In the gaze of the moon

[Karuka]

Taodoine panicked and struggled when the ice encased him on his near-vertical ascent. His wings and tail grew heavy, despite his desperate flapping and clawing, and he started tumbling from the air - straight back toward the dragon. Wherever his master was, she wasn't giving him direction. But he was an autonomous being, capable of fighting for his own life when it came down to it. And he was a bird famed for fire; he was not so easy to flash-freeze.

Down, down, down he tumbled, through the smog, over the wrecked buildings, over the thick sheet of ice, over the rubble and the rabble. When he was only a few dozen feet away from Moonwing, he burst again, more powerfully than before. The ice surrounding his body weakened when the fire hit it, then shattered when he flapped, sending shards bursting in every direction. His wings ached with the cold, and they only hurt more from the sudden heat that shrouded him. But he wasn't done yet.

The ball of fire turned again, getting his mighty wings above him and his vicious talons beneath him. While the men ripped through Moonwing's perch, he turned on the dragon once more, dive bombing the enraged reptile's other eye. He wanted to gouge it out and blind her, to take advantage of her weak spot. After he strafed her, he wheeled and fled. He was an intelligent bird, and he knew he didn't want to keep tangling with this dragon who changed her attacks so rapidly.

Not far away, Karuka crested a building and scanned the carnage through the cold fog that billowed forth with every breath. In a technical sense, she'd been successful; the dragon couldn't fly. In a real sense, she'd made things a whole lot worse. Even if they managed to take down Moonwing, Jormungstadt might be better off abandoned.

She bit her lip. What could she do to keep the dragon's attention off of the innocent townsfolk? Well, other than feed Storm to her. Speaking of, she caught sight of him from the corner of her eye, flying up into the air and making himself visible. Ever th' survivor, that man.

Now she had to make a choice. There were survivors in the collapsing church, and they were probably doomed if the dragon went down on top of them. But there were more people who hadn't or couldn't fled the town, people who would be doomed if the dragon didn't die at the feet of the gods. I offer a prayer t' th' lost. An' another t' th' living.

Karuka's hand still throbbed and bled where she'd cut it, but she had neither time nor inclination to attend to her minor wound when there was still an urgent threat. She could feel a cistern beneath the church, and she'd only just begun using magic. With focus, with effort, with a few quick, deliberate gestures, she called upon the water again.

It roared up through the fount and the floor in its tons and torrents, crashing through plaster and shingles to bombard the gleaming dragon from beneath and destroy her perch. It exploded into the air above her, then crashed back down on top of her in a relentless, brutal barrage. Surely the roof couldn't hold under any more abuse.

An' with any luck, we can fry 'er dead. I'm sorry, beautiful beast. But fer th' families y've sundered an' d'stroyed, fer th' mothers who grieve their sons an' daughters, fer th' orphans left b'hind in yer rage... Fer vengeance an' wrath taken too far. We can't let y' keep goin'.

[Artifex Felicis]

It was always too late when it comes to vengeance.

It was the conclusion that the cat had come to, when he had first heard the reports and open call for the dragon’s head. Several towns must have been trampled and routed already, the beast that had done so moving with a malevolent, cruel streak. It had avoided towns with easier roads to them, taking a circuitous round along the Twilight mountains. However, that also cut away all potential places for the citizens to run, herding citizens and prey towards Jormungstadt.

From there, the dragon could push towards the larger cities, driving men, women and children before it to spread panic from its terrible name.

Leon was impressed. It was far from the random attacks and it was something he respected. He had guessed the wrong town at first, thinking it was one of the larger ones at first. As the dragon descended upon the small Hamlet, even over a mile away the cat could hear its destruction, and its fury from the telepathic screams. The sudden flash of flame and power, obvious on the clear day, just intensified the need to move quickly.

So Leon ran.

There were few creatures on Althanas that could match the hunter’s striding legs, even laden down with weaponry and armor. He saw the rise of a Phoenix and the screaming masses trying to escape. People frozen from the dragon’s fel breath made him adjust his trajectory, twisting to go around the town and behind the dragon. As he got closer, his mind buzzed. The telepathic storm that was the dragon close to overwhelming even his second mind. He heard its words, its rage,, but the cat didn’t particularly care.

He skidded to a stop behind the dragon, adjusting his armaments. Spear that had slain one, admittedly small, dragon in hand, and sword in sheath. The two balls of yarn twitched, coiled and ready to burst out. He had hoped to find the dragon in a forest, but the buildings around him were jagged enough to latch onto with the deyln yarn. He swallowed, a wide grin appearing on his face, shwoing sharp and dangerous teeth.

