Jay009

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Barracker had cut the wraith practically in half, that was attacking James. The wraith fled towards the opposite side of the room, merging into a suit of knights armour. Having the needed space for breathing room, Barracker looked around at his comrades, seen the mess everyone was in and felt like he could see through the madness and see each companion stepping up to the plate. Each of the party doing their own to fend off and keep the leverage of the enemy from turning into a casualty. Generally, the effect that battle had on the Paladin was a sense of calmness, a stillness of emotion you could say, almost detached from the reality of the situation. But it was different this time as he was fighting as part of a team. He did feel an emotion and that was pride.

Barracker slammed the point of his claymore into the wooden floor and dropped to one knee beside James. “Are you alright there, captain?” as the Paladin surveyed James' wounds. They looked pretty bad but Barracker was confident that a cleric could heal himself, now that the immediate danger had passed. He glanced over to Adams position and sore that he too was injured but handling himself well enough, using the barrier for his advantage.

As Barracker turned his attention back to James, he knew by the look on the Clerics face to follow his line of sight over his shoulder, and sore the incoming magical attack, heading their way. Before he could do anything James dealt with the matter quick and swift, shooting the bolts out of the sky with his own light beam attack. He gave a nod of approval, “Thanks.”


"Thanks for the save Kass, but there is no time, the others need your help, go, me and Adam have things under control here" James said as he patted Barracker on the shoulder.

Barracker nodded firmly and rose to his feet, turned, facing the battlefield. Barracker amidst the chaos took his tower shield off his back and realised that, in this battle it would not prove useful. The vampire struck a stance that gave him a wide base, as he wound his shield arm back and then launched his shield with vampiric power. It flew like a discus, towards the fire mage who was attacking the two rangers.

After that he ran towards the action. Fenna was the closest one, but had the spectre oil to help her against the enemy. So he ran straight passed her, to the aid of MacKensie who was helpless against the wraith she was dealing with.

As the Paladin closed the distance, Barracker drove his claymore straight through the wraiths stomach and slammed it into the ground. Then lifted it back up and withdrew the blade, spinning into a three-sixty slash. All the stunned wraith would see is the vampire turn his back for a second before his sword arm would come back around into vision, and before it could even react, the blade would connect, severing the wraith’s head clean from its body.

He clasped forearms with MacKensie in a brief warriors handshake. “How serious are your wounds?” He asked as he looked upon her blood-stained clothes. “Are you able to fight on?”

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Hi everyone, just a heads up, if Barracker casts a barrier it lasts for two rounds. So for example like Adam now, he could use the barrier to his advantage against the dark bolts if he wanted to. Hope everyone is well, will posts soon.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Barracker was caught in the middle of a sword strike from the unexpected wraiths that appeared. The sword strike ignored his armour and sent Barracker flying back into a chair, sending him toppling over head first. This was uneasy, his head felt battered and his chest had a warm sensation where the flesh had been torn slightly, as if flayed off his skin, giving way to a deep purple. With the momentum he had, he rolled backwards onto his feet. He looked around to see his party companions and see where they were standing. The wraith never took his eyes off the Paladin as it swooped in with another slashing attack with its ghostly claw this time. Barracker drew his claymore. As the Paladin went for the spectre oil, the chair split into two, leaving Barracker the option of rolling again, circling the wraith waiting for its next move, while popping the vial of spectre oil, quickly soaking the blade. As he finished, the wraith went on the front foot- frontal attack with a combination of sword and claw. The sword was blocked by his claymore but the claw came clamping down on his shoulder, holding the vampire in place while the wraith went for a lethal sword thrust to Barracker’s face. The Paladin stretched his neck to one side, the ghost sword missing his face by a small margin.

Dammit if I’m going to die today, he thought determinedly as the ghost blade passed through his face mask and grazed his cheek.

“James! Adam! I’m on my way,” he called out across the lounge area. The spellcasters were the most vulnerable as they usually require concentration to cast. Also wizards and other classes like that were not known to be defensively agile in the face of swinging swords.

As soon as he could, the vampire dug his claymore into the wraith's arm. Doing this freed him from its grasp and allowed Barracker to get away and close the distance between himself and James and Adam. The spectre oil on his sword left the wraith’s arm mangled with a deep burning wound, screeching as Barracker sprinted towards the wizards. With prayer to Hades, he summoned a magic barrier between Adam and Adam’s wraith, and without stopping he lunged at James wraith and swung a powerful blow.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Barracker led the party from the front, his tower shield and claymore in their usual cross shape on his back. As they entered the temple the Paladin could see a picture of Hades hanging in the entrance block of the temple. He gave a sign of respect to ‘the other side of the cycle of life’ that was his divine patron. There was no sign of any opposition so far. Through the right side door they went. The party was led through a narrow stone corridor, passing the lamps ensconced on the wall. As they took a left, the corridor led on to another door. Barracker lowered his voice telling everyone this is the library up ahead. As they were closing in on the door, Barrackers keen sense of hearing picked up voices on the other side. The Paladin rests a finger to his lips signalling quite, letting them there was danger ahead, before slotting his mask on. Barracker moved through, opening the door slowly and quietly. Seeing that the coast was clear, Barracker led the party into the library and moved stealthily through the aisles of books until they sighted the owners of the voices.

