fishermen came back with stories of something dark lurking within the wilds of the island. Something that was enough to spook the birds off of the island on occasion and that there were weird noises. Along with some disturbing reports of a moveable mass. The waters here were prone to fog so no one could ever really make out what the mass of something was but the fishermen assured her that it moves. At first, Mila tried to give them logical conclusions. It could be pirates, other fishermen, castaways, or even the military conducting secret watches. All of those theories were plausible! But, the more she heard, the more she realized, she was going to have to go and take a look for herself. If not for her curiosity then to ease the hearts of these people. When she requested a small expedition team she was denied it. Everyone had their own agenda to suddenly deal with. None of them wanted to go out into that cursed place. Of course, they wouldn't put their own lives at risk. Let the outside expert person do it! Yep, it was at that moment she remembered exactly why she left the country. At the very least they told her once she was done with the job, she was to light a signal fire in order to call for a ride.
"I should have just left those idiots to wallow in their own misery. Shoot.. I didn't even get a chance to ask if I'm getting paid for this." She complained as she arrived on shore and hauled the boat up onto the sand bank. She dusted herself off and took a look at the wilderness in front of her.
"Well.. this looks a whole lot like every other forest I've been to. Wonderful." Mila spoke with a voice of sarcasm.
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Post by Gar on May 6, 2017 6:54:16 GMT -6
The forest was dense. It was difficult to see through the foliage, so much so that there could be a person within a few yards of him and Gar wouldn’t notice. This did little to sooth his uneasy feeling. Gar wanted to simply cut through the vines and bushes that grew to impair his vision. But, of course, June would not oblige. I am a righteous weapon to cut down corruption and evil, not branch and bark. Gar rolled his eyes, it wasn't the first time he heard the lecture. No matter, he would just have to maneuver through the forest the old fashioned way. He was ducking under branches and sliding between trees, getting more and more annoyed as his coat began to snag on the growth.
Gar was wiggling his way through the foliage when he came upon a gruesome sight. Two trees had been snapped in half and against the base was a flattened corpse of what seemed to be a man. Gar grimaced at the sight. "What in the hell could have done that?" As Gar carefully approached the scene, he racked his brain to try to think of possibilities. Whatever had done this had to be big. Maybe dragon big. Gar shook his head at the thought. "If there's an angry dragon out here, I may as well turn around and go home right now."
Gar crouched down to examine the remains of the poor soul. The man was certainly smashed, not cut or bitten. He was so smashed in fact, that Gar couldn't recognize him as one of his mates that had been sent here to investigate. The berserker rose from his crouched position and turned his head. Whatever had done this, had left a trail. Quite a big one. Large enough for even an inexperienced tracker to follow. Then, there was a quake. The earth shook beneath Gar's feet, causing him to stumble slightly. The quakes origin was down the same path.
Gar sighed. This was very much not okay. Every fiber of his being was telling him to turn around. His innate instinct of survival was screaming at him, not to pursue this track. But he didn't turn around. It was too clear that this thing was dangerous. It would be inhumane to just allow this threat to roam free. Be it in Etruria, Nabata or the Isles, this thing could go many ways. Gar had an obligation to find out what this was, and take care of any threat it provided.
That said, Gar didn't move from his spot. He was rooted in place, much like the trees around him. If it was a dragon, would he even have the guts to slay it? He was no Durban, no slayer of great beasts. Not to mention that he was good friends with a dragon. His conscious might not be able to handle a battle of that nature. June pulsed at his hip and Gar growled at himself. "What am I afraid of? I'm strong. I can handle this."
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on May 6, 2017 15:47:18 GMT -6
Well hey, on the bright side, nothing was on fire, on ice, or on poison. Nayru was pretty sure she had borked the grammar pretty bad on two of those but didn't care enough to correct it, and besides, "on ice" sounded like a musical name, and hey it was nice to feel like some artsy creative type once in a while right? So things were already better off than that stupid chimera expedition. On the flip side, there was a scent to the air - something subtle, something dark. Not an actual smell per se so much as traces of vile magic that she didn't recognize or care for. Not for the first time Nayru wished she had the more refined senses of many of her kin, but hey, work with whatcha got right?
