((Earnestly, I don't understand why nobody has posted. THREE DAYS since I last posted, and several before that since Ninja posted. I doubt everybody is suddenly busy, so I'd like to inquire as to why no activity has been made.))
Cleaning up after Caelum's attempted invasion was easy, although my real motive for acting is to obtain Arachne's artifact. It was a pouch which, much like any other tools from Caelum, singed my hand when I touched it. Levitating objects was simple, so coming into contact with the bandolier was no longer an issue. I flew over to where the group was still fighting. Octavian had been knocked unconscious by presumably Brom's magic, so I used the same method to pluck up his tower shield. Medusa's vambrace and Vulcan's ring were easily taken due to their owners being knocked out. None of them would directly be of any benefit to me, but if I could reconfigure them to work with an alternative host, there would be little I couldn't accomplish.
"I have sent in orders for several helicopters to come and bring you all on your merry way. The war will rage on, but the toughest part of the storm has already passed. Expect me to contact each of you in a special way in, say, a few months." I informed the general population. There was still Mirror Knight to deal with, but he was currently taking on three warriors at once. If I remembered anything about that warrior, it was that he could take on armies on his own. "Knight, why do you concern yourself with the likes of a Half-Breed, a robot, and a child of Dimitri? I hope you can copy magic the way you were designed to. Take notes, Mirror Thief."
Raising my left hand above my head, I began to concentrate. What I was about to do was something that I knew no other being could do, Divine nor Man. Affinities are a background aspect of magic that allows a Mage to gravitate toward a certain field. Few grandmasters inn the arts could get a completely affinity in any specific branch, yet I had achieved three: Air, Lightning, and Arcane. It was theorized that pure magic would be converted into any sort of affinity the user could control. For example, Ice mages would be able to use Ice magic due to their affinity. The thing that people don't know how to do is to take that converted magic and transmute it back into it's purest form. Water from the beach began to work toward me through the air as if I were sucking it in, but as soon as it got close enough, it was transformed into white runes, which gravitated around me. Chunks of earth followed suit, removing their natural affinity and becoming pure. I became a vacuum, pulling in any pure substance and turning it back into magical energy, even the air. I was surrounded in several libraries worth of runic characters, each one dancing around me, ready to be invoked.
"So, are you going to continue wasting your time with those small fry or attempt to hunt me?"
((I hereby claim this page in the name of the Fruit Empire.))
((Actually, Madman, I did in fact suddenly get busy. 5 tests and a speech in a foreign language from memory in the course of 3 days doesn't leave much free time.))
((The VTOL is a bit of both. It's like a V-22, but it's more of a tiltjet then a tiltrotor.))
[The Mirror Knight]
Finally, the main course had arrived. As anticipated, he was condescending and showy. However, I ignored his gibes initially. Before moving on to the entree, I needed to finish the appetizer. I jumped over to another building to avoid the two attacks directed at me. Then, I dashed over to the building Garrett hung on. Using fire magic, I catapulted myself at him, and before the had the chance to appropriately react, delivered a heavy strike to his head. Out cold, he lost his grip on his blade and plummeted to the street below.
Without waiting to see Garrett hit the ground, I refocused on my primary target, Tobias. As anticipated, A'thery's child had brought a fresh bag of tricks to the table. It seemed the boy had grasped how to tap into affinities, one of the most basic parts of magic. Much like molecules in physical objects, however, it took special care and research to identify and isolate affinities. Before I recklessly attacked a spell I didn't yet fully understand, I figured it would be worth testing the waters. I fired a bolt of pure arcane which, should it make contact with the floating runes, would destabilize them and probably cause them to detonate due to their raw magical contents. It would likely cause a chain reaction within the spells that could easily destroy the man in the center.
Of course, such an attack would come across as disappointingly simple to a magician as advanced as my enemy. That was more or less the idea -to start off, I would sandbag and see if I could cause Tobias to lose his composure somehow, be it anger, disappointment, or sheer boredom. I knew for a fact I could win this fight - I just needed to get close.
[Ivan]
"Nobody forced you to answer the call," I answered Will, "nor did anyone force you to enter the VTOL. I recommend that, instead of questioning my reasoning, you question your own."
And with that, the VTOL rocketed forward. It didn't take very long to reach the LZ. As the aircraft decelerated, it was easy to see that we had missed the bulk of the action. The scene looked almost peaceful. That is, if you don't count the glowing vortex of likely very deadly magical letters. "Set us down on that building," I ordered the pilot. He deftly positioned the aircraft and decreased the altitude, the bay door opening for the passengers to exit. My dogs were the first to get out, but I'd wait for the others to leave first so I wouldn't have to clamber over them.
(( I don't like Tennis Posting, but you got me excited. Also, I give you full permission to use the secret on Tobias. ))
[Tobias]
"C'mon, a tiny little Magic Missile? You insult me." I commented. Arcane was, even if few knew of it, its own affinity branch. This meant I could neutralize it using it's opposite, which happened to be Celestial. Why the stars opposed Magic, I had no clue. I snapped my fingers and a single rune changed it's color from pure white to ebony with ivory speckles. Upon touching the Knight's projectile, both objects dissipated. "You've slain some of the greatest sorcerers of this age. Entertain me with the sum of your experiences. Unless you would prefer for me to go first..." I challenged, placing my hand on one of the runic symbols. It began to radiate a scarlet-orange color. Despite my familiarity with it, Fire Magic was never quite my forte, although I doubted that mattered when I had each affinity at my beck and call.
A stream of purplish blue fire shot from the simple rune, melting anything that found itself too close. The grass was singed even at a decent distance away, the ground scorched in a similar fashion. Hopefully, the enchanted armor the Knight wore would get molten, but as it usually was with magic equipment, that wasn't likely going to be the case.
[Demi]
Tobias had sprung out of nowhere and challenged the Mirror Knight, who was easily taking on three of our strongest fighters. He used some technique that, as far as I could tell, permitted him to use whatever magic he wanted. I knew that I was fairly good with fire magic, but Tobes made even Vulcan's superior spells seem like child's play.
((Ninja, i implied that i killed Octavian, but if you need him alive then ill just say my death spell was too weak to fully kill him. Also, Brom and probably Lucy are unconscious, and Brom is injured, so hes in no condition to board the craft.))
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Puella Magi Madoka Magicka is an awesome, feel-good, cutesy anime. You should watch it!
(( I had figured that Octavian's armor would have taken most of the effects of the spell. It fits with the whole "not killing the Jurors" thing. Before someone makes a point of it, Tobias did get Arachne away from the ships before destroying them and took her artifact, so she is still alive. ))
As the passenger door smoothly slid open, I deftly leapt from my current seat. Vlad followed shortly after, calmly exiting with his usual enigmatic ways. Our exit had been preceded by a small pack of hounds, whether biological or mechanical I couldn't quite tell. I bore witness to what amounts to a magical battle, arcane forces colliding in the air with vicious bolts of energy. Or, I guess just "bolt". Very anticlimactic.
"POWER LEVELS RESTORED TO FIFTY PERCENT. LIMB FUNCTIONS RETURNING." The message popped up in my vision as I felt control of my limbs return to me. The first thing that I did was check to see if my attack had landed. Grimacing at the fact that my attack had missed I was surprised to see Tobias facing off against the knight. Putting my finger to my ear I activated the radio and tried to call out to Lucy "Hey Lucy, how are you holding up?" I asked. I was confused as I was greeted with nothing but static on the other end. "Lucy do you copy?" Okay now I was starting to get worried. Deciding to go towards the warships I activated my enhanced jump and started to make my way towards the warships.
