Of Monsters and Men

Out of bloody nowhere reinforcements arrived with Vyle helping them out, Veceslav fought at the vampire's side aiding him in the fight. He claimed that this was the doing of a certain Solomon, the mage from before perhaps? Yes but that meant... He could have prevented this obscenity if only he had known and cut the tresspasser down where he had stood in the Kaer. "What people? What room?" Veceslav inquired as Veera made mention of them. Tatiana perhaps? Aaron had been looking for her after all. When she mentioned who these were, he knew Tatiana was among them. When Aaron linked up with them again they now knew where to find him.

Then some insignificant person arrived demanding their attention, he threw a small bag of attention his way and then just went back to defending himself. When he mentioned a he and dying he did glance again only to realise in horror he was holding on to the head of Aaron. When he had asked where the skill with his sword and magic was he used a lull in the fighting to reload his crossbow and when this bloke held up the head in his hands he merely fired the crossbow, not at the instigator, oh no, Derrick was having his fun with that or atleast attempting to. No he fired off the bolt at his accomplice, parrying a blow of an undead with his sword, then cutting it's head off, reloading and sending another crossbow bolt at the accomplice also known as Fiel.

Veera's scream tore into him, he himself was angry as well, but this wasn't just anger. This was agony and she lunged forward towards Bryce. Derrick shouted that she had to be stopped, telling the Vampire to do so he was unsure if it was a good idea, but there was no time to object. He went after her, carving a path as he went. Something had happened to her and he had a few of the pieces in his hands. However he knew that in these times she needed the familiar, not the unfamiliar of the Vampire.

Sigmund was working on some research when Seth came in. "Ah yes, sit down, young man." The old mage said as he put the books away and turned to him. "Firstly could you tell me your name, it makes it easier to refer to you don't you think. Now, how are you feeling?" It might struck as an odd question to Seth, but Sigmund had a reason. "Was I wrong that you now understand how it feels to have a love one hurt for no reason. Do you have a clue as to what you have done to the family of that poor girl?" If he didn't understand he would make him understand and he knew exactly how he would do that. He knew a few magic techniques that could help him in getting it through even the most stubborn of minds to make them understand. "What do you think will be your punishment for what you did? Actually what do you think you deserve as punishment?" The answers to these questions would help the mage to get an understanding of the inner machinations of the young mans mind​

 

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Zack had managed to get the group outside of the city, and they were encamped in the woods. Those that could hold a weapon were posted as guards for stragglers that were slowly making their way out. Apparently word somehow spread that dopplers who didn't want to fight anymore, or just wanted safety could come. Zack estimated they were at about fifty now, and his heart lifted a little as he watched the people hunched around small, smoke less campfires. It was then that Rael slipped through, appearing at his side. Zack had jumped in surprise, but listened with growing urgency to the bodyguard's voice before speaking quietly to one of the other adults that had come with him, letting them know where he was going, before he hastened back to Oxenfurt with Rael, hoping it wasn't too late to save others of the pain their comrades had experienced.

​

Bryce paid little attention as Fiel was torn down by arrows. Sacrifices had to be made, after all. But then, his mind began to feel strange. Why should I stop with one witcher? Why not kill all of them? He looked down at the undead, who were slowly working their way into tearing the three apart. You shall not have my prey! I want my vengeance! What is rightfully mine shall be MINE! Bryce leaped into the fray as Fiel watched helplessly, unable to move, or do anything really.

"THEY'RE MINE!" Bryce screamed trying to cut away at the revenants. If he killed them all, then he could kill the witchers. Then he would finally be complete. But only once those cursed yellow eyes stopped staring at him, judging him, tormenting him.

​

Red. It covered her hands and her armour, coated her hair and splattered across her face. All she saw was red. All she felt was red. The only thing that pierced the red veil was her target, the man who had killed Aaron. He had dropped in among the undead now, trying to cut away at them in a seeming attempt to get to her. Well, she would make it easy for him.

In theory, her plan to carve through the dead to get to the doppler was sound. In reality, it was much different. They surrounded her, pulling at her hair and clothes. One attempted to bite through her arm before she put a sword through its skull. The injuries she did receive failed to matter as she cast Axii, giving herself some breathing room.

It didn't last long, her Axii losing strength as she herself did. Veera cast Igni then, her second best Sign. The bodies in front of her burned, the closest turning to ash as she surged a path through.

​

Tessa tossed in her sleep, waking immediately when she heard shouting. She sat up, holding the sheets around her protectively as the volume of the upset person only increased. Seth. Her immediate thought was that they weren't safe anymore, and she pushed herself out of the bed, wrapping the blanket around herself to keep warm before hobbling out of the room and down the hallway towards the noise.

".....not do that to her. I will no longer lay down and die because where does that leave her? With somecrazy old man that we only just met? The only other person she could trust. The person I thought could show me a different life turned on her. He is the reason for her injury! How the hell do you expect me to know what to do?! I don't even know how I ended up here really! I wasn't going to get wrapped up with any of them, but I made a promise to protect her and even though I don't trust the b*stard anymore I will still f*cking protect her!"

Tessa stood in the doorway, her eyes wide with unshed tears as she realized just who Seth was talking about. I'm such a burden. She swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat, before her voice emerged in a whisper. "I'm sorry."

She stepped up to him, ignoring Sigmund as she gently took his wounded hand her own, tearing a small amount of the sheet off to press it to the ugly injury, trying to ignore the pain of her own, the thought of what her own injury looked like, the thought that she was a burden to Seth, who just wanted to be free, trying not to think who had caused her to be a burden. Unfortunately, trying not to think of these things only made her actually think about them, and several tears splashed on Seth's open palm.

