The Shadow People (Solo)

[Eridanus]

The burnt smell that wafted into the Eri's nose, combined with the sudden shock of having the shadow plunge so near to him, woke the dazed ethaefal from his reverie and his mind quickly whirled to find a way out of this problem.

He easily put two and two together. He just had to destroy the shadows right? It did not seem quite possible though, for the man did not seem to have the ability to hammer the shadows down as he did with the first one. Though for the first one the beggar was already destroyed.

That's it.

He had to destroy the children. It was a terrifying thing to do, and even though the ethaefal had committed many atrocities in the past, slaying what seemed to be innocent children who were playing on the street disgusted him. His ideals fought against his logic, until his mind finally won. He had to do this. There was no guarantee he was doing the right thing. But his instinct simply told him to go for it.

Eridanus stepped further back from the mage, carefully walking in a large circle away from the man that would bring him to the sides and back of the children. They did not seem to notice him, and the shadows were more intent on smashing themselves against the man until his shields, wards or djed ran out, whichever came first.

[Eridanus]

He realized he was holding his breath as he silently padded his way in a route that will flank the children, the tension in him so high-strung that it took all his mental discipline to not just decide to run away in the opposite direction, screaming in panic. The adrenaline coursing in his veins were all fired up, and he was ready to roll away and draw his blades if necessary should the shadows suddenly deem him as a new target.

Seconds seemed like hours as he sneaked closer to the children from the side, and they continued to ignore him, lost in their own world. The man was already on both knees, but his head was still up and staring at the shadows defiantly as they fought for a way to get at him, snapping and swirling, trying to get past his defences and projections.

When he reached as close as he could and as behind as he could to the children, Eridanus took a moment to steady his breath, going through his plan in his mind again. Mentally, he uttered a prayer to Leth and Priskil for strength and hope, and the thought of his two most favored gods helped a little to defray his nerves. He was a trained combatant used to the atrocities and brutality of men, but against these unexplainable paranormal forces he felt like a little boy wielding a wooden sword against a huge monster.

The ethaefal exploded into a sprint, dashing forward as quickly as he could towards the children. At the same time, he drew both blades, the clang of metal as it was unsheathed ringing throughout the silent cold streets. With resolve in his heart, he brought both blades down in a wide diagonal arc, causing huge lacerations in both children and shoving them onto the floor with the impact.

The inhumane groan resounded, and his instincts recalling the previous events Eridanus stepped forward quickly and beheaded both children on the floor quickly, his swords dragging against the dirt floor as he guided the blades through the children's necks. Without thinking, he continued to randomly slice the bodies into a variety of pieces, stabbing both chests at where he thought the heart was unceremoniously. Finally, the mangled corpses stopped twitching and lay still.

There was a swift movement from the corner of his eyes, and out of instinct Eridanus flung himself backwards away from the corpses. A split-second later, a huge gush of blackness smashed onto the ground where he was earlier. His heart had never beat so fast before as he let out a little yelp in shock.

[Eridanus]

Suddenly, the huge glob of shadow in front of the ethaefal was squished down into a puddle again, the hooded man further away letting out a savage cry of triumph.

"Hit your swords against each other! As hard as you can!" The man yelled at Eri, and that shook him out of his trauma at having narrowly escaped death, or a fate worse than death.

The ethaefal thrust a sword into the puddle of blackness, his blade disappearing as it went in. With all his might, he slammed his other blade into the flat of the sword already in the darkness, creating a loud clang and creating several sparks. This time, the sparks lay suspended in the mass, hovering about and not disappearing.

"Again! Keep doing it!" The man yelled, and his body flinched when the remaining shadow gushed at him. There was a flash of red light and that shadow was flung back again, fire forming in its body and it had to reform itself in order to engulf the fire with its emptiness. The man was already bleeding from his nose, and his face was deathly white. Still, his gaze was determined and he ignored the other shadow, instead intently staring at Eri and the black puddle in front of him.

Eridanus roared to bolster his morale, bringing his arm back and slamming his sword into the sword in the monster again and again, creating more sparks as he did so. His ears were ringing from standing so close to the clanging of metal, but he continued, smashing his sword into the other repeatedly until there was enough sparks to fill the black puddle. The sparks shivered in their suspended animation and suddenly the darkness was gone, and Eri's blade could be seen again.

[Eridanus]

The other shadow had reformed itself by then, and it flung itself against the mage, smashing into an invisible wall as it did so. However, at that exact moment the man trembled violently, spitting out a wad of blood as he did so, but still refusing to collapse fully. He shouted loudly, and an invisible force compressed the shadow into a puddle again.

"You! Quick come over here!" The man called out and Eridanus ran swiftly to the man's side, kneeling down to support him from collapsing fully. "Reach into the pocket on my right and take out a roll of parchment! Quickly, there is only one."

Immediately he complied, patting the man's robes until he found the pocket, reaching into it and pulling out a wooden stick that had a roll of parchment around it.

"Unroll it and point it towards that black thing. Hurry!" The man begged, his voice getting weaker as he did so. Blood was beginning to seep out of his ears and mouth, and a drop of blood was forming by the side of his right eye.

