That house was filled with barrels that were primed to explode any moment now right? Well, this fleshy mass was the most frustrating part of fighting this creature for the moment. It would be quite easy to break this creature apart once that fleshiness was gone. With this in mind, Akyasha jump up on the mast as the creature swung it at her. From there, she used it as a jumping point to slam her axe into the creature's face, bracing herself on it's shoulder and trying to force it back toward the building that was soon going to explode and seeing what damage she could do to it with one more heft back of her before slamming the sharp end back into its face. Looking over toward the blacksmith girl, Akyasha would notice she was having a bit of trouble with the local undead population despite saying she had things under control earlier.

She gave out a whistle, calling out to the Gorebat that lead her here. It should have still been around as she didn't order it away. "Help the girl out and ensure you both get out of that explosion unscathed, try not to get noticed but so be if so." She ordered the creature. At this point, she had somewhat revealed her hand, or it was going to be revealed regardless. She planned to make this girl a thrall so goodwill never hurt to have.

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

In hindsight, Giselle thought, perhaps she should have waited until her powers were significantly restored until she started trying out the high risk maneuvers. All in all, it was still a fairly good move as she’d put down the bucking antlered beast, but she’d been slightly remiss in managing it before it died, as she wasn’t able to simultaneously finish off the creature from earlier… which came right back to bite her in the back, figuratively.

She winced as the beast made contact with her, piercing into her pale flesh and tearing into her delicate black dress, revealing much of her stomach as she immediately pulled back to avoid a follow-up blow from the foul monster. With a grimace, she repositioned; the injury was very minor in the grand scheme of things, but beasts such as these tended to always smell blood in the water. As she did so, she fired twice more at it with her firearm before closing the distance again, this time on her terms as she thrust out her sword again to stab it, before moving to finish it off with another downwards blow.

Unfortunate about the dress, but she could easily fix it after the little skirmish.

Tch.

Uncouth, unpleasant beasts. She had assumed as much from the manner in which the townsfolk spoke, but to actually see them right before her eyes was another experience entirely.

Aleksiya could even detect a rather unpleasant odor.

It was best to be rid of the abominable things as quickly as possible, particularly the one that was directly endangering one of her peers. The former paladin wore armor, but the Lady Emeraltide could have suffered a much more unpleasant(though hardly existence-threatening) experience.

The crystalline spear of ice twisted in the air, spinning rapidly as red light surrounded it, Aleksiya suffusing it with power as the beast tried to throw itself down on Lady Emeraltide.

"Unsightly."

With that, the spear was sent hurtling through the air, tearing directly for the creature's head. Without pause, she formed another spear from the air, the glistening ice gleaming before it was sent to join its fellow.

@Psyker Landshark@Asuras@Rune_Alchemist

Location:
Human Village
@Psyker Landshark@Asuras@VitaVitaAR

---

Aleksiya’s spears quickly found their marks. A spear of ice halted the winged beasts attack, sending it flipping in the air and crashing into the ground some distance away from Luna. The second quickly joined it, ensuring that the beast would no longer be a problem, its murky, blackish red blood quickly staining the ground.

A quickly made undead beastly companion. Skin fell from bone, flesh rotted. Organs stopped beating. The creature seemed to howl, almost as though it was somewhat fearful of what was happening…but it was sort lived as whatever sort of free will such a beast had was stripped from it.

It fell obediently in line.

The villagers couldn’t respond, still paralyzed both by fear from the beasts, and by what they had just seen these people in front of them do. One woman’s legs went weak, and another had pulled a child close to stop them from seeing it. Well, unless someone wanted to drag them away they’d likely stay here for a few minutes in shock.

The narrow passage Dragan was in, certainly wasn’t great for fighting in. Barely two people wide, the undead beast could not walk alongside him. Either behind, or in front. Not much room to swing his weapon either, should he have to, but thankfully it seemed as though the beasts were too focused on whatever was on the other end of the hallway…

And what was on the other end of the hallway, was a most unpleasant scene.

It appeared to be a central chamber of some sort. The villagers had carved a large, dome shaped cavern into the rocks beneath their village, about roughly the size of a decently sized middle class house. Storage rooms had been carved into the sides, so had houses, beds. It seemed as though whenever they were beset by monsters, the people would flee down here for safety.

It seemed as though that was no longer an option.

A number of beasts, some humanoid like the bat winged one were feasting on the fresh kills they had gotten. Some more hound and deer like ones were trying to break into some places that had been hastily barricaded.

