TheHangedMan

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

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Marduk

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Marduk chuckled from his place at the bar. He was playing bartender at the moment, since Cloven had opted to end their session early today as well, so he had been forced wear a barely fitting uniform lest his bare chest make people uncomfortable (though really, it was most likely the act of the large man looking down on them that did it) and doing his part while the rest of his guildmates were swept up in the whirlwind of activity that the guild had become in the recent days. It was incredibly heartening for him to bear witness to results of their efforts against the "dragon".

His mind went back to three weeks ago, and his expression morphed into a frown for a moment as he recalled the creature they battled. Despite popular belief - since that was what was being reported, that thing was no dragon, and the fact that it was in fact a created being sent alarm bells ringing. He was half tempted to ask the Magic Council to investigate the thing, but no. He wasn't welcome there anymore, and doing so may put his guild under excess scrutiny. He was certain they were already on some council members bad side; the way they had handled the aftermath of the attack put some negative light on the Magic Council, and they seldom overlooked such slights against their perceived power.

He snorted. Of course they wouldn't - they're hold on the guilds of Fiore was strong, but brittle. A small crack could break the whole thing apart, which is why they were so quick to fill in the gaps. But Fenixtear may prove to be a bit too big for them to cover up.

Well, he thought preparing a plate, time would tell eventually. For now, he probably ought to help Zenith. Really, the poor boy ought to be taking this time to adventure a bit, now that there was no shortage of Jobs available. The old man set down the plate and juice next to him, giving him a thumbs-up and a grin as another serving of fries was ordered.

His head turned to a the sound of yelping visitors to their guild as Lavinia tried to fill her quota for evil today, and he nodded in approval. "Good job Lavinia! Keep those oglers away from Gwen while I get her a shirt!" he said, giving the girl a thumbs-up as well.

As he made his way passed the bar, he took a peak at the board behind Holly. He contemplated taking one himself, but thought it would probably be best to leave that to the others. As of now, he was content with holding the fort while the others went off. Of course, it would be a different matter if they requested his help.

Marduk picked up the articles of discarded clothing belonging to his voyeur guildmate, and tossed it back at her.

"Well, if Gwen's busy, why don't you take Zenith along with you?" he said, rolling his shoulders. "Poor boy's been a bit hard up with taking missions lately, given how held up he is manning the kitchen. Something new might be in order for him."

Silver Gate Academy [Accepting New Players]

JM MASON

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Somewhere out there, there was a kid, gearing himself up for one promised to be the comeuppance of a demon that was far too flippant of his presence. He would arrive at the prearranged meeting place at the stroke of midnight, geared with a confidence born of great skill, and motivated with righteous anger. He prepared mentally for this battle, sharpening his focus to its peak, and awaited his demonic opponent.

One hour passed, then two, then five. No one appeared.

JM Mason was sound asleep in his dorm, all thoughts about the fight he had arranged with that strange boy in the food court completely forgotten. Said boy's scream of frustration far away did little to rouse the half-kapre.

---

The next day after classes, JM strolled leisurely towards the department store, readying himself for his next shift, when he was startled by an outraged cry from behind him. Turning around quickly, the young man at first didn't know what he was looking at, and then his confusion quickly turned to resignation and annoyance as he recognized the form of the boy from yesterday.

"You have got to be fucking kiddi-"

His muted groan was interrupted by the boy's accusatory yell of: "YOU!"

^{"Fucking fuck why does this happen to me, fucking shit fucker."}

Palming his face, JM let loose a long-suffering sigh, and glared at the little shit standing in front of him. "Alright kid, although m'pretty sure I know what you want, what the fuck do you want?" He was going to be late for work, he just knew it. If this was going to be taken out of his paycheck he was so going to kill this dude.

"WHAT DO I WANT!?" Oh his ears, this guy was loud. "You said to meet you, behind the department store at midnight. I waited for you for five hours and you didn't show up!"

"Damn, guess that explains why you look like shi-"

With a rage filled yell, JM's vision was suddenly filled with the underside of a shoe, and his head snapped to the side to avoid it. Wide eyed and on the ground after losing balance, he quickly scrambled to his feet as the boy closed the distance once more, right fist snapping towards his body.

