Saiyan

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Useless.

This was the word currently loudest in Zell's mind as he found himself tired, injured and struggling with the fresh, equally skilled swordswoman in front of him. Here he was; fucking stuck behind a cultist - while the alarm continued to sound and, more concerningly, the charging spell of 'Big Bad Boss' started to approach a crescendo.

He could do nothing because he couldn't even hurt half the monsters in this temple.

Useless!

In a brief breath between exchanges, Zell sighted Sil putting a clinic on the spearman, disarming him and generally looking like a badass in the conflict. At any other moment ever, Zell would've loved to see it, but right now he was furious - (You're fucking useless, Zell!) - and his anger would turn into full-blown temper tantrum when a bunch of brand-new wraiths were summoned into the picture.

"FUCK THIS PLAAAACE!!!"

Had he managed to contain himself for roughly ten more seconds, James would be bailing him out with a blessing of holy fire. But nope. He unleashed his inner crybaby. There was a silver lining, however... yet another piece of proof that Zell was the kind of man who excelled at finding a way to win.

Cheesing. Charm. Chicanery. Straight-up Cheating? Marsel Brooks was a choose-your-own-adventure of cheap charades that so-often saw him cheering at the chequered flag as champion.

...So, aside from the childish chants consisting of crying, cuss words and chastising - Here was the extraordinarily cool part of what happened...

Back against the wall with a swordswoman and another wraith closing in, he looked to his right and saw the oil lamp held in the sconce. Then he recalled Barracker's advice, from the beginning, about elemental damage. There wasn't much thinking after that. 'Thinking,' after all, was not Zell's style.

"Aha!" he struck the oil lamp with sword, exploding the glass, oil and embers, his drow-made blade biting a millimeter into the stone wall. Aside from the small explosion and mess made, oil began pouring down the flat of Zell's sword, subsequently lighting on fire as flames from the lamp followed down the trickling oil. The result was a very temporary flaming sword. "Take this you fucking freak!"

Reckless but effective, Zell practically melted the closest wraith in a whirlwind of wild swings that saw his fire sword spitting mini fireballs all over the immediate vicinity, like some kind of moving volcanic eruption. The swordswoman could not get near, forced to back off and avoid the spitting fire or the actual flaming sword itself as Zell just kept extending his combinaton with strikes and swings in perpetuity. A second wraith tried to find an opening to attack Zell, took damage and screeched in pain, backing off rapidly to avoid getting sent back to Hell.

It didn't take long for the oil to run adry on the black blade. The flames turned from orange to dying blue before disappearing. Zell siezed the momentum gained and pressed the shaken swordswoman. And before any kind of balance could be redressed, James Sirius played his hidden trump card at the most perfect of moments.

"I beseech thee, Mother Iris, thou who are radiant and wise, ruler of the skies and bearer of the sun, Guide us with thy luminous light's gentle sway so that in thy name victory may be attained "

"Hahahaha!" Zell's laughter was maniacal as his sword lit up on fire once again. His aggression ramped up against his retreating oppenent, who was barely parrying away the attacks. How long had James possessed this blessing!? How lesser men would've played the card too early! How many other tricks did that man have up his sleeve!? Who better to have them, huh? "James, ye wonderful bastard, ye!"

Sil suddenly appeared in the middle of the duel, then flew a sharp turn straight up. The next instant, a ghost blade missed the falcon and struck the expert swordswoman in the back, causing her to cry out. Zell jumped on the opportunity and charged right into her, getting stabbed in the process of running his sword through her chest.

Ouch.

As the two sword experts seperated, the cultist fell to the floor while Zell stumbled a step, one hand holding the hole in his abdomen. Even leaking blood, and with a bad shoulder, now that he had holy fire on his weapon, he easily fended off the basic wraith attacks. Almost lazily, he dismissed the aggressions of the wraith who'd stupidly got one of their own cultists killed trying to take out Sil. Now it too retreated with a holy fire wound courtesy of the Englishman. Zell pushed himself forward.

