[Moderated Quest - Prologue] An Ill Omen

[jdd2035]

Cain called out numbers "Two score enemy vanguard in formation! Able and armed with elemental guns and unknown contraptions! Moving briskly!" He had ideas but he didn't have time to convey them back. He was high, the two most powerful of the group were lower. If they could draw the enemy force in to a basin, town square or other semi-enclosed space and force them to cluster Cain could fire form behind and above while the other fired from the front he was after all positioned in a prime snipers nest.

Cain would wait and watch however the situation would go. If the group decided to cut and run Cain would be right behind them giving them covering fire. But if they did decide to stay and fight Cain would do what he could from his filth filled snipers nest. Either way he was soon going to be busy.

All of a sudden all of the former enemy combatants seemed to turn inside out and disappear. "How very ghoulish." Cain said to himself watching the next wave march toward the decimated village. Out of pure curiosity Cain probed the six inch blood stained area that was left from one of the enemies. He knew the wind and current, he could come up with a caper to give himself and his ship the weather-gage, he could follow specific stars to his destination hell he even measured the curve of Althanas but when it came to magic things he had no answer. He would some day and these guns gave him an idea on how.

[SirArtemis]

Artemis grabbed the weapon that the elf had pointed at himself before he could pull the trigger and tossed it aside. “Don’t be a fool, it doesn’t need to come to that.” While still over the man, he shifted Judicis into a bow, quickly drawing an arrow back of black mist and launching it into the man’s chest and knocking him unconscious. “Besides, I’ll need you alive.” In just as brief a moment the bow was back as a bracer and Artemis heard the shouts of one of his own from the mountainside where he had taken a vantage point. His warnings rang clear and as Artemis looked around he saw the troops off in the distance.

Realizing the urgency he took the elf and slung him over his shoulder, quickly racing toward the base of the mountain where his ally sat perched like a vulture patiently waiting. Artemis’ speed and strength made quick work of the task and he set the body against a large stone so that the enemy didn’t have a line of sight. “I hope you’re a good shot!” Artemis called at the man with the rifle. He turned back toward the approaching enemies and prepared Judicis once again.

He tried briefly to access whatever information Judicis may have gathered but struggled to reach him, only accelerating his headache. “Damn it what the hell is causing this?” he growled through the pain, giving up on the task for the time being and putting on his mask once more. He rushed forward and as he jogged he began to fire crimson arrows of energy this time, volleying at the group in the hopes of disrupting their formation. These were arrows of magic after all, not vulnerable to gravity or weather, and they rushed through the rain toward the front line of men. Wherever they struck, they’d explode upon impact.

“Hey you two! Get out of that house and give us a hand! There’s more!” He hoped the man on the mountain had been loud enough, but if not, the duo inside had heard now for sure. He’d need help if they wanted to survive this, and truth be told, the idea of the gold had long since left Artemis’ thoughts. He continued his run, firing arrows while in motion and making himself a difficult target to hit. He hoped the diversion would benefit his group and let the rifleman land some shots on those who got distracted. As though right on cue, as Artemis opened fire he heard the familiar yet strange sounds the rifles made come from the mountain as the man in the tricorne joined the fray.

’Let’s see how well trained they are, Artemis though.

[Devyn]

Devyn grabbed the note and tucked it back into her pocket for future reference. If they managed to make it out of this situation alive, studying it a bit more would most likely be the best course of action, and so keeping it safe would be handy. The pirate had exited the room, and as she turned to face the door as well, a loud voice rang out from the outside of the building. It was the newcomer whose name she didn't know, and as his words sunk in, she resisted the urge to facepalm. They really couldn't catch a break.

"Coming!" Yanking one last knife from the table, Vyn dashed out the door to peer out at the approaching wave of enemies, which were certainly different from the last ones. For one, some of them were more similar in appearance, and the attack seemed more planned, as a designated formation was clearly visible. There didn't seem to be too many of them, but enough to give trouble, and definitely enough to overwhelm the small group, depending on the skills of their approaching foes. The pirate wasn't in sight, and so she glanced around to look for him, eyebrows furrowed. There! The man was perched upon the hill, stolen elemental weapon at the ready.

