Some Things, (Eridanus)

by **Kreig Messer** on November 15th, 2012, 8:33 pm

There were only elven of them now, what was once thirty had been drastically reduced. It was still many though, and even with the help the Vantha had been providing behind Kreig's back..... Would it be enough? Even as his body endured with the adrenaline flowing throughout his body, it still screamed, it ached 'We want rest' were its words. And even if they subdue these thugs..... it was doubtless it could be done before the Dragoons arrived, would Kreig even be capable of handling them? They were a different caliber altogether than the pieces of trash they were up against right now. Even if Kreig knew, it wouldn't make much of a difference.

The Scimi Tars, all of them excluding their leader, were afraid.....that was the natural assumption. The Brawler was showing unnatural strength and resilience as he annihilated their number , while Eridanus was simply acting behind the scenes and treated them like miner nuisances and interfered when prudent.

Kreig looked at them 'So annoying' that's what they were, they were dangerous, but also a large annoyance. He moved slowly towards the next gangster, the gangster looked panicky, afraid 'Gonna kill him' were Kreig's thoughts as he looked at the frightened little man. The gangster waved his sword frantically, swinging so hard he accidentally brought his sword down to the earth and it snapped in two..... The gangster stared in fright at his broken sword, it was practically useless now. His gaze turned back to the approaching brawler who looked at him square in the eyes.....

"Lucky you..." Said the brawler, as he gave the gangster a simple punch into the stomach and with the magical strength flowing through him it made sure it was tough enough to cause the gangster to lose consciousness as he fell to the ground..... He was lucky indeed. Kreig turned his attention the remainder of the Scimi Tars and once more moved to the closest Gangster. few, short, steps later one of the enforcers quickly burst into a running motion, his curved blade brought back and thrust forward in an attempt to take out the Brawler, only for the brawler to raise the back of his guantlets and knocked the oncoming blade away, but the Enforcer didn’t stop as he spun and attempted to slice the brawlers head off….but the brawler simply ducked to avoid the incoming blade and rose up to deliver a powerful uppercut to the Enforcer’s chin, sending him a flying back as the sound of his head separating from his neck could be heard ever so faintly.

Kreig briefly wondered what their block face-leader is doing just standing ‘Is he enjoying this? Just standing seeing his men get taken down so easily? Why the petch isn’t he doing anything?’ Then they were pushed away, if he moved he moved, if not then not ‘’ That was all there is to it’ Then came another Gangster, ready to slash at Kreig but was stopped as easily as the rest of his comrades when a knee connected to his abdomen and his head slammed into a nearby wall. What were eleven now became nine.

This time two more gangsters decided to rush into their possible-dooms, with the brawler finally deciding to use an old, scrappy looking, chair that was abandoned when the townsfolk saw the signs of trouble brewing. As they charged forward, Kreig grabbed the chair by its legs and slammed it hard into the gangster, breaking the chair, knocking the thug out and leaving Kreig with two sharp pieces of wood that used to be part of said chair and promptly stuck one of them into the chest of the second gangster.

Now nine became seven, when will that leader of theirs move? Such evil must not be tolerated after all.

Secret :

by **Eridanus** on November 16th, 2012, 3:43 pm

The Scimi Tar Supervisor seemed to be deriving some sort of sick, sick joy at watching his men getting slaughtered by the rampaging brawler. If anything, every additional knock our or kill made by the Sunberthian thrilled the giant man, and his fingers continued to writhe tensely against the handle of the giant hammer that was his Rock Crusher in a sort of perverse way of expressing pleasure.

"Oh yes, he is truly wild indeed. A true beast," The Supervisor relished as he spoke to himself. Every opponent the brawler took and bested only added to the hammer-wielding man's satisfaction, and he continued to stand there, his face slowly becoming red with excitement as he watched Kreig slam a piece of wood into yet another unfortunate gangster.

"Such force, such strength, such beauty," He continued, licking his lips as he built up an internal frenzy within himself.

The orderly sound of boots became louder as the small expeditionary contingent sent by the Gated Community arrived at the streets. The sergeant stabbed his blade into an unlucky civilian who was looking at the battle from one of the street paths and did not notice the arriving squad in time.

"Damn obstacles," The Sergeant grunted as he kicked the writhing body out of his way, cleaning his bloody sword on the dying man's clothes as he led his squad further onwards.

"Ho, what do I see here? Daggerhand troops trying their luck again?" He announced in a booming baritone that could match that of the giant Supervisor's in volume yet not in lowness of pitch. Turning his gaze to survey the destruction around, and namely the pile of unconscious or dead bodies centered around one certain berserker, he commented, "And someone very nicely cleaned up the filth for us as well! Time to clean up the rest, eh?"

The Dragoons entered an orderly double-layered semi-circle formation, the front layer up with shields while the second layer thrust their swords forward above the lower positioned swords of the first layer. That formed a rather dangerous mass of men with shields up front and a blade sticking out at the top and bottom at every angle.

The remaining Enforcer rallied his men, leading them away from the exhausted brawler as they arranged themselves around the hulking hammer-wielding man. The Enforcer glanced at him with a confused expression, and it was evident that he was trying to hide his fear.

"Pay no heed to those cowards!" The Supervisor roared, and he raised his huge Rock Crusher with one hand, momentarily pointing it at the armored formation. "They are the enemies of our benefactor! Destroy them!"

While the Dragoons edged cautiously towards the Scimi Tar gang while maintaining their formation, the Supervisor paid no heed. Instead, he ran towards the group, gathering momentum as he swung his huge hammer, crushing into the shields of the unfortunate soldier and flinging him to the side. Using this hole in the formation, he swung his huge hammer again to the side, crushing the ribs of yet another dragoon, his chainmail unable to protect him from the giant's strength. This act further messed up the formation and partitioned it neatly to two sides.

With a cry of heightened morale, the remaining Scimi Tar squad flanked the partitioned Dragoon half on the Supervisor's left. Curve steel clashed with straight blades and shields. Though the gangsters had the momentary advantage in their advantageous positioning and the shock value of their leader's preemptive strike, the superior equipment, skill and discipline of the Dragoons made themselves known as more powerful combat modifiers, and even though they lost some men in the initial assault, they managed to overwhelm the poorly equipped and less experienced gangsters, slaying them brutally to the last men, even sticking their blades several times in the fallen bodies.