 

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At first the revenants did not react to Bryce's sudden change of heart, they were confused. "How terrible" Solomon murmured inaudibly from the shadows. He watched the affair distantly, accompanied by a pair of bloated bodies he'd found in the river. "I suppose we should kill him. He'll make a nice addition. Ahhh, I feel his soul calling out, a spiteful soul, seeking vengeance" he was about to wave his hands to get the undead to rip Bryce to shred, when suddenly a head rolled towards him, Grabbing it by the hair he pulled it up to his own face. It was the witcher from before. Solomon cackled with laughter, and poked the kid in the face. Dark magic enveloped the boy's head. "Then again, who am I to deny someone their vengeance? Bryce has been a very bad boy... wakey wakey little witcher" Solomon poked Aaron's face again. The boy's eyes opened. They glowed blue.

Meanwhile the revenants fought against Bryce, he hacked at them but the horde was unending. Eventually they wrested the sword from his grip, and grabbed his arms, pulling him on both sides, at the mercy of his enemies

Vyle watched as Bryce came in, and his eyes filled with rage. This was the man who was the cause of all this, this was the man who sold Ana. He deserved no mercy. Veera ran forwards but was stopped by undead, Vyle ignored the other witchers and leaped over, he found the man he was after unarmed and at his mercy. Swiftly he gripped Bryce by the neck and leaped away. They landed in an alley without any dopplers in it, or undead, or anyone. Vyle smashed Bryce to the ground and took out his knives. But he did not kill the man, not yet "All I want to know, is why?!" he hissed "Why did you start this brutal massacre? Why did you stab that girl in the alley? Why did you sell Ana?"

The handcuffs being thrown at her were merely a minor inconvenience, Willow went onwards like a wild dog, she slashed once at the boy's arm, and was raising her sword to stab him, killing him, when she heard something outside. That was Bryce's voice, he seemed panicked. Without thinking, loyalty to Bryce, the doppler's saviour, overrid her own vicious desires, and she leaped out the window to her master's aid. She arrived just in time to see him taken away by... some sort of guy who could jump really far... the area was surrounded by dopplers and pale figures with glowing blue eyes, not mention the witchers who cut swathes through both groups. It was a medley of confusion. Time to activate the plan. Nodding to some of the dopplers that she knew were in on the plan, they began to change. Amongst the crowd, five new Bryces appeared. The Bryces approached the witchers "You cannot destroy the dopplers, we are everywhere. We can be anyone. Which of us is truly Bryce? Bryce is in the heart of every doppler, every doppler has a desire for vengeance against humankind. Bryce is not a man, Bryce is a symbol. You cannot kill the messiah"

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"No. It was not Yana. It was worse" Archon sat down beside her, uncomfortable in such an informal situation "The people who sent that were Witch Hunters. The worst kind of people. They believe that we, mages, are inferior, they are horrible people, they do atrocious things to our kind" Archon leaned in closer "Do you know the castle of Crow's Perch? They've taken it as their own. Now, most kings would send in another army to take it back, but my preferred battlefield is the mind" he tapped his head "If we send an army after them and take it back, we're only asking for rebellion. What we do instead, is get the people on our side. Witch hunters rely on the spitefulness and prejudice of humans, if we bring the minds of the people against them, they will surely fail. Do you understand? It's a much more peaceful option"

 

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Bryce screamed in rage as his weapons were ripped from his hands, before he scowled at the undead. He had no love for death, and he had so much yet to accomplish. Struggling, he felt himself ripped away once more, and then he was flying. If not for the pain in the back of his neck, he would have thought he had ascended as a god. Instead of looking upon his new captor, he closed his eyes and let his arms hang at his sides. Soon. I think it will be soon.

And at that thought, an inner sadness began to constrict his heart. It didn't stop when Vyle smashed him into the ground, or when he opened his eyes, ignoring the pain in his back, or when his lungs gasped for air. He exhaled, and with that went all the anger and the malice and the rage. Because this was it. End of the line.

"You must be her 'friend'. Seems to be more then friendly." he commented between wheezing. The first two questions, he ignored. They were none of this man's business, frankly and he didn't want to waste the words to say so.

"I sold her because I needed the money. Weapons and potions don't come cheap." Bryce stared up at the sky. He wanted the orange of the fires mixing with the blues to be his last view of this world. "If she meant so much to you, then you should have protected her." The way I protected the one I cared about.

Bryce looked back to Vyle, a glimmer of a smile on his face. "Yet you don't seem to have learned your lesson. I don't see her with you. Maybe I'll be greeting her in the afterlife. She was very pretty. I wouldn't mind spending eternity with that."

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Veera shoved the nearest undead out of her way, and stumbled momentarily. Instead of just one Bryce, there were five. She blinked, and then shook her head. The pain in her arrow shot shoulder indicated this wasn't a dream, and she didn't seem to be hallucinating. She leaped towards the nearest one, her sword cleaving through the air from overhead as she charged. She didn't care who it was, she would murder them all if she had to.

With her other hand she cast Igni, blasting fire as she stormed forwards.

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Zack watched the battle with something close to horror. There were so many dead, and yet, they were walking. How can the dead walk? What madness is this? But he didn't have time to ponder the nightmare that was in front of him. Rael had already darted down to where Fiel had dragged her body away from the undead, her eyes glazed with pain. He followed the bodyguard warily, helping him to pull the female doppler onto their shoulders.

