Pezzle

The Five Senses

-Collab Between Pezz570, 13org-

Karina
Tayla

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Karina watched as Jewl's unconscious body was thrown into a small, dark room. It would be a good deterrent in case she woke up later. At least she would take a while to be able to get out of there. With Jewl's illusions disappearing and her out of combat, her companions quickly realised that they were now in a very disadvantageous position, with one of them running up the stairs, screaming for help while the rest of them tried to recompose themselves.

Using that brief moment of respite, Chres immediately opened the door wide, speaking to the people of Shimmertown and pleading for their help. The inflamed shouts of cheer of the population made it clear that they also had enough of the cult. Good news for their group, since the cult would have to deal with that on top of their little plan.

While the people of Shimmertown were more of an angry mob than an organized force, the confusion they would make would buy them some time.

Despite the strange crashing noise coming from above them, much like Chres, Karina's mind was focused on completing their task as she nodded to him when he mentioned they should go. Before they could do anything though, another strange noise came from above them, a second crash. For some reason, it was closer to them this time. Close enough to make Karina stop and look up. The moment she did so, the ceiling just above them began to groan, with several loud cracks just after that. When Karina realized what was going on, it was already too late. A moment after Chres shouted for them to get down, the ceiling above them came down. Karina was lucky to avoid any wounds other than a small bruise due to having thrown herself to the ground, but the dust and the rubble made it difficult for her to see and understand what had just happened, other than the obvious fact that the roof had collapsed over them.

Unsheathing her rapier, Karina quickly got up, looking around in complete silence, waiting for the dust to settle. That wasn't just an accident. The way the roof had collapsed... Karina was almost certain that the cult was behind that.

Almost immediately proving her suspicions to be right though, she heard the sound of someone getting down and landing just next to her. Before she could swing her rapier though, the ground suddenly rose beneath her, throwing her and presumably, whoever was that landed near her, several feet into the air. Away from the dust caused by the collapsed roof, Karina could now see herself flying through the air as the ground approached quickly. She was thrown to the fourth story of the gatehouse, away from Chres and the others. Thankfully, she had rested enough to use her powers again and was able to break her fall by making a small ramp of ice as she fell.
Getting up after sliding through the ramp, Karina quickly looked around, still a bit disoriented due to the ceiling collapsing and her having been thrown in the air, she quickly recompose herself, trying to find whoever was responsible for all that. The moment she turned her face however, she was met with a familiar face...

The moment Tayla called her by the same nickname she hated so much, Karina looked at the woman with a cold expression. Just after Tayla said that though, she threw a handful of coins towards Karina, flying through the air with a deadly velocity.

Seeing her hands the moment Tayla threw the coins, Karina knew she wouldn't have time to dodge properly or block them with ice, so instead, she immediately threw herself towards where the ramp was, using her ability to extend the ice from it just enough so it would be able to intercept or at least change the coins' trajectory enough so they wouldn't hit her. While it wasn't a gracious or elegant movement, the fall wouldn't be enough to give her anything other than a small bruise, which was much better than being pierced by Tayla's coins.

Karina's body fell to the ground with a thud as she rolled behind the ramp.

"It appears you won't ever leave me alone unless I kill you..." Karina said with a cold, grim tone.

"Or I’ll kill you!" Tayla raged back.

"You are blinded by envy and rage... So much that you can't see what your precious cult is doing." Karina continued.

"Listen to the voices of the people of Shimmertown! Can you still say you're doing the right thing?" she asked.

"Fuck Shimmertown! All Seeing knows these people wouldn’t give a damn about me!"

Tayla began circling the ice ramp in a jog. Mindful to keep her distance. As her bare feet touched the floor, she used her magic to lay traps with each step. Modifying the stone’s friction to become comparable to ice.

"Open your eyes and stop blaming others for what you don't have, for your mistakes or your own weaknesses!" Karina shouted, touching the ice ramp in front of her and making it explode, sending hundreds of sharp shards of ice towards Tayla, using that distraction to close the distance between them.

"SHUT UP! YOU DON’T KNO-"

Tayla’s voice cut off. The woman’s eventual attack had finally occurred. By this point Tayla had come to expect such attacks. This woman was fast. Tayla needed to be faster.

Tayla stopped laying traps, Instead she modulated the floor’s friction to create a shorter lasting effect.

"Fuck Shimmertown! Fuck you!" Tayla shouted.

While the ground beneath Tayla still became as slippery as ice, she used this to pick up speed and to skate across the stone floor. Gliding swiftly, she reached into her pouch of coins, avoided the ice shards while also firing back a spread of coins of her own.

"FOR ONCE EVERYTHING IN MY LIFE WASN’T GOING TO SHIT! THEN YOU FUCKING CAME ALONG!" Tayla screamed, while blinking back the tears.

Tayla popped a salty cotton tuff into her mouth. The woman’s ability to break off shards of ice and send them flying was nifty… but perhaps Tayla could do something similar with stone.

Karina dashed towards the woman with her rapier on hands as Tayla tried to dodge all the shards of ice Karina had sent towards her. While Karina didn't expect them to do much damage, it was still surprising that Tayla not only managed to dodge them, but also had time to throw some of her coins as well towards Karina, forcing her to halt her advance for a moment in order to dodge them with a sidestep before continuing to close her distance once more. Unfortunately, the very moment she resumed running towards Tayla, the moment she stepped forward, the ground below her feet made her slip, forcing her to stop her advance and kneel down in order to regain her balance. It was a neat trick Tayla had used... But it wouldn't work on Karina.

"You're just a hypocrite, Tayla. A foolish child throwing a tantrum... Do you believe that having a tough life gives you the reason to ruin innocent people's lives? To make them suffer? Everything you conquered in the cult was by trampling on the lives of innocent people. You spilled innocent blood for your own, selfish desires, for your own benefit." Karina continued as she stood up.

Instead of advancing towards Tayla though, she swung her rapier in front of her, with a frigid cold wind emanating from her, quickly covering the ground in a layer of ice. By using her own ice and her ability to effortlessly move on it, she would deny whatever little surprise Tayla had put on the ground.

Tayla cursed. She hadn’t planned for the woman to trigger her traps quickly. Tayla adjusted to the now icy ground. Ignoring the cold on her feet. Instead of slippery traps, she began laying traps to drastically increase the friction of the ice. Tayla readied her weapon in preparation this time.

"What makes you different from the people who made you suffer when you were younger? Maybe you're even worse... After all, the cult does things way worse than just killing someone..." Karina said, with a cold tone in a very cruel remark to the already emotional Tayla as two ice blades appeared from the ice layer on the ground around her, floating and hovering above her.

"We are not a cult!" Tayla shouted back instinctively.

"Don't feel like you're someone special though, Tayla... Do you think I came here specifically to ruin the lie you call 'life'? You're nothing but an obstacle to me. You threw your honor and dignity away, selling yourself as a tool to the cult, trampling over innocent lives for your own benefit... You are undeserving of respect, mercy or even my time." Karina finished as she sent one of the ice blades flying towards Tayla, skating through the ice layer on the ground as she approached her faster than she was when she was running.

Should the ice blade miss Tayla, Karina would simply make it turn around and continue chasing Tayla while keeping one of the blades near her in order to defend herself in case Tayla somehow found enough time to throw more coins at her despite having to focus on evading the ice blade.

Tayla stood her ground, turning to face her opponent. This time she would be ready when little miss perfect triggered her traps.

"My honor? MY DIGNITY?!" Tayla trembled as she spoke. She would fight back those tears! She refused to fall again before this woman! ”No, little princess, never did I throw those away. My honor, my dignity... Those two things were stolen from me…”

Tayla warped the ground beneath her bare right foot, attempting to intercept the blade shooting straight for her. Unbeknownst to Tayla, the icy blade changed course to avoid the wall as it obstructed her vision. Tayla’s eyes widened as the blade avoided the wall, coming for her from her left.

Using her left bare foot to quickly warp the floor beneath the blade and catch it from underneath. Tayla continued warping the floor until it met the ceiling above. She had learned the hard way that shattering the woman’s constructs only allowed her to use the shards as weapons. Unfortunately, this meant that Tayla was left at mercy of whatever the woman had planned after lowering her shields.

Focusing on her bitter cotton tuff, Tayla weakened the floor beneath her feet, making it as brittle as a thin sheet of glass. A single stomp with her left foot caused the floor beneath her to crack into shards of ice and stone. Tayla lowered her ‘shields’ while sweeping the shards of stone and ice with her bare foot. The stones launched into the air after the white haired woman, Tayla had made sure to apply velocity only to the shards of stone and not the ice.

As the stone launched towards her opponent, Tayla then warped the remaining ground beneath her feet. Tayla shot up in the air, arching over the white haired woman. She launched coins from above and landed a good distance behind the woman.

"My honor and dignity were stripped from me!” Tayla spoke. She quickly laid a new friction trap on the icy floor. ”Stripped away before I could even understand what that dignity was!

"Don’t speak of honor. Don’t talk to me about dignity! I had to fight just to maintain whatever scrape of those things that I have left! While you breezed your way through life, I’ve had to struggle and fight to avoid getting swallowed!

“Tell me princess. What have you ever had to fight for? You, little miss perfect, sit atop a cold, cool pedestal of privilege from which you judge.”

I am giving you an opportunity. Don't throw it away. The white haired woman’s words echoed in her head.

Damn it, Tayla! YOU WILL NOT CRY! Tayla thought to herself.

”You see me not as a person to understand, but as a problem to solve. I’m not a child whose hand you need to hold! I’m not your damn puzzle to solve! I’m a fucking person! Not an object, but a goddamn person!” And now the tears flowed. Damn it!

”You’re just like everyone else in this fucked up world! Nobody fucking cares! You talk of me trampling over the lives of innocence but the only person I’ve ever tried to trample over, in this stupid town, is you! And let’s be honest, princess. You are not among the innocent.

“I can see it in those eyes of yours. If you ever deemed it necessary, you would trample over the lives of these people in an instant. Faster than the clan ever would! So who’s the real hypocrite here? Who is the real one undeserving of respect?”