The spearman who lost his battle to Sil, crawled to his spear with bloodied and injured hands. The moment he tried to pick his weapon up, Zell stamped down on the shaft, then kicked the cultist in the face. A holy fire sword was best utilised on the primary target. Especially now, before the boss could launch it's super attack. So Zell spun around to gain some momentum and hammer-threw his sword straight up at the Greater wraith.

Then he picked up the spear on the floor and advanced wearily on the Lich. He'd lost a lot of blood, but would make a final action to try and stab the skelly-summoning bastard. The rest was up to his friends.

He was done.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

<Snipped quote by Zapdos>

Fenna looks disapprovingly at both of them.

@Loksfjoer

Shameless Zell: "Ye know, Sil is a terrible influence on me. I suggest you have a talk with her, Fenna."

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Every clash of swords sent a spike of pain through his shoulder, but at this point it was just fuel to the fire of urgency that Zell was fighting with. His ears felt assaulted by the loud alarm blaring through the temple. His vision was filled with dangerously sharp steel. But his mind remained fairly focused, his thoughts keen and precisely positioned on their mission objective.

~~~~~"Your job will be to fight your way in, find the big bad bossy spirit - no doubt, in the main ritual chamber - and send it to hell. That should return everything to normal. Whether it does or doesn't; not your problem. The contract is for the 'head of the snake.'

Kill the Greater Wraith that's taken control of the Temple of Hades."~~~~~

He could hear Lucy Bottrill's voice loud and clear - see her confident and cocky expression. He smirked as he recalled it, turning a parry into a stiff shoulder-barge to shove the skelly he was fighting backwards far enough to give him time to avoid the wraith pestering him.

Barracker's claymore suddenly appeared above the wraith, promptly coming down and cleaving the ghost asunder.

"Cheers bruv," he nodded to the vampire, giving him a pat on the arm, before slipping past him to counter the skeleton sneaking up from behind the man. Barracker swiftly took over Zell's previous opponent, along with another skelly that had zoned in on their position, and once more they were in seperate action - Seperate, but effectively forming a solid frontline shield with the help of Fenna and MacKensie. The teamwork of Second Chance had quickly become elite, since they became The Heroes from the Sky, and now Barracker was fitting in perfectly.

"Guys! Seek the phylactery, it will be a bitch killing him without destroy-!"

Zell glanced over his shoulder to see James had paused his orders out of necessity, then once the Cleric had a chance to finish what he was saying, Zell could only respond with. "What the hell is a phylactery!?"

Fortunately Barracker seemed to know it was as he responded to James. “Zell, hold the line”.

"I gotcha pal," Zell assured, turning his attention to some remaining skeletons.

A giant oak suddenly flew into the picture and crushed his prospective opponents though, causing him to glance over his shoulder at Adam. The Druid was once again throwing trees about the place. It would've been welcome had Adam picked one of the thousand things to do other than attack the skeletons - something that the frontline were handling perfectly fine.

"Adam, the doors!" the Englishman shouted, nodding pointedly at the main entrance to the ritual chamber. He seemed to remember Adam volunteering to set up a barricade, which was a clever plan, (and would definitely be worthwhile, seeing as an alarm was alerting potential reinforcements,) but for some reason he'd chosen not to go through with it.

With Barracker forced to delay going after the phylactery to provide emergency assistance on Fenna's side of the frontline, Zell found himself looking to fill in for the paladin, but when he saw the cabinets in question, right on the other side of the room and protected by some kind of energy shield, Zell was annoyed to find himself lacking. This temple had not been kind to those who did not possess magical attacks, and the feeling of inadequacy was something Zell was not familiar nor happy with. "F-fuck's sake." And then his mood worsened when more enemies did indeed answer the alarm and come through the main doors to join the fray. "Oh, bloody hell!

Well... at least the enemies were flesh and bone, which meant Zell could actually be of use. And besides: "If you want something done right..."