Vyn tilted her head to study the group, eyebrows furrowing even more as a familiar sound greeted her ears. It was one that grated on her nerves very easily. After all, it wasn't pleasant to hear, and just thinking of the calculations that were almost perfect, but not quite made her cringe. It made her want to march over and fix it, and out of habit, she started towards the source, eyes grazing over the form of the other man, before realizing what she was doing. What the hell is making that fucking sound? There shouldn't have been anything of the sort happening out here in the middle of nowhere. And so, something unnatural had to be causing it. I wonder what could be unnatural in the midst of all this chaos... I wonder. Rolling her eyes, she gazed at the wave with a newfound interest before snapping out of it once more and drawing a dagger from her belt.

Darting forward, Vyn flung it at one of the figures front row and charged into the gap created when they'd fallen. An iron rod flashed, and she retracted it, stabbing forwards once with the sharpened tip before backing up, leaving the rod-pierced man to fall to the ground, tripping one of his comrades. Vyn stared at her darkened rod with mild interest and then shrugged, drawing another dagger and throwing it fiercely into the crowd, watching as another one dropped.

Where are they coming from?

[Cards of Fate]

Vince left the house, and watched in horror as the mechanic dove straight into combat. He could almost hear the echo of her screaming “LEEEROOOOY JEEEENKINS,” as his blood ran cold. Time seemed to move slowly as the scholar’s eyes darted around, he needed to get Devyn out of her predicament and quickly. The glimmer of several spent cartridges caught the scholar’s eyes, and a dastardly plan hatched in his brain. His boots dug into the mud, propelling him forward as he hit his top speed in a matter of seconds. He darted past the archer and let out a quick shout.

“Open fire on the outer enemies, save the center for me!” He closed the gap with several strides, swooping to gather a fistful of spent cartridges as he did so. Satisfied he was armed properly, he blinked forward twice, putting himself between Devyn and her recently downed enemy. Time slowed down as the scholar took a deep breath and turned to slam a palm into the mechanic’s chest.

“Deep breath and hold!” He commanded. He attempted something he’d never thought about doing before, he channeled the same energy that he used to move himself about into the mechanic and visualized the ranger. Flexing, he willed the energy to flood into her. Instead of blinking himself to that location, Devyn found herself vanishing in a cloud of blue sparks and reappearing by the ranger. With his free hand, the scholar let his fistful of fragments fly, gritting his teeth as he felt them draining his ambient energy. He’d barely have enough magic left in him to escape, let alone perform this final gambit. His blonde hair whipping in the wind, the scholar let out one command.

“KNEEL.” The word left his lips like a crack of thunder, his eyes igniting into twin infernos of teal. He felt energy pour from his body, forcing his opponents downward with quadruple the weight of gravity, enough force to crush the average man’s bones. Yet that wasn’t what he was hoping to accomplish, he grinned as he watched his still airborne projectiles begin to flash violently as his energy overloaded them. The scholar also noted several crystals on the ground already had begun to shimmer as well. Confident his deadly minefield was ready to pop, the scholar gritted his teeth, and with the last vestiges of his magical energies willed himself backwards in a flash of blue light.

The crystals detonated violently, the scholar still slightly within the blast radius as they erupted into a blast of teal energy. Vincent found himself flung off his feet, flying backwards towards the archer and the mechanic, several shards of shrapnel finding shallow purchase in his chest. Not deep enough to be fatal, but grave enough wounds that the scholar would be needing immediate treatment. He felt himself land with a PLOP, sliding violently through the muck for a foot or so before reaching a stop, his ears ringing and his eyes watering. Sparks of teal energy danced across his skin as he moaned for a moment, declaring his status amongst the living.

“Did I get em coach?”

[Lye]

The moving battalion of attackers did not expect the first arrow. Covered by the flash of lightning, the glowing red projectile slammed into the rightmost linemen and ruptured with explosive force. Searing hot plasma from the magical bolt washed over the formation, forcing them to advert their eyes. They did not catch reprieve from Artemis' onslaught as more crimson bolts followed suit. This time, however, the projectiles violently collided with an illuminescent wall of light blue. Two, three, four, the arrows exploded against transparent light while smaller bolts of ice peppered the wall to the pirate's inevitable disapproval.