It didn't take super hearing or some dragon magic sensing bullshit to hear some slight noise outside of the ordinary somewhere nearby though, just a mix of good hearing and quietness of one's own - Nayru didn't like talking to herself, much less arguing, she didn't always win and it made her feel bad. That was another nice thing about being a wild child, even if her home was the infinite vastness of the desert (and occasionally dusty dangerous ruins), she had plenty of experience with forests, from Lycia to Vinland, so moving through it naturally came easily. It didn't hurt that she was dressed light and constantly kept up a low level reinforcement on her skin to allow her to literally just ignore branches aside from the visibility aspects, though experience still led her to move with some degree of grace; in a way she was a hunter, she just didn't know what the hell she was looking for... and if it was looking for her already.
After a time she came to a small clearing, though not a natural one - it was evident that something had been through here, something... not interested in civil discussion and friendly interaction if she had to guess. Something big to boot. That uh, set off some warning bells. Rose the hackles a bit so to speak. But it only took a glance to tell that the guy standing next to the body was PROBABLY not actually 20 feet tall, that or her perspective was REALLY messed up, and therefore probably not to blame for splattering somebody all over a tree. And breaking the trees. Unless he was a dragon, but uh, that was a subject with an entirely different set of issues and concerns to deal with. And hey, that would either lead to a GNARLY fight or a new friend, so really she won either way!
"I'm going to go ahead and assume that you probably didn't do all this," she stated neutrally as Nayru stepped into the makeshift clearing trying to appear completely casual - physically she succeeded, but her skin was definitely reinforced heavily and she was leaking magic like a sieve on the eve of a potential fight if he turned out to be hostile, "But even if you did, I'm sure that guy can find it in his heart..." she glanced at the corpse, "which is currently splattered all over that tree, to forgive you." Nice, Nayru. That's a great way to show off how funny you are moments before you might be about to die or kill someone. "Seriously though, if you aren't here to kill whatever the f**k did this, you should probably skedaddle while you still can. I'm guessing it's some kinda monster, a real big one, and given the damage it did here... ah I'm sure you'd be fine."
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Post by Mila on May 6, 2017 17:53:26 GMT -6
Mila stared at the forest entrance a bit of a puzzled look. Yes this was definitely a Eturian forest. As much as she disliked the country's people for what they had become, she couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia coming from the woods. She approached the trees and touched her hand to the bark. They were grey barked trees with occasional patches of dark brown. The leaves up on the branches were a familiar oak pattern. Little green strings of ivy and moss could be seen climbing up some of the tree trunks.
She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Her mind recalled a memory of her childhood. Back when she and Duma were just tall enough to hit their foreheads on the edges of kitchen tables. She remembered walking through the woods behind the family property. Woods that housed similar trees, grasses, and scents like this one. She remembered them walking down a path out towards a little lake. Mother and father taught them how to swim. Mila remembered chasing frogs out on the shore banks and nearly losing a toe to a particularly nasty little turtle. Mila shook her head. She wiped away the budding tears before they could make their way down her cheeks. She let out a deep sigh.
"This.. is not the time for nostalgia." She toughened her resolve and made her way though the woods.
As she made her way inland she felt that something was very wrong. The air felt thick. Well, that was to be expected. There was the whole sea around the island that churned up all sorts of salty mist into the air. But that wasn't the type of heaviness she was feeling. It contributed to the sensation but it wasn't it. The air felt too heavy. It almost felt like the air she felt when she walked through a graveyard. It also kinda felt a little bit like the air after a flux tome. Whatever it was it scent a chill down her spine.
The sage looked up at the high tree branches. She couldn't see or hear any birds. That was not a good sign. Animals made themselves scare only when there was some sort of danger around. Whether that danger be a predator or a change in weather. She pressed forward. Something inside of her was telling her to turn right back around. Like it had seen this sort of thing before in her past. Something she couldn't quite recall but her instincts knew whatever it was, was dangerous. She took a few more muddy steps into the wilderness until she came across something unusual.
