The Otter

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

oshit it worked

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fionn MacKerracher

---

"Make sure, if you use this, you're ready to take whatever comes your way. You certainly won't be avoiding it."

"Eh? Why's that?"

"When you're pulling that much of your mana, focusing as hard as you will be to keep it from flying out of control...you might find it hard to get your legs to move."

As he was bathed in the green glow of the snake-construct's attack, Fionn couldn't help but think back to when Erich Cazt had taught him the spell he now held. The man was right, of course—a legendary demon-slaying knight was bound to know exactly what he was talking about when it came to such things. If he struggled to get himself moving when he was relying on this spell, there was no chance that his centuries-removed protégé would have an easier time of it.

It wasn't such an issue if he had to take another few steps forward to ensure he connected; as much as he'd been expecting the beast to keep charging at him, he'd been prepared for it to stop in place. Evading other attacks, however, was a different matter entirely.

This was no strike from the head that he'd be able to just cleave through. This was something he had no effective counter for, even after all he'd been taught. He couldn't run without entirely releasing the spell, something he didn't wish to do; he couldn't block it all, even if he hadn't been so committed. The only option seemed to be stepping into it and seeing if he could still get his own strike off quickly enough, or force through whatever damage one of those orbs may do.

Well, captain, I hope one of the ones we've got is good at healing.

He strained, heaving with all his well to force his left foot forward. His right next, left again, inexorably onward into the path of fire at a pace barely more than a walk. "Ēnsis—" he growled, his grip tightening against the hilt. Some of the orbs the snake had launched came closer, the air itself almost seeming to distort around them, a fundamental element of the world around them shaking apart from the barely-contained energies of the fairy watchdog's attack. He grit his teeth, stepping forward once more, shutting his mind against the pain he knew he'd have to push beyond...

And the earth split around him, roots shooting up to arch over and around him. No few of them instantly blackened and crumbled away, intercepting the spell he'd been prepared to suffer. The ground shook as the energy dumped into the makeshift shield drained away into the forest floor below, sending painful shocks up through his feet.

Thanks to Fiadh's intervention, only painful. Leaving him free to visit something altogether more debilitating upon the target of his ire.

"Secā!"

The final part of the command came out as barely more than a grunt, easily drowned out by the sudden shockwave as he swung downwards, carried forward with a final step where he quickly collapsed down to his knee. The hazy nimbus that had grown around his blade followed it down, flying forward as a suddenly solid arc of emerald light. The arch of roots that Fiadh had formed over him split apart without resistance as the arc flew straight for the snake, aimed to split it and its heart right down the middle.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Esben Mathiassen

---

"Your terms are acceptable," he replied quickly. "We'll do what we can. Be careful about letting anybody hear you call me a 'good boy,' though. I can think of quite a few of the other students from my time who might try to kill me if they ever hear of it."

Despite how much of an obvious joke it sounded like—indeed, it was one—Kayliss had hit the nail on the head: for all the work that she and others had put in to make it otherwise, Esben did not lie if he could find any way to avoid it.

With that put aside, there was still other business to attend to as long as he had her there, especially if they were to try and push the rest of the team down into Skael first. "If we're to do that, could you send a message to Leonhart for us and let him know just what's at risk? Or, if you have any reason to think he shouldn't be trusted with that, pass the information along to someone we can and have them keep an eye on the crystal there." While it was clear that Valon was a traitor himself, working hand in hand with the invaders as he was, that wasn't reason enough to entirely disregard the claims he'd made about serving Edren's supposed true king. "I don't want to risk it going unheeded while we're on the opposite side of the continent from the invaders' base."

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

I'll get something up by tomorrow night

@Psyker Landshark

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Esben Mathiassen

---

Esben sat as silently as Éliane while Kayliss reviewed their reports. It was only expected that she would receive comment long before he did; after all, Kayliss herself knew that she'd be stepping on toes that she probably shouldn't if she was to claim any greater authority over the pink-haired woman's actions, and keeping her somewhat mollified would help avoid any troubles in that regard. He, meanwhile, was her actual direct subordinate. So he continued to remain silent as Éliane mused about how to spend the reward money, before the actual point that their boss was getting at came to the fore.

Éliane's reasoning went nearly unheard as he stared at Kayliss, his face as blank as the woman had taught him to make it years prior. He'd been expecting more of an argument to even get to the point of being allowed to argue to remain, not getting there immediately. At least he'd prepared his own reasoning well ahead of time.

"My assignment was left very open ended, and I was given the freedom to pursue it as I saw fit," he replied once he had a chance to cut in. "Running into the Kirins was a happy accident. Both despite the entanglement with them and because of it, you'll see that I got information that I wouldn't have easily accessed otherwise—information that I doubt Commander Laruelle would have entirely picked up herself, given the differing goals and scopes of what we're doing."

He leaned back, crossing his arms as his shoulder blades hit the wall behind him. "On top of that, as you've just read, what we're doing now goes beyond a simple matter of intelligence, and as long as we're still involved, you'll have very good intelligence about just where Valheim is sending some of their own clandestine operatives and special forces. Lastly..."

