Audric Tania
Soldier
Posts: 57
Profession: Royal Hothead
Affiliation: Lycia
Affinity: Fire
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Post by Audric Tania on Dec 5, 2017 23:21:13 GMT -6
Well, he had a new thing to add to his list of "This inconveniences me enough to hate it!" things. Hills. Seriously. How had he ever been okay with them beforehand. About half way up the final stretch of hill before the encampment that had crested the opposing side, he'd found his wind and mojo to finally start up a conversation. Prior having just quietly simmered over the previous situation while letting his body slowly recover. At this point it would've been far more intelligent to just bring things up to speed on the end their walk instead of trying to walk and talk. Unfortunately for Holly, Audric was just tired enough not to have his normal already small modicum of common sense. So once he'd fully caught his breath and grown acclimated to the weight of his armor and ache of his muscles in such a way that the burn was more easily ignored, the young Tanian lordling turned to glance at her over the his left shoulder.
"To be honest, I think if I word it correctly, Merio might not box my ears too much for this one! Way I figure it, the others probably just hung back to wait. I'm sure Jorry and Glen were more than content enough to rest on their laurels. You might like them. Agreeable gents really. Glen's fantastic at cooking and has a pretty good eye for fun. A downright sage with cards at that. Doubt any mage could work magic on them quite like him! Though his luck isn't there for the dice. Jorry was always a bit more of a stick in the mud, though not as bad as Merio. He helps me with basic combat instruction. Good with a sword, both single hand and double grip. Funny enough, came from a small village near the mountains. They found him when my mother's guard was waylaid by brigands that had grown too hungry to consider the reason of attacking armed escorts, and he'd simply thrown himself into the fight upon seeing a caravan attacked. Hadn't even asked if it was needed. He impressed them something fierce. Between him and Merio it's a wonder I don't have more bruise than skin hahaha!"
His laugh at this point was back to it's louder tone. Though not booming with echoing ferocity it was still jovial enough to convey a sincerity that was seldom exposed by nobility. A laugh that also betrayed the mirth he felt upon thoughts of his comrades. A laugh that stopped the moment they finished cresting the hill.
Silence.
Audric's expression shifted. It turned slowly. Smile falling to a more placid expression. From there it began to decline. Frowning until a mixture of worry and concern, and something darker stained his visage and the young crimson haired royal instantly moved for a faster paced jog. Armor plates audibly tinkling as he moved and him moving as fast as once more protesting legs would carry him. The young Tanian saw far fewer tents. Where there had been tens of total, there were only four. Those four were in a terrible state with only two still standing, partially at that. Five bodies strewn about. Blood sprayed and staining dirt and grass. The armored men adorned in the emerald hued emblem of Tania, but weapons and shields absent. Armor beneath the armpits rent by deep punctures on two, one's back-plate hewn down the center with the other two more brutally punished. Audric's expression one of loss as he stared with absolute horror at what he saw before him. All words gone. No air could be found within his lungs to even attempt speaking.
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Post by Holly on Dec 6, 2017 9:10:43 GMT -6
To say that Holly was tuning out Audric would be... perhaps a tad too harsh. She WAS listening to whatever the crimson lordling was prattling on about, committing each name to memory for future reference. Naming names that he shouldn't be, really, to woods that could have ears, to a thief that could have ill designs. Dedicated observers would be able to find out anyways, but it was unwise to give away too much information about your retinue without good reason, and quite frankly Holly didn't think that casual conversation was a good enough reason. Especially not to some suspicious thief who could very well have been working for an unknown employer who wished him ill - using disposable bandit trash as pawns to worm her way into his good graces. If anything, he should be paying more attention to her - his guard was down, far too low, and this moment - near the end of their trek, his exhaustion weighing on him, and yet the thrill of false hope buoying him up, he was by far at his most vulnerable in this very instant. She could probably have her blade through his throat before he even knew what was happening.
She didn't, of course. Holly had no intention whatsoever of wasting the effort she had spent earlier, and even if it were not for that, she didn't think highly of unnecessary death. There was nothing to gain from attacking the handsome young prince. No information, no closure, no reason to stain her hands red with the blood of the innocent again. But it was a mindset she had never been able to shake, even when she thought she had, even when she dared to hope. Remembering who she was. What she was. And why he certainly shouldn't be trusting her at all.