It wasn't until now, that the finer details became visible in the raging swath of rain and wind. Lightning cracked across the clouds above, bringing light to the machined edges of steel, iron, and bronze. Eight units of Aleran engineering stood defiant with brilliant shields of light held in front of them. The shield of the rightmost automation flickered and faded, exposing the warped, cracked, and wrenched metal from Artemis' bow. The light which lit several points along its body faded and went out.

"RETURN FIRE!" shouted a stocky dwarf completely void of hair, beard, and eyebrow.

The midline riflemen, identical to those before, braced ten men against the back of the waist high automatons. Rifles braced and stance firm, the second group stood off center, behind those in front of them - a firing line. Meanwhile, the little over a dozen with longer weapons took to similar formations on each end of the group, two groups of eight. The front four took a kneeling stance with the back four braced against their shoulders.

"TAKE AIM! FIRE FREELY!" the dwarf shouted.

A storm of magic ripped free from their barrels. Small rounds peppered the buildings, trees, and struggled to pin down the archer who continued to pound against their unusual defenses. Meanwhile, the groups of marksmen to each side took careful aim at the pirate.

None of them expected the mechanic.

The young girl threw her blade into one of the automations, a lucky shot that wedged into the whining hinge of the machine. It turned to deal with her only to have the blade catch and jam the inner workings of the prototype. Just enough time for her to lance a soldier in the chest and drop him to his back, subsequently knocking the man behind him off balance. Her final knife left her grip and indeed dropped a man, but only to his knees to avoid an otherwise fatal blow to the neck.

Shields up and now centered in the midst of three dozen armed soldiers, attention turned to the bold girl. A rifle butt lashed out from any one of many soldiers, catching the girl square in the temple. Before a report could be fired from the muzzle of a gun, Vincent entered the fray from thin air. A fist, chant, and flash later, Devyn vanished from sight, marking her new arrival by Artemis and Cain who valiantly continued their return fire.

All in good time too.

At the center of the pack, another explosion erupted and from it, Vincent's body flew like a less than graceful ragdoll to where his comrades fought.

---

Elsewhere...

"Damn! That explosion took out one of the glyphs! Quick! Switch to Glyph Delta!"

*Strange feedback*

"Switched sir..."

*Moment of silence*

"Damn, they're awfully resourceful. How is that one able to do that with the Magicyte? It's low grade, sure, but to detonate it so quickly... Hmm..."

"Sir?"

"I want him captured. Kill the others or drive them out, I don't care, but I want that one captured!"

"He just took out most of the first wave and pulled off a maneuver we don't even know anything about!"

"Kah'leahl! I gave you an order! Execute it!"

"Yessir..."

"Ready the Behemoth if you have to!"

"Sir?!"

"I won't correct you again!"

"Yessir..."

---

Only about 50 yards behind Cain, a strange symbol began to glow on a rather inconspicuous stone. Moments later, the storm targeted the pirate in his tree - a high point in a lightning storm equipped with a metal saber. The hairs on his arms stood, but didn't provide nearly enough warning when lightning crashed down upon him. The cartridges spent by his rifle and on the ground beneath ruptured into shrapnel. The tree split in two, seam glowing with hot embers and put the pirate on his back, condition unknown.

Meanwhile, motes of blue light danced around within the smoke of the explosion like squadrons of fireflies dancing in the night. A gust of wind swept down the mountain and washed the haze into the treeline. The carnage lay exposed to the heavy rain.

Nearly a dozen bodies lay mangled in the mud. Some sputtered their final death song, others screamed in agony as gaping wounds seeped freely, unable to clot in the constant rainfall. Two of the remaining seven automatons stood like lifeless monoliths, their exterior seemingly ruptured from the inside out. Bolts, sheet metal, and polished steel lay scattered from their man-made bodies, some of which now buried in the corpses of the damned.

Gruesome as it were, the true horror remained in the living. Still a score strong, three soldiers stood behind one of five automations. Shields which protected them flickered as though ready to drop. However, before another attack could be made, the soldiers took to firing formation and laid down a wall of elemental bullets on the survivors. The two marksmen that survived Vincen't attack held their fire. Within the sights of their longer weapons, they squared in the quickly moving archer. Two thunderous reports sounded loud enough to wash out the sound of thunder. Projectiles of ice faster than the normal eye could track sped toward Artemis. One missed by the hair of a babe, but the other slammed into the archer with enough force to take him to the ground.