Location:
Forest of Beasts
@Click This

---

The beast missed its follow up, barely grazing her face with its claws. Two shots, and the beast would stagger. A howl, then cut short as Giselle’s blade would cleanly cut through the rest of its body, finally sending it to the ground where it no longer moved. Whatever had made these beasts, certainly made them quite…resilient.

As the fighting died down, she’d find herself greeted with silence. The rest of the beasts, if there had been any…had fled, it seemed. A few more had been taken care of by the Gorebat, who’s now fattened belly was making her have a hard time flying so she’d plop herself back down on Giselle’s head, making a mess of her hair and turning it into a little bat nest.

The only sound that followed was that of an explosion near the river and the sound of someone shouting in the night. Perhaps she could go see what Akyasha was up to, or head back to the village to make sure there weren’t any more stragglers hanging around.

Location:
Human Village, Riverside
@Pyromania99

---

The Monstrous undead let out a gurgling howl as Akyasha avoided its swipe, instead leaping into the air and digging her heels into its shoulder, only to have her slam the axe into its face. Blood spilled from its almost split in two visage, but it wasn’t going down so easily. It stumbled back from the first strike, but it quickly planted its feet in the ground, steadying its stance and just barely not meeting the burning wood.

As she’d give her orders to the Gorebat, the creature would retaliate by simply grabbing her as she finished, strong hands grabbing her. Pain shot through her body as she’d feel several bones break from the crushing strength.

A feral, gurgling roar as it’d slam her onto the ground, and proceed to point the old cannon it was carrying at her. Normally such an old, waterlogged canon would never be able to fire…but she could feel it - magic was building in its barrel! Whatever it was going to do, it was going to try and just obliterate her.

The gorebat acknowledged Akyasha’s orders, chittering mildly irritably at being told to protect a human, zooming into the now burning building to help Julene.

Location:
Pirates End
@crimson Paladin

---

He managed to pull himself onto a piece of flotsam just in time, the roiling water growing more and more agitated as the undead tried to grab and reach for his heels, pulling him into the watery grave he had just barely escaped from. It was difficult to maintain his balance at times, each platform barely supported his weight and quickly gave way under his quick movements, but even so he’d eventually leap towards the shattered remains of the old hull that Cynthia had disappeared through. He’d pull himself up over the small ledge, the ground swaying under him as the waves continued to rage but it would serve as if nothing else, better footing than that now watery pit behind him.

There was, however, now a clear path for him to leave. The ship was angled to have its bow jutting out from the water, towards the shoreline they were heading towards. A small climb up to what remained of its hull, and running across its front figurehead. If he could make a leap across a watery chasm and onto a beached ship across.

That just left Cynthia.

She had been knocked against the deck of a ship that had jammed itself half sunk against this one, barely managing to keep both of them afloat it seemed. A large piece of jagged wood jutted from her shoulder, but that was the least of their worries. She was managing to get to her feet just as Argus would pull himself up into the capsized ship.
And the beast below, too, was just now starting to claw its way up from the depths.

Behind Cynthia, the water began to swell upwards, pulling the water up with it along with the various pieces of flotsam.

“Captain fellborn!” Cynthia shouted, wincing in pain slightly. “Get to the shore! I can handle myself! Your survival is imperative!” She shouted, as the shadowy, watery figure behind them continued to rise from the ocean like some sort of primordial creature, keeping itself cloaked entirely in water. She managed to get to her feet, twirling her spear. “This thing gets a hold of you its over!”

The villagers' reaction was unfortunate, but not unexpected. There hadn't been enough time to adjust his own tactics to be more...palatable towards ignorant mortals. Still, if even Aleksiya's ice was terrifying to them, no amount of control would have likely helped at the moment. It was good that nothing else had decided to bar the hallway he'd passed through. Not enough room to swing his hammer, to say nothing of having his newly created minion fight at his side. Of course, he could have managed with a conjured weapon, but that would have been a waste of blood.

As Dragan emerged into the central chamber, he took the situation in with barely a second, his hammer raised as he started to charge. A wave of his hand raised the fresh corpses that were being feasted on as zombies, all of which began to extend their hands and attempt to throttle the beasts that had just been feasting not even a second ago. Hopefully, the shock and surprise of the attack would let those hastily-raised zombies do a significant amount of damage, if not kill their assailants outright.

