Rexcalibur

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

No worries, Kei! Thank you for keeping us updated :)

EDIT: Posted! Hope I gave everyone enough to work with and that you guys have fun with it ^^

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

BASH!!

Abram's moment of weakness for little Baltimore provided Crispin with the single window of opportunity he needed. The brawler launched a flaming uppercut on Abram's jaw, sending the heavy man flying into the air - then slamming back down as Crispin finished him off with - BAM!! - a secondary jab to the stomach. A couple of teeth landed right beside him submerged in blood. Despite the unbearable pain coursing throughout his head and body, Abram was still left alive and breathing.

He waited a moment to see if Abram had anything left in his power to rise back to his feet, but it became apparent that he was not. Not with the punch wounds, not with the burns. "You sound like a good guy, Abram." Crispin spat beside his own foot, a speck of blood splattering like a raindrop. "It's a shame you're part of this BS."

The brawler turned his attention next to the girls offstage; Xandra had fallen, and Estelle was coming his way, towards Vance. Crispin gave her a quick nod and turned his attention to the ringmaster as well, preparing to take on the unarmed man with everything he had left. The ringmaster looked back to the two of them, his expression hollow.



Abram had fallen. His right-hand man, his favorite among men - brought down by a scrawny broken-handed boy.

Vance's lips twitched. Ire. Fury.

He allowed Xandra to fall to the ground as both pyro-users charged after him. And in doing so, Crispin himself suddenly whirled around - "What the!?" - and faced Estelle instead, his left fist blazing with fire. Before Estelle too could realize just what was going on, Crispin leapt towards the swordswoman and punched the ground as he had before. This time, his fiery blast was focused in a single region; rather than a ring, a wall of fire erected between the two combatants.

Smoke clouded the area, shielding the brawler from Estelle's sight. His voice however gave away his position. "Get... your filthy mitts... off of me!!"

He then dashed through the firewall, aiming his punch for Estelle's head. Of course, his swing had missed and he skidded behind her, but the brawler quickly pounced after her again. "Watch out!!"

---

Vance let a deep breath through his nose as he returned his attention to Amy. Baltimore had placed herself between Amy and Marcus, her arms held out to their sides. She bit her lip, shaking her head wildly at this.

Though Vance's words were tender, his hollow expression displayed otherwise. "Now my sweet, why have you returned?"

"..."

"Is it revenge?" The puppeteer shrugged, his lips curling into a smile. "Surely you did not miss my company."

"..."

"A woman of 'hope,' wasn't that your depiction? Ah, but yet - this is rage, is it not?" Baltimore gasped as she turned around, now facing the stage. Her hands extended before her, palms open, as she spread her arms apart - creating another invisible wall between Amy and herself, Marcus, Eric, and Cammie. Then she gasped and turned back to the wall, banging on it futilely. Vance rambled on. "Oh, dearest Amaranth. Requital is such a... powerful sentiment. But for it to consume even you?"

Amy twitched. She stepped forward, out from the fallen teddy bear's stuffing and broken sword bits. "You know precisely why we're here." She shook her head solemnly. "We're here... to stop you. To put an end to all this bullshit."

"Tell me, my flower. Who is it this time?"

"We're..." Amy stuttered. She raised her staff in Vance's direction with suddenness, the gem tipping it glowing a brilliant red. "We're setting all your captives free. You will pay for--"

Vance held up a palm and shook his head. Chuckling. "No, no, do not spoil it. I love surprises." His eyes reopened to scan the room. "Allow me to guess - is it... this man?"



Lucien cried aloud as he felt something invade his body. While his mind was free from the puppeting, his actions were not of his own. Like a plaything, Vance moved him around, eager to see what it was this man was doing; he must have been the source of this bear, but Vance couldn't figure out exactly how they were connected. Still, the suddenness and unrestrained movements were too much for him to focus his control on the bear he had summoned to help Trixie.

As such, the bear lost control a second time. It barreled through the surrounding chairs and charged after whoever was nearest - in this case, Marcus and Eric. Amy watched this in silence, her expression hiding all emotion.

Vance licked his lips. "Ah... that must be a no. Could it be... that man?"



From the entrance, more smaller carnival prizes rushed in. Marcus was surrounded not only by harmless fluffies, but more of those flying foam swords with sharpened edges. They threatened to knock him around, to burrow straight into him. Though the hand-sized fluffs were feeble, they were still cumbersome working together like a hive of bees. Similar to Guinevere's shredded mouse plush, they possessed quite some weight if they were to throw themselves into somebody.

The bear still hurtled right after them, as Lucien still lost his control.

