IK vs PA Multi-Battle - Farm

[Enigmatic Immortal]

This Battle will open at Midnight tonight!

I will be announcing who is participating in this before hand if I get both sides match ups in time. If by that time none is given I will assign the fighter. Remember that whoever posts first sets the parameters for the fight as well as the setting!

[Enigmatic Immortal]

This Battle is going to be:

Homunculus vs Amber Eyes

[Abomination]

Not long ago, deep in the lair of The Cult of Blessed Torture, Cassandra Remi stood with Draug surrounded by darkness. A single magical light from the ceiling cast a focused beam upon them, making them actors in a dark play.

"Draug," said The Dark Mother, her long hair flowing through the air as if gravity did not affect it. "I must go soon. I do not know how long I will be gone, and I won't be able to talk to you."

Draug frowned slightly, an expression so hard for him to achieve that it represented a thousand years worth of sadness, "But, mother..."

"While I am gone, it is up to you to remind the world of fear, of pain. To take those who are weak and turn them into ghouls, to give those with dark desires a way to release them."

"...Mother..."

Cassandra put her hand on Draug's face, rubbing his cheek with her fingertips, "Do not worry, my child, you shall still hear my lullabies in your mind, my presence in your body." Draug raised his hand and calmly clasped his mother's fingers. "Draug, while I am gone I want you to go out into the world and learn. No longer will you sit and wait for my direct orders. When I emerge, I want to know exactly what happened in my absence. As for the Ixians...

Kill them as you see fit."

Draug now stood in the middle of a field of tall corn stalks, his eyes wandering as the wind caused the corn to gently rustle. The sky was mostly clear today, the weather nice and warm. He knew that members of The Ixian Knights would arrive here, and those he was with had dispersed to various parts of the town to better intercept the enemy. Splitting up was the better tactic, since the kind of people Phoenix Ascendant managed to round up weren't all amicable. In fact, they were almost openly hostile to Draug's offer of help. There was no doubt that at the conclusion of this war, they would turn on him and The Cult. Until then, they had a common foe. At the end of the field was a farm house, a barn, and behind it a pasture. The field had a wooden fence around it to protect the corn, but it was easy to crawl through. There was no telling whether any Ixians would try to sneak into the town through this field, but Draug didn't have any better plans.

Suddenly, he coughed hard into his hand. Looking at his palm after the fit, he noticed blood on it. One of his organs was starting to fail. He couldn't really kill anyone on the way here, and the townspeople were mostly in hiding. He still had a few hours before it would fail in earnest, but he didn't enjoy having a time limit. Maybe the Ixian that shows up next could donate some body parts.

[Amber Eyes]

A soft wind cooled her skin and blew her long dark hair onto her face. The young mystic ran her fingers backwards through the strands, sniffling softly as a strange scent filled her nostrils. She was nearing the edge of a grassy meadow and from the watering of her eyes it seemed a wheat field lay a few yards in front of her, enclosing a small barn. A nearby cat meowed and stretched its black paws upon a wooden fence, the girl simply glared at the animal before pushing herself over the locked gate. Her green button-up caught against the top, tearing a button hole and turning the neckline into something better suited for the bedroom than the battlefield. "It's not like I'm likely to run into anyone worth fighting out here anyway." Kyla muttered the words as she took notice of the long cornstalks beyond the field, small discolored pieces of the crop peeking out from their green cover. Her feet caught on the growing weeds as she walked between the tall rows of neglected crops.

She jumped and grasped her chest when a flock of crows flew out from the corn stalks, their caws echoing through the sky as a warning to one another. Something had startled the birds, it seemed, though Kyla had not heard anything. The girl raised her eyebrows at the long green crops now. While Kyla Orlouge was no strategist, she was smart enough to know that a corn field was a lackluster ambush spot. Surely no one was actually planning to attack the entirety of the Ixian Knights from a farm?

Against her better judgment, Kyla walked towards the barn, listening intently for any signs of life. She carefully pushed aside several stalks of the corn, watching her feet to not step on anything loud. She soon caught a glimpse of something, but before she could investigate further...