He took in breath, then roared at the dragon, louder by far than its telepathic assault, or the sounds of battle. It echoed along the mountains, reaching for miles around Jormungstadt and rippling the air around the cat boy. Wouldn’t be fair not to tell the dragon he was there.

[Hysteria]

The assaults on Moonwing had started to take a toll. The dragon’s left shoulder had large chunks of flesh torn out and rich red blood leaked down over her silver scales and onto the church. Her other wing wasn’t faring much better, although it lacked any noticeable injury, it was encased in ice and relatively useless. The dragon’s right eye was ringed with burns and it’s normal white was an angry red.

A number of things happened in quick succession that caught the dragon off guard. The church below her suddenly shuddered and started to crumble. A further blast of electricity from Storm and the building and dragon fell to the ground. The spire, a handle for one of her claws cracked and the base and fell on the dragon’s frozen wing. She lifted her head to roar, but the sound was muffled as a golden haze wrapped itself around her maw. Coincidence shifted into luck, and perhaps into a miracle as the dragon found itself unable to stop the troublesome phoenix. There was a distinct hiss as the bird’s flames struck the dragon’s eye. The beast blinked and thrashed, catching and crushing one of the bird’s wings and sending it through the air in the direction of the airborne Storm.

The dragon was blinded in one eye and the other far from perfect. Through closed teeth the dragon attempted to roar. Her neck bulged and twisted as jets of water poured from between cracks forming in Ioder’s nebula. The water summoned by Karuka lifted up around Moonwing, but not how she had intended. The dragon’s magic mixed in as she absorbed the water, and replacing it with 100 times as much. A torrent quickly formed around the beast. In seconds ankle deep went to shoulders, then metres become dozens. The water twisted outwards, spreading in width just as fast as height. It took only a minute and dragon and half of Jormungstadt was encased in a dome of water. The twisting torrent had weakened as it grew, but within its waters contained the bodies of many of the town’s residents, and many more struggling to hold their breath. Anything not tied down was dragged up and into the swirling mass of water.

From inside the dome it was like another world. The deep blue turned everything azure. The dragon was at the centre, struggling against the binds that held her down. Her jerky movements and twisted head gave no doubt that she was struggling. Looking up from the shattered stones of the market place and the water was filled with debris. Bodies, previously charred, frozen or crushed bumped into market stalls. Worse still, townsfolk still alive struggled in the water. Children clung to parents and lovers to one another as the rest of their town was slowly destroyed. There was no mercy in the watery dome, only the constant pull of the vortex.

The mass of water would not last long, as all of Moonwing’s attacks has quickly passed after the initial explosion of magic. That didn’t matter for many as shock took away breath, and water took their lives. For those closest to Moonwing, William, Karuka and Ioder, the effects would be strongest. While those further away (or higher up) would have to deal with slower water.

Right at the centre of the gigantic dome, Moonwing tried to push herself out from under the spire. The water was melting the ice from her wing at an agonizingly slow pace, but every centimetre helped. For the second time, the dragon was on the defensive.

Water will start to subside during my next post. Everyone should be effected, most of the town is!

[Revenant]

It had worked, perhaps a little too well.

Jormungstadt’s church had fallen and Moonwing had fallen with it. William hadn’t counted on the speed with which it would fall, however. He’d had the foresight to escape the church before sending his magma shot at the building but hadn’t accounted for the rest of the furious energy Jormungstadt’s defenders directed at the building. Moments before the church had been the thriving center of Jormungstadt’s religious community. Now nothing but a thrashing mass of broken stone, lost souls, and one very angry dragon.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one to think of trapping the dragon that way, William thought as he forced himself up through the knee-high cascade of rubble that had poured away from the falling building. He’d been fast enough to escape the fall of the heaviest debris, but the smaller wave had been faster, had caught him up, knocked him off his feet, and buried him. Thick dust clouded the air in a choking haze, and William gave a wrenching cough as he shook the debris off him. A knife of agony tore through his side as he coughed and William looked down to see a thumb sized shard of rock sticking out of him. Angry at the annoyance, William gripped the rock and ripped it free with a snarl. He looked at the shard for a second, noting how his molten blood steamed in the chill air, then tossed the stone back into the rubble.

Being on the street outside the church hadn’t much safer than being inside of it, but luckily his thick cloak and leathery hide had stopped the worst of the damage. Bloodied and banged up as he was out here, it would be a delight to see what destruction that the collapsing church had caused to Moonwing, drawn down into the very center of it as she had been.