She walked into a path of fallen trees. Trees that had been bent, snapped, and left to lay on the ground with no one to mourn for them. She examined one of the larger trees that had fallen. The poor pale thing was alive a few days ago. It's leaves were still green and it's branches were still springy. She deduced that something large had to have passed through here. Her first assumption was that there were Baels on the island. That was the only thing she could think of that could possibly do this much damage.
But, there was no other real sign of Baels. There were no tufts of spiney spider hairs on the fallen logs. Hair that sometimes fell off the animal as it's body rubbed off on things. She saw no signs of spiders silk either. And this path didn't fit the familiar walking style of a bael. A spider would try it's best to move around the trees not charge straight through them. Unless the spider was running from something and had no choice but to run through the forest in a mad dash. And that thought brought another set of chills down her spine. She didn't want to know what spooked a giant spider that badly. Provided if it even was a giant spider. And right now she really REALLY hoped it was a giant spider and not some other unknown giant thing that loomed in the dark. At least the spiders she knew how to deal with.
And then she felt IT. The rumble of the earth. She heard it. She heard the trees creak in their roots and any birds that were hidden away in trees flew out in fear. Mila covered her ears and crouched down onto the ground. She closed her eyes and waited for the quake to pass. She could feel her body shivering. No. No! NO! Not again! Her mind went back to a dark place. Back to the accident in Nabata. Anyone within the vicinity could hear some mix of pathetic whimpering, and panicked breathing coming from the crumpled green haired mass on the forest floor.
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Post by Gar on May 6, 2017 18:30:27 GMT -6
Gar tensed up. Someone had called to him and it wasn't from the direction he was expecting. The berserker whirled around to face the sound. Gar was shook. He gripped his holy weapon, clearly rattled. He growled at this new woman. "Back off, I will end you!" It took a moment for him to process what this woman was saying. He place his weapon back at his hip. Gar reluctantly laughed at the scene. "Of course not. I had nothing to do with this death. Hell, he may be one of my crew." Gar looked down at the remnants that laid before him. He raised an eyebrow."Then again, maybe not."
Then this woman began to talk to him as if she knew what was best for him. As if he was going to retreat. As if he was going to fall back, it wouldn't be because some random lady told him so. If nothing else, this woman should be taking care of herself. "I'll tell you what. I have a camp set up on the western shore. Go find them. It may be a little too dangerous for you out here."
June felt something as the berserker turned his back toward the woman. She!!! It might be her. She feels different. Gar turned around to face the woman. He eyed her up and down. There were taguel, dragons, leviathans, shapeshifters. And there was no reason to trust her. The condescending tone didnt do much to ease his thoughts. "What about you? What are you doing out here anyway? How do I know this isn't your doing?"
Gar pulled his holy axe from his hip once again. He steadied the weapon against the newcomer. "You outta skedaddle yourself I can han--" Gar got knocked onto his behind by a sprinting green haired woman. Cheap shot! The berserker scrambled to find to his feet. But if this woman wanted an advantage, she had it. Gar rolled over. He was clearly panicking. He roared an order at the woman who had knocked him aside. And then he saw what the scene had become. The pirate just started laughing. "Damn, here I thought you were out for blood. Hahahar"
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on May 6, 2017 20:27:29 GMT -6
End her, huh? The stubborn, prideful, not-as-mature-as-she-pretended bits of Nayru thought that they'd like to see him try, but the bits of her brain that weren't made of muscle recognized that he wasn't the enemy here, just a scared and confused human, and that even if he was a jerkbutt she was still here to try to protect him. Even if that meant protecting him from, uh, himself. Hoo boy. Today just kept getting worse. No ride out, no idea what she was facing, and now at least one cocky sailor slash pirate slash cabin boy wanted to come along for the ride. That meant no transforming, probably not even any obvious halfshifting, hell there would be explanations needed for even 30%. And uh, while she DID have a fantastic bullshit explanation thanks to Remus - the dragon hadn't even known strength magic was a thing until he accidentally taught her - she had a feeling that explaining scales would be harder.
