Of Monsters and Men

"I do now." Was all the Crow said about her question regarding him understanding where her life would be going. As Tatiana said she was ready Veceslav told her to wait as he sent a raven with a letter to Sigmund, requesting his presence. After he had taken care of that, he found Tatiana again and lead her to the Courtyard, time to start with basic training. And he wouldn't go for training swords either. He pointed to a weapon rack "Find yourself a sword you think feels right in your hand. It's important that it's weight feels right. When you have found someone I want you to try and strike me with it, I want to see what you know first. Don't worry, I'll parry. First lesson, stick them with the pointy end." Veceslav said as he drew his own sword, even if he didn't parry, he was certain that he could either evade or take the hits.

Sigmund wasn't paying too much attention to the people that came into his room as he cleaned up the failed experiment. She mentioned going to get Talon and needing a way to defend herself. "Very well, there is a good blacksmith down the street from here. I'll lend you some Crowns, since you said it yourself I expect you to repay me." The old Mage said "Joris!" Sigmund called, a servant came over "Yes, Master Sigmund?" Joris was one of his most loyal servants, been in his service the longest, practicly master of the house in absence of the lord. "Bring Tessa enough crowns to acquire a proper dagger." Joris nodded "As you wish." The Servant went to get the gold and handed it over to Tessa "Anything else?" The servant asked "No that'll be all, thank you, Joris." The mage said "Anything else? Tessa? Seth? Matilda?" ​

 

​

Vyle looked around as they arrived, something was... off. "Hmmm. Solomon gained more soldiers than he lost from the Oxenfurt battle" Vyle said while he analysed the horizon. "... Something's wrong. There's some dark magic going on here. I want to go into the city. You don't have to follow, but I need to investigate"

Violet torturing Chuck:

Spoiler

Moments after Chuck had released Talon, the cell was approached by another pair of guards, more loyal to the throne and who were on a mission to interrogate the boy. A short exchange later, with violent words thrown around, and one of the guards knocked Chuck in the head with the hilt of their sword and knocked him out.
Later, Chuck awoke in chains sitting on a stone chair In the dim light from a pair of flickering candles desk could be seen, at which sat a hulking figure.
"Ah. You're awake" a deep female voice stated. Chuck recognised the voice
"Oh. Madam Violet. Nice to finally meet you in person" he stated, trying to keep a calm demeanor
"The sentiment is not mutual" the husky voice stated. Her face came into the dim light, a face of determination and no nonsense "Tell me, Chuck, what is your job?"
"You should know, you're my boss..." Chuck began to say disinterestedly before he began to feel small bumps in the chair arise, the spikes pushing into his back unconfortably. Of course, she was an earth mage. This ordinary stone chair became a torture device in her hands.
"I don't think you understand the way this works, Chuck, I ask a question and you answer. I do hate having to ask twice" Though her words were civil her tone was threatening, Chuck gulped and continued
"I'm a guardsman, my lady"
"Indeed. And what does that job entail? Do remind me"
"...Guarding"
"And what were you given the task of guarding earlier today?"
"...A prison cell"
"Which contained young Lord Talon, a man imprisoned on the grounds of doppler sympathising, correct?"
"...Yeah, although I don't think it was right, locking him up like that" Chuck protested. The small rocky bumps in the chair began to grow. Held by chains, Chuck had little room for maneuver, so the spikes dug into his skin painfully
"Your opinion does not matter Chuck. The order to capture dopplers and doppler sympathisers was given by King Archon himself. It does not matter what we think of it, if we deny royalty we descend into anarchy"
"Anarchy would be better than Archo-" Chuck suddenly screamed at the end of his sentence, his face contorting into agony. A large spike of stone had suddenly forced its way through his hand from the armrest and now the bloodstained tip poked out the top.
"Oops. I slipped" Violet stated, her tone making it clear she did not, in fact, slip. "Where did the boy go?"
"I'm not going to tell you a dmn thin-" Chuck began his defiance but a spike thrust violently through his leg
"Silly me, butterfingers" she stated expressionlessly "Anyway, as I said, I do hate having to ask twice but it looks like I'm going to have to"
"I DON'T KNOW, YOU BITCH!" Chuck yelled. spikes from the back of the chair slowly inched forward, piercing his flesh "What do you want with me?" he whimpered
"I was never expecting you to give any useful information, but your actions cannot go unpunished. I may be slightly letting out my anger from the fact that three of my friends are dead" Violet casually explained "And I haven't had the chance to kill anyone in a while" with a rumbling, spikes all over the chair began to slowly inch forward, Chuck's cries of pain echoed around the halls and Violet merely watched with a slight frown. She suddenly scowled "This is boring" with a click of her fingers a final spike impaled Chuck's head. She sighed. and returned to writing at her desk.

