Jollan

The Vanishing Kingdom

Hilde took Cihiro's hand to steady herself as she hopped down off the small skiff. "I understand where he is coming from though," she started as she found a place to sit down in the soft cool sands of the cave, "to be honest, I'm sure I would be the same if the roles were reversed, that's just how parents are. Heh, though, he does say I have his spirit, which is what worries him from time to time. Truth is, I do want to be like my father, becoming a warrior strong enough to take after him one day. And just like he didn't become the strongest Varuk warrior by sitting around, I can't become that by being a guard in a small desert town!" Hilde seemed to get what she wanted off her chest, vocalized for the first time out loud, it was something that had been on her mind for quite some time, unsure if she should tell her father or not. She took a couple deep breaths before she turned to Chihiro. "Thanks for letting me vent my frustrations... it helps," she finished, both her knees together with her hands resting at them and a sheepish smile. She looked around the cave and noticed the large man who she has misunderstood s a fire priest sitting next to a fire, close to some of the other warriors as he cooked his wyrm meat and worked on the hide and scales of the beast. She hummed to herself for a moment, thinking maybe she should go say something to him. "Do you thin.... maybe I should-"

It was at that moment Bidzil came running up to the cave entrance, sliding to a stop to turn back to Allanon who was following behind a short distance away. The way Allanon explained it, the swordsman salute was some sort of formal show of respect between swordsmen. Much like some of the practices the guards in Trantis tried to show one another before spars, though theirs was different. It was much less elegent as this man's, and simpler feeling as well, but when two guards would prepare to spar, they would take their left hands and simply bump each other's knuckles with their sword in hand, still in their metal sheath, before taking two steps back and in their stances. Once the fight was over they would repeat the process like earlier before putting away their weapons. When Allanon caught up, Bidzil somewhat loosely copied Allanon's salute, before holding out his left fist weapon in hand. "This is our way of showing respect. Take your weapon, sheathed in your left hand, and bump my first to yours. Then we take two paces back and start the spar," he said with an excited grin, as if he was greatly eager to start.

Hilde looked on, surprised as if just noticing Bidzil in their group for the first time, definitely not because he was shirtless, but it was obviously because of the impending sparring session that caught her interest. "was he always here?" she thought to herself. "He's kinda cute~," she accidentally thought out loud. While it is barely above a whisper, she still turned red before trying to recover, "Um, I mean, this looks like it will be entertaining," she said bashfully.

Sahale approached the three out in the square, hearing the tail end of their conversation."No need to check that mess out, if it was a daughter you were looking for, anyway. That explosion was a man, who is now probably quite the mess over there," he said as he approached Allard and Maeve, "Here, allow me to help..." Sahale then helped Maeve in moving Allard to the temple. The sight of the great warrior being brought in was quite a blow to the people inside as they all started to whisper to one another. Allard was their strongest warrior, despite him not being the chief, though that was of his own decision."Do you have room for another?" Sahale asked. Neev had just finished healing another patient, and turned to Allard. She was a wreck, doing whatever she could to make sure she didn't lose anybody, but the constant eb and flow of magic, refilling her mana, and then continuing her work was obviously taking its toll on her, and with Allard's size and amount of wounds, she was honestly praying that she would be able to keep this up.

Neev's ears folded down, "I...I will try my best. I sent a letter out for help, but... right now I am the only healing mage," she said, her normally perky and upbeat attitude now gone after the mess she had been through today, after all, not everyone could possibly make it through. She didn't even register that Maeve was an Isoli as she instantly started directing where to set Allard and get to work, as if her work had made her more or less tunnel visioned. Sahale would lightly bump Maeve with his elbow and then gesture towards the beastman girl, "If you happen to not know any healing spells however," he started in a low tone for just her to hear, "I'm sure she wouldn't mind sharing her spellbook with you." Sahale then smiled as he turned to leave, approaching Sev.

"You said something about that man mentioning a 'Emperor of Greed', yes?" Sahale asked as he brought his free hand up to his chin in thought. "That would be none other than Lord Calibris, and those are his men, though they wouldn't be a rebel force. Believe it or not, his men don't typically care for him, they fear him, and what he can do to their families. His lust for anything that he wants at whatever cost is what earned him that title. I know what he was looking for here, but it would seem like he struck a deal with the local bandit groups. I wonder if he wanted them to help secure his desires in exchange for taking this town for them. After all, bandits haven't been able to do this kind of damage to Kalla in generations, about when it first became its own town."

Soulless Shadows

"My rural interest as been peaked..."