Still, her mood was a bit shot after the axe wielding man's salty shot - she had been trying to make a joke, not belittle his abilities, and here he just seemed to be assuming that she was some dumbshit woman wandering around the forest? m*th*rf**k*r she'd suplexed a two story building down most of the height of a chapel and then impaled it with its own ripped off legs on the way down, to say nothing of the Arum monstrosity she'd faced under Bern or the gigantic chimera that even her full power body had struggled with, some noodle armed dickweed over here wasn't going to - ok his arms were technically bigger around than hers, for now, but size didn't matter as much as how you used it, right?
...That sounded kinda wrong for some reason.
"Yeah whatever, cabin boy," she shot back as she crossed her arms, the humor from a moment before evaporating like water before a wildfire. Nayru knew, objectively speaking, that she shouldn't have even responded to him much less play his game, but it sure felt a lot less like heroics to be arguing with some guy just before a giant fight rather than say, she didn't know, recruiting a band of jolly companions, or maybe managing to convince him and the newfound human puddle to f**k right off back to safety so she could actually fight.
But uh, that sounded a bit rude to actually say, so in a rare moment of tact Nayru managed NOT to say what she was thinking. Truly a moment for the ages. "Look, hunting monsters is kind of what I do. 'Specially big ones. We're probably looking at a Bael, chimera, Cyclops, worst case scenario maybe an Arum or dragon. Not likely, I don't taste either kind of magic in the air, but you never know." Uncrossing her bronzed arms, she strode forwards, to the side of Gar and green puddle lady, towards the source of whatever had caused this devastation. "I'd rather take it on alone, but if you want to come along, you do you. Just don't get in my way."
Oh yeah baby, master of tact right here. And lots of concern for puddle person over there too. Privately Nayru was kinda hoping that sailor guy would get distracted helping the newcomer and let her do her thing, but knowing her luck... probably not.
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Post by Mila on May 6, 2017 22:46:28 GMT -6
The earth rumbling had stopped, but she didn't really feel it. She was still quivering and lost in her own head for a bit. She could hear voices. Another unhealthy sign of her slight mental breakdown. Then she felt something trample over her. She opened her eyes to see that there were people around her. Oh thank heaven! She didn't know if these people were locals, bounty hunters, or stragglers, and she didn't care. She was happy to have someone with her. Some one.. something to distract her from her fears of the crumbling earth.
Mila was now forced to regain her composure in order to preserve what little shred of dignity she had left. Mila shook her head and swallowed her fear. She slowly pulled her hands off of her ears and pulled up off the dirt. She wiped face with her hands. Her face was wet with a mix of tears and sweat. Come on.. Mila.. show.. some back bone. These two people were having some sort of quarrel. Mila was kind of being a useless quivering blob a moment ago so she didn't exactly hear what the heck these two people were talking about.
She found herself sniffling after a bit. Not quite recovered from her fear breakdown. Heck she probably looked down right pathetic, but the black haired woman mentioned something of monsters. So Mila was forced to perk herself up. And given that this woman had listed two monster names she had only heard rumors of it was safe to assume that this blue clad woman knew a thing or two about magic. She rubbed her tear strained eyes again. The woman certainly looked more then capable of handling herself in a fight. She had an athletic build to her and her whole body seemed to give off a sort of magic vibe. Not that Mila was particularly good at sensing other magic coming off of people. That sort of thing was more of Elias' gig, but she at least knew that there was something magic about her. Maybe she was a fellow sage or was carrying some sort of magic weapon. There was something exotic about her that the sage couldn't quite figure out. Her clothes sort of looked like something out of Nabata. Maybe that was it? She shook her head. Gotta stop.. checking her out. She sounds angry.