By then, the split up squad on the left of the Supervisor had made a detour and grouped up with the one on his right which had been doing cautious battle with the lone man, both sides making no headway. The Supervisor's hammer made for a dangerous weapon with an even more dangerous reach, and the power of his swings prevented their shields or chainmails from protecting them, causing both sides to be stuck in a stalemate.

-=-

In the meantime, Eridanus had been busy surveying the area for an appropriate escape route, which he identified to be a particular alley, out of all the numerous alleys in the area. This particular alley happened to be right beside his vantage point and was a distance away from the battle. Unfortunately for Kreig, the current battle raging between the Dagger Hand affiliates and the Sun's Birth was right smack in between the man and the escape route.

While the battle had been raging on, the vantha had been quite busy instead. Unclasping a black crayon from his pocket, he matched it against the dark marks of the ground, nodding to himself at the relative invisibility of the crayon's color. He drew a large circle in the space where one would take one's first steps into this alley. Within that circle, he drew an inner circle which took up most of the space of the first circle. On the circumference of that circle, he jotted down several glyphs along the periphery of the circle, essentially creating a barrier sigil. In the inner circle, he wrote a single symbol that represented the word "DJED" that also functioned as a focus sigil when used in such a context. Slightly below the circle, he drew a smaller square, linking it to the larger one in a path sigil that combined the djed pathways of the two glyphs together. To the side he added two more path sigils to ascertain the connection since it was of utmost importance to link the two glyph structures he was creating.

Within that square, he began writing a paragraph of simple words in Nader-Canoch, which basically created a Trigger sigil from which it would receive the appropriate stimulus, then transfer instructions through the path sigils to the larger circle. In this case, the Trigger would activate upon hearing the words "Tough Luck!" and Eridanus had even customized it with his glyphing experience to only respond to his voice. The instructions that the Trigger would activate would be to deactivate the barrier sigil, thus releasing anything stored within the focus sigil.

In the remaining strip of space available between the barrier sigil and the outer original circle, he implemented further custom glyphs. Within this space, he drew symbols in the ancient language, though he was confined to using simpler words due to his limited understanding of the knowledge. That forced him to go on a detour with a chunk of simple words in order to explain an advanced concept for which he did not possess the vocabulary for. In any case, it took some time, but he placed glyphs which further magnified and enhanced the power of the spell stored within the focus sigil. The glyphs strained on the ability of the djed, purifying it and releasing it with many times the magnitude of its strength and amplitude. However, he also instructed the spell to stay confined within the larger circle, and to aim the trajectory of the stored spell upwards. In other words, the glyphs magnified the explosive power of the spell, yet restricting it in a wide column within the larger circle that could only head upwards upon expanding to its maximum radius.

Glyph Array :

The mage took a glance at the fight, which seemed to be ending with the last of the Scimi Tar gang being hacked down while the second Dragoon squad sought to regroup with the one engaging the hammer-wielding giant. From his observations and estimations, he still had some time left.

Taking the crayon, he drew a variety of glyphs in the wrist of each hand, exchanging hands when he needed to draw on the other. On his wrists he drew glyphs that stabilized the flow of djed, that stabilized the materialization of res, and that purified the djed and res that was extruded through these pathways, allowing for better quality spells. It was fast for him to draw the glyphs on his left hand since it was his master arm, but fortunately it did not take too long for his off-hand since he had been training his ambidexterity to a point with his blades. He only needed to imagine he was carving his right wrist with his longsword to make the process a little easier.

Choosing not to close his eyes in order to maintain awareness around him, the scholar calmed his body and soul, slowly urging the astral streams throughout his body to flow in a single manner. Like a variety of small streams merging into connecting river, he fashioned the flow of his djed as such, shifting them over to his arms as he gradually extruded res from both wrists. The res formed in two unsightly blobs which he tried to mold into perfect spheres, but the result still looked more block-like than what he would have preferred. In any case, the glowing white res hovered peacefully like solidified moonbeams, and when he gathered a reasonably large amount he clasped both his palms together, using this physical gesture to aid him in merging the two blobs of res to an even larger one.

Slowly walking towards the array of glyphs he drew on the ground, Eridanus kept a steady eye and heart on his hovering res, making sure that it traveled with him. Kneeling down besides his arcane drawings, he extended his arm, causing the large ball of res to follow as well. He directed it mentally to go into the focus sigil, and it began to float downwards in the center of the "DJED" circle, half of its body being swallowed by the ancient symbols as he slowly descended. However, just before it did so, he closed his heart and directed thoughts of anger, passion and battlehunger into the res, creating the tiny spark that would act as the key to further combustion. A small portion of the sphere began to crackle as a tiny flame emerged, but it too was swallowed by the glyphs as the last of it descended into the focus sigil.

Dusting his hands habitually, the vantha stood up just in time to notice new developments from the battle ground.

-=-

Stuck at a stalemate, with both sides unwilling to give way, the Sergeant of the Dragoons somewhere within the armored formation noticed the recovering brawler who was able to noticeable regain his stamina and strength due to no one bothering him as they were too busy trying to kill each other.

"Say, you there, the fighter over there! Since you've started cleaning this mess up you might as well help us to clean up the rest of this filth, eh?" The leader of the shock troopers of the corrupted knights shouted. "In fact, we acknowledge your skill and are quite impressed. Tell you what, help us take down this monster, and I'll put in a good word for you about joining the Dragoons to the Gated Community. And maybe some compensation for your efforts from our lovely, lovely ladies at Ruby's, eh?"

With this new developments, the vantha stopped himself from interfering, since it seemed that Kreig was in no immediate danger. His magical trap was merely meant as a last resort, though it seemed that he might not need it after all.

What would Kreig do? This only gets more and more interesting, he thought as he skulked in the alley that was his selected escape route, remaining half-hidden by the shadows and various city effects.