Ascension 3: A return to Chaos

Name: Ni'ra Ta'alhina

Age: 20

Bloodline: Basiliskin

Group: none

Appearance:
-height:5'5"
-weight: 115 lbs

personality:
Adventurous and inquisitive, she loves to explore and poke around, sometimes where she may not even belong, curiosity mostly getting the best of her. She craves knowledge and actively seeks out answers to the thoughts that pop up in her head. She is almost always honest, brutally honest even as she doesn't seem to have a filter as she seems to often voice her thoughts directly. This often is never intended to offend, its just her vocalizing her observations. She follows whatever seems to tickle her fancy, which can be problematic when she finds a town because she starts to explore many things, peacefully invading the privacy of others a little too frequently. She doesn't seem to understand why this irritates or scares people. She is surprisingly studious considering her drive to adventure and can frequently found practicing her reading, writing, and sometimes speech if she can find a person to help her, though will only study what interests her and does't do well in a lecture type setting. She wished there were more basiliskin around as there seem to be very few, and the few that she knows don't seem to share her drive for adventure.

Abilities:
-flexible- contortionist level flexibility, high muscle control
-thermal sight - vision has a higher range of sight that can see three dimensional infrared
-venomous fangs - causes drowsiness and blurry vision, and then death within a minute. Can destroy horcruxes.
-forked tongue- used to sense the environment through chemicals and pheromones in the air. Can help to track prey. Unlike regular snakes, she can taste with her tongue.
-sleek scales- tougher than skin, yet unlike dragon scales they are soft, smooth, and sleek. The tight fitting scales keep her from getting dirty and can make her rather slippery.
-unhinged jaw- her jaw is unattached and can stretch to three times its size like she can in her basilisk form. She is not a fan of people knowing this or displaying this feature for
'particular' reasons. plus its just unsightly.
-regeneration - can regenerate from injuries over time
-curse breath - can petrify an enemy into stone temporarily

Equipment: (as pictured above)
-shortsword that can be laced with venom
-caligraphy set
-a couple pairs of compact clothes easily stored in as little as a pouch or two
- various leather protectors
- sturdy grappling hook with rope (not shown)

Background:
Ni'ra was born from a clutch of eggs in the forests close to the border between Vrondi and Nero. As she grew up, she learned the art of the hunt, mostly choosing to do so because it let her explore, and seemed to suit her abilities well. Unfortunately for Ni'ra, she was born as a rare descendant among the basilisk, instantly throwing her to the bottom of their social structure. She was seen as expendable for the natural basilisks and would often not be treated as well as the other, however, Ni'ra tried her best not to let this bring her down, trying her best not to let their snide remarks or their acts of superiority get to her. She was not concerned with them. In fact, she enjoyed being away from the others as it let her explore more. Not that she didn't like being around people, but she was tired of being confined to the same territories her whole life. When she got the chance to take a letter to Nero, she decided it was a perfect opportunity. The guards at the gate never let her through no matter how nicely she asked, so this time, they would have to let her through, right? Little did she know, she was only being sent to play the part of an elaborate and deadly prank.

Experience:
Leanred some hunting methods from other basilisk, as well as by watching other basiliskin. She found the venom shortsword, grappling hook, and calligraphy equipment on a corpse of some poor lost descendant that she figured just wondered into their territory and wasn't careful. The writings and some simple paintings with the brush in the man's notes intrigued Ni'ra, inspiring her to try her hand at it as well, and finding a love for the art. So far, she has only had whatever spare parchment she could find and ink he had on him, she wonders where she will find more. She isn't very practiced with the blade, however, she knows one side is sharp, and one end is pointy, and that there are a number of odd holes at some points in the blade an its spine. Her tongue flicked at it and she sensed some odd chemicals on it, which upon rummaging through the man's gear some more she found a matching bottle. It's chemical signature sent off warning bells in her head. Next time she hunted, she tried t experiment with it, but it seemed to ruin the meat as well, causing a bit of irritation from her hunting partners. Instead, she cleaned it, and tried her own venom on it, which seemed to work the next hunt with great success at petrifying prey without having to directly bite it. All she had to do was douse it with her own venom and then chop or poke her prey with it. It was an amazing tool! As for the grapple hook, it took her a while to think about what it was used for, till she wore it one day and it was getting caught on everything. This led her to try to start hooking objects with it, and then trying to throw it at things to hook and draw them in, to trying to use it to reach things she normally couldn't. This now leads her to get into a lot more places where she probably shouldn't be.

Motivation: Pure unadulterated curiosity

The Vanishing Kingdom

Bidzil looked at Allanon with mixed look of shock and surprise, "OH, uh, now? I figured once we settled in." Bidzil's reluctance however ended in his surprise. Instead of continuing on into some excuse, he simply shrugged. "Alright then," Bidzil took off the upper part of his jacket, letting it fall behind him over his belt as if it wear now a waist piece. He was essentially shirtless with a bandage wrap that partially came up to his abs. Bidzil drew what most thought was going to be a standard blade, however, it looked like a bokken made of metal with a handle on it, though there seemed to be a type of latch where the 'blade', if you could call it that, met the handle. instead of gripping the handle, Bidzil held it at the base where the metal bokken blade met the handle. Bidzil knew that wielding it this way made it safer for the blade inside. Bidzil didn't plan on using the blade, but he had to leave it in if he were to practice properly. He also drew the other one, and held it backward in his left hand, but in the same way, holding just past the handle and this time with the blade running down his forearm and passing his elbow to his biceps. Bidzil bowed and then got in a stance, his left side leading and his right weapon resting on his shoulder, he assumed a low stance, slightly crouched and knees bent, weight on the balls of his feet.