And it was false hope, too. Of that she was sure, absolutely so as they approached the apparent campsite. There was no noise. No movement. If Audric hadn't been babbling the entire time he could have noticed it too. His retinue was gone - the only question was if they had departed in possession of both body and spirit, or left their corpses behind.
That particular question answered itself rather handily as they crested the rise that had apparently hidden the final approach to the camp, or what had once been a camp. No longer. Holly followed Audric as he hastened to a jog towards the site, but measured her pace, falling behind him a degree as she kept her eyes ever moving across the trees and bushes around them. Whoever had been here could still be here, after all. And she wasn't the only one who would know to strike when the target's guard was at its lowest. If the attackers... assassins... were still here, this would quite literally be the perfect time to strike - with the prince wrapped in his shock and growing grief, blinded to the world around him, a perfect pincushion for a bolt, and maybe even distracted enough for a second to finish the job.
None came, for better or for worse, as they reached the camp. It was clear there had been more tents before, for a proper retinue - Holly absentmindedly counted what lines and depressions she could, though the signs of struggle and her distraction alike kept her from getting an accurate count, she was fairly sure there had been a good fifteen to twenty at least previously, maybe more. But now, only four tents. It made sense. His retinue had left when he disappeared, to search for him, but left behind some men in order to ensure that if the daft lordling returned home they could still greet him.
But it had not been their darling Primary who had greeted them, had it. Only the cold hand of death. A savage slaughter, men who had struggled against inevitability and died for their trouble. Holly found that she still couldn't feel much of anything for them, even knowing that she should. They had failed the Primary and paid for it with their lives. It was an ugly, pragmatic, inhuman way to look at it - and yet she could not view it in any other way.
But she wasn't dumb enough to say as much to Audric, so the thief kept her mouth shut as he took in the scene, slinking over to one of them, his lifeless eyes staring eternally in horror into the cloudy sky. He had suffered as he died. No clean kills here. These men's bodies had been brutalized. Their lives wasted. Dying, knowing that everything they had done was for naught, that their prince was most likely dying somewhere else. Unable to do or say anything more meaningful, Holly knelt by him, smoothly drawing her fingers across his face, closing his eyes to allow the knight to rest. The dead deserved their rest, no matter who they had been.
"...Their weapons are gone," she noted flatly, the thief's eyes still roving across the clearing relentlessly, no real hint of friendly familiarity in her voice. Relapsing, if only a hair, into who she had been. What she had tried to leave behind. Holly rose, stalking the clearing as she thought. "The main force must have come for your camp... we just ran into some stragglers," she thought aloud, regretting the words as soon as she said them. Things like that were best kept to one's own counsel. She eyed the two remaining tents. There might be information inside. Or traps. The Tanian was just standing there like an idiot. Completely vulnerable. Liable to turn his rage on her, a small part of her mind unhelpfully provided. She had to get him thinking, moving, acting again. "Audric. It's not safe here. Where would the rest of your retinue regroup? These people will come for you again."
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Audric Tania
Soldier
Posts: 57
Profession: Royal Hothead
Affiliation: Lycia
Affinity: Fire
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Post by Audric Tania on Dec 8, 2017 10:27:21 GMT -6
It wasn't even a matter of time standing still. The opposite. It went too fast. But he wasn't in the present. He knew the faces of these men. Though none of them ones he'd spoken of prior. Audric knelt quietly next to the one at the center most of the camp. Holly's words were heard, but initially hadn't quite reached him. His left hand extended to remove the helm of the slain man. Gently. As if to ensure he caused no harm to the corpse that surely couldn't feel it any further. His pulse had become erratic. Was it beating too fast? Was it even beating? When had he stopped breathing? His lungs nearly deprived before he let one shaky inhale fill them once more. At first, he felt numb. The tips of his fingers within his gloves unable to register the firmness of the helm he gripped even if he felt the weight in his palm and wrist. Every single moment. Every interaction that he'd had with this one guard. The fleeting gestures or greetings or more involved ones in Tania proper. Their travels here. The side conversations through their campsite. Compounded, by the interactions of every other guard slain at this camp.