Amy hadn't even looked back to see what Vance was doing to her friend. Her expression changed not, but she jerked her staff sharply, procuring her light-whip.

Vance's grin widened further, revealing his teeth. He was so amused. "Neither of them! What a predicament you leave me in, dearest."

Vance Boss Theme:
Opheliac

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Phillis Circus: Big Top - Onstage

Aria's illusion had worked. Isabella had taken the faux-hit; with all the chaos literally surrounding both Aria and Lute, it seemed unwieldy to target anyone outside their immediate circle. And yet, Aria acted with decisiveness. Her knives flew straight after Guinevere, and her fellow performers would not be able to stop it on time.

But a certain animal who had been resting on the sidelines and recovering her wounds had been watching quietly. When everyone made their way to the stage, she too tried to rise to her feet, to stop these strangers from hurting her friends. Yet every time she moved, an immense pain consumed her body, and she plopped back down. Doomed to watch her friends and fellow animals fight without her help.

Then Aria's knives went flying. Right after Guinevere.



Petra the panda wailed as she charged forward at full speed - and took the hit. She crashlanded right into Guinevere, causing the woman to stumble forward but not completely over. The ringmaster turned to see the circus' beloved panda bear suffering from a line of knives driven right into her body. She was injured, bleeding, but still alive and breathing; the blades had all missed any vital organs and arteries.

But Petra's whimpering, her tears, her hurting, the crimson clotting up her beautiful fur.

Ire. Fury.

Ceasing her attention on Amy, Guinevere now turned to Aria and Lute. "Stop." She knelt down beside the panda and stroked her backside, patting down her ruffled fur. "Stop." Slowly she lifted her head to see the enemies in her sights. Her eyes flared with indignation. "Recreants... I will make you suffer."

With Max's and Olga's crashes, the big top rumbled dangerously. The various animals' stomping around and crashing into things did not help the tent's sustainability. Still the tent was sent rumbling yet again; another giant teddy bear suddenly emerged from the curtained entrance nearest to Aria and Lute. Its appearance was enough to startle Lidya, but she regained her sense of awareness afterwards.

With Aria's previous illusion gone, the lioness had a better sense of where the duo had gone off to. She pounced directly over Isabella and straight after Lute, paw posed to strike at his face upon land.

"Suffer!"

Guinevere rose back to her feet, arm extended towards the teddy bear. It too rushed forward, as other dolls and items began to flood in after it. Dolphins and seahorses zipping around like bats. Basketballs bouncing all around, splitting off in every direction. Tiny, poor-quality critters crawling or flapping about after the various guilders. The longer ones glided along the floor, hoping to ensnare whoever was unlucky enough to be close by.

Two orange snakes slithered towards Moira and Syed, their puppet-like mouths opening wide. Their paper thin fangs sharpened in an instant.

The giant teddy bear followed after Lidya, but instead chose Aria as its target, with arms wide and ready. Once it was near enough, it tripped over absolutely nothing. With its arm still wide it cast a monstrous shadow over Aria and would crush her if she failed to move.

---

"How could you... How could you!" Tammie screeched as Max had fallen, finally defeated. These people were monsters - total monsters! Sure they destroyed her 'home' and attacked her friends - but for them to down her own boyfriend too!? Now they crossed the line!

Tammie rose to her feet and like any insane person, charged right after both Moira and Syed. As she ran, she hollered and screamed with the most ear-piercing thing anyone in the room had heard in a long while. She whipped out her hat and immediately began chucking more fireballs at the duo, setting nearby chairs alight from the splash. She had worked so hard to put them out - but now that Max was hurt beyond repair (as it seemed), she was too infuriated to realize the danger.

Just as Moira and Syed prepared themselves... Tammie suddenly vanished. Poof. Gone. Erased from existence.

Her screaming however had seemed to teleport, now coming from their sides. And there Tammie was, still angrily throwing fireballs at them like baseballs with tears running down her eyes and ruining her makeup.

Behind her was Sammie, leaning along a chair, her cape held to the side. Like her siblings, her cape held a power as well - to teleport people in its place with a mere swish.



Sammie breathed deeply, her cheek pulsing with red from Estelle's attack. "Have that, you shit buckets."

