[IC] Table of Monsters

[Eklispe]

Fist still bleeding from the rock and Dorisma still angry, even more so at the fighter's stupid bantering. Robert's lightning struck quite effectively and a pleasing smell of burnt flesh rose into the air. Dorisma then once again closed in, smashing one hand after the other into the fighter in quick succession, once on his shoulder and the other on his chest. Both hits were solid blows, but the fighter was a solid person, seemingly able to fight past it without too much trouble. Still, the feeling of landing good hits on the enemy was satisfying. Perhaps surrounding him would make this easier and give them some sort of advantage. After all, being attacked from all sides would make it quite difficult to dodge. It seemed the stress of the battle was already affecting him, his next poorly aimed swing easily evaded by Dorisma.

[KaBling]

So, the battle we got involved in was a mess. First off, weeks had passed by no one seemed to get a good hit at the fighter, and he managed to swipe Robert at his chest. Dorisma smashed her fists onto both rocks and the fighter, but neither seemed to make the battle close. Despite this, the fight was more annoying than actually lethal, mainly because we were up against someone who seemed to mix an ego with a God complex.

At the same time, it was crucial that Robert didn't die from the next hit. A chunk of Robert was cut away and he bled quite a bit, but he somehow managed to piece himself together with bandages. Meanwhile, considering that the odds of actually doing any damage were so low, I just decided to aid Robert and rub in what the fighter said earlier regarding healers. Hell, I was tempted to yell out "Where is your doctor, coward?", but I was already rubbing my hands together and... I believe I just patted Robert on the shoulder. I couldn't even remember how I learned the healing spell a day ago, so I just had to improvise.

[Evanist]

Deravan moved forwards, knowing that the human warrior was weaker now. He had to go and hit him hard before he could go and hurt someone else in the party. Miles seem to have healed Robert, which was really good here. They needed to be able to heal the people in the party. As the warrior had his blade ready to parry, Deravan moved quicker then him and did a fake strike with his katana before striking him right onto the chest area, dealing some damage by this. Not much, but at least some damage. The warrior seemed almost down... almost.... He just hoped that the group could go and finish him off real soon now. The quicker the group finish him off, the less chance someone will get extremely hurt.

[Riddles]

The fighter was severely weakened after taking several hits from the rest of the group. It would most likely take just a single attack to finish him at this point. Trey didn't have enough mana left to cast any of his usual fire spells, and instead had to fire an ordinary magical bolt. It wasn't nearly as powerful as his other attacks, but it was still enough to finish off the fighter.
Trey looked in the direction that the other fighter ran, but there was no sign of him at this point. Their chances of catching up to him were slim to none.
"We should keep moving." Trey said. "He might bring more of them out here to look for us."

[Lugia]

The second fighter was finally finished off after I got healed "Thanks... but, I didn't know you could heal," I said to Miles, and I could swear the fighter's last words were somewhere along the lines of 'This is a s*** game!'... game? What game? Wasn't I just engaged in a battle to the death with this guy? Something wasn't right, here... however, the princess didn't seem too fazed by that. It seemed like she knew something about this, but I felt like I wouldn't get any answers from her. "Did you guys hear that? Something about this battle being a game? That's... strange, right? That's not a normal thing, right? And you guys heard it too, right?" I asked my teammates, desperate to know that at least someone else heard it, and that I wasn't going completely insane... then again, I did burn a cart with little provocation... but, then again, I also smelled humans in said cart... wait, since when did I attack humans unprovoked? I thought my mission was about peace, and yet, here I am, burning things without any regard to life... human, or otherwise. I thought as I followed Dorisma onward towards our goal, the dreaded dust. The stuff that brought down an entire cave of goblins, and reduced them, as well as some humans to zombies. Thankfully, we didn't encounter anything for a while, however, it was getting late, and we still didn't find that dust, so I decided to start collecting firewood, even managing to get some of the smaller logs to our possible camp, and once that was done, I used another fire spell to light the wood on fire, making a campfire, and a warm place to stay for the night. "So... who's making the camp, this time?" I asked the group, wondering if any of them could even do this.

[Evanist]

Deravan saw the fighter fall from battle.... and heard his last words. He stares longly after this.
"Game... killing is a game for them? Seriously..." he says, but he then looked at Robert.
"Next time... don't start a fire like that. We could have ended up fighting a large group of super strong opponents there. We best move. That other fighter might end up warning others and a party of humans might hunt us down." he then says to the group as he moves forwards. After a while, it seemed to be getting late. He heard Robert's question, and though a bit.
"If we can make a fire without too much smoke, that would be nice, cause we risk attracting attention with what happen back there." he warned. He knew how humans were.... but then the whole game thing... saying something about this... game? This is confusing... why did they even talk about games... He went to sit down and looked at the princess.... and shake his head.
"I am guessing your not even gonna tell us anything about why those guys said something about a game..." he says.