Meanwhile, Dragan leapt up and descended upon a crowd of beastmen that were attempting to break through a barricade, his hammer glistening with blood as it smashed back and forth. His remaining minion barrelled into the crowd from the side, creating a distraction for its master once the initial shock of the assault had faded.

Captain Argus Fellborn

The pirate had made it. All it'd take was a good jump and he'd soon be back on the shore, away from his former crew and that monster. Argus didn't consider himself an escape artist, but he had certainly made many narrow escapes over the years, ever since that fateful day when he became a vampire. How fitting, that his resurrection would begin in the same manner as his birth as a vampire- with his former crewmates trying to kill him.

Unfortunately, Cynthia hadn't been so lucky.

She was on an adjoining wreck, with a large chunk of wood embedded in her shoulder. Behind her, the pirate bore witness to the roiling of the seas as the monster began to rise out of the sea. Cynthia shouted at him to forget about her and get free, that his survival was the key, and readied her spear to hold it off.

Judging by the way it was rising out of the water, it was no mere whale or shark.

It should be an easy choice- to run and leave her behind. That's what scoundrels and thieves do, after all. Not only that, but Argus had already done it once before, giving up much of his crew and sacrificing his thralls to slip away from the Hundred Paladins and complete the mission he had been tasked with. Sure, it was hard at the time, but if he did it once, the second time would surely be much easier. Besides, it's not like it'd be a betrayal- she told him to run and leave her to face the monster.

On the other hand, if something happened to this spear-maiden, how would he get paid?

The vampire grabbed hold of the wreck's bowspirit with his left hand and chopped it off at the base with his cutlass. With all of his strength, he swung the spar around and brought its far end to where Cynthia was.

"Grab on, lass! No need to make a martyr out of yourself tonight!"

@Rune_Alchemist

"Gah!" Akyasha screamed as her body was crushed, bones breaking and then almost just as quickly she was thrown to the ground. Well, she was at least distracting this thing enough for that human to get free, hopefully. If only she were stronger again. This would be trivial in that case. "Geh...." She groaned as she saw the cannon aiming at her. At first, she felt relief that it was merely aiming the cannon at her... And then she felt the magic building in the weapon. "Need to.."

Her body ached. The broken bones were frustrating but she had to move regardless. She had lost her grip on her axe when she was crushed and it now laid next to her. So she grabbed the shaft and pushed her body to hop to its feet. Her body was damaged a bit so her ability to move was slightly difficult, but she needed to do something. She moved around the creature so that if it turned toward her it's back would be toward the house.

Akyasha just needed to dodge it's magic cannon and hopefully, at the same time as the cannon fired, deliver yet another blow to it to throw it off balance and make it fall towards the soon exploding house. Once she found herself a good position from the creature, she turned toward it. She wasn't fully sure how much magic it would charge up, but she had to guess that she had to keep moving so she dashed in. She took a leap to slam her weapon in the creature's face once more. Her bones were aching with her movements, but she needed to fight through them for now until at least this thing was no longer a threat.

The humans were frightened. Not just of the beasts, but of their saviors as well.

Aleksiya sighed heavily, her small shoulders sagging. She supposed that she couldn't entirely blame them, given they'd likely never seen anything like this before.

Still, she was far more suited to praise then fear, even if being feared as still entertaining.

"If you make your way back up the tunnel, your people are waiting for you," she said, addressing the villagers for a moment, "Please do hurry, I'm sure there are many who would be glad to see you safe."

She gave a smile to the youngest of them, though she was sure their eyes were hidden. She enjoyed holding sway over others, certainly, but the moment called for a gentler touch.

With that, the diminutive vampire proceeded down the tunnel after her allies.

Beasts. Gruesome, unpleasant, murderous beasts.

Vile, stinking, uncouth monsters.

From where did they come from? Ideally, they would discover that soon enough and be able to strike a far greater blow then this against the filthy creatures.

For the moment...

The sight of the dead villagers was dismaying, but at least Dragan offered them a chance at posthumous revenge.

"There's far too much garbage here, isn't there?" she commented idly, as the temperature of the air around her dropped, a cold mist forming seemingly spontaneously as she directed her power. Several spheres of ice formed, their shapes perfectly circular, each as big as a grown man's fist. When they were finished, there were four in total.

The beasts wouldn't be able to see this coming, not when they were so distracted.