Zell started running across the battlefield towards the main doors, forced to duck under the Dark Beam that almost took his head off, and then forced to shield the back of his head from exploding debris from the tree that had been used to block said Dark Beam. But he continued to run, slowing slightly as came into contact with one of the spearmen. He slipped the opponent's thrust and threw a punch with his free hand, smacking the man in the face and then running right past him. The next spearman in the gauntlet met him on his sword-side and exchanged some parries as they circled eachother a little. Spearmen were notoriously bad against swordsmen though, and once Zell found a way to get inside his opponents guard, he delivered an upwards strike that cut deep enough to kill, dropping the spearman rather quickly.

The other two reinforcements had made their way to protect the Greater Wraith, giving Zell an open line to the doors, which he took expediantly. A quick look around and he sighted a nearby pew, ran to it, sheathed his sword and lifted one side of the long bench to begin dragging it to the doorway. "Ugh, fuck," the swordsman moaned loudly as he moved the heavy furniture. It was doing a number on his wounded shoulder. His swear words shifted gears when he saw the first spearman that he'd punched in the face, charging towards him. "Shit, shit, shit!"

Zell used the thick wood of the pew to block the cultist's attack, the spear getting stuck in the wood, giving Zell a chance to drop the pew and jump over it, kicking the cultist away as he did. Now the cultist was without his spear and Zell made short work of him, before getting back to work - pulling the pew in front of the double-door entrance to form a barricade. He pulled the spear free and slotted it through the handles of the doors to provide extra sturdiness, then lifted the pew and lodged it behind the statue next to the entrance, finishing the barricade. Zell sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow, a quick check of his handiwork before drawing his sword and running back to battle.

Not realising that Adam had destroyed the magic barrier protecting the cabinet and the phylactery, Zell did not make a break for the cabinet as he should have. Instead the engaged the cultists who were defending the Greater Wraith, hoping to open a path for one of the magic users to attack the Greater Wraith. Zell ran and lept into a superman-punch style stabbing attack on the cultist swordsman, continuing with a fake-high-swing-low sweep, then pressed the woman into sustained combat that would draw her attention away from her Lord of Darkness.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Fenna's mention of Aurok had brought Zell's mind back to that dreadful day in The Mazy Hillocks. Arthur. Clive. He'd barely spoken to either man in the short time they were together, but he felt the loss all the same. And then there was that metal ninja. Zell's mouth tightened as he remembered that faceless man - how hard it had been to even touch him when Zell and MacKensie rushed him, giving it their all. The bastard was still out there somewhere and no doubt; he'd want his sword back. Well, the Englishman would be ready for Round 2 if and when it came. They were stronger, after all. Which brought him to Fenna's actual point - she'd gained her new power when everyone gained that upgrade after the fight. Zell wondered if his general power had risen, seeing as he didn't get any new moves to add to his teleport.

"We should probably do something about that as well."

Zell followed Fenna's gaze to the fire, then tilted his head in concession. "Probably," he echoed, then went over with her to the table. They settled on clearing the area so that the fire could die out on it's own, Zell shoving what he could away with his feet, only using his arms when he had to. "I'll get the other end of that," he said when they had to move a sofa together. "Ready... hut." Once it was done, Zell dusted his hands off and nodded satisfactorily to Fenna.

"Hey! Zell, Kass, come here!"

Zell went over to James. "Yes? Oh fearless leader," he added with a smirk.

"I saw you get a nasty hit and there is no reason to not address it now, they likely know we are here so it's better to be on top of our game"

Zell paused for thought. He knew James had healing magic but wasn't sure if he had a limited number of uses each day, the same way he could only use his teleport 3 times per day. "How many spells you got?" he asked. "My shoulder's fucked mate, but to be honest, I'd rather fight left handed if it means you have a spare healing spell for emergencies. Better to have one and not use it, than need one and not have it, ye know what I mean."

After that was made clear, he unbuckled a few straps on his armour, then halfway took off his shirt to reveal a bare arm and shoulder. The wound was a nasty purple colour, an eight inch open cut across his shoulder just creeping onto his chest. "Bloody hell," he muttered. "I didn't realise it was that bad." No wonder he couldn't use his arm. "Alright, talk us through what I need to do. I'm useless at first aid."