JM reacted by curling his arm down to block it, only to be struck in the head by a left hook that he didn't see coming. The force of the blow shocked him for a moment. This kid hit hard!

The boy attempted to follow up with a kick to his sternum, but apparently overestimated how dazed JM actually was, as the half-kapre caught the blow in his arm. "Got you now asshole!" he thought triumphantly, only for the boy to twist in a way that maneuvered out of his grasp, and found him stumbling for balance.

Going for a killing blow, he attempted to take JM's head clean off his shoulders with a kick at full force. The young man lifted his arms to defend against it, bracing himself for the blow, only to find that it never came.

The young man was fell to the ground, body rigid in an awkward, unnatural manner, a paper talisman slapped to his back. The one who did the deed stood over his frozen body, looking thoroughly dispassionate about it.

"I'll have to apologize for this young man's behavior."

JM recognized the guy too. He was a professor here, more to the point, he was one of the dudes that was there during his screening interview. It was easy to recall how he looked like: simply picture the coldest motherfucker known to man.

"Kirizanto... sir." He nodded respectfully. He probably also butchered his name.

"Jhackson Mason, wasn't it? This young man was skipping on remedial lessons. He won't be bothering you again." And with that brief exchange, the young man was hoisted bodily over the professors shoulder, and carried away. As for JM himself, he stood there, trying to figure out what the fuck just happened. Then, with a sense of dread, looked down at his watch.

Goddamit, he was going to be late for work!

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

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Marduk

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It would be a lie to say that Marduk was surprised by Cloven's reaction. It would also be a lie to say that he had misread Cloven. The truth of the matter was he didn't know the boy all that well - which in this instance was actually forgivable, considering he hadn't actually been part of the guild that long. Still he was a fair bit disappointed that he forwent helping them with their search and rescue efforts - publicity aside, there were lives that still needed saving even if the real danger had passed. He'd probably hoped that Cloven would do the right thing.

Then again... Marduk looked at Cloven closely. There was something off with the way the boy reacted to him. It was as if he was personally offended by his request, somehow. Looking back, there was nothing that Marduk could recall that would explain such an attitude except-

Marduk scratched his chin. Cloven was quite awkward when it came to Grasidia, wasn't he? Not even here, but even back home at the guild. At first he'd chalked it up to being generally aloof but then, wasn't he always staring at their preeminent plant mage? Oh, he tried to be subtle about it, but with feelings as strong as he had, one's intentions would always leek out eventually, and one only needed to have a trained eye to spot it.

There was something there between them, he figured. What it was, he couldn't say, but what he could do... "Oh I could absolutely going to use this," he thought with a grin.

Scarcely finishing that thought, he got a good look at the ongoing chaos between his guildmates as he bore witness to what appeared to be - and probably was not, given the circumstance - Asher and Ria in a tender embrace, followed by a quick introduction of his gonads to Lavinia's foot. His eye twitched for a second as he deliberated laughing or sighing at the turn of events, before settling with opening a portal in front of a sprinting Lavinia, who promptly got clotheslined. Zenith appeared at her feet a moment later.

"Little Vin, I realize that you're at a rather confusing point in your life," this could be applied to the entirety of their guild sans Torys, "but it's poor form to inflict harm on your romantic rivals, especially if said rival is simply trying to help."

He cleared his throat loudly, before she could (predictably) interject. "Also, Zenith here needs assistance," he gestured with his working hand.

His piece being said, he now had to deal with the clean up of the city and media media media-!

The crowd had suddenly swarmed a bit too close for comfort, and he asked that they step back just a bit to give him some breathing space. It was an easy request to follow, considering that Marduk towered over all of them by at least a head, with a suitably large and commanding voice, and had just assisted in what appeared to be the slaying of a dragon. It also helped that Marduk was an old hand at dealing with the media.

"Erm, I'd ask that you try and give my guildmates some space, but I know how you media people work," his joking tone offset his words as he offered the gathered crowd a friendly grin. "So I'll just ask that you don't bother the ones trying to heal the others and don't push too hard- the people of Fenixtear are quite a special lot, and they might just blow you off entirely if you do, hahaha!"

