Attack on Iron Enigma Part 1
Collab Between Burthstone, Yoshua171, and Crimson Raven
Inside the hotel Iron Enigma was staying at, Twelve Iron Enigma Guild members were sitting around a monitor lacrima, showing their guildmate's fight in the games. Most would be cheering on Grant, and a couple were having a conversation amongst themselves while the rest shouted and cheered. The rest of the room, besides the bartender, was empty. It seemed Iron Enigma had wanted the entire place to themselves for the duration of the games, despite only having twenty-nine members.
The noise of the games and cheers of the spectators was interrupted by a loud boom. The sound was made by the door of the hotel being kicked in and hitting the wall. Ferrin strode in like he owned the place, with his sword over his shoulder and his Gauntlet out of his pocket. Valak was slightly behind him, looking intimidating in his armor.
"Alright!" He said loud enough for everyone to hear him.
"We are looking for a small, white furred dragon-like creature, any of you gents know if one happens to be here?"After a moment a couple of the individuals watching the Lacrima Screen would notice the two newcomers, and they'd tap the next guy's shoulder and point them out. Soon enough the small group was silent, watching Ferrin and Valak, and the only sounds would be coming from the fight between Maddox and Grant, as well as the game's commentators. None would say anything to the two, but the question they were asking themselves was obvious.
Who are they and what are they doing here? They seemed content, however, to let them decide if they wanted to answer that question, as none stood up or spoke a word to the two.
As Ferrin started yelling, someone made the decision to turn off the screen, and the rest would look amongst each other. One spoke up.
"If you're looking for that, you'd have a better chance with some other guild. I think I saw one guild with a white 'dragon like thing' in the games." It didn't take long for the others to start speaking up in agreement, and telling them to go ahead and leave. One individual, a blonde woman who looked about twenty years old, sitting at the back of the group wouldn't be participating in the shouting, or telling them to leave, but watching them closely with a small smirk on her face. The bartender would look up at the scene and carefully start moving so that if a fight broke loose he wouldn't have to worry about getting hit.
Having walked to the door after the entrance of the two troublemakers, Dornae glanced at the now empty, and cracked, door frame and sighed.
Great, they are
trouble, he lamented even as he glanced past them to see the others. They all had guild marks, Iron Enigma maybe?
Ferrin raised his eyebrow, at their surprisingly calm reactions. He noticed the Iron Enigma guild marks on a few of the people.
"Ahh, that makes sense now, He said,
"Phoenix Wing is a major rival of Iron Enigma, I am not surprised you would stoop so low as to capture one of their members." He sighed dramatically,
"But I suppose, if it's not here, then you would not mind me looking around... He made a show of pretending to look around the room without moving.
well, if it's not here, then... "...Say in the basement over there?" Valak did not show it, but he mentally rolled his eyes at his companion.
As if reading his mind the vocal one verified his guess.
Gritting his teeth, Dornae tried to figure out how to react properly and decided to hide just outside, getting out of sight just before the one of the two moved and stopped obscuring line of sight. While he hid he scratched another rune into the surface of the wall. It would act as an invisible force field over the doorway with the same effects as his earlier marks.
He then quickly scratched a similar rune into his grandfather's crystal dagger. He'd wait to see how things unfolded, using his hearing to gauge what was going on.
One individual of the group, a guy, got particularly offended as Ferrin spoke again.
"What, you think we're so low as to cheat to win? Christ, I didn't know that the opinion of us was that low." He looked over at the Blonde woman, who was still sitting.
"I bet it's your son. You really should stop letting him kill whomever he wants. It's getting out of hand. At least Solux has a reason." The blonde woman would shrug.
"Grant does his own thing. I doubt I could stop him if I tried. He is the number one member of our guild for a reason after all." She smirked, and stood up.
"If you've really got a complaint about his actions maybe you should take it up with Gregory." Crossing her arms, she looked at him before looking at the people accusing her guild of kidnapping a member of Phoenix Wing, now addressing him.
"But he isn't kidding. We wouldn't stoop so low as to simply kidnap someone to win the games. And Phoenix Wing is far from our opposite. While it may have some things we lack, we don't go out of our way to despise them. We're not that petty." She'd talk confidently, and she obviously commanded authority in her guild, as the rest stopped talking as she started. One would also likely notice she didn't mention his comment about the basement, or him looking around.
Ferrin found the dialogue interesting, especially the names, he filed them away for future reference. He sighed and addressed the blonde.
"Look blondy, there is no doubt in my mind that it is here, so you have two options; one," he held up a long, claw-like metal finger.
"You hand it over peacefully, and we all go on our merry way, or two," He held up another finger.