Their voices. Their reactions. Their emotions. The looks on those helmed faces on the road of travel. Mention of families. All of it relentlessly flooding him. Drowning out every other tangible thought. Audric's hand clutched the helmet tighter. Knuckles stained pale from the constriction beneath his armored gauntlet. The crimson haired lordling kept his gaze downwards in muted silence. Expression slowly dying to a far colder neutrality. Every single fiber of his being drown then. Sorrow had given way to an overwhelming rage. One that seized him and every single thought in the clutches of an endless fury. As if the tidal wave of sadness had been comprised of oil, and a match cast upon it. His shoulders quivered. Chest seized and his heart throbbed with ache he could not quell. There were no tears despite the glisten in his gaze from liquid sorrow building up. He seized himself and in that moment began to stand. Audric's expression hardened. Not unlike the masks of false emotion worn by the many nobles of the lycian political world. Unlike those however, this possessed an ironclad composure akin to the very same one dawned by his mother. An expression of unyielding stern certainty. When resolve formed with such rigid structure that no force could uproot it.
His gaze turned to the sable haired thief that had questioned him, now able to answer her even as he failed to compose himself and instead mentally seized in that torrent of agony and hatred and fury. Left hand gripping helm of the fallen, right hand gripping spear. Audric's tone as if he stated a fact to the air itself instead of a composed answer, words still bitten with seething fury. "They made for a larger town closer to Rydere's magical academy. Such was our next destination. We'd stopped here for a rest bef- "
The sudden shifting and rustling from beyond the other slope of the hill caught his attention. Though not one for fine tuned senses it seemed like his agile female companion, the none too subtle shifting and stirrings of an approach drew his notice. Then, the scent. Death. Not like the recently slain who smelled of blood. This was a scent of rotten flesh. That of carrion, of corpse. Then the groans and the chattering. A single shifting corpse moved onto the crest of the hill. Lumbering and slow. What looked like a human corpse but flesh swollen and rotting and bulbous was moving for them. Astride and to the right rattled two far less weighed down monstrosities. Each a skeleton devoid of muscle or excess. A few scraps of flesh hanging from bone and one still partially covered in padded leather on the upper torso and a tattered pauldron dangling from the right shoulder. One held a dagger, the other a longsword. Their alien "gaze" directed to the pair. A pause and then...
They began to move towards the duo. Hostilities clear in the way that their weapons raised while the corpse lagged behind and slowly raised one hand with a guttural groan from pus encrusted lips..
Audric's snarl accompanied the clang as he threw the helm to the ground beside him forcefully and reached for his shield. In the immediate he felt no sense of bodily pain. He felt no more fatigue. Only that singular white hot hatred that blinded him and filled him with a wild and terrible fury. His spear rang as he locked it aside his shield and poised in a defensive stance towards the approaching Trio. Though clearly not the assassins that had visited already, danger indeed approached.
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Post by Holly on May 5, 2018 1:13:53 GMT -6
Ryerde's magical academy... for better or for worse, Holly wasn't actually that familiar with the location. Oh, she knew it existed, certainly, she was at least generally familiar with all of Elibe's mage-academies and had some experience in differentiating graduates of the major ones, but Ryerde's had been such a dumpster fire of insignificance for so long that no one had SERIOUSLY thought it would be relevant. Then the dark times came for Lycia, for Ryerde, but Veritas had pulled through - and as a part of a resurgent Ryerde, bolstered by Worde, it had become somewhat of a contender in the region. Especially for those not as interested in partisan Laus's questionable results. Though why would a Tanian prince have any interest in a Ryerden academy...? He didn't look much like a mage to her. Hmm. Questions without answers. Her least favorite kind.
No small part of Holly wished that she could better aid Audric in this moment. Offer him some human companionship. A hug, a pat on the back; meaningless gestures paraded through her mind, but without real feeling behind them they would come off as meaningless. And while she could empathize with his feelings to a degree, she could no more stop the ruthlessly efficient train of thought grinding to life within her than she could change who she was. Years of trying had not changed that; a few more dead nobodies she had never met didn't even stand a chance. Finding out what had happened to them, and why, was her only prerogative in this situation, while Audric grieved for them.
She was still eyeing the tents, moving towards them purposefully, when Audric's halt clued her in to the approaching threat before she had noticed it. Stupid. She was supposed to be the one paying attention to everything, not him, not getting caught up in her own train of thought. Stupid mistake. Rookie move. So much for all that discipline. Whether these beasts, these... revenants were predators or scavengers was a question that needed an answer, but in the moment they could but flee or fight, and well, Audric had made that decision for them rather decisively.