"Come on Lucy pick up." I tried the radio again but like before I was met with static. Panicking as I arrived at the sunk warships my breath got caught in my throat as I saw Lucy on the ground, lying in a puddle of blood. "Oh no no no no no no no!" I started to shout as I raced over to her body. Kneeling down I quickly checked her pulse and was relieved that she was breathing, barely breathing but still breathing.Looking down I locate the wound in her stomach before hastily taking out a medical kit from my bag. The hole was clean so at the very least I wouldn't have to worry about removing anything.
Getting to work I quickly cleaned her wound and bandaged her to the best of my abilities. Looking around for any help I notice one of the contestants in the fallen angel bracket from the tournament was close by. Remembering her name I call out to her "Excuse me Demi but I beg of you, please help Lucy." Picking her up as gently as I could I ran over to her while trying not to jostle Lucy. "Please I patched her up as best as I could but I fear that that won't be enough. Please help her!"
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1 Year ago the military was on the losing side of the war. All seemed bleak until one soldier brought a penguin in to training. They had trained that penguin in the use of explosives and sent him out into the field. They had thought that they had won but the agent went rouge. Now he only lives on as a legend, the legend of ShotgunPenguin.
Ordis, one of those who was originally fighting the Mirror Knight, called me over to him in order to help heal Lucy. Taking care of the wounded was top priority since Tobias was buying us time. A memory itched the back of my mind, something that the Knight possessed that could supposedly win any duel, but the specifics weren't clear enough to be of use. "I can cauterize the wound, if that helps. If she's passed out, then it won't hurt her as much, but Lucy'll be sore for a bit." I explained as I made my way over, staying low in order to not attract any unwanted attention. Distracting Tobias for a second could mean his and eventually all of our deaths. A flame sprang into existence at the end of my finger tip, charring my comrade's skin just enough to seal the wound. "We just need to hold on until Tobes' support comes in."
As soon as I said this, I could hear the fleet of helicopters, VTOLs, and the kitchen sink approach. They got close enough for us to make a break for the if we needed to, but the message to not approach was likely very clear to them. I signaled for some medics to head to Lucy and Brom, but everything else was left to my childhood friend. Tobias was using magic similar to Advanced Chemistry. By taking a substance and separating it's protons, neutrons, and electrons, it could be possible to transmute a new one. His aura was more potent than even my own father's, although something told me that he didn't obtain this state for free. Anyways, he was stronger than anybody I had ever seen and that was enough. All I could do was watch as the scenes unfolded.
((Are you ready for a MEGA-POST?!? Admin approved, of course.))
[Ivan]
As I climbed out of the VTOL, will met my eyes. It didn't take an aerospace engineer to discern that some vast alteration had occurred. I couldn't help but grin under my mask. I figured he kept something hidden. A normal person doesn't just express mild irritation when they look down and see their torso mangled.
I turned my attention to the battle between Tobias and some armored man. I took a closer look at everything going on - mentally, that is. I analyzed the magic of everything going on over there. Oddly enough, the armored man was really just an armor man. An empty metal suit with a special spell that chained a soul to it. Undoing that spell would be a doozy.
Once out of the VTOL, I finally answered Will.
"We wait."
[The Mirror Knight]
As the scorching bolt rocketed in my direction, I quickly formed a crystal shield and raised it to defend myself. The spell ricocheted off the shield right back in the direction it came. My prey used another rune to neutralize the projectile once and for all.
"Your turn," he taunted.
Continuing with my plan of psychological warfare, I dropped both my sword and shield. The runes on my hands glowed a variety of colors. Runic symbols much like my enemy's appeared all around me, but rather than maintaining a solid form and white color, each one shimmered and shifted through more colors than you can shake a stick at. It was an intentionally weakened version of the hunted's spell, and he could tell just by looking. His face shifted from one of confidence to one of disgust.
"You're not taking this seriously!" my target remarked as he came to realize the 'truth'. clearly offended by my apparent underestimation of his powers. "You do realize who you're dealing with, correct?!"
Taking a passive-aggressive approach, I simply stared back at him and said nothing. My refusal to acknowledge him angered him even further. He took a deep breath and returned to a facade of confidence, but his eyes betrayed his growing frustration.
"Very well," he said. "Whether you try to delay your loss makes no difference in the end."
My prey began to fire the runes at me with all different sort of affinities. Fire, ice, wind earth, water, celestial, arcane, you name it, it was flying. As he had done to stop my bolt of arcane, I countered each individual strike with the opposite affinity. The result was a colorful storm of mana, light bouncing off both me and my opponent in luminescent rainbows.
[Ivan]
Interesting. It was evident that the walking armor could copy spells. Not only that, it could use them as it pleased rather that strictly copying the enemy's spell how it was observed to be cast. It actually understood the spells rather than simply spitting them back out, though why it would cast weaker versions of a spell was beyond me. Additionally, it seemed to have the ability to create equipment out of a crystalline substance.
And then I noticed it.
It was difficult to see among all the other magic being slung about, but I noticed something attached to the armor's side. There was an item, indistinguishable at this distance, enchanted in a way that wouldn't be visible to normal means of observing magic, but my method was far from orthodox. I scanned the magical structure of the enchantment. The delivery method was strange - rather than acting as a catalyst, the enchanted item acted like a warhead, to be triggered when the spell came in contact with blood. The enchantment itself was a payload that would be released into said blood. Then I found some of the magical strain that matched-- oh no.
I suddenly understood everything that was happening. The armor's weaker spells suddenly made sense. The tin man had a strategy. It was toying with Tobias. The magician's metal adversary wanted Tobias to lose his cool. Eventually, Tobias would slip up. And once his guard was down...
"You all wait here," I commanded. With no time to explain myself, I bounded across the rooftops towards the fight. Fearing that I wasn't moving fast enough, I used telekinesis to increase the power and speed of my movement. It was a race against time at this point - I could only hope I hadn't already lost.
[The Mirror Knight]
Finally, the opportunity I had awaited presented itself. There was a gap in the vortex of runes surrounding my opponent. He was so focused on breaching my defenses that he neglected to fortify his own. In an instant, I flooded my body with the power of Kalila - Divine Light. I rocketed forward with a speed beyond belief - being only a suit of armor, I'm actually quite light. For good measure, I propelled myself further with fire magic through my feet. I slipped through, the gap, pulled out the knife at my side, and...
Slash.
All the runes that hadn't already been neutralized fizzled out of existence. With an agonized cry, my target collapsed, clutching his stomach. I let loose a gush of raw magical power to stop myself. After a few meters of deceleration, I screeched to a halt. Turning, I walked back in the direction of my now helpless prey. He continued to wail in agony, wounded by a pain much deeper than the cut I had delivered. Curled up on his side and moaning, it was a pitiful sight to which A'thery's child had been reduced.
I raised the knife, ready to plunge it into the throat of A'thery's child, when suddenly some invisible force shoved the blade out of my hand and fell onto the ground behind me. I turned and picked the knife up. It was at this point that I noticed an aura approaching. It was a minuscule aura, smaller than even that of an animal. It seemed to me as though the source was a somehow diseased arcolia. I turned back around and was greeted by the sight of a boot growing rapidly in size.
[Ivan]
CLANG!
My foot slammed into the metal man's helmet, and, because he was so light, the suit of armor went flying. I skidded to a halt on the ground as the man of steel bounced off the ground several times before coming to a stop itself. The armor stood up to face me. The only line of defense in between this alloy adversary and Tobias, I shifted into a battle stance.
