In Medias Res

[Nothingness]

Shit.

Just when they could finally catch their breath, a lone archer managed to hit Lanying with an arrow. Raen hurried over to Lanying, making sure that she wasn't too hurt, while Elrick destroyed the incoming reinforcements. The concern was apparent in his voice, though he tried to cover it up. "Doesn't look too bad, but I don't think that we shoul--"

Before he could finish, Elrick had come over to them, covered Lanying with one of the cloaks, and sent her away through a Corridor. Raen was about to snap something back at Elrick, but he couldn't argue with the man and so kept his mouth shut. They had all known the risks, and he could at least be thankful that she wasn't fatally wounded.

With Lanying away from the world and safe, Raen quickly followed Elrick's command and started running with Lillian. He kept his eyes sharp--the last thing they needed was another surprise archer popping up from some rooftop and forcing another of them out.

[Lagunamov]

I have a very bad feeling about this.

“Only a couple more blocks,” Elrick kept thinking. “Only a couple more blocks and were are out of this hellhole,” the moment to leave the world couldn’t come sooner enough. He was already hurt and moving mostly out of free will, and only minutes before he had been forced into removing a friend from the field due to an injury of her own. Worse of all, though, his mind started to wonder if they would even be able to leave the world. That last Corridor took too long to open, and it exhausted him more than normal, even when taking into account his injury and current exhaustion.

Putting that entire train of thought aside, he led the remaining two around the Residential District. The streets were narrower, only a couple of meters wide, making for difficult spotting from above. The place was deserted, not a sign of life around. “They must have evacuated while we were busy across the bridge,” Elrick commented, not to anyone in particular. He just needed to say something aloud. The sun had finally fully set, and some stars were becoming visible in the sky. The night certainly would help.

What certainly wasn’t going to help what was Elrick encountered after turning a corner as they reached their destination, still unnoticed. An entire block of houses and buildings had been destroyed, a couple of construction cranes having been left behind for cleaning, with rubble all across the place and several fragmented walls still standing. “Oh, good lord…” Elrick’s eyes widened at the sight, and his mind going to the worst possible place. Before letting any of that sink in, he shook his head and tried to remain calm. “Cover for me. I need to check where my house was for the secret compartment on the floor,” he turned around and told Lillian and Raen, before moving onto the pile of rubble and starting to walk though it, examining his surroundings to find the right place.

[Garudyne over. Three more posts until next use.]

[Fate]

"Please let us make it out of here alive. Please,"
--

Lillian thought to herself. They weren't going to be able to catch their breath until after they were out of this world-- that was the conclusion she had come to as she followed Elrick for a couple more blocks. Elrick had already been hurt and Lanying had been as well. She was the only safe one out of all of them now. It was too bad too-- she was the one out of the four of them that had any healing power whatsoever.

They reached their destination. A complete block of buildings, including houses, had been decimated. Well, that made things a hell of a lot harder now didn't it? Elrick already had somewhat of an idea of where he was going though, asking her and Raen to cover. With her guns still out, she kept her distance from him and just kept looking around. Orpheus wasn't finished with them by a long shot, not yet.

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[Nothingness]

Reflection

When they had finally arrived at their destination, Raen stopped to catch his breath. Elrick told them to cover him while he searched for whatever-the-hell-he-was-looking-for in the ruins behind them. He'd be lying if he said he was enjoying this, but he'd also be lying if he said he wasn't. It was strange; as stressful as this was becoming, something about all this made him want to keep going.

Wiping the sweat off his brow, he looked around the Residential District. Something wasn't right about all this: it was empty. It made no sense, and the fact that THIS block of all the blocks was destroyed definitely didn't seem right. Closing his eyes, he expanded his senses around, trying to pick up on any emotion. Unfortunately, the only ones he came across were Lillian and Elrick, the latter's feeling much weaker than before.

It was then that he realized something, taking in his new partner's feelings: Lanying's had been affecting him more than he thought. That whole sense of her being calm had been inadvertently helping him keep a handle on his own emotions. And now she was gone. Raen couldn't help but feel like a small piece of him was gone now.

[Lagunamov]

I wonder if this is what rock bottom feels like.