A look of realization overtook Bidzil's face, however, as he got out of his stance for a more casual one, "Oh, wait a minute, I got an idea. We should probably wait until we are inside the cave. If the chief is headed that way I guess we should too," he partially addressed the last bit to the others before looking back to Allanon. " This can add challenge to the spar, not a real test unless your heart is pumping! C'mon!" Bidzil grinned as he waved Allanon along with him, right before bolting off full sprint towards the cave. As he ran, he left his right weapon stay on his shoulder as before, and his left arm close to himself, elbow bent. He was fairly quick, all those years swimming in that giant lake must be paying off. In fact, as he ran, he seemed to have no trouble keeping his breath, that he would even shout to Allaon as he ran. In Trantis, it wasn't uncommon for the gaurds to practice swordplay underwater sing weights on their bodys to keep them down, fighting to become faster, learning to go longer without air. They would also practice by holding water in their mouth when above ground while running around and fighting to help teach breath control and build their lungs better. The former being something Bidzil prided himself at excelling at, the latter however, he could never keep a straight face when trying to spar with someone whos cheeks were puffed up with water.

Bidzil didn't think about it, but to the others, there did seem to be a large scar just behind his left shoulder-blade that was now visible from behind.
---

Hilde had Chihiro slowly ride on her small wind skiff with her, using the desert wind instead of her own power to gently push it to the cave. Hilde was quiet for a moment after Chihiro spoke, it wasn't until a moment after they were moving she finally replied. "I... I was't trying to avoid him as much as make sure he couldn't see me to say 'no'... I understand why he doesn't want me out here. I almost did stay too. I would have said, 'maybe some other time,' but... I saw that one man left that book. I assumed he was a firepriest. That he would need it. I was fascinated and felt I had to go, only to find out he wasn't what I thought he was." Hilde was quiet again for a moment before glancing to Chihiro again briefly, then pulled her eyes back to track their craft's direction. "I am irritated at myself really. I jumped to conclusions... He doesn't seem like a bad person, but it is strange he has the book in the first place." Hilde sighed after getting that off her chest, "Dad is probably going to be furious."

Sahale looked over to the beaten young man on the ground that Juliana asked him to help. "Don't worry, I'll get him." he assured her. He looked down to the young man studiously. 'Now aren't you a curious one...,' he thought for a moment before crouching down to scoop up Juliana in his arms, bridal style. Sahale had a gentle cushion or wind carry Aerex for him as he quickly moved to take them to the temple. He felt a surge of energy down one alleyway, passing a man drawing in a lethal amount of man, who's face could be seen for only a split second before he passed and heard an explosion. Sahale could only describe it as a man at peace with himself... Sahale sailed by where Allard and Maeve were in the square, jumping and seeming to glide over them briefly to maneuver around Maeve new set of sculptures. "Ahh, the desert night blooms a new flower," he said mentioning the new pretty face, "tasteful decorating, luv," he joked as her soared by. He stopped and turned to Maeve once he was at the temple steps. "Bring that giant in here where he can get medical attention, hopefully you know some tricks of your own? I'm afraid our resident doctor at the moment is sweating her little paws off." He nodded to her and then went inside of the temple.

Once inside, it was a madhouse. There were wounded everywhere and the priest and priestesses were scrambling to do what they could to help wounded. A few guards were formed in the central hallway, led by Vog, Neev's bodyguard, at the ready for any more trouble. It was a natural choke point that led to the rest of the building and held to keep intruders at bay, with a few enemy bodies stacked in already. Vog had ordered to let the bodies stay there to make it harder for enemies to make it through. Once they were let in, Aerex would be placed on a table, as they ran out of beds, and a priestess would come to try to help stabilize him, but he seemed to be in pretty critical condition, though, so were a lot of the other people there. Neev could barely be seen in the middle of the mess, going from one person to another in her best effort to try to save the lives laid before her. The small blue vials that were on her side had a few that were already empty. A small book was floating next to her, casting various healing spells on different people, chanting for a moment as mana spiked, contorted into the spell and was released over the target, healing various injuries. However, some still needed a more rudimentary method, having to get surgical and work fast on some patients. She would have to stop and operate on some people, calling out requests to the priestesses who ran in and out. Neev was practically turning the temple into a field hospital. When she took a second from another patient, she pulled one of the blue potions from her belt and downed it to restore her mana. She then took a note out and wrote a quick message. Once finished she grabbed a little basket looking contraption with bat like wings off the back of her belt. "Take this message through safe passage. I pray that fate won't keep you late," the little bat wings seemed to come to life in her hands. she placed the note in the basket and held it up. "Find Master Koch!" she commanded and it flew off, darting away in search of its target.

Sahale nodded to Aerex and Juliana. "Okay, I'm gonna leave you love birds here. After all, we may still have some guests to entertain outside." he said before heading back out to the square.