"That knife is enchanted with magic poison, isn't it?" I interrogated the armor, already knowing the answer. "The knife is designed to cause arcolic arrest in anyone it cuts."
After the destruction of the Tainted, I made a point out of reading up on human physiology in relation to magic. Arcolic arrest is a condition in which one's arcolia ceases to function. It's what Zicka suffered from when he couldn't access magic. That was the strand that I recognized in the knife - I remember reading something very similar from Zicka when he had no magic.
"Leave now," the armor ordered, sheathing its knife. "One such as you, with that kind of a diseased aura, couldn't possibly use magic. You're no match for a mage such as me."
"Try me," I challenged it.
Without missing a beat, it fired a massive bolt of pure arcane in my direction. I didn't move. Instead, the silver pendant my sister had given me began to glow a bright white. The bolt was suddenly deflected in a different direction. It made contact with a barrier that had as of yet been invisible. At the moment of impact, the barrier flared up as a translucent white color much like that of the pendant.
The armor seemed puzzled for a moment, realizing that I had an artifact at my disposal. It decided to try to penetrate the artifact's barrier with a powerful spell. The man of steel looked down and raised its palms to be near each other, and the runes inscribed in them glowed a luminescent blue. Lighting began to spark in between its hands, increasing in power and frequency as time went on. A ball of concentrated energy began to form suspended between the runes.
I analyzed the spell. The structure was fairly simple, but it had an added punch designed to counter the defensive properties of some artifacts. Probably a trick the metal man had picked up somewhere before this. Using telekinesis, I shredded the magical structure of the spell as it charged. When the magic suddenly fizzled, the tin can was no doubt surprised. It took a step back and looked at me, as though wondering 'did he do that?'
Suddenly, I realized that my opponent knew nothing of psychic powers.
"You were saying?" I taunted with newfound confidence.
Unsure what else to do, the armor conjured a crystal war hammer and charged me. Still, I didn't move. As it brought the hammer down on my head, I used telekinesis to force the weapon to the side. Then, I combined psionic power with my own physical strength to strike the tin can's chest with unimaginable force. The suit of armor went soaring once more, dropping its hammer, and crashed into a tree. It raised itself and paused for a moment. Looking down, the metal man touched its chest in disbelief.
It was dented.
"Your aura is horribly malformed, and yet you perform feats beyond the scope of human capability," the armor remarked. "Who are you?"
I responded simply and confidently.
"Your worst nightmare."
Deciding to cut its losses, the suit of armor used fire magic to propel itself into the air and fly away. I breathed a sigh of relief and walked back to Tobias. I knelt next to him as he moaned, probably in too much pain to move. This sort of agony was definitely indicative of arcolic arrest for a fallen angel as powerful as Tobias.
"HEY!" I shouted as loud as possible to the others, "GET OVER HERE! HE NEEDS MEDICAL ATTENTION ASAP!"
(( One Year Timeskip inbound! Once your character leaves the war zone, enjoy leaping a year ahead. Feel free to take your own helicopter, that was the reason I had Tobias bring them. ))
[Tobias]
The fight had turned horribly sour when the Knight slashed me with some kind of magic dagger. I could feel all of my clones hidden around the world pop, despite having replaced each of them on my way over to Eternia. I could no longer feel my extremities, nor move my limbs in the slightest. A dagger designed to hunt those who relied heavily on magic. My bane. Ivan Rykov, an engineer prodigy apparently with psychic powers, fended off the Angel-Hunter once I had become a rag doll in the shape of my former self. It was painful to even look around, so I kept my eyes as focused in a way that would let me see the majority of my important surroundings. How could I go from such a high state of power to nothing but paralyzed trash? Ivan called for a medic, probably to the reinforcements I had called in. I watched as some men, suited to handle explosives, handled the various artifacts I had gathered, excluding Arachne's pouch.
"Rykov." I managed as paramedics put me on a stretcher and brought my irresponsive body to a helicopter. "I changed my mind. One year." I had originally thought that recovering from this war (despite the fact that it would likely continue) would take a few months, but I was wrong. A year would been mandatory for me to both recover my strength and remove all of my weaknesses. For whatever reason, it bugged me that I needed to depend on a mortal for support.
The doors closed on the MedEvac Helicopter, leaving me to my own thoughts.
[Demi]
As soon as Tobias hit the ground, I wanted to rush in and help. He had almost died, and he would have if it weren't for Ivan. The Mirror Knight was now known, his name was out there. All Fallen Angels had targets drawn on their backs, including my own. The very prospect that someone of that magnitude wanted me dead terrified me. Medics rushed in and put Tobes on life support, meaning that his entire magic network had been shut down. Whether or not he'd survive the second half of the fight, only time would tell. His final words were about a year rather than a couple months. "If we've got a year, I'm going to get stronger." I declared, understanding just how weak I truly was. Tobias couldn't even beat the Knight and he was miles ahead of me in terms of magic. If we had time, then I wasn't going to waste it. "We'll meet up in New Central, the same place most of us met." With that, I hopped onto an escort VTOL and zoomed off.
((What about the ice juror? I dont recall her being killed... or will it be taken care of after the timeskip? Surely she'll want revenge for her dead comrades.))
Darkness.
Brom was on a stretcher, being hauled somewhere. Immense pain filled his face and arm. He heard some sort of fight happening in the background. He couldnt tell who, but whoever was fighting was strong from the noise they made.
Darkness again.
Brom awoke to a bright light in his face. Everything was blurry, and he kept straining to see. He went to rub his eyes, only his arm had a cast on it, and he hit himself in the face. He looked at it, confused. He then saw he was in a hospital, recovering from his fight with the Juror.
"Sir, please lay down." A nurse said. Brom complied and let his arm rest.
"Where are my things? My bag?" Brom asked.
The nurse put his bag on a table by the bed, on his good arm's side. Brom rummaged through it, putting on his pendant and making sure he still had the blueprints for Caelum's ships. He sighed in releif, before drifting off again.
((Brom will spend a few months recovering, then head home to the sanctuary Zicka taught him magic in order to train.))
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Puella Magi Madoka Magicka is an awesome, feel-good, cutesy anime. You should watch it!
After Demi had cauterized Lucy's wound I thanked here while she explained that support would be here soon. As soon as the words left her mouth a fleet of helicoptors, VTOL's, and pretty much any other air transportation arrived on the scene. Demi had motioned for some medics to come and get Lucy along with another injured man. turning to see the confrontation between Tobias and the Knight I was shocked to see Tobias lying limply on the ground while clutching his stomach. "No way, Tobias lost?!" If Tobias couldn't stop this monster then who could? As the Knight was about to plunge his blade into Tobias another man sent his boot into the knights head.
Recognizing the man from Lucys description Ivan then amazed me as he wiped the floor with the knight? "What just happened? Did Ivan take him down?" I thought as the knight fled from the scene. After that the airships that were on hold descended and started to assist the injured. As one of the medics took Lucy from my hands I followed them to an emergency VTOL where they were loading Lucy onto. "Where are you taking her?" I asked the medic. "We're taking her to a hospital in New Central, she should be fine." Nodding I began to think "New Central huh? We're all supposed to meet there in 1 years time. I have to get stronger before then, strong enough so I can hold a candle to that knight." I thought as I looked at Lucy's unconscious body. "And get strong enough to protect you." Facing the medic I tell him "Contact me as soon as she wakes up." The medic nodded and soon they lifted off to New Central.