 

​

Ana stepped up to Vyle, squeezing his hand gently. "Where you go, I go." She told him with a soft smile. Glancing over her shoulder she raised an eyebrow at Zephyr. "What do you say, kid? Ready to brave the dead?" And the monsters that go with it.

​

Veera followed the tracks, continually leading to the east. Her sensitive nose picked up the smell of rotting flesh; most likely scraps of the zombie's feet being left behind in the ground. No matter how disgusting it was, it meant they were on the right track. She stopped, rubbing a hand across her face. With her endurance, she would be able to sprint to the village in an hour. There was no way Kruez could match that speed, mage or not.

She whistled, the wind carrying the sound further. It was a half hope, barely even, but they had to keep moving, and faster if they wanted to catch up to Solomon. Hearing nothing in return, she sighed, and carried on walking. "So, what's your story?" She asked the mage, her eyes flicking towards him briefly.

​

"F*ck!" Treasa screamed as Derrick was knocked back, landing solidly on the ground. She winced internally at the sound his body made as she darted forward. "Over here you stupid ugly sh*t!" She yelled, aiming her bow and firing as she ran. It was a little off, glancing off the beast's shoulder, and it failed to get its attention as it slowly moved towards Derrick.

"I am not letting you die!" She jumped in front of Derrick, breathlessly raising her bow to aim straight at its face as it started down at her, only a few feet away. Oh gods, it was huge. She let the arrow fly, and jumping to the side. It followed her, bellowing in anger. Good. She thought grimly, turning and running further away from the fallen witcher.

She turned to unleash another arrow, and her heart stopped as the beast charged her. How can it move so fast?! She threw herself to the side, screaming more curse words then actual words as it barreled past her. Getting to her feet, wheezing for air, she shoved her hand inside of her pouch, grabbing a small bottle. Relic oil. This thing might not have been one, but it couldn't hurt to try. Casting Quen over herself, she quickly dunked the arrowhead in the bottle before kneeling on the ground. It was a risky move, giving her a better view of the creature as a target, but limiting her ability to get away. She aimed for what appeared to have been the most effective target; its eyes. It had gone into a rage and followed her when she had done so before,perhaps this time she would have better luck.

"Please f*cking Goddess of the Godda*mned Skies, get us through this alive." She prayed, feeling the feathers of the arrow brush her cheek as it flew past, her fingers letting the oil laden missile free.

​

Tessa shook her head at Sigmund. "Thank you!" She said brightly, turning with the money towards Matilda. "I mean, if you want to." She replied dubiously to the girl. "But you also fixed us up, so I'm sure it evens out somewhere." Seth seemed quite distracted, but by the time Tessa turned, he was joining them. She watched him, tilting her head to the side."What happened?" She asked, hanging back with him to let Matilda led.

​

 

Olivia's pov:


She walked with Alastar. Really not know what to say. When Alastar told his story she was would have said that she was happy about it, but in truth she was a bit disappointed that there was no story. She would have thought that there would have been more to the man's story then simply training. Oh, well what you going to do. That was when there was screeching up ahead, when two basilisks showed up. What were they doing here? They were no where near a cave, which for the most part was where basilisks stayed. She would have preferred not to have to deal with this right now, but there was not much to do but deal with them and move on. She had her sword in one hand and as the basilisk tail moved towards her she jumped and rolled to avoid it. Now standing she used her hands and to draw Igni and shot it off towards the basilisk face.

 

Derrick was getting ready to accept his fate as the beast got closer. He saw it's shadow looming over him, and he accepted his fate. However, the Gods decided that they were not finished with Derrick of Kaedwen yet. He saw it turn around and bound after Treasa who had managed to distract it with her arrows. A grim smile crossed his face and the Witcher forced himself to move. He slowly managed to roll himself on to his front and with great exertion, forced his body off the ground and to one knee. He welled up the liquid in his mouth and spat it out, leaving a bloody globule of saliva on the ground in front of him and wiped the blood from his face. He moved ponderously, going for his sword which he spotted not far away. He had to get going, he had to move faster. He saw Treasa still evading it and lining up a shot. He pushed himself forwards with all his might, reaching out and gripping the hilt of his blade. Almost instantly, he felt a surge of adrenaline and life returned to the Witcher, now rearmed and as angry as the beast was.
"Come on then, you son of a b*tch." Growled Derrick racing towards it with a warcry. It turned at the sound, making the perfect distraction for his companion. The arrow flew true, hitting it squarely in the eye, but it was far from over. Derrick drew the Sign of Quen and twirled his blade as it bellowed, the force of its roar shaking the trees around. It lunged for Treasa, much to the irritation of the Witcher. Apparently it wanted her guts over the shot to the eye. He couldn't waste this chance. Now it had a blind spot, something he could use. He raced around its back to the left side where it was blind and spun forwards, slicing across its hind leg at the knee in an effort to cripple it. He knew that it was going to react, surmising from its patterns of attack that it would try to punch him again. He dived backwards, anticipating its move.