Once everyone was ready, they followed Adam over to the bookshelf where the Druid pulled the book, Shattered Dreams. Zell was holding his breath, ready to react if this turned out to be a trap of some kind. Part of him was expecting a trap door to open up under Adam and drop the man into the lair of some giant monster. Zell was already picturing himself diving head first after him, drawing his sword as he flipped and landed in front of big'n'ugly, ready to throw down. Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened, and a secret passage opened up.

What they walked into left no doubts whatsoever that they'd arrived at the location objective. Zell broke from his rear guard position and went up front with Barracker. With Adam barring the way behind them, his place was on the front line. It had been a long time since he'd been in a church, (he used to occasionally go on a Sunday, as a child, when he spent the night at his grandparents house,) but he recognised the long pues that had been cast to the edges of the room, illuminated by the lamp light that came from the sconces that lined the walls. The lecturn at the front too reminded him of Sunday Mass, but nothing else was left in the room that reminded him of godliness. Quite the opposite, in fact. This was some of satanic nightmare now.

"What's happenin, pal?" Zell greeted when the robed man looked over at them. "Second Chance. We heard you've an infestation problem. We're the exterminators."

"You never should have come here!" was the reply.

"Well, I feel underappreciated," Zell said drily to Barracker.

Weapons were drawn, enemies summoned and a fight broke out. Zell did his best to maintain a position that would shield his friends from the skeletons, whilst avoiding attacks from the wraiths. It wasn't easy but at least the skeletons lacked real skill. The swordsman blocked one skelly whilst delivering a side kick to another one's chest, knocking it backwards into a third and flooring them both. He dispatched the original skelly before rushing forward and finishing the two on the floor before they could get up.

And back he pedalled to keep himself firmly in front of the back line, specifically James, who was healing quickly but still not 100%. There was plenty more threats to deal with and Zell barely had a chance to breathe before he was engaged again. He bobbed and shifted his feet to avoid a wraith, moving into the path of a skeleton that he could actually fight.

Ring-ching-ching!

In the backdrop, the robed man was commanding proceedings and the Greater Wraith seemed to be charging something nasty. "Not good."

This battle was going to be tough.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

In a lazy effort to scan the room, Zell tilted his head back and simply rolled his neck from right to left. He was ready to get up and head toward the first sight of trouble, but there was none. Just a room that looked like a bomb had hit it. The Englishman's eyes went to the ceiling and he let out a breath. "Christ," he muttered to himself. "Whatever we're getting paid... we deserve double."

With an audible strain, he rose to his feet and picked up his sword. It was a little awkward to sheath it with his left hand, but he managed it and then went over to Fenna.

"Alright mate," he greeted the Dutchwoman. "I'll tell you what; me and your Sil make a great team. First outside on the temple roof and now in here... are you sure she's yours and not mine?" he joked. "I saw your little 'absorbing fire' trick. What the hell, mate, when did you learn that one? Pretty neat."

He rolled his injured shoulder a few times, trying to loosen it up and regain some mobility with his right arm. He would rather not fight left-handed, but it was looking like he'd have to for the foreseable future. His eyes landed on James and he realised that whatever he was going through was probably nothing compared to his best friend. "Damn, look at James," he said to Fenna. "We're going to have to keep him protected, going forward."

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

The momentum from the running jump. The force generated from the spin. All compensation for his lack of ability to properly swing his sword. Sure, Zell Brooks might have done it for the sake of flair anyhow (he was certainly the type,) and there were techniques and tactics that warranted such stylish manoeuvres, but in this instance it was because that bastard wraith had really done a number on Zell's right shoulder and he could barely use it. So when the swordsman's blade hit the magical ward of the wizard, the reverberation caused him to drop his sword. Luckily, the wizard had gone flying too.

"Aw fuck," Zell hissed in pain, holding his shoulder and trying to roll it to loosen it up. He moved to retrieve his sword, but slowed to put eyes on the two wraiths who'd entered proximity. He watched the ghostly creatures enter the suits of armour, his expression turning to one of exasperation as said-suits started moving. "Really? That's what were doing now?" He scooped the tip of his boot under the blade of his sword, then flicked it up to catch it by the hilt. Left hand this time. His right arm was done. "Alright you twats, let have ye then. You're not the first tin cans I've danced with."