Grunting at the effort, William pulled himself fully out of the wreckage. He was spattered with molten blood from a dozen cuts and gashes, though only the spot where the shard had stabbed into him seemed to be of any significance. Not that he worried about the cuts and scrapes. His restorative capabilities would regenerate them in short order. Carapace on both arms and legs, hard as steel, sported several cracks, but though it stung greatly, that too would heal. The worst of it was the grating in his chest, which had only gotten worse. Everything else could be shunted to the back of William’s mind, but that pain was getting to the point where it was really beginning to irk him.

William mounted the rubble with a hobbling limp, eager to renew his assault on the dragon, only to find himself locked in the embrace of swiftly rising waters. Surprised by the sudden onrush, William abandoned his plans to attack and tried to summon his flight, but the tide rose even faster than his supernatural speeds were capable of combating. Struggling to escape, William managed one last panicked breath before the waters stole over him.

Everything around William exploded in furious motion. Chunks of rock from the fallen church were torn from their resting places to buffet him, seemingly from every direction. Tumbling end over end in the torrent, William quickly lost his sense of direction. At some point his warscythe had been torn from his grasp and lost to the abyss. Swirling heat surrounded him, normally to catch the wind and provide him with flight, but now serving only to spin him around and to offer a slight measure of protection from some of the smaller bits of debris. Something heavy slammed into William’s broken ribs and a scream tore the breath from his lungs. Blackness threatened to envelop him as he curled himself into a ball to shield his vitals as best he could with his steely bone coverings. All the demonic warrior could do was try to survive until the hellish cyclone ended.

William was in serious trouble.

[Ioder]

There wasn't a second to spare, almost instantly after the spire collapsed from the might of everyone's efforts water began to spew forth. Though this wasn't like before, now what seemed like an ocean opened up from the base of the cathedral. "Clever girl," the seraphim muttered as he turned to face the wall he previously cratered. Fueled by the souls of the fallen he unleashed three swift arced slashes from his blade. A large chunk of the postern wall fell severed from it's whole in a triangle shape just large enough for him to leap through.

He had no real plan to thwart the torrents as the came rageing through the streets. On either side of him water charged through the alley he emerged in. In the few seconds of calm he pressed his free hand to his chest forming a golden sphere around himself encasing just enough air to breath and remain boyant. And the very moment the waters met each other crashing on top on him the tip of his sphear sealed. Yet this didn't lessen the strength and force of the wave as it swept him off the ground slamming his protective dome every which way.

Ioder's golden life boat hit each wall with the force of a warhammer crack with each surface. This wasn't a permanent fix to the problem yet it served it's purpose allowing the Soul Broker to collect himself. Though the torrents we're strong the golden sphere did gradually float towards the top of the dome. It was evident that the beast was stuck on the defensive and struggling against the combined efforts of everyone's united power.

He stuggled to decide his corse of action. On one hand he was tempted to once more communicate with Moonwing with intent to aid her. And on the other her power was to great for him to qwell later if needed. Though he truely wanted to see this monster punish humanity he knew that would only lead to his own end by her hands. He was torn with one true path he could fallow, end the dragon.

From within he could feel his power start to swell despite his protective magic starting to chip away under the pressure of the ocean. He was completely submerged and to release his magic now would only haisten his end. Instead he pulled once more from the raging pool of energy he gathered and stood tall withing his shield. Alessia was quickly sheathed before Ioder raised his hands above his head. The few spirts of water slowly filling his bubble we're forced closed as Ioder pushed outward releasing his own torrent of energy. His nebula, a composition on natural angelic power fueled by souls of the lost, poured from his palms, feet, and mouth as he screamed.

This was it, the cap of his magic's ability. Slowly his protective cocoon began to expand before forming into a golden eagle. Its radiant light pierced the merky water as it's stayed in stasis hovering nearly a hundred feet above the ground. From the eagles beak a large concentrated beam of Ioder's nebula shot forth aimed to encase the dragons last remaining eye and imploring it with the force of a dehlar hammer.

In this post I used Alessia to cut through stone. She is enchanted to cleave through titanium with little effort. Also I used another angelic shield use along with an angelic wrath. The shapes of these abilities don't matter as they can form to whatever I like.

[Karuka]

In one moment, everything went from horrible to Helheim. Taodoine gave an ear-splitting shriek as he was flung, fighting hard to keep himself aloft, but he hit a building and went still. Everyone in the town, from those who hid to those who fought to those who ran, the cads, the cat, and everyone in between, all were under threat from the swelling surge. How could there be that much water beneath the earth? Could this dragon pull something from nothing?