A crazed man stepped towards them, swinging a pitchfork. Zack dropped his and dodged to the side, grabbing the weapon and using the dull end to smack the man on the temple.

This called more attention to him, and he dropped the weapon, stepping in front of Rael and Fiel and holding up his hands. "We mean no harm. We just came for our comrade." He told the dopplers, eyes intent.

Some of them looked uncertainly at one another. "We've got a safe place. We're staying there, riding this out. We don't need to die for...this." He looked back, and suddenly there were five Bryces. Zack went still, unable to comprehend. What have I let happen?

 

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Vyle glared intensely at the man "That's it? Lives are so cheap to you? Do you not understand the value of a life?!" he hissed. He decided to ignore the man's comments about Ana, it wasn't worth it "The only afterlife you're going to will be hell. LOOK!" Vyle grabbed the man again and jumped up to the roof, he held him up high and made him look out over the city. It was burning, it was full of conflict, dead bodies littered the streets, the river ran red with blood "Look at what you've done! Is this what you wanted? You may have killed some humans, as you wanted, but so many of your own troops have been slaughtered by the witchers and the undead. You may have taken the city, but there aren't enough of you left to hold it. And look over here" Vyle leaped to another roof, still holding Bryce "See down there? Groups of dopplers who wanted nothing to do with this battle, you've forced their friend and family into war, you've stripped them of their homes! Is this what you wanted for your own kind? You haven't brought them revenge, you've brought them doom!"

Willow dodged to the side, avoiding the slice from the witcher's sword and her subsequent blast of fire. "Cut one of us down, two more arise" she stated, slashing at the witcher with her dual blades. The witcher was good, she matched her strike for strike, the clang and clash of blades rang around the alley. Willow parried every strike the witcher attempted to hit her with, and dodged the blasts of igni. Were it one versus one combat, Willow was not confident she could win. But this was not fair combat, other figures wearing the guise of Bryce surrounded her and supported her. If the other witchers did not assist her in this battle, Willow would surely overpower her.

 

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With his shoulder charge not working, Zephyr ended up losing his footing and falling to the ground. This once again left him open to being attacked, which the assailant quickly took. The blade slash across his arm, leaving a gash for him to deal with later. The pain was sharp and lingered, but Zephyr ignored it as best as he could for the were much more pressing matters to deal with. Like the blade that was going to stab through him. In an instant a brief flicking of blue sparks appeared in his good hand, but the assailant had went out the window. It was lucky that he was currently alive, in pain because of the cut on his arm, but alive.

"Well as you can see, I am fairly knowledgeable in the medical arts. I'm not a fan of senseless battle and decided to put my talents towards helping lives instead of ending them." Sweallow paused to reach for a nearby book and started flipping through a couple of pages before stopping. "That being the case, I am able to defend myself and others if needed."

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Unlike Tatiana, Kruez was awake after their little fun. Admittedly part of him did want to just leave, but he could still hear the sounds of conflict going on outside, thus it probably wasn't the best idea to just casually walk out. Nor at this point would it be best to stick around here, not that they had any real reason to do so. Since he couldn't just outright walk out the door, he started to think about alternate means of transport. It wasn't long before he thought back to when Evander had use a portal to take them to that castle. He did wonder if he could do the same thing as well and now was as good as anytime to figure out.

First he put his clothes back on, the he walked towards the far wall and pressed his right arm against it. Basically imitating what he recalled Evander doing, he waited til a portal of his own making had appeared. It appeared that he could make one as well, that was good to know. Now all that was left was to decide what to do about Tatiana. He could listen to the part of him that wanted to outright leave her, or he could take her with him to wherever this portal would take them. "Not sure how you're brother would feel about me having sex with you, but he'd probably be pissed if I just left you here." Having made a decision, Kruez made his way over to the sleeping Tatiana. Making sure that the covers still covered her naked form, he picked her up and walked through the portal.

 

Veceslav ran after Veera, the sea of undead between them. Bryce was screaming they were his, trying to cull the horde single-handedly nice work from Derrick's behalf, he'd give the man a compliment later if there was a later. The crow had hands grasping at him, tearing at his arms and cloak and hear. He kept on going damn it. "Veera!" He tried to draw her attention as he went after her. The path she carved for herself closed between them and the Crow had to carve his own path. Using his sword, signs and bombs to get to her. He had to get to her.

Veera had made it out of the crowd already and was fighting the bloke who had murdered Aaron, but it turned out there were 5 of them, bloody dopplers, all cowards. They were rambling about a Messiah how Bryce was a part of every single Doppler. Little did they know he had met Seth, Tessa and Zack who didn't appear to be sharing that desire for vengeance. And where there was one dissenter there were more. They were wrong they just didn't want to see the truth dangling right in front of their faces. Veceslav redoubled his efforts to link up with his scion. When he finally did break through he witnessed the guises of Bryce fighting Veera. "Funny how you all pretend to be honourable, but every time you gotta fight you do so unfairly. If you truly believe him to be your Messiah well be prepared to lay down your lives for him then!" The Crow belowed as he joined into the fight evening out the odds a little bit, crossing blades with one of the Bryce impersonaters


The Witcher had asked the people passing them in the night why they were traveling, it wasn't odd that people did that, but in such numbers struck him as odd. He had let Treasa sleep by the campfire as he did so. It turned out that something big was going on in Oxenfurt. That the city was under attack, the guards didn't do anything and monsters were rampaging through the streets trying to murder anything they could get their hands on. Witchers apparantly had already made their way to the city but the situation just seemed like a gigantic mess. Well this sounded like some good fighting, he had meditated for the remainder of the night, watching over his great neice.