She then turned her attention to the other in the vicinity. A man who was shouting earlier. Was he shouting at her? She didn't really hear it. But, she knew this man had bumped into her. Now he definitely had a magic weapon on him. Mila could see that. And it looked like it was a strong one too. Probably some sort of light weapon if she had to take a guess based on glance. But, this man also sounded upset. He also kinda sorta sounded like a man from the sea. Maybe this island WAS a pirate base of some kind like her initial theory. This pirate guy looked like someone who had been in many battles. At the very least he had to have swung that axe around for a while in order to develop strong arms like that. Kinda reminded her of a lumberjack. After the initial shock had worn off, the man was laughing. That helped to ease some of Mila's worry.
"I'm.. sorry." She finally managed to mutter.
"Are.. you..two from the mainland?" She shook her head again. I need to do better then this.
"I'm.. Mila." She took in a deep breath in and let it out through her nose. That's it. Easy does it.
"I.. was.. sent by the local village to investigate the island. And.. it seems that.. we all share a common goal." At least she hoped that they did. To find out what the heck is on the island and to put a stop to it.
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Post by Gar on May 7, 2017 10:04:45 GMT -6
Gar took a moment before raising a curious eyebrow. Where did this black haired woman get off? Sure, Gar may have been a cabin boy in the past but that was beside the point. It took every fiber of his being not to tell the woman off. What? She’s just gonna walk into the forest of danger and start talking trash to the first person you see? The irony was lost on the sailor. June pulsed lightly. I may have overreacted, but watch yourself around that one. Gar nodded. As for the other one, was she crying? Gar noted that he had bumped into her but it couldn’t have been that hard. Nonetheless, Gar felt bad about that too, he couldn't have known that she was crying for a different reason entirely. He ran a hand through his hair. He didn’t quite know how he had done it but in the span of a couple minutes he had infuriated one woman and made another cry. Great job there.
Now to fix what he had done. Although he still felt some sense of anger toward the black haired lady, he had to let it go. It was clear that she knew what she was talking about, listing all kinds of monsters that Gar had never heard of. He knew of those zombie things and the skeleton zombie things. Oh, there was that wolf-dog monster in Vinland too. But baels and chimeras, he had never heard of them. So it may be a smart call to stick with her after all. Also maybe don't threaten her, even if she thinks she can handle this giant threat on her own. Gar followed in her footsteps. "Listen I'm sorry about that earlier, I'm feeling a little jumpy right now." Gar sincerely wanted to apologize for the threat, he was just so panicked that even a squirrel could've made him draw his axe. Not that his holier than thou weapon would've helped him in a situation like that anyway. With that apology out of the way, he turned to the green haired woman.
She seemed much kinder, apologizing then asking if he was from the mainland. “No, It's my fault. I can hardly see anything in this forest." Gar smiled, it was a poor excuse but it was true enough. But was he from the mainland? "You think I’m a landlover? Hahar. No, I'm here to see what happened to a scouting party of mine. ” Gar furrowed his brow as he examined the trail of cracked tree trunks and large depressions in the undergrowth. "Let's just say I don't have high hopes for them. But if I find what attacked my crew, I'll make them pay." Gar clenched his fist at the thought of finding whatever attacked his men.
"Name's Gar by the way." He extended a hand in greeting toward Mila, then offered it toward the black haired lady. Hopefully they would accept this gesture. They would need to work together if they were going to take down a giant.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on May 7, 2017 15:46:55 GMT -6
Crying women, overly aggressive sailors, oh this was just a wonderful day that kept getting better by the moment. And to think she'd been silly enough to hope for a quick and easy start to a wonderful fight. Uh, with the monster, not with these buffoo-WONDERFUL PEOPLE who she was definitely supposed to be protecting. From... themselves.
Nayru came to a halt shortly after passing the two, her shoulders tense as she tried to sort out her emotions and priorities. Was it worth trying to scare these two off to make sure they'd be protected? Both of them were clearly out of their depth, not necessarily weak by any means but one of them was a sobbing mess and the other was liable to take a Bael dick to the - wait, did they even have genitals, or did they just like.... spawn from magic or... the absurdity of the thought distracted Nayru from being butthurt enough to elicit a momentary smile and the realization that pushing these people away wasn't going to do her any good. So did their talking. It was - well, it was clear that neither of them really planned on peaceing out like they should. And if she was going to leave a couple of well meaning idjits to their own devices, it was probably best to keep them within eyesight. At least that way if there was a giant Bael or something she could punch Gar out of the wa-shove, she meant shove, it wasn't her fault that he had such a punchable face.