At the distance they were at, the marksmen could not confirm the location of the hit or even if it was lethal. With the archer's speed, the hit was a fair percentage of luck over skill. Regardless, the two of them pulled a lever on their weapons and ejected a red-hot steaming crystal that hissed and crackled as it fell into the mud.

Nature does not favor good nor bad. It does not differentiate. One of the five groups suddenly became consumed in light, the percussion of the bolt knocking wind from those nearby. At the center of the column, the metal creation sparked, shook, groaned and ruptured from the inside out. Like barrel of gunpowder filled with bolts and scrap-metal, it exploded and tore those nearby to a messy pulp of meat and bone. The soldiers couldn't even scream as their lives were torn from them by mother nature herself.

Only sixteen remained, both sides now riddled with injury and loss.

TL|DR:

40 has been reduced to 16 consisiting of 4 mechanical automations with three soldiers behind each one. Of those 12 soldiers, two of them are armed with a stronger, slower firing elemental weapon.

Artemis: Took out one automation. And distracted them from effectively murdering Devyn as she charged them on foot. However, in the fray, Aretmis has been struck by an ice bolt. The location of the injury I have left to you. If an ability allows you to negate damage, you can describe it, but this was not "dodged". The force is enough to have knocked you down or at least staggered you to a near complete stop. If you have questions, ask me.

Devyn: Her initial attack jammed one of the automations to which I attribute to her mechanical prowess. Another attack punctured the lung of an attacker. The final one dropped a man, but only to his knees to dodge (shifty wording usage, I know). By putting herself into the fray of 40 unknowns, he has been struck in the temple by the butt of a rifle. I'll leave it to you the state your character is in after that blow. As you were about to get killed, execution style, Vincent teleported you to where Artemis and Cain are.

Cain: The second wave was prepared for fire from stolen elemental weapons. Your attacks are neutralized by their strange defenses. While they did not do any damage to you, your high perch and metal saber have proven as a lightning rod. You have been struck by lightning. While the act of being struck is not necessarily fatal (google taught me something today), you have been knocked out of your perch. Your spent rounds and the spent rounds of the fallen have detonated. I leave the details of the damage taken to you.

Vince: You got'em son, just not all of them. Devyn is safe and you pretty much hurt yourself. I appreciate your realism of doing massive damage, but also not getting off scott free. While you are the majority of their muscle, I think you should be able to hulk mode yourself out of a few "flesh wounds" (punctured lungs withstanding if you went that far). Plus, and I may be wrong, I believe you have some healing shenanigans? Anywho, no direct damage dealt to you from the enemy, but you've interested them enough to warrant the desire to be captured.

To all: The shields these things use are like walls of light. About 10' wide by 6' tall and allow projectiles from one side to pass through while negating projectiles from the other side. Large bodies can pass through it without damage so long as they do not exceed a certain velocity. The automations, as you may have gathered, do have a power source. They are made of steel, iron, and bronze in the appropriate areas needing reinforcement, plating, or basic functionality. Each one is glowing from several points indicating a number of things for you to figure out. They are prone to the lightning to disastrous effects. The rain and mud certainly won't help with mechanical joints, so mobility is also limited as the groups are now scattered from the road to the muddy fields.

If you have any questions, let me know. Do not forget about Terrance, the blue stone, or the glowing mark mentioned at around the time of the dialogue "elsewhere". While your characters are not aware of it, you now have a name of the unkowns.

[Cards of Fate]

The scholar’s ears rang violently as he attempted to sit up. Several spots of red began to blossom from his chest, sending agony shooting through his entire body. Sparks danced violently as he lifted his head lightly to look at his injuries. Five slender shards of the destroyed crystals jutted out of his torso, making him look like an incredibly pretentious pincushion. Grunting, the scholar tried to raise his arms, pleased to find that while they were sore, they would still function. Gritting his teeth the scholar went to work. His hands darted over his body with a surgeon’s precision, tearing each shard out with paradoxical brutality. Each removed shard sent a hiss from the scholar’s lips, and a slight spurt of blood along with it. After all five were gone, sparks danced around the wounds working to close them.