When Neev eventually got to Aerex, she paused for a moment in surprise. She had never seen a grusk before, but by all accounts she has read this person seemed to check all the boxes for one. She shook her head to clear her thoughts before pulling out her notebook, looking to see if she had any notes on Gruskan people before starting her work. Grusk were mistreated much like beastmen were in some places. She honestly loved Kalla for their acceptance of other races. Here they would hold you by your actions, in Portea.... well, not so much. She snapped her notebook closed and put it away. Nothing in the notebook saying anything about special treatment. "Let's just hope your body takes to my magic as everyone else's...," she hoped before starting work on Aerex.

---

Maeve's words did seem to calm Allard, but that could also be attributed to the blood loss. After Allard watched Maeve dispatch of the remaining bandits, he'd have to say he was impressed, but all that was unimportant at the moment. Allard nodded his head, "Aye, she could be.... anywhere...right... not just here," he said between breaths, answering her earlier question. "We've heard no explosions, so that might be... a good sign. Blessed girl is a firekin graced by Sylph 'erself. Has tha gift o' fire and wind. Explosions are her favorite trick." Just then there was an explosion that everyone close-by could feel. Sahale passed at this time, and Allard gave him a strange look, though noticed he was bringing the tailor and his assistant into the temple. "What was tha' jus now?" he asked openly. "H-hilde?" He took a step towards the sound and stumbled, the man looking a bit paler than before. "Blast this aging body!" he yelled, blaming his aging body for lack of endurance that he used to have in his youth. He was pretty sure at one point he was much worse off with injuries and fared better before, right? ... He thought so anyway.

I, the Demon King, Will Summon My Own Damned Heroes!

Miiba seemed slightly relieved at first that Reuban's idea may have some merit to it, though it was quickly dashed by Geir and his short lived fit. Though Miiba didn't take being called an abomination or demonspawn, even if she didn't quite know big words like that, they didn't sound very nice. What happened after though caught Miiba by surprise. Se wast quite able to grasp what Geir was talking about, but she did see the odd marks on his head, and tune in to his emotion as she stood there blankly watching him for a moment before he left, with Lear coming in about at the same time.

Miiba's happy countenance seemed to return to her as she helped with the firewood, taking it to the fireplace. Miiba looked to Gwyn as she passed with a proud smile, "Miiba chop these by herself! Mr. Lear carry though...," she simply stated as she set the wood she held in the fireplace. However, as she turned from the fireplace, a faint blue glow caught her eye. She climbed up to the window sill to get a better look and sat down to stare at it a moment. It seemed to be slightly headed toward Geir, and she could hear a muffled voice that didn't belong to the red headed young man. "Mr. Lear," she started with the same inquisitive tone she used whenever she was about to ask something, "What big blue glow ball with Geir?" she asked with her finger pressed against the window pointing to Danny, but looking back to Lear.

The Vanishing Kingdom

"Or what? You run me through and look for some other sorry sod to interrogate? Go ahead then. Kill me," The warrior mage challenged Sev, full of spite. "My family would be safer with me dead then to come back having failed." There was a moment of silence as the mage closed his eyes, seemingly waiting for the finishing move. And while he was, his eyes were moving in a particular pattern. Suddenly, the mage's mana level noticeably spiked high enough for Sev to physically feel it, but instead of it flowing from him, it seemed to be gathering to him. The man's eyes started to glow in the night from behind his eyelids, and upon opening them, they shone like the sun. He grabbed the blade of the spear. "MAY THE EMPEROR OF GREED BE CRUSHED UNDER HIS OWN SPOILS!"

The amount of man he was gathering was highly dangerous. As a Combat mage, Sev would know this man was about to overload with mana, causing a large explosion centered on himself. With his last words of defiance, he planned to take himself out along with Sev. He had mere seconds.

---
When Maeve arrived next to Allard, he only slowly nodded in response, Using his great axe to help himself up and drag himself behind her. "My daughter," he stammered before coughing a small amount of blood up, "She is not here. My wife and son locked themselves away in the tavern, but I never found Hildebrand...." His voice was weak and stressed.

Trying to take advantage of the situation, a small group of swordsmen advanced on the two, taking maeve lightly and wanting to finish off the behemoth. There were three mercenaries and on Varuk bandit with an axe closing in fast.

"A wounded wolf...," Allard began to mutter as a one of the four slipped by maeve to go after Allard first instead, "can still bare its fangs!" As the man raised his blade to lop off the giant's head. Allard reached out in near perfect timing and grabbed the many by the skull, his hand over his face. The man tried to recover by taking his shortsword and stabbing it into Allard's arm, though Allard just slammed the man into the stonework of the square, knocking some of the stones out of place, and crushing his skull.