...She was going to have to talk to him about not trying to commit suicide by skeleton after you just barely survived a horrible fight less than an hour earlier.
Nonetheless, Holly's right hand slipped behind her, to the sheath of her blade and up it to the hilt as she thought - and decided before she had finished thinking - what to do. She couldn't really leave this hothead to his own devices. Not after the beating he'd took earlier. And while she didn't intend to get involved with him long term, it wouldn't hurt to at least help him get back on the right path, right? Suppressing the urge to sigh, the thief unsheathed her... decided underwhelming blade, wishing she had somehting a little more effective but equally aware that with uniqueness came recognition. She had gone with a bog standard blade for a reason. No point in regretting it now, eh?
"Don't push yourself." Her tone was calm, almost soothing, hoping to temper Audric's rage to a limited degree at least. Public speaking wasn't really her forte, but uh, hey, worth the shot. "I'll cover you as best I can. But you owe it to these people to come back alive." Covering him. Heh. She was better than the average street ruffian, probably, but Holly of all people was QUITE aware that she hadn't exactly been the peerless master of the blade among the group back in the day.
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Audric Tania
Soldier
Posts: 57
Profession: Royal Hothead
Affiliation: Lycia
Affinity: Fire
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Post by Audric Tania on May 7, 2018 19:00:57 GMT -6
It wasn't something he could quite articulate. If his blood, in the heated fit of rage was magma flowing with a spreading inferno that consumed every facet of him in white hot hatred and unwavering anger, then his heart was the molten core which pulsed tides at a commensurate rate. The knuckles beneath armored gloves bled white from strain as he gripped at Buidhe with enough force to make the digits crack and pop silently. The shuffling of the undead, and groaning corpse drown in a mental series of wild nearly feral screams of unfettered rage as near frenzied gaze focused on them. The freshly slain friends still so clear in his mind that he nearly felt their presence. Every muscle screamed for exertion. Every fiber of his being wanted to charge and wildly strike or smash or flail until he stood in a pile of corpses or lay silent in the embrace of death. The crimson haired youth's head quivered as his shoulders shook and anger threatened to engulf him in a stifling tide that washed over him. A single phrase met his ears. Though it felt at such a distance that he'd nearly missed it.
"Don't push yourself."
Audric didn't freeze per-say, but he came to a halt. A shiver traversed his spine's length and almost every ounce of savage fury drained from his pale expression as he practically felt the tempering of her words take place. As if it'd put him into a different perspective. She was right, wasn't she? If he just up and died, what was to be done to let the other's families know? Who would bring back word? If nothing else. If nothing else. He owed that to them. Quietly moving to turn back towards Holly directly, after affirming that the enemies were very...very slow moving, he nodded silently. Inhaling. Sharply, through the nose as his chest rose and expanded with the cooler, though slightly stale air. A single step brought him dipping down to scoop up the helmet that he'd cast aside as he rose. Exhaling a moment later while sliding it over crimson brow and let it rest. The familiar plating that obscured his peripheral vision somewhat yet kept him far safer firmly in place. Buidhe clattered slightly as he lifted his shield and lowered it atop the small space above the right corner to lock his spear in somewhat. Assuming a shield wall poise and turning square towards the trio of undead.
"Your right. Thank you, Holly. I'm glad we met. Let's hope this isn't where we part!"
He turned his head, helmet exposing a partial grin as he felt his normal self begin to exude briefly. A second nod to her before he began to quietly move forwards. Exercising caution while gauging the undead. The fleshy one had trailed behind further and the two smaller bonewalkers were almost upon him when he lunged forwards to crash his shield into one. Though it might not have felt the impact it did have a certain inability to attack with a large[/i] kite shield bashing into it before he spun on his right foot and pivoted to sweep Buidhe forwards and stab at the other. Though the spear plunged right between it's upper rib-cage and back out with the steady whiff of air before Audric hopped back slightly. Trying to position himself between them and Holly. If he could distract them and create openings for her nimble self, perhaps he'd provide more synergy. That, and he'd have to do his best to provide as much efficient combat while he was still able to rely on his second wind. A second wind, that felt as refreshing as if it were his tenth wind instead.