Battlefield Update :

by **Kreig Messer** on November 16th, 2012, 9:00 pm

Kreig was quite tired now as he fell to his knee, if the Scimi Tars had an opportunity to take the Brawler out, they did now. Kreig breathed heavily as his aching body threatened to go unconscious on him at that very moment ‘Why aren’t they taking this lovely little chance’ He thought, he could no longer feel the strength that was given to him and with his wounds he’d most likely die if there is no one to treat him ‘Bloody bastards, are they savoring the momen?t’ He thought as he raised his sights from the ground and turned his head….. The remaining underlings stood by their leader, looking afraid but not at Kreig, rather at the Dragoons that arrived.

‘Should I be thanking one of the gods….. or cursing one of them?’ The Dragoons seemed appreciative that someone had done most of their work for them, that was a good thing of course. But did were they appreciative enough to not kill the brawler once this was over? That was yet to be seen at the moment. The leader of the Scimi Tars rallied up his men who began to cautiously move forward while the Dragoon began to do the same as they moved in formation and their shields and swords at the ready. The Supervisor, the leader of the Scimi Tars, then suddenly rushed forward like a mad beast and pierced through their formation with his dreaded hammer…. This gave his subordinates all the courage they need as the clashed with the Dragoons, even felling some of their numbers.

But alas for the small time thugs, the superiority of the Dragoons’ equipment and skills turned the tides around and slaughtered them, leaving only their rampaging leader as he impressively kept the Dragoons at bay with his Rock crusher. All this at the very least gave the brawler time to recover his breath and fight the pain in his body, slowly standing up he squinted his eyes as he heard the voice of one of the Dragoon Sergeant calling out to him.

‘Ah come on’ He was hoping to use this opportunity to at least try and reach the Doctor but now he couldn’t. The sergeant was asking for Kreig to to finish his work and even acknowledged his skills, and while that was music to his ears quite frankly he suspected it was a load of crap. He didn’t know what the Vantha was doing, only thinking that he may have ran to safety ‘I hope’ and now he was stuck with this, a chance to possibly join the dragoons or die because in all fairness he partially the reason why this whole thing started and the Dragoon’s would perhaps realize that ‘If there was such a thing as a cursed blessing, it was this….’ The brawler remarked internally, in the end he didn’t truly have a choice.

He looked at the rampaging leader, he looked so happy as he swung his hammer, keeping the Dragoons at bay like a mad little puppy….. It ticked the brawler off, he had to face a damn idiot who kept doing nothing most of the duration Kreig was felling his subordinates, getting wounded a number of times during the process…. Now he had to face this idiot in his sorry state or face a possible death at the hands of the Dragoon’s and join their faction weather or not he had a choice. This was simply infuriating ‘I’m gonna petching kill that idiot’ Rage was good, it would bring him another dose of adrenaline, He turned his head to the sergeant with stern eyes “After this….. I expect a doctor with a pleasant bedside manner” He said, giving a humorless laugh.

Some of the corrupt knights moved away to give the brawler room to pass through, as he headed towards the rampaging giant, still holding a few dragoons at bay with one of them having been sent fly, his bones shattered and otherwise a ghastly sight to behold, Kreig picked up a small, wooden, crate that had an assortment of old fruit. Whoever wanted to sell these would have to get more as the Brawler was about to make some juice with them.

With a mighty grunt, he threw the crate at the Supervisor , which resulted in a couple of fruit flying out of it, and with that ignoramus swinging his Rock Crusher like a beast, one of his swings connected with the crate and crushed the remainder fruit. The juices of the fruit flew around and quite fortunately some of them hit the blockhead’s eyes, causing a stinging sensation to the Giant’s eye. He roared like a beast as the sudden pain caught him off guard and dropped his hammer, the idiot opting to wipe his eyes of the invading liquid.

“NOW I GOT YOU, YOU IMBECILE!” Shouted Kreig as charged forward and attempted to tackle the giant, but he was a bit too weak in that regard and the giant was quite a heavy individual so he didn’t move an inch

“ You?! Yes you….. Ahhh, you’re the one I really want to kill” The Giant spoke in a tone that sounded like he was having fun rather than being annoyed. He looked down at the brawler, his eyesight recovering well enough to see and pushed the brawler away. The brawler quickly regained his balance however and charged forward once more, throwing a left punch at the Giants abdomen.

“Hmmmm…? Where’s that strength you showed? Are you this weak now? ” If he had it, the brawler would have succeeded with that punch, But the studded armor and the Giant’s own strength meant he had only succeeded in touching the blockhead, who promptly shoved him to the side and knocking the brawler down.

“Petcher” Kreig said aloud as he was on the ground, the blockhead had quickly picked up his Rock Crusher, wasting no time ‘What were those petching dragoons doing? You’d think they’d care about a potential recruit’ Potential was the keyword here, which practically meant he was not going to be much of a loss if he died fighting the brute ‘Only use slowing him down’ He didn’t like that thought, the beast was preparing to swing that petching rock on a stick down on the hapless Kreig, But the brawler wasn’t out of it yet! Kreig rolled to the side and picked up one of the broken pieces of wood belonging to the crate, deciding to use a previous move on that behemoth. When he brought down the hammer for another swing, Kreig rolled to the side again and lodged the piece of wood into the Scimi Tar leaders left hand, forcing him to drop the hammer.

“GRRRAAAAHAHAHAHA, Now that’s more like it” The giant spoke, blood trickling from his left hand as he pulled out the piece of wood “But I still have another weapon” He grinned sadistically as he unsheathed his scimitar, a fine looking one at that, not like most of his subordinates.

“Petching fool, I will make you submit” Kreig Said, the bastard was enjoying this while Kreig was mainly annoyed ‘What a switch’ He internally remarked. The Blockhead suddenly swung hard with his scimitar, Kreig quickly reacted by raising the back of his left fist, but the blow was strong as the blade hit the back of his gauntlet ‘DAMN’ Despite blocking the blade it still sent him tumbling to the side, as he lay on the ground the giant immediately kicked him in the abdomen.

“Get up why don’t you? Or should I stomp you in the chest just to get you going?” The blockhead laughed, an annoying laugh.