Predictably, Grasidia was walking away already.

"The dragon was taken down via our combined efforts, facilitated through our S-class mages, and this young talented mage," he said, kneeling down ruffling Lavinia's hair. "Her magic was especially effective against the dragon, and was instrumental in dealing the final blow."

"We're a guild fashioned after the old ways; family, magic, adventure. Perhaps a strange concept nowadays, but I feel that the way guilds are run now is constrictive. We've become content with living in a smaller, convenient world, but in my opinion that's little more than a comforting lie. Smaller doesn't more things within reach, and convenient doesn't mean easier. It simply means that you've shrunk your horizons. Have shrunk the things you could set your sights on. Limited your dreams to that which is convenient.

"Our guild Master Torys - yes folks, I'm not the guildmaster, she's awaiting our safe arrival back home - envisioned a wider world than the one we have been sold nowadays. I myself don't have our guildmasters vision. I'm old and my imagination is limited, but I find myself curious all the same:

"What will that wider world look like?"

"Today is just the first step to that world. The slaying of this beast at the hands of my guildmates is a first step to what I feel is the beginning of a grand adventure. So today, Marduk Girga of Fenixtear asks of those who have imagined that same wider world, of a future beyond the buying and selling of manufactured pleasure, of manufactured adventures, reach out to Fenixtear, and we'll see what lies beyond that horizon together!"

His voice finished strong. Oratory had always been one of his gifts, his mother being a teacher had taught him the right ways to get people to listen, and he'd polished that skill over the years. It proved helpful in building his case and his reputation in the past, and it would prove useful for Fenixtear today.

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

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Marduk

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Marduk chuckled at the antics of Lavinia, and was going to give her a thumbs up before realizing he still couldn't feel his right arm. He frowned for a moment, before quickly returning to a hearty grin and using his left hand instead. "Thanks Vinny, we'd be totally lost witho-" His attempt at humoring her was cut short as a loud boom drowned out his voice, accompanied by a crack of lightning in the shape of a man.

Emerging from the dust of his landing, Marduk's eyes narrowed at the new arrival. He was someone that Marduk knew, and if not well, then certainly more so than any of his guildmates. Ajax Thera, second ranked Wizard Saint and therefore, one of the current Gods of Ishgar. A formidable man in both power and presence, he was one of the few in the council that he felt wanted to do good.

Of course, how he went about it was always a matter of contention between them. While Marduk respected his power and his strict adherence to his moral code, the man was too harsh by far. He took justice into his hands far too often, and his classification of good and evil was as black and white as it got - and anyone he considered to be on the side of evil was shown no mercy.

To put simply, the man had an enormous stick up his ass.

The old man frowned as the man approached them. There are many ways he could think of him taking this situation, and very few of them were good for them. If Ajax decided that they were his enemies, there was absolutely no way they'd be able to stop him. Forget fighting him at full strength, let alone how injured they were at the moment, the man was in a league of his own. Even back when he was a Wizard Saint he would have second thoughts about facing him one-on-one.

For a hot minute it felt as though he might have to do so anyway as Ajax forced his usual charming self into Holly's personal space, only to be confronted by Grasidia. The stand off between the saint and the guilds S-class members got him to break into a cold sweat. His guildmate's were brave, and all of them had great potential, but they would have no chance against Ajax if they came to blows.

Thankfully, it looked like a fight with him wasn't in the cards today, as the man backed off, his tone changing at the last moment. It even seemed that they had earned his respect, which meant that they were in his good graces for the moment. It also appeared that he had realized that the thing they fought wasn't actually a dragon - which of course he would. The both of them had fought enough magical constructs to recognize them, and he was a dragon slayer besides. As he made to leave, their eyes met, and Marduk nodded as recognition flashed in his eyes.

Something would come from that, he was certain.

Once the man was out of sight, Marduk turned to the crowd that had gathered around them. "Alright people, kindly move out. The dangers' passed but we've still got work to do!" He turned to the Rune Knights. "We'll help you clean out the rubble and look for survivors. There's a fair bit of damage to the city, but we've managed to put the fires out so it won't be spreading further."

