Templar Knight

Tear the World Down

Dorian, having found his fallen and forgotten pack and hammer back by the chaotic remains of the camp was busy washing his hands of the blood on his fists with a bit of water from his waterskin, he was idly listening to his fellows go about their own business after the attack. The Mercenary-looking man, Gabriel, had rounded up the Warrior-Monk Salvio and the Sorceress Gwynne to quickly interrogate one of the survivors they'd managed to catch without immediately killing him, those the responses didn't paint a pretty picture of the man's chances in Dorian's mind.

Flicking blood-tinted water droplets off of his hands, Dorian threw on his pack and hefted his pick-hammer over his shoulder, Vardun now chiming in with his thoughts on the matter.

"Wise move, if these men were the Emperor's, you'd best to make some kind of move now. Your companions are formidable, but not invincible, though. Less than a handful of seasoned warriors, a magician who doesn't full know how to control her powers, and a few former civilians who've hardly ever seen a weapon that wasn't a tool before can hardly stand to fight the Imperium's legions alone in the ruins of our failure. My comrades and mines' boons or no."

Dorian nodded to himself.

"I know, I'm thinking. Just give me a minute, we just survived our first major engagement together, gotta at least catch our brea-"

Vardun's ring tightened painfully on his hand, breaking Dorian off mid-sentence.

"Another lesson you've yet to learn, my pupil: Your enemies will not let you a moment's rest if they can avoid it. This is why they sought to kill all of you in your sleep. They would avert their doom before it can have the chance to come true, and will do anything to see it done. You and the others must come to know this if you want to live, let alone succeed."

Dorian clenched his fist, but the Titan was right, if they wanted to beat their enemies, they'd have to start thinking steps ahead of them, not merely reacting to their moves.

He glanced over at his fellows gathered around the fallen soldier . . . information could be good . . . the hoarse calls from the wounded Adrianna made him turn his head . . . but losing a good sword-arm, even if it would merely put her out of action for a while, could be deadly to their current situation, irrespective of any good or bad news they got out of the fallen soldier.

Dorian quickly strode his way over to the stumbling and wounded warrior-woman as fast as his stocky legs could carry him. He offered his left arm and called over more loudly, recalling their Wrelswoman's name from Adi's hoarse calls:

"Fay! Fuck the soldier! We can learn more later, Adi's not going to do us any good dying or passing out here! We gotta make ready to move!"

Tear the World Down

Dorian Vadderung

Dorian grabbed the footman who'd been tossed in his direction by Adrianna, swiftly pinning him to his knees and snapping the man's neck like a pigeon with his bloody hands. It looked as though they had this side well enough in hand, especially since the swordswoman's powers seem to have awakened, good luck to any remaining troops there trying to fight the with one who could become the wind. Dorian had never seen such magic being thrown around by his companions, outside of stories and myths of days long past, but he certainly was glad to be on their side and for his own powers.

Vardun, who had remained silent since Dorian entered the fray, spoke to him. The giant's voice an icy calm over Dorian's racing hot mind:

"Not bad, my apprentice, you've made it so that the others cannot entirely ridicule your tardiness. Though I would refocus your attention to the other you knocked down with your creative use of the tree."

Dorian, his head still whirring from the heat of battle, had forgotten that he'd left one man still alive. Said soldier was struggling up to his feet, his expression in mild panic at how his comrades were being cut or struck down in what had become the disaster of an attack from his perspective, and his nearest fellow having had his head beaten in to a bloody mess. The soldier saw Dorian looking in his direction with his bloody fists and shakily grabbed merely his sword, not even bothering with whatever remained of his shield and took off running the way he came.

Dorian decided not to give chase, even if he could have caught the fleeing man in his super-human state despite his shorter size.

The Titan bellowed questioningly in his head:

"You let him run? To what end? That he may return with others?"

Dorian shook his head and returned to surveying the slowly tidying up battlefield that had been their campsite.

"What others? The ones his boss obviously doesn't have or doesn't want to field? There'd be no reason for him to run. No, let him go that he might spread word of our terrific work among his fellows."

"And if his superiors execute or imprison him for incompetence or possible desertion? I'd do as such to troops who acted under my command."

Dorian rolled his shoulders in a shrug.

"Well then he dies either way just as you originally wanted. Either way its more useful than us chasing after a single man who's already broken. No?"

Vardun icily conceded this logic in his mind.

"Clearly not all of my lessons fell on deaf ears. I may make a Legionnaire of you yet."

Tear the World Down

Dorian Vadderung

Dorian's dreamless sleep had been absolute on account of his physical exhaustion, so much so that he not only slept through the arrival of the remaining other Chosen, but also the initial call to arms by his newfound companions. Vardun however, was more on the ball, and painfully tightened the ring around Dorian's hand to snap him into consciousness.

"Up you fool! Or you're dead!"