Wasting no time, Vincent rolled onto his stomach and began to lift himself up. One on his knees the scholar let out a string of swears as he patted himself down. “These fucking clothes were brand fucking new. I’m sending these motherfuckers my goddamn bill.” He grunted and tore his robe and undershirt, leaving him bare-chested, clothed in only a pair of leather trousers and boots. Five distinct gashes glowed ominously as they seeped blood slowly. Raising to his feet the scholar growled some more and snapped his fingers. In one hand, a glove appeared in a burst of clouds. Clenching his fist, several plates that resided on the top spun outwards and formed a circular steel shield. In his other hand, a large Dehlar blade appeared. Taking a moment to glance over the blade he’d stolen from his mentor, Vincent pondered for moment.

What would Tobias do right now?

“He’d kill them and fuck their mothers,” The scholar muttered woozily as he struggled to maintain his balance. Already the blood had clotted, thanks to his enhanced healing factor, and within an hour or so he would be right as rain. As for right now, well, the scholar ventured he was still going to be more useful than the pirate. With his hair slicked to his face, the scholar let out a roar and began his charge, hoping to draw the others attention. It was at this point he noticed that the pirate had been struck by lightning, and the archer he’d yet to say a word to had just been shot.

It was time for Vince to do all the work again.

Even injured, the scholar was able to pick up intense amounts of speed, with acceleration rivaling that of the average piece of shit Honda. He closed the gap between him and the remaining troops rapidly and cursed as one of the two with the bigger guns turned to aim at him and let a shot loose. Thinking quickly the scholar dove to the ground on his stomach, using his momentum to slide forward in the slick mud. He winced as his wounds tore open and began to bleed again, but at least he wasn’t getting shot again. He slid under the legs of one of the machines and using both his arms he pressed down launching himself onto his feet. He slid for a moment and pirouetted, slashing the throat of two soldiers with his blade, and bashing the skull in of one of the others with nothing but his shield and brute force.

The machine they’d cowered behind attempted to pivot, but slipped and fell in the mud. Using the same logic Vince had learned from playing any videogame ever, he carefully slashed at the joints and glowing bits before buggering off for cover. Several shots whistled behind him as he ran, indicating that he’d at least succeeded into catching their attention before he found himself hiding behind another building.

“Oi, free asskickings over here!” Vince exclaimed. “Limited time offer, come and get it while I’m still injured.”

[SirArtemis]

Speed and agility can only take you so far in life. He remembered the lesson that Hawk had taught him, a dark elf that trained Artemis when he was just a boy, and now vividly remembered as a blast of ice slammed the left side of his body. When the projectile struck Artemis felt grateful for his gade undersuit as it absorbed at least some of the frost, though the attack destroyed pieces of the fabric. The force sent him soaring and he barely reacted quickly enough to shift Judicis back into a bracer before his body slid across the mud. Eventually a large boulder stopped his movement and he felt numbness across his left side.

’If only I could do that with my frost magic.’ As he recovered his wits he heard an explosion and noticed the blast that one of his ally’s had created, though somehow enemies still stood. He saw the man blink away though not behind any cover and collapse from the exertion and the explosion.

He noticed the girl unconscious and quickly blinked over to her, dragging her through the mud the brief distance to the stone where the pale elf sat unconscious and setting her there as well. ’This feels uncomfortable. It’s like I’m collecting unconscious bodies.’ He looked up to where the man with the tricorne had been and shouted, “Are you okay up there?” He waited a few moments and didn’t hear anything.

He took a deep breath to calm himself and started to rub his left arm, hoping to bring some blood flow back to the region as quickly as possible. He peered around the corner of the large stone that served as their shield, taking stock of the situation and hoping to get a headcount of enemies that seemed to still be a threat. ’A little over a dozen left and it looks like I may be alone. Lovely.’

“This is why I prefer subtle,” he complained to himself aloud.

Just then, the man who’d triggered the explosion began to stir, pulling the shrapnel from his chest and rising from the ground with a blade and shield ready for battle and approached the enemies. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Why did I bother getting involved in this? I’m stuck with a bunch of people with absolutely no sense.” He was just barely beginning to regain any sense of feeling in his left arm and cursed under his breath, leaving the cover of the stone and beginning to jog toward his ally. “Fuck it, I only need one hand for this anyway.”

[jdd2035]

Cain saw Vyn just appear and out cold, followed by Vinces climatic entrance. He followed their paths and a soft glow which got brighter caught his eye...Then every thing turned white, the next thing Cain new he was on the ground having a conversation with him self that seemed to last for ever but really took less than a moment.