When they got back to the room, Alanna shut the door and locked it, then gave Adolin a severe look. She placed the bag down carefully on the bed and gestured for him to take a seat at the table in the room. He did so, and she sat opposite. It was an awkward silence for a moment while they figured out what to say, but against the norm he took the initiative.
"Don't get me wrong Alanna, I appreciate this. I appreciate everything you've been doing so far, but I need to understand this." He began. "Why have you gone out of your way to help me? You owe me nothing. A few months ago, I kidnapped you and took you hostage to be my helper, my partner in crime willingly or not. Why are you spending money on helping me? Why are you trying so hard to achieve what I want to achieve?" She snorted.
"You call that spending money? You should have seen what Marla was like when she got into a dress shop. That was nothing." He shook his head and gave her a hard look. That wasn't a real answer, and she knew it. She paused for a moment, and then sighed. "Listen Adolin... I... I like you. You might have done that, but you've not exactly been a very good captor. You don't have the heart to really hurt me, and despite what you say and how you act when we're in public, I've always had my freedoms. You and I both understand that at any point, I could have made a portal and disappeared. But I didn't." She paused, and the Doppler started to laugh. He looked down at the table and put his head in his hands.
"You're right... I'm not very good at this am I?" He looked up at her with an amused expression. She smiled warmly.
"Well, not at handling me anyway. The rest of it you do alright I suppose." He nodded in agreement. "I'm helping you because you're a friend. I think that for all the acts you put on, you're a good person at heart. You've gone on a path of blood, and I know that you will never stop trying until it's done or until you realise of your own accord that you don't want to do this any more. I'm helping you because I don't want you to die, so I'll help you achieve this basic goal. But, Adolin, you need to listen to me when I say this."
"Say what?" He narrowed his eyes, mystified.
"This is the end of the line. Just as they took away your home, you're going to take theirs. There will be no more Witchers. Your quest ends here."
"But what if-"
"They won't know who did this. You can walk away. You don't need to do any more damage. After this, you're turning yourself around, and doing something else with your life. I know what you want to do. You want to blow up their home and hunt them until they're all dead, in the hope that one of them kills you to rid you of the guilt that you'll feel. You just want to run away from the responsibility." He saw her fists clench. He wanted to raise his voice in protest, but he couldn't. Her glare intensified. "After this is done, things are going to be different. You owe me for taking me out of my previous life, and you need to redeem what you're going to do. That's why you're going to be serving me from then on." The Doppler put his hand down on the table sharply.
"What? No that's ridiculous. Alanna, you have no right to say that in your position! I give you-" She got to her feet angrily.
"No you don't! You know full well that you couldn't stop me doing anything if you tried! Maybe before you knew who I was, but try it now! Go on Adolin, I dare you! Hit me!" Adolin stood up and brought his hand around to strike her, a furious look in his eyes. How dare she make a mockery of him like this? He whipped his hand towards her and -

Stopped. His hand froze a few inches away from her face, and he couldn't move it any further. He knew that it wasn't her magic, and the way she was standing, she wasn't recoiling in fear. She was standing there defiantly, as if she knew - As if she knew that he couldn't. He clenched his fist and dropped his arm to his side. She was right of course. She always was. She knew that he couldn't hurt her, no more than he could simply walk away. As much as she frustrated him, he never had been able to. There was a mutual understanding. She went along with his threats and what he said because she wanted to. He never had any real power over her at all.
"Fine." Adolin spoke, defeated. "So where do we go after this is over? How do I redeem what I'll have done?" Her body language eased and she sat down again. He did so as well, slumping down in his chair with one hand on the table. She took his hand in both of hers as she spoke.
"We're going to do some good for the world. You're going to kill their old protectors. How are people going to be able to save themselves without a Witcher to drive the monsters away? They'll live on for a while, the current ones, but when the monsters kill them all, who will be left to protect the common people? Who will save the families, and make sure that no child has to lose their parents?" She asked. He pondered the question for a while, leaning forwards and putting his head in his hands again.
"It'll be humans, or Dopplers like me that want to protect people. There are already monster hunting guilds and mercenaries in the world, they'll be all that stands in the way." He answered. She nodded.
"And Sorcerers, but one day the Sorcerers and Sorceresses may disappear too. And they're only human. They aren't as strong or fast as the legendary Witchers are." Alanna added. "When we were talking to that alchemist, he had hope. Hope that we were going to save people from the horrors of war to come. I was thinking about our lie - What if we made it a truth?" She could feel a surge of emotion mounting inside her. A determination to do something. A passion for it. A desire to protect. Adolin looked stunned, as if he realised something. "You have the alchemical knowledge of the Witchers, correct? Carrak of Cintra's school used poisons and bombs of various types. What if we built on that? What if we used what we have, and keep some of it?" She gestured to the pouches of explosives.
"Would that work?" The Doppler asked, wonderingly. "I don't see why not..." Those words only enhanced the feeling inside her. Her grip on his hand tightened.
"Adolin, let's do it. Let's do what you need to do, and then let's redeem ourselves. I'm complicit in this. We both need to make up for our sins." To her delight, Adolin wearing the face of Carrak of Cintra nodded. She stood up and began to create the portal. As she started, she felt something wrap itself around her stomach and press against her back. She looked down and saw the arms of Adolin, now wearing his true face.
"Thank you Alanna." He said softly, putting his head on her shoulder. "You've given me something new to live for." She smiled and touched his cheek.
"Come on. Justice for your family awaits." He released her and she drew the portal, calling back the co-ordinates of that basement that she had memorised while they were there. The pulsating orange gateway opened, and the two of them stepped forwards into the future. ​