Karina continued skating through the ice, towards Tayla, closing their distance while making use of the distraction the ice blade could give her. While Karina didn't expect the ice blade to last forever, she still expected it to buy some time and was surprised when Tayla dealt with it sooner than what she had expected, using her power to warp the ground and catch it. Instead of shattering it, she continued warping the ground until it reached the ceiling. Apparently, Tayla was indeed paying attention to how Karina fought and wouldn't make the same mistake again.

"Hmpf... Troublesome." Karina muttered as she made another blade of ice after Tayla dealt with the one she had sent towards her.

When Tayla stomped the ground, making shards of stone fly towards Karina in the same way Karina used her ice, she couldn't help but let out a twisted grin. Was that girl copying her moves? Just as she did so though, Tayla warped the ground to jump over Karina, shooting coins towards her as she did so.

"Smart, but no enough!" Karina said as she continued skating through the ice, using the added mobility to dodge the stone fragments, jumping and weaving through them almost like a professional ice skater would while she fused the two ice blades, making two sheets of ice and fusing them in a triangular shape above her, in order to deflect the coins to the ground, instead of trying to block them.

While she was dodging the stone spikes though, just the moment one of her feet touched the ice again after a jump, she felt her feet slide way more than it normally would in the ice, which made her lose her balance for a brief second. While she did not fall to the ground like before, that moment of distraction was enough for one of the shards of stone to almost hit her, grazing her side and leaving a long, but superficial cut.

Even though the cut did sting, Karina seemed to be unfazed by the pain, instead looking more irritated by that than anything else. The look she gave to Tayla after she felt the blood slowly trickling down on her side was incredibly cold and frightening, a look that truly made others understand that judging Karina for her delicate appearance was a deadly mistake.

"As long as one keeps their head up, do not give up and continue walking the path they believe is the right one, no one can take their dignity and honor away, Tayla. You gave up yours the moment you started trampling over others, judging your own struggle, your own fight and yourself to be more important than anyone else." Karina said, getting up as she separated the ice sheets into two ice blades once more.

"Don't think you're special, Tayla. Don't think you're the only one who has to fight, because you are not. Everyone has their own struggles that they need to fight for. Have you thought about the thousands of people who live in Shimmertown or the ones that either died or became insane thanks to your little cult? About their struggles? Do you know what difficulties they had to face? What do they need to do to feed their families and keep their loved ones safe? How many people died or lost their loved ones directly or indirectly thanks to your actions? Can you judge your own difficulties to be worse than theirs or your own needs to be more important than theirs?" Karina asked in a cold, harsh tone.

"Such irony... Aren't you the one standing over a pedestal made of your own self-righteousness? Believing that everyone is trash and your well being is more important than anyone else's?" Karina said in a cold tone.

"Do you think I was born being who I am today, Tayla? All the respect I have in the military, my position, everything was conquered by my own effort and talent." Karina continued.

Tayla cocked her head. The military?

"Because I was the daughter of the general, every single achievement I made was justified by others, saying I was only able to do so because the general was my father. Every single promotion I got, conquered by my own effort, was always discredited by others. Even though I had to face more hardships than anyone else, with the general being stricted and asking more of me than anyone else in the military specifically because I'm his daughter, many still refused to recognize my talent, effort and competence." Karina said.

General Frost’s daughter?! Tayla’s eyes widened with realization and, perhaps, a little fear.

"Even now, they refuse to take me seriously. Even after I said that the cult was something dangerous, they ridicularized me." she continued as she sent one of her ice blades flying towards Tayla, making it follow her the same way as it was doing before, but making it explode in a million small sharp shards of ice the very moment Tayla tried to catch it like she did with the other one.

"Do you know the difference between me and you, Tayla? I did not give up my honor and my dignity. I didn't try to justify my weakness by throwing the blame on someone else, like you did nor I tried to use it as an excuse to do whatever I wanted." she said as she finally got close to Tayla once more. Paying extra attention to any change in how slippery the ice was, Karina was able to adjust her body in order to counteract Tayla's traps, which was much easier now that she was skating on the ice she made instead of running.

Push the fear aside, Tayla prepared her blade as the murderous woman approached one her traps. She warped her blade, striking at the woman. However, her opponent didn’t not trip up like Tayla expected her to. Instead she adjusted her movement accordingly and effortlessly dodged Tayla’s attack.

"Stop being such an entitled brat! Do you think I came here specifically to solve your problems or to make them worse? You are not special, Tayla! The world isn't against you. The only one against you is yourself! Stop trying to make excuses and accept your weakness and your failure and learn with them!" Karina said as she lunged towards Tayla with her rapier, sending the remaining ice blade around Tayla to aim towards her back and prevent her from escaping.

Tayla cursed, her extruded blade made her incapable of using the weapon to parry the woman’s attack. She pulled out her second blade, intending to parry the incoming lunge with that.

Whoosh. The remaining ice blade shot past Tayla… Oh no...

"I am a soldier, Tayla. I have a reason to fight. If I am really that guilty, then ask yourself Why am I trying so hard to make the people of Shimmertown to stand up for themselves instead of just calling the army to raze everything to the ground? More importantly... Why didn't I kill you before, when I had the chance?" Karina finished as she lunged towards Tayla.

Tayla braced herself. Swinging wildly with her left in hope of deflecting the lunge while warp another wall hoping to catch this blade like she had with the one before. Only… she didn’t expect the blade to splinter.

While the wall blocked some shards of ice, the remainder maneuvered around the wall.

Useless to the end. her dad’s voice whispered in her head.

Tayla shut her eyes expecting death. However… death never came. Tayla opened her eyes. Their fight had taken them to the gate room. Behind Tayla, lay the wheel for opening the inner portcullis. All around Tayla hovered death, but death did not strike. Yet again, Tayla found herself at the woman’s mercy.

Tayla’s eye twitched in annoyance, but rather than striking back in anger like every other time, she let her swords fall to the ground. Tayla couldn’t beat this woman. That much was clear.

The Five Senses

-Collab Between Pezz570, Jerkchicken-

Jen Gibre
Malkev

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“Your stance is too low and your grip, you need to loosen it up. Being able to change how far up or down your grip is important. I take it you haven’t fought with a weapon like this.” Jen would say to him.

Melkev gave the man a somewhat annoyed glance though he did as Jen said.

”I don’t think that now is probably the best time to give a lesson." Malkev said as the four cultists rushed the two with spears, pikes and swords. However, the fifth cultist, the one who roused their bloodlust, stood back in wait.

”We’ll keep it simple with thrusts and some sweeps. Remember your greatest strength is the reach of this weapon. Use it to trip them up, control their movement, and keep them from reaching you!” The man would say as he rushed to meet the cultists. Jen’s focus would be the opposing polearm users.

”Keeping them from reaching me is what I have you for!" Malkev shot back.

In particular the pikemen were first. Though their pikes had length, they could only thrust. Jen would weave in and out of their strikes. The pikemen would do a coordinated mass stab which ended in their spears stuck in the ground as Jen ran up a pike and struck at the men before jumping behind them.

The cultist standing back, cocked his head at Jen’s odd movement. Reaching for his side, he untied a modest size pouch. Casually tossing the pouch in the air, he quickly kicked the bag with a swipe of his foot. White dust burst from the bag, spreading into the air. No… not dust… Flour.

”What in the name of Senses?" Malkev muttered. This didn’t seem good.

The cultist smiled, as he locked eyes with Jen and threw another kick despite Jen still being several feet away. The flour responded to his kick. It gathered together and shot toward Jen, all the while materializing into the shape of a person. The form of a person about to strike at Jen with a kick.

Jen was too focused on the pikemen to really register the other cultist’s presence. Sure he was a threat, but all of them were and he was going to be methodical about it. It would result in him unceremoniously eating that kick and being sent sliding on his ass backwards. ”What the hell? That felt way harder than flour should be!” He’d say as he quickly arose to his feet and focused on this new threat.

The cultist chuckled while undoing another bag of flour. He turned his gaze away from where the flour copy had formed. The copy had already lost its shape and dispersed back into a cloud of individual particles drifting towards the ground. One of the cultists approached Malkev. He swiped wide at the man causing him to jump back.

”Son! A little help here!" Malkev shouted. He hoped he didn’t sound too panicked.

”Don’t worry I’m coming! I’m coming!” Jen would say as he ran to assist Malkev. He tensed up as he realized his eyes needed to be on the ball right now. His attention was split between two important goals. Keeping Malkev alive, and figuring out how to circumvent the cultist’s power. Of course getting too worried about either would work against him too. He needed to stay limber both in body and mind to win this.

As he was running towards Malkev, Jen would spot a wooden crate on the ground. Thinking quickly, he’d punt the crate towards the cultist with the flour puppet. With the cultist that was attacking Malkev, He’d let out a feinting swipe to the left, which would immediately correct itself into a thrust at the cultist sides.

The cultist’s eyes widened in surprise, indeed Malkev was even surprised. A lot of power must have gone into Jen’s punt. The cultist jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding the flying crate. As he fell to his side, he released the flour from his second pouch, locked his eyes on Jen and made an awkward kick into the empty air.

Malkev was in the middle of grunting thanks when he spotted the second cloud of flour shooting towards Jen. Yet again its shape morphed, quickly forming a copy of the man kicking as he fell to his side.

”Incoming!" Malkev exclaimed.

”Interesting..” He’d say to himself quietly. He was half-expecting the cultist to have used the flour to intercept the flying crate. It was clear that the cultist could only make the flour act as fast as he could.

Malkev’s warning would direct his attention to the incoming mass of flour that was imitating the cultist’s kick. Jen knew that flour while in its altered state could hit hard. He wondered though how it receives blows, as he only targeted the user and not the construct. Jen swung downwards curious to see what would happen when his staff made contact with the flour.

There was a loud crack as the copy made contact with the stick. Immediately after, the copy lost shape, and the flour gently drifted towards the ground.