"We kick your asses and still get it back, your choice."Eyes widening as he heard tell of someone kidnapping someone else, Dornae felt his stomach twist, but not in fear. Before the woman began speaking again, Dornae made himself known, stepping out from where he'd hid and instead leaning his back against the door frame and watching in earnest, arms crossed. His eyes had become narrower as he looked them over, trying to gauge their magical power with his ability to sense ethernano.
It was then that the fellow he had taken to calling "Vocal," gave the guild an ultimatum, Dornae sighed to himself slightly and thought
'Yup, I knew this had trouble written all over it.' With this, he pushed off of the wall for a moment and drew Othisi, at which point he began humming quietly to himself. As he did so he weaved energy through the Catalyst, preparing a spell. Meanwhile, his other hand counted the twelve pebbles that it held by feeling over them lightly. This was going to get messy.
"Right, totally. You three are going to beat up four times as many wizards, retrieve something that we don't have, then walk out without any problem." The guy chuckled, and looked at some of his guild mates in a "Can you believe this guy" manner. However, one of them was grabbing a communication lacrima, likely to communicate to the guild master that a group of people are causing a problem back at the hotel.
"Fine then, but don't go crying to your mothers when we put you in the hospital." The cocky individual who had been talking slammed a fist into his open hand, smiling, and waiting for Ferrin and the others' move. The blonde-haired woman simply looked amused at the state of affairs.
"Three?" Ferrin said, as he looked around. He spotted the rather conspicuous guy by the door.
"That guy? I thought he was one of you. But no matter...." Aether enhanced, High speed. In a blur of motion, Ferrin crossed the room in an instant, suddenly appearing in front of the guy who was talking so boldly. Ferrin seized his face with his Gauntlet, hard enough to break his nose, And in a burst of violence slammed his head into the ground so hard he rebounded. Then Ferrin followed with a spinning kick to the man's ribs that sent him flying across the room.
"...I think I will take my chances." He stated calmly.
When the arrogant man pointed him out, and the stranger who might as well have been his ally glanced back at him, Dornae simply met their eyes, saying nothing. He had finished his spell and so his closed hand, the one that carried the pebbles, now had a faint blue glow.
Then, in a flash of movement, he noted the talkative fellow engage in some rather violent activity. At this point he walked further into the building and waited for the response of the enemy mages.
He knew they wouldn't go down without a fight, especially after being antagonized so violently. Luckily he had had time to prepare. Nonetheless, this was about to get quite messy.
As Ferrin attacked her guild mate, the blonde-haired woman lifted her right hand, and on the palm of it was her guild mark.
"Enigmatic Glare!" The guild mark would suddenly begin to change. The emblem would turn ninty degrees clockwise, and the blackness in the circle that created the crescent moon shape dilated, and moved to the center of the circle. Once it had done that, the image blinked, and as it opened there was an almost blinding purple flash.
Once the flash had subsided, Ferrin would find himself in a black void, standing on what looked to be nothing, and in the far distance in every direction red figures moved. After a moment, white copies of the Iron Enigma guild mark, after it rotated, began opening up around Ferrin and looking at him, seeming to peer into his soul. Once he was surrounded completely by these images, he would start to hear voices. Quiet, whispering at first, and he'd be able to pick out that they were saying, "The nothing will consume you." Gradually, however, this became louder and loud, slowly rising into an endless, shouting chant.
All of this, despite how vivid it was, was all only an illusion. One only Ferrin would be experiencing. It took the blonde a moment to realize her spell had, in fact, done something, and she pointed at the other two individuals.
"Well?" A few individuals snapped out of their stupor, and nodded, charging Valak and Domae. One was armed with a sword, and another threw a baseball sized fireball at Valak. Testing him as well as trying to hurt him.
From the doorway leading to the stairs, another spell rang out.
"Black Sun Eruption." A black bolt of energy would launch itself from its caster, aimed for Ferrin. On contact with something, the attack would make an explosion about two meters in diameter. Soon after, out of the doorway, the caster emerged. He was dressed in a tattered short-sleeved shirt and shorts, and what skin that could be seen was dark in color. His face was covered in an unique mask, with a sun symbol on the top, and a moon symbol on the bottom. Both black.
Ferrin was perplexed at the strange magic for a moment. He didn't feel any different. Then, he realized something, he could still smell the bar. Now, why was that? Unless.... Ferrin thrust his Gauntlet forward and threw his magic against the illusion. It crackled and shattered then faded away. Ferrin had just enough time to cast a hasty Aether Shield as the hostile magic flew towards him. The shield caught the brunt of the blast, which pushed him back a little. He was singed somewhat, but had no major injuries.
"Damn, I must have gotten soft." He muttered.