‘So Annoying’ Thought the brawler as he grasped his stomach and true to his words, the blockhead attempted to stomp on his chest. But the brawler didn’t want to quit just yet, he brought his hand together and caught the bottom of the giant’s boot and forcibly pushed him and off balance, causing him to fall ‘My chance at last!’ Quickly Kreig got on top of the Giant’s chest, he was gonna finish and finish it “PUNCHING HIS PETCHING FACE IN” That was his plan and it was his favorite, but the giant was not done yet himself, as he threw a punch with his wounded hand and dropped his scimitar to throw with his right ‘Damn you’ He forced Kreig to raise his arms in order to block, he could feel the strength of each punch and it annoyed the petch out of the brawler ‘This isn’t fun’ He couldn’t keep blocking forever and so dropped his guard slightly, tilted his head and with a bit of luck the right punch passed his head and finally….FINALLY…Allowed the brawler his to punch him in the face with his own right, then with his left, right, left, right, left, right! Over and Over till his face caved in, his skull cracked, he was dead…. The brawler kept punching out of rage, the Giant’s head was all but putty

“That’s enough” Said the Dragoon Sergeant, placing his hand on the brawler’s shoulder. Kreig turned his head, smiled lightly and fell to the side, passing out. He survived, his final thought before passing out was ‘Can I finally go to the petching doctor?’

by **Eridanus** on November 17th, 2012, 2:14 pm

The Dragoons watched in amazement at the one on one battle between the huge Scimi Tar Supervisor and the much smaller, gauntlet-equipped brawler. His style of rampaging in battle was awesome and terrifying to behold, and they simply watched in silence until the battle ended with the brawler triumphing. The Sergeant shook himself out of the reverie, walking over to stop the man.

"That's enough," He said, and caught the man just as he passed out from severe exhaustion. Instantly, many thoughts ran through his mind. That this man was powerful and an asset to the Dragoons. Yet, he might be a block to his own chances at promotion judging from his skills. He held a vulnerable target in his hands whom he could do whatever he wanted to it. On the other hand, his superiors might be pleased at him bringing back such a fine specimen. It could go either way, in any case. Should he get rid of this man and maintain the status quo, or gamble and bring him back?

In any case, his internal ramblings could not reach a decision fast enough, and suddenly a rain of crossbow bolts pelted the streets. Some of the Dragoons raised their shields fast enough, but the slower ones were slammed back onto the ground from the multiple impact of bolts stuck throughout their bodies.

Eridanus followed the trajectory of the projectiles, tracing them back to their sources and it seemed that there were two sources.

From the rooftop of a particularly flat building in the direction of the Rotting Mansion were eight crossbows levied against the ceiling ledge. In another junction leading to the street where carnage laid throughout were another six crossbowmen arrayed in a line, with five men crouching before the archers with their short swords laid against the ground as they protected the archers from melee charges. On the left of the archer-warrior array was a tall but thin man with shoulder-length green hair and matching green eyes. In his held was an elaborate gladius with bright green tints in its metalworking, and it was this weapon that he used as a signal to release the arrows. The archers seemed to be wearing typical linen, while those that held melee weapons were expected to go into combat with the characteristic brown leather armor around their torsos. They were quite obviously not as well geared as the Dragoons, but were making up for it by maintaining heavy fire with their superior range.

Eridanus' eyes flitted back up again to study the mannerisms of the archers and he realized that a separated group must always have a form of leadership. From the action of this other archer and the different size of his own weapon, it is likely that he was in charge of the roof group but subordinate to the one with the gladius.

"Defensive Shields!" The Dragoon Sergeant yelled, and he retreated into the relatively safe cloister of his squad as they reformed their formations by raising their shields.

Eridanus had some intimate knowledge with the various signs of the major crime syndicates due to him spending a season in Sunberth the previous year, and he recognized the new arrivals to be Robern's Daggerhands.

Studying what knowledge he had inferred so far, it did not even take physical confirmation but only mental investigation to piece together the whole picture. From their mannerisms and actions, it could be seen that these people were hostile to the Sun's Birth, as it was obvious who the Dragoons were affiliated from the way they proudly wear their gang colors. From their own accessories and the direction of their arrival, it was very likely they were Daggerhand, which fit the above theory. Piecing together the rest of the information, Eridanus figured that the story run as such.

The Scimi Tar acted on their own accord to exact vengeance and assert their authority. As they were loosely affiliated with the Dagger Hand, the Gated Community might have interpreted it as a threat to their sphere of influence due to the proximity of the battle. Due to the difference in distances between the scene of the battle to the Gated Community and the Rotting Mansion, messengers and troops for the Dagger Hand took longer to travel than that of the Sun's Birth. Thus, the Dragoons took the chance to finish off a weakened ally of the Daggerhands, and the Daggerhands who freshly arrived and seeing the weakened Dragoons then ambushed their mortal enemies to cull their numbers. It was a case of a trivial matter that escalated due to a series of puffed egos and misunderstandings that blossomed into the huge conflict that it was now.

The leader of the Daggerhand party raised his gladius and swung it downwards again, signifying another attack. Accordingly, numerous hails of bolts hailed into the general direction of the Dragoons. Fortunately for the Dragoons, they were not exactly marksmen and quite a few bolts missed entirely. Unfortunately for Kreig, that meant that the missed projectiles might strike him as collateral damage.

Not good.

Seeing that the brawler was unconscious, Eridanus took a deep breath as he wriggled his fingers and toes, warming up his body as he mentally did the same with the djed strands stationed throughout his soul. Channeling the djed threads into his lower torso, he began sprinting towards Kreig from his hiding place. With each step he took, he channeled all the djed into that particular leg, streaking the energies into the other leg. The result was an even faster speed than normal if one used flux in an ordinary way, and he reached Kreig's position in mere seconds.

Both sides paused their activities at this strange incident, then decided that it did not really matter to him.

"Again!" The Daggerhand party leader swung his gladius down again, and yet another hail of projectiles rained upon the entrenched Dragoons whose shields were slowly resembling pincushions.