Marduk returned to his guildmates. "Luke, Cloven, Grasidia. Ready to help with the S & R?" He left out the others on purpose. The two boys were the least hurt and he needed Lavinia and Asher to look after the others who were injured. Grasidia's magic was also invaluable at clearing out the rubble. The sooner they were done the sooner they could return home and celebrate like mad.

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

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Marduk

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It... was over? By the Dragons and Saints, it was truly over?

Marduk looked at the where the 'dragons' corpse lay battered into the ground, defeated by the herculean efforts of his guildmates. The beasts body slowly began breaking apart and dissolving into the air. There his eyes narrowed. That wasn't natural, and in that instance he concluded that this was no dragon at all, but rather a construct. From that conclusion he reached another one - that if the dragon was indeed a construct, that meant there was someone behind the constructing. There could be more of those things lying around, or more in production.

He let out a deep breath. This bore investigating. For now however, he would simply enjoy this victory properly. With a grin, Marduk raised his arm into the air, and let out a cry of victory amidst the pouring rain.

Speaking of rain, he'd tend to Ria and the others. They needed to deal with the aftermath as well. It appeared Grasidia was of the same mind, as she immediately approached him. "Felix was badly hurt. Holly pushed herself too far as well. Gwen still hasn't shown up," he replied, neglecting to mention his own injury - there was nothing they'd be able to do about that. His heart ached as he looked at Felix. The fool boy! Why did he have to be so hard headed?

He sighed. There was nothing to be done now, except deal with the aftermath, and hopefully he'd learn his lesson. His eyes narrowed upon noticing Ria; she was shaking badly, and had to catch herself from falling over herself as she tended to Felix.

The old man threw his cloak over the girl, his left hand on her shoulders trying to stead her. "Easy Ria, don't push it. Take a break for a moment. I'll go look for your sister." He nodded at Grasidia, leaving her with the others as he found a place on top of a building to look for their absent member.

It wasn't long before he found her, lying down and surrounded, the ground around her covered in a thin sheet of ice and hoarfrost. Wasting no time, Marduk took a portal to her side, and placed a hand over her face, checking her vitals. Though it was shallow, she was still breathing. Her vitals were also fine. She had no signs of obvious injury, which puzzled the old man. Did she perhaps faint from exhaustion?

He placed a palm on her forehead and clicked his tongue, picking the girl up and making his way back to the others.

"I found Gwen, but she's out cold." Cold was an understatement. Her body was freezing!

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

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Marduk

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The guild was doing surprisingly well for the opening stage of this fight. Marduk hadn't expected them to catch it so badly off guard, and at times it felt like they were pushing it back.

The stronger members of the guild peppered it with magic and blows, doing everything they could to damage the creature. From the very start they moved at a frenetic pace, one he was only too glad to assist. He'd find debris and pelt it at the dragon. It wouldn't hurt the damn thing but it would serve as a distraction. Every single second where it wasn't focusing on his guild members was precious time bought.

He whooped excitedly when Lavinia managed to take out one of it's eyes. That some quick thinking from her, considering they had no time to coordinate that.

A quick scan of the field found Leon healing Grasidia. Good, where he close enough he would have nodded in approval, they needed Grasidia back in fighting shape as soon as possible. He frowned as Grasidia seemingly rebuffed him. What was she being stubborn over?!

In the meantime, Marduk positioned himself on a nearby rooftop, looking for a better vantage point. From there, he opened portals for fleeing civilians, in an effort to get them out faster. The sooner they were out of the way, the more space they would have to fight!

Perhaps it was feeling pressured by their constant barrage, or perhaps by virtue of its wild instincts, but in that moment the Dragon roared. The breath of flame was devastating in scope and shocking in intensity. Right away Marduk position a portal in front of him, letting the heat eject harmlessly behind him - however, the sheer heat radiated by the surrounding flames was sweltering, and perspiration dripped down his brow as the fire washed over. His vision went hazy with the heat and his breath labored from the lack of oxygen. It felt like an eternity had passed for what was only a moment of danger.