I watched the VTOL for a while before turning around and beginning to walk. My body could only handle so much before reaching it's limits and those limits were holding me back. If I wanted to get stronger I would have to take drastic measures, and I knew just the man to talk to. "Systems" I said while activating my radio "contact number 0983-2341-309" At first I was met with only static, but then an old voice answered my call. "It's been a while hasn't it 04RD1S?" The man said. "Yes it has been" I paused for a second "Father."
((Yeah I know the last part may be kind of lame but I honestly couldn't think of any other way a robot could grow stronger))
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1 Year ago the military was on the losing side of the war. All seemed bleak until one soldier brought a penguin in to training. They had trained that penguin in the use of explosives and sent him out into the field. They had thought that they had won but the agent went rouge. Now he only lives on as a legend, the legend of ShotgunPenguin.
(( Yes you may. Kumquat, I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to be borrowing one of your NPCs just for this post. ))
<< One Year after Caelum's Failed Invasion >>
[Yekaterina Rykov]
About eleven or twelve months ago, I had received a government contracted request for an advanced prosthetic limb. Usually, it'd be cake walk to whip one up, but it proved to be incredibly challenging to customize it to the specifications the client wanted. I had made several trips over to personally get measurements, test out some prototypes, and eventually attached a mechanical base in order to simplify the work load. Connecting the nerves to produce an immediate response was crucial for high quality limbs, so I had gotten that hurdle out of the way. The metal I used was a very strange alloy, one that made it so the finished product wouldn't be destroyed by any explosion inferior to a nuclear blast. Yes, I did get permission to nuke the near-finished prototype. It only made a couple of scratches and scorch marks, which would likely satisfy the client. Today, I was scheduled to deliver it. Entrusting such a masterpiece to one of our employees gave me an uneasy feeling, so I chose to deliver it in person.
Our meeting place was at a warehouse in a city in the Western Region. "Hey, it's Kat." I said, knocking on the door. The door slid open, revealing a fairly normal looking guy in his twenties. Normal being a very relative term, considering he had snow-white hair and a metal stub where his right arm belonged. This was definitely Tobias. "Sorry it took so long to finish up. I worked day and night for weeks to finish this and ensured that it meets all of your expectations." I opened the case and began attaching the mechanical limb to the framework already in place.
"I'm quite familiar with your company's quality." Tobias complimented. At a previous meeting, he had spoken in high regard about my brother, Ivan. As soon as I finished rigging it all together, he pointed it toward one of the warehouse's walls and shot a fireball larger than my head. "Perfect. Can Ivan conduct maintenance on it or should I head to your workshop if I bust it?"
I laughed. "Ivan's pretty smart, he'll know how to fix any small issue. If you manage to break that thing, then feel free to drop by. Rykov Robotics is going to start improving our AutoMail, so we'll make sure that you have the highest quality limb you can." Tobias grinned, pleased to know just how much we respected him. According to Ivan, this guy was one of the strongest beings to ever touch this planet, but he didn't seem like a god. He felt like someone I'd hang out with in my spare time and have coffee with. He invited me into his abode, which was pretty much just a gigantic warehouse filled with thousands of documents, books, and papers. "You're supposed to meet with your friends tomorrow, right? Tell me about your year, since we've got the time."
"It all started out in a hospital bed." He began, reclining on a stack of books arranged into the shape of a chair. "The Mirror Knight put me into Arcolic Arrest, blah blah blah. I couldn't use any magic at all for the first week or two, which kind of sucked. I figured that having an organ that could be poisoned so easily was a weakness, so I had it surgically removed. I was without any sense for magic for another three weeks, but I eventually conquered that and could cast spells and such without it. I realized that I was only training my Soul and Mind, but not my Body, so I spent several months boosting physical strength. You see, if you only sharpen two of the three parts of yourself, it's completely inefficient. I'm stronger than ever before, arguably more than when I was still Immortal."
"So you can use magic... without your Arcoli?" I asked, still dumbfounded.
"Yep." He responded, casually. We continued chatting away for a while. He tested out the arm a bit more, which ended in a perfectly fine piece of machinery but an obliterated wall. After a few hours, I left his compound and returned to my personal oasis in the comfort of a VTOL. Ivan was lucky to have an ally that powerful. At least my little brother would no longer be in any danger.
Brom stayed in the hospital as long as the cast was on. Despite the doctor's recommendations to stay a few more days, Brom left to go back to the sanctuary where Zicka trained him to practice his craft even more. Though before that, he had learned that four jurors were taken down and captured, though the ones who defeated them remained unknown.
During the the ten or so months of training, Brom worked to increase his physical state more than his magical abilities. He needed a good balance between agility and strength, flexibility and power. His arm kept hurting very badly, but Brom kept training his body despite it. Thats not to say he didnt practice magic at all, quite the opposite. He continued practicing, and soon became able to summon mock-tainted. They were very weak, but they were a start.
About a year had passed. Brom then remembered something: Werent there six Jurors? Brom had asked a lot, and that detail mustve slipped by in his memory. But he recalled only four being defeated. He saw the first two, and defeated the third himself, and heard of a fourth in the hospital. But the other two had escaped. One of them was the one who froze Sinbad- most likely a huge marsh by now, given the high temperatures of summer. And the other was unknown. He decided to go back to central and see what had become of them- news was sparse in a secluded sanctuary in the mountains.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Puella Magi Madoka Magicka is an awesome, feel-good, cutesy anime. You should watch it!
I know I've been gone for... what, two months? Maybe longer, I don't remember. Either way, if you were worried about what dark, internet-deprived cave I'd been dragged off to, I wasn't. I was just kinda engrossed in the new computer we got that can actually play high-intensity games such as Starcraft II and Heroes of the Storm without overloading the CPU and completely crashing the computer. Seriously, the old one just stops functioning if it senses even the slightest hint of wanting to play Team Fortress 2.
However, the computer that couldn't handle those games is still fully functional. In fact, this is the one I use for the internet (and the one I happen to be typing this paragraph on) because for some reason, despite having a CPU sturdy enough to run Crysis, the other one's internet-browsing capabilities are actually WORSE than this one. And whenever the main gaming computer is occupied (which is almost all day) I will try to get on here in my free time.
But... there are a couple things I'll need to do before I get back into this.
First off, I have too many characters. I know that they were kind of my primary characters, but I will be indefinitely deactivating Glaive and Rogan. To be honest, while they were my first characters, they also had the least character development. Ronin and Takranos probably have more character development NOW than the other two ever will. I know I didn't roleplay Ronin very much, but he's kinda like my alter ego, for lack of a better description. And the amount of development Takranos got in the first WOTD alone pretty much chiseled out his character completely and solidified his personality for pretty much all future roleplays in which I used him. Even the whole chicken sandwich thing.
Especially the whole chicken sandwich thing.
Rogan and Glaive just... didn't have that. I tried to differentiate Rogan from your stereotypical dark hero, but that didn't really work out. Either way, while I may pick them back up in the future, say goodbye to them for now.
Secondly, I'll need to figure out where exactly everyone is, where the plot is right now, and find the right place to reinsert my characters. This will also involve reading the last 10 pages, and considering how long each individual post is, I have my work cut out for me. I guess I'll start with the one-month timeskip after the tournament.
It's going to be a process, but I will try to be more active in this roleplay. Sorry for sort of completely vanishing for the past several months and making everyone wonder if I was still alive. But rest assured that I am alive, I am real...