A few projectiles came within harrowing range of Eridanus and Kreig, but the scholar detected it out from the corner of his eyes, and simply estimated and anticipated the trajectory of the bolts, kicking and slamming them out of the way with his limbs.

"Wake up Kreig!" The vantha urgently slapped the man's cheeks as he shoved him. When there was no response, he growled, then reached inside for his pocket for his trusty crayon. Ripping open the man's shirt, he first used the man's sleeves to clear his chest from sweat and moisture. Using his trusty crayon, he hurriedly drew a circle with the word "DJED" on it, simply creating a focus sigil on its own. No barrier, no trigger. Whatever that flowed into it would be immediately released.

Yet another salvo of bolts came, and Eridanus impatiently slapped away several more bolts that found their way into their general area.

"Aim properly, goddamit!" He yelled to the surprised Daggerhand party as he gritted his teeth. Well, of course they would be surprised. Normal people would have ran away from the zone. Actually, normal people would not even enter the zone. Eridanus could haul Kreig away of course, but with the rate at which the Daggerhand archers were peppering the Dragoons with arrows, he could not guarantee that he could defend both of them safely while he was burdened with Kreig's unconscious body. It was crucial that he woke up.

Keeping an eye on the archers, the scholar placed a finger on the man's chest and the focus sigil on it, invoking a complex series of flux manipulations. Instead of it happening within his body, the instructions traveled over to the focus sigil that in turn activated these instructions within the figher's body. What happened was multiple flux redirections as arm djed was transferred to the leg, the chest to the toes, the knee to the neck. It was messy, it was simultaneous, and it was meant to mess up the body intentionally. As soon as the djed strands in the body erupted in chaos, it all suddenly flowed back to normal again. The intention was to shock the body into detecting the source of this strangeness, and the effect should be even larger for a man who had not used flux before.

Swatting away yet more stray bolts that found their way to the duo, Eridanus then shook the brawler again, hissing, "You done yet, princess dreamy? Get your ass back to reality!" The effects of his emergency flux glyph measure should be two-fold. Firstly, the man's biological systems would be shocked into a violent awakening with his body violently seizing for a while. Muscles twitching involuntarily, eyes rolling about uncontrollably, mouth speaking in garbled meaningless words. This was the body's way of running a 'test drive' on its body parts to ensure that it was still functional after that momentary bit of extreme chaos was introduced by Eridanus just now. The second, more rare one, was that Kreig would now display a higher than average inclination for the magical discipline of Flux, and should he ever choose to decide on this path he would find his own initiation slightly easier than others.

Battlefield Update :

by **Kreig Messer** on November 17th, 2012, 6:01 pm

He was so at peace, so quiet and unstirrable, not even dreaming that dreadful dream. Who would want to wake this lump of useless flesh as he slept on the hard earth, his body tired, worn out, why can’t someone simply let him rest? Let the arrow heads strike, he gets to sleep after all….. ah, but such a mercy was so far.

The Djed the Vantha had inserted within the brawler had caused his body to shake violently, his limbs moved about like mad, the lid of his eyes opened as his eyes themselves seemed white yet in truth it moved about at incredible speed.

“GrggeaebbbgbelalelfpfffftsafeefeagaefawdaeggawefaAafefAERFEGragrfgsadfsaD” The things that came out of his mouth along with his spit and foam were simple noises without meaning. His body was being forced awake, it was unwelcomed, it was hated. It is something that the brawler had been influenced to hate, to fear…. To shun. His movements suddenly came to a halt, for but a brief single moment, then as sudden as it began it awoke once more. Kreig bolted upright with the back of his left hand swinging wildly. He breathed quickly and madly, his eyes wide with shock and his head looking around as if trying to make sense of what had awoken him.

“Wha? Where….Doctor?” He said, then realized, painfully, he was still wounded, still tired. He still bled and for some reason people were firing bolts and arrowheads at them. He then turned his head to the Vantha “You?! I thought I told you to run?!”

by **Eridanus** on November 18th, 2012, 3:13 pm

The method worked, and Kreig's body began to shake about in involuntary muscle contractions. Eridanus held him down to prevent him from flopping up and being a target for the bolts, and the man's arm came up to slap his face. Surprised and with two hands occupied, Eridanus was unable to block the accidental attack physically. A patch of blue shimmered briefly on his face as Kreig's arm bounced off harmlessly away from the vantha's face as if blocked by an invisible but harmless wall.

"Rise and shine, Kreig," The scholar smiled when the Sunberthian finally sat up straight in a disoriented manner. "We are currently in the midst of a war zone."

Motioning for Kreig to follow him, he acted as a shield and knocked away stray arrows that came in their direction, leading the man to a spot still within the warzone nearby, but at least with sufficient cover in the form of debris from from a collapsed shack. Arrows whizzed by harmlessly ahead amidst yelling from both parties, and Eridanus explained his observations and analysis of the current situation to bring Kreig up to date.

"I have prepared an escape route, but we will have to run the stretch of this war zone. The Daggerhands are behind us, but the Dragoons are between us and our escape route," He finished summing up the events.

At the same time, kids in grimy clothing came up to the leaders of both parties, whispering to their respective leaders. Eridanus could only presume them to be the civilian spies who had been watching the fight.

"Hey, fighter!" The Dragoon Sergeant called out. "You still awake, eh? Tell your friend that if the two of you help us against those vermin the Gated Community will reward you both handsomely!" The man had seen Kreig's ability in combat, as well as the nonchalant, seemingly invulnerable style of his vantha companion. As their squad was currently locked down by the ranged attacks, he would need every little help he could get.

"Hmrph!" The Daggerhand Party Leader spat on the floor with contempt. "You do not want to be associated with these corrupt scum. Robern is the future in this city. Robern have acknowledged your skill. Help us against these retards and the Rotting Mansion will reward your for your assistance!"

"You seem popular," Eridanus commented with a intrigued chuckle as they hid safely amidst the rubble.

"W-what? How dare y- Help those red-cloaked fools, and you will face the full wrath of the Gated Community!" The Dragoon Sergeant sputtered in anger when the Daggerhand made their counter offer.

