Member
Izurich
Level: 1
Day/Time: Day One; Evening
Location: Ragnanival Forest -> Demon Lord’s Castle
Tags: Naija @DracoLunaris, Mario @Holy Soldier, Garrett @Simple Unicycle
Word Count: 916
Coming up on the edge of the forest, where the treeline ended at a cliffside overlooking the castle, Fox would arrive quite a few seconds ahead of the rest of his team. In his haste he failed to notice that he had passed Naija until she came practically stomping in with the giant stone she was hauling and dropped it right next to him. He inched himself closer to the ledge near where he was standing and took a knee, passing a reconnoitering gaze toward the grand palace that lay before the heroes in the near distance.
What appeared as if it would normally give off a distinct air of celestial radiance had been reduced to something unnatural and ominous. The very atmosphere surrounding the castle was stripped bare of color, and the sky was utterly devoid of any and all astral bodies that would otherwise illuminate everything beneath it. Even the depths of space weren’t this dark, yet everything in sight was somehow still clearly discernable, which only served to add another layer of unsettling artifice to the scene. The openings of the castle, of which there were plenty, where large enough to reveal the great halls within, but there was no visible sign of the Demon Lord himself… or anyone else for that matter; just the faint, reverberating tremors that may or may not signify his presence there.
“Something’s not right...” Fox uttered aloud to no one in particular. “If he’s supposed to be on his way to the other castle, why would he still be here?”
Indeed, something seemed suspiciously wrong with this situation, but exactly what that was remained unclear. All he knew was that their only “trusted” contact in this world just happened to be General Bastard, whose story already wasn’t adding up in Fox’s head, and what “deal” with the Seven was he so casually referring to earlier? Everything about that guy reeked - and not just to the senses - but at the possible expense of jeopardizing the mission (and by extension, this entire world), he knew he couldn’t afford to jump to such drastic conclusions at this point with any hope of acting on them before knowing for sure if there was really any illegitimacy to their objective. For now, he would have to reluctantly follow through in order to see for himself. Though, it still begged to question why the king hadn’t left by now… unless…
“Up here, you three gentlemen. Come take a look at what we are up against so we can make a bit of a plan.”
Fox took as many lateral running steps up the side of the tree as he could manage before propelling himself backwards feet-first onto another tree, and then again at an upward angle, grabbing hold of the first branch he could reach and, in the same motion, swinging up onto the next highest one, placing himself at level with their leader.
“So how do we want to do this? Our task is specifically to delay the Demon king so we don’t necessarily need to fight him straight up. We could piss him off and lead him on a chase around his castle. Steal his helmet or something. If we want to fight him we could see if we can find what exit he will be leaving by and ambush him as he heads for the other castle. Or of course we can just find him and beat the crap out of him. Also I am kind of worried about the lack of any visible guards or the fact that we don’t exactly know where our target is, though I suppose we can simply follow the thumping footsteps on that second point. Any suggestions would be appreciated, also what you think your roll in any upcoming combat will be so we don’t trip over one another in our first battle. Until I um, remember, some of my other spells I am going to be stuck with bashing people with that rock and using the bind song to tear people's armor and weapons off them.”
The vulpine thought for no longer than a second or two before offering his own input.
“Something tells me Odin is already expecting us, so I doubt we’ll be getting the drop on him. We should assume that there’s a fight waiting for us inside, and it probably won’t be a fair one. I would place a safe bet on him having reinforcements; they always do,” he conjectured, specifically recalling his past experience with the Aparoid Queen.
“Mario,” he said, addressing the plumber directly, “we’ll likely need you up front on Odin. Out of all of us, you’ll stand the best chance at holding him back. How you want to go about that is up to you. Meet him at the the front door if you want. Just don't let him get past you.”
Turning his attention back to Naija, he explained, “You and I will go in through the side entrances to cover him in case of an ambush. Delegate the battle as you see fit from that point. I’ll be taking care of the reinforcements as well as directly assisting Mario with the Demon Lord as I can.”
“Garrett, right?” Fox inquired, gesturing to the hooded man. “You’ll be running the perimeter making sure no one’s at our flanks and covering the exits in case Odin tries to escape. Try to find and exploit any weaknesses you can pinpoint in his defenses. Relay whatever information you have on that to the rest of us, if possible. This may go without saying, but don't let him - or anyone else - notice you doing any of it. You need to be able to control the backline uninterrupted.”
“Our best bet is to keep the Demon Lord where we can see him,” he reaffirmed while pointing to the castle. “We’ll take him down if we can, but our main priority is containment. If he gets out into the open we may never be able to catch up to him. The other teams are counting on us to keep exactly that from happening, so we can’t allow ourselves to let him become their problem.”
Fox by no means fancied himself a strategist or a tactician, but it was the best he could offer at the moment. Of course, he almost forgot that he was merely suggesting this before somewhat awkwardly readdressing Naija, the one who was actually in charge.
“U-Unless anyone else has a better idea,” he offered, dialing back his assertive tone. “It’s your call. Either way, you should be quick about whatever decision you make.”
The anthropomorph then turned away, staring off intently into the distance in the presumed direction of the others.
“I get the feeling time’s not a luxury we can afford.”
