Carnival of Rust

[lilbooth]

Cee Cee and Magni strode forwards toward the new challengers. She was hefting her newly acquired great axe as she stared down the three glowing skeletons. The petite pale skinned girl with horns that was clutching a crossbow caught her attention. She was badly hurt and calling for help. Cee Cee was here to help protect the city, and that meant the people within the city where to be protected as well. She diverted her path slightly and stretched out her hand to the horned girl.
"Stay on the Owlbear! He'll keep you save!" She shouted to the girl as they pressed on towards the powerful looking skeletons. Either with or without the horned girl, Cee Cee and Magni would both attack the skeletons.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Cee Cee is going to activate monster and attack twice, and Magni will do a normal attack on the same target. Unless it happens to go down before that, but I have a feeling it won't

[KnightVanilla]

Gaelic struggled towards the knights. A sandstorm bested away against her body and she was finding the time to continue to pass unfavorably. However in mere moments of seemed another knight came to her aid. Not one to turn away help when she was so desperate she climbed as quickly as she could onto the owl bear. Clutching her crossbow tightly as she tried to maintain her balance.

[RandomRoninKitten]

Lilith Rose/Mark3000

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Lilith always found the trees of the forest calming. She brushed her hand close to one of the blue crevices as she walks through the forest. The young Nomad let her eyes grow accustom to the darkness of the forest. What was starting to get annoy was the sudden sandstorm.

It wasn't long until she happened upon a strange sight. A woman with horns was just relaxing in a small pond. Was she a Nomad? A Were-beast or something else? Her gear set aside by the pond. With the woman asleep by the pond, it would be easy to just take the gear and leave.

Just as she reaches for the spear, Lilith pulls her hand back. No matter how tough things got, Lilith just couldn't resort to theft. Besides, what she need now wasn't equipment but ... allies.

Lilith gave the small pond a quick look before approaching the woman. She gives the tree a tap trying to gently wake her. "I don't think it's a great idea to fall asleep outside in a Sandstorm." She said hoping to get the woman's attention.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The horned girl opens her eyes slowly and looks up at Lilith with a bored expression "Oh look, a Vagabond. I don't see why you should be worrying about others, given everyone is in their own form of danger... and I'm not one of you." she said, standing up and starting to put on her armor, and putting her lances on her back.

"I'd ask what you're doing out here, but you were probably chased out of the nearby cities for being a Zalaam-worshipping Grey-skin" she said, bumping Lilith out of the way, roughly, with her shoulder as she stepped past her, walking in the direction that Lilith's destination is in.

Amun Khufu/MrBlah

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"Ah, so that didn't work." Was the first thought Amun had, as the tension high situation halted thanks to the retreating monster who went back into the command room. Yeah... he was kind of hoping it wouldn't see logic and just focus on eliminating him, but that clearly wasn't the case. "Well, round two then." The Were-beast rushed back to the command room's door and slipped in after taking a moment to ascertain the creature's position. Or rather; that it wasn't waiting on the other side of the door, ready to bisect him. It wasn't.

He looked around the command room for ideas, and hesitantly moved closer to the creature, his feet stepping softly on the surface of the floor. He needed space to move. He needed a little time to plan. He needed its attention. He needed to NOT fight it... wait, not fight it? "H-hey, y... you there! ..."

An idea came to Amun, and he knew he might as well try it. Nothing to lose, right? He steeled his nerves, drawing on all of his many years spent manipulating words and acting to fool others. "You... you haven't said a word of your scheme... no, you haven't said a word at all. I'm inclined to believe you have intelligence based on how coordinated your plan was, yet nothing else seems to suggest that. Even so, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt as I ask... why have you come here?! Why have so many died for what seems to be nothing but purposeless chaos?! Was it all just on a whim? Are you nothing but a terrorist with no manner of thought or goal?!"

Amun realized that he didn't need to even combat the threat. He just needed to distract it long enough for the others to appear. To help his efforts, he took a single stomp forward with a feigned angry expression. "Answer me!"