~Am I dead?~

~No, death wouldn't hurt this much.~

There was pain in his leg, hip and heel, on his side was a smouldering hole where the lightning struck him through his saber, and on his heel was the lightnings exit and there was a branch the size of his thumb sticking through his leg.

~Get up! Move! If you don't move you will die! Move and fight, out or down!~

Cain looked at his leg and gripped the branch and started to pull the branch out. It wouldn't move at first so he twisted it and felt its knots and spurs tare his muscles. The branch gave way and started to move out his skin parting from the meat of his leg and the little knots started tearing skin as well. Finally the branch came out and Cain tore a piece of cloth from his shirt and stuffed it into the hole that was left.

He took another moment and examined himself; his powder and shot didn't explode which was good, his sea coat prevented most of the crystal shards from digging into his flesh and his elemental rifle was intact. Groaning a bit Cain lurched to a covered position and opened fire. He cycled one clip to no avail thanks to the enemies shields but at-least it was a distraction for his compatriots. He cycled a few more rounds from his next magicite box and again nothing.

The hair on Cains arms rose followed by loud clap of lightning. This gave him an idea and he grinned through the catastrophic amount of pain he should have been in save for the adrenaline rush. He gathered two or three hand fulls of spent crystals, some he shot some that were from the previous wave of enemies and bound them up in what was left of his waistcoat. He then kissed his sword "forgive me for what I'm about to do" ran it through the vest and threw it into the middle of the enemy group. It didn't have to be too accurate but close counted.

The steel, the thirsty magicite and luck all combined into one violent explosion when the lightning was drawn through the cavalry saber, arched through the magicite and the entire makeshift bomb erupted. Cain didn't know how big it was going to be but when every thing went up, it was as if the lightning had struck the powder magazine of a sloop of war.

What a caper!

Cain turned his attention back to that soft glow. It easy to find and he fired at it with what ever was left in his second clip. Three shots and the glyph fizzled out. Cains last thought was to look for the next glyph.

[Devyn]

The first thing Vyn was aware of was the pounding in her head. It was awful and seemed to resonate through her body, throbbing with each breath. She didn't want to open her eyes. Faintly, the mechanic was aware of the noise all around her. Yes, the noise was very loud. It sounded like there was a lot going on as well, something very important, but she couldn't quite remember what. Still foggy on the details, and confused as to why she had this hangover-like headache, the girl shifted slightly, a loud groan accentuating the action. Lazily opening her eyes, she blinked a few times, immediately raising a hand to cover her eyes as bright flashes of light appeared and then vanished.

"Oh, fuck. What the- what happened...?" Turning her head to the side, her eyes widened considerably as she observed the unconscious man next to her, the unconscious man who was currently, maybe shifting? Or could just be her. With the whole headache thing. Whatever it was, the elf was not going to be waking up. With another groan, Vyn clumsily patted herself down. There was a knife, somewhere along her belt, and she grabbed it and brought the pommel down on his head, roughly about where his temple was. The knife clattered to the ground. Vyn stared at it uncomprehendingly for a few moments before picking it up and dragging her knees underneath her, slowly turning her head to take in the scene.

Vince was... somewhere. Squinting at the too bright light, Vyn staggered to her feet, finally honing in upon the wave of things that seemed to be attracted to a building. A building that was... yelling? A building that was yelling with Vincent's voice? Yeah, that didn't make too much sense. He was probably okay, though, even if his voice might have had some trouble. After all, didn't he have that weird but cool magic thing-a-ma-bobber?

Nearer by were the two people that she didn't know too well, the pirate and the archer dude. He was on the move but seemed to be injured somewhat. Then again, it could still just be her wobbly senses. The pirate seemed to be injured as well, and appeared very disheveled, hair wild. It was quite a peculiar sight, and so she stared for a few moments. His hair looks kind of like a wind-tossed porcupine...

The girl smiled at the thought and then observed as the thing the porcupine head had tossed exploded. Wait, wait, wait what? The fuck exploded? Shaking her head and then doubling over at the nausea that followed, Vyn groaned yet again, the throbbing at her temple growing. And so shaking her head was out. By now, her knees were getting numb, and so she slowly stumbled to her feet, hand slapping the rock she'd been leaning on in an effort to get to her feet. And now to figure this out. I did something dumb, but that's given.