 

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Treasa smiled with satisfaction as her arrow hit its mark, thanks in part to Derrick, who was now back on his feet. She had little time to wallow in her triumph however, as it bellowed and turned. She tried to roll out of the way as it charged, the force of its head against her chest shattering her Quen shield with a crack. She tumbled through the air before slamming into the ground, rolling a few feet before coming to a stop.

She heard the creature bellow, and raised dizzy eyes to see the monster turning to try and catch Derrick, only for the witcher to roll away. She felt warmth on her face, and reached towards her cheek with her fingers, only to have them come away crimson. Starting to her feet, she dropped back down to the ground, hands flying out to catch her as she landed on her knees. The world spun around her, and she felt her stomach twist with
nausea as her hold on the grass tightened.

Pushing herself to her feet once more, she stumbled, raising the bow and drawing another arrow, letting it go. It hit the monster's horn, and glanced off, but it was enough to direct it's attention to her once more. "Please take the shot." She whispered, knowing there was no way Derrick could hear her as she drew Quen while the creature prepared to charge. Even on one leg, another blow would be devastating if he didn't stop this attack.

​

The basilisk attacking Alastar landed on a nearby mound, screeching at him before jumping into the air and diving towards the witcher again. This time, he drew his claws up, tail scraping and sliding along the ground to catch the witcher and knock him further away from Olivia.

The basilisk attacking Olivia hissed as the Igni caught her on the neck before whipping her wing around, knocking the female off her feet. The basilisk turned full circle and jumped closer to Olivia, bearing down.

​

 

Derrick growled as the creature scored a nasty hit on Treasa who was sent flying, much the same as he was. The sight only propelled him further, his heart racing and adrenaline pumping through his veins. It looked like it was going to be him fighting this one out mostly. His prediction was correct and the huge claw flew past him, not even glancing the Quen shield. He saw Treasa stumbling to her feet and loosing an arrow. While it was looming over him to strike again, it was all of a sudden back to her. He presumed that it didn't particularly feel like taking another arrow to the eye. As it whirled around, Derrick saw his chance. He rushed right and gripped the blade in two hands, then delivered a resounding blow to its right leg, slicing it at the knee. He needed to do more. This thing could not afford to move again. He knew the risk of it, and he took it.
"Oh you're not going anywhere, b*tch." Derrick's sword cut even deeper into its hind leg, making use of the cut that he already made. However, he knew that it was going to turn around and hit him again. This time, he was ready. His Quen was active, and he could take it. He watched the attack coming. Unless Treasa did something magical, there was no way he was going to avoid the claw that was going to sweep around and slam into him. At least it probably wasn't going to be moving anywhere any time soon, unless it dragged itself around. That meant it would be slow and unbalanced. Just the sort of enemy that he liked to face, because they usually died quicker that way. ​

 