Creepy or Blondy? He thought. He stomped and shouted,
"Stone Wall!" A long wall of very hard rock separated the masked man from the rest of the room. Displaying the same speed, Ferrin seemed to disappear and reappear in front of the blonde, as if to repeat the same tactic he used on the first guy. Instead, he disappeared once more and appeared behind her. He stood sideways and extended his Gauntlet.
"Hellfire Gatling! He shouted. Several head sized, super hot, fireballs flew towards her.
Valak reacted quickly as he was charged. He had been carrying his Ice Francisca on the assumption that fire was a common magic. He felt a bit of satisfaction as he was proven right. He simply thrust his axe into the fireball, which cooled it immediately. He raised his shield to block the swordsman's strike, and replied with a sideways swing at his ribs.
Left to face against the fire mage, Dornae walked walked past Valak to confront the man, as if ignoring the swordsman he faced. Eyes narrowing at the idea that these mages had kidnapped someone for personal gain, the Enchanter began channeling magic through his sword once more. However, as he did so, he opened his other hand, holding it palm upwards and tossing the pebbles into the air.
Rather than fall, the small rune-marked rocks remained airborne, floating in small revolutions around one another. With this in place he took his grandfather's dagger in hand and carved an additional three runes onto the surface of each pebble. It took him only 6 seconds and as he finished doing so he snatched a pebble from the floating group and threw it at the man. However, it was thrown so it would fly past him and not hit at all.
Dornae frowned, appearing annoyed that he had missed.
"Well that's a damn waste," he said allowed, seeming to simultaneously disrupt the spell he'd been weaving.
"Dammit!" he swore, at which point he grumbled and charged at the man, the small pebbles remaining where he'd set them to float in the air.
He slipped his blade forwards in the air, aiming for the man's shoulder and wondering how he'd respond.
It was barely a second before Ferrin's rock wall was obliterated by another explosive spell, and the masked man walked through, and he looked around the room with a slow gaze.
"Well, I guess I am a tad hungry." He said to himself, smiling under his mask, and looked at the three weaker guildmates trying to fight Valak and Dornae. The fire mage would be jumping backwards to avoid an attack by the latter, and the swordsman had managed to get almost out of the way of an attack, but not entirely, leaving a small cut on his side.
"Black Sun Nova." He extended his hand towards the group, and a black ball launched itself from his hand to the center of the melee, avoiding individuals or counter attacks. The Iron Enigma members recognized the magic, and hit the deck just before a wave of heat and force expanded from the orb. Not as powerful as the Black Sun Eruption he had used against Ferrin, but it seemed to keep its strength farther than the other spell, and it let out three or four waves of increasing intensity before disappearing.
The Blonde Haired Woman had managed to shrug off her jacket while Ferrin was distracted, revealing tattoos all over her arms of many shapes and sizes. As her opponent blocked her ally's attack she was forced to jump backwards to avoid the residual explosion. As Ferrin appeared in front of her, then vanished again, she glanced around. Despite the pandemonium however, she managed to hear him speaking the incantation to attack again behind her, and she turned to face him, holding up her right arm, showing a shield tattoo.
"Solid Shield!" The Tattoo expanded into a shield, taking a few fireballs before breaking, and one of the remaining two slammed into her shoulder, causing her to gasp and turn sideways out of the way of the last one.
Gritting her teeth, she cast another spell,
"Dragon Aspect!" On her left arm, a tattoo of an Eastern dragon began moving, sliding around her arm, before magically detaching itself from her arm and floating up in front of her. It would then spit a jet of flame at Ferrin, and the Blonde woman steeled herself, expecting another sudden attack from behind, though she figured he'd likely change things up.
Ferrin gestured,
"Aero!" A small burst of rotating wind flew into the blast of fire, exploding and dispersing it. His left hand, with his sword swung up and beheaded the dragon. In the same movement he reversed the sword and cut sideways, then he let loose with a flurry of slashes, his sword blurring with their speed. He was interrupted by the blast, which caught him and thew him to the ground. He half rolled with the motion, and ended up on his knees. He sprung backwards anticipating an attack. With some distance between them, he strained and grinned,
"I have not had this much fun in a while. Reminds me of old times..." He stretched leisurely,
"Guess that was a nice warm-up. Now, I am ready to go for real!" He held up two fingers, which started to emit a faint multi-colored mist.
"Aether Laser!" He extended his fingers, and shot a beam of pure magic. He didn't let up though, and so sustained the beam.
Valak simply planted his feet and weathered the blast, his armor more than strong enough to null it.