---

Eric Coil too found himself violently pushed over, his side throbbing with newfound pain. He looked to see Cammie standing nearby, with one of those broken whack-a-mole mallets in hand (and his hat on the floor). The magician shook his head at the trenchcoated man. "None of this makes any sense." He then lifted his mallet, aiming to slam it it into Eric again. "I don't know if what you say is true... regardless, I can't allow you to hurt my fam--"

A basketball slammed into Eric's head before bouncing off and smacking into Cammie's own, sending him whirling down. The mallet flew out of his hand and landed on the floored Eric right where it hurt.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Nah I think the slowness and white pages is the norm for the rpg now. Saying that though, it's been down for over an hour. Seems like it's finally working again! Sooo I'll go ahead and get caught up on the ICs, then get one up myself :)

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Hey everyone I'm really, really sorry for my strange inconsistency as of late. :( Still trying to work things out between balancing work and my current schedule, along with taking care of my dogs especially since Riley's sick and needs more than mere encouragement to even eat properly. He's gotten worse so it's taken a bit of a toll on me. >< I still hope this chapter is fun and enjoyable for everyone, and I apologize for holding people up.

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Phillis Circus: Big Top - Central Entrance

"Amy, do you know these people?"

"'Know'... I know Vance and Guinevere all right." Amy replied in monotone. Nothing about her expression gave away her relation to the ringmasters other than it was one of contempt. "But not anyone else."

At this point Elena the elephant had stopped charging around. She looked around in mere confusion, lifting and dropping her trunk as she tried to analyze just what was going on around her. Amy re-focused her attention on the ongoing battlefield. Having already sent healing spells to Crispin and Aria before the elephant's attack, her next focus was the two girls just in front of the stage; with the way they staggered, Amy was quick to cast them both healing and defense-buffing spells in succession.

However, Amy's neutral expression had suddenly dropped when she found herself airborne again. This time, it wasn't due to Marcus' magic. Her body was crushed in a vise-like grip as she was lifted from the ground, and from that she let out an agonizing scream.

Behind her stood a giant teddy bear, just big enough to fit through the big top's curtains without breaking the whole thing down. It was a prize among the many that could be won from the numerous carnie games. The teddy was barely bigger than Abram though made entirely of soft fabrics (get it, barely), and the fact that it possessed a grip strong enough to squeeze a body like it was... Even Marcus took a moment to digest this sight.

Other plushes and toys, each enveloped in a black aura, began crawling, wobbling, dashing, and flying into the big top. Not only was the tent filled to the brim with guilders, performers, and live animals, but now it burst with armies of dolls, toys, and plushes from the stalls outside. The quickest and smallest of these incoming dolls - pink, yellow, orange, and green "congratulations, you tried!" hand-sized ducks and the like - rushed straight after Marcus. Like Poppy earlier, some of them swarmed after his staff in an attempt to disarm him.

Foam swords charged in a cluster from behind Amy as well. They formed around her, each with their blade pointed in her direction. Though not immediately apparent, the foamy blades hardened (similarly to her hedgehog's and porcupine's backsides); they were not sharp as real swords or knives, but now they carried weight. Should Marcus try his winds again, the blades were poised to strike the cleric from at least one or two directions before blowing away. Especially the one held closest to her throat. As the teddy bear slowly moved down the aisle, so too did the floating swords.

---

Onstage (Stage Left)

"Gwee," Vance muttered to his sister. "Bring her to me."

Guinevere replied with a sniff, though she held her chin up still to look anything other than distraught. "This is a catastrophe, Vance." She shook her head solemnly, still looking away from her brother. "Invidious bastards want nothing more than to see our home and loved ones destroyed. Of course the witch is among them..." She stuttered. "Perhaps this is revenge. Perhaps she is a liar, Vance. Perhaps she..."

"Gwee. Bring her. To me."

Amidst this conversation, Vance took notice of Crispin and Abram's fight onstage, where he was initially. And not too far from them were the two guilder girls offstage. Sammie had been knocked away out of range, and now the two were free to assist the brawler. Vance shook his head in a tutting manner. "This simply will not do." The redhead staggered back following her attack on the magician, and even had trouble helping her fallen companion up in a timely manner. Both were injured, but not yet totaled - that much was clear to Vance, even in his peripherals.



"Leader, please, no...!" Xandra cried out again as Estelle helped her up. Her prosthetic arm struck forward, and missed Estelle entirely. No, she tackled her companion in an attempt to bring them both back down to the floor. From Vance's eyes, both of their bodies were too tired out to make decent enough puppets to attack or stall the other - and with them being guilders, they were still dangerous together even at a fatigued state.

Which is why Vance led Xandra to strike Estelle's sword with her metal arm. If even one of them were permanently incapacitated, the match would turn in the circus' favor.

With one hand curled into a fist towards Xandra to keep her in place despite her howling in pain, he focused his other not on the elephant... but somewhere else.

---

Onstage (Center)

"...Is your name Balti?"

Whatever had been pinning Baltimore to the ground was removed amidst the chaos. The young girl looked up to her helper with a wide smile crossing her features, and nodded quickly. She then leapt up to embrace Syed tightly in gratitude, before breaking away and turning her attention back to the chaos enfolding around her.