"Take em down quietly?" Zell suggested, which was a good idea. When the swordsman pointed at him, Barracker nodded slightly to show there was understanding behind the faceless mask. "Cover us."

Barracker tailed one of the four cultists, his target on the left side, standing near a bookcase reading. Barracker snuck table to sofa, sofa to table until he was close behind the cultist. He waited, hidden behind cover, for his party to be in position, ready to pull the cultists' feet up from under him, hard enough to yank him almost horizontal in the air. If successful, Barracker would clamp down a choke hold on the man as he came crashing down to the ground.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Option 2 should be fun.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Happy new year everybody. I will catch up on reading tomorrow and then vote.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Barracker thought that ‘Bad Cop, Worse Cop’ was a more fitting name for what was in store for George. He felt a bit dirty for suggesting this whole thing but felt in dire situations to gain critical information at its quickest pace, he would have to perform some horrible stuff. There was not enough time for long and drawn out questioning tactics and further cross examinations over witnesses, he felt. Now the temple entrance was open, someone could easily come out and see them and sound the alarm.

James’ tactics of psychological pressure were clever and effective, it was almost as if his leader had done this before, such was his knowledge and execution. All Barracker had to do was apply enough pain to push George over the edge. He didn’t want to cause permanent disfigurement or serious injury, so he had to be careful about what he was going to do to their prisoner. When it came round to the vampire's time to act, he first grabbed George's hair and forcibly turned his face to look at Barrackers fangs, snarling at George. Then he retrieved the knife that his leader gave him earlier. Barracker asked in a quiet, scary tone, “Which hand do you want me to mutilate?” There was no answer, only fearful silence, so Barracker took one of George’s fingers in his grip and pushed the tip of the knife slowly under the fingernail, causing immense pain and a trickle of blood. Thankfully it was all that was needed to break the man’s spirit. After that, James and ‘Kass’ got all the information they could before bringing him back to Adam to be tied up and hung with the rest on the tree.

“Good stuff James.” The Cleric had shown why he had been appointed to the role of leadership.

When MacKensie returned to the group with the dwarf and explained the situation with him, Barracker sensed no deception from the dwarf but more than this he trusted his ally’s judgement. He’d spent enough time with MacKensie to get a decent judgement of the woman. When he first met her and shared drinks, when she came after him outside at the end of the night, something he’d always appreciated. Seeing her interact with the old woman in Cherrad and now the dwarf. She came across as one so virtuous and kind hearted. She was always polite and spoke formally like himself. Just like Fenna, in some ways she reminded him of Evelyne.

By Hades, he thought as he palmed his head. This was the woman that Zell had spoken of, back in ‘Golden Tree Park’ when they first met, before the two had even realised the two were in the same party. Hmm. His eyes flicked from her to Zell, and back again. Like Fire and Ice. Or Earth and Air, he smirked to himself amusingly.

In terms of what to do with Hardul, he would leave it up to another party member to suggest what to do with him first. There were a few ways to go with this and sadly they all came with some risk, unless they would tie him up like the others.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Barracker knelt beside the cultists who were bleeding to death painfully, mortal wounds spelling their end. One by one each had their turn to say their last words, one was very touching about their late wife, and the final was a cursed remark towards the vampire. Both, though, came with a form of the same tone to the voice, and expression planted on each of their faces. Anguish and fear, it was, such a sorrow only Hades knew too much. “May Hades judge you in the afterlife, and join your loved ones in the hollow fields” he said as he raised to his feet. Then he stabbed each of them directly in the heart for a quick mercy killing that would end their suffering.

He muttered a silent prayer to Hades, while wiping the blood off his sword.

Barracker went to Adam and put a hand on his comrades shoulder and said, “well done,” His tone was solemn. Killing other people was not to be taken or done lightly, but the Druid caster reacted fast and swung the momentum of the fight in their favor, taking out several ambushers. “Without your spell, that could have gone so differently,” Barracker said, looking into the distance before giving a small nod to the young man.

As he came to stand next to Fenna, he first held out his arm to Sil as an invitation for the Falcon to perch upon him. If Sil trusted the vampire enough to join him, then Barracker would pet her gently and then let her fly away. Either way, he would thank the bird for her assistance in the battle. “Fenna the Aurok Slayer does not disappoint,” he privately joked with Fenna, but then he said more seriously. “You outclassed that spearman. Phenomenal."

Eventually the Paladin walked over to his leader. “James, thank you for the blessing, I feel I’m able to fight forever like this. Should we tie up the survivors? With your permission, I would like to interrogate their leader George. What do you say… Good guard, Bad guard?” Barracker gave a slight smirk, his eyes glancing over the unconscious cult leader. If the cleric agreed, then they would begin the interrogation and get whatever information they could….

