Calhoun's "pep talk" before the groups split up did little to calm Linessa's fears- rather, if anything, it made her feel even worse about having been thrown into this position. She nonetheless followed Violet and Palavalo into the forest in silence, slightly dreading what was to come.
Linessa heard the orkish encampment well before it came into view. She heard some orks... laughing? Crying? It was difficult to tell at this distance, but it didn't sound like what she thought normal ork chatter would. As they approached the camp, it became clear that the orks were mourning the loss of some of their own- and no sooner did they arrive than the death mage in the group strode out into the middle of the clearing and began bad-mouthing the deceased orks (so Linessa assumed) in some unsettling parody of a funeral proceeding. The mage quickly drew the attention of the orcs (to no surprise), and Linessa instinctively prepared a spell in case things got hairy. She bent her fingers slightly and cocked her hand behind her head, as if winding up to throw an imaginary softball. She then paused so see if the orks would indeed attack.
When one ork shouted at the death mage and another went flying up into the air and the third was suddenly set upon from all sides by a multitude of incendescent tendrils that came from nowhere particularly obvious, Linessa took the opportunity to release her spell. The threw the imaginary softball, hurling a gust of wind in the direction of the ork that hadn't already been attacked powerful enough to knock it right off its feet.
In retrospect, a gust of wind probably is not what was called for here; a shuriken would've been more effective and would have been more in line with the captains' actions. But she had the gust ready, and the shurikens were still in her pouch- No time to think about this now, she interrupted herself; best get out a shuriken and get ready to throw it.
The ork woman fell flat on her face. Scivoloso grinned. "Oh, this will be good." he said. He thrust his hands down at his sides. Water came out of the ground, trees, and even the air, and began circling round and round the helpless ork woman until she was completely trapped in a vortex of water. She screamed uncontrollably as she was whirled round and round, adding to the cacophony of the battle. Three ork men came running out of the forest. Two looked extremely depressed at the sight of the two dead women, while the last one was angry. "Poot mah wyfe dahn naa!" He shouted. Scivoloso laughed. "Ooh, what about... no." The smirk was soon wiped off his face however as the ork's fist was coated in rock and was swung at him, narrowly missing.
Nahiri was hoping to get some Hedron's charged and plan what kind would be the best against the orcs before they would the fight but her plan was ruined as soon as Cait decided to walk up to the orks and insult them.
While the others where busy making the best of Cait's mistake by killing the orks Cait had insulted, Nahiri grabbed a Hedron that would empower the magic abilities of her allies, and released it as soon as it was charged.
The pulse of dark magic that Cait sent into the ground had already located dead flesh and bones festering down below. As her magic writhed around them they began to writh, then crawl, then claw their way from the ground, emerging around her. Three disgusting creatures, two resembling orks and one resembling a human, made it out of the ground. "Oh, and if it isn't the fathers. I can see where they got all their irredeemable qualities from. To be honest, having seen their parents I must say that those three didn't come out too bad, all things considered. I mean, they were still awful, but you all certainly put them to shame." She stepped forwards, her slightly unhinged grin stretching a little wider. "So, considering how much I enjoyed killing your repugnant little brats, this is going to be one hell of a time." She reached out, drawing on dense, choking mist to cloud the battlefield and drain life itself. "I assume you'd like to know how your spawn died. Well, you're in luck! Just breath deeply, and don't forget to scream as it burns."
The ork who had taken a swing at Scivoloso coughed a little as the mist enveloped him, but upon hearing the mention that Cait had killed their children, the other two sprung up. Bright lines covered one of the orks' skin, making it much harder to focus on him, the mist flying past him. The other dived out of the way. The one that dived out of the way growled. "You ded bich."
Dubhan raised his arm, dark energy swirling around his sigil of draining, reaching out to one of the grieving orks to try to pull energy out of them, directly from their very soul.
The ork with the bright lines across his skin was hard to focus on, so easily sidestepped the attack. Screaming in the distance and a sickening crunch confirmed the death of the ork woman who had been flung away.
Violet twisted her hands around each other. Wind buffeted the back two orks. The one who had threatened Cait fell to the ground, but the one with the bright flames on them jumped out of the stream of wind before they were knocked over.
Palavalo ran forwards, drawing a knife from his side. He stabbed at the front ork, but it did not penetrate the armour.