Everyone seemed determined to get Baltimore to safety, including the enemies themselves, until they saw what she was capable of and attempted to subdue her. Now that the odds were more evened out with the arrival of all these good people, she knew they needed her help now more than ever.

Even though Vance and Guinevere had their focus elsewhere, Baltimore understood that she could not stop them in time - not when more of Guin's dolls surrounded their feet. With a gulp, she nodded to Syed a second time, though the message this time was unclear. Looking now to the battle brewing just in front of the stage between the two girls, Baltimore ran after them. Abram and Crispin were in the way, but all she had to do was run around them.

That was the plan, anyway. But of course, that changed in an instant. Baltimore sped straight off stage and passed the two girls and the fallen Sammie, and made her way towards the front entrance. Worry etched on her face as she drew nearer and nearer to Marcus, avoiding the bear to get closer to the mage.

---

Audience Seating

Trixie meanwhile had dashed through the seating aisles in hopes of losing the much bigger gorilla chasing after her. It worked enough to slow down Olga, though the monkey still chased after her. Initially she aimed to help both of the girls who were fighting each other for some reason, but not with the gorilla on her tail. Instead, with both Tammie and Max occupied, the prankster made her way back towards Lucien.

She whipped out a kunai from her belt pouch and knelt down besides the summoner. Guns stowed in her butt pockets, she worked on freeing Lucien from his ropes. "Come on, come on...!"

But before she could get through the final few strips (it was a long-ass rope), Olga the gorilla had caught up by then - and knocked Trixie off the man with a powerful swing. Trixie flew through the air with a scream before crashing painfully into the chairs further down the aisle. Olga huffed as she pursued her.

---

Outskirts

Lily was helping Stevie out of his stilts when the two heard more screaming from within the circus gates. Turning to see the commotion, a lot of game stalls and stands were falling apart. There was no rumble or wind or anything strong enough to knock them over - but rather, the toys detached themselves simultaneously and yanked out others that were more so stuck. Even the basketballs began bouncing away from their hoops and nets. Those that honed the bigger of prizes - large teddy bears, ball-shaped animals, and poor-quality dragons - crashed instantly.

Stevie began to wail. "I wanna go home now..."

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Wonderful posts ^^ Sorry for not updating the ooc, I got home around from work around 9:30pm-ish and just collapsed on my bed. Forgot to set an alarm and here we go :( I'll be sure to post in the morn asap!

EDIT EDIT: erughu I'm taking a quick break before I finish up my post. Having one of those slow days today and can't get my writing mojo going right now haha. Sorry guys ><

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

EDIT: THANK FUCK. My bro managed to phone up our internet provider while I was working and fixed our webs. Hopefully he scheduled an appointment for a new modem, this nonsense with internet cutting out for nearly whole days happens every other week. So bloody annoying. -.-

btw Pacman thanks for updating the ooc for me :)

The Legend of Heroes: Tales of the World

Phillis Circus: Big Top - Onstage

"You...!" Guinevere's jaw dropped at the very sight of the group just entering the rig. Even when Max blasted through and took the berserker and electromage with him, she was unfazed. But now her soft and delicate eyes widened slowly. Distraught. She screamed out as Isabella trailed after Amy and Marcus. "Witch! This is all your doing!" To the ringmaster, it was all clear now how and why this battle had come to be.

The small mount of plushes on the floor glowed an ominous black and continued to animate on their own. At varying speeds, they took off from their bundle and dispersed themselves among the battlefield. (Unbeknownst to everyone else, all the plushes from the cutesy carnival games outside had also started to animate on their own. One by one, large and small, they unhooked, unnetted, and untied themselves as they dropped to the floor and began making their way to the big top.)

A snake slithered out from the bottom of the pile. Instead of sliding down the stage's cliff, it merely soared off like an actual flying snake - towards Estelle. As the swordswoman and metallurgist were already in their own reluctant battle, neither of them could spot the thin, beanie plush on time. It reached Estelle by her upper calves and wrapped itself around them like a bola.

The redhead lost balance, and in that instant, Xandra's metal-morphed hammer made a direct hit in her stomach. "Leader...!"

Not too far from the dueling guilders, a porcupine and hedgehog dolls also charged their way down the aisle, towards where Marcus, Amy, and the approaching Isabella were. Their fabric quills and spines glistened; naturally they were soft and fluffy as were their other dolly companions, but now they made themselves razor sharp.



"..."