Vyn wobbled on her feet, knees quivering underneath the weight of the rest of her body as she stared down at where the magicite had exploded. Remnants of the machine caught her interest, and so she slowly started in that direction, the memories of what had happened beginning to make sense. She really had been dumb. However, she was still alive, for some apparent reason, and so now, the best thing to do would be to well, move on and try to survive some more.

The machines had somehow been combined with magic or some sort of thing like that. It was beyond interesting. It was ingenious, and she couldn't quite figure out how it had happened. However, if they made it out of the slaughterhouse alive, it was certainly something worth exploring. And maybe this was the last wave. Maybe they could recuperate and then she could look at whatever was left of the deadly automatons. And maybe they could-

Letting out a small squeak, Vyn tripped over her feet and fell to the ground, the world spinning around her as the earth tilted and all noise grew and faded.

"Ugh." Nausea had come back in full force, and so she bent over and retched, stomach heaving as nothing came out. After more of this, Vyn staggered to her feet for the second time, facing the way she'd come before realizing and the turning. Lovely. Now to just... keep on moving.

[Lye]

War. One word best defined the happenings across these open fields. Screams trailed behind explosions, shouts rang out between gunfire, lighting crawled across the sky followed by the deep bellows of thunder.

"Incoming! Get do--"

Another violent rupture of magicyte turned men to mist mid warning. Lightning coursed through steel saber and ignited dead crystals with new life. Shards of metal and bone scattered across rain-soaked fields. The percussion of thunder mixed with explosions rocked the remaining soldiers. Three lay limp beside the flickering lights of a fallen machine, face down and chests still.

Two groups looked to both crater and corpses, teeth clenched in anger and resolve.

"Take them out!" roared a sniper as his shot blew a melon sized hole in the stone and mortar wall where Vincent hid.

"AoE out!" another shouted, lobbing an unusual object through the air.

It landed with a skitter and a splash near the pirate and archer. A crystal about the size of a fist glimmered with the light of the storm above. Then, the unthinkable happened.

The stone crackled and hissed with the white hot embers of a fire. The mud around it bubbled and steamed. The rain evaporated before it could touch its glowing facets. Then, like heat of a molten forge, the stone burst into a column of fire. As quick as it had reached its twelve foot height, the pyroclastic force dissipated. In the middle of swirled and dried clay now rest a glowing red-hot stone.

"Throw them out! Everyone deploy AoE stones!"

Then, like villagers shunning a witch, the remaining six soldiers cast their eerie crystals toward where their enemy hid. As the stones fell, they pulled rifles up and took aim, waiting for their prey to leave cover for safety.

As the rain hissed against the previous stone's surface, it cooled and the clear blue facets of a massive blue crystal could be seen. A crystal similar to one they'd seen before...

---

Elsewhere...

"Shit!"

*Strange feedback*

"What happened?! Where's the feed?!"

"I don't know! I think they took it out!"

"Damn it, switch to another Glyph!"

"I'm trying! That last explosion and the the storm are causing interference! The lighting is affecting the relays! Hnnk!"

*sounds of grunting, labored breaths and clattering objects*

"You're trying my patience, boy. We're independent from law, now. I could dispose of you and no one would care..."

*dull thud followed by panicked gasps*

"Now get me a damn visual!"

*scraping and clatter"

"Y-yessir! Activating Gamma Glyph. I-It's near the perimeter so the visual is at a distance. I-It's the best we have."

"They look like fucking ants! How am I suppose to observe from this far?!"

"I-I'm sorry sir!"

"Thaynes be damned. That's enough! I want the Behemoth deployed! Level the whole damn test site!"

"Sir?!"

*a dull thwak followed by a thud and clatter*

"I'll do it myself..."

*Strange feedback*

---

Short quick, and simple post. The only threat to contend with is sustained enemy fire and now grenade like crystals that cause singularities about six meters wide. The fuse is about three seconds after coming to a stop where they land. The stones glow like crackling embers, then erupt into a column of fire. The column lasts for only about a second then fizzles out like a dust tornado. There are six stones in total scattered near your cover.

Keep in mind you have an unconscious hostage in the vicinity and Devyn has a stone that looks eerily similar to the ones being thrown.

I'll leave the details to you and give you a chance to mop up.