Meet the Welge (Closed to ~Poseidon~)

[Gem]

This quest is sort of an extended history for my character in a way. Enjoy.

It was Mid-morning when Gem got up, not that he could tell, he was miles underground. This was where he lived. It was a fun little abode, He had everything he needed was underground: His dagger, his friends, his food, and his bed. There was a whole world above him which he knew little about, but cared for quite a bit. In fact, all the people of his race the Welge, had the ability to sense when something was wrong with the overworld, as they called it. Strangely enough, they could not sense when something was wrong underground in the same type of way.

Gem could immediately tell something was wrong for a different reason, though. There was an almost creepy silence surrounding him. It was usually noise that woke him up early morning, not lack-there-of that woke him up mid-day.

Gem jumped out of his bed, got dressed, and rushed out into the meeting area to find out exactly what was going on.

"Why is everyone so quiet?" Gem asked his good friend, Nala, who was a pretty young lass with a sapphire in her forehead.

"It's the village Elder, Farai. He died this morning. Lina was the first to notice. She panicked and woke me as soon as she saw his dead body."

Ah, yes. Lina. A beautiful woman with a black onyx stone on her forehead who usually distanced herself from the rest of the Welge. Gem never trusted her. Come to think of it, the elders injuries looked as though they may have been caused by her black magic, but that also could just be Gem's imagination.

"Where is she now?" Gem asked curiously.

"She left shortly after the incident, claiming that she had seen the person who did this and that she would track him down in the overworld. I am so glad that we have brave souls like her fighting for us."

Gem was about to argue back pointing out that all evidence pointed to her being the murderer when he sensed some major trouble in the overworld. It had to be Lina.

"I think Lina's causing trouble above ground." Gem said instead. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy, including Nala.

"Come on, she is more likely to get into trouble than to cause it in the overworld. She could easily get lost up there." Nala argued.

"But the elder's death was obviously her handiwork."

"It looks like her handiwork, but she isn't the type of person who would do such a thing. She went to chase the culprit to clear her name, is more likely." Nala said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

Gem realized it was pointless to argue any further, so instead he decided to go up and find Lina himself.

"Fine, then, I'll go rescue her." Gem lied as he took off down the long tunnel to the overworld.
----

An hour later, Gem climbed onto the unfamiliar terrain of althana's surface. This was what his people, the Welge, kept calling the overworld. Following the footprints on the ground, he found it extremely easy to track Lina to the middle of a forest. Suddenly, though, the footprints stopped.

Gem looked around. There was absolutely nobody in sight, not that that was too unusual. On the rare occasion when Gem needed Lina, she was never around. Deciding that he didn't want to get lost, Gem started to head out of the forest following the same tracks that he followed into it.

Suddenly, he got hit hard in the head by Lina as she came out of his shadow with a hammer-like hand. He had forgotten about that. Lina's Black Onyx allowed her three abilities. The ability to hide in and pop out of any shadow she pleased, the ability to shapeshift her right hand into anything she pleased, and the ability she likely used to kill the elder, Necromancy. Any one of those skills was enough to make her a formidable foe, but to have all three made her almost unstoppable.

As he fell unconscious from the blow to the head, it occurred to Gem that the reason Lina never seemed to be around was likely because she wasn't. She was most likely getting a lay of the land instead, which gave her a distinct advantage over him.

As if to add insult to injury, Lina summoned an undead mage to light the forest on fire and left the vicinity as quickly as she could, leaving Gem to die.

[Melancor]

Melancor had left a near village as he had set course for Salvar. It had been an agonizing trip, with the sun as his punisher and his legs as his only support. His long, black, cape provided him some refuge from the celestial scorch, but haven replenished strength, and his canteen he had allowed the pilgrimage to continue. It was not like he could stay in this forest wonderland for ever, he was already paranoid of being so far away from the coast. But I was worth it, many of the creatures he had seen where new for him, as in his days of holiness he had not ever considered venturing into such, what he would call, inhospitable place.

He had yet not traveled to far away from that isolated village when the serene grace of the morning was corrupted by an ominous spectacle. Smoke rose in the horizon, a plume of dark gas emanated from the tops of the lush green trees. It was not something Melancor could explain, or any of the Aegean for that matter, but fire had always drawn them curious, such mysterious element; which consumes, destroys and sets humans and beasts on tremor alike.

I must see this closer. And so; he set off, called by the smoke like a dark siren luring sailors into disaster. He just had to run some minutes to enter the wide smoke perimeter that had engulfed the bottom of the forest, and to see the dawn of amber light pouring through the woods. His figure emerged from the forest, a figure dressed luxuriously in dark clothes. His eyes turned blue as a gust of hot wind, hit his face, uncovering his heavy hood and revealing his silver hair.