"Oh you do not want the Daggerhand as your enemy, fighter. We are the future of Sunberth, and we are the best for this city. Take down these tin heads and you will be doing a public service!" The Daggerhand Party Leader yelled in response, bringing another hail of crossbow bolts to accentuate his demands.

"Or you could risk both of them getting angry and get the hell out of here," Eridanus muttered sardonically as he watched the oncoming developments with amusement. "What are you gonna do?"

Battlefield Update :

by **Kreig Messer** on November 18th, 2012, 5:07 pm

“Wha? Gods damn it this hurts” He wasn’t quite particularly aware at this point, wide awake he may be but quite disoriented he was, as he stood up, shakily as his body just wanted to drop but a pump of adrenaline kept the pain at bay for whatever length it would last. As he followed behind the Vantha, who was quite impressive Kreig noted as the Vantha simply knocked away the arrows till they made it to sufficient cover and the Vantha relayed the information “Well that’s hardly anything new….Shyke, I was hoping to not get caught between one these though” The brawler commented, infuriation nestling deeply inside him. The man was angry, at this point he wished he didn’t follow the Vantha, wish he hadn’t gotten mixed up with the petching fight. Now he was stuck between two factions, he was wounded and the briefest moment of dreamless sleep, albeit a dangerous one, was interrupted.

Then came the escape route, which happened to be behind the petching dragoons who stood in the way. Only way was to go through them which likely wouldn’t go passively ‘Shyke’ His temper was rising, gritting his teeth as his fingers moved erratically.

Then spoke two Idiots, one in his fancy armor, the dragoon sergeant…The other wearing leather armor and a Gladius, the leader of this contingent of Daggerhands. Both offered rewards in exchange for aiding them in eliminating the other, then came threats and the Daggerhands typically claiming themselves the future of Sunberth.

“Shut it my friend” He remarked to the Vantha’s pleasant observation of his popularity. The final choice was either risk angering them both as he and the Vantha would attempt to reach this escape route…..The Vantha….. he was the one who angered him the most really, At this point Kreig knew for damn sure what he was….. how else could he explain that petching burst of strength? Or that rude awakening he just had? ‘Stupid Mages, you’d think this is the one city they would avoid yet out of the woodworks they seem to come here like they found some sick joy in being in a place they are loathed by’ He thought. He stood out of the cover, standing straight. He couldn’t really take it anymore.

His arms moved uncomfortably and kept scratching the back of his head, he was just so angry. He stomped the ground beneath and just kicked the petching debris. He spoke unintelligible words and his teeth kept grinding. Then he simply calmed, a tranquil peace washed over him, but it wasn’t truly calmness. Anger was a funny thing, when it struck people they either try desperately to hold it in, to not lose their rationality but if they fail they go into violent outbursts, perhaps just shouting and screaming or maybe beating whatever angered them to near death. But at some points….. The anger is quiet, subtle, only way to see it was to look at the eyes.

He turned his heads to the daggerhand’s direction, then to the Sun’s Birth and finally….. The Vantha. Three choices, each annoying and already threatened him to force his body to function long enough to finish the ordeal and after that another collapse and a good degree of death as his body was already was pushing beyond its limits. He walked to the Dragoon’s, not run, walked….. a simple, albeit awkward walk. He didn’t know if the Vantha was following, honestly he no longer cared.

He looked at the Seargent, just looked and for what seemed to be the longest moment, finally said “Stand aside” It wasn’t a request, it was a demand. He either moved or…..

“ Wha- What did you just say to me?!”

“Stand. Aside.”

“ are you an idiot? You think you can just insult me by-

“I am angry you know” Kreig interrupted, he didn’t sound angry, but there was no doubt about it “ My body is tired and wounded….I’ve been forced awake….. I was honestly glad I was passed out, I hadn’t quite slept like that in a while but now…… I’m being asked to help one group of Shykes to help kill the other, I need a doctor and they want me and some lout to help them with their little spat. I risk dying already being like this, no way I’m gonna survive whomever I decide to stand against and even if I do I exert energy I don’t really have along with the fact that I may get killed by one of you anyway. At this point I have no longer the will to live, nor the fear to die.” Kreig said, sighed and the turned his face into a scowl, but continued to speak in that calm voice.

“So let me tell you what happens if you don’t stand aside. I will petching put my hand deep down your throat and pull out your heart, while the the Petchers behind me keep firing those bolts at us. Your men would kill me after they soil their pants. But those bolts coming at us would petching cause you to lose some of your already declining numbers and retreat, giving you a humiliating defeat as the Daggerhands lose none of their numbers…… So….. Stand. Aside.”

by **Eridanus** on November 18th, 2012, 5:58 pm

Eridanus watched Kreig go through a range of emotions, but he remained silent for he understood it to be the man internally wrestling and attempting to reach a decision. Soon, he stood up, making himself visible from the cover for once. The Daggerhand Leader raised the hand not holding the gladius to signal for the archers to pause, while the Dragoons lowered their shields a little in order to get a better view. It was an uneasy, unspoken truce as both sides watched Kreig's decision in anticipation. At their current state they were in a stalemate. Soon the Daggerhands would run out of arrows, and should they clash it was uncertain who would win. The Daggerhands had superior numbers, but the Dragoons had superior equipment and teamwork. It was a toss-up honestly. However, if Kreig were to join either side, he would work effectively well in flanking and determining the victory of whichever side he joined. He was like the extra push in an equally balanced scale.

For once the air was not filled with arrows, and Eridanus sighed in appreciation, also lifting himself out of the rubble and sitting on partially broken wooden box, facing with his back to the Daggerhands as he watched Kreig make his advance towards the Dragoons.

"So he chooses the Sun's Birth, eh?" Eridanus muttered, watching with interest.

However, Kreig was more interested in joining the fight on neither side. Evidently, he had been walking in the direction of the escape alley rather than the Dragoons, and his incoming threats proved so. Unfortunately, not everyone knew the picture. Eridanus was situated just nice in between the two parties in order to hear from both extreme ends of the street, but the Daggerhand could not hear what Kreig was saying since he was speaking softly in an exhausted voice.