The dragon sighed quietly and turned to face the other two, trying to look pleasant if nothing else. "Yeah." It took a moment to override her pride; Nayru might not be the kind of dragon supremacist 'humans were a mistake' dickweed like Aerious, but pride was a flaw common to nearly all dragons, and even being aware of it did not make it easily overcome. But... Gar had apologized, admitted he was wrong, and being a bitch back to him in the wake of that certainly wouldn't help condition him to avoid doing that again in the future, nor would it be right for her to do on its own merits. "We got off on the wrong foot. I'm Nayru. Just a monster hunter," she added, mostly for the green puddle person's benefit - Mila - what WAS she doing here anyways? Some kind of researcher? Nayru knew pretty well from experience that you shouldn't judge every book by their cover, but so far she hadn't seen much of the woman's abilities, if she had any, so she was still kinda lost on how to deal with that.
She decided it was probably better not to tell Gar that the threat hadn't been the issue, just the commentary. That wouldn't help anyone. "Look. If you two are willing to face the danger head on... I can't stop you." Won't, rather. But it wasn't her place to tell them what they could or couldn't do. People had to be free to make their own decisions. Even if she didn't like them. "But if we're going to be working together on this, we should probably get our stories straight. You axe people questions, right? And you..." the dragon looked a little doubtfully at Mila - she didn't mean to be insulting, it was just all she had seen the girl do was crying and collapsing in the wake of an earthquake(?), it wasn't a lot to go off of. "...Some kinda mage I'm guessing?" Sky but what she wouldn't give for Remus to be here, that light magic bullshit was really good against physically resistant monsters.
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Post by Mila on May 7, 2017 18:11:09 GMT -6
Mila curled her hands into fists for a moment then released them. She really needed to regain her composure now that she was going to be traveling with two total strangers. Gar had confirmed her initial suspicions. He was a sailor. A captain by the sound of it. And Nayru was a monster hunter. Now that she thought of it, this Nayru did kinda remind her a bit like Yorick. Mila smiled softly at that.
"It's nice to meet you both." Mila took Gar's hand and shook it.
"Sorry.. about before. I..don't deal well with earthquakes." She sighed. There was no use hiding it. If this monster was something that caused earthquakes on a regular basis, well, she did not want to think about that right now.
"And yeah.. I'm an anima mage. Er.. Sage rather. I can help by healing with the staff or hitting things with magic." How eloquent. She looked out towards the path of destruction.
"Hmm.. As to what were dealing with.." She put a hand to her chin and mused. The sage slowly walked away from the two humans, and out towards the center of the path of destruction. She was in her monster hunter mode and once she was absorbed in it there were few things that could bring her back.
"I'm not sure what we are dealing with. Outside of the fact that whatever it is, is big. Like HUGE. At first I thought it to be Baels. But, Baels usually leave some other clues to their presence. Spider silk. Hairs. Carcasses. They.. also have a really distinct footprint and walking pattern. But I'm not seeing ANY of that here." She held her arms out to emphasize the path of fallen trees. She stared at the ground. Her eyes scanned through the gaps of fallen debris to try and find any sort of print.
"No prints.. of any kind really. I mean.. that's.. justifiable. Any footprint would be kinda covered by all this fallen timber." The gears in her head were starting to turn. She glanced up at the trees that remained standing. Hoping to see some trace of something caught on the branches.
"The trees alongside the path.. they are barren. No claw marks. No fur blotches. So.. that rules out monsters of the beast family." She shook her head. She had an idea as to what WAS here. And now she suddenly didn't want to confirm her theory. There were only two creatures in her head that she knew could do this amount of wanton destruction. One was a dragon like in legends. And the other was a cyclops. And BOTH of those creatures were something she didn't want to deal with. It was at this point that she realized she had been talking to herself. Granted she was talking loud enough for the other two to hear since they were within earshot.