---

Before the Varuk bandit squad leader slit Juliana's throat, there was a heavy gust of wind that engulfed all of them, when it settled, Sahale was floating down from the air, gently and silently landing in between the bandit with his hostage and Aerex who was on the ground. The men that had surrounded Aerex went limp as they fell, dead before they hit the ground, all with a slash at the neck. Was that from the wind? Sahale was eerily quiet for a change, his eyes full of murderous intent. In fact, there was heavy amounts of blood splatted all over hi and his clothes, yet not any sign of injury on himself.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be, eh?" the bandit challenged warily. But he got nothing but a scowl borne of utter contempt in return. Sahale started walking towards the man. "Hey, hey, stay back, I'll kill her!"

"Will you? I thought you were already going to try...," Sahale said coldly as he continued his slow advance.

"Alright smart ass, her blood is on your hands then! A pity she would have done well for a little night company for the boys too, heheheh." With that said, he drew his arm to the side in a movement to slice her throat, but felt no resistance. "H-huh?" The man looked down and noticed that instead of his hand and knife at the girl's throat, it was on the ground, in a small pool of blood. The man shoved Juliana away frantically, looking at his nub of an arm, the pain now setting in with his realization as he cried out. Sahale caught her and gently laid her down, but then continued his walk towards the man "N-no stay back! We have friends in high places! You won't get away with this if you-"

"BE SILENT," Sahale ordered as a gust of wind forced its way into the mans pleading throat, keeping him from breathing, only able to make a blood curdling sound from his throat as he tried to exhale but couldn't. The man, now desperate, pulled another blade out with his good hand and tried to rush Sahale in a last ditch effort. Sahale didn't even raise his own blade as the wind swirled around the man, instantly dismembering his arms and legs, dropping him to the ground. The man's screams once again rang out, but it was only shortly lived, as Sahale finally looked down to the man and made an insanely fast cut, aided by the wind, that would split the man in two, though the cut was so fine, that he seemed to stay whole, only a faint bleeding line down his head to groin and the tear in his clothes showing where the line of the cut was, Sahale's blade not even so much as stained.

Sahale made his way to the injured girl first, trying to hide his rage from the other man with a kind smile to assure her she was safe. "Are you alright? We should make your way to the temple. I will pick up your friend here and escort you. You will be safe there."

The Vanishing Kingdom

Hilde ended up staying with Chihiro, The chief looked around first, making sure no threats were close and then nodded before finishing taking the skiff over to the cave without them. To say that the sudden accusations against Anrak made Hilde a little on edge was an understatement, however, the man's actions so far were quite peculiar for someone who would just be a bandit. She watched the exchange between the men while standing next to Chihiro, awkwardly staying out of the quarrel, but still too surprised enough at it to leave. She seemed a bit let down when hearing the truth com out about Anrak. She thought it was was her first time seeing a firepriest, but it turned out to be a fake instead. When the arguing was subdued by Allanon, she carefully walked up to Andrak, looking at him with a sigh of frustration. However, she pulled a fine bladed knife out from her kit and with a flick of the wrist it stabbed into the ground close to Anrak. "Here... take this. It should be easier than.... whatever it is you are doing...," she said flatly with a slightly disgusted look in reference to him biting the meat off of the hide. She then nodded towards him and started to walk back to Chihiro visibly frustrated and not making much eye contact with the others besides her friend.

Bidzil instinctively grabbed his sheathe when this doctor person drew his sword, however it seemed like the others were already on top of it. Unlike the fight with the wyrm, he would actually be of some use in a fight between people, though, who to side with in this situation would be hard to say. He'd like to say he would side with the large man, however, the man could be lying through his teeth, even if his actions so far didn't quite support it. When Allanon voiced his opinion, he nodded in agreement. "Whatever he is, He has done nothing but help us so far. I'm sure there are enough people here that if he did try anything harmful, it wouldn't be good. Besides, similar to what you said, I don't think thieves make it a habit to volunteer to posibly sacrifice themselves while trying to free enslaved. Unless they are dumb I guess...," Bidzil said with a wide grin forming. "As for what you said earlier, Allanon I believe?" he asked making sure the name was right, "For my skills I'd say I'm at least competent with my weapons. If you want to spar for practice before tomorrow I'd be glad to," he finished with an excited gleam in his eye.

The night was filled with the sound of struggles through the street, and although the people of kalla were much stronger and organized than the varuk bandits that roamed the sands, they weren't used to such large scale attacks, especially not ones that seemed to occasionally be armed with magic. There was one mage in particular that rushed to where Allard was fighting, smaller than a varuk, about the size of an average human. When Allard turned to charge him, the man stood his ground as he charged a spell, a circle glowing around him as he yelled an incantation and held up a staff that shone brightly. Allard tried to cut him off before he could finish but it was too late. Large heavy chains like those used on an anchor burst front he ground and wrapped themselves around Allard, keeping him from moving. With another quick incantation, a spear burst through the ground as well, going through Allard's chest. The behemoth roared out in pain as the attack stuck home. His axe dropped heavily to the ground and he started to cough up blood.