When the day broke he informed Treasa of what was happening and where they were going. They had something for breakfast cleaned up their campsite and went on their way through the woods towards Oxenfurt. The smoke above the city was a clear indication that hell was being raised there. However they came across a refugee camp in the woods, it never hurt to get an idea as to what was going on in the city, since the peasants hadn't really been all that informative and specific as to what was happening in that place. He walked into the camp and felt his medallion vibrate, monsters, all of them. Vampires didn't come in these numbers, nor did mages so that left Dopplers or a mixed bag of them. In the middle of the camp he stopped, filled his lungs with air and shouted loudly as to get everyone's attention "Who's in charge here?!"

Sigmund remained calm throughout Seth's outburst as the man ranted. He had already expected it when he had replied in the flat tone that he was fine. Seth also with guilt spoke realising his mistake as to what he had done. "Since when do you decide what is supposed to be and what isn't? You didn't know anything about her and took your chance for a cruel game. Understandable in a way, but as they say what goes around comes around." The mage said calmly. Seth then lost his **** and got angry, at the world. How it had done him such an injustice by having him meet Tessa.

"You may want to turn around" Sigmund said gesturing to the doorway where Tessa stood who had heard most of his outburst who then came walking in and bandaged Seth's hands and cried. "I don't expect you to lay down and die, as I already said had that been your punishment you would not have been here at all. Veceslav would have ended your life in a single swing of his sword. Oh no, I have something better in mind. Because clearly you cared for the girl here in a Novigrad brothel so much that you deemed it necesarry to end her suffering. Well then, if you care so much about her. I think it reasonable you care for her as well." Sigmund said again in his calm voice. Seth had enough on his hands already. "As for you, Tessa, you can stay here to recover. Stay with Seth and if either of you need anything let me know. You two appear to be having something to catch up on so I shall leave you two alone." Despite it being his study, he left the room and went for the kitchen to make himself and his guests some food.​

 

Derrick held back from direct sword fighting for the moment, allowing events to play out in front of him. Axii worked wonders on Bryce and Vyle swept in to deal with him. That took their leader out of the picture.When Veera started carving her way through the crowd, Derrick followed up with some Aard castings to keep the enemy at bay on his side while Vec covered his side. That would make the whole getting out of here thing a lot easier. However, despite his wishes of an easy way out for once in today, they ran into five people impersonating the madman from earlier. Luckily, that meant that they were easy prey for him. He cast the Sign of Axii once more, exploiting their weak minds that were putty in his hands.
"This rebellion only causes bloodshed. You have to stop it however you can." He stated, targeting one of them. That would make a traitor in the ranks, a disruption that would see them struck from behind with nothing that they could do, and someone who would try to collect the activists and stop this madness if any were left. With the guise of their leader on, perhaps that Doppler would be able to end this. Not that it would make much difference. Oxenfurt was doomed. At least, the Witcher thought, he could preserve the last straggling lives of this city. "Let that one live!" Hopefully they'd listen and let the one he targeted be. ​

 

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Veera whirled, her swords slicing through the air as she slashed towards Willow/Bryce. "I don't care about the two. As long as I take one I'll die happy." She hissed, ignoring the warnings her body was trying to deliver. She couldn't, wouldn't go down yet. Not yet. "Then I can drag you down to hell with me!" The Aard she used this time pushed back two others who had come to help the Bryce, but it no longer had the power or the range to clear away her entire front.

Her breathing was ragged, and her body was trembling underneath her armour, but she refused to give in, refused to die. Not yet. She kept her eyes focused solely on Willow/Bryce now as she struck with the grace only a witcher, even an exhausted witcher, possessed. The anger was fueling her, but it wouldn't continue forever. She needed to finish this before she ran out of wood for the fire.

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Bryce's hand scrabbled at the one around this throat, barely glancing at the destruction the supernaturally powered man tried to show him. "Change doesn't come through writing letters and lodging complaints." He replied hoarsely. "Change is destruction. Change is blood, and loss. They gave their lives so that others will change."

There was no mercy in this man's eyes, but Bryce didn't need mercy. No, he had already started things. He had done as he was supposed to and in the course of everything, his life meant very little in what he had helped to accomplish. "It's started. No doppler will ever be happy with being crushed underfoot. No lord will ever decide they aren't worth his time. Things will change." The last word came out as a hiss.

"My only regret is that I won't be here to witness the grandeur."

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Treasa winced at her great uncle's lack of diplomacy as she watched the wary faces around them. "These people are already frightened, Uncle." She murmured, turning her back to Alastar and facing what could very quickly become the enemy. "I don't think we should encourage their wariness any further then it already has been." And judging by the orange glow in the sky, there was quite a bit of damage that had already been done.

"We mean no harm." She tried to calm the people around them in a soft, reassuring voice. "My uncle simply lacks....tact."


A doppler stepped forward, his grizzled face tight with emotion. "See for yourself." He said, pointing to Zack, who was helping Rael support an injured and bleeding Fiel. "That's the one that saved us." He also put a hand on the spear he had sharpened for himself, to protect his family. If these strangers tried to hurt the man who had saved them, he would do his best to defender the savior.