”You blocked it?" Malkev said as his spear drove through the cultist Jen had downed. The cultist with the flour cursed audibly in the distance and rubbed his shin.

”Something like that! I think we try and disperse the flour as well as striking it back whenever it changes shape to attack.” Jen would reply. The strike was a success. Jen felt how solid the flour was against the stick. Not only could he strike it, it also seemed to transfer some degree of pain to the user. Perhaps with enough strikes they could wear away at him.

”We?" Malkev asked, eying two of the three remaining non-magical cultists who were drawing in close for an attack. He turned his spear towards them threateningly. ”Lad, I think you may be overestimating my capabilities in the fighting department. Maybe if we can do away with the distractions though, I might be of a little more use."

”Hey, I’m just trying not to underestimate you here. But I know, there’s a bunch of these guys to take care of as well. Yet, we still can’t let that one guy out of our sight!”
Jen would reply.

He’d help out by ko’ing a cultist with a well placed swat of the staff. Not wasting a moment, he’d sweep at the ground at one of the piles with his staff. Such was his force, that he’d produce a gust of air that scattered the pile into the air.

The flour wielding cultist had made it back to his feet. He removed a third back of flour, but instead of dispersing it, he coated his hand with the flour. The remainder of the pouch he poured onto the ground.

He locked eyes with the pile of flour and then slowly traced his gaze along the ground towards Jen. The pile of flour suddenly jerked, following the path of this gaze.

Malkev narrowed his eyes. That seemed different. ”I don’t like the look of that!" He said while thrusting his spear at the nearest cultist. Jen’s attention would suddenly change as Malkev called out for his attention.

“What’s he doing this time?” He’d yell out. He’d then see the cultist giving him a leer as this pile of flour was steadily making its way to him. Jen definitely didn’t like seeing that blob of flour creeping to him. He really didn’t want to find out what would happen if it got to him. He decided that perhaps it would be best to attack that cultist. He’d run in an erratic manner towards him with the reasoning being that it would make it tougher to keep track of with moving that pile towards him.

The cultist frowned. He quickly swept his gaze from the ground and towards Malkev. He blinked. The moving pile of flour, instead of tracing the cultist’s gaze, suddenly made its way straight towards Malkev. Almost as if it had been locked onto his position.

”JEN!" Malkev panicked.

With his right hand, the one coated in flour, the cultist reached out and clenched at the empty air. A copy of the cultist’s hand appeared from the pile of flour and grabbed Malkev by the throat, choking him.

The cultist began to run from Jen. With his left hand, he pulled out a fourth and final bag of flour and threw it straight at Jen. The flour puffed around Jen, forming into four copies of the cultist surrounding Jen.

The cultist stopped his retreat, looked at the copy directly behind Jen, and reached out as if to hug the air. The copy moved with him attempting to grapple Jen and hold him in place. The cultist then switched his gaze to the copy in front of Jen and threw a kick.

”Coming!” Jen yelled. However, he’d be unable to reach Malkev. He had already committed to rushing to the cultist. Not only, that he was getting surrounded by these flour copies. This was going to be tricky, he needed to do something. He’d do a sweeping attack on the three in front of him.

Jen’s kick passed through the two copies at his side, both who were still stagnate. Their forms blurred into a puff of flour before reforming. His kick, however, appeared to have made contact with the copy in front of Jen, however. The copy faltered, as if tripped. Its kick thrown off course. The copy fell; its form puffing away. In the distance, the cultist controlling it, fell with the copy. Landing on the ground with a loud ‘Ooofff’.

Jen then felt the oddly powdery yet, extremely solid sensation of the flour copy grabbing on him. Jen would react by jabbing at the copy with the rear of his stick. He’d also try to hip check and trip up the attacker with kicks in an attempt to throw its balance off and break the grapple.

The cultist grunted some more rising back to his feet. Oddly Jen’s attack’s on the copy behind him didn't seem to affect the cultist as much as the attack performed on the copy in front of him. Worse still, that copy’s grip appeared to be holding firm.

The cultist growled. His eyes seemed oddly red as if dried. He rubbed at them before pulling out a knife. He turned his gaze to the copy on Jen’s right. The copy pulled out a knife as well and took a swipe at him. The cultist blinked half way through his swipe, switched his gaze to the copy on Jen’s left. The copy’s pose changed to mimic the cultist’s. Knife in hand, the other cultist took a back handed swipe at Jen with his knife.

”What a pain in the ass. I can’t seem to shake this guy off.” Jen would mutter to himself as he struggled to get that flour clone off of him. Try as he might he could not get it to let go. However it was far from being a statue with its feet bolted into the ground. It was still moving around, although its strength and movements were to counter his own.

However, he didn’t have all day to get this thing off his back. The glimmer of the blade produced from one of the copies gave him a shiver of concern. He had to do something to avoid having that knife go in him real quick. He took as deep of a breath he could, and concentrated on focusing his strength. With great strength he swung his body around, causing the copy to lose its feet on the ground and have its back towards the lunge of the knife wielding copy.

The cultist’s back bled, as a wound appeared as the first knife wielding copy cut into the copy grappling Jen. However the cultist bared through the pain determined to get his killing blow in with the knife wielding copy on Jen’s left side. The cultist grinned, victory near at hand-

Blood spurted from the cultist’s right hand, the knife dropping from his grip. The cultist cried out. He fell to his knees, grabbing the wrist of his wounded hand. His hand… it appeared to have been impaled.

His focus lost, the flour copies surrounding Jen puffed away, no longer a threat.

“Wha-?” The cultist sputtered, His eyes then widened as his attention turned towards Malkev. The man was no longer being strangled. He had managed to escape the hold by stabbing the hand of flour with his spear.

”I-I don’t think I’m ever going to look at flour the same way." Malkev said, in-between coughs.

It was over. Their flour wielding foe had fallen from Malkevs blow. The once firm flour had fallen into its soft powdery form. ”Yeah I heard of battery, but this is ridiculous’” Jen said without missing a beat as he dusted himself off.

”Hm… Battery..." Malkev said with uncertainty. He had clearly not picked up on the joke.

The bleeding cultist picked up the knife with his good hand. His bad hand he held against the folds of his shirt.

“You bastards.” The man cursed. With effort he rose to his feet.

Jen would notice the cultist struggling to rise and doing so with a knife brandished. “I got to admire your tenacity, but I’m not letting you throw your life away like this.” He’d move closer to the cultist as he spoke. Continuing he’d say, “Sorry, but I ain’t got no shining words to act as solace for whatever drove you to seek the cult or really what to do next. But they sure as hell don’t have your interest at heart.”

Jen’s staff had the reach advantage compared to the cultist’s knife. With a couple of motions, the knife was knocked out of his hand. The cultist would be subdued with a palm thrust. Alright, let’s go” He’d say to Malkev.

Malkev raised an eyebrow as he paid a glance to the down cultist. ”You just going to let that bastard live?" Malkev asked, as he fell into step with Jen.

”Yes, he didn’t look as far gone by the insight like those sightless. Maybe he’ll regain his senses once we destroy that heart. I got no intention of mowing down half your villagers, whose only crime was to fall for the cult’s honeyed words and whatever effects that distortion brings.” Jen would reply.

”That man was not one of mine!" Malkev said angrily, though he had no evidence to back the claim up.

”Regardless he won’t be a problem for a while. Anyway, how are you holding up? Ideally we should get you to safety before being anything else.” Jen replied.

”I told you, I’m not going anywh-"

Black tendrils wrapped around Malkev’s torso before he could finish his sentence. Suddenly he was lifted off his feet and tossed aside as if he were nothing. Slamming into a wall, Malkev fell unconscious.

”Why hello again, Pactmaker. It’s a pleasure to see you here still alive.“ The raspy voice of Sightless Syella said. ”Now, if you don’t mind, I’m here to talk.”

The Five Senses

-Collab Between Pezz570, 13org, Fetzen and HokumPocus-

Octavio
Týfurkh
Chres
Karina
Akai
Sil
Lynx
Tayla

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If Sil would have been where Týfurkh currently was, Sil would probably have been a happy familiar. However only as long as Sil wouldn’t have a firm grasp on the concept of a quite brutal and unhappy death that resulted in a red puddle, too! Týfurkh’s charge had ended with him raising his foot in the last moment in order both to kick the archer very firmly as well as to get rid of some momentum instantaneously. Now very firmly was actually dead as the momentum had been quite a lot and the steel boot unforgivingly hard. Blood poured out of the man’s mouth as his heart was still beating and his body twitching, but the end was inevitably near.

The second guard had drawn his sword and managed to keep Týfurkh at bay with it. The giant lacked the shield he had held in his hands before, but even with it he would not have been an expert at using it. He thought about a plan as his magic wouldn’t do much good at this short a distance and with the spontaneity of a melee either.

Suddenly, Týfurkh turned on his heel until it was his right side that was facing towards the soldier. He knew from experience that his shoulder plates were one of the most sturdy things about his armor and just like everything else about him, they were pretty large. Using them as both a shield and a means of ramming, he rapidly closed the gap between them and kept pushing, thereby taking away a lot of room to play around with the sword. This way the soldier could not pick up a lot of momentum with it and what means of straightforward stabbing remained was not enough to punch through Týfurkh’s chestpiece. In the end there was the wall and the guard pinned against it. Týfurkh now used his right elbow to help with the immobilization while his left fist was busy hitting whatever soft spot on the man’s body he could find.

With the archer down. Chres charged on ahead. He took out his hatchet raised it for a strike-

A winged familiar flew between the six guards. ”Sil?” Sil’s head jerked towards Chres, causing her to fly head first into the nearest guard and collapse onto the ground.

Distracted, Chres’s strike never came. Instead, the soldier struck first, forcing Chres to have to quickly Weave a wall between him and death. He dismissed the wall immediately and thrust his freehand forward. A blade shaped into his hand, but it only nicked the guard.

Apparently the guard hand judged Chres’s thrust as some sort of awkward punch. He attempted to knock away Chres’ attack with his own arm, earning him a wound in the process. The guard leapt back to give himself some distance.