He had finally reached it, the center of his amusement, a great fire, ever-growing rampaging through the woods. It was incredible, flames consuming so sadistically the proud, ancient trees. He could only but admire fire; with such properties that water could only desire.

A wondrous ‘crack’ broke the roaring song of the fire, and a sudden brush of leaves horribly overcame any sound on the forest. He rose his gaze to presence a great tree in its final downfall, collapsing onto static trees which also suffered, unable to escape the ambers reprimand.

“Oh well, there is a beginning and an end-”

Something caught Melancor’s eye, the figure of a young male, lying on the ground as the flames surrounded his body. He roles his eyes in the middle of the commotion

“Why do humans have to be so pathetic”

Melancor realized that no matter how big his hatred was he could not abandon anyone to dye at the hands of flames. Melancor opened his canteen, and with a swift hand movement he drew the liquid into the air, suspending it above the ground, and began to spiral the water, shielding himself with streaks of water from any threatening flames. He walked calmly through the pandemonium of the woods, toward that helpless, and unconscious victim. After reaching this poor man he dispersed the water and slashed it into the flames that surrounded the curious human. His hair was silver as well, and it glistened red with the fire from the surroundings.

Melancor pressed his had at the man’s neck, he had a faint pulse, pulse non-the-less
“Well… Come on!” He touched the body with the tip of his brown boot. He was hoping him to stand up and leave, Melancor had just provided a path for him to do so swiftly and unharmed, but the body did not move.

He roles his eyes once again, he did not liked being someone’s godmother, but he would have to help him. he took the man and placed his arms around his neck. Not before retreating what was left of the water on the ground he had used to extinguish the flames. And he set off, uncomfortable enough, carrying the body of such peculiar male through the rugged terrain of the forest.

He dragged the man for some time, and after founding a nearby dirt path, he dropped the body into the ground.

“Why do I always end up doing this!” he scolded himself after committing self-sacrilege and helping a human in such a mundane position. He kneeled to examine the man; his skin had a pleasant tan, and his hair was indeed almost as silver as his own. However, something had uncomforted him. A ruby in his forehead glistened like no other ruby he had seen before. With his thump, he tried to remove it, and after not being able to do so, he realized;

“It’s a Welge…” In his nearly 14,500 years he had not seen one, never near the coast, he had only heard faint rumors of such creatures, told by those sea adventurers he used to capture to later drawn, but they liked telling stories of their mundane and pathetic adventures, even near death. Melancor had never doubted the existence of them, he knew they where out there, and he had finally set eyes on one.

Melancor stood up and unfastened his canteen, he hold it in his hand, stretched his arm and released the content on the man’s face.

“Wake up now, mortal”

[Gem]

Sorry for the short and late post. Writers block got to me.

Gem woke up with a start. He was alive and looking up at a creature that looked similar to his race. In fact, at first he thought it WAS another Welge.

"Where am I? Is this still the overwo..." Gem stopped mid-sentence as he realized this man had no gem on his forehead. It looked more like a human.

Gem wiped himself off and got up. "I need help tracking down and killing a woman with a black onyx on her forehead. You are from the overworld, right? Perhaps you could show me around, but first, who are you?"

[Melancor]

“The young man slowly began to wake up. He stood besides him, staring to him now resting on the ground. Me muttered some words while opening his eyes. but then he paused abruptly and began ranting about the over-somewhere and killing a woman with an onyx on her face, or something. Such rapid recuperation from the man, and the immediate request for Melancor to aid him to kill someone made his mind jolt.

“The Overworld?” Melancor had never heard of ‘the Overworld’, or remember reading iteven on a map, “I do not belong to such place, and I have never heard of it. My name is Melancor, but the more important question is who are you? And what where you doing on the middle of a fire”

Melancor rose his finger to point to the massive group of trees burning on the distance, and placed his gaze upon the dark some elevating into the sky, he looked down again into the strange young man and extended his hand.

[Gem]

Gem looked up in confusion. This man, Melancor, wasn't from the overworld? that was hard to believe, yet he also doubted that the man would lie.

"My name is Gem. I am part of an underground race known as the Welge. we are a normally peaceful race, and the jewels in our foreheads are part of what determine the powers we are given. I say normally a peaceful race because I awoke to find one of my elder's dead, and that the most likely culprit was a female Welge named Lina. She has a black onyx in her forehead, and has extremely strong powers. I came up here, to the overworld, chasing after her, but she knows this terrain all too well. I came alone, because nobody believes me about her being the one who killed the elder. I got careless when tracking her down, and before I knew it she knocked me out cold. I don't know exactly what happened to the forest, but I bet you anything it was Lina's doing." Gem tried to figure out if he missed anything, but didn't think he had.