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Post by Holly on Sept 9, 2019 16:59:34 GMT -6
"...Me too," she said quietly. Almost mournfully. Not quite sure which part she was agreeing to. Not sure if she wanted to know. It was there, that razor thin tense of energy pulsing through her veins she remembered all too well. Was she afraid of it, or did she welcome it? No. It was just a memory. The thief steeled her nerves. Ignoring the sensation. It wasn't real. She wasn't who she used to be. For the better. Just another wandering thief, blindly wandering in the ruins of a once-great country now clouded by eternal night. The times where she believed in something, where she would do whatever she had to to see it done - those were gone, and they were never coming back, no matter what she said or did. That... 'her' was gone; she was but a shadow of what had been, what could have been.
It didn't mean she wouldn't do the right thing for Audric. She'd do her best to protect him, so he could get home. But a small part of her knew that she had died when Ostia did, and she hoped that these creatures would finish what they had started.
But what the mind hoped, the body denied. She moved to fight, unable to fight her training. She knew what she had to do, and how to do it. Well... not so much the killing undead part. That was definitely not something she had much experience with. She'd heard that decapitating them was the best, but Holly was pretty sure she didn't have the upper body strength or weapon quality to do it casually; bones were a bitch when you were, in the end, just a girl. But she didn't despair. She... couldn't. Her mind had already moved on to the list of possibilities to see what put the beasts down properly. Hearts, throats, arteries, spines, limbs. They weren't invincible. She just had to find out how to put them down on her terms.
So when Audric moved, she did too. Sprinting with speed that was... well, not her best, but better than her swordplay at the least. That shield bash might not have blown the creature apart, but it was enough to stagger it, and as Audric fell back half her blade was already piercing the heart - assuming it had a heart, the guard on her blade slamming into the creature's chest as the blade skewered it - enough force to push it back further, but realized a moment too late as its left arm came scrabbling for purchase on her shoulder, the mournful moans still coming from its tattered lips. Forced to pull back, kicking off the creature's chest to wrest her blade clean from the decaying but hardened flesh. She... didn't know much about magic, or how animated creatures worked. But this thing seemed to be working fine without a heart, so it was going to take more work than she had hoped.
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Audric Tania
Soldier
Posts: 57
Profession: Royal Hothead
Affiliation: Lycia
Affinity: Fire
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Post by Audric Tania on Sept 9, 2019 23:20:31 GMT -6
Audric would ride that " tenth " wind out as long as he could. He kept Buidhe propped atop his kite shield, lifting it as the shambling corpse of an undead warrior tried to bring it's rusted blade down upon him. The force brought by it was surprising for a corpse, and far greater than a skeleton without muscles would've struck had his imagination been the one to determine, yet not as heavily as the thugs from before. That gave him confidence. Audric inhaled. A second blow came down upon his shield. He met it with an explosive retaliatory force, erupting from behind his shield as he pivoted his left hand upwards to keep the blade away from him as he swept his spear in a wide downwards arc from his right side. A spear wasn't just for stabbing. Not just for heavy frontal thrusts. He brought it down against the skeleton with overwhelming force as the crimson haired lordling shouted in a loud, ferocious exhale. The familial weapon came down furiously, cracking the faded armor clinging to the sentient skeleton's torso. Audric shifted a moment later, lurching into a frontal shield bash before his biceps strained within his armor to throw the far lighter creature away.
He stood tall, feet firmly rooted on the ground beneath him as he found himself better with each passing moment. A churning maelstrom of writhing flames, burning a furious white seething heat of anger, and pain, and hatred that channeled itself into one explosive action after another. Audric lowered his shield and, with a loud metallic grating click, locked Buidhe against his shield again before advancing on the skeletal enemy. Each step faster than the other, becoming the embodiment of a human battering ram, as he began to crash against the undead once more with relentless belligerence before he pivoted his momentum. The second bonewalker, who'd been joined with the other almost like undead escorts of the larger flesh laden one, his second target as he kept the path clear and Holly save from additional threat. Like a wall of armor and furious red hair, the roaring youth battered against the second bonewalker. Extending Buidhe forwards just enough to hook at the undead walker's leather clad torso, heaving as he spun about and flung it towards the first bonewalker. Ensuring, they had to get through him to get to Holly. Or. More realistically. He would go through them.
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