“Jewl, give us some cover!” The soldier shouted.

A female soldier behind the guard, presumably Jewl, removed a pair of spectacles from her face and let them fall beside a nearby torch. The spectacles appeared to absorb the light, then suddenly four more guards materialized out of nowhere.

Chres cursed. Where they illusions? One of the illusions took a swipe at Chres, which he blocked by Shaping a blade. Chres’ construct made contact. Not illusions. They had substance. Light constructs then. Even worse.

Jewl replaced her spectacles with a new pair and dodged away in order to blend in with the other guards.

”Go for the door!” Chres shouted. He kicked away the nearest construct while blocking the blow from another by throwing up a shield. He quickly stepped back to readjust his positioning. Last thing he needed was to get surrounded.

Even though Karina was still in the back of the group, recovering from the ice attack she used earlier, she still kept her rapier on hands, ready to attack whoever came too close to her or to jump into action if someone else got into a tough situation. Watching as Týfurkh charged towards both the archer, instantly taking him down before being confronted by the second guard. Karina was considering going to help him, but after seeing Týfurkh using his armor and weigth to pin the guard into a wall with a charge and hit him continuously with his heavy fists, she almost felt sorry for the poor man that was on the receiving end.

In the middle of the battle though, a familiar face appeared, flying right between the six guards and going straight towards one of them, hitting him in the face before falling to the ground. Due to that event, Chres, who was getting ready to hit one of the guards, hesitated, which made the guard strike him first. Thankfully, he was able to block the guard's attack by making a heat construct between the two of them before retaliating with a blade made of heat.

Just after Sil, Akai came, quickly going to where Sil was, grabbing her and flying between the soldiers until she was behind the group.

"I don't want... to be the one to bring bad news... but the Sightless knows about everything..." Akai said, out of breath.

"The close encounter with that... thing... wasn't what I would call 'relaxing'!" Akai said, still trying to catch her breath, holding Sil in her arms.

Karina watched as Sil came, followed by Akai and heard her words with a worried expression. Those were really bad news indeed. Before she said anything though, one of the guards shouted towards the female soldier behind him, asking for some cover. The woman used a strange ability, that, at first, made Karina think it was just illusions, but the moment Chres blocked one of the illusion's strike, actually making contact with it, Karina knew it was much worse. With the added information that the Sightless already knew of their little plan, they had to move fast.

"How many ability users they have?!" Karina said, looking at the woman, Jewl, with an annoyed expression.

"Got it! Let's go! We don't have time to waste!" Karina said, nodding towards Chres as he shouted for them to go for the door.

“The door!” The soldier cried in response to Chres and Karina. “Guard the door!”

In response, Jewl tossed a glass marble in Karina’s direction. As the marble began to suck in the light around it, ropes, with the heads of snakes, shot from the marble and towards Karina. They slithered towards her, attempting to coil around her legs.

Three other soldiers headed for the door as well. All three unaware of the hitchhiker, Sil, crawling up the back of one of the soldier’s uniforms.

The bunch of seconds it had taken for Týfurkh to take care of the second guard in his reach he had been unable to see what was going on behind his head. As he was finished and turned himself around he instantly didn’t like what he saw: More guards or at least creations that behaved like guards ? Okay. Darkness around them ? Not so much. Magic ropes with the heads of snakes, probably highly poisonous even ? Highly dangerous. And, last but not least and in spite of the fact that Týfurkh actually felt happy about Sil returning to Chres alive: The news that the Sightless had discovered them and their plan ? Catastrophic!

And yet, as highly reasonable as the idea of running for the door was, it just simply couldn’t be executed with that many hostile obstacles in the way. Or could it if they just took the time to prepare ? Maybe the guards not openly attacking them anymore but staying at the door was not such a bad thing after all…

Týfurkh made a large step to the side, positioning himself rather close to a wall next to the dead and trampled archer. There he opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but no words could be heard. His jaws moved and his lungs clearly did some heavy duty, but there was silence around him. Hopefully Chres, Karina, Sil, Akai and all the others would understand what he was doing and hopefully the guards would have no idea about the same. He was preparing an acoustic trap, a very small, invisible spot floating in the midst of the air right in front of the soldiers. Once ready all it would take was for some provocation to make them more forward a little.

The guards cried out as they ran straight into Týfurkh’s trap… or rather Sil, the hitchhiker, did. Having climbed atop a very confused guard’s shoulder, she lept ahead of them man

”Door! Door! Door! Door! Door!” Sil shouted happily in quick succession… only to trigger the trap moments later. All three guards were sent sprawling on their backs. Sil, having taken the brunt of the blow and being as tiny as she was, was sent flying.

”No! No! No! No! Noooooooooooooo!” She cried, as her body was launched through the air, only stopping as she made contact with Jewl’s face. Jewl let out a loud “Oooooph”. Her body, falling to the floor unconscious.

Chres shook his head as he fended off an attack from an illusion. ”Leave it to Sil to be only accidentally helpful.” Chres grumbled with a sigh.

Or maybe not becoming a bard was the right choice, thought Octavio, admiring Jewl’s prowess. His light constructs were geared towards more general applications, so it was a bit intimidating to see someone versed in a more military, strategic style of combat. Strategy, or in Octavio’s words, ideas that all fell apart the second the chaos of a battlefield truly manifested itself. The amount of sparring matches or training regimens one went through were no longer important when something like Sil hit your face like a frying pan at top speed. Even the noise Jewl made was ridiculous.

“What on Earth?!” shouted Lynx.

“Great work!” responded Octavio, nearly simultaneously. Both him and his illusion had been guarding each other’s backs, lashing out to strike a weak point whenever it presented itself. There was an abundance of them, given the constant violence erupting all around them, which they took advantage of to the fullest. At the sight of the sprawled guards, however, he had a change of plans. Leaving his illusion to fend for itself, he sprinted towards someone else.

“Would this count as mugging? I don’t care, regardless.”

It took maneuvering past multiple hostile opponents, but he approached her seemingly unresponsive body to take the spectacles.

The moment Karina began running towards the door though, one of the soldiers shouted for the remaining guards to block it, in response to her and Chres' shouts. Jewl immediately acted, throwing a glass marble in Karina's direction. As it got out of her hands, the marble began sucking light around it and after a while, ropes with the heads of snakes began getting out of the marble and going towards Karina, trying to coil around her legs.

Forcing to reduce her pace, Karina continued going as fast as she could, while trying to cut any rope that got too close from her legs. She knew that if they managed to trap her, it would only make the entire situation worse.

"What are those things?!" she said with an annoyed tone as she continued trying to open a way to the door by cutting the snake-headed ropes.

Fortunately, she was paying enough attention on her surroundings to notice when Týfurkh positioned himself close to the wall and opened his mouth, almost as if he was shouting something but with no sound getting out of it. While she didn't know exactly what he was doing, she knew that he was using his ability for something and considering where he was facing towards, he was aiming to where the other soldiers where. Giving a small nod, Karina slowed her pace even more to give Týfurkh both the time and space he needed to use his ability, while focusing on keeping the strange snakes away from her.

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, Sil didn't catch on to what Týfurkh was trying to do and simply continued on her way towards the door. Having taken a ride on another soldier, Sil leapt ahead of him just as the trap was set, triggering it and sending the guards sprawling on their backs, which made Akai immediately start laughing, not only at the woman, but at Sil as well, whom, just like Chres said, had a huge talent in being accidentally helpful.

Sil got up in a daze. ”Nnggh....” She groaned, despite being unable to feel pain. ”What happened?”

"Sil! Let's go! Don't make me rescue you again or I'll promise you I'll do so by grabbing you by the legs and dragging you with me!" Akai said after a good laugh, waiting to be sure she was okay before continuing on her way. If Sil took too long to reply, she would fly towards her while the guards were on the ground and try to grab Sil and get away before anything could block them.

Sil shook her head, her appearance transitioning back into her fairy form.

”All yours!!” She exclaimed happily. Going flat as a board, she stretched her legs out in anticipation of Akai dragging her across the room. On the other side of the room Chres groaned in annoyance.

Seeing Jewl on the ground unconscious made Karina much more relieved, seeing how she was one of the most dangerous among the guards. While it was true they had little time, for a moment, Karina stopped, looking towards Jewl's unconscious body. She could be very troublesome for them later and now was a very good time to make sure she wouldn't be able to fight them again... Just as she did so, Octavio, who was already close to her unconscious body, approached Jewl and searched her body, taking her glasses with him.

"Don't delay, Octavio! Just take anything that could be dangerous from her! We need to do something to prevent her from immediately coming after us once she wakes up." Karina said, nodding towards Octavio.

One of the illusions took a swipe at Chres that was far too close for comfort. Chres cursed as he swiveled out of the way. Panting, he threw up a wall between him and the light constructs, effectively blocking a follow up attack.

”Where are we on that door?!” He cried.

Týfurkh grimaced the moment he could only watch and see how probably the least robust member of their party happened to relocate herself right into the trap he was setting up while everyone else appeared to have noticed in time what he was up to. Luckily he had only had little time to charge that thing, otherwise it would have been a lot more lethal and Sil might very well have ended up as a cloud of red fog. That was assuming Sil’s blood was indeed red, of course, and not some color just straight from the other world her fancy mind seemed to be. Someone, anyone, REALLY needed to talk to her!

This was not the time for such, though. Týfurkh hurried to reach the door, using a mixture of jumping and daring maneuvers in order not to trample more people he already had this day. He stopped when reaching Jewl though, the one individual Karina had just told to deprive of anything that could be used against them. A spontaneous thought crossed his mind about how that problem could be solved more efficiently. Why not take Jewl with them as a whole ?

Not breaking a sweat, Týfurkh lifted Jewl and threw her over his shoulders before picking up his pace again. ”Everybody look out for a nice place to dump her!”

A well, perhaps ? Or some dark, tiny chamber whose door happened to have a big lock and a key ? Týfurkh didn’t really care at this point as long as it could serve as an obstacle.