And dance they did. Zell figured that Sil's talons would be useless against these new enemies, so he was on his own. Hopefully the fiesty falcon would keep the wizard occupied while he was busy. In order to successfully take on the two animated statues with his weaker left arm, he circled the first one of them to engage him, making sure to keep this opponent in between himself and the second statue. This would make the action a one-v-one affair. If statues could feel frustration, it would've been funny, but it seemed they weren't intelligent enough to have such feelings. And luckily, they weren't intelligent enough to overcome Zell's tactics either.

Zell focused the angle of his blade to parry and riposte targeting the wrist and forearm of his opponent. The enchanted black katana wasn't really a sword made for fencing but Zell felt that disarming the statue was his best strategy if he wanted to keep his movements quick and short, controlling his positioning. He eventually circled close to the wizard who'd cooked up a nasty sounding spell and blasted it into the air, and the swordsman made a cheeky swing at the wand-wielders head, hoping to get a quick kill. And then the results of the wizard's magic came to light in the form of two black bolts that came bending into view and soared straight for the Englishman.

"Whoa!" Zell managed to turn and tilt his torso in time to weave the magic missiles, then counterattack the statue whilst off-balance, finally breaking the seams of suit's wrist and disarming his opponent. "Literally disarmed!" Zell quipped with a teethy grin as the statue's sword clattered on the ground with hand still gripping the hilt.

The weaponless statue lunged forward and tried to grab Zell, but the swordsman was too quick for it, ducked under it's arms and went past it to engage the second statue. This was a much quicker enchange as he blocked an attack, then brought his blade around to strike the back of his opponents leg, bringing it down to one knee. It was about this time that Zell saw the giant bookcases moving by themselves, coming closer, and he looked behind him to confirm that it was Adam who was controlling them from across the room. Zell was smart enough to get the hell out of the way!

He only heard the loud crashes of the bookcases repeatedly smashing the enemy to bits. He didn't even get a chance to see if the wizard had been caught up in the crushing attack, because Zell's attention had been taken by the two dark bolts that had widely turned themselves around and were heading back towards him. He started running, initially towards the wall across the room so he could force the bolts to hit a surface and hopefully get rid of them, but then he had a better idea.

"Hey! Remember me!?" he yelled at the wraith roaming about the room. He had no way of knowing if this was the wraith who'd ambushed him earlier, but he just-so happened to be right. "Got a present for ya!"

The wraith took the bait, of course. It floated to meet the running swordsman. Zell dove head first at the wraith, then twisted his body to....................

-He disappeared with flash of grey light, leaving the two bolts to hit the wraith, one at a time-

................land perfectly, backwards onto the nearby sofa. As the wraith died and burned up into nothingness, Zell put his sword down next to him and put his hand behind his head to relax for a moment and enjoy his victory.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

The suprise attack was going well, at first.

Wand. Check.

But Zell, very painfully, found out that the cultists weren't the only ones being snuck up on.

"Agh!" The power of the ghost-sword slash knocked him stumbling backward and onto the floor. "Shit."

Zell barely managed to hold onto his knife and the wand. He felt like his arm had been cleaved off at the shoulder. Eyes squeezed shut with pain, he forced one open to see his cultist target running off down the aisle, and the far more concerning visual of a purple, transparent-ish creature floating toward him with a sword brandished. Scrambling to his feet with the help of the bookshelves at his side, he backed up and avoided the swings of the wraith - a lean back, a slip right, a duck down - and stumbled his way out of the aisle, into the seating area where he would soon realise that everyone else was under attack too.

In a moment of forgetfulness, he found an opening in the wraith's slow movements and threw himself at it, trying to stab it with his knife. "Whoa!" He went right through it, momentarily feeling he was in a winter blizzard before coming out the other side and falling onto his face. "Ugh."

