Tales of Darkness

Zoro rested in the trees. His journey from home had started late, but he kept pace with the other travelers as he surfed through the canopy of trees effortlessly. He did not stop until he came upon a wolf in a clearing with no options of going around. He sighed; there was no other course of action, he knew, as he readied his bows. He pulled an arrow out of his quiver and set the arrow, and so with a twang, it soared and landed in the throat of the Wolf just as it spotted him and began to race toward the tree with teeth bared.The wolf fell almost instantly, and Zoro retrieved his arrow from the animal shortly after using his hunting knife to avoid letting the death be in vain. The wind whispered through the trees as he made off with his light load, and took once more to the branches, nimbly.

Later, In the City of Trees, he kept his advantage of foliage cover. He watched everyone from above, from the higher ups to the lowly Warriors he had "travelled" with. No one could see him, but he was there.

 

Rowan took the hit to his ribs hard. He was rather fragile when it came to taking hits. To be honest, he was kind of glad Derik had taken the stealth route into the crowd. Had he just continued attacking, Rowan wouldn't have been able to keep up. However, with the time between his attacks, the mage was able to regain his composure and the wind which was knocked out of him by the heavy blow. He turned and scanned the crowd for his opponent. He was a scholar, he could figure this out. Once you've got everything, sort out the irrelevant information and...there! He spotted Derik not a moment too soon. Just before he performed the lunge. The mage dressed in black raised out his hand as a glow began shining from his palm. He cast the fireball spell directly at his opponent. This spell exploded on contact with it's target. As such, it was the force from that which dealt the immediate damage. The heat certainly helped as an after effect, but it's explosive force was just as powerful, if not more so.

 

"C-Crap! How did he... No, no time. React!" Derik disliked going single-bladed, but he decided it better to retain the fight and loose a small advantage he had. He threw one of his practice blades at the fire blast to intercept it. On contact, the blast exploded and smoldered everywhere, and Derik was thrown aback slightly as the blast released it's air current. "Almost ironic that he fired at a crowd and he is peace-loving..." He laughed in his head, the smoke covered for him long enough to allow him to re-prepare his lunge, which he did and slid through the smoke, striking Rowand in the stomach since he was open there after casting the attack.

 

Rowan had succeeded in destroying one of the makeshift blades of Derik's. Although he still had another to worry about. He was still coming, and slashed at his stomach. Rowan was just barely able to move his staff into place with his other hand, lessening the blow. Lessening, but not stopping it by a long shot. Pain shot through his lower torso as breath escaped him. In a real fight, he'd have just barely survived such an attack. Doing his best to endure the pain, he shoved his staff forward and up, locking it with Derik's blade and tying both up in the air. If focused hard enough, Derik would probably be able to push down and win a power struggle. So his only chance was to not let that happen. He pressed up another fireball against Derik's stomach. At such short range, he'd be affected by it as well, but not as badly as his opponent. If this succeeded, it'd likely either end in a draw or a win for either side, depending on how enduring each combatant was. Although there was the slight possibility he'd find a way to avoid it altogether...

 

"Crap. He's the damn best mage I've ever fought. Better than self-proclaimed masters, for sure." Derik thought, the orb up against his stomach and blade in the air. "I'll give you this: You're probably the best enemy I've fought in a long time. But time to finish it!" Derik turned the blade of his wooden sword to it's flat edge, forcing it down in such a way that it snapped. Derik used his other hand to catch the broken off part, and used it to slash across Rowand's body as he used the remnant of the blade in his other hand to explode the fireball. "This is going to suck hard... But it's better than the alternate of making him think I cheated..." The orb blew, sending both fighters back.

 

Kessha sat in her chair laughing at the wild girl Mist as well as the sparing between the two others. It made her happy that everyone was enjoying themselves before heading out on their missions. She turned to the mayor... who was not there. Something odd was going on with him.

Out of nowhere a bullet came firing from a triple barrel pistol. All three appeared right above Kessha's head. A man covered in black armor and dark hair appeared with the mayor standing next to him. "So this is it. Not a very strong looking bunch. I'm sure Guardian would have no time wiping them out."

The mayor shook behind him. "P-please Sir Kain. let us join back with the Empire after this." He asked him with a scared look.

"Why of course. The Emperor is just happy to get rid of an uprising. You will be rewarded well. After the Mystic and these men die." He readied his pistols at the group ready to take them out.

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Skadi's attention was brought to the man with the pistols. From the looks of things, it seemed as though he was fully prepared to kill them. She pointed to man that seemed to want to fight, and was slightly intimidating. "People that kill without reason have no right to life" she said calmly, her voice as gentle as ever. She then looked to the Mayor, who was hiding behind Kain. "And those that betray their allies are just as bad" she added. There was no sense of anger in her voice, the way she spoke made it sound almost as though she were dissapointed. She held her Staff in such a way that it did not seem threatening, though it looked as though she could change that at any moment.