”How about that dark little room over there?” Chres suggested, nodding over to a near by room with its door wide open. If she Jewl waked in there, at least she wouldn’t be able to use her powers… Speaking of which…

The glass marbles Jewl had tossed on the ground when dark. Her illusions vanishing with them. Chres breathed a sigh of relief. Jewl’s remaining companions however began to sweat. One companion rushed up the stairs shouting for help, the others got to their feet and recomposed themselves.

Chres however, took that moment to shoot for the door undoing the lock and throwing it wide open.

”People of Shimmertown!” Chres shouted, ”Come to arms and take back your wall! Join us now so that we can open this gate!”

The nearby people let out a cheer. Some went to spread the word, while others proceeded to rush the wall.

By this point the Jewl’s remaining companions had made a mad dash up the stairs to regroup. Although only a few villagers had managed to make their way in at this point, things were starting to look up. A few of the villagers gave chase to the soldiers charging up the stairs, while others rushed the halls of the lower floors instead.

While these handful of villagers might have given Chres and the other some much needed relief, they were clearly more of an unorganized mob than a unit. And that alone meant that the battle here was not yet won.

Chres sighed. He could feel the wariness beginning to sink in. A loud crash sounded somewhere distantly above. The hell could have that had been? Chres wonder before shaking away the ideal thought. ”Come.” He said while waving the others to the stairs. ”We must make sure the job is done.”

More villagers began to rush into the wall going whichever way they chose. As Chres took his first step up the stairs. Another crash. This one much closer. Cries came from above. Chres hesitated. This he hadn't imagined.

The ceiling made a loud groan shortly followed by several loud cracks that spread through the rock. Chres paused, taking a moment to look at the ruined stone ceiling. Oddly, the ceiling had sunken. Rubble spewing from the crack. Another loud groan followed. The wariness left in an instant followed by alert.

”GET DOWN!” He started to shout. His warning drowned out by the sound of the ceiling caving in on them.

---

Tayla stepped back as the floor beneath her collapsed into the floor below. Casually, she spit out the used bit of sweetened cotton which she had used to drastically increase the weight of the stone floor all the while trying to ignore the chaos ensuring throughout the wall. She had just collapsed three stories off stone floor hoping to catch her target by surprise.

Getting to her knees she peered down into her newly created pit trying to pinpoint the bitch, assuming of course that she was alive. As the dust started to settle, she could make out the slender form of a woman with rapier in hand... There.

Tayla pop two tuffs of cotton into her mouth. One sour. One savory. She leapt through the hole in the floor, the cloud of dust enveloping her. Using the sour cotton tuff, she modulated the linear velocity of her clothes, slowing her fall. Tayla landed next to the figure who she presumed to be her nemesis. Touch the ground beneath the woman, She quickly used the savory cotton to warp the ground beneath the woman's feet.

The ground beneath the two of them lurched upwards through all three newly created holes. Talya stopped her warping effect abruptly. The ground beneath them instantly returned to its normal state. Their momentum, however, continued onwards.

Tayla let the woman fly away into the forth story of the gatehouse, leaving her the the mercy of her velocity. Tayla however, used the sour cotton tuff to again modulate and change the velocity of her clothes allowing her to land comfortably on the ground without hitting any walls or ceiling.

Whipping out one of her twin swords, Tayla popped a bitter cotton tuff into her mouth. Tayla made two alternating kicks, during which, see she decreased the friction of her boots. The boots slide off her feet as if coated in butter, leaving her feet bear and exposes. Tayla had learned the hard way. In order to beat this woman, she would need to pull out all the stops. She would need to using her powers to their fullest, and that meant she would need to make contact with objects in more ways than just through her hands.

Tayla stared down her opponent, raising a fistful of coins into the air. She felt a well of hate and envy fill her as she stared into Little Miss Perfect's cold eyes. Tayla opened her mouths to speak.

"Hello, Princess."

Coins launched from Tayla's hand, sending death Karina's way.

The Five Senses

Tayla

---

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"There!" Smit shouted. He Passed his spyglass over to the nearby catapult operator and then pointed into the distance. There, beyond the southern side of the wall, an isolated group of soldiers were lagging behind the main charge against the southern wall. The catapult's operator nodded, rotated the catapult and launched it's payload into the air.

The payload landed just ahead the group of soldiers, hitting the ground and releasing a cloud of Dust sand into the air. Immediately three siege ladders surrounded by soldiers with towering shields, vanished into thin air. While soldiers on the wall cheered, Tayla simply click her tongue. Looking on, dissatisfied.

"How much dust sand did we just waste in order to take out three illusions?" She asked disapprovingly.

Smit ignored the question. He'd been ignoring her comments through much of the day. The only time he spoke to her was when he needed to give her orders.

"Seems wasteful, yes," One of the nearby soldiers started, "but far less wasteful than the lives we might lose if we spend our time trying to take out fake siege ladders."

That had been the wall's strategy from the moment they realized General Frost, The Mirage, was loosing his illusions upon them. Sightless Syella had been right about the siege towers. They were all fake. The shadow metal arrows had proven that. However many of the soldiers advancing on the wall were real.

Despite Syella wanting the soldiers to focus their attention on the eastern gate, Sightless Nieffar had decided otherwise. He had come to the southern wall himself to help soldiers pick out the illusions. It worked for a time, however somehow the aggressors seemed to have caught on. Several soldiers had begun to light torches to envelop their illusions and comrades in light and conceal what was real from the all the Sightless.

As the soldiers adjusted their tactics to focus on finding the magician's casting the illusions, Nieffar had taken to trying to identify what had tipped the soldiers off to there being a sightless on the wall. It wasn't long before they discovered that some of the birds flying overhead were familiars.

This had then lead to them pulling aside archers with shadow metal arrows. These archers watched the skies firing their shadow metal arrows at any bird that appeared to be acting unnatural or any familiar that Nieffar had been able to identify. They figured it was best to use these special arrows on spies rather than waste them trying to fire through the gaps in-between the shields protecting the real and fake siege ladders.

Tayla folded her arms beneath her chest. "Why not just wait till they approach and then plunge a shadow metal arrow into every ladder?"

"Because, Tayla," Smit said unable to keep the irritation out of his voice. "if we do that, then the enemy is already here!" He looked back through his spy glass attempting to spot another caster. "Besides, this is the tactic that we were ordered to do. Are you going to help the family, our clan, or are you going to go off doing your own thing again and put all of us at risk?"

Tayla's eye twitched ever so slightly. "Well, well. Look who's become quite the prick."

Smit's back stiffened. Shooting a glance at Tayla, opened his mouth to speak- only to stop himself. Releasing a sigh, he looked back through his spyglass.

"I'm sorry." He said "That was out of line."

His apology caught her off guard. A brief sense of shame washed over her, which she quickly pushed aside.

"Cowering to a subordinate? Pitiful." More shame. It had been a forced retort.

Smit said nothing. Ignoring Tayla as he had done for much of the day. Tayla tsked, stalking off to find some place where she could be alone until they needed her. Unfortunately, being at the top of a wall there wasn't any real location which one could even consider to be private. So instead, Tayla settled for a spot on the wall which was not too far away. One with less people running amok.

Why did you say that? She wondered. Why do you always have to say stupid things like that?!

This had been the reason Tayla had been demoted. It was her rash behavior. Her inability to not have to feel like she came out on top of fight. All she ever wanted was to be in control of her own life, yet how could she ever do that if she wasn't even in control of her own emotions?

"Tayla, oh Tayla. Ever, always so glum." Said a gravelly voice.

Tayla raised her head to find the newly appointed Sightless De'laire standing before her.

"Sightless De'laire." Tayla said, bowwing her head quickly, if only to look away from those newly scratched out eyes of De'laire's. The sight of the orange goop dipping from De'laire's wounds sickened Tayla. She only hoped it wouldn't take much longer for De'laire's transformation to be complete. Perhaps by then her injuries would heal up properly and Tayla would then be able to look De'laire in the face without heaving out her lunch.

De'laire began muttering to herself. "She looks away? She looks away! Why? Oh, she's disturbed. Of what? Me? Oh yes, yes of course its me. Perhaps wiping my wounds now and then wouldn't hurt. Or... well, yes it would but-"

"Sightless De'laire," Tayla interjected, "Did you wish to speak w-"

Tayla never got the words out. Instead, she found herself sprawling on the floor. Her face stinging from a well placed slap.

"DID YOU NOT SEE THAT I WAS SPEAKING?!" De'laire screamed.

Damn, becoming a sightless had not cured her mental instability from being a Crazed. "My apologies, Sightless." Tayla said, picking her self off the ground.

"Sightless? Oh right, right. Yes, once I become sightless I'll be able to think straight again. Oh, what a wonderful day that will be! Wouldn't you agree?"

"-Yes.... Sightless?" Tayla was feeling more confused then ever now, but she decide it was best to go with De'laire's insanity rather than against it. De'laire simply smiled.

A soldier suddenly pushed past them. "Sightless Nieffar! Sightless-"

De'laire caught the man by the throat. "Sightless Nieffar is busy at the moment. Please bring all complaints to me."

She release the poor man, letting him drop to the ground.

"We- we have intruders." The man said in-between coughs. "They wield magic. Tempraision, illusions and ice!"

Tayla felt her blood go cold. Ice? It was her!

"They're heading for the gatehouse! If we don't stop them, they'll open the gate, or worse, let the rioters in!"

Tayla looked towards the Eastern Gatehouse. If she ran there now, then perhaps she could cut little Ms. Perfect off!

"Tayla!" Smit shouted in the distance. "We need you!"

Tayla look back towards Smit. Some of the real soldiers had made it to the wall and set up their ladders.

"Yes, yes..." Sightless De'laire was saying. "Sounds bad. Sounds bad. I should kill them myself, yes?"

No! The white haired woman was hers! Tayla looked back to the gatehouse longingly.

"Tayla, what are you doing?! We need you, now!" Smit cried.