"We must call for aid! Executor, bring out the Reavers! ... What? What do you mean we don't have reavers anymore? Then... send the Dragoons! ... Ugh, then what do you suggest? ... What's a Void Ray?!" -Tassadar, Savior of the Templar
((Earnestly, I don't understand why nobody has posted. THREE DAYS since I last posted, and several before that since Ninja posted. I doubt everybody is suddenly busy, so I'd like to inquire as to why no activity has been made.))
(( Two Words: Fallout 4. ))
[Tobias]
Cleaning up after Caelum's attempted invasion was easy, although my real motive for acting is to obtain Arachne's artifact. It was a pouch which, much like any other tools from Caelum, singed my hand when I touched it. Levitating objects was simple, so coming into contact with the bandolier was no longer an issue. I flew over to where the group was still fighting. Octavian had been knocked unconscious by presumably Brom's magic, so I used the same method to pluck up his tower shield. Medusa's vambrace and Vulcan's ring were easily taken due to their owners being knocked out. None of them would directly be of any benefit to me, but if I could reconfigure them to work with an alternative host, there would be little I couldn't accomplish.
"I have sent in orders for several helicopters to come and bring you all on your merry way. The war will rage on, but the toughest part of the storm has already passed. Expect me to contact each of you in a special way in, say, a few months." I informed the general population. There was still Mirror Knight to deal with, but he was currently taking on three warriors at once. If I remembered anything about that warrior, it was that he could take on armies on his own. "Knight, why do you concern yourself with the likes of a Half-Breed, a robot, and a child of Dimitri? I hope you can copy magic the way you were designed to. Take notes, Mirror Thief."
Raising my left hand above my head, I began to concentrate. What I was about to do was something that I knew no other being could do, Divine nor Man. Affinities are a background aspect of magic that allows a Mage to gravitate toward a certain field. Few grandmasters inn the arts could get a completely affinity in any specific branch, yet I had achieved three: Air, Lightning, and Arcane. It was theorized that pure magic would be converted into any sort of affinity the user could control. For example, Ice mages would be able to use Ice magic due to their affinity. The thing that people don't know how to do is to take that converted magic and transmute it back into it's purest form. Water from the beach began to work toward me through the air as if I were sucking it in, but as soon as it got close enough, it was transformed into white runes, which gravitated around me. Chunks of earth followed suit, removing their natural affinity and becoming pure. I became a vacuum, pulling in any pure substance and turning it back into magical energy, even the air. I was surrounded in several libraries worth of runic characters, each one dancing around me, ready to be invoked.
"So, are you going to continue wasting your time with those small fry or attempt to hunt me?"
((I hereby claim this page in the name of the Fruit Empire.))
((Actually, Madman, I did in fact suddenly get busy. 5 tests and a speech in a foreign language from memory in the course of 3 days doesn't leave much free time.))
((The VTOL is a bit of both. It's like a V-22, but it's more of a tiltjet then a tiltrotor.))
[The Mirror Knight]
Finally, the main course had arrived. As anticipated, he was condescending and showy. However, I ignored his gibes initially. Before moving on to the entree, I needed to finish the appetizer. I jumped over to another building to avoid the two attacks directed at me. Then, I dashed over to the building Garrett hung on. Using fire magic, I catapulted myself at him, and before the had the chance to appropriately react, delivered a heavy strike to his head. Out cold, he lost his grip on his blade and plummeted to the street below.
Without waiting to see Garrett hit the ground, I refocused on my primary target, Tobias. As anticipated, A'thery's child had brought a fresh bag of tricks to the table. It seemed the boy had grasped how to tap into affinities, one of the most basic parts of magic. Much like molecules in physical objects, however, it took special care and research to identify and isolate affinities. Before I recklessly attacked a spell I didn't yet fully understand, I figured it would be worth testing the waters. I fired a bolt of pure arcane which, should it make contact with the floating runes, would destabilize them and probably cause them to detonate due to their raw magical contents. It would likely cause a chain reaction within the spells that could easily destroy the man in the center.
Of course, such an attack would come across as disappointingly simple to a magician as advanced as my enemy. That was more or less the idea -to start off, I would sandbag and see if I could cause Tobias to lose his composure somehow, be it anger, disappointment, or sheer boredom. I knew for a fact I could win this fight - I just needed to get close.
[Ivan]
"Nobody forced you to answer the call," I answered Will, "nor did anyone force you to enter the VTOL. I recommend that, instead of questioning my reasoning, you question your own."
And with that, the VTOL rocketed forward. It didn't take very long to reach the LZ. As the aircraft decelerated, it was easy to see that we had missed the bulk of the action. The scene looked almost peaceful. That is, if you don't count the glowing vortex of likely very deadly magical letters. "Set us down on that building," I ordered the pilot. He deftly positioned the aircraft and decreased the altitude, the bay door opening for the passengers to exit. My dogs were the first to get out, but I'd wait for the others to leave first so I wouldn't have to clamber over them.
There's no kill like overkill.
(( I don't like Tennis Posting, but you got me excited. Also, I give you full permission to use the secret on Tobias. ))
[Tobias]
"C'mon, a tiny little Magic Missile? You insult me." I commented. Arcane was, even if few knew of it, its own affinity branch. This meant I could neutralize it using it's opposite, which happened to be Celestial. Why the stars opposed Magic, I had no clue. I snapped my fingers and a single rune changed it's color from pure white to ebony with ivory speckles. Upon touching the Knight's projectile, both objects dissipated. "You've slain some of the greatest sorcerers of this age. Entertain me with the sum of your experiences. Unless you would prefer for me to go first..." I challenged, placing my hand on one of the runic symbols. It began to radiate a scarlet-orange color. Despite my familiarity with it, Fire Magic was never quite my forte, although I doubted that mattered when I had each affinity at my beck and call.
A stream of purplish blue fire shot from the simple rune, melting anything that found itself too close. The grass was singed even at a decent distance away, the ground scorched in a similar fashion. Hopefully, the enchanted armor the Knight wore would get molten, but as it usually was with magic equipment, that wasn't likely going to be the case.
[Demi]
Tobias had sprung out of nowhere and challenged the Mirror Knight, who was easily taking on three of our strongest fighters. He used some technique that, as far as I could tell, permitted him to use whatever magic he wanted. I knew that I was fairly good with fire magic, but Tobes made even Vulcan's superior spells seem like child's play.
((Ninja, i implied that i killed Octavian, but if you need him alive then ill just say my death spell was too weak to fully kill him. Also, Brom and probably Lucy are unconscious, and Brom is injured, so hes in no condition to board the craft.))
(( I had figured that Octavian's armor would have taken most of the effects of the spell. It fits with the whole "not killing the Jurors" thing. Before someone makes a point of it, Tobias did get Arachne away from the ships before destroying them and took her artifact, so she is still alive. ))
[Alice]
As the passenger door smoothly slid open, I deftly leapt from my current seat. Vlad followed shortly after, calmly exiting with his usual enigmatic ways. Our exit had been preceded by a small pack of hounds, whether biological or mechanical I couldn't quite tell. I bore witness to what amounts to a magical battle, arcane forces colliding in the air with vicious bolts of energy. Or, I guess just "bolt". Very anticlimactic.
[Ordis]
"POWER LEVELS RESTORED TO FIFTY PERCENT. LIMB FUNCTIONS RETURNING." The message popped up in my vision as I felt control of my limbs return to me. The first thing that I did was check to see if my attack had landed. Grimacing at the fact that my attack had missed I was surprised to see Tobias facing off against the knight. Putting my finger to my ear I activated the radio and tried to call out to Lucy "Hey Lucy, how are you holding up?" I asked. I was confused as I was greeted with nothing but static on the other end. "Lucy do you copy?" Okay now I was starting to get worried. Deciding to go towards the warships I activated my enhanced jump and started to make my way towards the warships.