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Ellyn waited until Ardal and his young charges were out of sight over the hill before turning Oak down towards Pontarfork. She stuck the lance in under the saddle girth and drew her sword; it would be a better weapon in the confines of the village as she moved at a walk. First she circled the village entirely, standing on stirrups to peer into the village for any signs of hidden enemies. None were immediately obvious. After a few more moments of silent observation, she took a deep breath and entered Pontarsfork.
The signs of struggle were everywhere. Doors and windows were smashed, carts overturned, blood was splashed around in violently large amounts, and there was the occasional fly-covered limb. But after pacing through the village thoroughly and entering a few buildings including the inn, what was immediately striking was the lack of bodies. She had seen one or two savagely mangled corpses, limbless and entrails spilled, but certainly not the amount expected from an attack.
So the bodies have either been carried away, or been eaten, Ellyn reasoned to herself, as she squated down pensively examining one of the mangled corpses. One of the stable boys from the inn, she vaguely remembered, although it was strange that she could recognize the fellow given that half his head was gone. Ripped apart by claws and teeth. And to take on an entire village and win, this must be the work of monsters rather than a pack of wolves. An extremely large group of monsters... That last thought was troubling.
Monsters that had eaten the populace? Perhaps, but if they had then Ellyn would have expected to see much more blood, many more bones, and perhaps a central area where the beasts had gathered together to feast. She had seen no indication of that.
But to carry an entire village away... that didn't sound like the work of monsters. Brigands might do that, if they knew of a slaver in the vicinity, but she'd never heard of a slaver so far inland. In either case, there would be tracks leading from the village. It was just a case of finding those tracks.
Having determined a course of action, Ellyn stood up determinedly and turned away from the stable boys mangled corpse. After a few steps the grotesqueness of the display hit her, and she was driven to her knees, suddenly and violently puking.

 

The old Crow watched her readjust the grip and prepare for the strike, she tried to do a jab him, he used his sword to easily parry the strike. "Again." The crow instructed, the jab wasn't a bad place to start. After she had jabbed again, he once again parried and asked her to do so again, and again passed the parry. "It's a bit simple, but never underestimate a good jab." Veceslav said, then taking up position next to her "Now, just follow my example. I'll take it slow so you can follow it easily." As the Crow demonstrated a simple sword routine, both hands on the hilt, slashing downwards diagonally, twisting the blade to cut horizontally, then closing it with a jab. He demonstrated it again and then turned around as he had moved forward during the little routine. "Now you, don't worry, take it slow. Doing it right is the first priority, speed comes later." The old Crow said, keeping his eyes on Tatiana watching her perform the routine.


"Come on, ugly *******. Bring it!" Alastar taunted the beast, keeping his silver axe in hand attempting to strike it as it had landed on the little mound, but it flew away before he could. The beast flew away again, circled around and came for another dive, this time tail on the ground. Alastar stood his ground silver axe in hand, body coiled to strike the beast in it's neck, As the beast dove towards him, he tried to twist out of the way, simultaneously bringing his axe upwards towards the beast's neck, however somehow the beast had figured what way he would attempt to twist, the tail crashing into his left side and while the armour did protect him from lacerations, it didn't do nearly as much for blunt impacts like this. The witcher still attempted to hit the beast with his silver axe, but was uncertain if he would as he started to feel like he was going for the dirt, roaring as he did, the anger was good, more fuel for the fight, with his rage growing and the adrenaline pumping he didn't feel too much of the wound, but it would hurt like hell after, if there was an after...
​

 

Olivia's pov:



Her mind was racing. She could not believe this. She watched as the Igni caught the basilisk on the neck. She thought that she was going to be ready for what happened next, but she wasn't. The wing of the basilisk hit her hard nocking her to the ground. Welp. She would be lying if she said it did not hurt, but it did. The basilisk then leep towards her. She used Quen and she rolled towards Alastar as the baskilsk came at her with her silver sword out aiming for the leg. However somehow the basilisk she rolled away from got her on the left side. The armor protected her from the basilisk somewhat but it hurt bad. She did not know if she hit the baskilisk or not. This thing was somewhat fast. She got to her feet quickly. She could tell this was not going well.

 

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"Wouldn't be the first time." Zephyr replied. He took a step forward to show that he planned to follow behind them into the city. I wished that wasn't true though.

​

Kruez silently followed behind Veera as they continued to follow the directions the tracks had gone in. The silence had been broken twice throughout their walked, the first time was when Veera whistled and the second being when she asked him about his story. With a shrug Kruez started speaking. "There's not much to tell. I'm from a village a far ways from here and had a fairly decent life, despite being oblivious to how some of the other people felt about mages. Being oblivious to all that sure was great while it lasted, but all good things must come to an end as they say and in my case, it came to an end when both my parents were murdered." Kruez explained, his face unchanged as he did.

​

Following the literal self destruction that occurred yesterday, Xross did a fair amount of walking around aimlessly. There wasn't much point of heading back to a bar at this time of day, most of the 'easy to mess with' people (as Xross saw fit to named them as such) wouldn't be there yet and thus the fun that he could have there was severely limited. Which left him in his current situation.

Eventually this walking around of his had taken him near a river that ran under a bridge. An interesting change of scenery, but he wasn't going to complain just yet. After taking a few more steps forward, something had caught his attention. Well someone at least. He'd managed to spot Talon there. Now this was definitely an interesting turn of events given how he'd gotten arrested the previous day and it also gave him something to relive his boredom of. It was a win win...for Xross anyway. "Well, well I never pegged you as the type to break out after being arrested."