Smirking, her tongue protruding from her lips in a playful fashion, the small blonde girl pointed as the balls of ice suddenly began to spin rapidly in place, so swiftly that their surfaces became a blur of blue-white.

Then they were unleashed, ripping through the air so swiftly they could barely be seen, targeting heads and torsos of the nearest of their abominable foes.

@Rune_Alchemist@Psyker Landshark@Asuras

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

Thankfully, with some more application of violence, the injured beast stayed down. Still, whoever had created the abominable creatures had certainly known what they were doing, even after all this time. Once this entire episode was over, she would have to convene with the other vampire lords to deal with whoever or whatever was behind the creation of these beasts. Normally, she would have dealt with this herself –or via her subordinates—but clearly that would not be viable at this junction.

With a brief gesture, she made to repair her ripped dress, the fabric quickly rebuilding itself with thin strings of her blood before reforming into proper thread, closing up the damaged garment as if it had never been ripped in the first place. She knelt down to examine the corpses in closer detail, but not without a tinge of annoyance as she directed another flick towards the gorebat that had now returned atop her head and was making a right mess of it.

Well, it had helped her some in the battle, so she wouldn’t do much more than flick at it. She would tolerate it… for now.
Giselle’s after-action inspection was interrupted, however, by an explosion in the direction of the river. Hadn’t that been in the direction that Akyasha had headed when they split up? She certainly didn’t remember pyrotechnics being in her skillset. Frowning, she stood up, and after a moment’s thought, decided to render the cleric some aid.

The scene that she came upon was no less chaotic that the sounds of explosion had implied. It reminded her of the all too vivid scenes of the end of the Era, with a building rapidly aflame, agents of terror and undead on the streets –although this time the undead were hardly on the side of the vampire cause. More importantly, there was some particularly monstrous undead creature locked in combat with the red-haired cleric… armed with a cannon. Giselle would normally have dismissed it as harmless, but she too could feel the magic potential of the weapon.

Without hesitating, she broke out her firearm once more –now fully reloaded—and with six sharp reports, emptied the entirety of the revolver’s chambers into the creature even as she closed the distance, switching the revolver for her silver sword as she watched Akyasha maneuver around it.

She flicked the gorebat once more, nonverbally urging it to go help its mistress. Once the immediate danger was over, though, she turned to the cleric. “What’s going on here? Anybody in the building?” Depending on her answer, she’d move next to enter the building, too.

Location:
Human Village
@Psyker Landshark@Asuras@VitaVitaAR

---

“I-I uh…w-well yes okay…! T-thank you!”

Being spoken to at least, seemed to help the villagers regain their senses if only a little. The child with them couldn’t help but to look back at Aleksiya as she was swiftly pulled away by what was presumably her parents as the vampires disappeared further into the tunnels, the sounds of the vampires swift assault soon echoing through the cavern system…

Dragan’s hammer tore into the undead attempting to breach a barricaded house, smashing the skull of an antlered beast and sending it to the ground. Retaliation was slow, as it’d attempt scrambling back to its feet, only to them have the undead beast slam into the crowd from the side again, completely clearing them from the barricade and scattering them in the confusion. The undead beast tore into the other creatures, biting, clawing, ripping and tearing.

A particularly large beast lunged towards Dragan, attempting to knock him over with its size.

Aleksiya wasn’t far behind. Dragan’s magic worked to resurrect the fallen villagers as zombies, the beasts that had been feasting on them were in quite for the nasty surprise as the corpses began clawing and biting, ripping and tearing back. It was a gruesome, macabre sight as the beasts still in a feeding frenzy continued trying to eat and devour the corpses while the zombies themselves did much the same. It was perhaps, a fairly ingenious strategy. Though it’d take quite a lot of focus to raise so much, the beasts, if they did happen to kill one only lessened the burden after quite a fight leaving Dragan able to focus more on his own battle.

The zombies, though, at least had Aleksiya’s magic to hinder the beasts too. Unseen bullets of ice pierced numerous beasts hide and heads, if not killing them outright, making them easy pickings for the zombies.

Now that they were in the area proper, they could see something perhaps a bit odd and out of place.

One of the houses looked as though it had a wooden barricade or door or some such, ripped off from the inside.

Location:
Human Village, Riverside
@Pyromania99@Click This

---

The creature’s cannon did not need much charge time it seemed. Only a mere few seconds. As a small orb of light appeared at the end of the canon, Akyasha managed to move out of the way, quickly stepping…and having a bit of help from an unlikely ally. Six shots rang out, all slamming into the undead fishman, throwing its aim off balance.