Eridanus recognized it to be a scroll of some sort, and he unrolled it quickly, pointing the part filled with glyphs at the puddle of darkness. It seemed to be gaining in mass, and the invisible force keeping it compressed was weakening in power.

"I authorize: Jukile, Indouli, Farast. Activate!" The man howled, and the glyph released a huge column of flame from its focus sigil, bathing the puddle in fire and light for a few seconds.

The scroll burned up into nothing after the spell was completely released, and the man collapsed into Eri's arms, having destroyed the strange creature.

[Eridanus]

"Hang in there, buddy," Eridanus whispered as he slapped the man's cheeks urgently. The hooded man's face was unnaturally white, making him look like a corpse if not for the streams of blood leaking from his ears, nose and mouth. "I'll take you to Ionu's Mercy, how do I get out of here?"

The man's eyes flickered open, and he groaned, "Stacey... Agh, Ionu be damned."

Studying Eridanus briefly with a pained expression as if to make up his mind, he seemed to reach a resolution and he whispered, "Take me anywhere. Just walk, but while walking bear two things in mind. Your destination is the Department of Illusion. The second will allow you to actually find it, my authorization codes 'Jukile, Indouli, Farast'."

"Hurry," he croaked, before his eyes fluttered and closed. Eridanus put a finger below his ears to find that he still breathing. First he took the blades he left on the ground and sheathed them, then gathering the man in his arms, he slowly stood up, careful not to injure his back as he did so.

It was a strange thing for the man to say, but he followed suit, for a life was in his hands and he did not know of any way to get out of this place. A quick glance to the place where he came from showed a shallow alley with a wall maybe ten feet away. He could not go back where he came.

The ethaefal trudged on, a dying man in his arms as he kept mentally repeating the two things the man told him to keep in mind. He likened the process as being similar to the initiation process for voiding, and he cleared his mind with meditative techniques, to calm his nerves and to regulate his breathing. This helped his mind to repeat these two things as clearly and quickly as he could, praying to Ionu to give him a path to where he needed to go.

[Eridanus]

He turned a corner, praying hardly that he would find where he needed to be, and ahead of him stood a building that seemed completely out of place with the twisted misshapen buildings around it. It was white, and there was light coming from inside. The entire place was bustling with activity. The gate swung open as he entered, repeating the man's authorization code in his mind as he did so, and he made his way towards the main entrance.

His arms were burning from the weight, but he refused to let go, knowing that he only had a little more to go. He stepped up the stairs to the huge door of the building, and he whispered the authorization codes again, causing the huge door shimmer briefly before disappearing.

Inside there was just so much activity that it seemed out-of-place with the sombre surroundings. There was sound, light, and people constantly rushing from one place to the other.

Eridanus took a step into the building, and a shrill horn rang as he did so, an invisible force pushing him further into the building and the door materializing just behind him. Eridanus could feel the solid wood on his back as it did so.

A lady sitting behind a counter stared at him, and then looked at the bleeding figure he was carrying in his arms.

The noise died down as there was a brief silence when people began to realize that someone not belonging to their group had just entered their headquarters, carrying an injured member.

"He's injured," Eridanus offered helpfully, and immediately there was an explosion of activity as people rushed forward, lifting the man from his hands and bringing him somewhere else. The rest were talking to each other, discussing, arguing, and no one seemed to know what to do with him.

A door all the way at the endCornelius' office swung open, and a figure approached from it, striding purposefully towards this intruder. This presence caused a hushed silence from everyone else, and Eridanus realized that he had appeared in a place that should not exist.

The Department of Illusion.

[Eridanus]

OOC Info :

The hooded man (Stanley Harper) is a projectionist and shielder, he is protected with a combination of his shields and various wards on his robes created via glyphing (not glyphed by him though). He is racked by moderate overgiving and severe fatigue. The girl (Stacey Harper) is actually his older sister, and is declared missing in action (due to lack of body). The two of them are a small scout team sent to investigate the anomaly that seemed to be appearing in the underground, though it seems that both the scouts and DOI have underestimated the anomaly.

[Fallacy]

XP Award! Name:Eridanus XP Award: Observation- 5 Dual Wield- 2 Long sword- 2 Running- 1 Stealth- 2 Acrobatics- 1 Auristics- 2 Bodybuilding- 1 Lore: Shadowkin’s Aura Location of DOI HQ The Department of Illusion How to kill Shaodwkin Keycode: Jukile, Indouli, Farast Notes: I did not actually give you lore of Shadowkin because as of right now Eri does not know what they are; only that he has fought them. Nowhere was there an explanation of what the shadow creatures were given to your PC. If you want more Auristics please describe the process more. I know you had the whole new thing with the Flux strands, but describe the concentration, describe the feeling of the Djed, describe the experience. I wanna know what being an Aurist is all about ^.^ Also, that passive ability of Auristics which you used is one of the more ‘higher level’ things that comes with practice. Being as you are only novice, I doubt that Eri developed such a fine ‘taste’ for aura. Overall though it was an interesting thread experimenting an interesting new concept with cool new creatures. Keep up the great work. Can’t wait to see the writeup! Oh! And a final note, lil miss Stacy Harper is not dead. Go find her! Weave me a tragic or happy tale I care not which you choose. Any questions or concerns about the rewards gained please send a PM