“Kyla,” The voice of her uncle entered her mind. Sei had insisted everyone in the war be kept in a ‘mental loop’ of sorts, so they could communicate without actually having to reveal anything to weary ears. “Kyla, I require a status report of Bellator, and Logan. Then report back to me.” Kyla stopped for a moment, thinking so that her relative would catch her message.

"Can’t they give you a status report themselves? I thought you had us all connected mentally to avoid this exact thing.

“Yes, well Logan is a capable psionic in his own right. As a result, my telepathy doesn’t work as well on him, even for communications. I could bypass his mental blockades, but while I have visited his mind before, I don’t think he wants me invading his privacy. As for Bellator…” Kyla sighed, and rolled her eyes. She knew how her kin was going to end the sentence.

Right. You think he may need assistance, seeing how he isn’t really a formal part of the army. You better not be making me go all around the city trying to help your soldiers.

“No promises, Kylana.” Kyla grimaced at this. Sei was probably looking as smug as ever, a wry grin upon his face as he spoke to his ‘daughter'. Kyla sighed and looked down, taking notice of the shadows formed by the corn stalks that surrounded her. Smiling, the girl closed her eyes and melted into the shadows of the stalk, her whole form causing a sort of ripple on the ground. This was Kyla Orlouge’s shadow step technique, one of Sei’s secret weapons in this battle.

And maybe just the thing needed to stop all of this ridiculous warmongering from family and foe alike.

((Kyla Orlouge leaves the farm--next post will be in the church))

[Abomination]

A loud bang gripped Draug's attention, coming from the direction of the old mill near the main streets. Looks like the fun started without him. He walked through the corn stalks, coming up to the front porch of the wooden farmhouse, when he noticed a very faint ripple in the ground. This caused his eyes to scan the cornfield, looking for any signs of motion.

Was someone here, mother?

He looked back at the front door of the house, walking up to it and trying to turn the knob. The door was locked. Likely, this farm's inhabitants were trying to brave the storm of this battle. Draug coughed again, the urge of finding replacement organs washing over him. With a strong kick, the doorknob was sent flying into the house, the door it left slowly creaking open to allow the Homunculus in. He took a step in, knowing where to go. Knowing where to find his victims. After all, their body parts did not truly belong to them anymore, not after Draug sets his sights on them.

A few minutes and screams later, he emerged from the house, blood around his mouth from where he shoved in his replacement organ. They were collateral damage in this war, a conflict that put all the people in this town at risk. Were their sacrifices worth the greater good? Draug did not know. He wiped his mouth, the blood soaking into his hand. As he walked toward the streets, he pulled a steel longsword out of his throat with his right hand, dragging it along the ground.

((Draug moves from the Farm to the Streets))

[Silence Sei]

((moved via Max’s bunny, which –was- indeed granted permission for, from the streets))

How far had he run out of the city? How long had his limbs felt as if they were going to fall off from carrying the limp body of his ‘daughter’? How much longer until he thought that they were safe? Sei ignored the warm sun on his face, the wind whipping through his clothes, even the slight tinge the Mystic typically felt when he knew that his ‘Would’ spell had activated. The mute only had one priority at the moment, and it was getting Kyla Orlouge to safety.

He had finally slowed down when he had come across a farm some distance away from the town. Stopping only for a moment to catch his breath, Sei looked down at Kyla’s form. The girl may have been breathing, but Sei’s own shakiness could not confirm or deny such a thing for sure. He picked up his pace once more, his eyes finding their way to a house with an open door.

As Sei walked through the door, hoping to find someone to take care of his relative, he nearly dropped the girl at the horror he saw. Blood had smeared the walls, family portraits that once hung perfectly were smashed into pieces on the ground, and there were what Sei could only describe as ‘chunks’ of something all around the home. He had seen something similar to this before, on the night the Ixian Knights had called ‘The Night of Debauchery’. This was the work of Cassandra Remi, one of the few people in the world that Sei truly hated.

