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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Sept 28, 2022 22:49:56 GMT -5
The sheer coincidence of the situation never ceased to amaze Zarius. I mean, what were the chances that he would run into someone he met in Zeinav in a freak sandstorm all the way on the other side of the continent in Moonglade? The stars really must have aligned for them to cross paths once again. How appropriate that they were headed towards the Stargazers Field and the small village found in it with the same name.
He looks up at the sky which is still bright this time of day. The surrounding foothills of the Luna Valley stretch on endlessly. A light breeze makes the fields of grass look like ocean waves with only the winding road cutting sharply across the landscape. It was a calm, beautiful day in a beautiful, empty, and peaceful land.
Despite the calm, all this traveling was starting to wear on Zarius. Maybe he should return home sometime soon before he became ragged and homesick. Lost in thought, he walks along the road with his current human companion without saying much.
The silence did not last as a scream breaks the peace and quiet. Zarius snaps back to attention and looks ahead along the road. Down the way from them seemed to be a number of wagons stopped on the road. A gnome has climbed up on the back of the wagon and is waving in panic.
"Help! Please help!" Shouts the gnome. The sound of a cat-like snarl follows and the wagon seems to jerk as one of the horses rears and whinnies in alarm. Something was attacking the wagons, but the grass was tall and they were still too far away to discern what the creatures were.
"Never a dull moment I suppose. Shall we?" Zarius looks to Edward.
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Post by Edward Ardent on Sept 29, 2022 9:25:22 GMT -5
Edward is also surprised to see an acquaintance from the Zeinav Desert a while back. Seeing that their is no harm in traveling together, Edward decides to travel with Zarius since it’s better to travel with companions instead of traveling alone. After a while of traveling, they encounter a wagon that is being swarmed by displacer beasts. Edward can hear the screaming and yelling of the people in and on the wagon.
Edward can see that besides the gnome screaming on top of the wagon, he can see a human and a elf barricading portions of the wagon from the inside to stop the beasts from coming inside. Edward hears Zarius say, “Never a dull moment I suppose. Shall we?” Edward nods and rushes towards the beasts with his staff brandished in front of him. He yells at the beasts, “Hello there, could you please stop?” The beasts just growl and continue trying to get into the wagon or climb over it to get the gnome. One of the beasts break away and charges at Edward, who anticipated that one of them would try to attack him and he sidesteps out of the way. Edward brings down his staff down on top of the beast’s head and manages to slam the beast down to the ground. The beast gets back up but is clear dazed a bit after getting smacked.
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Sept 29, 2022 11:14:35 GMT -5
Seeing Edward leap into the fray, Zarius circles around to the opposite side of the pack of creatures. From this distance he could make out their muscular feline forms clawing into the sides of the wagons and lashing out with two long barbed tails at the panicked horses. He made out five of them in the immediate area...he thinks. As a horse bucks and strikes out with its hooves at one of the cats, it makes no contact despite appearing to have hit. For a moment, the cat appeared to have doubled before its form merged back into one. Great. It's a magical.
The cat leaps onto the back of the horse and tries to sink its fangs into the poor creature's throat. Zarius runs forward and picks up a rock from the side of the road and slings it at the beast's head. It looks like the rock hit it, so at least there is a chance of actually beating these things. The beast snarled and jumped down off the horse, its attention now on the smaller prey before it. Zarius slowly reaches into his pockets and slides his hands into a set of metal knuckles with a sharp blade coming out of the base. "Nice kitty."
The cat lunges forward and closes the gap between them quickly. Zarius stays light on his feet attempts to mimic Edward's sidestep. The cat is flexible though and twists around lashing its tails at him and knocking him off his feet. "Oof!" He grunts as he hits the ground.
