@Letmehaveone2@unicorgi@knifeman

As John walked toward the sound of voices for answers, a shadow figure walked beside him. It was a pale man in a hooded jacket. A man named Azrael. John had seen him in his nightmares and in his adventures for the last five years. As time went on, their encounters became more frequent. It didn't matter where he went, he was bound to run into Azrael. Nobody else had ever seen or interacted with Azrael, as far as John knew, but Azrael seemed to know things that John couldn't possibly know. Perhaps the pale man was a sign on John's dive into insanity, or perhaps he was something else.

"Surely you didn't suspect you would wrestle your way from me?"

John just ignored him, spying the figures of several others in the distance. One appeared to be wielding samurai swords. John wasted no time in concluding that The Daimyo's men had dragged him here. In John's time, "The Daimyo" was a major gang leader who John had killed, but not before slaughtering his best men.

"You're far from home, John, but perhaps this is where we meet, you and I." Azrael was holding a scythe this time as he followed John "These people, their capabilities are far beyond yours, and you won't realize until its much too late."

Not considering Azrael's warning, John rushed from the darkness as quietly as he could and swung an axe downward at Jayden's head.

Venson watches them talk among themselves, then sees a crazy man charge out of the darkness, swinging an ax at the other mans head. He simply jumps down from the tree, and trips the ax wielding maniac into the dirt. He steps on the ax mans back, and spins the blade of his scythe up against his neck. "That was rude of you. Why, you didn't even introduce yourself first. Honestly, killers these days have no respect." He shakes his head slightly in disappointment. "If you attempt to move, I'll take your head from your shoulders." He pulls on his scythe slightly, making a small cut on the mans throat to get the message across.

Skye was about to respond to Hannah, relieved that she wasn’t mad at him for snooping, but he was interrupted by a commotion. A man had come out of the surrounding foliage wielding an axe, and another man had dropped down from the trees, taken down axe-man, and threatened him with a scythe.

Skye was at a loss for words. All he could manage in response was an undignified, “Wait- wh- uh… What?”

@unicorgi @MikkishtheLeprechaun @Shadow Dragon (I'll take this third mention off upon what Shadow Dragon says)
As Jyden was telepathically speaking to Hannah, Darth began charging up his lighting and was about to strike the sword out of John's hand, but stopped when it seemed someone else who jumped from the trees decided to deal with him instead. Okay, I know this seems creepy, but I am speaking to you telepathically. Also, this is my dark side, do not trust him. "I happened." Darth grinned evilly as he struck down a couple trees before turning on her.

((color chart(unless people have already figured that out): Red = Darth and Regular = Jyden))

---

His Cave-the group

Kaiden was about close his eyes for good when he heard some sort of commotion in the distance. Standing up, he decided to go see what was going on and left the cave to find out. He was still in cheetah form.

@letmehaveone2
“Ok I won’t” she hopped down from the tree she was sitting on so he didn’t strike down hers while she was on it “Yknow it’s kinda mean and useless striking down those trees” she looked at the tree then back at him. “What are you planning on doing anyway?” She said sweetly and as innocently as possible.

Skye was frozen in place as several trees fell down around him. Thankfully, he wasn’t crushed, but the situation didn’t show any signs of calming down. As the swordsman turned to engage Hannah, Skye dove behind a particularly large tree trunk and seemingly disappeared with a soft poof, leaving his hoodie behind. In his place was an opossum bundled up in the fabric. In his panic, he had unconsciously transformed to make himself smaller.

What kind of mess had he stumbled into? Who were all these people? And why was he the only one who seemed the least bit bothered?

Cressia slowly crept towards the commotion coming from the trees, her bare feet softly crunching the twigs and leaves in her path. She was almost upon them when she heard a loud crash, several trees in front of her tumbled to the ground. The Sirrn let out a sound of concern and confusion, however curiosity got the better of her and she couldn't help but move closer.

She got to the point to where she could see exactly what was going on, one guy had another pinned, a girl and a whole big mess. Cressia frowned as she sensed another presence and glanced down, an opossum was by her feet. The female looked at it curiously, leaning down and gently patting its head with a comforting smile. She had no idea what was going on at the moment.

Venson looks around the trees, and waves at the others. "Do you know this man?" He gestures with his scythe at the man he's standing on.

(Hope you don't mind me jumping in. :) I wanted to give Aran a test run, and this looked like a good thread to start in.)