The savagery that was displayed in the house combined with the illness that Sei had contracted several minutes earlier at the town church, was more than the Mystic could bear. Laying his daughter down on the crimson soaked carpet (it looked as though it had once been green); Sei turned his head and began to vomit. The unpleasant feeling in his stomach rising up through his throat and coming out of his mouth in waves. It took a full minute or two before the telepath could stop his throwing up, let alone pick his niece back up in his arms.

He now smelled of puke, the smell he was sure most members of Phoenix Ascendant smelled of. After all, these people, who Sei could only assume were misguided drunkards, had hired monsters and murderers alike all in the name of stopping the war against the Corone Empire. If they had actually reached out to Sei, pleaded with him not to be so rash in his decision making, the strategist would have at least lent an ear, and this whole rebellion may have been avoided. However, people with dreams of power tend to more often than not disagree with changes that are not their own, so it seemed unlikely that the army of alcoholics would have even stopped to consider such things.

All around the house, the carnage was evident; the knives in the kitchen were all out of their holders and dripping with crimson, a chair in the living room had been turned over and ripped apart here and there, even the bathroom had its shower curtain ripped straight off of the rings, a small stream of water still running in the porcelain tub. Phoenix Ascendant accused the Knights of something similar, to a village Sei had never even heard of, and yet they turned a blind eye when their soldiers did the very same?

Sei could not blame them for attacking Kyla. She was a warrior who had volunteered; the same went for the young man, Bellator of Fallien. But this….these were innocent people, a family living nowhere near where the ravages of this war should have affected them. What did the Phoenix Ascendant even gain from such unnecessary slaughter?

Sei had finally found a room left untouched by the devastation, a small room with four sky-blue walls and a bed seemingly hand-crafted to be made for a child. The mute walked over to the bed, placing Kyla down on the light green bed spread, and gave her the once over. Most of the girl’s clothes had been blown off by the two back-to-back Mystic Bombs, but somehow the blasts managed to keep Kyla’s decency intact by covering both of her private areas with very little cloth.

Just as Sei began to look at the girl’s blackened chest, to be able to see if she was breathing or not, his vision began to blur. The mute took a hard swallow and attempted to concentrate on Kyla’s body, but to no avail. He fell onto the carpet, his vision getting worse as the room seemed to spin around him. This was another symptom of the beast known as Draug’s virus; disorientation.

That’s all of the symptoms but one…

Almost as if on cue, Sei’s head felt as if somebody had rang a thousand church bells next to each of his ears. The mute grabbed a hand of orange hair in both of his hands, keeling over on the floor as he felt the headache pulsate, each little feeling from the soft carpet to the brisk wind blowing in from the other rooms put Sei in absolute agony. It was why he had cut off a connection with every member of his party, refused to telepathically speak to them. Whenever a telepath got a headache, said headache would transfer to those he had been in talks with. As such, Sei insured Kyla, Bellator, Logan and Max Dirks were safe from his residual ‘pain pulse’.

Sei’s eyes widened when he thought of Dirks, the mute’s orders to have the gunslinger buy time echoing in his head amongst the chorus of calamity that currently claimed him. It was the last thing he had said to anyone, meaning that Max Dirks would feel the pulse as well, would probably find himself in a similar state as that of Sei. Pain that made one wish to take their own life. Who else had responded to him, acknowledged what he had said.

There was the monster that belonged to Cassandra Remi, though Sei knew not what became of him, the knight, or the other female that was with them. The knight and the female did not seem to pay the Mystic any mind, meaning that they probably had not heard’ him and his distraction towards them while in city hall. However, Victor Callahan had heard the mute; Sei had made absolutely sure to speak into Victor’s mind directly, to establish that connection.

Sei let out a silent laugh when he realized he was too weak from his massive migraine to even cry. At the very least, maybe Sei would end this war because of Cassandra Remi and her kind, of all things…

((Long story short, Sei is in crippling pain now as a result of Draug’s disease. Anybody who had spoken or ‘heard’ him since leaving the church should theoretically feel some degree of the psychic residue coming off of him due to Sei’s being a telepath. These people include Max Dirks, Victor Callahan, and Draug. Keep in mind that ‘some degree’ could mean an annoying twitchy feeling in their brain, or an outright keeled over hurt like Sei is currently in. Dirks, Victor, Draug, if any of the three of you have a problem with this, please PM me and I will hastily edit.))