[/i]

Walking through the rubble, Elrick couldn’t help but feel unsettled by the sight. This was where he had grown up, and not just his home, but his neighbors’ were now gone, reduced to a pile of waste and broken foundations. There were still personal belongings buried in the rubble, from common stuff like clothes and some pieces of crashed furniture, to shattered family portraits and ripped out teddy bears. He even recognized one of the latter in a pile, having given that as a birthday present to the five year old girl who lived around the block.

Trying not to let all that destruction get to him, Elrick reached the familiar ground of his old place. He held his right shoulder as he walked around the ruins, the pain from the wound intensifying further than it had before, in all likelihood an effect of where he was standing. It was not every day you saw your home in ruins, with no trace of anyone you ever knew. As much as he tried to remain calm, the entire thing still upset him.

Regardless, after examining the ruins for long enough, he knelt down in a particular spot and started to remove the rubble from there, starting with a fallen pillar he pushed out of his way with his foot. After about a minute of removing all sorts of crap from there, including a ripped painting and family portrait of his own, he managed to get the ground clear, about one meter in diameter. The wooden tiles had managed to hold somewhat, but that was unimportant.

Elrick sighed, raising his left fist and slamming it through the floor, hitting right between two wooden tiles and passing right through them. He pulled upwards and removed those two, frantically removing the rest afterwards, breaking as many as necessary. Once the whole was large enough, he reached into the pit and found… nothing. Elrick’s eyes widened, starting to move both his hands through the compartment, touching the soil at the very bottom, finding nothing there.

“You have got to be kidding me…” Elrick muttered, feeling almost defeated. He straightened back and let his arms fall numb beside him. All that work, all those risks, almost losing someone… for nothing. No, not for nothing. His senses sharpened, sensing something close. And indeed, they were not alone. Not anymore at least.

Jumping out of the way and over a small wall, Elrick hid before three arrows in fire hit him where he had been just seconds before. He looked over the broken wall that was serving as cover, seeing what appeared to be five heavily armored archers on the roof across the street… and ten foot soldiers drop from above, led by a familiar face.

“Welcome home, Major Wieland. Have you enjoyed your welcome back party?” the man’s voice was filled with a mix of contempt and amusement. He was wearing a dark grey armor, covering most of his body except for his head, which showed short dirty blond hair and a couple of scars on the left side of his forehead. “Oh yeah, it’s been the time of my life Hammond. But I’m disappointed at the lack of a fruit basket. I thought you had better manners than that,” Elrick snarked from behind the wall, barely showing his eye to the enemy. He needed to think of something, and fast.

[Fate]

Aww dammit, MORE soldiers?
--

This was probably the only time that Lillian was a little bit thankful she didn't have to see much of Libertas destroyed, or even remembered what it looked like before it fell into darkness. This sort of stuff that Elrick was having to sift through while her and Raen were guarding was heartbreaking. So much destruction of homes, of lives really. She didn't look at it much, just holding her guns up and looking around and focusing her attention on that. If someone tried to jump in and attack, she had to be ready.

And people did come, after Elrick hadn't found what he was looking for. At least fifteen soldiers all total jumped in, led by someone this time that seemed to know Elrick. Lillian didn't dare shoot, knowing that'd just open up another fighting frenzy; she didn't dare lower them either, keeping them ready to shoot as Elrick and the leader of the soldiers exchanged words. What now? Were they going to end up fighting their way out of this one too? She waited for Elrick's command on this one.

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[Nothingness]

Yup, now it's worse

Raen had been completely lost in his thoughts while Elrick was searching through the rubble. It wasn't until he heard the sound of an arrow striking stone that he snapped out of it and saw close to a dozen soldiers appear near them with archers on the rooftops.

Instinctively taking a few steps back, he kept his eyes on the roof. The archers were a much larger threat, especially since they didn't need to move to get to him. Still, the man who approached them knew Elrick, and hopefully they might be able to talk their way out of this one. Or at least buy some time until they got a real plan of escape.

[Lagunamov]

I think I'll pass.