Arancathria swore softly, under her breath. She was beginning to regret buying these portal shards, for they seem to have sent her everywhere but the places she wanted to go. Probably why the trader had sold her a whole sack of them for such a cheap price. She swore that she would find the furry faced miscreant who had sold them to her and make him regret his birth. After she found her way home. Somehow.

The Demon Hunter groaned and shook her leathery, bat-like wings to settle them more comfortably against her back. Transportation via portal shard was always painful and disorientating, and it had taken her half an hour to just shake off the headache- her extremities still tingled with pins and needles. From what her spectral vision was telling her, she was in yet another forest. This one had a distinctly different aura from the last one she was in, and was distinct yet again from the forests of her long ago birth. These shards were tied to far too many strange forests for her taste. Give her a Legion encampment anytime, she'd be far happier.

At least this time she was in decent health, and properly armed, her new war glaives wrapped in soft leather and hanging from her back. She was thankful for the gracious blacksmith who had crafted them for her, imbuing the layered metal with a quiet magic, which she had then augmented with her own runes and fel energy. She hefted them and her rucksack on her back, and started walking, carefully at first, but then more confidently as she grew accustomed to interpreting this worlds natural magical energies.

After about an hour she became aware of a change in the forest, and could hear snatches of singing that wove its way through the trees. The notes were sad, the song lonely and haunting, but utterly beautiful. It stirred something within her heart, and piqued her curiosity, but she was cautious too. Something singing like that in the night, in the forest, was either confident that it was completely safe, or it was luring the unwary into a trap. She had met sirens and demons and a few other races who lulled others with their songs or beauty.

Freeing her blades to have them at the ready, she pulled the black blindfold over her empty eye sockets to hide their green glow, and securing the pack more firmly to her back should she need to run (she was getting good at that; ever since she encountered the savage beasts of the last world she had learned that fighting wasn't always the best option), she approached the singer's location slowly and silently. She could smell water and damp mossy rocks and wet earth, and within the center of her vision a glowing shape appeared, the red-orange magical aura of something sizeable.

The singing stopped after a while, which made her strangely sad, but in a moment more she peered from around the bole of a tree and witnessed an extraordinary transformation, a kind of fish- or reptile-like being (to judge by the shape of it's aura in her vision) shape shifting into the form of human female.

She'd seen enough humans to know that they were generally all right folks, but the question here was whether it was a human shifting to look like something else, or something else shifting to look like a human. Continuing to err on the side of caution, she remained hidden and followed the creature, through the trees. She could hear other voices now, some kind of argument or conflict, and having little else to do, she hung about to eavesdrop. Perhaps it would given her a taste of who the denizens of this place were.

It only took a few minutes to figure that it was a gathering of strange individuals who didn't seem to know each other, a hodge podge of unusual creatures including... was that a possum? The creature she had been following bent and patted it's head, so it was definitely a small type of animal.

This was turning out a lot more strangely than she was expecting.

@Shadow Dragon@Allycat@Letmehaveone2@unicorgi

John only smirked at what was happening. So he must have gotten rusty, for all that meant anyway. He had been captured before, several times, and each time escaping and slaughtering everyone keeping him.

The funny part was John had noticed the scythe wielder a moment before tripping and winding up in his current predicament, but mistook him for Azrael. Stupid me He thought.

But then there was the scythe wielders question to the others. These...other people here didn't look like the thugs who worked for The Nobility (the ruling gang where he is from) but they didn't look like the typical dirty, depressed losers he usually saw in the ruins of the old world. What was going on?

He looked at the one wielding samurai blades "You don't work for the Daimyo, do you?"

John was still very certain he would need to fight his way out of this one. While these people weren't like his usual enemies, he could sense they weren't totally well intentioned either.

"Who are you, and why are you here? I'll only ask this once, if you don't answer, I'll kill you." His skin ripples slightly. "If you try to stand, I'll break your ribs and spine." He presses his foot into the crazy mans back.

@unicorgi @MikkishtheLeprechaun
Darth smirked at Hannah's question. "I plan on causing lots of destruction and death (or just seriously injure)." He then turned someone else who also seemed to have a question. "I don't know or care what that is." He began charging up his dark lightning again in an attempt to destroy something or someone. Darth, stop!

Skye jumped a little when he realized someone was coming up behind him. He regarded the woman warily, but relaxed quite a bit when she started petting him. If his little possum-face could smile he would have; instead, he just pushed his head closer into her hand, chasing the comfort.

His confusion at the situation only grew when ax-guy asked about someone called the Daimyo, but the confusion was replaced with fear when sword-guy stated his intention to cause general mayhem. The man started charging some kind of magic, and Skye, trembling, huddled closer to the nice woman.