Everything was happening too fast; Linessa could not hope to track it all. More orks came running out from deeper in the encampment. Creatures of a variety Lienssa did not immediately recognize clawed their way out of the ground. But of them all, one stood out in its actions as well as in its appearance: the ork whose skin was adorned with bright, glowing lines, who seemed to sidestep all the attacks her companions had thrown at it. Linessa judged that if any of these orks was going to be a threat, it was this one.
Linessa readied her shuriken, conjured a tightly-focust gust of wind, and let it fly.
The shuriken flew far wide of its intended target.
Scivoloso became slightly more serious after almost being punched by the front ork. He let the ork woman free of the vortex, then just as the front ork looked a little relieved, he brought down a spear of water, straight through the ork woman's chest.
The ork man stood gaping for a few seconds, and in this time the one with burning lines across its skin flicked a finger at Cait, a tiny fire alighting on her clothing.
The ork man screamed abuse at Scivoloso, and charged in.
He slammed his head with such force into Scivoloso's, that a slight cracking noise could be heard. Scivoloso instantly dropped to the ground, unconscious.
Nahiri was shocked to see how Scivoloso suddenly got taken out. She knew that if she didn't do anything Scivoloso would be an easy target for the orks and thus ran towards him to try her best to guard him.
As she ran towards Scivoloso she let out a bolt of lightning towards the hedron, to make it stronger.
The ork got up off of the floor from where he had been knocked down by Violet.
Cait merely laughed at the threat hurled her way. "Funny how things come back to you, isn't it? I seem to recall one of your children telling me the exact same thing. Unfortunately for you, there is no trace of them left on this world, whilst I'm here to finish what I started. So hurl your pathetic threats, your meaningless insults and your desperate cries. They shall soon be lost to the memory of this world, just like yourselves." More mist began to seep from the rocks of the ground, hanging thick and heavy on the battlefield. The front ork was cloaked in mist, but the back two were unaffected. The small flame on Cait burned through her clothes, and burnt her skin. Two sparks jumped out of the flame, one hitting Linessa, and the other missing Palavalo. The flames grew a little stronger.
Dubhan poured dark energy into his arm and his knife, empowering them both with magik, and stabbed straight for the glowing ork, aiming to diminish its magical ability.
The attack sliced harmlessly past him. "To think idiots like this killed our children." the ork commented.
The shambling cluster, acting on Cait's unspoken command, began to lurch towards the nearby village. The only overriding instruction in their decayed brains was to begin butchering any weak and helpless orks they could find.
One of the orks began to turn, but the one with glowing lines stopped him. "The old man can protect the kids." he said.
Violet seemed bored by the whole fight going on around her. She flicked her hand, and the front ork went flying up into the air.
Soon after, Palavalo shouted, "Look away!" and he threw a ball of light into the air. All three orks covered their eyes, but too late, they were temporarily blinded.
Linessa was quite surprised when her shuriken flew wide of the orc. That never happens- does this orc have some kind of countermagic?
Meanwhile, the battle churned on. A dense, dark mist began settling on the camp, obscuring her vision- not that it mattered much, as she could still feel the air moving around the orcs as they moved. A spark shot out of the cloud of mist, landing on her robes and beginning to smolder- Linessa slapped at the spark in an attempt to put it out. One of the orcs bodyslammed one of the captains, only to be shot up into the air a monent later. A flash of light illuminated the battlefield, and Linessa felt the orcs cringe, even though the mist should've absorbed at least some of the flash. Perfect timing, Linessa thought, as she prepared to throw another shuriken. Perhaps the mist and the blinding light would impede that orc's magic. She focused on the location of the orc, and the shuriken whizzed through the air.
The shuriken flew wide of her intended target.
No matter how much she batted at the flames, they just came back. However, they were not intense enough to harm her yet. Two sparks flew off of of her, and, surprisingly, they both hit Cait, extending the life of the flames on her.
Scivoloso remained unconscious, and in the distance, Cait felt all of the zombies' life energy disappear at once.
The orks were still stunned from Palavalo's attack.
Nahiri was getting worried with the flames spreading and seemingly becoming more dangerous. Not to mention the fact that Scivoloso was still unconscious and the fact that it appeared that one orc couldn't be harmed.
Nahiri let another Hedron fly in the air, this one changing the flow of energy a tiny bit making it harder to predict how spells will behave after being cast. She hoped it would make it harder for the fire to spread to others this way, Nahiri would much rather have the flames stop but she wasn't sure if her Hedron's would be able to put them out.