Tayla, took off, ignoring the cries from Smit. He didn't need her right now, and senses knows she didn't need his condescending attitude. She ran like the wind. All the while, a plan of attack began to form in her head.

The Five Senses

-Collab Between Pezz570, 13org, Fetzen and HokumPocus-

Octavio
Týfurkh
Chres
Karina
Akai
Sil
Lynx
Sightless Syella

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Behind Chres, a very loud and a more subtle bang gave notice of a certain piece of heavy equipment doing its job. Týfurkh had spotted the archer a brief moment before the latter had let go of the arrow, allowing him to raise his elbow as a very makeshift means of additional protection before impact. The first impact on the elbow had changed the arrow’s flight path, the second one had brought the projectile to a complete stop slightly embedded in Týfurkh’s chestpiece. Out from the corner of his eyes he could look down onto it and see the purple color, making it all the more evident that this was no standard arrow.

Chres breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that Týfurkh was okay. What in the world happened? Looking back at the archer, the man seemed just as surprised as Chres felt, but not in the same manner. A smile curled on the man’s lips as he drew another arrow.

”Chres, your stuff isn’t gonna work anymore!” was the giant’s comment before he decided on what to do next. They wanted to push the charge forwards? Well, so be it!

Chres would find himself shoved aside not so slightly, but with at least as much comfort as could be provided when doing things as fast as possible. Týfurkh stepped next to him and made a run for the guards, preparing both his fists and his crossbow as melee weapons for what was bound to come.

The archer’s smug look quickly turned to panic as the giant man charged forward. “I need support!” The man cried out as he fumbled with notching his arrow on the bow string. Four soldiers charged forward pikes in hand.

”Damn it!” Ches yelled as he pushed himself to keep up with Týfurkh’s giant strides.

Perhaps his shields wouldn’t be as useful now, but that didn’t mean he still couldn’t back Týfurkh up! Chres charged in and shaped a giant lance. It’s tip forming inches away from the nearest soldier’s chest. The man, who was too focused on Týfurkh to notice Chres’ advance, came to a sudden halt as the lance skewered his chest.

Damage done, Chres dismissed the construct immediately. Refocusing his attention on the next soldier. ”You get the two on the right! I’ll take the remaining man on the left! Octavio, Karina, Ferris, support however you can!”

One of Octavio’s throwing knives had left the palm of his hand and found itself embedded in the throat of one of the guards at the right, a moment before Chres had spoken. “Huh? Oh, right. Certainly!” His illusion had been helping as well, though with less effective results from its more defensive movements. It was an intentional strategy employed by Octavio. He was there to throw projectiles, not receive them.

Karina simply nodded as Chres and Octavio told her to conserve her energy, letting him and the others push ahead of her. Her body was gradually heating up but it would take some time until she was actually ready to use her magic again. Listening to Chres as he told that it was their chance to charge towards the gatehouse, Karina simply nodded, silently stating that she would be ready whenever they were. Judging the situation they were in, it would have to be soon as well, especially since the archers were still a threat and Chres' protection wasn't going to stop any additional arrows, as it became well evident with the arrow sticking out of Týfurkh's chestpiece. It was fortunate that he was still fine, but that was still a warning they should move.

"We can't stay here any longer!" she said, looking back towards Týfurkh just to be sure he was fine and then towards Chres.

"I'm ready whenever you guys are." she finished, looking to the group.

Just as she said that though, Týfurkh pushed Chres aside for a moment, rushing towards the archer, with both fist and crossbow ready. Running after him, Chres cursed as he followed the giant's charge, readying a lance with his ability and skewering one of the soldiers as he got closer. Leaving the other soldiers to Týfurkh and going towards the last soldier remaining on his side, Chres asked Octavio, Ferris and Karina to support them in any way they could.

Without being able to use her ability and being too far to use her rapier, Karina simply followed the group, focusing the best she could in conserving energy and resting enough to use her abilities again. Following Chres and Týfurkh she kept her rapier in hand, ready to help in case one of them found themselves in a difficult situation against the remaining guards.

The second guard had turned his attention to Chres, he thrust his pike in Chres’s direction. Quickly, Chres made a thrusting motion himself, followed by a swipe upward. A spear formed in Chres’s hands. It caught the pike and knocked it aside.

Chres dismissed the spear and took out his last throwing knife. Quickly, he flung it into the man’s chest, causing the soldier to stumble. Chres took the stumble to get in close, shaped a blade and stabbed the man in the chest. Twisting the blade to ensure severage of the man’s artery, Chres dismissed the blade, while using his free hand to snatch back his last throwing knife before the man collapsed.

“Support! I need support!” The archer cried again as the giant loomed near. He raised his bow, took aimed-

Chres threw his retrieved throwing knife. It sank its way into the archer’s forearm. The archer cried out and dropped the bow.

”All yours!” Chres exclaimed to Týfurkh.

---

”Move it, bud, or I’ll nip you again!” Sil commanded threateningly to her new ride. It was the soldier who’s shirt she had crawled into earlier. She had done so in order to take cover from the shadow metal arrows the archer had shot at her.

“I’m going as fast as I- OW!”

”Silence, Silly human!” Sil demanded. ”Now look what you made me do! Your chest nub is puddling red! Such a waste of food!”

The soldier, Teb, gulped. “Food? What do you mean food?” Sweat began to bead down the soldier’s head. Did this monstrous familiar drink human blood too?

”Don’t play silly with me, human!” Sil growled -which ended up sounding more like a purr- ”You and I both know you humans eat red puddles to live!”

“We- what?”

”You keep it in bottles! Pour it into cups! Then drink it till you become red in the face and are no longer able to walk straight!”

“I-I think you’re a little confused -Ow! Hey! I’m running! Alright? I’m running!”

”That’s a good human!” Sil replied, before nipping him again.

“Ow- What was that for?”

”That?” Sil asked. ”That was for me to know and for you to stress over!”

Teb groaned, but said no more. Onwards he rushed toward the gatehouse, where Lynx and Akai suspected they would find Chres and the rest. Teb had been a good little human. He had followed Sil’s every instruction thus far… or so he had after receiving the proper motivation that is...

It was Teb who had taken down the archer shooting the shadow metal coated arrows. Teb who had pointed them towards the gatehouse, and now Teb who had so kindly ‘offered’ Sil a lift so she could relax comfortably, safe inside his shirt.

Sil poked her out of the opening of Teb’s shirt. The man had come to a stop. “We're here.” He whispered.

“Teb?” Another soldier called out. “What are you doing here?” The Soldier turned his gaze to Lynx and Akai “Since when did you get familiars... and… is that Crystal Jade attached to them?”

“I-” Teb stuttered.

“Those aren’t his.” A familiar voice, gravelly, female voice said.

“Sightless Syella?” The soldier asked.

“I may not be able to see them,” Sightless Syella began, “but crystal jade and familiars can only mean one thing. This man is colluding with the enemy... Kill him.”

“No!” Teb yelped.”That’s not what this is! They forced me to do it! They-”

Oh no! Sil thought. Not best buddy, Teb!

Sil lept out from the cover of Teb’s shirt. “Surprise attack!” Sil exclaimed.

Wings outstretched, she flew right into the incoming guard’s face and started scratching and biting. It was convenient having teeth and claws. The more she was in this form, the more Sil had been finding uses for it.

“What the-” The soldier exclaimed “Agh! Get off! Get off!”

“Run, Teb! Run!” She cried out. Teb, needing no additional urging, took off. Sil sighed reminiscently. The boy always was a good runner…

”Whatever you do, don’t forget all the wonderful times we shared together!” She called out to Teb. “I will never forget you- you- yoooooo- whatever your name was!”

Sil turned her attention to Lynx and Akai. “Lynx, Akai! Go find Chres and the rest. I’ll join you shortly!”

In the middle of the ensuing chaos Lynx found himself in front of Teb and nearly caused him to topple, later taking a quick leap to allow the man to escape. His gimmick of tripping humans was going to be reserved to the ones who weren’t running for their lives and now in need of intensive therapy. We must have a conversation about ethics at some point, he thought to himself. He dove out of a pair of legs just in time to see her clawing a guard’s face off.

On second thought… this could be beneficial for m-, us. He could forgive unpredictability when it was on his side.

He wasted no time advancing towards the gatehouse. This was a situation in which there were no room for mistakes, one against insurmountable odds. Worries and anxiety creeped through him, almost as if it were a physical affliction. He could never tell if that had been a symptom of not having a true physical body or not. The only way he could make those thoughts vanish was through confronting the danger himself, a bizarre loophole with his emotions he discovered long ago.

"Unorthodox, but effective!" Akai said, hovering as she chased Sil and her new human hostage, laughing. Every now and then, she would be able to hear the poor soldier's yelp of pain as Sil bit him. The scene only became even more amusing as Sil began talking about food, confounding the soldier's blood with the wine humans often drank, which made the soldier terrified of Sil.

It didn't take much for them to reach the Gatehouse with the help of Teb, which was Sil's new means of transportation. Arriving there, they expected to find Chres and the rest but unfortunately, they were intercepted by another guard, who promptly inquired about the familiars carrying jade candles who were with them. Akai wasn't that worried about a single soldier, but with the arrival of a Sightless, things were completely different. She had heard about Chres, Karina and the others about those 'sightless' and she knew that they were absolutely not someone they would like to mess with.

"Oh no..." Akai muttered as the sightles quickly revealed their plans, showing no mercy even towards Teb, who was an 'enemy' soldier, much for the despair of the unlucky soldier.

Quickly jumping into the other soldier's face, Sil began scratching his face while telling Teb to run before she turned towards both Akai and Lynx, telling them to go find Chres and the rest.

"Don't do anything stupid Sil!" Akai said, flying to where the soldier where Sil was, pushing him so he would lose balance and fall to the ground.

"Let's go Sil! Don't do anything stupid, we need to run!" she shouted as she turned towards Lynx, nodding towards him, a clear indication that her advice to run didn't apply just for Sil.

The guard was sent toppling to the ground. Sil leaping off of him at the last minute and flying after Lynx and Akai.