"So, that's my story. What's your story? If you aren't from the overworld, may I ask why you are here right now? Also, not to sound ungrateful, but why did you rush into a burning forest?" Gem Questioned, intrigued by Melancor's actions.

[Melancor]

After the small explanation the Welge had give him he understood that he was an adventurous creature from the underworld. His questions where confirmed at last.

“I was only walking through and stoped to see the fire when I saw your helpless body, So Welges haven’t gone extinct, huh?” The young man again mentioned ‘the Overworld’ but after noticing that he referred to his realm as the underworld he knew he meant the surface of Althanas.
“Don’t judge my actions, be satisfied that I decided to take you out of there, I usually don’t waste my water on simple mortals.” Melancor retracted his open hand invitation and then spoke with a serious tone. “Welge are not like humans, never the less” he sighed “And even though I’ve killed more men than you can imagine in my past, I am not sure I can help you with this woman, I have to get somewhere”

Melancor was in a hurry to leave the forest already, the quicker he resumed his trip, the better.

[Gem]

Gem was surprised at the fact that Melancor hinted that he knew a bit about the Welge. There was supposed to be none out there that knew of them. Especially since none of them were ever supposed to come into the overworld unless something was really wrong.

"Wait, what you mean extinct? Where have you heard about us before?"

Melancor then mentioned how he didn't want to help kill the man. He also alluded to wanting to leave because he had elsewhere to be.

Gem thought for a moment before replying. "Well, then. Mind if I tag along? I doubt I'd be able to survive up here on my own. By the way, you never did say where you were going."

Gem felt his head, he had a major headache. he had had it since he woke up. It was as if someone had tried to pull out his ruby, but he let it go, deciding it was the after effects of being knocked unconcious.

[Melancor]

Melancor snapped at the younger man.
“Why is of your interest to know where I go. I am getting away from this green hell!”
Melancor began walking down the dirt road, with a furious face and long, stomping steps.
He would allow the strange little man to tag along, but he was already impatient, he by no means would play as his godmother. He had done him a favor already taking him out of that fire. And that had came from really deep on his heart, he never really cared about mortals, much less humans, as he considered them a worthless greedy breed.

“I know something about the Welge, not more than simple rumors,” he sighed and placed his hands behind his head, “It’s hard for me not to. Or it was at least”

he continued walking through the deep Forrest, small dark ashes began to fall on his path,
I’ll let the humans deal with that It wasn’t as he would have another streak of compassion, or like he could produce the enough amount of water to extinguish the fire anyways. But it would consume itself soon, Melancor looked down to the ground, apparently it had rained recently, it was humid and some of those golden leaves still carried the dew of the morning.

He had not walked too far from where he had placed the Welge, he wasn’t really paying much attention to his presence as he had proposed himself to ignore it until he decided to leave on his own, or find some kind of bureau on the path of some animal where he may … I don’t know…. How are the Welge supposed to live underground? He inquired himself about the peculiar race. The Aegean liven on the sea, but they where demi-gods, they could live where ever they wanted, he had never imagined some kind of housing below the hard surface of Althanas.

He turned around and spoke loudly. “Well, are you coming?” Melancor was now very curious about this rare breed.

[Gem]

Gem smiled. Something told him this man, Melancor, would hear his plea eventually. It seemed, though, that the man had other business to attend to first.

'Not a problem, I can wait.' he thought to himself, as he quickly followed Melancor. Not everything was good in the world. Gem could sense... Something... lurking nearby. He wasn't too sure what, though, just something.
---------
Meanwhile...
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Lina stared over at Gem's new traveling companion.

"Ugh, first the elders figure me out, so I have to kill them, then I try to kill Gem and make his death look accidental. Now he comes back with a bodyguard? No matter. This problem is easily solved." Lina said to herself, as she popped into the shadows and followed them until she reached Melancor's shadow. With Gem around, it was best to be careful, so instead of popping out of the shadow entirely, she merelyturned her hand into a huge hammer, reached it out of the shadows and attempted to slam it as hard as she could into Melancor's left leg.

[Melancor]

They had regained their idly walk. There wasn’t really much he could, or not much he wanted to, do for the Welge. Melancor was not used to company either, so he sought to get rid of the man as soon as possible.
The smoke of the fire was still rising in the distance. He sighed.

More by making the ride less painful, than by pitying the forest Melancor raised his voice.

“It is such a waste isn’t it?” He placed his hands behind his head and raised his elbows “But I guess it can’t be helped, nature can do it by herself-”

The next words he would utter disappeared in his mind, as a sinister presence interrupted his thoughts. The identity of the creature, he could not tell, but what ever it was it had been swift to move behind him. And with an even more nimble move it struck him hard with a dark mass.