"Oh, right. Sorry... I should have mentioned. I study monsters for a living. And have any of you two ever ran across something like this before?"
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Post by Gar on May 7, 2017 19:21:32 GMT -6
Gar turned his head with a smirk. Axe people questions, good one. Internally he was cursing at himself for never making that pun himself but hey, he wasn’t a man known for his cleverness. Gar gave a retort after a moment to think. “I like to think of myself as a kick-axe type.” A small deviation from the original joke, but Gar was happy with himself regardless. "More specifically, June here." Gar patted his hip. "Can boost morale of my mates, or demoralize my opponents. Assuming they're alive." This brought up a point that Gar had been thinking about recently. He addressed his weapon with his thoughts.
You ever notice how you only let me use your power when we’re fighting monsters who are immune to half of it? It just seems like a design flaw you know? June let out a pulse of light. Do not forget that I was made a long time ago. When fighting living creatures was more standard occurrence. Fair enough, not like Gar was going to trade the weapon in or anything. June had saved him multiple times now. Hell, it might be another time by the time the day is through.
So it seemed as if he had stumbled across a monster hunter and a monster researcher. The berserker watched as Mila began examining the scene. Gar scratched the scruff on his chin. Gar’s amazing powers of deduction led him to the only logical conclusion. “I think we’re dealing with a monster here.”Gar nodded at his contribution. It’s always good to know you’re helping.
Whatever. What was there to be learned by looking at broken trees? Gar began to follow the path of destruction. The path led to a wide open clearing. That clearing held one of the most terrifying things he had ever laid eyes on. A colossal creature on two legs with greenish beige skin, a round belly and one large eye. It was larger than some ships Gar had sailed on. Gar froze in place. He couldn't move from this spot. He was simply petrified by the sight.
Fear not my companion. This creature is what we have come to destroy. June pulsed. Gar gulped and nodded. His shaking hand gripped Junzentaru's hilt. Light flew up his arms and began to branch across his chest. The Luce magic shone upon his compatriots as well. Gar's quivering breath calmed down. His eyes fixated upon the cyclops. With the magic radiating from his arms, Gar felt like a changed person.
"Oohh. Can you feel that?" Gar was nearly shaking in anticipation. His muscles were tense and he was clearly about to run headfirst into the belly of the beast so to speak. "Let's take that thing down!"
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on May 7, 2017 20:09:36 GMT -6
"Definitely not Baels," she stated authoritatively in response to Mila's commentary. Not disagreeing - Mila had said as much - just affirming the point. And frankly Nayru was grateful for that. Danger be damned, she HATED dealing with the damn things, they were just too numerous and there was always the horrible feeling that if you missed even one or two, they'd eventually come back en masse. Had to hunt down the lair after the fight, too, or it would be utterly meaningless. "I'm seeing three, maybe four options here, none of them good. Fought a pretty gnarly chimera a while back in Bern, but that one was spitting elements out of each head, could be a specimen without that ability though. Could be a cyclops, never fought one before, Could be a dragon, but probably not, I'd definitely smell the magic. You can't miss it, it's too unique. Or fourth, something none of us have ever heard of. I didn't even know chimeras were a thing a year ago, and Elibe is a weird fuckin' place these days with legends coming to life."
It was cool to talk to someone who actually knew jack about monsters though, she had to admit that, Nayru felt a bit happier now that her and Gar weren't arguing and puddle person was actually back to being normal people. Well... ok, talking about dangerous monsters and details that most didn't know existed wasn't exactly NORMAL, but it was normal for her, so it was like, a perspective thing. Admittedly Nayru didn't have an amazing amount of experience with mages, but she knew Remus, and he was basically a mage right? So it totally counted.