”Ah, Akai you really do care, don’t you?” Sil said as she landed atop Akai’s shoulder. ”You know, Lynx, you could learn a thing or two from our little-big sister Akai. Leaving me there to- Aaaah!”

Sil’s remarks were cut short by the Sightless. Her fingers elongated into razor sharp points, shot straight past Sil and Lynx. She missed the two familiars, but only barely.

Any and all of the protests forming in Lynx’s mind were tossed to the side along with his body, which hit the ground hard in a feeble attempt to avoid what felt like giant needles tearing through the air.

The fright caused Sil to leap off of Akai’s shoulder. She flew ahead in front of the pack.

”Down the stairs! Down the stairs!” Sil panicked as she zipped down the nearby spiraling staircase. Did Sil feel lighter? Did the room appear darker?

Sil didn’t have time to contempt those thoughts, as she flew headfirst into a group of six soldiers.

"J-Just don't get used to it..." Akai said in an annoyed tone as Sil landed on her shoulder.

She was about to do another snarky remark as a reply to what Sil was saying before Sil suddenly screamed as the sigthless' elongated fingers just missed both her and Lynx, making Akai open her eyes wide in surprise.

"You don't need to tell me twice!" Akai shouted, going as fast as she could after Sil. The sightless already gave her the chills, but the close encounter with her razor sharp finger things was enough to make her run without even looking back.

Lynx saved his words for the inside of his mind, in which they were surely put to better use formulating curses. Danger made him quieter, stealthier. They’d run and he’d voice his complaints later, or at least, that was his plan.

Unfortunately, it seemed their bad luck wasn't over yet. The moment they went down the stairs, they were greeted by a group of six soldiers.

---

Sightless Syella frowned. She watched the emptiness in the Insight, the three familiars, flee. A new emptiness had formed in her odd form of ‘vision’ one that enveloped her entirely.

The familiar’s survival was of little concern to Sightless Syella, what two of those familiars carried, however, was not.

In her hands, Sightless Syella held two crystal jade candles. She couldn’t see the candles, but the emptiness in her vision implied that they were there.

Syella breathed a sigh of relief. These candles were dangerous weapons, and in all honesty, she hadn’t been sure if she was even capable of snatching two invisible candles from fleeing targets. She suspected, though, that aim towards the center of the emptiness would be close to her target. Turns out that suspicion had been right on track. In fact, she felt that she could almost feel were there two candles were located. Perhaps there was something to that notion…

Syella sighed, closing her eyes to the Insight. Things didn’t look good here. The Pact makers were nearing the Gate House. If they opened the doors leading into the wall, then she feared it might be over for them.

She could try to fend the door, but she dared not face the Pact Makers alone. Not with weapons like this. She now knew of ways to counteract the crystal jade, yes, but still it was risky. Perhaps it was time to convince Nieffar to abandon this town. Perhaps it was time to tell the clan to retreat. If only the pack makers hadn’t stuck together...

Syella’s head jerked. Wait… one of the pact makers had gone off on his own. Sightless Syella turned her gaze beyond the wall and turns the pact maker she had previously tried to capture.
Yes… Now was the time to advise her clan to retreat. Her retreat, however, could wait just a little while longer.

The Five Senses

-Collab Between Pezz570, 13org, Fetzen and HokumPocus-

Octavio
Týfurkh
Chres
Karina

---

Lagging behind the rest of the group, Octavio grit his teeth at his choice of magic. The others had their own methods to protect themselves from ranged projectiles, methods that were effective and most importantly, aesthetically pleasing. As for him? He swung a severed arm around with debatable success. Or at least, that’s what it seemed to be at first. In reality it had been a hastily summoned fragment of his own arm, poorly made due to the time constraints that were imposed by the constant stream of chaos erupting all around him, with gray blotches in the areas that should have been bleeding. He actually didn’t have a name for this particular use of his power. Lynx had once referred to it as “a bewilderingly disgusting display of human anatomy” but that didn’t have a pleasing ring to it, much like the woman and her instruments.

Why did I think illusions were a better idea than studying to be a bard?! he whined, swatting at an arrow that landed within inches of his boots. With his remaining illusion acting as a second unconventional shield, he had been faring surprisingly well against the archers. Not the woman though.

“Use of distractions, a fascinating proposal,” he told Chres, a veneer of confidence concealing any trace of panic in his voice. It was customary for one such as himself to resort to such methods when combating stronger threats. Octavio, unfortunately, had found himself unable to think of any act of bravery or cunning that would-

Unless.

“Need a hand?! Take this!”

Octavio’s severed arm illusion flopped wildly in the air without a trace of poise, landing on the woman’s body with a thud that could have been described as meaty. Misshapen fingers clawed at and plugged up whatever holes they could sense on her clarinet-bow, while the remaining mass of arm undid its form just enough to make even looking at the instrument a flabbergasting experience. Even more than it already was, anyways.

The woman yelped. Concentration broken, the new shards of ice, which she had begun gathering, fell to the ground As she frantically shook the clarinet-bow in an effort to knock the illusion off.

Chres shook his head, scoffing quietly ”Need a hand? Really?”

“The hell is this?!” The woman shrieked. Absently, struck the club horn against the wall causing the stone surface to jut out into spikes. Each new stones spike spawning closer the hero’s position.

Chres cursed as he threw up a construct. The spikes collided in such a force that the construct itself cracked. The Weave of his construct slowly began to unravel.

Eyes wide, Chres released the weave as soon as it was safe and did his best to recover whatever heat he could from the dieing construct.

”Senses! I’ve never seen an attack do that to a construct before!”

This was not good. Sustaining his magic relied on him not overusing his heat stores. That last attack had caused him to lose more energy than he would have liked.

Týfurkh damned himself for having used that bolt. Shouldn't he have waited for when their enemy had been more distracted so she wouldn't have been able to defend herself properly ? Then the bolt could have killed her, but now it was pretty much nothing but wasted while also revealing one part of what he could do. Crossbows were quite effective, but not during reloading. He couldn't do that now in all the chaos around him.

The word 'distraction' had become stuck in his mind however, but the reason why his brain had such a great interest in the term revealed itself to his consciousness only slowly: Didn't... didn't that woman apparently have to use her 'instruments' in order to do anything ? So it had been each and every time so far, hadn't it ? One just had to look at how frantically she was trying to defend her 'clarinet' against whatever kind of both fascinating and outright revolting... material... Octavio had thrown at her. Now: What would happen if she'd have to deal with something a lot bigger and stronger than a disgusting, wobbling caricature of a human arm ? Something like... himself ?

The problem was: She had just managed to defend herself against a bolt, something a huge lot faster than he could ever hope to be. It was to be expected she'd be able to come up with yet another move to hurt him well before he'd be able to reach her. So some kind of distraction was in demand! Týfurkh looked at the stone walls and reminded himself of what he had done to the guard outside minutes earlier...

"Hey you! Has anybody ever told you about your fat ass ?"

Týfurkh was not talking to her, but shouting at the wall instead using a focused wavefront. He hoped the trick would work again, the reflected echo reaching the woman from behind and making her believe someone was indeed standing behind her. And what could be more suited to get one's attention than some, any kind of insult ? It could hardly matter what kind of verbal garbage he threw at her, could it ?

Karina kept concentrating herself as she continued preparing her attack. Such fine control over ice was not something easy to do, especially since she was trying to be as discreet as possible about her attack. Still, the woman with the instrument continued to be a threat not only to Karina, but the rest of the party as well. Thankfully, Octavio's illusions were making a very good job of creating chaos and distracting the woman. Throwing a severed arm towards her and making it plug all holes it could find of the woman's strange instrument made the shards of ice she was manipulating to fall to the ground. No matter the corny joke Octavio did, his illusion was doing a very good job.

Unfortunately, as it was already made clear by Chres' explanation, the woman could still attack and prove herself to be a problem to the group even as her instrument was being tampered with. As she slammed the instrument on the wall, trying to free it from Octavio's illusion, it made the stone surface to jut out into spikes, getting dangerously close to the group. Chres managed to block the spikes, but not without visible effort. The construct he made could only barely blocked the spikes, cracking under the stress as it did so. Due to the nature of his magic being close to Karina's, she knew he wouldn't be able to continue like that forever. The urgency of their situation forced her to make a dangerous gamble. Stopping paying attention on her surroundings and any possible attack, Karina focused only on controlling the ice on the walls, doing her best to hasten the cast of such technique.

Meanwhile, using his hearing magic, Týfurkh was trying to draw the woman's attention, making his voice sound like it was coming from behind the woman. Finding such distraction to be perfect to mask the already discreet noise the ice spikes would make to extend out of the wall and having already finished with the formulation of her technique, she waved her rapier in front of her in a diagonal slash, resting it on her side, pointing down as she released her technique. The moment she did so, less than a second after Týfurkh used his technique, the ice bumps immediately changed their forms to spikes and were launched with great speed from different angles and places in the wall, with random trajectories. As soon as she released the ice spikes, it became clear why she said for her allies to remain where they were. The attack chose no targets, instead it was simply a deadly shower of ice spikes. Anyone and anything that was in the general proximity of where the guards or the woman was would be in deadly danger.

The woman jumped. Jerking her head to where she heard the voice. Her eyes widened. Just in time to see her icy end. Blood spattered across the hallway. The few soldiers who survived, turned to flee towards backup.

”Splendid, my…” He still hadn’t named that technique, Octavio realized, “...distraction worked.” He forcefully cleared his throat. The way he uttered the words, it was as if it hadn’t been an improvised act of desperation. Whatever. It was as they said, history was written by the victors.

”Thank goodness for that.” Chres said, breathing a sigh of relief. ”Damn, Karina. That was some attack. How much more of that do you have in you?”

Thankfully, Karina's attack succeeded in killing the woman. Even though some soldiers survived, they ran away after the woman's rather grim demise. It was fortunate too, since Karina gambled a lot in that attack. Not only she let herself open while concentrating herself but it didn't take much for the others in her group to realize how much effort it took for her to use that attack. The already rather pale Karina was even paler, her breath was so cold that it was condensating the air around her and even though she was trying to hide it, her shivers were still noticeable if one paid close attention.