Melancor fell to the ground without emitting a sound of pain, but he accepted, the creature had succeeded. The great pain of an almost shattered bone ran up his leg. He had never been so forcefully ambushed by anything in his life.

Before that thing had a chance to strike again he sat up. He placed his leg under his chin. His eyes moved cautious, like those of a feline after its prey, and began to seek for the stealthy creature with no such luck. He slowly opened his hand and a small puddle of water grew until it spilled over the barrier of his fingers.

From the angle he was struck in he could not see the Welge. However, if that thing dared to attack again, he would be ready.

[Gem]

Gem was confused when Lina attacked. Why was she attacking Melancor instead of himself? Did the man who rescued him really pose that much of a threat? As he was wondering about this, Lina shot her arm out of the shadows yet again, this time in the shape of a spear that pierced Gem's shoulder.

"Ow. Lina, why?"

"Why? I've had it up to here with living below the overworld's terrain. I understand that humans and other beings that walk the earth must not know about us for the safety of our race, so I decided to destroy everyone so it is safe for me to come up whenever I please. The elders all realized what I was trying to do, of course, so I had to deal with them... appropriately." Lina's voice replied from Gem's shadow.

Had he heard right, though? All the elders were dead? All four of them? He had left in such a hurry that he had forgotten to check on the other elders.

Suddenly, Lina pulled her weapon back into the shadows.

"Well, I've got places to be and villages to destroy. Don't worry though, I've got some friends who would gladly keep you company." Lina said as she summoned thirty zombies out of the earth. and fled away through the shadows.

"Great. Just great. We're surrounded." Gem said, stating the obvious.

[Melancor]

Making sure not to provoke any more sudden attacks he would not be able to deflect, Melancor lowered his hand to the ground. There was enough daylight for to use the water as a mirror. The Welge was still out of sight, but a large shadow, as water from a fountain, emerged from the forest wall. Like a furtive creature, and emitting no tangible sound or sign of its presence, to likewise untrained eyes, it launched something out the mass of trees. The water in his hand rippled, and he left it drop.

Shit, that was too fast

Melancor slowly turned his head until the man was in his range. like the situation presented, Melancor sustained his low status, and remained tranquil. It seemed as a black arrow had penetrated his arm. A small quantity of dark scarlet blood began to sprout from his shoulder, and the arrow displayed proudly, perpendicular, to his pale body. The man uttered some words that from the distance he could not recognize.

“Hmp” He snorted. This cannot be a demon, they are much more vicious and do not hide like vile hunt cats. “Heh, We have a dark magic rat upon our heads.”, Melancor murmured and indecorously as his low voice would allow him.

He had just made the remark when a voice rose from the darkness. This must be the woman the Welge was talking about. She has killed a few men and now she feels violent enough to attack me. A slight air of antagonism rose though Melancor’s skin, the smell of conflict was near. It’s been a while since I’ve had the privilege to kill a dark necromancer, or a woman for that matter.

Before the woman was done giving another of those trivial explanations, and pathetic stories of their lives mortals where so known for, Melancor rose slowly to face the dark figure. With a swift move of his fingers, the water he had released into the floor sprung up and began coiling in a small line below his palm.

As he prepared to strike, which one so vulgar ofor of decomposing bodies overwrote such smell of conflict. An atmosphere of death defiled the regal blanket of fresh air that nature had imposed upon the forest. This seemed far too familiar for him. The nostalgic feeling grew stronger as a small tremor began to shake below his feel. A minute mountain of dirt elevated from the ground, and this began to crack.

With ominous curiosity he kicked the monticule, and below, dusty, and rotten ochre human hairs appeared.
“Shit!” he exclaimed, and with another swift move, he jumped off the way. The ground began to collapse below his late position and with a horrid thud; an elongated, gray and putrid figure appeared. He could hear what seemed as a thousand more thuds emerging around him, with the rattle of the collapsing earth and the hissing of the gray bodies, the true symphony of Hades’ orchestra.

“It’s going to be interesting fighting walking sacks of dead meat, the only thing you can get at sea are dead soul serpents!”

Melancor slashed his had against of the squalid figures, and after emitting an abhorred roar it fell to the ground. It took this to notice that the precence of the shadow had disappeared, and rage took over him.

“that bitch, she dares to cowardly attack me, and then flees leaving these vile creatures to mock me!”

He slashed the long and thick water filament among the mass. And decaying dark purple blood stained his face. There was no way he was letting that woman escape.