He glanced once over at Éliane, wondering just what her reaction would be to his final argument, before turning promptly back to Kayliss. "If you try to order me back, I'll tell you faen ta deg and resign."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fionn MacKerracher

---

His climb had been halted, for a moment, as Arken's spell slammed into the construct's head. As soon as it had righted itself enough, however, he began pulling himself up along the giant snake again—climbing was usually slow going, but given how he'd sped himself up, he was making much better time than he otherwise might. Even as the wounds it had been taking twisted themselves outward to grasp at him, he had no trouble evading or striking back as was needed.

It was almost boring, really. Beyond the grinding noise of multiple trees rubbing against each other as the thing moved, he could hear the three further back talking between themselves and shouting orders. Upper half, at least? Not terribly creative, that was where snakes usually kept their hearts anyways—

He shook off a limb that wrapped itself around his ankle, the branch shattering with a hard kick. When the snake rolled right afterwards, however, he was left with no option but to release his hold, landing on the ground beneath it as it writhed further away to get a new angle on Fanilly and Gertrude. "Enough of this," he muttered, before squaring his stance back towards the beast, feet firmly planted in the dirt below.

Boars, bears, giant boars even, and even more monstrous creatures than those—none particularly filled Fionn with fear. He knew he would have to think to figure out the best way to take down each and every one, but for a man as divorced from the concept of terror as he was, putting himself directly in harm's way to do it was no object. Unlike a dragon, this one couldn't even breathe fire...so he felt more comfortable taking an older tactic against it.

He started chanting under his breath, raising his sword overhead. The orichalcum that Ardor had worked into the weapon began to glow in response, an intensifying nimbus of light radiating out from the blade that waxed and waned with the rhythm of his speech. Among the things that Erich had taught him in Merilia's otherworld, this was, perhaps, the most appealing to the Veltish man's sensibilities. As reliant on proper timing and sheer fortitude as anything else, and a simple enough variation on one of his other spells to teach quickly...and spectacular if it should connect.

He ceased chanting, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead as his sword shook in his grip, vibrating from the energy stored within it. There was only one word left to release the spell, so all he needed was the target to come close enough—"Drive it back towards me!" he yelled at the four that still held to its sides. Hopefully Arken and Gertrude would catch on enough to join in.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

yeah like that

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

I would say 'instant aura loss', but on the other hand, I watch Youtube Shorts, so...

@ERode

Hypocrisy makes it funnier.

Meanwhile I'll just do what I do in every game and sit back here and point fingers and laugh at both of the GMs, just ask Vita and Rain.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

I should've known Est would be a tiktok girl...

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Callum Prosser

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A moment before he'd been about to shove his dagger up under one of the scales and pry it up, the massive head turned, backing away and facing him with an eye wider than he was tall—before pulling back yet further, all three eyes trained on him. Squarely on him, he was convinced; the shade-born anglerfish next to him likely didn't even come into the leviathan's consideration at all. "Well, this isn't ideal," he muttered to himself as the monster's words grated in his head. Before he felt a sudden rip current pulling at him as the beast's jaws opened.

Oh. Oh it really did eat the court mage! Don't eat me, man, I only just got this job! Why was I one of the backups to dive down here? I was taught to fight people, not these things!

He was almost surprised that he wasn't cursing or worse, though that was due as much to the fact that he couldn't force his own jaw to move as to any sort of bravery or fortitude he might have possessed. The anglerfish off to his left tried to swim away, breaking out of the current, as he floated, frozen in place at the sight of Ingens rearing back, his mind furiously trying to find any way possible to get out of the line of danger. Unfortunately for him, every last possibility his thoughts trended towards was shot down as quickly as it was imagined.

There really didn't seem to be a way out of it for him. An ignominious end to an utterly disappointing journey thus far—he couldn't even manage to move fast enough, with the ring's help, to get out of the way of the current pulling him in. He'd just have to hope he could avoid the teeth...

Wait. That might work out.

Forcing his limbs to move again, he started to try and cut his way out of the current just as Ingens lunged forwards. Jaws enveloped him quickly, water that the beast had sucked in pulling him along just past the snapping teeth. Not a problem for the leviathan, certainly—but Callum's last-second movement had carried him towards the roof of the monster's mouth. He let himself get carried back further, out of the way of any wayward pointing teeth, looking for a spot that would be good to sink a hook if anything existed large enough to fish for a leviathan—before lunging upwards, sinking his dagger into a soft part of Ingens's mouth once he could see light poking through the translucent structures again rather than hard bone.

He was dragged along a little further, the dagger opening a gash in the leviathan's mouth, but with his free hand also shoved up into the bleeding wound he managed to keep himself from disappearing entirely down the monster's throat. "Don't be like an eel, don't be like an eel," he repeated to himself, clutching onto his dagger and some loose flesh for dear life. He couldn't see anything like an eel's secondary jaws further back, but he wasn't about to let that make him too confident.

Rather, it was better to act as soon as possible. "Alright, you overgrown fish, let's see if you like this as much as the smaller ones!" With a grunt, he pulled himself up, pushing his left hand deeper into Ingens's flesh; the subjugation pearls were still clutched tightly in his palm, but he stuck two fingers out, pressing hard. "Dealanach!" While he'd never claim to be any great mage, the electric shocks he'd been able to conjure had proven their use multiple times, whether against fish or against people. While outwardly, it would likely mean nothing to the leviathan, he could only hope that the blast of electricity coming from inside the beast's own head might prove more of a threat.