When he flames dispersed and his vision refocused, he was treated to the heart-stopping sight of Felix taking a roundabout method of suicide - via dragon.

He was about to move the boy out of harms way, when Zenith jumped in. Marduk sighed in relief, and privately resolved to speak with Felix after this was over, if Holly left anything left for him. He'd also have to apologize to her and Zenith.

"But," he shook his head, "that was for later." He had bigger things to worry about.

He'd thought they'd been making headway. The dragon was visibly affected, struggling even. It screamed, a horrible, deafining sound that physically bore down on him. His teeth clenched reflexively, and he opened portals right next to his eats to ease some of the pain, but even still, the pressure it exuded was unbelievable. Still, the danger passed and the dragon fell silet. Holly and the others could damage it, and Grasidia was doing a hell of a job holding it down. For moment it felt that they'd be able to end this soon, and get a resounding victory. Then the moment passed, heralded by a gout of flame.

More and more black thorns grew from its body, twisted and menacing, freeing it from the plant mage's grasp. As if to insult all of their efforts until now, the beasts wounds began closing, sinew and scale growing over them until it was as though they had never existed. The dragon lowered its head, and breathed.

What happened next was pure destruction.

He caught a glimpse of it before Grasidia's brambles rose up to protect him. The winds and flame buffeting the plant mage's protection was magnitudes more intense than the one he had powered through earlier. The scream that followed, he was better prepared for. The shield his guildmate created held well, but it did little to stop the next blow.

Rising into the sky and crashing into the earth like a raging deity, the earth rumbled and cracked, sending debris and shrapnel flying. Marduk's reflexes were not what it was, so though he managed to create a portal to get out of the blast radius, the old man felt his shoulder jolt and shudder, before pain shot through it.

He knelt down, looking at the limb. A line of rebar was sticking out from his right shoulder, red liquid blossoming outwards and trailing down. Marduk glared at the sight, before gripping the rebar and pulling it own. Fire magic quickly sealed the wound, and he looked to survey the damage.

The dragon had followed up its monstrous jump with an equally devastating swipe of its tail. He didn't have vision on any of his guildmates.

Marduk's teeth clenched in worry, until a blooms of red spikes appeared around the dragon, damaging it further. Lavinia's work, no doubt. Good, that was one confirmed safe.

Holly was not far behind either, and not to be undone.

The show of magic that followed in her wake would have troubled even a Wizard Saint. A hail of everything around it buffeted the overgrown lizard, knocking it every which way. It look like something he would have done in his prime!

But he was no longer in his prime, and he could not afford to sit still and watch either.

He watched Holly collapse, most likely from exhaustion, but he couldn't rule out an injury either. He created a portal right next to her, lifting her in a bridal carry and belted out orders.

"Luke! Keep that horny devil occupied!" Looking down at Holly, he said in a quieter voice. "Hold on lass, I'll get you to Leon. We'll get you back in the fight, don't you worry."

He created a portal into the air, free falling and eyes flicking through the wrecked battleground. His guildmates were battling hard, doing their best. They were beaten, bloodied, but still bringing the fight however they could. His heart sunk as he saw Leon, his hands full as it were. There was no way he would be able to handle healing Holly as he was now. His eyes flickered, back and forth between his comrades, mind racing and weighing his options.

Zenith, Felix, Leon, Lilliana, Cloven, Gwen, Lavinia-

"ASTORIA!"

Marduk roared stepped through a portal, right as she got her cyclone started. The old man set Holly down gently behind Ashers bulwark.

"Ria, she needs your healing. We'll run out of people that can hurt that thing at this rate!" His right arm had gone numb. The blood was coming out wrong. He ignored it. "You were stopping the fires right? Leave that to me. You and Leon are our only field healers. Focus on healing and let us do the rest!"

With that being said, Marduk could only hope Astoria knew what needed to be done, because he sure as hell didn't. He'd only heard about Ria's healing abilities in passing, thanks to Gwen. It was laughable: he'd known her longer, but he didn't know nearly as much about her abilities than he did Leon's. He was so fucking conceited wasn't he? For all that talk about bringing back that the old ways, he was really horribly inept at it.