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The creature seemingly ignores Amun until he yells at it to answer him, at which point it simply turns its head to look at him, while still messing with the controls as it speaks "Foolish one" booms the distorted voice "Have you not yet realized that this aircraft is losing altitude? Look outside, can you not see Monsteropolis in the distance? The deaths of all living things on this ship will be swift, as an explosion observable from across the great plains will erupt from this great crash." he stated in a monotone, not as though her were a machine, but as though he were a bored individual simply stating a plainly observable fact. "You can do nothing to stop me, sit down and await your impending demise." he said, steering the ship as he spoke.

At that very moment, the room's door broke off its hinges and came spinning across room floor as Captain Prairie entered the room, followed by the dark-haired girl that he met at the gates, the two of them taking slow, cautious steps towards the pair "Good work stalling him" she said to Amun, before turning to the creature "Your evil plot ends now, you don't stand a chance against all three of us together" she said, moving her sword into ready position, as the dark-haired girl takes aim.

Warning, upcoming battle has an additional mechanic

Anastasia Ursa/LittleManKitten

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Anastasia said nothing to Idalia as they tried to find her employer. When she did talk to other's it was in curt replies. Upon reaching the tower, she sighed in both relief and annoyance. It seems the domain of what is probably her employer is unharmed. But now she had to talk to some bodyguards, and right now she wasn't really in the mood to talk. Placing her hand on Idalia's back as she hunched over, Anastasia replied to the guards. "I believe this is the residence of my employer for a job I took. I simply wished to make sure that they were alright until this invasion has been resolved, that way I can still be paid once the job is complete... This is my companion, I wont be going anywhere without her." She looked at Idalia, then gave the guards a look of 'I don't really want to be here, but I feel like I have to.'

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

While Anastasia was speaking to the guards, Idalia's attention was directed behind them, as some of the Barton knights pushed their way into the city to help expel the Zombie threat. When the Barton Knights looked their way, Idalia quickly lowered her head and did her best to hide her face, but said nothing.

The guards looked at each other and knocked on the door behind them, calling up to the employer "Some Spectross prostitute and a weak little girl say that they're here to make sure you're not getting mauled by the zombies! Do you want them to come up?"

A voice then called down from the upper levels of the tower "Send them away, if I wanted them, I'd have called for them." the voice said, sounding bored. The guard then followed up by announcing "He says he doesn't need ya, now go finish your job if you want paid."

Almost immediately after he had said this, the Barton soldiers shouted to each other "By Nour, it IS! NO MISTAKE, THAT'S HER! APPREHEND IMMEDIATELY, EXTREME CAUTION IS ADVISED!", then pointed at Idalia, leaning against Anastasia, and began running towards them, at least 10 of them in the approaching group. Idalia shrieked as she saw them approaching, then huffing and puffing, attempted to run, taking several steps and falling to the ground, curling up and clutching her mid-section.

MiscChaos/Ophelia

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Ophelia has to resist the urge to growl as she sees the Barbarian Whore and Wire Bitch again so soon. No need to give her position away after all. She briefly contemplates interfering in the fight to give the skeletons a better shot at taking her nemesis down, but disregards it because of the Wire Bitch. She's the bigger threat as far as Ophelia is concerned and she's fresh since she hasn't been in combat. It just wouldn't be wise to engage right now, especially with this sandstorm coming out of nowhere. The matter is taken out of her hands anyway when a... is that a giant fucking skeleton? She doesn't know what the hell is going on in Monsteropolis, but as it has nothing to do with her mission she figures it's not her problem. She does find herself morbidly curious about the position of Cielo though. It may just be her, she never cared to notice such things before unless an assignment took her to the flying city, but it seems lower than it should be. Still not her problem, it could be that they're making a landing soon to resupply or some such thing.

Her objective is the Colosseum of Fools so she will continue making her way there. She has a brief thought that she should find shelter to keep out of the sandstorm, but she wasted enough time recovering from her injuries yesterday. So she presses on.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Ophelia chose to pass around Monsteropolis to the right, to avoid the hordes of undead, and head straight for the Colosseum of fools.