The canon fired in the same instance Akyasha’s weapon met its face once more. It tried to grab her, but it was too late as it fell back to the ground. A blast of highly dense magical energy launched off into the air as it fell to the ground, it soon exploding into the sky somewhere above.

The beast didn’t move again.

The gorebat atop Giselle’s head chittered grumpily before flicking its ears towards the house and hissing…

Inside the burning building, Julene deflected another blow, but the smoke was growing thicker and the flames had completely engulfed the building now. A swing of her blade, managing to crack open the skull of a nearby undead.

And there was the sound of wings flapping, and a small chitter.

“...A beast!”

Julene quickly turned, brandishing her blade and aiming to attack whatever it was…only to have the Gorebat latch right onto her face and chitter a bit irritably.

“What…the blazes are you!?” She’d shout, grabbing the thing and pulling it off her face before roughly throwing it to the ground. “Tch, some new beastie crawled out of the woodworks…didn’t that weird lady…bah, whatever.”

The gorebat hissed in pain as it slammed into the floor. Oh it didn’t like this human. It was going to complain to Akyasha about this.

Julene made to leave, but something heavy fell to the ground outside, and the ensuing shockwave rattled the building, collapsing the front door of the building.

“Geh, just my luck!”

Location:
Pirates End
@crimson Paladin

---

Cynthia hesitated for only a moment, briefly glancing back to the figure looming over the both of them. It truly was gargantuan in size, water draining from the shoreline as though an oncoming tsunami was rushing towards the land as it rose higher and higher into the darkened sky. Ancient shipwrecks clinging to the water as though it was using them for makeshift armor. She’d pry the wooden shrapnel from her shoulder, the wound miraculously closing in seconds as she’d use her free hand to grab hold of the bowspirit.

“Captain Fellborn, on my mark, swing this bowspirit around and hurl it towards the beast and infuse as much of whatever spell you want into it as you can!” Cynthia shouted, deftly pulling herself up onto the bowspirit, running atop it as an expert tightrope walker may.

From the depths of the watery visage, a single, vertical eye opened, dwarfing even a ship in size.

A single melodic, sing-song voice was heard. What could only be another part of the beasts body began rising from the sea next to it.

“Now Fellborn!”

The presence of ice around the battlefield reassured Dragan that at least Aleksiya was still present. Raising so many zombies at once while he was still weak drained him significantly, but there was strength yet to match these beasts in combat. Dragan leapt out of the way of the beast lunging at him, drawing his hammer back as he did so. Upon touching back onto the ground, the Death Knight dashed forward, bringing his hammer down onto the large beastman's skull to crush it to pieces.

Between Dragan's zombies and Aleksiya's ice, the battle in the outer chamber began to wind down. Dragan's skeleton was brought low by what remained of the horde, only for them all to be summarily crushed by the vampire lord shortly after. With the immediate threats taken care of, he spied the torn open door and hurried towards it.

"Damnation." Dragan murmured before calling out to his companions. "With me! I fear this may not be over yet. What minions I've remaining will be enough to warn us should more appear out here."

As Akyasha miraculously dodged the cannon blast, she heard and saw the impact from gunnery. A feat that could only truly be achieved in this area by Giselle. The creature, from the last hit and the gunfire, did not attempt to stand from it's fall. Akyasha sighed lightly as she heard the inside of the shack start to crumble and some part collapsed. It was on fire and the crash left her feeling ill at ease.

Giselle was around and in fact, she came up to her from somewhere. "Giselle. A human girl. Smart though..." The cleric went silent for some seconds before looking over the building before then nodding for Giselle to follow. She lead her vampire sister over to a small hole she spyed in the wall, peering inside. "Girl. Batty?" It was easy enough to notice them as she saw the two trying to check where the door had been! "Over here Girl, Batty!" The cleric said, swinging her blood-axe at the hole to make a bit more space so an adult could just run out. Not enough to make the structure unstable though. "Hurry up you two! We gotta get clear!" She was worried that beast was going to stand again, soon.