[Eklispe]

Dorisma grunted. Why were they all stuck on something a stupid human had said? He was probably addled in the head after being hit so hard. She spat at his body and they moved on. It seemed no one was jumping to set up camp which meant she would do it. After all, she had plenty of experience traveling on her own for so long, though she usually went without a fire. "Me." she said in response to Robert's question and set about getting camp ready to sleep in, clearing an area around the campfire, making sure there was room to sleep and what not. It wasn't overly difficult, if not overly exciting either. "Stop worry about human game." Dorisma said dismissively at Deravan's question to the princess. Just a waste of time was what it was.

[Riddles]

The group continued heading towards the dust, but the sun was beginning to set at this point. After being slowed down by those desert creatures and that group of humans, their chances of getting there before nightfall were very slim. For now, setting up camp and getting some rest would be their best option. They would have plenty of time to search for the dust tomorrow.

Robert began to collect wood for the fire, while Dorisma set up the camp. They still needed someone to watch over the camp while the others slept, though. As Deravan said, the smoke from the fire might attract some unwanted attention.
"I'll take the first watch duty." Trey said. After looking around at the group for a few seconds, he randomly selected someone. "Miles, I'll wake you up about halfway through the night so you can take over, unless someone else wants to volunteer."

[KaBling]

Somehow, I actually managed to get Robert's wounds to seal themselves like clean stitches. The rest of the group ganged up against the fighter, Trey firing off some magic bolt with the force of an arrow. The fighter fatally took it in the chest and tried to hold himself, blasting off curses as a pool of blood seeped into the dirt. Everyone seemed mildly confused as what he was referring to, but I only seemed sane to myself. "I reckon he was referring to us as hunting game, but never-mind that." Post-fight, the smell was horrible. Blood was obvious, but no one really noticed the smoke that was waft around the air, combined with what could be described as 'overcooked flesh.' Robert wandered off to the horizon, his eyes staring into thousands of yards as we didn't even bother picking at the corpses. I mean, it would be helpful, but... for sentimental reasons, we just abandoned the area. I looked back at the vicious aftermath of fighting as we moved on, doubtful travellers would imagine the remains as self-defence.

I was lost in my own thoughts as we trekked on, my feet numb and my hands heavy. I was weary of most things from here-out, dusk cutting across the sky as if the only torch was blanketed. The journey was certainly more dangerous than expected, and it was a miracle we weren't cut down in our prime. Robert seemed very distracted, though coherent enough to ask for a fire as the darkness enveloped us. Dorisma demanded we forget about what happened and just let the princess ponder (whom I actually forgot about, somehow), as she wiped a radius clean of rocks or stray branches so that we could doze off. I was more or less against the idea of ruining my clothes against the ground, but given what happened today I was more than happy to just fall down flat. I wasn't too grateful for our survival, in all honesty. Sure I robbed people blind with illusionary chances of riches, but it never fell down to cutting away lives and mutual survival.

"Oh, you called?" Trey mentioned my name with his distinctive voice, apparently compelled by guard duty and asking we'd switch shifts half-way through the night. "Well... I had a rough night today. I was supposed to learn how to heal (and I managed that fine), but I found myself in a valley with bruises and two other men. I think I'll sleep properly for the night." I spoke about my night, still unable to remember crucial details about it. Something about saving a kid, but that was it.

[Lugia]

After a short rest, Miles woke me up, and muttered something about it being my watch next. Tired, I stumbled over to where I could see anything, should anything happen. The warmth, light, and the faint smell of burning wood from the torch was honestly the only thing keeping me up for... shoot, I must have lost count. Was I even counting? As I tried to remember that, the night continued on, the chilling breeze of the night air being particularly unbearable to someone like me, and the darkness beyond the torch nearly having me give way to my imagination, or paranoia. Sure, those dancing shadows to the north LOOKED like human shadows, and sure, there was some rustling in the bushes off to the south-east, but, after a quick check of both areas, all I found was an owl in the bushes. The owl flew off in the night, probably searching for some mice to eat, and the night just seemed to drag on... The princess was somehow awake, and was writing down something, but, whenever I got close enough to read whatever it was, she hastily closed the book, and shouted that I should mind my own business. How her shouts didn't attract any attention, I'll never know, but, surely enough, my shift came to an uneventful end... just as it had uneventfully started. Tired, I stumbled over to where Deravan was sleeping, and tried to wake him up by nudging him, and saying "Hey... it's your turn to watch this camp," though, for some reason, I felt as if my tired calls to him fell on deaf ears. Nonetheless, I made sure to stay awake until he was awake, just to make sure nothing could catch us by surprise.