[Silence Sei]

Sei’s eyes suddenly shot open with a gasp escaping his lips. He had been unaware of his losing consciousness, let alone how long he had been out for. His eyes shifted around the room, trying to find some indication of what happened in the time he was out. Kyla was still on the bed, and the carpet below him still felt cool. Sei soon realized that he had to have only been asleep for a few minutes.

The fact that the Mystic could think was a good sign; it indicated that he was at least back in control of his mind, not a slave to a headache. He attempted to push himself up, giving his arms too much credit as they gave up from trying to push his lithe frame to its feet. He tried again, this time managing to evenly proportion his being so he could at least get one leg off the ground, the knee of his right leg now supporting a could part of his weight.

His limbs shook hysterically, as if coming down from an adrenaline rush. His head still pounded, though the feeling was much less severe, he could work with that. Best of all, the nausea that had plagued him no longer seemed to be a viable threat. Mystic blood was known to be ‘pure’, developed once all the evil feelings of the world were taken out of two innocent children. Perhaps that was why the strategist felt so much better than he had minutes before. He was severely weakened, but Sei Orlouge was still in the fight.

He looked towards Kyla, his thoughts tracing back to Max Dirks as he did so. He had left the gunslinger at the mercy of at least one enemy, possibly as many as five. As soon as this thought crossed Sei’s mind, the image of the young man from Phoenix Ascendant being stabbed to death by Bellator flashed in his head. The creature from the cult was probably out of the fray too after being so close to the explosion of Kyla’s Mystic Bomb attack. That left three people from Phoenix Ascendant against three warriors for the Ixian Knights.

Logan had yet to contact Sei, however, and Bellator may have been a bit stunned by the murder he had committed seconds before Sei left city hall. That would leave only Dirks facing off against three people. Sei could not take the risk of his friend sacrificing himself in order to buy the Mystic time to escape with Kyla. Dirks had managed to save Sei and his ‘daughter’, much like he had done years ago when he took a mortal wound aimed towards Anita Orlouge, Kyla’s sister.

Sei had to repay his debt to the criminal.

He rose to his feet, taking one last look at Kyla before he left the room she was in, closing the door behind him. Surely, whoever had done the heinous butchering of this house would not come back for the prospect of finding survivors. Such a thing would make no sense.

As Sei allowed his legs to carry him out of the farm house, he could feel their shakiness. There was no way the mute was going to make it back to the Radasanth streets in time to save Dirks if he attempted to run. Sei looked to the air, biting his lower lip and allowing his two massive butterfly wings to sprout from his back. The extra limbs seemed strong enough once Sei tested them. The cool breeze provided by the flapping wings cause the tactician to smile. Draug’s disease apparently had no effect on his wings at all, a facet of information that was good to know. Smiling to himself, Sei jumped into the air, allowing his wings to carry him away from the farm, and back into the war-ridden streets of the town.

It wasn’t hard to find the village from the air. After all, Sei just had to follow the bellowing cloud of black. Everyone knew that where there was smoke, there was Max Dirks starting a fire.

((Sei moves back from the farm to the streets, where I’m hoping everyone will be posting soon since City Hall is burning))

[Abomination]

((Draug arrives from the Streets))

It was quiet when he walked up to the door with the missing doorknob at the front of the farmhouse, the same one he kicked in last time he was here. He walked inside...

"Who is there?!" came a voice from inside. "S-stay away! I'm armed!" Draug recognized the voice as that of an adult male. As the door opened, he saw the man standing there, wearing overalls and slacks, gripping the shaft of a pike tightly. Fear was in the farmer's eyes, and rage. Draug continued moving into the house, stepping on the unblemished carpet. "This is your last warning!" He stabbed at Draug but hit one of the couches in the living room, the blade of his pike ripping through the fabric as he desperately pulled it out.

The bloody carpet was right where he left it, but near it was also a splattering of vomit. That was new. So that means Sei was here, or maybe Kyla? He started looking around, walking into the kitchen...