​

 

Ethan's pov:



He stood there near a sorcerer. 'What do you need help with?' "Yes, what can you tell me about this sword?" He pulled out the sword to show the sorcerer. 'I see, this sword is interesting. It appeasers to be made out of black Sliver. It is quite rare where did you get it?' "I found it in the forest near Oxenfurt ." 'I see. Did you find anything elce?' "No it was just in a forest." 'The sword has a fire enchantment on it. All swords with an enchantment on them are property of the sorcerers.' The man lied. "I do not think so," pulling the sword away. 'Give me that sword.' "Not going to happen" He had found the sword what was it finders keepers. He was not about to give this stranger the sword he found in the forest. The sorcerer looked like he was ready for a fight. 'If you will not give it to me I will take it by force.' He let out a sigh. Crazy sorcerers and they wanting something that was his. He watched as the sorcerer attacked him with earth magic. He jumped in the air to avoid it. The sorcerer was young and did not seem that skilled in battle so far.


Olivia's pov:



She could feel the people in the house getting closer and closer. That battle outside was getting more intense. That was when she spotted a window. The window was open. She had a choice just back onto the streets and fight out there or fight the two people in this house. Both options were not that good. She figured if she went out the window her chance of finding a Watcher was better then standing here. Derrick where are you, she thought. She was about to jump out the window when a hand took ahold of her arm. Her heart dropped. She was found. 'Look at what I found. Precious, my precious.' She was found and there was not much she could do about that now The only option might be fighting. She turned around to see who had found her. That face of an ugly man faced her. 'I am going have fun with you.' She spotted a women in the door way. She was just standing there smiling. She knew what she had to do...

 

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Ana slammed her hand against the ground, biting her lip to muffle the sound of pain she made as the injured limb throbbed. I'm so useless like this. She would have killed him and I couldn't have stopped her. "Zephyr, we have to get out of here before she gets back." She could no nothing more then crawl towards him. The blood that dripped from his wound wasn't enough to alert Vyle of their predicament (she didn't think), and there was always the chance the assailant would come back before he reached them in time.

"Can you make a portal?" She asked desperately, dangerously low on magic. It was well within her ability, but she would not remain conscious after the attempt. "Please by all the gods tell me you know how to portal." Without proper training, he would possibly be able to create one, but where it would take them, neither could say, and she had no desire to end up in the middle of the Skellige Isles. On top of a troll, with my luck.

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Tessa's lower lip trembled, but no more tears fell from her overly bright eyes. "We have to take care of your hand." She whispered, placing her palm over Seth's. "And I'm not going to sleep unless you're there with me. He won't take you away. She won't take you away. No one is going to take you away. I'm not being left behind." Ever again. A part of Tessa's mind knew that what Seth had done was wrong. Knew he had been dangerous, probably was still dangerous. But that wasn't her Seth. That was some other man who had disappeared, vacated and left behind the person who now stood in front of her.

"I'm not going to sleep unless you're there with me." she repeated, her face setting into a stubborn expression to match her tone of voice.

​

Zack looked up, a sigh escaping his lips. Could this day just be over already? "Sara!" He yelled, leaving Fiel in Rael's grasp as he hurried into the camp, helping the girl he named spread out a bedroll. Rael laid the injured doppler down on it, his face tense with worry as he watched over his friend. Zack ran his hand through his hair before turning to the dopplers that had surrounded Alastar and Treasa. "Stand down." he told them, speaking with authority as he stared at the strangers. "I'm sure they mean no harm."

"As you can see, we are humble peasants, and nothing more." He continued as he kept his eyes on the strangers, though he was itching to see Sara work. He wanted Fiel to live, dammit, and knew she likely wouldn't. "If there is something you need directly from me, then please, I implore you to rest while I help. We have escaped the slaughter of Oxenfurt, and as you can see, there is much to do."

Speaking the last words with a note of finality, he crossed to the other side of Fiel's body, where Sara knelt, examining the crossbow bolt. The look on her face was grim, and Rael's crumpled as he too, realized what it meant. "I can give her something to ease the pain." The girl murmured, looking up at Zack. "But this is beyond my skill."

Zack knelt down, taking Fiel's hand on one side, while Rael took the other as Sara administered the pain numbing poultice. "You did good, Fiel." Zack spoke softly, tears blurring his vision. "We're right here with you."

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Treasa eased into a more relaxed stance, crossing her arms across her chest. Her heart ached as she watched the apparent leader of this camp kneel beside his companion. Both the men wore looks of weary sorrow, telling her this was not the first loss they had experienced this day, nor would it be the last. "Uncle, perhaps we had best go see for ourselves." It felt wrong, to intrude on such a private moment. She tugged Alastar's sleeve, same she had since she was a girl of sixteen. It always managed to get his attention, somehow. "We should leave them to their mourning."

 

These people didn't seem too pleased with his appearance, then again a lot of people had something against Witchers these days, he supposed it wasn't anything different here. Treasa tried to reassure everyone that they meant no harm saying he lacked tact, well he wasn't perfect, never claimed to be and he recognised this, not that it meant he would fix that problem any time soon. The bloke that had answered him grabbed hold of a spear which made Alastar's hand rest on the hilt of his silver axe, ready to grab it and get cracking if the situation called for it.

The leader however told everyone to stand down, only when everyone else eased up and let their weapons lay close or sheathed them again did Alastar removed his hand from the hilt of the axe. He watched as they brought in another wounded refugee. The leader had said they were all simply peasants, what did they take him for? A drowner? He knew they weren't the peasants he claimed they were, but it hardly mattered. He stared when the medic helped the wounded comrade. He felt something tug at his sleeve, a familiar feeling by now, knowing full well it was his neice. She said something about them having to check for themselves what had happened. He supposed she was right, these people were too busy and he really didn't want to sit around more, though he could probably chop firewood for these people, if he really wanted to stick around and help, but that wouldn't get them anywhere.