Oh my god I should have just gone back to sleep!

@knifeman@Letmehaveone2@Shadow Dragon

John felt the foot press down on his back as if it was supposed to hurt.
"I'm John. I'm a traveling merchant" he lied. These people obviously didn't know who he was...and that gave him an advantage.

He also noted how young everyone else here was. The misconception that older people were, while more experienced, lacking energy was a popular one. A false one also, and John was already sick of being on the ground.

When the samurai...or rather he looked like one, drew his swords and stated his intentions, John had just the adrenaline shot he needed.

John's entire body shot up suddenly from under the scythe wielder's foot with insane power; more force than one would expect John would be capable of, picking up the axe he dropped when he fell and swinging horizontal at the swordsman with one arm, then drawing his knife with the other and slashing at his throat.

He twirls in the air, slashing Johns inner arm with his blade. "Wrong answer." He spins his scythe like a quarterstaff, slamming the haft into John, sending him flying backwards into a tree. He jumps off the tree behind him, kicking off, and flies forward, ramming his elbow into him. He flips over with the momentum, and stands up, using his scythe as a staff. He stomps on his ribs, and hears a loud crack.

@Shadow Dragon@MikkishtheLeprechaun@knifeman@Allycat

Things seemed to be escalating quickly. One creature was pinned under the foot of another, and aggression levels were rising. They were both magical beings- there was nothing mundane about those auras. The one with the upper hand carried a scythe. Interesting choice of weapon- very demon hunter-like. She could respect the skill and experience required to properly wield one in battle, though she preferred the dual wield glaives herself.

When the fight finally kicked off properly, she decided to stay and watch. She quietly removed her pack and, setting it aside, freed her glaives, a precaution should the fight over flow into her general area. She didn't bother to attempt to hide. Though still well to the edge of the area, she stepped out into view, non-threatening, should someone deign to notice her and approach. Squatting down amidst the roots of the tree beside her, she rested the weapons across her knees, and leaned her elbows against the grips, letting her hands dangle, a relaxed pose. Though her dark lavender skin blended with the darkness of the forest, the glowing green traceries of her rune tattoos were visible. She even removed the blindfold- she didn't like those things anyway, they made her face itch- leaving her fel-flame eyes to glow green in the dark.

She watched with increasing interest as the fight ramped up in action.

@knifeman @Shadow Dragon [@MikkishLeprechaun] @Letmehaveone2


Cressia, never having seen an opossum before, found the creature to be delightfully adorable and grinned with the animal seemed to enjoy her pets. She jumped slightly when the situation involving the others only seemed escalate, practically everyone was throwing around some sort of weapon. Her people were predators in the water, using speed and their natural physical weapons to attack and kill - however here on land she was out of her element. Her deep violet eyes glanced down towards the animal that was still on the ground. "Come here little one" She spoke, her voice soft and gentle.

The Siren bent down and scoop the marsupial up in her arms, holding him close and then hid behind one of the tree's, though moved her body so that she could still see what was going on. While she knew the situation was dangerous she was also intrigued by the magic-wielding people. Cressia also knew better than to try to interfere, if she were to go in and she was turned on she had no way to defend herself - she doubt her songs could safe her in a situation like this. However....she might be able to sing something that would calm them enough to stop fighting.

@Shadow Dragon@Letmehaveone2

As John was swinging at Darth, he ignored the sharp pain of a cut on his arm made by the scythe Venson was wielding. It wasn't until an axe went across Darth's throat he turned his attention back to Venson, as the staff of his scythe connected with his rib and sent him stumbling into a tree, but this was far from enough to stop John. He parried the elbow with an elbow of his own, and when Venson tried to follow it up with a kick heard a crack...as Venson had broken a tree limb.

The blade of John's knife came up trough Venson's abdomen before he following up by slamming his foot right into Venson's mouth. Then with a bit of space between them, John brought an axe down on Venson's shoulder.

@MikkishtheLeprechaun
Darth felt the axe go across his throat, but only gritted his teeth as a response. He then put his own scythes away before attempting to strike the axe away with his lightning.

He roars in anger and pain, and spins his scythe, slamming it into the arm with the knife till he hears a sharp snap, the arm now with a brand new joint in the middle of the forearm, and punches John in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He kicks the ax out of his now limp hand, slicing it in half with his scythe. He looks up, his eyes glowing. "You'll regret that, John." He uppercuts him in the jaw, actual lifting him off the ground a few inches. He clenches at the knife, pulling it out, and wrapping torn strips of his shirt over the wound.