Seeing its chance, the creature leaps onto its prone victim and attempts to maul his face. As the sharp incisors get close too close for comfort, Zarius flips the bladed end of his weapon around and slams it into the side of the creature's skull. It pulls back sharply with a yowl, consequently dragging the tiefling with it since his hands are kind of attached to the knuckles. He rolls up onto his feet and pushes hard into the creatures head to try and drive the point in deeper, however the skull of the creature and its dense muscles prove to be too difficult to pierce without a longer blade.
Zarius yanks the blade free and springs back to reassess his options as the remaining three felines start to realize their pack members are under attack.
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Post by Edward Ardent on Sept 29, 2022 13:42:04 GMT -5
Edward sees that Zarius is moving around the pack to attack the opposite side of the pack. He then yells at the beasts, “I’m over here, come get me! I’m clearly armed and dangerous, isn’t that your favorite type of prey!” Two of the beasts charge at him, one of them leaping at him with claws ready to take a swipe at him. The other suddenly blinks out of existence and appears right behind Edward, fangs bared as it appeared mid pounce behind Edward as its momentum takes it towards Edward’s back.
As the beast that appeared behind Edward was about to take a bite out of the back of his neck, bluish white mist burst from the back of Edward and forms into a silver armored figure who blocked the bite of the beast with its armored body. Edward already noticed the displacer beast appearing from behind and summoned his spirit guardian to protect him. Edward sidesteps out of the claw attack that the beast in front of him unleashed and jams the very end of his staff into the beast’s side, punching it off balance and burning its hide. Edward then takes a couple steps back and summons more mist from his hand. He throws it at the two beats and the mist forms into a web that entangles both of the beasts.
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Sept 29, 2022 14:09:22 GMT -5
Well. They were successful in drawing the attention of the pack away from the wagons. Three of the creatures for Edward. Two for Zarius. Not odds Zarius likes if he was being honest. Edward looked like he could handle himself though between the spectral mist guardian and the webbing. Sometimes he laments not going down the path of a spellcaster. No time for that now.
The two panther-like creatures circle around him. The injured one snarls and shakes the blood running down its face from its eyes. The second one is more cautious in its approach, its muscles tensing with anticipation. Zarius glances between them, knowing that if he hit the ground again it would be unlikely that he could fend both off at the same time. Just think of it like keep away. Keep away with claws and teeth. Yeah.
The injured cat is the first to make a move, suddenly lunging up out of the long grass with its claws outstretched. The second one comes in quickly from down low. Zarius dive rolls out of the way and gets back up on his feet, spinning around and managing to land a solid blow on the second cat's jaw as it chases after him. It staggers to the side just as the first one pops up out of nowhere and rakes its claws across Zarius' torso.
"AGH!" He winces and grasps the bleeding wound. This was less than ideal. He quickly weighs his options as the two cats recover and prepare to attack again. Yeah, no. Time to try a different approach. He turns tail and runs into the deeper grass away from the caravan.
While the two distract the creatures, the gnome quickly tries to calm the horses to ensure they do not take off running and attract the attacking creature's attention again.
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Post by Edward Ardent on Sept 29, 2022 14:47:46 GMT -5
Edward sees that the two beasts are successfully entangled and turns to see that the beast that he had hit a moment ago came back with a friend and are both charging at him. He raises his hands at the two beasts that are entangled in the web and shoots forth a plume of bluish white most that forms into a swarm of ravens that claw and peck at the entangled displacer beasts. Edward smiles in exasperation at having to deal with these the two displacer beasts charming at him and he rushes at them also with his staff over his shoulder. He sees that one of them blink out of existence and reflexively brings his staff up and around him to block the blow of the reappearing displacer beast that blinked above him to swing down its claw. He steps backward and twists his staff away from the beast’s grasp to hit it in the head, knocking its head away. The other displacer beast moves to the right of Edward and swipes at his ankles but the spirit guardian appears in front of the strike in a puff of mist before dissipating after taking the claw swipe. Edward quickly maneuvers his staff above his head and slams down onto the head of the creature. The beast seems to be disorientated as it stumbles to the ground.