Now he knew he had to make sure they won this: No way he'd be able to rectify that if he was dead.

This would take a helluva lot of concentration and more power than he felt he had. Taking a deep breath, Marduk surveyed the battlefield once more. Right now they were lacking coordination. They'd done well at the start by sheer virtue of their upper-tier mage's power, but that had been wasting the abilities of everyone else who had come. But magic power was not what determined a fight. Sometimes, all it took was a little courage. The determination to keep going, the resolve to just to show up. They had all shown that spirit, and he couldn't be prouder of them.

He would not let their spirit go to waste.

A portal opened in front of Zenith, sending the gout fire towards the dragons rear end.

A portal opened below Felix's unconscious body, dropping him next to Leon.

And smaller portals the size of a plate opened right next to Lavinia, Gwen, and Zenith. His voice echoed through them less than a second later:

"Gwen, load up all the biggest, baddest spells you've got. When you give the signal, fire below you and I'll open a portal from there to its ass ! We're sending this thing overgrown lizard to hell! Vinny, Zenith, join Luke! I'm counting on you three to keep that thing busy until then, do you understand?!"

His vision blurred. Not good. Need to focus.

He opened a portal next to where Cloven and Asher were.

"Cloven, find Grasidia! We need her help! Asher, protect Astoria like your balls depended on it!"

Hehehe, he was getting crude now. It's been awhile hasn't it? Well, might as well go all the way!

"MAGES OF FENIXTEAR, BITCH SLAP THAT DUMB FUCKING SORRY EXCUSE FOR A DRAGON!" Now, to put out some fires.

Realism no Mononoke: An Urban Fantasy RP

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Abe Yuuto

Burgeoning Onmyoji
_{Asahi - @RolePlayerRoxas}

---

"You can add whatever Asahi is to that list president," thought Yuuto, resisting the urge to chuckle as the young woman hid behind him, much like Tomoko and Akari. It was also fairly embarrassing since she was really close but pointing that out would embarrass her in turn. Anyway, they had more important matters to discuss.

Th information provided by the spirit was worrying. At the very least it provided confirmation that the incident they were investigating was supernatural in nature. The information she had given that was invaluable - a woman spirit was here at the scene of the kidnappings. That was a huge lead, and something they'd have to follow up on quickly.

Yuuto's fist clenched and he took a shaky breath as the girl painted the scenario of that day. He could just imagine it. A child simply enjoying themselves, playing games, while blissfully unaware of the danger they were in. The child disappears and the parents look around, at first exasperate that their child had gotten lost, until that exasperation quickly turns to fear as their child fails to show any sign of himself, and no trace of them would be found for days and days.

This scenario had played out seven times now, he thought, and for a brief instant he saw red. His viewpoint overlapped with another's from a time long ago, carrying with it the emotions of that time.

The teen smiled at the ghost, trying to put on what he hoped was a reassuring smile. It felt so, so brittle to him. "Don't worry. We'll get to the bottom of this. P-president is reliable after all, and I'm rather handy myself."

First things first. They had to find that woman. It was likely that she was the culprit, but also a big chance that she wasn't, and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. If she wasn't the culprit, then at least they would have another potential witness. If she was...

The sooner they resolve this incident, the better.

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

Marduk

---

A small portal opened up, the thermos going through it and ending up falling into his waiting palm. He nodded in appreciation.

On to the matter at hand, it was a fairly predictable that the others' would take issue with Felixs' inclusion, and honestly should anything happen to him responsibility ought to fall on his shoulders. The boy was right after all, it was at his word that he was included in the team, even if Holly did veto it. It was his own bias that prompted him to, because regardless of what they did, Felix would be Felix. To exclude him now would cause that resentment and recklessness to build up, if not now, then later when, or especially, when he was out of sight.

Marduk supposed this was simply one of the challenges of a magical society. The proliferation of magic tools might have given society as a whole access to the wonders of magic, but it simply didn't compare to being a mage yourself. Once the amount of personal power a mage held reached a certain point, the rules would inevitably change to suit them. Had Felix S-Class power on par with say, Torys' or even Holly, then regardless of experience there would be much less hesitation to bring him along. That he did not have that power did not make that point moot - rather it emphasized what kind of life he would be living from now on. These fights would be unavoidable, so why avoid them? Better to have an eye on him, then. It would be up to them to keep him out of trouble, and hope he grows from the experience.