[Gem]

Gem chased after Melancor, firing off a fireball at the occasional zombie that rose from underneath the earth behind Melancor. He had gotten a confession that it was her that killed the elders, but he needed more proof if he ever wanted to return to his colony after killing her. Wait, he was getting ahead of himself. How did he expect to kill her anyway. There was no way to fight a shadow, and if she was to keep summoning, she could create her own shadows.

The deaths of the elders weighed heavily on his mind as he fought his way towards her. but at the town gate, she stopped to chat with one of the soldiers guarding the town in her Welge form. This was really confusing to Gem. She was up to something, but what was it?

--------
Meanwhile
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Lina had only succeded in making Gem and his partner angry, it seemed. She was hoping that they would be injured enough that her low level summons would be enough to take care of her pursuers, but her zombies were being knocked over like dominos and her foe was ganing on her. Suddenly she saw her opportunity. There was a town ahead, and she pulled herself out of the shadows long enough to approach the guard from behind. Pretending to be a normal townsperson, she looked at the guard and pointed at Gem and Melancor.

"Excuse me, Mister guard. those two have been chasing me for amany hours now. I thought I finally lost them, but it seems they've found me again. Would you be so kind as to help me out here?"

"Sure, but why are they after you, miss?"

"Because I'm a witness to thier crimes. They caught me spying on them when they destroyed the forest back there."

Now that she had decieved the guards with her stories, she had free rain of the town.

Rushing inside the town, she ran into the city's graveyard and hid in the shadows as she began to summon more zombies.

[Melancor]

Melancor must have crumbled five of those perstering corpses when the wall of flesh opened to grant pursue of their patroness. She had gained a large distance from their current point, but Melancor could see her gaunt figure in the distant, apparently reaching for the aid of a village he had just passed a few moments ago.

He put all his energy into his legs, as they ran along side from the remainders of the smoke that rose above the crowns of the angry trees. He ran through the parched dirt road, the wind had now began swirling in the hills and a few high and gloomy-faced clouds moved into the blue sky.

The moaning of the slow and wretched figures seized as he left them far behind. It was only his steps and those of his companion what was to be heard across the young forest.
There stood before his the town, which before his eyes grew larger and larger until the small doll set turned into the yearn of metropolis he’s just met.

Her scrawny figure stopped for a second before a guard that witnessed over who made it in and out of the town. And she headed in, without any sign of anguish or preoccupation, and disappeared in the mass of small buildings, standing shabby made of stones and some wood.

“Halt there!” The guard exclaimed.

Melancor ignored the order; he kept his current throttle, and attempted to enter the city, before a long wooden rifle pressed against his stomach stopped him.

“And what would you want?” Melancor responded with an air of arrogance.

“You will leave that woman alone”

“And I suppose a mere town guard is going to stop me”

“Just try me boy, I may not be as young as I used to be but I can still take people like you down”

“And what kind of ‘people’ would I be?”

“You and that guy over there where the ones who lit the forest on fire where you not? You cannot deny it, you had just passed this town a few minutes before the smoke began to rise.”

“That coy bitch.”

“Watch your mouth!”

the eerie silence that swiftly followed the rough encounter was shattered when a dim green-blue screen appeared before the two men, who where now looking into eachother’s eyes. And with a swift move Melancor rose his hand and flicked it against the man’s chest. It emerged violently from his palm, a thick and sharp tower of ice that elevated just below the mans chin, that stood threatening as a knife.

It seemed that deploying the barrier had been a mistake, as the man’s weapon did not fire, more by sudden fear than by fallibility, and fell from his hands into the dirt. The screen quickly banished into the air, leaving behind no trace of its former presence.

“I don’t do fire… see?”

[Gem]

"Maybe not, but your skill with water would still come in handy for helping the person who started the fires escape. I'll bet your friend here is..." The guard began.

Gem had to interrupt at this point.

"You know, while you are here blabbing, YOU are the one helpng the person who started the fires escape. It ever occur to you that that woman may have played you for a sucker?"

"Then just prove to me you are not a fire magic user and I'll let you be on your way."

Suddenly the whole city was set on fire as ten undead magicians started causing havoc. The guard looked over his shoulder and realized his mistake as he saw the woman summon another creature. He charged towards her and was immediately pulled underground by a huge skeletal hand.

"Go my minions. Don't leave a single soul alive." Lina said before retreating to the shadows and heading north.

[Melancor]

His distraction induced by the petulant intrusion of the human guard, prevent ed him from noticing the foreshadowing of a hell-storm of fire that soon occupied the small town and had quickly began to devour all buildings. They sprung up from atop the horizon of wood and hay roofs, dancing furiously as deep orange demons. He was swift to release the guard.