"Come on Lucy pick up." I tried the radio again but like before I was met with static. Panicking as I arrived at the sunk warships my breath got caught in my throat as I saw Lucy on the ground, lying in a puddle of blood. "Oh no no no no no no no!" I started to shout as I raced over to her body. Kneeling down I quickly checked her pulse and was relieved that she was breathing, barely breathing but still breathing.Looking down I locate the wound in her stomach before hastily taking out a medical kit from my bag. The hole was clean so at the very least I wouldn't have to worry about removing anything.
Getting to work I quickly cleaned her wound and bandaged her to the best of my abilities. Looking around for any help I notice one of the contestants in the fallen angel bracket from the tournament was close by. Remembering her name I call out to her "Excuse me Demi but I beg of you, please help Lucy." Picking her up as gently as I could I ran over to her while trying not to jostle Lucy. "Please I patched her up as best as I could but I fear that that won't be enough. Please help her!"
[Demi]
Ordis, one of those who was originally fighting the Mirror Knight, called me over to him in order to help heal Lucy. Taking care of the wounded was top priority since Tobias was buying us time. A memory itched the back of my mind, something that the Knight possessed that could supposedly win any duel, but the specifics weren't clear enough to be of use. "I can cauterize the wound, if that helps. If she's passed out, then it won't hurt her as much, but Lucy'll be sore for a bit." I explained as I made my way over, staying low in order to not attract any unwanted attention. Distracting Tobias for a second could mean his and eventually all of our deaths. A flame sprang into existence at the end of my finger tip, charring my comrade's skin just enough to seal the wound. "We just need to hold on until Tobes' support comes in."
As soon as I said this, I could hear the fleet of helicopters, VTOLs, and the kitchen sink approach. They got close enough for us to make a break for the if we needed to, but the message to not approach was likely very clear to them. I signaled for some medics to head to Lucy and Brom, but everything else was left to my childhood friend. Tobias was using magic similar to Advanced Chemistry. By taking a substance and separating it's protons, neutrons, and electrons, it could be possible to transmute a new one. His aura was more potent than even my own father's, although something told me that he didn't obtain this state for free. Anyways, he was stronger than anybody I had ever seen and that was enough. All I could do was watch as the scenes unfolded.
((Are you ready for a MEGA-POST?!? Admin approved, of course.))
[Ivan]
As I climbed out of the VTOL, will met my eyes. It didn't take an aerospace engineer to discern that some vast alteration had occurred. I couldn't help but grin under my mask. I figured he kept something hidden. A normal person doesn't just express mild irritation when they look down and see their torso mangled.
I turned my attention to the battle between Tobias and some armored man. I took a closer look at everything going on - mentally, that is. I analyzed the magic of everything going on over there. Oddly enough, the armored man was really just an armor man. An empty metal suit with a special spell that chained a soul to it. Undoing that spell would be a doozy.
Once out of the VTOL, I finally answered Will.
"We wait."
[The Mirror Knight]
As the scorching bolt rocketed in my direction, I quickly formed a crystal shield and raised it to defend myself. The spell ricocheted off the shield right back in the direction it came. My prey used another rune to neutralize the projectile once and for all.
"Your turn," he taunted.
Continuing with my plan of psychological warfare, I dropped both my sword and shield. The runes on my hands glowed a variety of colors. Runic symbols much like my enemy's appeared all around me, but rather than maintaining a solid form and white color, each one shimmered and shifted through more colors than you can shake a stick at. It was an intentionally weakened version of the hunted's spell, and he could tell just by looking. His face shifted from one of confidence to one of disgust.
"You're not taking this seriously!" my target remarked as he came to realize the 'truth'. clearly offended by my apparent underestimation of his powers. "You do realize who you're dealing with, correct?!"
Taking a passive-aggressive approach, I simply stared back at him and said nothing. My refusal to acknowledge him angered him even further. He took a deep breath and returned to a facade of confidence, but his eyes betrayed his growing frustration.
"Very well," he said. "Whether you try to delay your loss makes no difference in the end."
My prey began to fire the runes at me with all different sort of affinities. Fire, ice, wind earth, water, celestial, arcane, you name it, it was flying. As he had done to stop my bolt of arcane, I countered each individual strike with the opposite affinity. The result was a colorful storm of mana, light bouncing off both me and my opponent in luminescent rainbows.
[Ivan]
Interesting. It was evident that the walking armor could copy spells. Not only that, it could use them as it pleased rather that strictly copying the enemy's spell how it was observed to be cast. It actually understood the spells rather than simply spitting them back out, though why it would cast weaker versions of a spell was beyond me. Additionally, it seemed to have the ability to create equipment out of a crystalline substance.
And then I noticed it.
It was difficult to see among all the other magic being slung about, but I noticed something attached to the armor's side. There was an item, indistinguishable at this distance, enchanted in a way that wouldn't be visible to normal means of observing magic, but my method was far from orthodox. I scanned the magical structure of the enchantment. The delivery method was strange - rather than acting as a catalyst, the enchanted item acted like a warhead, to be triggered when the spell came in contact with blood. The enchantment itself was a payload that would be released into said blood. Then I found some of the magical strain that matched-- oh no.
I suddenly understood everything that was happening. The armor's weaker spells suddenly made sense. The tin man had a strategy. It was toying with Tobias. The magician's metal adversary wanted Tobias to lose his cool. Eventually, Tobias would slip up. And once his guard was down...
"You all wait here," I commanded. With no time to explain myself, I bounded across the rooftops towards the fight. Fearing that I wasn't moving fast enough, I used telekinesis to increase the power and speed of my movement. It was a race against time at this point - I could only hope I hadn't already lost.
[The Mirror Knight]
Finally, the opportunity I had awaited presented itself. There was a gap in the vortex of runes surrounding my opponent. He was so focused on breaching my defenses that he neglected to fortify his own. In an instant, I flooded my body with the power of Kalila - Divine Light. I rocketed forward with a speed beyond belief - being only a suit of armor, I'm actually quite light. For good measure, I propelled myself further with fire magic through my feet. I slipped through, the gap, pulled out the knife at my side, and...
Slash.
All the runes that hadn't already been neutralized fizzled out of existence. With an agonized cry, my target collapsed, clutching his stomach. I let loose a gush of raw magical power to stop myself. After a few meters of deceleration, I screeched to a halt. Turning, I walked back in the direction of my now helpless prey. He continued to wail in agony, wounded by a pain much deeper than the cut I had delivered. Curled up on his side and moaning, it was a pitiful sight to which A'thery's child had been reduced.
I raised the knife, ready to plunge it into the throat of A'thery's child, when suddenly some invisible force shoved the blade out of my hand and fell onto the ground behind me. I turned and picked the knife up. It was at this point that I noticed an aura approaching. It was a minuscule aura, smaller than even that of an animal. It seemed to me as though the source was a somehow diseased arcolia. I turned back around and was greeted by the sight of a boot growing rapidly in size.
[Ivan]
CLANG!
My foot slammed into the metal man's helmet, and, because he was so light, the suit of armor went flying. I skidded to a halt on the ground as the man of steel bounced off the ground several times before coming to a stop itself. The armor stood up to face me. The only line of defense in between this alloy adversary and Tobias, I shifted into a battle stance.