Their trip to the alchemist's shop had fortunately gone off without any issue. Upon seeing Terra attempted to lean over to look at one of the many items, Sweallow took a guess at what she was trying to look at, picked it up and held it up for her to look at. "Does this help?" This was followed by Terra bringing up that she knew some alchemy herself. "Interesting, maybe it'll give you more to talk about with the owner."

 

​

Ana smiled a little at Zephyr's response, though her heart weighed heavy. She waited until the kid was far enough ahead to quickly stand on her tip toes and press a kiss to Vyle's cheek before flashing a quick smile at him and heading after the mage, Whatever was in the city, she was sure they could handle it together. And with every day, she would regain a little bit more of herself. Milosh will not win.

​

Veera glanced over at the mage; his emotionless statement was a little disturbing. Not so much the words, it was a common story these days. It was more that he said it so factually, as if it had happened to someone else, and he was simply retelling the story. "So how did you find your way to the Kaer, all that time ago? It seems ironic we meet again, and this time you're leaving with me."

This time, I won't fail the person who follows me.

​

Treasa could only watch from her knees as Derrick scored a massive wound against the creature, effectively cutting off its means of charging. With only two useable limbs, it would be hard pressed to go anywhere quickly. The monster turned, using its claw to smack against Derrick. While it shattered the Quen, the witcher was left standing. She sighed in relief, before attemping to get to her feet a third time.

While the monster was easier to defeat, the battle was by no means over yet. Unable to walk, Treasa crawled forwards, reaching her somewhat intact bottle of Relic oil. Whether it had helped or not, she couldn't do much more with it anymore.

"Derrick!" She called out, tossing the bottle towards him. The monster turned towards her with a howl, then back to Derrick, as if it couldn't decide which target to attack. She slumped to the side, her vision wavering as the blood streamed down her cheek. A concussion, most likely. Just perfect, given her main weapon was a bow. She pulled an arrow from the quiver, taking a deep breath to fill her lungs with oxygen before aiming one last arrow.

"You can do this." She whispered encouragingly, though to herself or the witcher, she wasn't sure. One last time, she let the arrow fly, aiming for its remaining eye as the bow dropped to the ground, her body slumping over. The remaining strength she had went into staying conscious. If she fell asleep, she might never wake up.

​

Tessa watched Seth, unsure if she should believe him or not. She wanted to...or did she? Sighing, she took his hand, deciding to put it out of her mind for now as she walked with him and Matilda and Greg. Soon enough, they arrived at the blacksmith's and as she hovered over the man's wares, deciding on what to choose, she blushed at Seth's joke. "You'd have to buy me dinner first. I have standards." She teased in return, finally selecting a longer dagger made of iron. It had small trees engraved on it, giving it a more decorative look then the rest of the plain ones.

If she was going to stab someone, she at least wanted to feel pretty while she did it. "What do you think?" she asked Seth, holding it out to him.

​

The basilisk attacking Alastar screeched, now sporting a wound along its left side. It wheeled around before landing in front of Alastar, reaching out with its beak to try to grab the fallen witcher by the leg.

The basilisk attacking Olivia swung between her and Alastar, keeping them separated as it took a second to screech at her, making the witcher's ears ring. She then ran forwards, using the hooks in the wing joints as front legs to gain speed as it charged the female witcher with the intent of knocking her down.

 

Derrick felt the oversized fist slam into his chest, shattering the Quen shield and staggering him back. Such a blow would have knocked most people to the floor, even with the Quen, but Derrick was a Witcher and managed to preserve his balance and stay standing. He saw Treasa moving ahead of the creature, reaching for a vial of something. He presumed that it was something useful. He feigned a dash left and dashed around the right side of the creature. As the phial of oil flew towards him, he rolled beneath an angry swipe and caught it as he stood up again. He was standing between it and Treasa out of its reach, but it placed its hands on the ground and started to drag itself forwards. He glanced at what was inside, recognising it as Relict Oil. Well thought of. He splashed the remainder of the bottle over his sword and grasped it in both hands, daring it to come forwards. The beast glared at him furiously, just outside of its reach, and then an arrow struck, It pierced the skin of the creature, but not quite hitting the eye. Her wounds must have knocked off her aim. It swung for Derrick as it was unable to get to Treasa, he dodged aside and struck its arm. The oil burned against its flesh as the blade bit deep. It swept its arm round and Derrick rolled beneath the claw. He cried out when a couple of sharp edges raked across his back, but he sliced the sword into its stomach and rolled out again, his armour now becoming soaked in not only his, but its blood.