Karuka didn't have time to consider the implications. All she knew was that there were people who should have run but didn't in the buildings behind her, and they needed her help. She couldn't hesitate, so she ran along the roof of the shop she'd climbed to get a better view of the dragon. The only thing she could think of doing was to try to redirect some of the water back to the center of town, where fewer people were threatened. If she could save some lives, any lives...

Gods, will it be enough?

She leapt when she came to the edge, landing on a pile of fast-moving rubbish that was getting jammed on its way down one of the cobblestone streets. There was someone else on the makeshift raft, but he'd probably been an early victim of the dragon's: he was still smoldering. She didn't have time to look at him, just crouching down on the bucking detritus and putting her hands in front of her. Blood gushed from the wound on the back of her hand, called forth in sacrifice to the magic she was casting. A shimmering shield spanned the gap from one building to the next, taller and stronger than any use of Eohl she'd ever cast before. If she could hold back some of the rising tide for just a moment...

The crumbling raft bucked in the brutal current, and the redhead ground her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, praying that her shield would hold and that she wasn't thrown into the drink. Karuka O'Sheean was a great many things... but for all of that, she didn't know how to swim.

I'm probably burning about 9-10 spell slots on this shield.

[Storm Veritas]

Sailing backwards away from the mighty dragon was very likely the most graceful maneuver Storm Veritas had configured in his lifetime. With the precision and deft of a master gymnast he tumbled backwards, sailing high off the electromagnetic pulse he had used to send his weapon (and with it, by no coincidence, himself) upward with such tremendous force that his eyes caught a rooftop wherein he’d land.

Holy shit, it worked! It actually w…

---CRACK---

From outside of his periphery, he was struck with the discarded phoenix like a dodgeball thrown in a child’s game. It knocked him off his trajectory, stopping his graceful roll, and sent him crashing to the top of a soaked slate roof. The rocky surface was hard and slick, and Storm helplessly slid down towards the gutter, his feet finding no purchase on the near frictionless surface. Eyes wide and heart pumping frenetically, the wizard tightened his grip on the axe. With a gentle push, he hooked the blade edge of the axe on a gutter as he fell off the roof, his axe digging hard into the oak and leaving him dangling some eight feet beneath the rooftop.

Outside of him, it was absolute madness. Families screamed and rushed in panicked frenzies as a giant wave of water had arrived. He wasn’t sure how or where it had come from, but the mighty orb of water rose so quickly that it actually carried him northward, allowing him to release his clench on the axe and swim with desperation to an adjacent roof. Plummeting to the spontaneously generated sea floor, his useful axe was gone.

He peered about, eyes searching for answers. Townspeople scrambled and yelled as dozens of them floated helplessly on the water’s surface. The notorious villain reached and hefted a woman and her children from one such would-be assortment of flotsam and death, raising them while receiving a breathless gratitude as the two young boys clung happily to the rooftop. There were so many more in the water, so many helpless townfolk he had all but assured the death of.

No way to help them now. You can’t fish them out of the water, there’s too many and that horrible thing will kill them AND you if you try. Screw it. The only way to help now is to kill that merciless whore.

In the midst of bedlam, Storm took inventory of the situation. The great dragon appeared wounded, temporarily downed, and never more dangerous in the center of the vortex she had created. The time to strike was at hand, while she thought she was attacking. Storm knew the lightning and magnetic abilities he had would be useless in direct attack; if he wanted to injure the great lizard he’d need to attack it. To attack it, he’d have to get behind it.

From the rooftop, a path around the great beast appeared obvious, as other buildings had their own roofs which looked like slippery stepping stones in twenty-foot intervals. He took four long strides before leaping and landing on the first building, knocking a few shingles down as he landed, and began running for the next rooftop. He would circle the awful bitch, and cut her throat himself if he could.

[Artifex Felicis]

The hunter only scowled as the dragon before him writhed and buckled under the assault of bird, bird and lightning. There was a small moment there, fleeting, where he felt small and insignificant. It passed, quickly replaced with annoyance at the big beast. He wasn’t used to being ignored, both from massive creatures to more mundane beings.

The sudden torrent of water and its rising maelstrom, however, quickly dashed this from his mind.

His strong body was already in a blur of motion as the first wave began to come down, makings its way tot he nearest building. Three steps, each leaving holes where his claws dug in up the sheer face of the wall and a leap brought him to the roof of the building. Shingles cracked and slipped out of place as he dashed along it on confident feet, leading across the gap to its neighboring building and further away from the oncoming rush.