On her way there, she passes by some streams, however at a safe enough distance, everyone knows to stay as far from water as possible. She soon enters the plains, and after traveling several miles, she can see the Colosseum in the distance, a massive dome structure on a tall hill. However, near the Colosseum was a tall structure, a black spire, which was directly ahead of her, and surrounded by a giant mob of shambling creatures, which Ophelia couldn't get a good view of. Due to how far spread out the creatures seemed to be, it would drastically prolong Ophelia's trip if she were to go around them. Worse still, going around the creatures would bring her near the long streams on either side of the land mass she was standing on.

CeeCee/Lilbooth

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Cee Cee and Magni strode forwards toward the new challengers. She was hefting her newly acquired great axe as she stared down the three glowing skeletons. The petite pale skinned girl with horns that was clutching a crossbow caught her attention. She was badly hurt and calling for help. Cee Cee was here to help protect the city, and that meant the people within the city where to be protected as well. She diverted her path slightly and stretched out her hand to the horned girl.
"Stay on the Owlbear! He'll keep you save!" She shouted to the girl as they pressed on towards the powerful looking skeletons. Either with or without the horned girl, Cee Cee and Magni would both attack the skeletons.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Battle in progress

Caelic Nemian/KnightVanilla

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Gaelic struggled towards the knights. A sandstorm bested away against her body and she was finding the time to continue to pass unfavorably. However in mere moments of seemed another knight came to her aid. Not one to turn away help when she was so desperate she climbed as quickly as she could onto the owl bear. Clutching her crossbow tightly as she tried to maintain her balance.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Battle in progress

[MiscChaos]

Ophelia looks over the horde of the shambling dead in front of her and just barely restrains the urge to sigh. Ophelia knows herself; she's got no chance of taking on all those undead by herself. She also knows she has no chance of surviving the creatures that live in the water. Damned if she does, damned if she doesn't. She takes a moment to figure out what to do. The best option would be to recruit others to help her through this. The closest place to do so, however, would be Monsteropolis. Who, last she saw, is under siege by giant skeletons and legions of the undead. And that's without mentioning the possibility of running into Whip Bitch and the Barbarian Whore. The next best option would be Ferraille, but she's seen what they have to offer. They'd be nothing but cannon fodder and she isn't far gone enough to sacrifice bystanders like this. The next best option would be to try to stealth her way past the spire and get into the Colosseum, which would have a whole new set of issues if she fails. She wonders if there would be enough of her left to let her Lady know what happened to her. She doubts it. She doubts her third option, waiting for her target to leave the Colosseum, would work while the spire is nearby.

So of her options, it looks like the second one is the best one for her right now in terms of completing her mission as quickly as possible for her Lady. She goes into stealth and makes as straight a line for the Colosseum as is possible. All she can hope is she gets close enough before being spotted to run the rest of the way.

[Littlemankitten]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Anastasia gave Idalia a confused look as she tries to hide her face from the knights, but quickly snaps her attention back to the personal guard when they call her a prostitute. Growling at them angrily, her hand instinctively reaches towards her new found weapon. “What did you just-” Her sentence was cut off by the knights shouting at her. No, not her, Idalia. Anastasia immediately goes into a defensive position and looks at the crouched Idalia. “Idalia, get up, judging by their words I think we can take them on if you stop cowering.”

Idalia shakes her head, her whole body trembling “No! I’m not going back! They’re not taking me back!” the panic clear on her face as she attempted to pick herself up, grabbing onto Anastasia’s sleeve for support.

At Idalia’s refusal, Anastasia growls in frustration then quickly scoops her up with one arm easily, as if she weighed nothing to Anastasia.

With Idalia in her grasp, Anastasia bolts in a random direction, using the sudden sandstorm to her advantage. She swerves around buildings and other solid objects to try to lose them as well. Half of them ended up getting separated from the main group one by one. Until eventually Anastasia came upon a deadend and was forced to confront the knights. Gently dropping Idalia on the ground behind her, Anastasia turns around and takes out her sword, getting into a combat position. “Looks like you guys lost some of your friends. If you were being cautious as a full group, what chance do you stand against us with half your manpower?”