Alastar gave his neice a smile, such a sweet kid that one. She was right however to leave them to their mourning. "Yeah, yeah, you are right. I'm sorry." He admitted, but before that he walked to the leader and the person that was dying, for once he thought his words through carefully and spoke carefully "I'm sorry to bug you about it, but I'd say that if you were to clean the wounds and then singe them, your mate might have a better chance of survival, afterwards bandage them up, nice and tight, clean wounds and renew bandages daily to prevent the wounds from festering. Leave the bolts in until you can cauterize them." With that he left the encampment with Treasa in tow. They were going to Oxenfurt and if they found anyone that wanted to get out and find some safe place he'd refer them there. Not to bug the leader of the camp, but since it seemed like a safe place until whatever was happening in the city blew over.

 

​

Dead bodies. Dead bodies everywhere. Corpses, cadavers, so many fun words for dead bodies. It was peaceful, in a way. Until a deft pair of feet disrupted that peace as they skipped through the crowds of dead. "one two three, one two three" softly muttered the voice, as the figure waltzed with his partner throughout the city. Following this pair of fancy feet which clambered over the corpses following its own tune, barely disturbing their eternal rest, came a lot more feet. They shuffled along, dragging their pale, bloodless feet. The horde followed Solomon's journey, a shambling mass of reanimated dead. "Was it this way? Are you sure?" Solomon asked his dance partner. He only blinked blankly in reply, but Solomon inhaled with satisfaction and closed his eyes, as if listening to something else. "Ahhh, young witcher, your soul cries with such torment. Music to my ears. You must hear it to, then why don't you dance in time?" Solomon asked with sadness "Let's try again, ready? One two three, one two three... alas, this is futile. You don't have feet. Or legs. Or a body. Let's solve that shall we?" Solomon smiled at the decapitated head of Aaron, who was utterly failing to dance in time. Eventually, they arrived at the not-so-final resting place of Aaron's body. "Found you!" Solomon exclaimed, crudely sticking Aaron's head back onto his body. After a moment, the body sat up, moaning unintelligibly, blood oozing from his neck "Wonderful! My own personal Witcher. Your soul will be a valuable addition! Now, I've grown tired of this battle and I do believe it shall soon end. It's time for a change of scenery... but before we do, I'd like to witness the death of a certain someone"

Vyle was about to hiss back a reply to the man... but held back. There was no changing this one. "I pity you" he stated sadly. There was only one way to end this slaughter. Vyle transformed into a bat and, grabbing Bryce by the claws, flapped upwards. Higher and higher he went, until the whole city could be seen beneath them. He hovered a great distance above the burning church, from below he could hear gasps as the battle slowed to watch Bryce. There were shouts, screams. The congregation had gathered, to watch their messiah die. Vyle let go, directly above the church steeple.

Willow was surprised by the sudden onslaught, the witcher was giving it everything she had. But Willow had a lot too, and responded with similar power. She could not match the witcher's strength, but Willow possessed incredible agilty, and was mostly able to dodge or parry the attacks aimed her direction. She was certain of her victory, when suddenly she noticed one of her allies disobeying. She growled, either the culprit was a traitor or this was witcher trickery. She didn't want to risk it. Deftly slipping over the doppler at fault she swung her blade and chopped the man's head clean off. She turned back to the witchers. In that alley she would fight until she could no longer, for the dopplers, for a promise of a better tomorrow, for... for... Something caught her eyes. So caught up in the battle, she had been, that she hadn't noticed the vampire carrying their saviour into the sky, and now her expression fell as she watched him fall. She shrieked in sorrow, and recieved a cut from the witcher's blade while occupied. No. This could not be. They had to continue to fight. But it was hopeless, she knew. Her allies were in similar states of shock and the morale for battle had dropped to a low. Hissing at the witchers, she ran away. Unwanted tears streamed down her face as she transformed back into her regular form and hid, sprinting down alleyways in a desperate search for escape. The battle was over. But who had really won?

​

"Sometimes there is nothing we can do to prevent people getting hurt. But we try" he hesitated, before lightly patting her head "Now, I must ask you to stay in the chambers of the palace today, it's dangerous out there" he lied, really he just didn't want Annabelle to see what he was going to do to the dopplers and witch hunters that Kyle managed to gather. He left the room abruptly, and began to make his way to the battlements.

 

Whoever one of the impersonators was, they sure weren't the average Doppler. They moved simply better. Bryce obviously had some obvious technique errors that was reflected in the others, whereas that one had cleaner movements and moved quicker. He decided that it was the one to focus on. However, he couldn't do anything at the moment. He didn't fancy a sword fight with a proper opponent for the moment while his arm was out of action and he didn't buy his chances. Annoyingly, they beheaded his Axii'd Doppler neatly. He took out his crossbow and waited for an opportune moment. They stopped for a moment and he took a quick look. It seemed that Vyle really did have Bryce covered. Derrick didn't stop to see what he presumed to be the original Bryce's fate play out, but instead took a shot at the highly competent one as it disengaged. The others seemed to follow the same pattern, fleeing for their lives. Derrick reloaded the crossbow and shot one of them down as they fled, a crossbow bolt buried in the back of their skull. By then, the others had made it into the alleyways.
"Let's get out of this damn city already." Derrick spoke. He was about to start heading out so that he could return to the Kaer, but then it hit him. "All the stuff I brought with me is at the inn. I'm heading back there. You two can come with, or leave. I'll catch up with you somewhere down the line." He walked towards where he vaguely remembered the inn being. As far as he remembered, it couldn't have been too far out of town either. Their route through the sewers in the abandoned warehouse nearby couldn't have taken long to travel, meaning that there was a way out near enough that way. There was probably a bridge or something nearby.