"That knife is enchanted with magic poison, isn't it?" I interrogated the armor, already knowing the answer. "The knife is designed to cause arcolic arrest in anyone it cuts."
After the destruction of the Tainted, I made a point out of reading up on human physiology in relation to magic. Arcolic arrest is a condition in which one's arcolia ceases to function. It's what Zicka suffered from when he couldn't access magic. That was the strand that I recognized in the knife - I remember reading something very similar from Zicka when he had no magic.
"Leave now," the armor ordered, sheathing its knife. "One such as you, with that kind of a diseased aura, couldn't possibly use magic. You're no match for a mage such as me."
"Try me," I challenged it.
Without missing a beat, it fired a massive bolt of pure arcane in my direction. I didn't move. Instead, the silver pendant my sister had given me began to glow a bright white. The bolt was suddenly deflected in a different direction. It made contact with a barrier that had as of yet been invisible. At the moment of impact, the barrier flared up as a translucent white color much like that of the pendant.
The armor seemed puzzled for a moment, realizing that I had an artifact at my disposal. It decided to try to penetrate the artifact's barrier with a powerful spell. The man of steel looked down and raised its palms to be near each other, and the runes inscribed in them glowed a luminescent blue. Lighting began to spark in between its hands, increasing in power and frequency as time went on. A ball of concentrated energy began to form suspended between the runes.
I analyzed the spell. The structure was fairly simple, but it had an added punch designed to counter the defensive properties of some artifacts. Probably a trick the metal man had picked up somewhere before this. Using telekinesis, I shredded the magical structure of the spell as it charged. When the magic suddenly fizzled, the tin can was no doubt surprised. It took a step back and looked at me, as though wondering 'did he do that?'
Suddenly, I realized that my opponent knew nothing of psychic powers.
"You were saying?" I taunted with newfound confidence.
Unsure what else to do, the armor conjured a crystal war hammer and charged me. Still, I didn't move. As it brought the hammer down on my head, I used telekinesis to force the weapon to the side. Then, I combined psionic power with my own physical strength to strike the tin can's chest with unimaginable force. The suit of armor went soaring once more, dropping its hammer, and crashed into a tree. It raised itself and paused for a moment. Looking down, the metal man touched its chest in disbelief.
It was dented.
"Your aura is horribly malformed, and yet you perform feats beyond the scope of human capability," the armor remarked. "Who are you?"
I responded simply and confidently.
"Your worst nightmare."
Deciding to cut its losses, the suit of armor used fire magic to propel itself into the air and fly away. I breathed a sigh of relief and walked back to Tobias. I knelt next to him as he moaned, probably in too much pain to move. This sort of agony was definitely indicative of arcolic arrest for a fallen angel as powerful as Tobias.
"HEY!" I shouted as loud as possible to the others, "GET OVER HERE! HE NEEDS MEDICAL ATTENTION ASAP!"
There's no kill like overkill.
(( One Year Timeskip inbound! Once your character leaves the war zone, enjoy leaping a year ahead. Feel free to take your own helicopter, that was the reason I had Tobias bring them. ))
[Tobias]
The fight had turned horribly sour when the Knight slashed me with some kind of magic dagger. I could feel all of my clones hidden around the world pop, despite having replaced each of them on my way over to Eternia. I could no longer feel my extremities, nor move my limbs in the slightest. A dagger designed to hunt those who relied heavily on magic. My bane. Ivan Rykov, an engineer prodigy apparently with psychic powers, fended off the Angel-Hunter once I had become a rag doll in the shape of my former self. It was painful to even look around, so I kept my eyes as focused in a way that would let me see the majority of my important surroundings. How could I go from such a high state of power to nothing but paralyzed trash? Ivan called for a medic, probably to the reinforcements I had called in. I watched as some men, suited to handle explosives, handled the various artifacts I had gathered, excluding Arachne's pouch.
"Rykov." I managed as paramedics put me on a stretcher and brought my irresponsive body to a helicopter. "I changed my mind. One year." I had originally thought that recovering from this war (despite the fact that it would likely continue) would take a few months, but I was wrong. A year would been mandatory for me to both recover my strength and remove all of my weaknesses. For whatever reason, it bugged me that I needed to depend on a mortal for support.
The doors closed on the MedEvac Helicopter, leaving me to my own thoughts.
[Demi]
As soon as Tobias hit the ground, I wanted to rush in and help. He had almost died, and he would have if it weren't for Ivan. The Mirror Knight was now known, his name was out there. All Fallen Angels had targets drawn on their backs, including my own. The very prospect that someone of that magnitude wanted me dead terrified me. Medics rushed in and put Tobes on life support, meaning that his entire magic network had been shut down. Whether or not he'd survive the second half of the fight, only time would tell. His final words were about a year rather than a couple months. "If we've got a year, I'm going to get stronger." I declared, understanding just how weak I truly was. Tobias couldn't even beat the Knight and he was miles ahead of me in terms of magic. If we had time, then I wasn't going to waste it. "We'll meet up in New Central, the same place most of us met." With that, I hopped onto an escort VTOL and zoomed off.
((What about the ice juror? I dont recall her being killed... or will it be taken care of after the timeskip? Surely she'll want revenge for her dead comrades.))
Darkness.
Brom was on a stretcher, being hauled somewhere. Immense pain filled his face and arm. He heard some sort of fight happening in the background. He couldnt tell who, but whoever was fighting was strong from the noise they made.
Darkness again.
Brom awoke to a bright light in his face. Everything was blurry, and he kept straining to see. He went to rub his eyes, only his arm had a cast on it, and he hit himself in the face. He looked at it, confused. He then saw he was in a hospital, recovering from his fight with the Juror.
"Sir, please lay down." A nurse said. Brom complied and let his arm rest.
"Where are my things? My bag?" Brom asked.
The nurse put his bag on a table by the bed, on his good arm's side. Brom rummaged through it, putting on his pendant and making sure he still had the blueprints for Caelum's ships. He sighed in releif, before drifting off again.
((Brom will spend a few months recovering, then head home to the sanctuary Zicka taught him magic in order to train.))
(( As you said, both Andromeda (Ice) and Heracles (Gravity) are still alive and free. Plans are already in place for them both. ))
((Can I go ahead and skip to one year from now?))
[Ordis]
After Demi had cauterized Lucy's wound I thanked here while she explained that support would be here soon. As soon as the words left her mouth a fleet of helicoptors, VTOL's, and pretty much any other air transportation arrived on the scene. Demi had motioned for some medics to come and get Lucy along with another injured man. turning to see the confrontation between Tobias and the Knight I was shocked to see Tobias lying limply on the ground while clutching his stomach. "No way, Tobias lost?!" If Tobias couldn't stop this monster then who could? As the Knight was about to plunge his blade into Tobias another man sent his boot into the knights head.
Recognizing the man from Lucys description Ivan then amazed me as he wiped the floor with the knight? "What just happened? Did Ivan take him down?" I thought as the knight fled from the scene. After that the airships that were on hold descended and started to assist the injured. As one of the medics took Lucy from my hands I followed them to an emergency VTOL where they were loading Lucy onto. "Where are you taking her?" I asked the medic. "We're taking her to a hospital in New Central, she should be fine." Nodding I began to think "New Central huh? We're all supposed to meet there in 1 years time. I have to get stronger before then, strong enough so I can hold a candle to that knight." I thought as I looked at Lucy's unconscious body. "And get strong enough to protect you." Facing the medic I tell him "Contact me as soon as she wakes up." The medic nodded and soon they lifted off to New Central.