Instinctively he rolled several times to one side, blindly avoiding a coup de grace from the wraith who relentlessly pressured him. Popping back to his feet, he was once again backing up avoiding attacks, throwing in a valiant effort to fire some kind of magic blast from the wand in his left hand (fail) before falling backwards over the back of a sofa. After rolling off, he'd created some space between himself and the wraith who was slowly gliding over the furniture. The time he had to himself gave him a chance to think, to feel the painful wound the ghost-sword had given him, and to look around the room at his friends.

"Good work, Kass!" he shouted as he saw the vampire damage his opponent and then zoom to the aid of James and Adam. And then he sighted the enemy caster. A cultist with a wand, all the time and space in the world, and no one to stop him conjuring up something nasty. Zell had his new target.

Avoiding another death blow from the wraith who had managed to catch up with him, he fled the ghostly being and ran towards the cultist with the wand at the end of the room. "Oi! Da fuck you think you're doin!"

Sil suddenly screeched loudly and the wand-wielding cultist was holding his ears in pain. "Ha!" Zell sought to take advantage and launched his knife overhand to send it spinning through the air towards the cultist. Once near the wand-wielder, he joined the falcon and jumped into a 360 spin, drawing his sword mid-spin and putting all the momentum into a killing strike.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

The atmosphere was certainly creepy enough for a temple devoted to the god of death. Zell had expected nothing less, yet still found himself as on-edge as a crackhead in rehab. He followed from the back as Barracker led the way, taking one last look around the entrance hall before closing the door behind him. Sword already drawn, he held it at the ready, straight up beside himself - a two handed grip, for the most part. It was more out of comfort than anything else. God help them all if they were caught in this narrow corridor and forced to fight like this. There was no space to swing.

It was quiet. Only the gentle sound of his own breathing and the careful footsteps from the others could be heard. That is, until they quietly entered the library, at which point, the sounds of voices were in the air. He shared a few determined glances with his comrades as they pressed on. Whoever the voices belonged to, they were on the other side of the maze of tall bookshelves ahead. The time for action drew near.

Again; no room for a proper formation. They were forced into a column of twos, creeping along, the voices growing louder as they neared. The first visual was shadows from movement, conversation now clear enough to hear the words spoken and similar accents to those from the village of Cherrad. The party stopped on the edge of the bookshelf section as they surveyed the situation. Zell moved aside a book so he could spy what was going on through the small gap of the shelves.

Three of them...

No... four.

"...it's not for us to decide," one was saying. "Anyway, the full moon is upon us - the temple reopened. There will be plenty of work to do tomorrow."

Nonsense. Whatever they were talking about, it was crap. By tomorrow, there would be no cult. Zell whispered only loud enough for his teammates to hear, directing his words to James.

"Take em down quietly?" he suggested. When James gave the okay, Zell nodded to Fenna who's eyes he caught first, then pointed at MacKensie and then Barracker. Four cultists meant one-a-piece for the weapon-wielders of the group. He sheathed his sword, drew the knife from his boot. Then he said to James and Adam, "Cover us."

The cultists had made it easy. They all had their backs to Second Chance's position, making an approach simple enough. As Zell, Fenna, MacKensie and Barracker silently fanned out to each of their respective cultists, Zell's target - a woman in robes that had done some of the talking - started moving. Zell's heart stopped as she almost turned enough to see him, but luckily she remained oblivious and headed down the aisle of some more bookshelves. Zell followed.

She had a wand on her belt, but no other weapons, as far as he could tell. He decided he'd try the non-lethal approach. A dumb risk, really, but it felt way too dirty, following a woman into a dark aisle and murdering her. And he knew it was stupid to think this way. Dangerous and stupid. These were bad people - brainwashed or not, they were murdering innocent people and worshipping god-damn demons! But this was the problem when it came to fighting real people instead of skeletons and ogres. The hesitation and second-guessing just couldn't be helped.

Zell closed in slowly and quietly, then tried to snatch her wand, wrap an arm around her throat and hold his knife in front of her face. "Make a noise or a move and you're dead," he would threaten, if successful.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

@ZapdosThat would've been gold lol

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Have a good one, guys!