"Looks like some of us had the good sense to get out of there." Adolin remarked as they headed towards the refugee camp. On the way in, he spotted the unmistakable medallion of a Witcher, accompanied by a girl. The knowledge of Carrak of Cintra informed him that this was a man of the Bear School, and he certainly matched the look- Heavily armoured and heavily armed. He looked to Alanna quickly and she nodded, knowing exactly what he was thinking. He remembered what had happened to the young Witcher that he saw earlier. It was out sympathy for his sister, whoever she may have been, that he was going to do this. He had to know. That way he could tell her what happened to her brother. There was no sense in starting a fight here. He could just walk past, say this, and then things could go back to how they were. He could go back to wanting to kill them. "Alanna, I can't bring myself to start this. Can you, please?" The memories of his family rushed through his head. He tried to move his mouth to communicate, but he couldn't. He felt his chest tense up and a surge of anger as the man walked with seemingly no response to the misery around him. But could he hate this one? No, it didn't look like it. The girl... She was no Witcher. She might have been family. He couldn't hate anyone with a family, but he could say nothing to those cat's eyes. Now that one was here, in front of him, all that he could think of was fear, and hate.
"Excuse me, Witcher." Alanna raised her hand to attract his attention. She noticed that there was a girl there with him. She smiled. It seemed that she wasn't the only one following a Witcher around, even if her Witcher was only a part timer and a Doppler. Wait, her Witcher? That wasn't right. Nope. So glad I didn't say that out loud. "There's something we need to tell you." She looked at Adolin. He was staring, his fists clenched and his eyes wide. She could see him trying to stop his mouth from curling into an expression of distaste and contempt. Adolin whatever you do, don't do anything stupid. Please. There's been enough bad about today, we don't need a fight here. Or to anger him. She looked at the Witcher. Not like we'd have much of a chance. I don't know what's up with that girl either. She's armed and looks fighting fit. If she's with a Witcher I don't think she's messing around. ​

 

​

Veera wanted to scream and rant and cry as Willow tore off, escaping her grasp. She was about to make chase, when her leg buckled. She looked down, eyes widening slightly at the sight of a spear shove through her knee, with no sign of its owner. "Well that complicates things." She muttered as she went down to one knee, gritting her teeth before breaking the shaft of the spear off. A muffled scream managed to worm its way up her throat but never made it past her lips as she slumped to the ground, leaning on one hip before yanking the spear through, pressing one palm on one side of the wound before grabbing the singular bottle of Swallow. Popping the cap, she downed it, groaning at the taste before hunching over her wounded knee.

"We should get out of there before the vampire figures out you left his late night snack alone." She muttered in Derrick's direction. Her body screamed that it was done, all done with any type of fighting, or battle. Her mind was grey with pain and exhaustion. Reluctantly, regretfully, she let Willow go. The real perpetrator was going to be ended, and she raised her head to watch.

​

Bryce felt the air rushing past him. He threw his arms out to the side as he dropped, the wind tugging and tossing him this way and that. "Witness me." He whispered, unable to hear the sound of his own voice over the rush as he fell from the heavens. Every god must have their fall.

Spoiler

He didn't die immediately when the steeple pierced his body, shattering every rib in his chest and his sternum as he slid, further and further down along the stone spire; the force of gravity pushed his body past the breaking point as he felt muscle tearing and bones cracking as his mind went into shock. He wasn't dead even as he came to a slow, squelching stop; his mouth hanging open, his limbs loose and useless. His mind was shutting down, flashing in colors of white and black as it tried to comprehend what had happened.

He looked down at the giant spear that was now his stomach, and tried to laugh, the blood forcing a gurgle to release itself from his throat instead. As he choked on the blood from his punctured lungs, legs twitching with the severance of his spinal cord, he looked up at the sky. It wasn't Tessa's face he saw, or Seth's, or even his own mother's. Kind eyes looked down at him, with a gentle, sorrowful smile. "I did it." He tried to say. "I did it." The face nodded, and Bryce's smile faded the flames slowly ensconced his body. His gurgling screams were the last things his ears heard as his world went dark.

Witness me.

​

Zack bowed his head over Fiel as her breaths turned into shuddering gasps. Something whispered along the back of his neck, and shuddering himself he turned. Just above the city, he was able to see a speck in the sky. Something dropped from the speck, and Zack's stomach dropped with it as the form plummeted to the church, impaling itself on the steeple. Afterwards, the world seemed to fall into silence as Fiel's grip on his hand tightened, then slacked. Rael howeled his grief as he buried his face in his comrade's chest. Zack felt a tear slip down his cheek, and shut his eyes. Gods keep you both.

​

Tessa's heart nearly stilled with shock when Seth kissed her. She wasn't sure how to respond, how to act. Her face flushed when he pulled away, and she felt slightly dizzy, as if she wasn't breathing enough air. She started walking down the hallway with Seth in a daze, a smile growing on her face before it stilled and she turned around, halting their progress to the room. "Hand. I won't be distracted. Let's go." Her voice expressed her exhaustion, but her eyes still held a spark; her cheeks were flushed. But she would debate her first kiss later. Right now she wanted to make sure the kisser didn't die from septic shock.