[Evanist]

Deravan woke up slowly as he grumbles a bit from it being his shift right now, before getting up, stretching a bit.
"Alright.... Will do..." he says as he gets up, taking his shift, but actually going and moving up a tree for this, looking down at the group, guarding them right now. If something were to attack, he might be able to surprise them like this... He just hoped nothing would come tonight for his shift. Although as he looked down at the group, he just wasn't sure about their whole mission right now. With how Robert attacked that group like that.... and the last thing that was said by the last opponent about some sort of... game? He would have understood if it was hunting games.... but something about how he said it was just so.... strange and wrong here. He just didn't know why. So he stood there, looking down, lost in though, in his guard. It was then that he heard something in the bushes... As he looked towards where it was, it seemed to be a human thief. God dang why did he have someone come in his shift. He suddenly jumped at the thief who was going to rummage at the group's stuff, attacking him hard with his blade, actually hitting him hard with a good strike. One thing for sure, he didn't see that coming. Although... what happen next Deravan didn't expect. The thief turned around and went for a full stab at him, right near where his chest, was, actually getting a weak point on his armor, making him fall on the floor from this. Deravan cried out in pain from this. God dang it... he had to get hit like that! Why... why god did this have to happen!

[Riddles]

Trey woke up to the sound of screaming, and upon opening his eyes, he saw Deravan confronting a human thief that had decided to raid their camp. Seeing that Deravan was injured, Trey immediately rushed over to help, flying over the thief's head and using a Fire spell on him. Deravan didn't look like he could take another hit, so Trey hoped that this would draw the thief's attention away from him, at least until Robert or Miles got a chance to heal him.

[KaBling]

It took me a while to doze off and sink into darkness. See, we were sleeping rough. Not to mention that you get even less sleep with each person that sleeps around you, because they make all sorts of noises in the night. Some might shuffle around or whistle in their sleep, but others can just thrash or snore to no end like they're being mentally tortured. Thankfully, I got about two of hours of sleep, definitely better than about six in an alley, and eight in another alley.

I couldn't remember my dream very well, but let's just say an aural bridge cut introduced the sounds of struggle, followed by a sickening stab and shriek. Someone was in trouble, but I was still trapped between a dream and waking up; I struggled to keep my eyes open, let alone move as if someone poured tar in my veins. Snorting, I felt repulsed by the smell of blood, and I only started to picture everything together when the shadows started fighting each other. "Goodness, what the hell?" I wasn't really fazed and my joints felt stiff, but I was quickly alarmed when Trey basically pierced my eyes with light; the embers and flames in the air illuminated everything in a flash, and within seconds I took out one of my knives while harbouring disbelief. It wasn't for attacking though, since I just got up and would likely be a bad shot. "Alright, stop stumbling around and lemme get your guts back in." The only thing I could do reliably was to get Deravan to stop bleeding. I had to mutter a few lines in some weird language while rubbing my palms together, feeling uncomfortable at holding Deravan's shoulder while I kinda hoped for the best.

[Lugia]

I woke up to the sound of someone shouting... I didn't know who it was, or why they were shouting, but I quickly found my teammates fighting someone. I stumbled over to them, and tried my best to attack them with my rapier, however, I was far too tired from this, and I ended up missing, and almost falling down as he dodged my attack with relative ease, and even laughed at me as I attacked. I thought the chilly night air on its own would be enough to actually wake me up, but, unfortunately that wasn't true. Backstabs, on the other hand, had a much easier time of it, she somehow found a way to live up to her name, and actually stab the guy in the back. Unfortunately, he somehow lived through that, and now he was looking for a way to escape. I tried to tell everyone to surround the guy, but I was too tired, and I could have SWORN I said something, but, apparently, I didn't. The thief mumbled something about 'an unfair encounter', and 'this was supposed to be low-level loot'... but I just assumed he was as tired as we were, even if he seemed far more alert. Wait, loot... did he actually manage to steal something? Oh, if he did, then I will NOT be merciful... I've already had problems with thieves before, goblins who almost killed me, a few days ago, and I was not about to lose something to some thief. Not while we were supposedly winning, according to his grumbling. I tried to check him for anything that he might have stolen in the confusion of battle, and I notice that he seems to have an extra coin purse... more specifically, he had Dorisma's coin purse. Why did they always go after her money, anyways? "Hey, guys, he stole Dorisma's stuff!" I finally manage to shout to everyone in the party, just to make sure we don't let him run away with it.

[Eklispe]

Dorisma woke up to loud noises and the distinctive sentence, "he stole Dorisma's stuff". That was all that was needed for her to wake up with fiery blood and instinctively launch a brutal swing at someone she could barely see, the first hit landing with a satisfying thud into his flesh and the second easily evaded by the thief now thoroughly aware of her presence. Deveran was on the ground for some reason and Miles was awkwardly touching him. Whatever, Dorisma was more concerned with crushing this thief into paste. Which was why she had ended up on the side of him that led away from her companions, meaning that he had no choice but to fight, or allow her to attack him freely as he tried to escape.