Hammond kept pacing back and forward in front of his line of soldiers, his hands behind his back and his chest prominently forward. The guy had definitely got an ego boost since Elrick had last seen him. “Of course we didn’t forget the fruit basket. It’s just back at base. You can go pick it up there if you surrender,” he stopped walking, looking at the wall that hid the traitor out of the corner of his eye. “You are not getting away from here. You might as well turn yourself in now and spare a couple of lives. Particularly, those of your friends over there.”

Elrick became infuriated at that last remark. Not so much at Hammond, but at himself. It was him who had gotten them in that mess, and now they were being used as leverage for his surrender. His options were limited, and he only saw one current course of action that could get them out of this alive. “So, what? I give myself in and you let them go? Why does that sound fishy?” he yelled at him, still trying to buy some time to think.

“Of course not, that would be unacceptable,” such an answer was expected. “It would just keep them alive longer, that is all.” The archers were high enough on the roofs to be able to attack Raen and Lillian, and the foot soldiers seemed certainly eager to go wild and avenge their fallen partners. “So, what’s your choice? Fight to the death, or surrender and live?” Hammond turned and looked straight at where Elrick was, his arms wide open to the sides, as if almost to embrace an old friend. Embrace him, and then probably stab him to death.

“I’d rather take the third option,” he answered back as he jumped over the wall and imbued his sword with wind elemental energy, firing three blasts at the base of the roof of the building, making the structure collapse, the archers falling on top of some foot soldiers, getting trapped in the rubble on the second floor, or at the very least losing their balance for a while. “Run and don’t look back!” he yelled to his partners as he landed on the floor on the other side of the wall that had served as cover, immediately sprinting towards the enemy commander and his soldiers.


[Grarudyne Blade activated. Three ranged blast fired out of four. Two more posts of use.]

[Nothingness]

I agree with this plan

All while Elrick and the commander were talking, Raen was fervently looking for any safe way out, eyes darting left and right while his mind was afire with processing the information. He wasn't having any luck finding a good solution. To make matters worse, it looked like none of the soldier's men were going to be letting them just leave even if Elrick turned himself in. Not that Raen expected them to let them just go anyway.

It didn't take long for Raen to follow suit when Elrick created a massive enough distraction for them to escape. It was one hell of an impressive distraction at that, too. While the building was falling and the soldiers trying to escape, he raised his hand, releasing a large pulse of cold air amidst some of them, creating a ring of black fire, and freezing their legs to the ground. Grinning, he broke into a sprint after Elrick.

"I've done enough running for today. Let's just take these guys out and do whatever you need to." He wasn't going to ask what the next part of the plan was, and frankly, Raen didn't really care. As long as they eventually got away from people trying to kill them, he would consider himself pretty content. He was really missing his sword right about now.

[Raen used Winter's Lament, three posts until next use]

[Fate]

Yep, this works.
--

There wasn't a way out of this. Even if Elrick surrendered, which Lillian figured he wouldn't do unless he absolutely had to, that'd only let them live a little longer. She just found herself continuing to look around, trying to find some opening or some way to get out of this. Just keep talking Elrick-- she might find one any minu--

Or they could just go back to the plan of blowing shit up. That worked. Elrick fired at a building, causing the entire structure to collapse. Elrick had told them to run too, which she assumed to mean 'Run the hell out of here and save yourselves dammit!' Raen took this differently and froze soldiers' legs to the ground, running with Elrick. She grinned as well, firing above those soldiers. Darkness went straight through the guns and exploded upon impact, causing more of the structure to collapse. Archers that were caught in the explosion were sent flying.

This wasn't much of a plan, and it probably wasn't going to get very far. But none of them were about to let themselves die here, at least without not making it damn impressive.

[Battle Report:
Lillian used Demolition
Remains activated until after following post.
Four posts after following until next use, two uses remaining]

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[Lagunamov]

Well, we are screwed.

The support from Raen’s skill and the chaos produced by Lillian was most welcomed, locking into place most of the soldiers behind Hammond and removing archers, who simply stood there, waiting for Elrick’s assault. “This is not up for debate! Run away now!” he yelled as he launched himself into the air and slashed downwards at an unarmed Hammond… only to be blocked and bounce backwards by something he could not see. Landing on his feet, he tried another attack, only to be met with resistance once more, his slashes bouncing back in the air around the man.