She then knelt down next to Scivoloso trying to wake him up and looking for any serious wounds.
Scivoloso remained unconscious, with signs of a broken skull. Despite this, he seemed to have no trouble breathing, and there was minimal bleeding.
The ork was stunned from Palavalo's attack.
Unfazed by the dull pain from the flames, Cait dug deep beneath the ground with her magic, roaming fingers of power grasping and animating yet more of the dead. Whilst it had slightly surprised her that her minions had all fallen, it did make sense that not all of the fighters were here. It seemed that the slaughter would have to wait for after they had defeated these. Three undead crawled their way out of the ground.
The flames scorched her skin seriously. 2 sparks jumped out, one onto an undead, and one onto Dubhan.
Dubhan raised one hand, aiming for the stone-fisted ork. The one covered in glowing lines was evidently avoiding them all with some strange magik, so continuing to attack him would be frivolous. Instead, he began to pull, hard, on the blood inside the other ork, trying to tear it out from its skin. The veins popped up visibly on his skin, but blood was not successfully drawn. The flames hurt him as his skin was burnt. Two sparks jumped out, one hitting Cait and one landing near Scivoloso.
The zombies converged on the slowest of the stunned orcs, seeking to tear him apart.
One zombie hit the ork, but the ork was barely fazed.
The second zombie screeched as it burned to death, the now charred corpse falling to the ground, lifeless once again.
The ork with the rock fist had hit the ground by this point, and while he was not visibly wounded, he was angered..
Violet hovered over to the rock-fisted ork and punched him in the face, but it had little effect.
Palavalo ran up to the same ork and stabbed at him, but the blade clanged off metal Armour.
Linessa took a monent to think, while the others concentrated most of their attacks on the ork that had knocked out the water-shadow mage earlier, to little effect. She had thought that Violet's fling would have at least incapacitated it, but apparently not.
Two shurikens thrown at the glowing ork, both missing by a wide margin. Best not waste more time or ammunition on him. As for the flung ork, if her captain's knife couldn't pierce its armor, there's no chance her shuriken could.
Which left the third orc, the one hanging back in the cloud of mist. Linessa readied another shuriken, summoned a gust of wind to propel it, focused her senses on the air between her and the ork to guide the projectile's path, and released.
Linessa heard the orkish encampment well before it came into view. She heard some orks... laughing? Crying? It was difficult to tell at this distance, but it didn't sound like what she thought normal ork chatter would. As they approached the camp, it became clear that the orks were mourning the loss of some of their own- and no sooner did they arrive than the death mage in the group strode out into the middle of the clearing and began bad-mouthing the deceased orks (so Linessa assumed) in some unsettling parody of a funeral proceeding. The mage quickly drew the attention of the orcs (to no surprise), and Linessa instinctively prepared a spell in case things got hairy. She bent her fingers slightly and cocked her hand behind her head, as if winding up to throw an imaginary softball. She then paused so see if the orks would indeed attack.
When one ork shouted at the death mage and another went flying up into the air and the third was suddenly set upon from all sides by a multitude of incendescent tendrils that came from nowhere particularly obvious, Linessa took the opportunity to release her spell. The threw the imaginary softball, hurling a gust of wind in the direction of the ork that hadn't already been attacked powerful enough to knock it right off its feet.
In retrospect, a gust of wind probably is not what was called for here; a shuriken would've been more effective and would have been more in line with the captains' actions. But she had the gust ready, and the shurikens were still in her pouch- No time to think about this now, she interrupted herself; best get out a shuriken and get ready to throw it.
The ork woman fell flat on her face. Scivoloso grinned. "Oh, this will be good." he said. He thrust his hands down at his sides. Water came out of the ground, trees, and even the air, and began circling round and round the helpless ork woman until she was completely trapped in a vortex of water. She screamed uncontrollably as she was whirled round and round, adding to the cacophony of the battle. Three ork men came running out of the forest. Two looked extremely depressed at the sight of the two dead women, while the last one was angry. "Poot mah wyfe dahn naa!" He shouted. Scivoloso laughed. "Ooh, what about... no." The smirk was soon wiped off his face however as the ork's fist was coated in rock and was swung at him, narrowly missing.
Nahiri was hoping to get some Hedron's charged and plan what kind would be the best against the orcs before they would the fight but her plan was ruined as soon as Cait decided to walk up to the orks and insult them.