 

The Crow knew no mercy in his fighting duelling two of the dopplers simultaneously dodging, weaving and swirling between the blades, he was getting tired so he knew he had to end it quickly. Veera was trying to fight her own battle when she was taking a spear to her knee. His eyes widened as he still twirled, but it had been enough of a distraction as a mace hit him on the left side of his chest, sending him off balance, most of the damage was soaked up by the armour, but he could still feel something snap beneath. He fell on his back and rolled back onto his feet, crossing swords with his second opponent using his free hand to cast a close ranged igni at the person's face, before yielding his pressure on his sword, swirling around for a stab into the stomach.

It was exactly this moment when Bryce was dropped onto the steeple and their opponents lost heart for their little skirmish and fled. Veera took the spear out of her knee and taking a swallow potion. He siltently prayed that she would still be able to walk, knee injuries were extremely tricky. He went over handing her an additional pair of swallow potions, had they not been caught so off-guard then he would have given them before. But the constant fighting just didn't leave much room for it. He handed her a small vial of Relict oil as well. He doubted they were out of the fire yet and it was best to be prepared. That's when the thought had occured to him. He should have made Hanged Man's Venom, but he hadn't exactly counted on fighting humans even in undead form. He looked at the chain mail he was wearing portion of it was torn from the hit of the mace and there was some blood flowing from the wound, but that could wait.

It was then that Derrick joined them sending a crossbow bolt into one of the fleeing Dopplers, then he realised that he had left things at some inn room. He handed Derrick his own vial of Relict oil and pair of Swallow potions, vastly superior to what both of them could make for themselves, courtesy of a Viper school witcher that had taught him about them and his own research with Sigmund. "Veera's right, there is nothing left here for us, we should go. If you want to get your stuff, go get it, be careful, I don't want to lose someone else today." The Crow said wearily as he stood with Veera to look at the death of the instigator of all this. He had failed today, the loss of Aaron hadn't sunk in fully due to the constant need to fight but now it was ripping into him, despite not having known the lad for as long as Veera or Derrick, he still had cared about him, like he was his own son. He had been proven right once again to be hard on the younger ones, he had grown soft and someone else had died because of it.


Alastar walked out of the camp and headed the road towards Oxenfurt his neice following him, the situation looked grim from afar and if what he had seen in the camp was anything to go by it was going to be a rough day. He hoped that the wounded one would make it, but it had looked atrocious. He put the thoughts away when someone called him over. He looked over first, to see a man and a woman. His Medallion was still going haywire and these two only seemed to add to it when he walked over to them. Same as the others then, the woman didn't look bad, he had to admit so the probability of her being a sorceress was a lot higher. There were no ugly sorceresses, it was simply the way things were, especially since they used their magic to make themselves look even pretier. But he was getting distracted.

"Spit it out." Alastar said with his renowned lack of tact. He looked at the bloke that accompanied the woman, looking closely at him. The man was staring, his fists were clenched at his sides and his eyes were wide, he was extremely tense by the looks of things. He looked him over even further, a pair of swords, not just any sort of swords. Witcher swords. His eyes narrowed, the person in front of him lacked the cat eyes of a witcher and was carrying a pair of witcher swords. More so he didn't exactly look like the person who had enough money to get a pair legitimately. The swords of a witcher were like the quill of the poet, part of them they wouldn't leave them behind or treat them wrong. The swords appeared to belong to the Viper School judging from the pommel, Witcher swords had pommels that would give away what school the witcher belonged to. His hand moved closer to the hilt of one of his throwing axes, despite being meant as throwing weapons an axe was an axe. He wanted to keep a weapon close, since he far from trusted the man in front of him with how tense he was behaving and the fact he carried Witcher weaponry and not just that he carried more arms than that and he didn't like it at all.​

 

​

Zephyr continued to hold onto his injured arm, hoping to limit just how much blood seeped out, as Ana crawled her way over to him. She asked him if he could make a portal. Zephyr did know what she was referring to, for Terra had used it to escape while they were fighting in the alley, but he didn't have very much confidence in his abilities to do so. Any for of magic other then the two he currently used (One his was able to use since pretty much his birth and the other harsh training) he was barely able to use. Thus he was having some severe doubts on his being able to do so, but he wouldn't tell Teliana that. "I can try."

Not knowing where to begin in terms of making a portal, he started by holding out his good hand out in front of him. He could feel the blood run down his arm, but he choose to ignore it, there were others things for him to focus on. With his other hand outstretched in front of him, he focused all his magical energy (or whatever the witcher term for this is) on making a portal. He sat there, eyes closed, focusing on the task at hand til he was he felt like he'd used enough energy. Opening his eyes, he'd hoped to see a portal in front of them. Instead, there was nothing.

​

"No idea, but away from all the fuss." Kruez answered as he walked out the other end of the portal. They had arrived on some streets, fortunately no one was out right now so he wouldn't have to explain why he was carrying around a naked girl with only bed sheets covering her. First order of business was to find someplace to stay. Thus Kruez started to walk around wherever he was. We'll just say (TBA once place is found/suggested).

Sweallow gave a simple nod at Terra's word. She spoke the true, too many people in this world were all to willing to take the life of another living being instead of helping to save it. It truly was a shame, but sitting around complaining wouldn't solve anything. Taking actions and doing something would, thus here he is now.

Placing his hand on his chin, he thought about what he had around to quell Terra's request to do something. Gewnt cards were something he had in the past, but he held no recolations as to where they were now. Pen and paper on the other hand, he knew exactly where they were. On his desk in his study. "I do have pen and paper. Allow me to go get them." He got up from where he was seat and walked towards his study. Sweallow's eyes scanned the room before resting on a small pile of paper and a pen next to him. He grabbed a couple of sheets as well as the pen before heading back towards the main room. "Here, one pen and some sheets of paper."