The mysterious man took a few steps to the large man to examine his work. "What is strength's worth when it comes to magic?" he chuckled, gloating over his victory. However, he was off-put by a low grumbling laugh. He looked up to see a very sinister face staring at him from under the chains. Allard's voice growled out, "Allow me to answer your question with a demonstration." Allard then, along with the weight he was holding up in chains, slid down the spear a little as he headbutt the other man's skull, caving it in on contact. The chains and the spear dispersed as the mage died instantly, but Allard fell to the ground as well. His hand started blindly searching for his axe, and once he felt it, he grasped it and hauled himself up. "Where..... where is my daughter..... you....sons of bitches...," he cursed between ragged breathes as he picked up the mage's dead body by the collar, only to just now notice the man was dead and tossing him to the side.

Allard looked over to his inn where he saw the two foreigners from last night. "So....you came....," he mumbled as he tried to take a step towards them, however, the injures sustained so far barred his ability to move effectively. He stumbled forward. On closer inspection, Allard had many, many lethal looking injuries, but the man was still breathing. Of the corpses that littered the place, it seemed that there were a number of mages in the mix. How any lone man could fight a multitude of magic users without any magic himself would normally be described as a miracle, yet there must have been more than twenty mages in the square alone done in by his axe. If one were to investigate them in particular, they didn't look anything like the standard Killiman Desert native either. Whoever was raiding the village had outside help.

I, the Demon King, Will Summon My Own Damned Heroes!

Miiba listened to Reuben, which seemed to reassure her. He was older after all so he must know these things, right? Besides, Lear tells him a bunch of stories so he must have learned from him. Miiba nodded to him as she followed along silently. could she really be a human again? was that possible here? It had to be, if she was made into a goblin then she could be made into a human again, right? She followed Reuben to see Mira, who after getting her attention directed a question to Miiba.

"Reuben say Miiba maybe cursed like kid tale! If Miiba cursed, Miiba can be un-cursed?" Miiba asked, holding on to a little bit of hope in Reuben's idea.

The Vanishing Kingdom

Allard nodded to the two of the foreigners, "I cannot rightly ask tha two of ya ta risk yurselves in such way," he said in a serious tone, looking them dead in the eyes in turn. Then, his face seemed to lighten up as his eyebrows raised, looking away towards his axe and feigning interest in dusting it off. "However, if ya find yurselves not tha sleepin' sort, well... not much I can do about that," he said with a smirk. "Go on, rest while ya can. I may be wrong, but if anythin' is out o' sorts, I'm sure you'll hear it. Tha warnin' bell is quite loud. Anyway, I'll be down here makin' sure all's clean if ya need me."

---

Some time passed into the night without a sound. Allard locked everything up, which he normally wouldn't do for those late night customers that rarely come through. This time however, he made his way outside, locking the door behind himself to secure the inn. When he stepped out into he moonlight, he was in full battle gear, axe in hand as he made his way to the square. From here, he found a good spot in the square that he could see down both the main streets. He set the shaft of his axe down on the ground and rested both hands one over the other on top in the middle of the head. He took a deep breath and waited there, as a silent sentinel into the night.

"Ya don't have ta ask me twice!" the chief said responding to Anrak, his accent slipping into a more local and less formal speech. He let the fire die on one side and poured more into the right, causing the craft to spin to the left. Once turned he put everything he had into charging straight for the beast, slightly to the left as Anrak wanted. The amount of power from the flames going into the engines for the skiff was unreal, the large craft quickly outpacing Hilde's lighter single person skiff and passing her. To have been driving the skiff for this long and still holding onto this much power was an incredible feat, even for the most practiced of firekin. Anrak's explosion of power didn't seem to phase the captain, his focus being on taking the fight to the wyrm. Bidzil, however, was caught off guard, and nearly tumbled back. Had it not been for his sea legs, he would have surely toppled over completely. Bidzil was awestruck at the display of power, not ever having seen anything like it before in his life back in Trantis. He wanted to say something to commend him, but he could find no words.

This display also seemed to take the wyrm by surprise as well, the small explosion added with the curse from Kistal made the wyrm rear up in uncertainty, never having the feeling of fear creep into its mind as an apex predator. It was unsure how to cope, so instead it roared out to the incoming attackers to make them back off, but it was already to late for that. At the same time as Anrak would be making his strike, Chihiro's spear was launched toward her prey, the wyrm making itself an easy target when it reared back, the spear pierces through the eye, and out the other side of its skull. Hilde, seeing her chance to finalize the creature's death, summoned forth the wind to compress itself into the eye wound, pressurizing oxygen into one spot before lighting it with fire, causing a concentrated and potent explosion, making a crater where the creature's eye once was, making sure it was dead as a chunk of its skull was now open to the air. The wyrm fell to its side, kicking up a cloud of sand, which quickly started to turn red with its blood.