While the others where busy making the best of Cait's mistake by killing the orks Cait had insulted, Nahiri grabbed a Hedron that would empower the magic abilities of her allies, and released it as soon as it was charged.
The pulse of dark magic that Cait sent into the ground had already located dead flesh and bones festering down below. As her magic writhed around them they began to writh, then crawl, then claw their way from the ground, emerging around her. Three disgusting creatures, two resembling orks and one resembling a human, made it out of the ground. "Oh, and if it isn't the fathers. I can see where they got all their irredeemable qualities from. To be honest, having seen their parents I must say that those three didn't come out too bad, all things considered. I mean, they were still awful, but you all certainly put them to shame." She stepped forwards, her slightly unhinged grin stretching a little wider. "So, considering how much I enjoyed killing your repugnant little brats, this is going to be one hell of a time." She reached out, drawing on dense, choking mist to cloud the battlefield and drain life itself. "I assume you'd like to know how your spawn died. Well, you're in luck! Just breath deeply, and don't forget to scream as it burns."
The ork who had taken a swing at Scivoloso coughed a little as the mist enveloped him, but upon hearing the mention that Cait had killed their children, the other two sprung up. Bright lines covered one of the orks' skin, making it much harder to focus on him, the mist flying past him. The other dived out of the way. The one that dived out of the way growled. "You ded bich."
Dubhan raised his arm, dark energy swirling around his sigil of draining, reaching out to one of the grieving orks to try to pull energy out of them, directly from their very soul.
The ork with the bright lines across his skin was hard to focus on, so easily sidestepped the attack. Screaming in the distance and a sickening crunch confirmed the death of the ork woman who had been flung away.
Violet twisted her hands around each other. Wind buffeted the back two orks. The one who had threatened Cait fell to the ground, but the one with the bright flames on them jumped out of the stream of wind before they were knocked over.
Palavalo ran forwards, drawing a knife from his side. He stabbed at the front ork, but it did not penetrate the armour.
Everything was happening too fast; Linessa could not hope to track it all. More orks came running out from deeper in the encampment. Creatures of a variety Lienssa did not immediately recognize clawed their way out of the ground. But of them all, one stood out in its actions as well as in its appearance: the ork whose skin was adorned with bright, glowing lines, who seemed to sidestep all the attacks her companions had thrown at it. Linessa judged that if any of these orks was going to be a threat, it was this one.
Linessa readied her shuriken, conjured a tightly-focust gust of wind, and let it fly.
The shuriken flew far wide of its intended target.
Scivoloso became slightly more serious after almost being punched by the front ork. He let the ork woman free of the vortex, then just as the front ork looked a little relieved, he brought down a spear of water, straight through the ork woman's chest.
The ork man stood gaping for a few seconds, and in this time the one with burning lines across its skin flicked a finger at Cait, a tiny fire alighting on her clothing.
The ork man screamed abuse at Scivoloso, and charged in.
He slammed his head with such force into Scivoloso's, that a slight cracking noise could be heard. Scivoloso instantly dropped to the ground, unconscious.
Nahiri was shocked to see how Scivoloso suddenly got taken out. She knew that if she didn't do anything Scivoloso would be an easy target for the orks and thus ran towards him to try her best to guard him.
As she ran towards Scivoloso she let out a bolt of lightning towards the hedron, to make it stronger.
The ork got up off of the floor from where he had been knocked down by Violet.
Cait merely laughed at the threat hurled her way. "Funny how things come back to you, isn't it? I seem to recall one of your children telling me the exact same thing. Unfortunately for you, there is no trace of them left on this world, whilst I'm here to finish what I started. So hurl your pathetic threats, your meaningless insults and your desperate cries. They shall soon be lost to the memory of this world, just like yourselves." More mist began to seep from the rocks of the ground, hanging thick and heavy on the battlefield. The front ork was cloaked in mist, but the back two were unaffected. The small flame on Cait burned through her clothes, and burnt her skin. Two sparks jumped out of the flame, one hitting Linessa, and the other missing Palavalo. The flames grew a little stronger.
Dubhan poured dark energy into his arm and his knife, empowering them both with magik, and stabbed straight for the glowing ork, aiming to diminish its magical ability.
The attack sliced harmlessly past him. "To think idiots like this killed our children." the ork commented.