If he voiced these thoughts, it would probably sound like shallow justification to them, but he did not feel as if he was wrong in this. Felix was in a rush, and he did not need them for the goal he had set for himself. If they pushed too hard, he could just leave, and that would benefit nobody and may even leave him in even more danger from himself.

He cleared his throat. "I'll keep my eye on him, so don't you worry Holly, Zenith. Leon, support them well. Focus on that, and keep your wits about you."

With his piece being said, he joined Felix outside, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Felix," he said gravely. "Your excitement is commendable, but I ask you remember what's at stake here. There's more than danger to us here - recklessness and failure mean that a dragon will run rampant in Era. Focus on what matters, let glory come later."

He hoped he understood him.

---

Era. It had been awhile since he'd been here. He'd love to say that the city hadn't changed, but it was on fire.

The dragon was a sight to behold - every bit worth of the legends that came with its race. Gargantuan in size and the sheer pressure that came from its presence was stifling. The fact that it knocked them out of the air so violently did little to help that impression. As he got thrown out of the Grasidias' leaf, he opened a portal close to the ground, landing on his feet and facing the beast. He checked on the status of his fellow guildmates; safe thankfully, either caught by Grasidia or else recovered under their own power.

Speaking of Grasidia, they really ought to talk more. The girl had done a marvelous job for their initial contact, and even now was holding the beast down.

"Alright, let's try and lighten her load, shall we?"

There was an awful amount of smoke going around here. Be a shame if it got in that things eyes.

Marduk took note of the buildings on fire, the trails of smoke and the direction of the wind. Opening up wide entry portals over the smoke, the exits portals created were smaller, almost almost pin-sized, and were created as close as possible to the dragons eyes. Hopefully the pressurized smoke blown into its eyes would distract it for a moment.

"Holly, Zenith back up Dia! Leon, if you've got something to patch her up, do it! I'm counting on you to keep them fighting!" he barked, projecting as much authority as he could. "Felix, I'm leaving you to on search and rescue! Do not engage that lizard directly!"

Ah, his blood was pumping now. How long has it been since he's been under this much pressure? Not since he joined the guild, that was for sure.

Realism no Mononoke: An Urban Fantasy RP

Sad so see you go.

In other news, I'll be having a post up today,

Fenixtear - A Fairy Tail RP

Marduk

Ah, so clearly their young-at-heart guild master wanted them dead. Well, now was a good time as any to beg the council to take him back in.

Joking aside, the sudden return of Torys had been accompanied by some amazing news indeed. The week long drought of jobs seemed as though in preparation for this sudden storm of events. Their guild master certainly knew how to pick them. What happened next though, would be crucial. He'd never fought a dragon before - plenty of demons, a handful of dragonslayers (artificial or otherwise) and even a trio of godslayers, but no dragons. He knew how to fight them in theory, and even that felt like a daunting task.

Typically, only a dragonslayer could, well, slay a dragon. Their magic was specifically meant for it after all. Dragons were nigh impervious to magic, fiendishly strong, and their own brand of magic would match a Wizard Saint for power on average. Even in his prime...

Bah! No sense overthinking it. They would either do this or not. Now the question was how to go about- and they were splitting into teams already. Well then.

He shrugged and approached Zenith.

"Ah, looks like you'll be working with the old man, Zen," he said with a grin. Turning towards the rest of the throng, he hollered: "Holly, Felix, Leon? What say you?"

He didn't really have a plan for this team. It was chosen mostly on a whim, with whoever was left over, but it wasn't a bad composition by any means. Zenith was a capable fighter, Fenix was a talented youth, and Leon tried his best- erm, that is, he was the only one asides from Ria that specialized in supportive magic, which was invaluable in team excursions. There wasn't much that needed to be said about what Holly brought to the table.

Hmmm... he'd need to prepare himself as well, if he didn't want to slow them down. It's been awhile since he'd exerted himself in combat.