All the Daggerhands saw was Kreig walking up to the Dragoons, and because they could not see his expressions and body behavior because his back was faced to them, all they could see was Kreig conversing with the Dragoon Sergeant. While he may have been threatening the Dragoons, all the Daggerhands saw was a man negotiating his alliance with their mortal enemies. It did not take long for the Party Leader to reach a decision.

Using his gladius to silently point out the target, the Party Leader commanded the next salvo of arrows towards his victim. Thirteen crossbow bolts were released from their springs all aimed towards one unsuspecting target whose back was faced towards them. The Daggerhand will enact the price of betrayal on Kreig Messer by first murdering his companion.

Three missed, but ten found their way to the target, speeding on and soon puncturing the man on multiple levels, turning him into a human pincushion. That should teach the traitorous brawler on allying himself with the wrong party. Although, it was partially that man's fault for daring to face his back in the open against a band of archers.

Then the projectiles simply bounced away like they were shot against a wall of steel. If they were sufficiently observant, they might have also noticed ten separate light blue circles appearing briefly where the ten bolts struck before they were flung away by the astral barrier and the color disappearing from visibility.

"What-the?" The Party Leader exclaimed in surprise.

The whizz of the crossbow bolts had alerted the vantha a split second before he was struck, and the impact of the bolts just millimeters away from his skin alerted him to their ploy.

"Someone's being particularly naughty. From the back? Really? I thought you fellows had more honor," Eridanus remarked casually. "Good choice on not joining them, Kreig."

The Dragoons saw what happened as well. After a few moments of awkward silence as everyone's mind processed the impossibility of what happened, they settled on one thing. On an instinctive level, everyone knew that it was magic. Dastardly and vile, but ridiculously power magic.

The Sergeant's tactical mind raced to reach a solution, and he realized that if he could somehow enlist the young, mystical man with the colored eyes and hair to help them, they would inevitably triumph. And since these two were friends, the thugs settled on the one solution that they were familiar with. Kidnap. A simple hostage situation.

Eridanus read the Sergeant's facial expression and came to the same solution as he interpreted the corrupt knight's decision as well.

Well that means at least that Kreig is in not any immediate, fatal danger.

However, lacking a shield and being directly in front of the squad, he was the next target for being a pincushion. He would have to do something more interesting to bring the bar up a notch.

"Say, can we just walk out of here and let you two carry on?" The child of Morwen asked innocently. The two sides simply glared at him in stony silence. "Well I guess not."

"Fire!" The Daggerhand Party Leader yelled as yet another salvo of crossbow bolts found themselves scattered around the vantha as they bounced off his arcane armor harmlessly.

The vantha raised a brow. Grasping the flux threads within his body, he streaked them down to his legs, lowering slightly as he exploded in a burst of speed towards the Daggerhands. The flux strands faltered and sputtered out, causing him to suddenly lose speed and stumble quite awkwardly on the street floor.

There was silence yet again as both sides looked at the spectacle with surprise.

"Whoops, that was embarrassing," He commented conversationally, brushing off the dirt from the ground as he stood up, trying not to look stupid as he did so.

Dammit I might have been too reliant on Flux. From what happened, I think I'm no longer able to channel entire body redirections any more. Best keep it localized instead then.

"Uh... forget that happened," Eridanus told the perplexed Daggerhands. "Watch this one instead."

With a burst of strength, he sprinted towards the archers situated on top of the roofs. With the enormous boost of strength granted by Ennervism, his strides and leaps covered double the distance and height. With his superior strength and balance, he scaled his way up to the roof, climbing and launching himself over ledges, kicking and running off walls and flipping his body to get to the right places.

"Cheers, folks," He told the bewildered archers cheerfully as he landed on the roof with a graceful arc of his back as he twirled from the ledge below and next to them.

Without hesitation, the archers let go of their crossbows, drawing their short swords and carefully surrounding the vantha.

"Now... this must be your second-in-charge, eh?" He said, pointing at the man who he identified earlier as the one leading the archers on the roof. They gave him a surprised look at that observation and he shrugged, pressing the nape of his neck as the divine aura of Evantia expanded.

It feels good to have you by my side, Wysar. Let's teach these ruffians a lesson, eh?

With the enhanced speed granted by Prowess, Eridanus feinted forward, then suddenly leaping back with a backwards kick without turning his body. This unorthodox move surprised the men behind since they were expecting a frontal attack, and his kick smashed the fingers of one guy, causing him to drop his weapon in pain. Without stopping, he followed up with a round house kick, smashing the man to the ground. Ordinarily such a kick would require extensive time to wind-up, but that was if one were aiming to the front. If one intended to aim towards the back, he would require flexibility, but that also meant that inherently the wind-up was already present.

"Alright, who wants some?" The vantha quipped, the joy of battle flooding him as he surveyed his apprehensive opponents.

While this was happening, the Daggerhand on the streets were in chaos. The leader was torn between aiding his brethren on the roofs, but feared injuring them in friendly fire, and the Dragoons who were also apparently busy.

The Sun's Birth shock troopers had decided on their course of action, and were angling themselves in one united body with their shields up. They quite intended to capture the brawler, or use him as a human shield to gain the advantage on the Daggerhands on the streets by reducing their proximity. Either way, they would benefit.

"You can choose to come with us quietly, or you can just keep walking," The Sergeant grinned as the armored formation moved forward slowly but gradually, their shields raised and longswords protruding, forcing Kreig to move towards the Daggerhand or be punctured by their blades.

Battlefield Update :

by **Kreig Messer** on December 7th, 2012, 3:24 pm

‘Petching little, seems I’m not so feared’ Not as if the brawler was good at intimidating for it to work, truthfully he was still angry but it felt silly, his quiet anger failed to bring any results. Now he had two choices, either try and force his way through and get stabbed like an idiot…or help them take out the daggerhands who, while partially distracted by the Vantha, still fired their crossbows at them when they had the chance. At first he contemplated the second choice, slowly turning around and walking few paces away from the dragon till he accidently bumped to one of the fallen troopers with another lying besides him. He looked at their shields, his brain getting a little creative at the moment and a tad bit crazy ‘Could work, could fail….no longer give a crap at this moment’ He though as he bent down and with a bit of effort pulled the shields out of the corpses hands. His own hands now grasping the shields handles and acted like a miniature wall infront of him… and he turned around the Dragoons.