The shambling cluster, acting on Cait's unspoken command, began to lurch towards the nearby village. The only overriding instruction in their decayed brains was to begin butchering any weak and helpless orks they could find.
One of the orks began to turn, but the one with glowing lines stopped him. "The old man can protect the kids." he said.
Violet seemed bored by the whole fight going on around her. She flicked her hand, and the front ork went flying up into the air.
Soon after, Palavalo shouted, "Look away!" and he threw a ball of light into the air. All three orks covered their eyes, but too late, they were temporarily blinded.
Linessa was quite surprised when her shuriken flew wide of the orc. That never happens- does this orc have some kind of countermagic?
Meanwhile, the battle churned on. A dense, dark mist began settling on the camp, obscuring her vision- not that it mattered much, as she could still feel the air moving around the orcs as they moved. A spark shot out of the cloud of mist, landing on her robes and beginning to smolder- Linessa slapped at the spark in an attempt to put it out. One of the orcs bodyslammed one of the captains, only to be shot up into the air a monent later. A flash of light illuminated the battlefield, and Linessa felt the orcs cringe, even though the mist should've absorbed at least some of the flash. Perfect timing, Linessa thought, as she prepared to throw another shuriken. Perhaps the mist and the blinding light would impede that orc's magic. She focused on the location of the orc, and the shuriken whizzed through the air.
The shuriken flew wide of her intended target.
No matter how much she batted at the flames, they just came back. However, they were not intense enough to harm her yet. Two sparks flew off of of her, and, surprisingly, they both hit Cait, extending the life of the flames on her.
Scivoloso remained unconscious, and in the distance, Cait felt all of the zombies' life energy disappear at once.
The orks were still stunned from Palavalo's attack.
Nahiri was getting worried with the flames spreading and seemingly becoming more dangerous. Not to mention the fact that Scivoloso was still unconscious and the fact that it appeared that one orc couldn't be harmed.
Nahiri let another Hedron fly in the air, this one changing the flow of energy a tiny bit making it harder to predict how spells will behave after being cast. She hoped it would make it harder for the fire to spread to others this way, Nahiri would much rather have the flames stop but she wasn't sure if her Hedron's would be able to put them out.
She then knelt down next to Scivoloso trying to wake him up and looking for any serious wounds.
Scivoloso remained unconscious, with signs of a broken skull. Despite this, he seemed to have no trouble breathing, and there was minimal bleeding.
The ork was stunned from Palavalo's attack.
Unfazed by the dull pain from the flames, Cait dug deep beneath the ground with her magic, roaming fingers of power grasping and animating yet more of the dead. Whilst it had slightly surprised her that her minions had all fallen, it did make sense that not all of the fighters were here. It seemed that the slaughter would have to wait for after they had defeated these. Three undead crawled their way out of the ground.
The flames scorched her skin seriously. 2 sparks jumped out, one onto an undead, and one onto Dubhan.
Dubhan raised one hand, aiming for the stone-fisted ork. The one covered in glowing lines was evidently avoiding them all with some strange magik, so continuing to attack him would be frivolous. Instead, he began to pull, hard, on the blood inside the other ork, trying to tear it out from its skin. The veins popped up visibly on his skin, but blood was not successfully drawn. The flames hurt him as his skin was burnt. Two sparks jumped out, one hitting Cait and one landing near Scivoloso.
The zombies converged on the slowest of the stunned orcs, seeking to tear him apart.
One zombie hit the ork, but the ork was barely fazed.
The second zombie screeched as it burned to death, the now charred corpse falling to the ground, lifeless once again.
The ork with the rock fist had hit the ground by this point, and while he was not visibly wounded, he was angered..
Violet hovered over to the rock-fisted ork and punched him in the face, but it had little effect.
Palavalo ran up to the same ork and stabbed at him, but the blade clanged off metal Armour.
Linessa took a monent to think, while the others concentrated most of their attacks on the ork that had knocked out the water-shadow mage earlier, to little effect. She had thought that Violet's fling would have at least incapacitated it, but apparently not.
Two shurikens thrown at the glowing ork, both missing by a wide margin. Best not waste more time or ammunition on him. As for the flung ork, if her captain's knife couldn't pierce its armor, there's no chance her shuriken could.
Which left the third orc, the one hanging back in the cloud of mist. Linessa readied another shuriken, summoned a gust of wind to propel it, focused her senses on the air between her and the ork to guide the projectile's path, and released.