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Sept 29, 2022 15:27:59 GMT -5
Zarius glances over at Edward as he is chased through the grass by the two creatures he was engaged with. SIX! There were six of these things all along? He looks over his shoulder and sees the caravan folk starting to get control of their horses again. He also sees the cat he punched in the jaw bounding right at him...alone. Where did the other one go?
The one he can see surges through the tall grass and easily gains on him. Zarius skids to a stop and crouches as it leaps at him. It tries to twist in mid-air as it sails overtop of him, but he quickly jabs it in the soft belly of its abdomen with the tip of his blade. It snarls and lands haphazardly. Zarius quickly snaps his fingers at the cat and its ears start twitching like a noise is buzzing in them. It snarls and paws at its ears trying to make the distracting noise of buzzing insects in its ears go away.
Zarius breathes then runs back to do what little he can to help Edward. He nearly trips over the collapsed body of the creature he had jammed his weapon into the skull of at the start of the fight. Apparently the wound was deep enough after all. Or he had managed to sever something important enough that it just needed time to get lightheaded and bleed out. Either way, that was at least one down for the count.
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Post by Edward Ardent on Sept 29, 2022 17:46:52 GMT -5
Edward sees that his swarm of ravens are doing some work. They have already grievously wounded the entangled displacer beasts and are already disappearing back into mist. Pieces of fur and hide litter the ground around the entangled displacer beasts. The tiger like creatures are panting from the attack from the ravens and are menacingly glancing at Edward, who is perfectly fine despite the numerous attacks on his life. The entangled beasts have managed to escape the webbing by ripping it into shreds and are trying to rush at Edward but are clearly drained from fending off the ravens. The two beasts currently facing Edward are hesitant to even go near Edward, afraid of his numerous abilities. One of these two beasts decided to disengage from Edward and runs towards the wagon, hoping to get something out of this fight. The remaining one charges at Edward and teleports above Edward, falling rapidly. Edward jabs his staff high enough to catch the beast and using the end of his staff, flings the beast towards the recently freed beasts. Then Edward rushes back towards the wagon, hoping to get the displacer beast before it reaches the wagon. However, the beast already starts to fade from existence and teleports on top of the wagon where the gnome is.
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Sept 29, 2022 18:40:54 GMT -5
Zarius sees Edward start running back towards the wagons. Was he done with the other creatures already? Oh, no. Now there's one on top of the wagon ready to tear the gnome's head off. Zarius isn't sure he can make it up there in time when he spots a board that was ripped off of the side of the wagon earlier and had gotten jammed between a rock and the wagon wheel. The horses were about to bolt since there was now a snarling creature right behind them so he would only have one chance to make this work. He sprints forward and jumps onto the board, using it as a one time spring to boost him up onto the wagon. The board breaks and splinters after he bounces off of it.
There's a moment when his feet have left the ground that he thinks about how there isn't really a good spot to land, but that moment passes and he is right above the lashing tails of the creature. Reaching out, he grabs onto one of the tails and tucks himself into a ball to use his body weight to yank the cat off the wagon. Its claws scrape across the wooden boards and it lands on its side on the ground with a heavy thud. Zarius also lands on the ground with a thud and a grunt. He'd feel that tomorrow. A tail slaps him in the face as it lashes out. He'd feel that too.
The cat scrambles to its feet only to see Edward looming before it.