The man pleaded for his life, "Please! T-take anything you want! Just leave my family alone!" He was on the kitchen floor, with Draug standing over him. Next to the Homunculus were various knives in their holders. He took one out and eyed it carefully, thinking of how best to make an incision. He might have to try out all the knives. "No! Don't! I have money in a safe... take that! Anything!"

In the kitchen, his handiwork was evident. Chunks of the farmer were scattered around the kitchen, visible from the front door of the house. Various bloody knives were scattered around. He looked in the larger storage areas near the kitchen, but nothing was there. He walked over to the bathroom...

The bathroom door was locked. There was no means to open it from the outside, which told him that there were people inside. It was possible that they had better replacement organs than the farmer, so he kicked at the door, causing a quick squeaking sound from inside followed by a "Shh!" Draug was strong, so a few kicks later the door was knocked off its hinges, falling to the bathroom floor inside. He kept with him the most useful knife he found for cutting people up, the trusty butcher's cleaver. In the bathtub behind the curtains, the farmer's family was trying to be as quiet as they could, but it was too late.

He stepped into the bloody bathroom, seeing the bodies of the wife and two children in the corner of the room. Well, most of them. Whatever he didn't drag out. A used cleaver was in the leaky tub. In the end, the wife's organ was in the best condition. Kyla wasn't here, although what prompted him to think she was rested with the farmer's family. He didn't consider little things like dead bodies making the hiding spot particularly unsightly, he just considered all people to think the same way until he figured otherwise. He stepped back out, walking over the broken family portraits. He had smashed them into the ground one by one after he discerned that there were likely no more hidden humans in this house.

There was one room he did not check yet. He had no reason to since he accounted for all the family members. He took a step towards the room, the images of the terrified family flashing in his mind. He continued walking, feeling sleepy and tired, but knowing that the time for rest was not yet upon him. The door was closed, but there was no lock on it. Was it open last time he was here? He couldn't remember clearly. Feeling was starting to return to his body, and with that the pain being transmitted from his entire left side. Saliva mixed with blood leaked out of his exposed mouth. One hand went on the knob, turning it ever so slightly. The door creaked open, and he absorbed the scene as it gradually came into view. He saw the blue walls, and as the door opened more and more, he started to see the edge of a bed with light green covers.

Impatiently, he put his hand on the door and pushed it open the rest of the way.

[Silence Sei]

As Sei’s feet hit the soft grass outside of the house, his legs seemed to take over the job his wings started, and he ran straight into the home. The door to the front was once again open; somebody had been there. How could he have been so stupid as to leave Kyla here, knowing that Cassandra Remi’s ‘son’ was still alive?! Tears cascaded down his cheeks, the air blowing past his face as he made his way through the kitchen, the living room, and then finally, at the front of the door which held Kyla Orlouge.

The Mystic took a hard swallow. The door had still been closed, which was a sign that nobody had went in. Sei began to breathe again, sighs of relief escaping from his lungs. Perhaps the beast of the cult just overlooked the room once again? Was it to much to ask for just that one miracle?

Sei shifted his eyes down, intending to focus on the door knob, when he saw it. Red blood seeping out from under the door frame. When he had last arrived, the room had been as pristine as it had been before the family of this house was slaughtered like lambs. If the blood had belonged to either Sei or Kyla, the liquid leaking outwards would have been an azure blue. Either someone from the family had survived their barbaric mutilation, or the mutation bastard child of Cassandra Remi had found his target.

Sei grabbed the handle, turning the knob and pushing the door forward, his own eyes closed.

His eyes open when his face was caressed by the wind. A window right up against the bed had been opened, the same red blood smearing curtains that flowed with the breeze. Sei stared at the bed where he had laid his daughter down just minutes ago. Sei’s body seemed to forget he was capable of telepathy, and he let out a violent scream of silence. The mute dropped to his knees, his fist slamming against the carpet over and over again, rivers of tears flowing down his features and staining the floor a darker color. He had failed.

In the bed where Kyla once laid, was now nothing but red blood and torn articles of clothing.

((Final post. Great job, gentlemen))

[Enigmatic Immortal]

Closed