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

Thankfully, her intervention was timely, even if the cleric might not have needed it. Giselle was satisfied with her handiwork regardless, though the question of what exactly had happened here remained. Ghouls, beasts, and other forest creatures, even of the undead variety didn’t tend to cause what looked like gas explosions in buildings, after all. The vampire princess studied the building for a brief moment with a critical eye; she had been, after all, renowned for her architectural creations. It didn’t take that much skill to assess that this particular building –or shack, really—wasn’t going to last much longer… oh, there went part of the exterior façade.

"Right." Giselle raised an eyebrow at Akyasha’s response once she finally made her way to her. She was surprised the building was still inhabited, or that the human inside was still alive, but considering they were all here to make allies in one way or another, she didn’t hesitate to follow. She peeked in too, confirming the presence of what looked like a blacksmith girl… and lots of flame.

As Akyasha hacked at the building’s wall, she took another critical eye at the building –including carefully fully peaking her head in through the hole for the briefest of moments-- before helping in her own way. Using her blood creation skills, she shored up the building’s weakest point with a blood-crafted brace so that it might last perhaps a moment longer. Simultaneously, she conjured up a crowbar of the same –hacking at the wall with a silver sword would do no good, after all—aiding the cleric in opening up a proper path for the human still inside.

Captain Argus Fellborn

This was not the first time that Argus battled a sea monster. But without a proper polearm, without cannons and a crew to man them, and without his full strength, this wouldn't be like before. He had only one ally, and his only tools were a rusty cutlass, a soaked pistol, a wooden spar, and his magic.

Perhaps, however, that might be enough.

Upon hearing Cynthia's plan, the vampire complied- he wasn't much for taking orders, but he had no hang-ups with going along with another's quick thinking when the situation got dire. In fact, the only proper answer to Cynthia's request was to give her some quick thinking of his own.

Argus channeled his blood magic, causing a red trail of fluid to pour from within his sleeve, along his glove, onto his end of the spar, embedding itself into the wood. He had to be careful not to give up too much of the red substance, lest he find himself measurably weakened. With his other hand, he drew and fully cocked his pistol. The weapon was quite useless as a firearm in its current state, but all he needed was for the flint-and-steel mechanism to work.

The monster was rising up, he needed to be ready...

Argus moved his bloodied hand down the shaft, smearing a red trail. Then, without hesitation, he positioned the pistol to the trail, intending to ignite the magically altered blood with the sparks. Fire was the enemy of blood magic, weakening and destabilizing it. Unlike some vampires who might have seen this as a weakness, Argus exploited this property, imbuing it with energy to be released in a self-sustaining reaction when destabilized by fire.

Whether or not the blood began to ignite and move its way towards the crimson tip, at the spearmaiden's command, Argus spun the spar around so that the bloodied end faced the monster and tossed it like a massive harpoon.

@Rune_Alchemist

A final shower of needle-like ice materialized in the air before being scattered downwards. Any beasts that were still twitching were pierced dozens of times over by the shards, which promptly shattered on embedding themselves in their bodies.

It was insurance, to guarantee the creatures were dead, and their vile feast ended. Humans were far more useful when kept alive, and blood far more flavorful when given willingly.

... Or perhaps when taken from one who was deservedly terrified.

Regardless, monsters who devoured humans like this were wholly incompatible with the Rime-Winged Vermilion Angel, even before their beastly habits entered into it. A perfectly civilized creature that murdered and consumed uncontrollably would still remain her enemy.

And filth like that didn't need to be getting up and walking around again.

However that was far from the end of it, even if the beasts themselves were decidedly dead or incapable of moving. Wrinkling her nose at their unpleasant odor, Aleksiya approached the damaged door with a frown adorning her youthful features. The small vampire didn't much like what she saw.

It wasn't just that the barricades had been torn away. That would have been dismaying, but not unsurprising.

No, the fact that they had been torn away from the inside was the main point of concern.

"... Strange, isn't it?" she commented, "That the damage to the barricades on this door came from inside the house."

Whatever the implications may be were not completely clear to the diminutive lady, but she didn't like them regardless, a crystalline ice spear forming over her right shoulder, vapor pouring from its glasslike form as she approached the damaged doorway. Naturally, there was no choice but to peak inside.

@Rune_Alchemist@Psyker Landshark@Asuras

Location:
Human Village
@Psyker Landshark@Asuras@VitaVitaAR

---

Running into the building that had the door violently ripped open from the inside - it became clear this wasn’t just your average building. Bookshelves lined the walls, and a number of instruments of alchemical and scientific nature had been scattered on the floor. Ripped pages from books. Medical diagrams that showed of all things, what seemed to be dissected beasts.