"How annoying." He drew his arm back, and threw his ice axe at the fire mage. The axe had an enchantment that activated upon being thrown. It hummed and became encased in a giant ice form that mimicked the shape of the axe, and would shatter into millons of deadly shards upon contact. Of course this left Valak without a weapon, he took the moment provided by the blast and everyone on the ground to back up and requip a new one.
Detecting the build of energy before the mage released the blast, Dornae first flicked his fingers. The fire mage had dodged, but as he walked backwards the pebble that Dornae had thrown reversed directions, as he had telekinetic control of the pebbles via a spell, and hit the man's back. As it hit it would release a 1 meter (radius) sphere of flames to engulf the man. The burns wouldn't be strong enough to kill him, but they'd leave some nasty marks or at least cause him to ache all over.
With him likely taken care of, Dornae twitched his dagger five times causing five pebbles to come to him and arrange themselves in front of him. With that he braced himself, hummed for 6 seconds and then released a spell from Othisi at the last possible moment. The result was the first wave of heat and force triggering the pebbles to release their fire. In that moment Dornae's spell took hold, turning the fire into a sideways dome, thus diverting the heat energy around him and holding the fire in place. Meanwhile the force still hit him, causing him to slide back and then move forwards between waves so as to stay within his defensive measure.
When the waves of heat subsided he let the spell finish. With Othisi's influence gone the pebbles pulled the fire back into themselves and then remained inert. This included the 6th pebble which had hit the fire mage. Momentarily unsure of his next move, he quickly decided to advance on the other members of the Guild. He wanted this over fast.
The Tattooed mage was forced to make a rapid, almost dancing retreat at Ferrin pressed a sword-based assault on her. She had no time to throw up a defensive or offensive spell, and she got lucky in that he opponent was forced to retreat for a moment. Her eyes narrowed some when Ferrin practically began gloating, and she just about wanted to slit his throat at this point.
As Ferrin attacked again, the Blonde putup another shield to stop the beam, but it broke fairly quickly. Luckily for her, however, the Masked man managed to get close enough to cast a spell of his own to block the attack, saving her from it.
"Black Moon Barrier!" A shield formed around the two, holding out against the beam of pure magic, though it was draining fast. The Blonde waisted no time in trying a counterattack however.
"Arcing Light!" An arrow-shaped tattoo over her shoulder began glowing bright before launching off towards Ferrin, making a wide Arc, and travelling pretty fast.
Meanwhile, the Fire mage that had been attacking Valak shouted as the pebble hit his back and exploded into fire, engulfing him. He might've been a fire mage, but he wasn't immune to it. As the Axe hit him however, he screamed in pain, cuts and gashes appearing all over his back, and a few on his two guild members near him, causing them to shout in pain too. Bleeding profusely and burnt, the fire mage did his best to curl up into a ball, his blood pouring out onto the floor, and the two that had attacked with him stared at their friend. Dumbstruck by what had just happened.
Ferrin kept his attack up until the arrow got close. He dropped the laser and side stepped, bringing his sword up and cutting it out of the air. He took a deep breath
Valak, new guy! Hit the deck! He sent to them telepathically. He tossed his sword in the air and both hands started to glow with the Mist.
"Let's clear the riff-raff. He extended his arms out, firing larger, but less powerful beams from both hands, and spinning in place, catching anyone not shielded or still standing, and doing quite a lot of damage to the place. He stopped and caught his falling sword. He was panting slightly at using so much magic so quickly. Valak managed to requip his sword, Nosferatu when Ferrin's warning came to him. He had just enough time to realize what he meant before falling heavily, due to his armor. After it was finished he stood and raised an eyebrow at the extensive damage to the place.
Great. He thought at Ferrin, conveying as much sarcasm as he could muster. Ferrin sent back a mental shrug.
Not the first time. Valak replied,
...Not the last.Having nearly finished his spell before he heard what he could only construe as the vocal fellow's voice, Dornae glanced at him and immediately understood. The magical energy he'd gathered was significant and he hadn't been prepping something to defend against that sort of power. As such he knelt and then flattened himself to the ground, the flashes of light flying overhead just as he did so.
'Well, shit,' he thought to himself, unintentionally broadcasting the thought as he did so.
Please don't. Ferrin snickered.
How old? Valak asked, meaning "how old are you?". Dornae shook his head,
'28 and I don't plan to, it's an expression as you damn well know.'Rising once the flurry of blasts had finished, Dornae glanced around to see who remained standing and also to survey the damage. He noted only several people, mostly the stronger members of the guild. As to damage to the structure of the building, absolutely none. The furnishings however...wow, that poor innkeeper.
Exhaling, Dornae called the pebbles to his person and readied for an encounter with the stronger members of the Guild, unsure how they'd handle their comrades having been so quickly defeated.