This post was made with Magick's permission (and her estimations of the effect).

In Kaer Morhen, in one of the basements of the castle, a glowing orange portal opened, unknown to Veceslav in Tatiana. Out of the portal stepped a Doppler in a blue coat, an array of swords and knives strapped across his front and with him, a sorceress. A short conversation was spoken between the two, a nod was shared and that was that. Both of them had a determined look on their faces as they set about their task. The sorceress reached into a bag strapped along her front and handed a pouch to the Doppler who nodded and moved out. Adolin Bonhart, the soon to be avenger of his family, ran to the basement door and opened it quietly. He moved slowly and as quietly as he could up the stairs. There was nobody here in the main hall he was glad to see. He set the pouch up against the back wall. Alanna Tanette, Sorceress and the 'hostage' of the Doppler, placed one of the pouches in the basement where they had landed and met with Adolin upstairs. The pouches were open and the reactions would complete soon, but there was a faster way. When she was upstairs, Adolin met her there and they placed the last pouch. She opened a portal outside and they stepped through, waiting to watch what came next.

There was a loud roar shortly after they stepped out of the other side of the portal to a hill not far from the castle where they had a view of it. A roar was not justice to the sound. A thunderclap of titanic proportions rolled through the valley as the pouches they had planted detonated, scattering hot rubble through the air. The two of them looked on, watching the courtyard of Kaer Morhen erupt with a spray of dirt and stone. Inside the castle, the reactions that were already well on their way to completion were suddenly accelerated by the sheer force, prompting a subsequent pair of explosions. Their ears rang even from this distance from the sound, the sound of the apocalypse as the majestic ruins of Kaer Morhen split open from the inside. A gout of flame erupted from the carnage, countless alchemical materials set alight at once and scalding piles of rock were scattered across the surrounding valley, cast into the air by the force of two immensely powerful weapons. The two of them looked on in amazement in what they had been given by the alchemist. The once proud home of the Witchers lay in ruins.

"We did it..." The Doppler uttered after a momentary silence. All seemed still and quiet after the eruption of sound that was the destruction of Kaer Morhen. He slammed his fist into the ground in satisfaction. "We did it!" He scrambled to his feet and raised his arms into the air at the crest of the hill.
"There! You destroyed my home! You took my family! Well I took yours!" He exulted, grinning. He was breathing fast, his heart pounding. "Our debt is paid!" He turned to the Sorceress who had since got on to her feet. His triumphal expression faded as he saw hers.
"Adolin, did you see, that was-"
"I saw Alanna, but it's equivalent exchange. What will come now, will come." He gave her a serious expression to match her own. "We know that we have sinned. Now we work to redeem our sins." She shook her head solemnly, looking at the Kaer. The main castle had collapsed, but the furthest elements of the front seemed to have survived, though were covered in huge amounts of rubble.
"No Adolin... What was there... That cannot be allowed to be given to anyone." Alanna said, her nails digging hard enough into her palms to draw blood. Adolin looked back at the destruction, then back at her.
"We could do so much with that. We could earn-" She shook her head vehemently.
"NO!" Her voice was louder and sharper than it had ever been before. She could see her companion physically reel. "This cannot be allowed to happen again. Something of this power... This will ruin lives Adolin. I thought that this could be put to good use but no... All this can do is destroy." He spoke as if to object to what she was saying, but she held a finger up and he stopped.
"No, remember what you said. You listen to me now Adolin. And I say that this will never happen again so long as I live. And if I mean anything to you, and I mean anything, then you'll swear that same oath." Her words clearly gave him pause. Adolin clenched his own fists and paced around, glaring at the ground.
"You're right... If a single person can control this power..." She nodded.
"Come on Adolin, we're leaving. We're going back to Novigrad, and you're going into another room. I need to be by myself for a while. After this, I need a long rest." She opened her pouch and counted him enough to pay for a couple more nights, one of which would be in his own room. The portal opened and they stepped through, any sense of victory that either of them could have felt now crushed.​

 

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Kruez assumed that when Veera was referring to his arrvial at Kaer, she meant the first time that he arrived there. It was kinda odd given that she was the reason that he'd arrived there, well the mode of transportation anyway. He was free to decline her offer, but he did so yeah. Anyway Kruez looked over in her direction. "Well you have another mage, Evander, open a portal that lead to Kaer. That's pretty much the way I got there."

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"Xross, you're royalness." Xross said in what was clearly a mocking tone. He could've brought up the fact that he was there first when Talon had showed up, least at the bar anyway, but those were minor details. Especially since he actually has followed people around before for the sole purpose of messing with them.

It was at this moment hat Zephyr sneeze out of nowhere. He got the feeling that someone very irritating was thinking of him. Not sure why he would have this feeling in the first place, so he just shrugged the feeling off.