Amy said nothing. Instead she twirled her staff; her own body glowed with a golden hue, as did others throughout the tent. She put Marcus' speed buff to use in her own spell casting as opposed to fleeing from the oncoming Isabella.

Something else interfered anyway. "You leave Ames alone!"



Trixie was far from the trio, but her guns had an excellent enough reach to land direct hits on the acrobat (along with some stray bullets). Granted, the damage wasn't injurious, but perhaps it was enough to-- "Yaaa!"



Her gunshots didn't last long. With Tammie having a wrestle with Lucien's fish, it enabled Trixie a brief respite To get a clearer shot, Trixie had maneuvered into the open, but that just prompted Abram's elephant and gorilla to target her even more. Elena's sudden stomping knocked Trixie (and anyone else nearby) off-balance, while Olga leapt after her. Once Trixie regained her balance, she fled from the gorilla, who chased after her out from the aisles and along the walls.

Both Trixie and Max were basically hurtling towards one another, the latter being airborne and the former on ground.



Lidya meanwhile changed course and ran after Lute as well. She trailed beneath the flying Poppy in case the acrobat missed or was interrupted in her attack on Lute.

---

Crispin spat as he landed with a skid, a loose attempt in shrugging off the pain. But it was too much - his entire body trembled, and small tears welled in his eyes as he looked to the injury in his hand. It wasn't the first time he had gotten it broken, but that made it no less easy to bear with. "Nice! Nice nice nice!" He cried out, putting his pain into his words. His voice cracked, and he sounded much more desperate than before. "You guys kidnap a bunch of people, take control of these guys, and then-- you say you're trying to be nice." He gasped for air. "Just cut the crap already!"

As he stood himself up, Crispin slammed his uninjured fist to the ground, setting off a miniature ring of fire around his body before it dissipated into short-lived vapors. He trembled still, wobbling as he rose back to his feet - but a sense of determination, of vitality seemed to suddenly rejuvenate him. Crispin himself was unaware of the healing spell Amy cast on him (as she noticed who he was fighting) and took this warmth as his own vigor. Like a cat, he sprinted forward again towards the stage.

It was suicide. With Crispin's broken hand and Abram's tanky structure, the brawler was charging right into his death if he was looking for a fight.

Abram positioned himself to counter Crispin. As the brawler drew close however, he leapt forward and punched the ground, summoning a short-lived ring of fire around him. The flames dissipated into thin vapors almost instantly, so no damage was done to either Abram nor the circus itself - but the sudden wave of heat and smoke was enough to mislead the tamer. Abram attacked Crispin in order to stop him from reaching Vance, yet he missed entirely as Crispin sped right by.



As Xandra made direct contact with Estelle, Vance's expression remained unchanged. However, before he could position Xandra for a followup, he found himself flying across the stage from a burning fist to the face, and crash-landing by Guinevere. This freed Xandra from Vance's interference. Crispin immediately returned his attention to Abram. He resumed his bouncing fighter stance, even with a broken fist; he was prepared to dodge anything the behemoth might try against him.

Vance crash-landed beside his sister on the opposite end of the stage. Slowly he rose to his feet, his sister now in his sights instead; he had expected her to come to his aid, but her attention was completely diverted. "Gwee." He shuddered, caressing his burn wound. "What are you...?"

Still his sister did not turn to see him. "She's returned, Vance. She and her friends have all..."

Vance tuned out her words, looking up now to see the newcomers himself. There they stood by the central entrance curtain - a young platinum-haired mage, and a blond woman in red. Silk, beautiful silk wrapped her body like a budding flower, and her locks of gold shined beautifully beneath the circus' lighting. In her hands was a lovely staff... and an equally lovely gem. Vance's mouth twitched.

Still kneeling behind Guinevere, he extended his arm towards the audience seating.



Elena the elephant trumpeted loudly and began stomping after Amy and Marcus as well. The duo now had opposition incoming from three different directions.

---

During all of this, Sammie and her brother merely watched the chaos unfold from the sidelines. Battles were engaged all throughout the tent; Cammie began to worry about whether or not the tent was capable of taking any hits to its walls if Olga, Lidya, or Max were to crash into it in their chases. Sammie on the other hand was more concerned about how many guilders were surrounding the stage, including that fallen girl who had gone missing earlier.

Lashing her whip, she made her way down there as well, towards where Xandra and Estelle were. Xandra barely turned in time to see the magician heading her way before she was pounced on and forced to the ground. Downed, Sammie immediately began yanking at the metallurgist's prosthetic arm - including some wires and rusted chunks that stuck out of her injury from the stiltmens' laser.

Cammie remained where he was.

-

(A generous thank you to Pacman for giving me inspiration & ideas for Crispy this round ^^)