His mind worked overtime, staring at the dragon as he climbed up as high as he could make it. The usual places were clearly vulnerable to claw and spear. Joints and eyes. Many of the others were covered in that brilliant, shining set of scales. An idle thought that the beautiful dragon could use the sun itself crossed the cat’s mind, but that was filed around for later.

He kept running along the buildings, pausing and skidding on the slick, claw tiles. They were designed for rain, not a lake. He didn’t even realize how close he had gotten until he was close enough to look down at the dragon, and the massive dome of water filled his vision. The cat boy paced on his building, knowing how little time he had left. He had seen enough of the battle that anything big like this couldn’t last long.

A massive, singular claw popped out of his paw, and cut into the spear near the base of its shaft. The yarn at Leon’s side sprang forth, coiling around spear and locking into place thanks to that divot. He hefted the spear carefully, then threw it into the dome of water, pushing it along with his yarn like a long hand. The torrent nearly swept it away, but his aim was true. It missed impaling itself on the spire trapping the dragon, but the yarn caught. It was child’s play to wrap it in such a way that it wouldn’t accidentally come loose.

With a deep breath, Leon leapt forward and into the water. Almost immediately, he pulled his body like a rocket to the spire above the struggling dragon. The landing nearly drove the air from Leon’s lungs, a death sentence. His chest already beginning to burn, the second yarn spool sprang out from his side and hooked onto a bony ridge above Moonwing’s eyes. He couldn’t tell, and didn’t care if it was the good or the bad. It was a simple matter to pull with one line attached to Moonwing, and control with the spire line, to move his body and twist through the water toward the dragon

Massive claws flashed, even in the dome of water, and Leon’s paw racked down through the water, seeking to spill the jelly of the dragon’s eye.

Show her to try and ignore him.

[Hysteria]

The claws of the Nekomata sunk deeply into the eye of the dragon. Moonwing could not yell encased in water, instead she was trapped within the creation of her own demise. What little of the dragon’s eye remained was further pierced by the dark angel’s magic, tearing a large chunk out of her face. Blood filled the water, even as it started to subside. The majority of the water disappeared, dissolving back into pure magic and lifting into the air in little more than a calm breeze.

The rest of the water started to spread out into the city, filling it with ankle or knee deep muddy mess. The Moonwing could do little but push against the spire, unable to move it and unable to give up. Her powerful roars had become more of a groan of futility as blood leaked down her face from both her ruined eyes.

There was little left of the city now. What had survived the fire and lighting had been partially or mostly washed away by the water. If the dragon’s aim had been the destroy the town, she had been successful. However, that was little, if any of her grand goal. The lofty aim had been to remove all men, elf and dwarf from the world. In this respect, she had not made a dint in the sprawling population of Althanas.

Foolish mortals. she began, her voice reverberated in the minds of all still alive just as powerful and serene as it had been when she arrived, I am more than this form. I am more than this bag of flesh and blood. I will have my vengeance. I will not be stopped by the likes of you.

[Storm Veritas]

The actions of the crew of heroes about the city was unmistakable, and Storm could only grin at the successes the braver lots amongst them had enjoyed. He continued to bound and sprint as he raced across rooftops, experiencing great relief as the water subsided as quickly as it had arrived. The great dragon had invaded his brain again, this time referring to her own incredible capabilities and a potential to change forms yet again.

The hell you will. We know how to deal with this version; I think we’ll just make a run at it.

As he had reached what he expected must have been beyond the peripheral vision of the scaled beast, Storm wildly, almost insanely leapt from the rooftop. The felled dragon would not possibly see him coming, and he wouldn’t give her time to hear his heart beat or triangulate his smell. This would prove wise, as the rapid-beating heart had likely generated quite the considerable odor given the heat and stress he’d experienced in moments past.

The eyes of Storm Veritas fixated on the thick, meaty muscle where the neck of Moonwing met with her mighty shoulders. The scales there were less dense, and he knew that nerves and throat and spine and other critical goodies would likely be vulnerable should he make it down far enough. As he dove from the considerable height, a time not more than two seconds passed by as though a recap of his existence. Memories of attacking Sunwing, and the dragon upon Raiaera, and countless associated injuries flooded his better judgment and confidence.

This is reckless and stupid and suicidal and you’re gonna f*cking die…

And with the nearly surgical precision of the most skilled craftsman, Storm still effortlessly unsheathed his daggers and targeted his enemy’s neck, throat and spine. He would land in a crash, attempting to drive the thin, ultra-hardened daggers through meat and flesh and end this horrific fiasco once and for all.

Or die trying, you stupid asshole.