“You should have taken my offer,” he grinned as he said that, the soldiers behind him laughing as their feet started to be released from the ice. Sighing and annoyed, Elrick launched the last ranged blast he had at them, blocked entirely by whatever was protecting Hammond, but dividing itself in two after that and crashing against the helmet of three of the soldiers. But, something had caught his eye. Now that he was far away enough, he noticed that whatever it was that protected the man wasn’t entirely invisible. Rather, a glimpse of it could be seen whenever he had hit it. An arm.

“Well, looks like your numbers are thinning out. I think I should reciprocate that offer of yours,” he taunted Hammond, who appeared not even remotely fazed. No. He seemed still confident that victory was his. “Do you honestly believe I would come here with just regular supplies after all you’ve done? Boy, you are sadly mistaken,” a menacing grin enveloped his face as darkness started to sprout from underneath the toppled soldiers, engulfing some and raising others back into their feet. The darkness kept growing stronger, coating several of the soldiers entirely as they stood, hiding all their human features to just present them with what appeared to be humanoid heartless.

That, however, was not all. Those that weren’t enveloped in darkness had rather it spill from them, forming dark humanoid creatures with glowing eyes, connected to them by what appeared to be a string out of the same substance that had just formed them. Most of the forces that appeared to have been decimated were now standing back up, prepared to fight to their fullest. The stench of darkness in that place had grown so strong even those not sensitive to scenting it would have their noses clogged with it.

“So, you’ve really fallen that far down…” Elrick thought to himself, almost unable to believe what he was seeing. “I present to you, Major Wieland, some of Orpheus’ finest,” he boasted, raising his arm into the air. Turning his head to the side and motioning the dark soldiers and creatures, he finished with one more command. “Clean up the mess boys.” As he said that, several of the darkness coated soldiers rushed forward, followed by some of the summoned dark creatures, sprinting and ready to attack the three targets.

[Garudyne Blade over. Four posts till next use.]

[Fate]

Beyond screwed at this point.
Blood Sugar by Pendulum.
--

Well, their plan worked for a little until the soldiers started to unfreeze. Their efforts were proving to be in vain as darkness started sprouting everywhere. And raising soldiers back up off their feet. Lillian's eyes just completely widened in shock, her guns back at her sides as she watched this happen. And the other soldiers had darkness spill out from them, turning them into creatures of sorts. Now, all of them were ready to fight again and were ready to kill the three of them.

Damn. Them. To. Hell. Especially the one that Elrick was dealing with. What were they supposed to do now? Lillian didn't consider the option of running much-- the soldiers would still find them. And like she was going to leave her comrades behind. But did they have a chance of winning? Not much of one. Damn damn damn. Their only option here was to keep fighting and hope that some miracle happened and they didn't die.

Lillian stayed in the same spot, taking up arms again and shooting at the soldiers coming straight for her. Even though the darkness in her shots had the explosions and all that, that wasn't stopping them. They were coated in darkness themselves, so her shooting them wasn't making much of a difference except for making their attacks slower. A couple managed to get to her, getting a good few hits. They were definitely Orpheus's best for a reason.

And they did probably the best thing they could have done: made her drop one of her guns by hitting her wrist just so. Shit. Not like she couldn't fight without it, but it made it a hell of a lot harder. They might just want to think of getting the hell out of here now. "Might wanna think about getting out of here!" she yelled at both Raen and Elrick. Though, was she stopping to run away? Nope. She wasn't going anywhere until she had her other gun back.

[/font]

[Nothingness]

Screwed people are screwed, indeed

Raen couldn't see what was so funny to this Hammond, guy. Yeah, his soldiers were now unfrozen, but there were hardly any left standing right now. He was going to spit out of comment, but quickly discovered that he couldn't find his voice--darkness was choking his senses.

For a fraction of a second, he thought that he was losing it again, and was frantically trying to get a grip, but soon realized that it wasn't him, but them. His eyes widened as he watched the fallen soldiers stand up again, darkness rolling off of them and twisting them form. His mind immediately went to his own shadow, the one Lanying had to fight. "No," he thought with conviction, "I'm not going to become that again. Not ever."