I watched the VTOL for a while before turning around and beginning to walk. My body could only handle so much before reaching it's limits and those limits were holding me back. If I wanted to get stronger I would have to take drastic measures, and I knew just the man to talk to. "Systems" I said while activating my radio "contact number 0983-2341-309" At first I was met with only static, but then an old voice answered my call. "It's been a while hasn't it 04RD1S?" The man said. "Yes it has been" I paused for a second "Father."
((Yeah I know the last part may be kind of lame but I honestly couldn't think of any other way a robot could grow stronger))
(( Yes you may. Kumquat, I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to be borrowing one of your NPCs just for this post. ))
<< One Year after Caelum's Failed Invasion >>
[Yekaterina Rykov]
About eleven or twelve months ago, I had received a government contracted request for an advanced prosthetic limb. Usually, it'd be cake walk to whip one up, but it proved to be incredibly challenging to customize it to the specifications the client wanted. I had made several trips over to personally get measurements, test out some prototypes, and eventually attached a mechanical base in order to simplify the work load. Connecting the nerves to produce an immediate response was crucial for high quality limbs, so I had gotten that hurdle out of the way. The metal I used was a very strange alloy, one that made it so the finished product wouldn't be destroyed by any explosion inferior to a nuclear blast. Yes, I did get permission to nuke the near-finished prototype. It only made a couple of scratches and scorch marks, which would likely satisfy the client. Today, I was scheduled to deliver it. Entrusting such a masterpiece to one of our employees gave me an uneasy feeling, so I chose to deliver it in person.
Our meeting place was at a warehouse in a city in the Western Region. "Hey, it's Kat." I said, knocking on the door. The door slid open, revealing a fairly normal looking guy in his twenties. Normal being a very relative term, considering he had snow-white hair and a metal stub where his right arm belonged. This was definitely Tobias. "Sorry it took so long to finish up. I worked day and night for weeks to finish this and ensured that it meets all of your expectations." I opened the case and began attaching the mechanical limb to the framework already in place.
"I'm quite familiar with your company's quality." Tobias complimented. At a previous meeting, he had spoken in high regard about my brother, Ivan. As soon as I finished rigging it all together, he pointed it toward one of the warehouse's walls and shot a fireball larger than my head. "Perfect. Can Ivan conduct maintenance on it or should I head to your workshop if I bust it?"
I laughed. "Ivan's pretty smart, he'll know how to fix any small issue. If you manage to break that thing, then feel free to drop by. Rykov Robotics is going to start improving our AutoMail, so we'll make sure that you have the highest quality limb you can." Tobias grinned, pleased to know just how much we respected him. According to Ivan, this guy was one of the strongest beings to ever touch this planet, but he didn't seem like a god. He felt like someone I'd hang out with in my spare time and have coffee with. He invited me into his abode, which was pretty much just a gigantic warehouse filled with thousands of documents, books, and papers. "You're supposed to meet with your friends tomorrow, right? Tell me about your year, since we've got the time."
"It all started out in a hospital bed." He began, reclining on a stack of books arranged into the shape of a chair. "The Mirror Knight put me into Arcolic Arrest, blah blah blah. I couldn't use any magic at all for the first week or two, which kind of sucked. I figured that having an organ that could be poisoned so easily was a weakness, so I had it surgically removed. I was without any sense for magic for another three weeks, but I eventually conquered that and could cast spells and such without it. I realized that I was only training my Soul and Mind, but not my Body, so I spent several months boosting physical strength. You see, if you only sharpen two of the three parts of yourself, it's completely inefficient. I'm stronger than ever before, arguably more than when I was still Immortal."
"So you can use magic... without your Arcoli?" I asked, still dumbfounded.
"Yep." He responded, casually. We continued chatting away for a while. He tested out the arm a bit more, which ended in a perfectly fine piece of machinery but an obliterated wall. After a few hours, I left his compound and returned to my personal oasis in the comfort of a VTOL. Ivan was lucky to have an ally that powerful. At least my little brother would no longer be in any danger.
((Before i post, how well known is the jurors' defeat? Classified? Public? Are those who defeated them well-known now?))
(( Their defeat was made public but, due to Tobias' likely orders, no names were mentioned. This would probably be to preserve his pride. ))
Brom stayed in the hospital as long as the cast was on. Despite the doctor's recommendations to stay a few more days, Brom left to go back to the sanctuary where Zicka trained him to practice his craft even more. Though before that, he had learned that four jurors were taken down and captured, though the ones who defeated them remained unknown.
During the the ten or so months of training, Brom worked to increase his physical state more than his magical abilities. He needed a good balance between agility and strength, flexibility and power. His arm kept hurting very badly, but Brom kept training his body despite it. Thats not to say he didnt practice magic at all, quite the opposite. He continued practicing, and soon became able to summon mock-tainted. They were very weak, but they were a start.
About a year had passed. Brom then remembered something: Werent there six Jurors? Brom had asked a lot, and that detail mustve slipped by in his memory. But he recalled only four being defeated. He saw the first two, and defeated the third himself, and heard of a fourth in the hospital. But the other two had escaped. One of them was the one who froze Sinbad- most likely a huge marsh by now, given the high temperatures of summer. And the other was unknown. He decided to go back to central and see what had become of them- news was sparse in a secluded sanctuary in the mountains.
((So... hey.
I know I've been gone for... what, two months? Maybe longer, I don't remember. Either way, if you were worried about what dark, internet-deprived cave I'd been dragged off to, I wasn't. I was just kinda engrossed in the new computer we got that can actually play high-intensity games such as Starcraft II and Heroes of the Storm without overloading the CPU and completely crashing the computer. Seriously, the old one just stops functioning if it senses even the slightest hint of wanting to play Team Fortress 2.
However, the computer that couldn't handle those games is still fully functional. In fact, this is the one I use for the internet (and the one I happen to be typing this paragraph on) because for some reason, despite having a CPU sturdy enough to run Crysis, the other one's internet-browsing capabilities are actually WORSE than this one. And whenever the main gaming computer is occupied (which is almost all day) I will try to get on here in my free time.
But... there are a couple things I'll need to do before I get back into this.
First off, I have too many characters. I know that they were kind of my primary characters, but I will be indefinitely deactivating Glaive and Rogan. To be honest, while they were my first characters, they also had the least character development. Ronin and Takranos probably have more character development NOW than the other two ever will. I know I didn't roleplay Ronin very much, but he's kinda like my alter ego, for lack of a better description. And the amount of development Takranos got in the first WOTD alone pretty much chiseled out his character completely and solidified his personality for pretty much all future roleplays in which I used him. Even the whole chicken sandwich thing.
Especially the whole chicken sandwich thing.
Rogan and Glaive just... didn't have that. I tried to differentiate Rogan from your stereotypical dark hero, but that didn't really work out. Either way, while I may pick them back up in the future, say goodbye to them for now.
Secondly, I'll need to figure out where exactly everyone is, where the plot is right now, and find the right place to reinsert my characters. This will also involve reading the last 10 pages, and considering how long each individual post is, I have my work cut out for me. I guess I'll start with the one-month timeskip after the tournament.
It's going to be a process, but I will try to be more active in this roleplay. Sorry for sort of completely vanishing for the past several months and making everyone wonder if I was still alive. But rest assured that I am alive, I am real...
And I am BACK.))
"We must call for aid! Executor, bring out the Reavers! ... What? What do you mean we don't have reavers anymore? Then... send the Dragoons! ... Ugh, then what do you suggest? ... What's a Void Ray?!" -Tassadar, Savior of the Templar