Gar for his part was spewing bad puns - she liked him more already, Nayru couldn't hide a grin at his soulcrushingly bad joke - and explaining that his weapon had crazy voodoo mind magic. Again - not an expert on human magic. But it sounded useful. Probably? Nayru wasn't immune to fear or anything but she was pretty used to being a complete dumbass anyways so she wasn't sure how much it'd actually do for her, never hurt to be even crazier on command though. Though it seemed that despite his lack of ah, experience with monsters, he was the first one to actually see the creature coming. Something Nayru had heard of before - hard to grow up in Arcadia and NOT hear about all manner of beasties - but never seen. They... actually were bigger than she had expected. For whatever reason so far she'd fought only stuff that was a lot longer than it was tall.
"YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!"
Nayru couldn't tell if it was whatever voodoo bullshit Gar was doing or if she actually was that hyped, but whatever the case, she sure as hell would have been at least thinking it if not outright shouting it while fist pumping... like she had here. Her voice dropped down to normal conversational levels as she turned her gaze to Gar, not actually looking apologetic in the least. "What? I've never gotten to beat the crap out of a Cyclops before." Hey, it was the truth, she couldn't call herself much of a monster hunter if she hadn't killed at least one of everything worth killing after all. Sure she had a better track record than most humans so far, but that didn't mean she could rest on her laurels!
Rotating her shoulders and flexing her arms for a moment to gauge her physical capability while flooding the system with raw magical essence to test the flow of energy, Nayru grinned bigger than she had today as she brought both fists together with a resounding clash and the motion of physical force disturbing the refuse directly around her, an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object as flesh far harder than steel met its equal on the other hand. "As for me... I punch things. Try to keep up Gar! Keep it off Mila!"
And with that she charged, vaguely aware that from their perspective she might look a little silly running unarmed at something half a dozen times bigger than her but not actually concerned about it per se. At this point, it was clear that she wasn't getting rid of them - so for the time being she'd just try to go into things as low powered as she safely could, halfshifting as necessary to keep up once she had a better idea of how hard the creature hit. And in the... worst case scenario... she'd transform, though the thought dulled Nayru's enjoyment of the moment a bit. This close to Etruria, with multiple eyewitnesses that weren't Veigue or Remus... well, it'd be worth it to keep them alive, but she sure hoped it wasn't necessary.
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Post by Mila on May 7, 2017 21:08:27 GMT -6
So Gar had an axe that boosted moral. To Mila that meant it was a holy axe. One that was infused with a light spell of some kind. Probably Luce if she had to take a guess.
"Heya magic axe." She waved.
"Magic weapons usually have a spirit or soul of somekind inside them. And they sometimes have personalities like people." She shook her head. Get out of researcher mode! Apparently Nayru could taste magic. Now that was rare. She knew a person could feel magic. Mila knew fire felt hot, ice felt cold, nether made her skin crawl, earth felt heavy, and wind sorta felt like a moving cold. But, she never actively put those elements in her mouth. So she had no idea what the heck the elements tasted like. She assumed fire would burn and ice would make her mouth numb. Nayru was talking about something interesting, a Chimera. As far as she knew Chimeras were something straight out of myth. A monster who hunted other monsters. At least that was the way she imagined it, seeing as how Chimeras were a hybrid of other predatory monsters.
"Elibe is a strange place indeed." Mila nodded in agreement with Nayru. The two of them seemed eager to see what sort of monster loomed in the middle of the island. She should have questioned if it was really the right thing to do, to run out head first into danger. Without knowing exactly what that danger was. But, these two seemed confident in their abilities and Mila did not dobut them.
So she followed them down the path of fallen trees. And then she saw it. The creature that caused all this wanton destruction of wilderness. A Cyclops. Mila had never seen a Cyclops before. She had written about them in her notes based on what the survivors of Hargus attack had told her. That Cyclops took an army to take down! Nayru's large "yes" caught her off guard. What kind of maniac gets excited about taking down monsters that an army barely did? Actually, she probably would be super excited at that, had she not arrived at the logical conclusion that three average Joe's would probably get squished without an army behind them.
"Wait.. we should come up with a plan!" Mila shouted after a now running Nayru. She sighed then turned to look at Gar. The sailor was lit up like some sort of firefly. No doubt the axe was giving him some crazy amount of inspiration.
"Hoo boy.. you..are going to run down there too aren't you?"
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