Multitudes of people began pouring through the open passage where Melancor, along with Gem and the guard, where standing. Relentless screams and the rushing sound of shuffling feet. From beyond the wall of crackling flames, he could see the sinister shadows of decrepit brown figures moving through the buildings. Again he was daunted by the terrible yet cruel behavior of the red flames, destructing everything on their path discriminating for no one, or nothing.

Like a insect into the honey Melancor rushed into the perishing buildings, the fire sizzled, hissed and crackled and the tumult and the havoc of the people raged. Melancor was determined to hunting down the daring woman, and avoiding the intrusion of the malignant mages as he searched the small front section of the town, fending from the flames with his water.

With a frantic run, who silhouettes emerged from an open door from a house close to collapse, separated by no more than meters on their strides. But before Melancor could try to repel the figures they impacted, and held tight to Melancor’s waist, first one, then another, they where small, and he could feel the bodies trembling. There was an air of disconnect, but Melancor wasn’t at that, heartless.

He took the two individuals, who’s factions he could not recognize, and grasped them by the back of their worn clothes, beginning the swift evacuation from the fire storm, he could not carry on his pursuit with two helpless victims by his side. He hauled them both to the exit of the town, where he shoved them into the ground, before turning back his gaze upon the buildings where the fire had grown ever more furious.

[Gem]

Gem looked around nervously. He knew Lina Wouldn't have set fire to the village herself. She had stalled for time in order to cast a few summons so they could burn the village down. She had been outplaying them at every turn. There were two questions on Gem's mind at this point. Where did the creatures go that Lina had summoned via Necromancy? What was she stalling for this time?

It really didn't matter too much, It wasn't like he could stop her, or could he? Gem stared at a Water tower and almost laughed as the fire Lina had caused burned through its wooden legs and sent the water tipping out on the town, putting out half the fire. Lina turned around as she angrily saw her plan beginning to backfire.

"DIMENSIONAL DARKNESS!" Lina suddenly yelled out, casting her strongest spell as Gem tried to stab her while she was distracted.

The whole area turned into a world of shadows, trapping everyone and everything inside the inky blackness. Gem could see Melancor inside the darkness, but only barely. Darkness was the only other the only other thing he could see as he realized that Lina had the distinct advantage of never-ending shadows to hide in here. Gem tried to shoot the shadows with a fireball, but even it's light soon got smothered. Gem had heard tales of this spell, but he paid them no heed until now, thinking that the existance of such a spell was just a rumer.

Lina shot out of the shadows, with her hands shaped like a pair of longswords, slashed Gem across both the upper and lower portion of his his chest and then dissapeared back into the shadows before Gem could react. Gem fell to his knees clutching his chest.

"Welcome to my domain. Prepare to enjoy the last minutes of your pathetic existance in pain and agony." Lina's voice resounded from all directions.

[Melancor]

A dark veil broke the blue sky above, swiftly descending upon the area with a thundering sound. Melancor held ground as darkness took over the town, swallowing within its depths. Soon, cities, buildings and people reduced to vain outlines. The sound of fleeting birds, the quaver of the fire, and the ruckus of the desperate people, too vanished into silence. Around him the air grew thick, though cold, and while he held firm the ground, he could feel it rocking underneath his feet. His eyes closed, and his mouth inhaled as he slowly tried top adapt to the realm of the dark. An intangible breeze crossed his body, then he realized.

Everything was gone.

Melancor could sense two presences: Gem, who although he could not clearly see, must have been standing a dozen meters before him, he’s essence seemed to quaver and threatened vanish a second, only to rise again and fleet once more. The other one however… was in no way modest, the appalling presence of this woman surrounded him on all fronts, with a slight air of malignity that traced an invisible smirk upon the shadows.

Like a snake strikes without omen, the stillness broke with a vociferating screech. A swift body rose from the dusk, crossing through his body, running a weapon, sharp as and iron blade that rolled through his body without remorse. A thousand steel fangs drew their rasp bodies against his guts; a pain that moved like a trail of nails struck hard after every blow.

‘Damn it’ Melancor fell to the ground, indignantly kneeling upon the infernal villainess.

She was a fiend without compassion, her nature only spoke of her desire to slaughter anyone who would utter a word against her. She moved quickly, emerging from the unknown and permeating through, only to abandon the body to strike again when the victim fell immobile. Here, there was not water, nor wind or ice at his disposition. This time he would be force to use a much rustic approach.

The accosted had carried her third assault, when the place fell in silence once more. He locked away the peering pain as he concentrated in the darkness. He shifted his attention to upon Gem, a priority. He could sence Gem had met the same, if not worse, retaliation.