Aleksiya, peeking inside and following just behind Dragan would notice a bit more than he would have. A few pages referencing the source of these creatures. Something about humans and beasts both being warped by something further in the forest - possibly a vampire being the cause of it.

More, was research about various notable vampire lords, but the pages were ruined, caked with blood and torn in some areas. The only notable thing she could make out ‘The forest is likely where one fell, but who, I can’t say.’

Dragan, rushing in and heading further back, would see a second room full of cages.

All had been opened, some smashed open…but in some were carcasses of beasts from above, but he wouldn’t be able to observe the room for much longer. In the room was a large, beastly looking creature pinned to the floor. Thick, heavy chains were keeping it locked down, stakes drove into its claws and arms in several places were keeping its arms locked to the ground, with similar treatment for its legs. Its head had a large, thick shackled collar around its neck.

Part of its back had been surgically tore open, revealing its bone structure as well as its beating heart and other still functioning organs.

A blindfold over its eyes, a nose that had been stitched shut, ears plugged with spikes, mouth muzzled and gagged. It hadn’t noticed him yet, but no doubt it would notice him if he got closer.

Behind it, off to the side seemed to be a small ladder leading upwards to the surface. A hole had been dug, quite recently.

Well, they had found the source of the beasts.

Location:
Human Village, Riverside
@Pyromania99@Click This

---

“Damn it, the only other door…” Well, she had boarded it up. Didn’t want anyone else escaping. A perhaps reckless and short sighted decision in the end. Had she been over confident? Julene’s expression softened only somewhat as the smoke became thicker, the crackling of fire filling her ears. Well…perhaps this was fitting in the end.

“What’s the matter, creature?” She’d say to the gorebat as it’d chitter in an annoyed fashion. “Shoo or you’ll get burned, too-ah?” The bat forcefully grabbed her head, turning it in the direction that Akyasha and Giselle were attempting to pry open a hole in the weakened, thin walls of the building.

“...tch, that lady is crazy.” Still, if it was a way out of this alive, then she’d take it. Normally the bolt would probably be too weak to blow a hole in the wall, but if nothing else, it could help. Her head was starting to get dizzy from the smoke inhalation anyways. “Ack-ngh-cough-Move you-cough-!”

She aimed the bolt, and loosed it towards the wall.

Another explosion.

The wall split open, with thankfully Giselles’ reinforcement holding the rest of the wall and building around Julene up just enough for the blow not to bring down the rest of the building down around her. And a hole, just big enough for Julene to be pulled through.

The human fell forwards, crawling on the ground as she’d move towards the hole, the gorebat tugging on her sleeve as she’d soon manage to get through the opening.

“...you…are a crazy woman…but thanks…” Julene sputtered out, needing help standing currently. She was covered in mostly superficial wounds. A few light cuts and scrapes, a few burns and was singed in a few places but she was otherwise mostly fine.

Location:
Pirates End
@crimson Paladin

---

Ignition.

Flame.

It would leave the captain feeling a bit weakened, but it’d be enough. Fire alighted on the large, makeshift harpoon. It was incomparable in size to the creature that was gazing at them with a heavy, imperious gaze, but it was the only weapon they had for now. As it sailed through the air, Cynthia pulled herself up next to Fellborn.

And slowly, she’d lower just one side of her blindfold, revealing beneath a single eye the color of clearest blue. It lacked any pupil, iris - it was just a completely, blue sphere in her eye socket - but it was only the briefest of glances for the captain, for just as quickly as she had revealed it, she’d recoil in pain, clutching the side of her head.

Whatever she had done, if anything, was not something Argus could see. All he’d see was the result.

As the titanic creature rose its tendril from the sea in order to crush them, the bowspirit slammed into the watery wall that served as its armor, but it did not stop. It pierced through the armor, and right through to what was presumably the beasts flesh. An explosion rocked the beast, sending it swaying to the side, and sending its tendril sinking back into the water as the beast itself closed its eye, a sing-song like voice shuddering with what seemed like pain and annoyance.

“Nngh…I hate to ask this but…land…carry me…” He’d feel Cynthia’s hand on his wrist. “While its stunned. Can’t hurt us there…”

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

As mundane as the combined rescue attempts of two vampire lords were, it was not a surprise that the human rescue attempt was a success, even if it was a very close thing. The moment Julene crossed the makeshift threshold, Giselle tossed her crowbar aside, dematerializing back into a mist of blood before she grabbed her outstretched arm and pulled her away from the burning building before it could collapse on top of them all.