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Post by Edward Ardent on Sept 29, 2022 21:44:06 GMT -5
Edward sees that Zarius doing some really impressive acrobatics to grab the tail of the displacer beast to yank it off the wagon. The gnome, who was screaming his head off when the displacer beast appeared next to him, sighs in relief and cheers at Zarius. “Well done sir. Thank you so very much! I’ll pay you all as soon as you drive back those beasts.” Edward can see that Zarius managed to drag the beast from the wagon to the feet of Edward. Edward raises his staff and swings it like a mallet at the side of the beast’s head. The impact shatter some of its teeth as some white pieces fall to the ground. Edward pays no mind to this as he hears more growls behind him. The two beasts that were entangled in his web are charging at him, ready to serve payback for being trapped. Edward just raises his hand and golden light coalesce into his palm, forming into of glyph of golden light. The glyph shoots at one of the beasts and hits it in the leg, causing it to topple over from its momentum being stopped. Edward rushes at the one still charging at him and uses his staff as leverage to jump over the beast,
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Sept 29, 2022 23:40:43 GMT -5
Zarius rolls onto his knees and coughs. His side was killing him and it looks like it too. Blood seeps through his clothes and he grimmaces as he gets to his feet. He waves a bloody hand at the gnome. "Do not mention it. Really. There will be time for that later if we do not die here."
The beast that Edward knocked the teeth out of crumples to the ground in a puddle of blood and saliva. Zarius looks about. He knows that he took out one, distracted another, this one was down, there was another one on the ground back where Edward had been fighting earlier, and there were the two Edward was currently cratering in with his staff. Zarius opts to take care of the one he had distracted with his minor trickery earlier. He carefully steps around the wagon, but he doesn't see it anywhere. It either fled, or was hiding in the tall grass. Great.
He slowly walks back into the field, listening for any growls or movement. "Here kitty, kitty, kitty. I have some catnip in my pocket for you." A lie, but these things didn't seem to capable of understanding language or speaking anyway.
The grass next to him rustles and the feline flies out from cover, going for his throat. Zarius digs his heels into the ground and twists his body. A shock of pain ripples from his side but he clenches his teeth and grips his knuckle knife tight, slamming it into the elbow joint of the front leg. There's a cracking and popping noise as leg fractures and dislocates. The cat lands heavy and collapses under its own weight. It thrashes in the grass while Zarius quickly runs around to its head and gives it a good clobbering until it stops moving.
He huffs and puffs from the exertion. His side throbs in pain and he could hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears.
"Ugh, that hurts." He catches his breath and looks over to see if Edward had cleaned up on his end.
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Post by Edward Ardent on Oct 1, 2022 10:55:30 GMT -5
Edward was still busy dealing with two more beasts that have decided to pop in and just finished vaulting over a charging displacer beast. He turns around and swings at the back legs of the beast, knocking it off balance. He then clobbers the beast from behind head, dazzling it, and keeps on bearing down on it with a flurry of swings. The beast yells out in pain and runs away from Edward in fear and pain. The other beast charges at Edward when he was caught off guard at swipes its claws at him. Edward takes several claw strikes to the back and stumbles from the impact of them. He swings around with his staff and bashes the beast in the head. The beast seems to know that there is no way out of this and keeps attacking Edward aggressively. Edward is more aware of his opponent and parries each of the claw swings with his staff. His side is burning as he does so but he keeps parting until he sees an opening and jabs his staff at the beast’s head, burying the end of the staff deep within the eye of the beast. Edward hears a cry as he was taking out his staff and sees a beast grab onto the gnome on top of the wagon before blinking away.
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Oct 1, 2022 12:43:50 GMT -5
Zarius bursts out in a brief fit of expletives. They let their guard down for a second and one of those creatures made off with a merchant. He quickly checks over those who were left. They seem uninjured for the most part and their horses survived the ordeal.
"You need to get somewhere safe in case any more of those things show up." He says firmly to the survivors.
"Please, you have to go after Dorby! He's going to get eaten by that beast!" One of the merchants pleads, fear in their eyes.
Zarius huffs. "We will do what we can, but if all of you die as well then this will have been a waste of time." The throbbing pain of his wound had worn down his patience for dealing with the situation. "Get to safety. We will find the gnome and try to bring him to you."
The merchants nod and gather the reins, driving their wagons down the road to try and reach the safety of town.
Zarius turns to Edward. "We need to hurry. A gnome is just a snack for these creatures."
With that they rush off to track down the pack leader and the missing gnome.
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