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Barracker listened to the discussion about how best to proceed inside the temple, Fenna appearing to favour the more direct route towards the wraith in the main chamber. Zell made it clear that only the longer route around would be stealthy.

“Normally I would…” As he started to give his opinion, Barracker’s muscles tensed, as his hearing picked up movement that did not belong to the party. The Paladin looked towards where it came from and stood up, weapon at the ready as a stranger popped into sight.

"Die cultist!" the stranger said.

Luckily no blood was spilled and the fact that the stranger thought he was attacking a cultist suggested the man might be an ally. Having already been in the temple, as he explained, he might be able to give the crucial facts and key information that would lead to success.

“It is nice to meet you both. I'm sorry for what happened to your friends. However, I hope you understand our need to be careful” Adam seemed suspicious of the stranger, rightly so, who then pointed a question to Barracker. “is there any way we can know for sure if they're with the cult?”

Barracker thought a source crystal would go a long way towards proving the stranger's story of belonging to an adventurer party. He was about to say as much until Zell interrupted, gesturing for them to let him take the lead.

"Can't you see these men have been through enough already." Zell’s attitude seemed calm and collected, once again reminding Barracker of his best friend Krillen. He knew that Zell was up to something and waited for it to play out. And when it did, resulting in George’s cover being blown, Barracker didn’t even have time to smile that ‘great minds think alike,’ his keen sense of hearing picked up multiple pairs of shuffling feet in the surrounding area.

“We have company!” Barracker yelled as he jumped into action.

"FUCK!"

"GETT THEMMM!!!"

As James and Adam began casting, Barracker was already zooming ahead, putting himself in between the ambushers and the vulnerable position of Zell, MacKensie and George. His first thought was to protect his friends but he also isolated the mage from George’s party.

As the ambushers came running towards them, Barracker jumped into a shield bash that crushed a swordsman’s face, blood and teeth flying through the air. He then flowed into a spinning sweep of his claymore, taking a second man off his feet. Amidst the carnage he heard James’ battle commands and backed up a few steps, shield up, to George, Zell and MacKensie.

He would make sure George would not be able to cast , by attempting to give the man a whack on the back of the skull with the rim of his shield, just hard enough to knock him unconscious. He would try to keep George alive for later interrogation.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Barracker and MacKensie rejoined with the group on the other side of the village, where party member Lilliana had explained about a soul confined to purgatory, unless a ritual was done to set him free. She spoke with such passion about needing to do this for the restless ghost.

This was bad timing for the party as her skills were valuable to the mission but Barracker did feel sympathy for the ghost and so he found it hard to disagree. Not that he would speak out against her, even if he wanted to. He was new to the party and hardly knew Lillianna, so he kept his thoughts to himself. The party was full of a range of class builds and individuality skills alongside himself that would prove useful, so hopefully they could manage.

“Farewell Lilliana, stay swift,” he gave a salute.

Barracker listened to leader James’ estimation of the cult numbers and deemed it a solid guess. In answer to the clerics question, the paladin nodded. “It is true, I do have night vision. I also am a bit of an insomniac,” a trace of a smile flickered on his face. “So i will make a decent watchman,”

James carried on, giving out formation orders. Barracker thought it to be a wise choice. He gave a nod, James had a good sense of strategy and it was easy to see why the party had chosen him as a leader.

"If anyone has any suggestion feel free to say it, there is no such thing as a stupid idea"

First MacKensie suggested a stealthy approach. “Good idea,” which Barracker added and expanded on. “If a decoy is required, I volunteer myself for the role. I have defensive magic in addition to my shield. I may be able to draw away the living and hold them off without causing casualties. This would leave the rest of you an opening to sneak to the main chamber and deal with the wraith.” he bowed his head to James. “Only a suggestion. I will follow your command.”

The climb up ‘Temple Hill’ was short, Barracker now walked with his sword and shield at the ready, his huge claymore blade resting on his shoulder plate as he gripped the hilt. They made camp quickly. Barracker helped out where he was required. He took a seat on a fallen stone pillar and rested his tower shield next to him.

Once everyone had settled he gave them some advice and knowledge from his bestiary studies. “Wraiths are floating entities, which can be difficult to hit due to visual distortion, but they are slow. They have semi physical talons, which they will try to strike you with, but their most dangerous attacks will be dark magic spells they throw at you, some of which can cause temporary paralysis. Many acolytes of Hades can use magic also so be prepared to face melee fighters and spell casters.”

Barracker proceeded to explain the most common layout of the temple, which commonly consist of one long hallway through the centre of the building that would lead to the main chamber. While shut down, the long hallway would be barred by several sets of puzzle locked doors. There would be ways around this likely guarded corridor. From the entrance there would probably be doorways to kitchen areas, and library areas that may provide an alternate route to the main chamber. One of these rooms might even have a hatch door to the basement floor where the living quarters were.