“Gem, follow my lead!” Melancor shouted into the empty sphere, “pay attention, and strike hard!” the room was filled by rage, as another roar shattered the dark. “Silence!” vociferated the black body as it red-handed, attempted to ambush Melancor. Just inches away a barrier ripped the air before him. The dark figure rammed against the luminous wall, immediately setting her dimension in disarray. The dark sphere quaked. Before the body had a chance to fall into the ground, the wall swiftly vanished. Melancor grasped her arm, and while pulling her against him he kicked away toward Gem. He hit her stomach with a powerful blow, immediately releasing his grasp. "Now!"

Vain streaks of light broke through the massive sphere.

[Gem]

Gem looked on in surprise as Lina was caught offguard by Melancor. At first, Gem didn't understand what Melancor expected him to do in his injured state, but after slight hesitation, Gem dove forward just as Lina was jumping back into her own shadow world. and managed to grab her arm.

"Not this time you don't" Gem said as he began to pull her out of the shadows. LIna quickly turned her arm into a sword and smiled a sinister smile as Gem's hand began to bleed. but this smile soon turned to a frown as she slowly realized he was refusing to let go.

"I said you aren't going anywhere!" Gem yelled out as he his weapon and stabbed Lina in the shoulder. He was actually aiming for the heart, but Lina was quite wily, and in a failed attempt to dodge it, the knife hit a slightly different mark than was intended. Still it seemed to do the trick. Lina screamed out from the pain and lost her concentration on the spell holding her dimension of darkness together. As it began to fall apart and light began to seep through, Gem lost his grip on Lina.

Lina fell into the last remaining bit of her shadowy dimension before it too was penetrated by the light of the sun once again.

Gem looked around and breathed a sigh of relief. It was over. She had no shadows to jump to before the shadow she was in dissapeared.

Or so he thought...
-------
Meanwhile
--------

Lina floated aimlessly in the shadows, unable to find a way out. She had fallen into a shadow of her own creation, just before it disssapeared. Normally, this would just result in her being exposed, but this was a shadow was created by magic. Even with it gone, the alternate world it created for her was still around. She just had no exit to the world. At least not until someone ended up using the exact same spell. In the meantime, she was forced to remain in limbo. Suddenly it came to her. She would play dead for now, let them believe they had won, but when she did manage to escape the shadows, she would strike the population once again, this time, though, she wouldn't hold back.
------

[Melancor]

Just as he had kicked the woman away from him she swiftly regained her composure; after being thrown back a couple of feet, she rolled her body into balance and the shadows once again began consuming her pale body. Melancor could only assume that Gem had failed to comply in using the opportunity he had given him, Melancor stood ground to prepare for another row of attacks.

He allowed his guard down for a second when a set of screams emerged from the shadows; Melancor again could see only silhouettes, moving violently against one another in a tug of war that grew stronger by the second. Rays of again began to cut through the darkness, then he could see the horrible scene of the two bodies.

Half of the woman's body laid sunken in shadows, the upper half, however, had been caught by Gem's hands which grasped her arm. It had already turned itself into a dark blade, whose jagged surface cut the welge's flesh without remorse. He had already sunk a blade into her shoulder, having missed her chest due to her violent struggle to break free.

The field of shadows began to crumble under the light. The rays of light grew winder, and the woman's body began to erode just as her magic. Within minutes all traces of her dimensional darkness had vanished into the air. The sun shone brightly on the faces of the scorched buildings, the fire had extinguished, though its the traces of its vile dance remained. People stood idle at the entrance of the town, static and silent.

Melancor fell to his knees, his body laid thorn to pieces, cuts had been drawn upon his skin with blood that trickled without a stop. He would have to use his affinity to keep the liquids exit in check, slowing its move until it would have chance to heal on itself. His companion however, who could not have such a chance should need assistance. He stood up, and moved towards the welge. With his last once of strength he forced his affinity upon the welge too, balancing the liquid in two bodies.

Gem might not have felt a thing, and that was for Melancor's favor; he would not take the luxury of being a hero more than he needed around these places. Melancor could not help embrace a warm feeling of victory. After their little ordeal was over, there was nothing than to be pleased. Melancor would stay a couple of hours, long enough or his body to emerge from its disarray. He would depart as life would return slowly to the town, families reunited, men assessed damages, and others came to thank the duo for their aid against the dark welge. In the horizon the sun was setting, and he left through the avenue of trees that formed the forest, the orange light of the dying sun illuminated the soft clouds. Soon, it would be night, he would travel, walking lame as a haggard man, watching his back for the surrounding darkness. After all he had to be somewhere.


Closing Post
Spoil: (Probably not)
Blood Affinity: Melancor has experimented for the first time with manipulating blood, for now he can control the flow of blood in his and and another person's body, although for it to take effect of a second party, this person must have been weakened. Using blood can allow him to take possession of small animals, such as rats or rabbits, however. On humans he can only influence the pulse of a person slightly. With some effort he can manipulate the blood to help the flesh bind together, healing small cuts and low degree burns.