[Evanist]

Deravan looked at Miles as he went to heal his wounds. He looked at him, giving a small smile.
"Thank....you..." he said before getting up, and then going towards the thief.... who was busy getting knocked away by Dorisma. What happen next was rather gruesome. Deravan moved forwards, his blade up.
"No one will save you now from your judgement.... thief..." he then said, before the thief yelled something out. "This isn't fair OR balanced! I WAS SUPPOSED TO WIN!" he said before the blade plunged straight into the heart of the thief, killing him instantly from the strike, blood spewing around the place a bit as the thief fell on the floor as Deravan took his blade out, dead, a pool of blood forming bellow him.
"That.... is what they get for attacking us at night...." he said, annoyed right now, shivering.
"And that pain I got.... god.... that... that felt awful." he said, shivering from all this.

[Eklispe]

Dousman sniffed disdainfully at the corpse. "Stupid human." Then she snatched her purse from the body and turned to Derevan "Next time be better lookout. You take care of body now, your watch, your kill, your problem." She said commandingly ignoring his somewhat cowardly trembling and moved to the edge of camp to start her shift. She'd had plenty of sleep anyway, more than she usually did.

[Speedwagon]

Rudy had been busy with his usual shtick, as he always had - traveling, hunting, smelling the flowers... occasionally killing someone. Yet on a fine night such as this one, he had no desire to get into conflict. Maybe his travels turned him cynical, and his hot blood had finally frozen? Who knew wandering aimlessly lacked so much purpose and ambition?

Maybe it's time I found somewhere to rest, he thought, following up with a soul-crushing sigh.

That's when his nose filled with the scent of flame. Someone was setting up camp, perhaps?

If it's a group of humans I could be eating good tonight...

The thought was cut short when, as he grew closer, he heard the sound of a human begging for their lives before being silenced.

Oh? Monsters, then, or perhaps a dispute between the humans?

He grew closer, sneaking through bushes and hiding behind trees to the best of his ability - which, all things considered, was actually piss-poor. By the time he could see the flicker of flame maybe about 40 feet or so away from his current position, the curious goblin had committed one of the ultimate sins of stealth: making noise.

Indeed. His body shook once over and his heart sank to his stomach at the snapping sound he had just made, definitely loud enough that at least someone camping over there could make out. Looking down at his feet, he saw the source of the loud noise: a pile of twigs just sitting there, perfectly laid out for his demise.

"Fuck," he whispered to himself before trying his best to crouch behind some bushes in hopes that no one would see him.

[Eklispe]

Dorisma's ears twitched and she glanced at the direction of the sound for a moment. Then, with remarkable stealth, Dorisma crept into the woods and got close enough see the source of the sound. To her dissapointment it wasn't a human but it was someone trying to be sneaky, which meant they were up to no good. So Dorisma closed the remaining distance between them in one limb cracking, stick snapping, leaf crushing rush and grabbed the goblin by his neck. Not enough to choke him, but enough for him to take his breaths carefully and hope it didn't get any closer. Feeling rather pleased with herself at this point Dorisma let out a small grunt of laughter at the unfortunate goblin and promptly trotted into camp again, somewhat roughly dropping her prize at the campfire. "Found a sneak." Was all she said, waiting to pounce on him again if he tried to escape. The others could decide what to do with him. She didn't paticularly care as long as the goblin didn't cause any trouble. If he did though she'd heard about this interesting stew...

[KaBling]

So, the thief tried to run away with a bunch of our belongings, but his poor of judgement ended up gimping him. I had to look away when Dorisma and Deravan finished off the thief, somewhat taken back over the excessive brutality. Hell, it was savage, and Dorisma seemed to take it out on Deravan as well. "Don't be that cold Dorisma, someone nearly died. Whether at fault or not that's pretty brutal." I spoke out, hand still on Deravan's shoulder as the glow faded away from my palms. This journey wasn't really what I had in mind, what with only about 5 people (princess excluded because she seems to fade in and out now) expected to stop some wave of horror whilst having to fend for ourselves in the wilderness. I just sighed and looked into the darkness, biting my tongue and hoping we'd actually get to the place before dying. Even then, what do we do to stop it all? It's not like we're gonna have a deus ex machina like every damned fairy tale.

And then, Dorisma left the camp. I was about to ask what she was doing, but it seemed like she was going out for a late-night hunt. She plopped a goblin by the campfire, and I only noticed when I heard a loud thud against the ground. "Was that thief alone or what?" I commented, alarmed at a potential accomplice and raising an eyebrow, hand patting against the knives in my pockets.