Once they’d cleared the danger zone and were out in a proper open space, she paused and reached out a hand to help the singed blacksmith girl stand. She looked superficially fine except for some scrapes, but she knew that any human that had breathed in that much smoke would likely be winded for days afterwards or internally injured. She wouldn’t fault her if she couldn’t stand, but if the village had a healer, she would recommend her to see them. Still, she had been impressed. Had she used explosives to help take down that wall? It explained the fire, but she was surprised that knowledge of the complex chemical formulae for such things persisted to this day. Even if it did, it would still be rare for somebody to grasp making such things well. She gave Julene a thoughtful expression for a moment before speaking.

“You’re very welcome,” Giselle responded, despite the human having addressed those words to the cleric rather than herself. “If you can walk, we should head back towards the village proper. I believe we have taken care of all the creatures we’ve encountered thus far, so we should check in on the others.”

Dragan had been expecting many things when he'd entered the building: more beastmen, mortals being terrified by them if he were lucky, and more corpses if fortune decided to not favor him on this day. A mangled, imprisoned beastman kept seemingly as a test subject was not on his list of expectations. A deep frown marred the vampire lord's face beneath his helmet as he took the scene in, starting to piece together what had happened here.

Whatever experimentation had been done here clearly attracted the attention of the beastmen. The little fool who'd worked here hadn't fortified well enough, providing a breaching point for the beasts. One man's negligence was responsible for who knew how many deaths today. Further proof that mortals brought ruin upon themselves when left to their own devices.

As for the test subject itself...Dragan stood where he was, considering it for a moment. The measures taken to shackle it damaged the body too much for his liking to use efficiently. He only had so much power to use right now, and this would be a waste. Best to put it out of its misery, then. His course set, Dragan extended his free hand, a small spike of blood forming before it launched straight towards the beastman's exposed heart.

With that taken care of, Dragan returned to the previous chamber, noticing the notes Aleksiya was reading.

"Aught there anything of use to us?" He inquired. "Whoever was making use of this building was imprisoning beastmen in the back chamber and experimenting upon them. The breach from outside was also present there."

@VitaVitaAR

Captain Argus Fellborn

It worked. The pistol's firing mechanism, Argus' blood magic, and Cynthia's plan, all had managed to come through and temporarily stun that sea monster. And while Argus wasn't exactly sure what Cynthia did when she revealed her eye, he was pretty sure she did something. It was aimed at him- perhaps it was some sort of empowerment? Regardless, they had found success, and as long as they didn't push their luck, the duo should be able to make it to shore and out of that creature's reach.

Cynthia wasn't doing too well, however. Whatever she did had weakened and pained her, and now she was asking the pirate captain to carry her to safety.

"Very well, lass," Argus answered with a sigh, before picking up the girl. "You angled me out of the depths, after all. Besides, there's naught but dead men to tell this tale."

With Cynthia in his arms, he ran across the wreckage and leapt towards the shore. What a sight- the dreaded Red Tide, risking his own escape to rescue someone else, then carrying them to safety. Even if there was a practical reason for ensuring Cynthia's survival, perhaps losing his thralls had stung the pirate even more deeply than he believed.

@Rune_Alchemist

Akyasha stepped aside as Julene loosed her bolt at the wall, helping open up a hole big enough for the human get pulled through. Giselle made sure the human was going to make it out of the fire so Akyasha scooped up her Gorebat with one hand. A small bit of consideration of the situation and all the dangerous entities nearby, Akyasha decided it was best to keep her axe at the ready as they reeled back from the burning house. Once at a safe distance, Giselle examined the human's condition. She'd life fine enough. "If I'm a crazy woman, what's that say about the girl that did that?" The cleric teased, pointing at the house.

After she relaxed her body a small bit, she remembered that she had just been beaten and bruised and all the aches hit her once more. Her axe dropped from her hand and disappeared into a mist before it even hit the ground. "Well, you're not the only one not feeling at peak performance, miss." Akyasha groaned as she thought about every little bit that was broken or something of the sort. "Speaking of, I am appreciative of your timely intervention, Giselle. I don't think I could have taken that blast directly." Akyasha mentioned with a smile, "But yes, let's head to the village." Akyasha would be able to set her broken bones and heal once they got a moment to rest.