The skiff came to a stop after, an eerie silence took the place of the chaos that they had just been released from. Dorran slumped back in his seat, exhausted form using too much fire."Th-that was incredible!"[/color] Bidzil exclaimed. "I've never seen anything like it. No monster like this or even magic like that!" Dorran looked back to Bidzil with a withering gaze. "Be glad it was a small one, kid. And we need to get out of here soon, other wyrms will smell its blood and come for a meal, they don't mind eating each other, or any other snacks milling about. Morna, you can take over from here, get us to the cave with the others, we will rest there tonight," Dorran said as he sluggishly climbed out of the control seat.

Hilde glided up in her smaller skiff, the excitement still evident on her face. "That was brilliant! The bandits won't know what hit'em! And who would have thought that a fire priest would have been here just in time. The monster didn't know what to do about you, gave it a good fright!" Hilde babbled happily to Anrak. "And Chihiro, what an amazing shot! It was perfectly placed! I had never seen a spear pierce a sand wyrm before!"

"Hildebrand!" the chief called, irritation obvious in his voice. Hilde winced a little, her smiling fading instantly like a child knowing why she was getting fussed at. "I heard you were to stay in Kalla. Your father will have our heads if he knew you were out here with us. Hell, he might even know by now..." He looked up at the wyrm for a moment then shook his head. "Bandits he may be just furious about, but this... we won't mention it, alright? Not for a while anyway," he smirked. Hilde then let a sheepish smile appear, but it was quickly wiped from her face when he pointed to her. "Oh no, don't think you are in the clear. Meet with us at the cave, we have a bit to discuss," He looked to Morna, the other firekin that was with them, "alright lets get over there before the other party starts freaking out."

Hilde looked to Anrak, "Hey, you were looking for armor right? Well, you could do much worse than using the hide of a sand wyrm. If you can cut it out, it would work well against most average weapons," she smiled with a wink to the large man as the skiff started to move away from her. She then hopped onto her skiff and started to follow them to the cave, which was within eyesight of where the sand wyrm had fallen.

In the darkest part of the night, when all should be silent as Kalla slept, a lone bell started to right out. When all should be dark, fires were alight in the fields and some buildings. The two foreigners would awake and see not the town at slumber, but the starting of a battle. There was shouting and fighting, and the occasional burst of fire from a firekin, however, one thing was quite noticable at the square. The number of bodies that surrounded a giant of a man, fighting scores more of men on his own, his great axe bringing down multiple attackers as a scythe to wheat. Crushing opponents under his feet and under his mighty fists. Allard, a man that was normally so jovial, driven into rage aimed against the men who would dare harm the people in his town that he saw as family. They would all pay at the edge of his blade, the streets would run red tonight.

There were skirmishes all through the town, fighting off one of the largest bandit hordes ever seen by Kalla. Normally the bandit groups that would attack were small and cocky, thinking they could take on the town without a fight, however, this group of bandits was well put together, as if there were militants mixed into the wild Varuk bandits to bolster their fighting forces. At one point there was a large man trying to shove the doors to the inn open, though it was quickly silenced as Allard, from afar fighting in the square, pulled out a large hunting knife and threw it, the blade burying itself deep into the man's skull from behind, the point jutting out his forehead at the other end, dead before he hit the ground.

"COME ON THEN, YA COWARDLY RAT BASTARDS! I'LL TEAR EVERY ONE OF YA APART IF I HAVE TO!" Allard yelled to the masses of enemies as he plowed through them. As many as he killed though, he wasn't going without his own injuries, multiple slash and stab wounds accumulated, but nothing seemed to bring the titan down. If the enemy thought that they could catch this place defenseless, they were dead wrong. A number of foes would see the grisly sight of all the bodies around Allard and turn and run to find weaker foes, though few would escape his wrath as Allard could catch up in just a few paces, his weight seemingly having no effect on the man's speed. The last thing they would feel was a heavy axe splitting them in two as it crashed to the ground, causing everything to shake from the impact. "YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU WILL ONLY DIE TIRED!"

The Vanishing Kingdom

An hour or two more passed as Maeve and Valia continued to talk about their homelands until it seemed Valia was starting to feel the full brunt of today's stress on her. Allard eventually took notice and lightly put his hand on her shoulder. "Oi, ya should probably get some rest, ya know? Went through a lot today, an I'm sure our guest will have plenty of time ta talk when the sun is out once more." he said with a warm smile.

Valia gave a playful sigh of fake discontent, "Awe come now, tearing me away from such a delightful conversation, where is your heart, Allard?" she said as she stood up to slowly make her way to her room.

"Oh, don't you know? Gave that away looong ago. Speakin o' which, I believe my wife an children 'ave gone ahead an laid down for tha night, so if they are tired, I know you are tired," Allard replied.

"Fair enough," said as she gave a slight bow to the others in the tavern. "It was a pleasure to meet you Maeve, I hope to see you in the morning." She said before heading up the stairs to her room.