“You… You knave, you dare loot those shields from our fallen?!” Bellowed one of the troopers, Kreig shrugged , the dragoons themselves would have probably taken it and give it to the next trooper who needed, so why bother acting like he did something that would make Dira cringe?

“Do shut up….. “ He moved slowly, at this point the Troopers were looking at him as if he were crazy, you’d think his previous actions would confirm that. Then suddenly he broke into a run as he raised the shields in front of him, charging forward and towards the wall of troopers who had their swords pointed forward and their shields raised. As he crashed into them the shields pushed them away along with their swords, still some had grazed his legs as they were pushed down ‘Small consequence….insignificant in the end’ He thought as he pushed through them….or pushed them down and made his way behind them. When he thought he was a safe distance away he turned and looked at the troopers, Their sergeant looked crossed to the point of nearly erupting like a volcano

“You…I will petching kill you” He said to the brawler, but then decided against as the scream of one of his subordinates make him realized his mistakes “PETCH! Forget this man, keep your shields up and move forward….those Daggerhands are a bigger danger”

Kreig grinned, but then a he felt something….pain surged out throughout his body oncemore as he fell to the ground, the beating of his chest was loud and incessant, his body sweated like mad ‘Gods….DAMNIT’ He thought, his body lay there face down, his head looked at the alley were freedom lay waiting. He had to move, and if he had to ignore his body to do it then he shall do so….He tried, very hardly and very painfully, to move his hands, trying to crawl his way to the alley…. Only moving with each chime, his vision was blurring and no sound could be heard ‘Its before me!’ He may accept death but he certainly cherished survival if the chance was before him. Death was eternal, it did not care if it would wait….but life was impatient and would move ahead of those who cannot keep up with it. ‘So…Close’ But is he close enough?

by **Eridanus** on February 7th, 2013, 3:10 am

There was a crash behind, and Eridanus turned his head briefly to deliver a backhand slap to an approaching soldier. Or at least, that slap was more of a precautionary attack that warned any troopers who suddenly got creative to stop being creative and maintain their distance. It seemed that Kreig was able to somehow free himself from any immediate danger from the Dragoons, and they are unwilling to commit themselves to capturing him due to his wise positioning if it meant opening their flanks to the Daggerhand archers.

"Excellent tactics," The vantha mused, his eyes sparkling in humor as he reached that conclusion almost instantly upon surveying the scene. Gnora would have been proud of his multiple inferences and train of logic, but he was not an active worshipper of her anyway. More like an active user of her techniques; that of logic granted to mortals.

"Time to go, I suppose!" He told the befuddled troopers, leaping out of the roof, his hands gripping the ledge like a rock-climber as he lowered himself quickly onto the ground. Instead of climbing down slowly, instead he slid down, using his body to continuously tap at the wall of the building to act as a check against his momentum while gravity did the rest. When he was almost close to the ground, he kicked off with both boots, launching himself further away from the wall as he twisted his body one-hundred-eighty degrees, curling his body into a flip as he tucked his knees to his chest. Letting his somersault continue, he proceeded to a roll on the ground so as to not lose momentum, angling himself towards the alley - with Kreig in the middle.
While being distracted, the Sun's Birth soldiers had been keeping up their Phalanx shield formation and steadily gaining ground on the Daggerhand, and the party leader screamed at them to maintain their focus. The group on the roof unwillingly turned their attention and began to loose arrows on the approaching Dragoons, which would be undoubtedly more dangerous than an escaping man or two.

"C'mere," Eridanus muttered as he grabbed the brawler by his shoulders, grunting as he partially lifted the man in order to aid their escape into the alley. Away from the fight, away from the clashing sides. As they made their way safely across the magical trap that the mage glyphed at the entrance of the alley, he slumped the Sunberthian to one side of the wall, himself slumped at the other side. He faced the man, though his eyes glanced frequently at the unfolding conflict between the gangs belonging to the two major syndicates of the city.

"Quite a mess, isn't it?" He said in a neutral, uninterested tone, as he watched the incoming battle while regaining his breath and allowing his highly exhausted muscles to rest.

Type	Skills	Equipment
Gangster	Weapon: Scimitar 15-25	Scimitar
Enforcer	Weapon: Scimitar 26-35	Scimitar, Leather Armor
Supervisor	Weapon: Rock Crusher 45, Bodybuilding 40, Weapon: Scimitar 30	Rock Crusher, Scimitar, Studded Leather

Type	Skills	Equipment
Trooper	Weapon: Longsword 30-40, Weapon: Shield 20-30	Longsword, Large Steel Shield, Chainmail
Sergeant	Weapon: Longsword 40-50, Weapon: Shield 30-40	Longsword, Large Steel Shield, Chainmail

Type	Skills	Equipment
Gangster	Weapon: Scimitar 15-25	Scimitar
Enforcer	Weapon: Scimitar 26-35	Scimitar, Leather Armor
Supervisor	Weapon: Rock Crusher 45, Bodybuilding 40, Weapon: Scimitar 30	Rock Crusher, Scimitar, Studded Leather

Type	Skills	Equipment
Trooper	Weapon: Longsword 30-40, Weapon: Shield 20-30	Longsword, Large Steel Shield, Chainmail
Sergeant	Weapon: Longsword 45, Weapon: Shield 35	Longsword, Large Steel Shield, Chainmail

Type	Skills	Equipment
Crossbowman	Weapon: Light Crossbow 30-40, Short Sword 20-30	Light Crossbow, Short Sword
Warrior	Weapon: Short Sword 30-40, Brawling 20-30	Short Sword, Leather Armor
Deputy	Weapon: Heavy Crossbow 40, Short Sword 30	Heavy Crossbow, Short Sword
Leader	Weapon: Gladius 45, Brawling 40	Gladius, Leather Armor

Completed Some Things, (Eridanus)