Back with Xross, he made no attempts to move despite Talon's request. Instead he only moved closer. "And what if I don't, it's not like you're in any condition to do something about it. But I welcome you to try." And I'll be sure to exploit that shoulder injury of yours as painfully as possible. Ah taunting, it worked easier when the target was already irritated and even better when they were quick to act on said irritation.

Once more Zephyr sneezed out of nowhere. Seriously, just who was thinking about him?

Sweallow allowed Terra to take the item from his hand once he'd held it up to her. "My pleasure." Hearing her request to explain what it was that she was holding, Sweallow considered it. While he did have knowledge in the field of medicine and alchemy was sometimes used in said field (and Mok totally isn't pulling that out of his ass), his actual knowledge on the topic of alchemy was quite minimal at best. So after pondering Terra's suggestion, he replied with. "Go right on ahead, alchemy had attracted my curiosity at times."

 

The old Crow watched Tatiana execute the little routine. Each and every time she executed it went better, it was a rathe simple routine. Then his medallion vibrated... he looked around no monsters nearby that he could see... so magic? Did that mage have the audacity to come back here directly? After a few moments something unusual carried over to him, a smell... but that meant.... the smell slowly got stronger... his Medalion vibrated again, the Crow knew what was to come. He saw Tatiana's horrified look at him as he brought up the active quen shield in an attempt to shield himself when the explosion came...

The force of the explosion hit the shield and Veceslav gritted his teeth in an attempt to hold it, but he knew it was no use. The shield faltered as the blastwave passed, though the witcher wasn't out of the fire yet as sharp stones pierced his armour, pieces of wood flew into him. The old witcher collapsed, bleeding from a dozen wounds. He knew it was over, there was no one there... and potions wouldn't cut it.... He had always known that his end would be alone, never thought it would come like this... With whatever will he had left he dragged himself towards a piece of what would have been the structure's walls... the sun on his face, he looked at the stone shard embedded in his chest tried to pull it out, knowing full well it would only accelerate his end. Pain shot through him as he tried to remove the chunk, failing at it he let it go. He wrapped his hands around his Medallion hoping to reach out one last message to Veera. He swallowed... hard, blood trickling from his mouth "V-veera....I'm sorry.." He said softly and with great difficulty, coughing up blood as he did. He didn't know if the message would pull through. He took hold of a flask of White Raffard's taking one last glance at Tatiana and then closed his eyes.

He saw Master Silas as he taught Veceslav how to lead, he saw his friend, Ramiro of the Viper School, who taught the crow his way around Alchemy more than the wolves ever could. He saw himself stand beside Sigmund as they were putting another group of people through the Trial of the Grasses. He saw himself look after Derrick when he had just arrived and like so many others wanted to go home and sitting by his side as he was subjected to the Trials. He saw himself training with Aaron, to improve his footwork. He saw himself sitting by Veera's side, waiting for her to wake up after the Trials of the Grasses, those were some difficult hours, to see if the subjects would pull through or not and she was the last of her group. And lastly he saw himself in Oxenfurt amidst the chaos being re-united with his lost scions... The witcher's heart stopped beating as his soul left his body...


Judging by the annoyed screech of the beast his attack had landed. As did the creature itself, trying to attack him while he was down the coward! Then again animals knew aggresion they didn't understand the concept of cowardice. Alastar pulled the leg the beast was going for back and used the other one to deliver a boot to it's face. After that the witcher scrambled to his feet again, with the beast up-close it was time to get up-close and personal answering it's screeches with a bear-like roar as he brought the silver coated axe down diagonally and used his free gauntleted hand to follow up with a fist.​

 

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Treasa gritted her teeth, struggling to get her swaying vision in focus as she held herself upright with her bow; not the most idyllic of situations, but never let it be said she wasn't adaptable. As Derrick yelled in pain, she pressed her nails into her palm, absolutely hating the idea of being unable to do anything. With her worsening sight it would only be more hazardous to try and shoot more arrows at the monster; she could very easily hit Derrick instead. Alternatively, there was one thing she could...

Getting to her knees, Treasa whistled, grabbing the creature's one eyed attention. Slowly, her hand shaking to the point of incapability, she made the sign for Axii, praying to the gods it would work long enough for Derrick to finish off the monster.

 

Olivia's pov:



The basilisk kept on attacking. The basilisk then ran forwards, using the hooks in the wing joints as front legs to gain speed as it charged her. This is what she thought it would do. She use Yrden right as the basilisk charged her. As the basilisk came at her she held her silver sword towards the basilisk. She aimed at the monsters body as it ran by. Then took a swing at the monsters head with her sword. She moved back slightly from the monster.