Allard followed her until she was in her room, making sure all was safe and secure, and to make sure she made it up the stairs. When he came back down however, Allard's expression was quite more serious than before. He took a look outside for a moment before shuddering the windows. He turned and looked to the two foreigners before him. "I may be just an old warrior, but I swear I can smell a bloodlust in tha air... Cheif Dorran left with a good number of some of our better fighters. Someone may think we are defenseless now," Allard walked to his armor and placed it on. "My wife can handle tha tavern in tha morning. But I will have ta stay up these next few nights. Can't sleep to well on nights like this," he finished as he also hefted a large double headed war ax. For most it looked impossible to wield. The axe head being all part of the same metal the shaft was made into, making it more durable. The shaft, which was wrapped in leather, also tapered slightly to a thinner handle thinned as it went down, adding more weight to the head end, and finally ending in an enlarged cap on the opposite end, giving a flared pommel-like finish while still being the same piece of metal. This would held retain the weapon on heavier swings as well as better control of the swing itself as the flare matched the ax blades much like the handle of a woodsman's ax but for both heads. The way he handled this weapon however, was terrifyingly casual, as if there was no weight to it at all, but from the sounds it made when he set it on his counter-top, made no mistake about its heft. "If ya wish ta call it a night, don't worry, I'll keep this place safe," he then smiled to the two, "Sorry if I sound a bit forebodin', probably just my nerves. Somethin just feels... off."

What Allard had felt however, was probably more of a parental instinct, as his daughter had slipped quietly out of the town. With her, a metal bible, and her father's old wind skiff that was parked next to the other scouting vessels similar to the ones taken earlier.

As the Wyrm drew nearer , it readied itself to crash down upon the skiff, to it looking like a large strange animal carrying other strange creatures on it. Little did it know however that wood, metal, and the few people aboard would not be very satisfying or filling, especially when for some reason the creatures riding on this strange animal seemed to fight back. All the sudden the wyrm convulsed, it's body trying to fight what it wanted to do. It was the work of the curse Kistal cast, though it wasn't potent enough to take on a creature this size, it was enough to make it difficult for the monster to pursue as effectively, every once in a while a twitch would run the coarse of its body that would slow it down. Once of these twitches, however, was enough to make Chihiro's spear throw miss it's intended mark, though not without its own impressive effects. Due to her spell, and the added strength of the aura of empowerment, the spear surged forward and buried itself deep within its neck under the chin. Normally, it would be considered a feat just to drive a spear in even a quarter of it's length into the rough skin of a sand wyrm, however, this spear sailed straight through, ripping through to the other side of the creature. This made the wyrm screech out in pain, which would be a test to anyone's ears close-by, however it did make the creature stop it's immediate pursuit, putting them some space before it tried once more. While the damage the spear did was amazing, its placement would keep it from killing the beast, the creature would most likely heal before a wound like that would kill it. Now however, the creature was chasing them in a state of rage rather than hunger, and although the convulsions from the curse were amplified by this anger, the monster now craved their blood and would chase them until it couldn't any longer.

Now that they had some space from the wyrm, it was easier to concentrate on their surroundings to look for an escape path. The ahead skiff waved to the cheif and pointed towards part of the mountain they traveled on, looking like they spotted a cave to take shelter in. If they could make it to that cave, they would be in the clear. If the party was watching the darkening skyline around them as well, they may see a small sail powered single person craft approaching very fast, and with a familiar face. It was Hilde, nearly flying over the sands in the sail skiff, using the gifts of her heritage, Sylve and Varuk, wind and fire together to create her own powerful thrust against the sail. Even as fast as the Wyrm was going, Hilde's craft surged by the creature effortlessly. The book, which was covered when left at the inn, was now uncovered, held closed by the latch that held the two covers together. Hilde had admittedly gotten curious and took a peak at it beforehand. "OI, YOU THERE YOU LEFT YOUR BOOK!" she yelled out to them, a look of excitement written across her face. She cruised up next to the skiff and tossed it aboard, the metal book not even remotely phased by what most would call abuse of a holy text. "If you are a Red Saint priest, you shouldn't be leaving your bible everywhere! Its so irresponsible!" she lightly chastised him, slightly out of envy to his position and surprise that someone who had something so amazing to her would just leave it lying around. She then cutely waved to the others on board, before pulling back and rounding towards the wyrm, which was gaining on the party's skiff. With their current pace they wouldn't outrun the wyrm. "WHATEVER YOU DID BEFORE, TRY ONCE MORE, BUT THE HEAD THIS TIME! I HAVE AN IDEA!" she yelled as she flew towards the beast.

"H-HILDE! WAIT! WHAT ARE YOU-," Dorran yelled out in surprise, but far too late to stop her. "By Krogan's beard, her father is going to kill us all."

Bidzil stood up, keeping his balance fairly well on the craft to to being raised in a city full of boats, it felt like another day on the water to him. He felt like he should help, but had no idea what to do in this situation. to be fair, he had only ever dueled with other people, he had never even seen the likes of a creature this large before. He was just a swordsman with a single fancy wing that could pop out of his back, what good would that do? He can't fly with that. He gripped his sword, wanting to help, yearning to help, but he was forced to sit and watch as well. Unknown to him though, that passion lead to a stronger aura boost to the one's around him, strengthening them further.