As he thought that, two of the soldiers had ran up to him and began attack him with their spears, one stabbing while another quickly slashed. Using his hands and forearms to bat away the stabs as best he could, he made sure to keep dodging the slashes while he waited for an opening. When one presented itself, he fired one spear of ice at the soldier's side, freezing his arm to his side, making it very hard for him to keep attacking.

Raen turned to take down the second soldier, but felt a long, searing pain along his shoulder. Whipping around, he quickly jumped back, finding that, although there was still a hunk of ice on its arm, the soldier wasn't affected by the darkness' binding affect. Immediately firing a second spear, it found its destination on the man's face, but that didn't do much to slow him down. Still, it gave him enough time to disarm the soldier, giving him a weapon to use.

Hearing Lillian's comment, he couldn't see any other way out of their situation. "Yeah, retreat it looking like a good plan!" He wasn't planning on running, though. At least not yet.

[Raen used Dark Blizzara, two posts until next use]

[Lagunamov]

Oh, so now you two listen to me.

Attacked by one of the Darkness infused soldiers and one dark creature, Elrick moved frantically around, blocking and dodging as many of their attacks as humanly possible, but still getting hits and scratches in. He tried to attack, but their movements were faster in general. Not faster than him in top condition, but at this moment he was far from that. Still, he managed to kick the soldier in the gut and make him fall back for a second, and deflected the creature’s slashes with his sword.

Hearing the sound of something sliding through the ground behind him, Elrick jumped back as he avoided an attack from the soldier, rolling on the ground and picking up the metallic object. Springing himself from the ground as fast as possible, he dashed at the enemy and attacked with his sword, getting blocked by the man’s bare darkness-clad hands… only to then aim Lillian’s fallen gun at his face and blasting it away at point-blank range. The body went limb, losing the darkness that coated it slowly as it fell to the ground.

The sight of one of Orpheus finest actually fall for real this time shocked the entire enemy group, making them fall back for a second. Almost as if they had realized they were taking their targets for granted. “Well, look at that,” Elrick taunted, throwing the gun over his shoulder and back to Lillian behind him. It was easy to notice that the shock value from the death wasn’t going to last for long. They were outnumbered after all, so it would only take seconds for them to regain their composure.

Not that Elrick would allow them to.

Spinning his sword above his head for a couple of seconds, Elrick gathered what strength he had left, wind starting to flow around the ground behind him, between him and his two partners, and quickly rising into a large tornado, slowly dragging pulling the rubble around them towards it, a couple of bricks behind the soldiers attracted with such strength that they hit some soldiers on their way to the cyclone.

But this wasn’t for the sake of a weapon. It was to divide the field, and have the flying rubble block the enemy’s way. “Will you two now do what I ordered five minutes ago!?” he yelled at Lillian and Raen from the other side of the tornado. The fight was already lost. The least he could do was buy them some time.


[Garudyne activated. Will last until the next post.]

[Fate]

I should have let you use my guns a long time ago.
--

Her shots no longer caused explosions, making everything that much more harder. She was probably covered in cuts and bruises now from being forced into a defensive blocking position, not able to shoot as much because of the sheer quantity of soldiers. She threw kicks and punches whenever she could, but unfortunately that wasn't going to make these soldiers die. Damn where was her other gun?

Oh Elrick had it. And he was blowing someone's face off with it. Awesome. She grinned to this as she caught it, going back to the offensive and shooting as quickly as possible. Her wrist still killed, but she'd tend to it later when she wasn't shooting things. The soldiers seemed shocked for a second after one of them fell, which wasn't supposed to happen or something. They underestimated the combination of what Elrick, Raen and her could do together.

But, that didn't erase the fact that there were too many of them, and there was no amount of luck that was going to keep all three of them alive if they kept fighting like this. Before the soldiers could regain too much composure from the shock, Elrick created a tornado, blocking the soldiers from her and Raen. And he was demanding that they got out of there. Right now. It wasn't a request, it was a "Get the fuck out of here so you don't die."

And they were going to have to obey that order, no matter how much she hated it. Damn him. She looked at him for a second, then reluctantly nodded her head and started running in the other direction, away from this battlefield. She wasn't about to look back either-- she didn't want to see whatever that Hammond guy had planned next.

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