 

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Sasha smiled to herself as she observed the two men sparring against each other. They looked so childish fighting each other despite them both using weapons and all their fancy talk. It reminded her of her hometown here the little boys would always wave around sticks and swing them at another, yelling out such silly moves. It made her wish-​

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BANG​

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The gunshot startled her and she whipped around towards the sound, eyeing the man with the gun known as Kain...according to the mayor who will be next in line to die very painfully once she and the rest were done with Kain. ​

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"Well forgive me 'Kain,' but you won't be rewarding anyone. You defiantly won't kill us very easily. Besides, what kind of a man shoots a girl like that? Have some decency, even for a bad guy." She notched an arrow and aimed it at him. "Even if you kill us all, that won't stop an uprising. You should know what happens to such people killed in a fashion. Now enough talk." She let the arrow fly at Kain.​

 

Zoro, upon hearing the gunshots, landed nimbly amidst the warriors once the sudden maurader had summed everyone else up. Upon impact with the floor, he took to one knee in a roll dive and he fired one arrow at the black armored fiend. "Just so everyone knows which team I'm on, I suppose." He swiftly rose to his feet and looked to the others, his cool eyes pervading the tension.

 

Mist grew irritated that some guy would decide to ruin all the fun. She unsheathed her sword and used her arte. This first blow would do the most damage she hoped.

 

Takeru heard the gunshots and raised an eyebrow and followed after it, meeting Kain who had apparently had a three barrel pistol in his hands, a new craft that would make the daggers look like merely toys as a conversation spun from one of the females before he looked to scared mayor, it seemed he was too frightened to continue the rebellion and sided with the enemy to get into their good graces as saying 'Here's your rebels on a silver platter.'

"At least he had the decency to fight than kill someone with their guard down, there's at least some honour in that." he said, hand resting on his sword as it remained sheathed.

"Two pistols, twin barrels can equal up to two shots with four bullets coming for you, while there's the chance of reload time and cleaning his weapon to get it ready for use again since these projectile weapons suffer the same fate, even with my reflexes, deflecting bullets with throwing knives is not a wise idea, unless I can get in close and use one seeing they are concealed fairly well." Takeru gave it some thought before the archers, fired a respective arrows and an Arte following behind.

"Arrows have quite a speed to boost and you'd need fast reflexes just to see one, and an arte..." Takeru withdrawn his sword and rested the blunt edge against the front of his shoulder. "Going forth." he said and ran to slice Kain sideways, across his midriff.

 

For most the time spent in the city of trees, Sieg has remained quiet and just listen to what was going on. However upon hearing the gunshot, he looked towards the man responsible. First thing he did was sigh, then he spoke. "Why must cause violence for no reason." The words were said in a tone that only he would hear. Still he went ahead and charged at the man with his lance.

 

Exhausted from the fight which had ended in a draw, Rowan sat down, catching his breath for a while. Luckily for him, he was able to do so before gunshots echoed throughout the area. He glared at the captain who attacked them. Having recovered from his previous fight, he was ready for another. This man seemed to have no problem with killing them, perhaps even getting a sick sense of joy out of it. If you disregarded the lives of others, you forfeit the right to your own. Rowan knew this well. A glowing sphere of flames appeared in his right hand, which he then hurled at the enemy.

 

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Sasha ducked just to make sure she wasn't being targeted. After Kain made his shots, she jumped back to her feet and drew an arrow. She fitted it and pulled it back, but held it there as the arrow seemed to gather the wind around it a little. Sasha then fired off her Charged Shot at Kain. We gotta end this quick before major casualties rise up.​

 

"I am for you, but don't count on me to save you should you fall. I can fight on my own, thanks." Zoro said smarmishly took another arrow from his quiver and released it at Kain once again. His self-centered nature was mixing with his heroic tendencies in a way that showed vicariously.

 

Mist smiled at everyone's cooperation. "I am glad you all can work together so quickly. Lets get this guy." She said and charged with a normal attack.

 

Takeru watched as attack after attack came for Kain, with three getting damage in return so that'll be bullets used up there and ran forward again and rolling literally right past Kain, getting behind him as he knelt on the ground, fanning out three small daggers and tossed them, the sharp edges soaring to his back, if Kain planned to block those, the arrows would get him if he turned, so he was being pincer attacked.

"...." he was silent as he leapt back to avoid any shots coming his direction, preparing to deflect any bullets that may come his way.

"While admirable in taking this many at once, he surely must know he's outmatched and will be hard pressed to not be backed into a corner... yet, I cannot help but be concerned, either he has a powerful Arte concealed in his sleeves or his title of Guardian Captain isn't merely for show, but rather experience..." he thought to himself, he knew never to judge a book by it's cover, one of the lessons he learnt on the road.

 

While the attack dealt to him did cause some damage, it wasn't enough to hinder him by much. So he went in for an attack of his own. With lance in hand, he stabbed it towards the Guardian Captain.

 

Rowan was rather fragile due to the generally low defense of mages. The attack had hurt him fairly badly. While it wasn't fatal yet, he wouldn't survive another hit from that attack. So, he decided to try and outlast the enemy's tp supply. He used an apple gel (or orange. whichever recovers HP) to heal.