Screaming out in pain from his hand and shock from the roaring Titan within his mind, Dorian shot upright, bewildered, but awake. Snapping his head around he saw his fellow Chosen in various states of combat with various enemies, the neighing of horses, twang of bowstrings, and clash of steel filled the air. By some miracle, he'd not been killed in his sleep.

"Practically slept through the whole damn battle, the way you were going. Don't just stand there, move! Show me what you learned!"

Thinking fast, and not entirely remembering where he'd dropped his hammer, Dorian felt a surge of raw power flow through his frame, the Titan lending him his strength for the moment. Turning to a nearby tree, withered and stunted but broad enough as it was, Dorian put his arms around its trunk and with a roar and a resounding crackling, lifted the whole tree out of the ground. Adjusting his grip more towards the center with both hands underneath its girth, Dorian hefted the large hunk of wood, making almost a comical sight for his comparative size.

He turned his head around, his senses becoming hyper-real. Whatever cavalry had charged them had been broken, but various infantry were still engaged, especially upon the on right flank where most of the remaining infantry were engaging with one of their number, Adrianna? He couldn't even strictly recall if that was her name. Her and the mercenary man with the Brass Prince, looked most in need of assistance.

Running up and hefting the tree in personal silence but with an outwardly loud cacophony as the tree's branches snapped or creaked against others around, ran past the mercenary as he rushed to the aid of his newfound comrades. Nearing the duel and seeing a couple more infantry moving to enter the fray and flip the tide back again despite their losses, Dorian adjusted his grip on the makeshift weapon and gripping the tree near the roots, just started flailing it back and forth heavily like a large maul. The two soldiers, taken aback by the sheer sight but regaining their composure, stood back and cautious kept their distance from the swinging flail of thorns and wood.

After a couple swings and seeing he was doing nothing besides keeping his enemies at bay, Dorian deftly readjusted his grip on a final swing and hurled the tree length-wise at the two soldiers. Catching the two off-guard by how fast the Northman was able to do this, the tree hit the two soldiers in the chest, throwing them to the ground and sending their weapons flying out of their hands. Their shields and armour even slightly dented by the force.

Quickly, Dorian jumped upon the one who had fallen nearest and with his ringed right fist, just started beating into the man's head. The mail the man had been wearing offered little protection as the force of Dorian's empowered blows shattered the soldier's face into a bloody mess after half a dozen strikes. Rising with bloody and scratched hands, his head caught up in the fevered pitch of battle, Dorian looked around for the other fallen soldier, but more importantly the wider state of the field to ensure he himself would not be set upon so easily.

Tear the World Down

Apologies on my silence. I'm here. @Sierra

Tear the World Down

In the aftermath following the Fire God’s departure, Dorian felt the exertion of the past weeks of training-travelling finally catch up with him, and sitting down now where he had previously stood by the fire, dropping his pack and gear aside as he started to settle himself in. Vardun was also silent for now, the Titan obviously either having nothing to say about the situation or being deep in his own thoughts.

He gave a tired salute to the priestly man who'd approached their fire.

"Feel free, its not strictly most of ours anyway."

He found that he had little mood for chatting with the newcomer, or many of his fellow Chosen, this had been a long road and some very intriguing developments, and the rest which the God from Below had advised would undoubtedly help to deal with both.

While Dorian's body was tired, his mind was working overtime. What in the world was he doing? Pacts with Gods, meeting total strangers from distant corners of the world who had similarly twisted or cruel figures of dark legend as he did, and what was now basically an idea of bringing the world as it was to its knees.

Not that Dorian necessarily disagreed with the latter idea, this world and his homeland had done him no favours in life, what little he had was through sweat and toil and that didn't amount to much before he'd found Vardun, and he wasn't completely unaware of the situation elsewhere beyond, or the Imperium that extracted its tithes of weapons from Braldurheim every season to equip its legions. The strong ruled over the weak in this world, and while he had no illusions necessarily of undoing that principle via the situation he was in . . . he saw no inherent contradiction in remaking the world via the same premise if they held such powers. And while he doubted some of the motivations of his unlikely companions or their patrons, he had no doubt in that.

So, with thoughts of the future ahead, and about the nature of newfound compatriots, and with no interruption from Vardun, Dorian drifted off to sleep next to the fire.

Tear the World Down

@Romero AFAIK yes, though your entrance will obviously be different than the rest.

Tear the World Down

@BurningCold Weird, when I looked for it it was a download. Whatever, let's go with it then.

Tear the World Down

@BurningCold I've tried activating it, and somehow its not working even though I've extracted the files.

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@BurningColdNo, never had. I just know I haven't had too many problems with google docs.

Tear the World Down

docs.google.com/document/d/1AfHLdLq_Z…

Here is a Doc I've started for it, hopefully I enabled the settings correctly. Have at 'er.