"I-I can still continue. It's j-just... C-cold..." Karina said, with a shaky voice as she replied to Chres as she sheathed her rapier. Not much was needed for one to realise that she wouldn't be able to use such a complex attack like that one without her body temperature lowering to dangerous levels and in the state she was in right now, it would be best if she refrained from using her ability too much for a while, at least until her temperature went back to normal.

Chres pursed his lips, taking in her condition. Looking her in the eyes, he gave her a subtle nod. "We better continue then.” He started, "Karina, let us take the push forward from here. We will need you in the fights yet to come.”

He looked ahead towards their destination. Their path had been mostly cleared thanks to Karina. Most of the wall guard had fled towards the gatehouse in an attempt to regroup. While the remaining guards quickly had a change of heart after seeing their friends retreat.

Chres continued their charge. "This is our chance!” Chres shouted to the others behind him. ”If we make it to the gatehouse, then we have a chance to open the wall to the citizens!”

Octavio took off running once more, his illusion and him crossing one another’s paths to bewilder any would-be attackers. The archers must have caught on at some point, as many had mostly given up trying to hit a nimble target with a shield identical to it in appearance. ”Heavens do we need that,” he told Chres, sparing a glance at Karina and his one remaining illusion, ”we’re starting to wear ourselves down.” More encounters like their previous one would be disastrous for the party. The idea of a flood of reinforcements seemed more and more irresistible with each passing moment.

"It would be nice to be on the receiving end of reinforcements for once.” Chres agreed. Unfortunately, it seemed that they would probably have to fight their way to the door, as the soldiers appeared to have reformed in a tight group inside the gate house.

One of the soldiers stepped forward drawing a bow notched with a single arrow. Oddly, the arrow seemed to be coated in a purplish blue color. The archer released the arrow. Chres shaped his shield and knocked the-

The arrow broke through the construct, causing the construct to dissipate. Chres’s eyes widened in surprise as the arrow shot past his head and towards Týfurkh.

The Five Senses

Chres Sansus

@fetzen@13org@Jerkchicken@HokumPocus@Typical

---

"Sounds like Octavio's thing." Chres said as he batted off some more arrows. He hoped Karina plan was a good one, for if his suspicions about this woman's abilities were on the mark...

Despite the flame having gone out, The woman paid Karina a sidelong glance and smirked. Clarinet-bow in hand, She strum the bow along the taunt string leading from the pummel of the Club-Horn and to the side of her uniform.

The note of a stringed instrument reverberated in the air. A line of air vibrating from the end of the Club-horn and to the ice covered wall. A large chunk of ice shattered, its broken shards hovering in a small vortex of vibrations.

The shards quickly melted, consolidating into a glob of water. The woman continued strumming the bow on the taunt string, shatter more chunks of ice from the wall.

"It's Elementa Musaision!" Chres shouted as the glob of water suddenly shot towards them, blocked by a heat construct weaved by Chres at the last moment. The jet of water slammed into the wall of the construct and exploded into a puff steam. Despite the Chres's construct protecting them from the blow, he could still feel the heat coming off from the steam.

He quickly used the opportunity to redirect a good portion of his own body heat into his heat stores, allowing the steam's excess heat to warm him and prevent him from going into a shock from a sudden change in his bodily temperature.

Elementa Musaision, the use of instruments to call upon the element. From what Chres had heard, each type of instrument utilized a different element. Woodwind called upon wind. Stings, water. Percussion, earth. And Brass, fire. Most people were able to use one or two elements. People capable of three were rare. Four... unheard of.... And yet.

Chres lowered the heat construct, and examined this unique individual. Shame they would probably have to kill her...

"To be able to use all four elements... Lets hope she's just a jack of all trades." Chres said. "Knowledgeable of all four elements, but an expert of none. Regardless, perhaps if we distract her with everything we got, then Karina could get in her attack."

Chres looked to his comrades. Týfurkh with his exploding arrows. Octavio with his illusions. Ferris with his speed augmenting abilities. Chres would back them up defensively as Karina could enact her plan and land the final blow. Together, they could do this!

The Five Senses

Malkev

@Jerkchicken

---

Malkev groaned as the beating stopped.

"Old man..." Malkev muttered rubbing his head. He look up towards his savior. "You..." Malkev said brow furrowed. Why had this man left his companions. Had their plan failed?

Getting back to his feet, Malkev shook his head. Now was not the time for such questions. "Leave? While my people are here fighting for their home? No. I will run and hide like a coward." Malkev said proudly.

Looking ahead, he noticed his actions appeared to have turned the tide somewhat. The civilians had taken the opportunity to attack the cultist caught up in the blinding light from crystal jade candle. They beat the cultists back, stealing what weapons they could.

"I lost my guard in the chaos." Malkev said to Jen. "Most to the crowd. The rest to attackers. As for The Kharu-Natjer's men... No idea. Supposedly they are gathering resistance at various central locations of town."

"Kill the heathen!!!!" A cultist cried, catching Malkev's attention. The cultist pointed in Malkev's direction. His cry getting picked up by a small mob of cultists. Who proceeded to rush Malkev and Jen. Perhaps killing one of their Sightless was not the smartest move of the day...

"Son-" Malkev started, before instantly cursing himself over his own choice of words. Gods! He was becoming an old man, wasn't he? "-I may have lost my guard, but I will happily accept your protection in their stead."

Malkev, dropped his hammer picking up a spear from one of the men Jen dropped. He leveled the spear, doing his best to look threatening, when in truth he knew not what he was doing. Fortunately though, he was fairly certain the man Jen did.

The Five Senses

Chres Sansus

@fetzen@13org@Jerkchicken@HokumPocus@Typical

---

The flick of movement of the giant's crossbow caught the woman's eye. Eyes widening, She quickly stomped her left foot to the ground. With a loud crack, the stone floor surrounding her foot appear to rush together and shot upwards. A stone spire formed just in time to connect with the arrow.

The top of the spire exploded, it's shockwave causing the woman to cry out as she was send sprawling to floor.

Chres raised his brow, impressed. It seem the large man could do more than just throw his voice. Chres took the opportunity to advance further down the corridor hacking away at some guards while batting away others for his comrades to handle.

As more arrows shot their way, only to bounce harmlessly off Chres's shield, Chres couldn't help but notice that the woman had recollected herself. Placing the mouth piece to the Club-horn at her lips, she pointed it at nearby lit torch and blew. The air around the torch seemed to vibrate, as suddenly the fire began to flare up...

Ah... Chres thought, as he started to catch onto her abilities. This can't be good.

The Five Senses

Chres Sansus

@fetzen@13org@Jerkchicken@HokumPocus@Typical

---

The guards cursed. Those in mid run, tripping and falling to the ground. Feet frozen in place by ice thanks to Karina.

That's nifty. Chres thought. He approached the closest pair of archers hatchet at the ready. Far too distracted by the ice, Chres took the first in the chest, while swinging his left arm wide to the side and Re-Shaping the shield from before to bat off any would be attack from the second archer. Rather than deflect an attack, however, his heat construct ended up smacking the man straight in the face.

Chres ignored the man, leaving him to his allies to handles. Tugging his hatchet free from the first guard, he passed the second guard and dismissed his heat construct.

More curses. Another barrage of arrows blocked by Chres's reformed heat construct.

This is too easy. Chres thought. Chres regretted the though almost immediately, as the floor beneath him seemed to erupt.

Chres cried out as bits of stone shot from the ground and catching him in a most... unfortunate place... The good news? Chres had been wise enough to wear protection just for today. The bad news? SENSES BE DAMNED! It still fucking hurt!

Chres groaned doing his best to stay up on his feet. You fall in battle, you die in battle. And Chres was no longer certain he was ready to die. So instead of collapsing to his knees, as he so dearly wanted to, Chres clenched his jaw straight and set his gaze on the suspected culprit. A woman wielding two oddly shaped.... Where those even weapons?

In one hand, the woman held a short brass stick, curving off on the end into a large knob. But it wasn't just some sort of brass club, for on the opposing side of the knob, the weapon curved out in the opposing direction much like the head of a horn. The head of an instrumental horn, that is! The weapon even appeared to be hollow like a horn! Stranger still, taunt strings appeared to be attached to the horn-club, leading from the hilt of the weapon and into the sleeve of the women's uniform.

In the woman's other hand the woman appear to hold something akin to a wooden clarinet, except she held it as if it were a bow of a violin. And indeed the weapon... instrument... whatever it was... even had a long strand of bow hair coming down the side of the clarinet.

The woman held the club-Horn outwards towards the feet of her comrades. She took the clarinet-bow and used the hairs to strum the taunt string connected to the club-horn. A single musical note rang out, the air around the club-horn appearing to vibrate. A line of vibrating air shot from from the club-horn and at one of the guards feet. The ice surrounding his feet shattering.

The woman quickly did the same to two other comrades before turning her attention back to Chres and the rest. Placing the mouth piece of the clarinet bow to her lips, she blew into the device.

Chres raised his arm quickly shaping his heat construct block any projectiles, but none came. Instead, a gust of wind blew from the device knocking Chres off his feat and into his comrades. As the blast of wind bombarded Chres and the rest, the woman slammed the knob of the club-horn into the stone wall next to her. The wall seemed to erupt, like the ground had beneath Chres prior.

A long crack shot from where she struck the wall moving quickly towards the group. Along its wake, bits of stone blast outwards striking at all those nearby.

Chres cursed. Weaving his stores of body heat into a protective wall to protect the group from the eruption of stone. Unlike with Shaping, a Woven heat construct was static. It would take a force of nature more powerful than a blast of wind to know this wall down. Unfortunately, this trick did come with a higher cost to his heat stores.

As soon as stone bounced safely off his wall. Chres dismissed the construct while making sure to reabsorb as much left over energy as he could.

"Any ideas?" He asked, noticing some of the archers were reading a new round of arrows.