[Gem]

Gem really didn't know what to do. He couldn't return to his fellow Welge because he had likely disgraced them by just coming up here, but at the same time he didn't really belong up here either. That, plus he had no place to stay and everybody was staring at the weird guy with the ruby embedded in his forehead. When a guard approached him, he was ready for the worst but instead the guard just smiled.

"Let's get you healed up. We can't thank you enough for saving our town from that mad woman. If there is anything we can do for you, just let me know." The guard said.

"Well, if you could find me a permanent Residence somewhere..."

Spoils: All I ask for spoils is just what gem asked. It doesn't have to be fancy, nor does it have to be in any specific region. I just want gem to gain a small house from this quest, somewhere. I don't think that is too unreasonable a request.

[Zook Murnig]

Quest Judging
Meet the Welge

Story ~ 5/30

Continuity ~ 2/10 Neither of you gave me much here. About all I got was "this is what I was doing just before this started." I was left wondering exactly what Aegeans were, how the Welges did anything that they did, and many other things. And I had little idea as to what they were going to move on to after this, or if they'd changed any from the events of this thread.

Setting ~ 2/10 Let's face it, you forgot all about the setting for most of the thread. There were a few moments where there was a handwave of "there's a burning forest, oh the town's on fire, oh the water tower caught fire and spilled all the water out onto the burning town." Interact with your setting. Also, I don't think the whole water tower part would have QUITE worked the way you had it go.

Pacing ~ 1/10 I sped through this. And that's not a good thing. Gem, you had a tendency to say "hey, this happened" and not put any description of HOW it happened. Melancor, you put so much effort into providing what you probably believed to be flowing descriptions of what happened and how it happened, but it was too thick and forced. Beyond that, I just had to glance through at a sentence here and a sentence there to catch what was going on. And you both did a bad job of the pacing of the story as a whole. It never felt like it was building up to anything, and when the climax came, it didn't feel like a climax. And as soon as the climax was over, the thread was over. No real resolution or aftereffects whatsoever of the town burning down or anything like that. Also, pet peeve: Don't restate the actions of the previous post.

Character ~ 6/30

Dialogue ~ 2/10 Weird, forced, and unbelievable. Beyond that, Lina's lines were too stereotypically "EEEEHEEHEEHEEVIIIIILLLLLLL." I'll touch on that in Persona, too.

Persona ~ 2.5/10 I never got a clear picture of who your characters were, though Melancor made a better attempt than Gem. Gem, your character acts, talks, and thinks exactly like an overworlder, so what's so special about him being an underworlder? What societal differences drive him to be who he is? Does he want to protect Althanas from all the perils that it faces? Or just the ones that directly affect him? In addition, Lina was too stereotypical and forced for me. She had motivations, but they didn't make sense. She had goals, but they, too, made no sense whatsoever. So she wants to roam the surface without being threatened by overworlders? That's not a very good starting point for the whole "KILL EVERYONE!!!!!!!!11one1!one" thing she had going. And for a necromancer, she sure did use fire a lot.

Action ~ 1.5/10 Gem, I have to say this first: DESCRIBE THINGS. I think the biggest problem here was that you said "this happened," but I couldn't see it happening because you just said what happened and not how, and what it looked like, and what it felt like, sounded like, smelled like. In addition, this really seemed like it was your thread, but you didn't do much. Melancor used his magic to put out fires and save lives and such, but Gem was just kind of...there.

Writing Style ~ 6/30

Technique ~ 2/10 Gem, there was none. Melancor, you tried too hard to use flowery language without mastering the grammar and spelling and punctuation that make it work.

Mechanics ~ 2/10 Both of you need to work on spelling. Badly. Melancor, you didn't really spell very many words wrong. You just used a lot of the wrong words. Once instead of ounce, for example. As well, you had a lot of missing words, and sentences that just plain didn't make sense because word order and general grammar and punctuation was all upside down and inside out. I gather that English isn't your first language, so you might do well to have a native speaker look over your work from time to time and give you pointers on grammar.

Clarity ~ 2/10 Very few things were clear. I got the general idea of what was going on, but that's it. Just enough to recognize what was wrong, but not much else. Action, Mechanics, Persona, and Setting explain why.

Miscellaneous

Wild Card ~ 3/10 To be quite blunt, this was not good.

TOTAL ~ 20/100

Gem recieves 123 EXP and 28 GP
Melancor recieves 246 EXP and 28 GP

No spoils granted.

Any questions or comments should be directed to PM or AIM at SuperSonicMatt1.

[Zook Murnig]

EXP/GP ADDED!