One of the knights heeded her words, edging backwards a few feet before breaking into a full run. The other four ignored the loss of their comrade and readied their weapons, standing their ground. She had no choice but to fight now. While three of them moved to one side, the other moved to the left, and threw an object over Anastasia’s shoulder. Before she knew what was happening, Idalia screamed in pain.

Turning backwards in confusion, Anastasia could see Idalia falling from one of the structure walls, wrapped in a net that was shocking her, arcs of electricity bouncing off the walls and floor, as patches of her skin became charred from the force of the shock.

Anastasia didn’t let them prepare for too long. She quickly ran at the closest knight and swung her sword across his chest. The sword easily pierced the armor and a spray of blood splattered onto the walls. The knight grunted in both surprised and pain, with the other three shifting back, clearly not expecting the power of the attack. However, it was clear the knights were professionals, and they quickly recuperated and counter attacked. The knights flicked a switch on the handle of their weapons that engulfed their weapons in flames, and they swung them at Anastasia. Three of them landed their hits, but the injured knight swung to clumsily, and staggered.

Anastasia felt like her body was on fire, mostly because it was. Large burns were made across her body thanks to the attacks, the pain was quite debilitating. She didn’t think that she could handle another attack like that, and was about to panic before she remembered she had bottled some of Idalia’s blood. Fishing out the bottle from her pack, she popped open the lid and took a large swig of it. It was different this time though, as she drank she couldn’t help but feel…. Good, like, she was almost getting off from the blood. It made her want more, but realizing what was happening, she quickly stopped drinking and readied her weapon again. As she was drinking, the knights seemed to be talking to their wounded comrade, seeming to convince him to leave since he was wounded, the knight nodded and turned, preparing to run. Anastasia wasn’t going to let him go, hefting her sword upwards, she brought it down upon the knights back, blood splattered across his friends, and the knight fell down, dying instantly.

The burning wouldn’t stop, it felt like small flames were licking at her wounds. She didn’t have time to do anything about it though, the knights, furious over the death of their comrade, all swung at Anastasia at once. However, they did so in a predictable fashion, and it seems they let the death of their comrade interfere with their professionalism. So Anastasia easily dodged it by taking a small step back, and their swords clashed together in front of her. Anastasia took this opportunity to thrust her sword into one of their shoulders. The knight cried out in pain and stepped back, clutching his shoulder. The hand was used to hold his shield, and he was forced to drop it.

Anastasia’s burns suddenly seemed to flare up, and she could see bits of her pristine white skin turn red and bubbly. As if it was boiling. Anastasia coughed, and she could taste blood. The knights then attacked again, this time splitting off in such a way that when the first two attacked, she was forced to dodge into the third. The third then raised their sword and swung at Anastasia side. The burn seemed to have made it easier for them to penetrate her naturally tough skin, and the cut went much deeper than any wound Anastasia has had before. Yea, these guys knew what they were doing. Anastasia was forced to step back and take the bottle of blood out again, quickly chugging the rest. Her wounds immediately started to seal up, and she could hear the knights grunt in what sounded like annoyance. Damn did she want more of it though, she started to feel shaky. What the hell was happening to her? She didn’t have time to think about it though, aiming for the knight she hit before, Anastasia quickly slashed across their stomach. A spray of blood covered the area, and the knight made a gurgling sound, blood coming out of their helmet, before dropping to the ground. At this point, Anastasia wasn’t the only one shaking.

Luckily for her, the burning sensation started to fade, and her skin started turning as white as paper again. Probably thanks to Idalia’s blood. The knights then brought their shields together, and pointed them in random directions. It took a moment for Anastasia to figure out what they were doing, but she quickly found out that they were attempting to point the light of the sun into her eyes. It worked, and as soon as it happened, her eyes felt almost like they had used their fire swords on it. It burned quite a lot, but luckily, thanks to her innate toughness as a Spectross, she didn’t lose her sight, though there were lots of bright spots. Anastasia yelled in anger, and charged for one of the knights, they seemed to expect her to go for their lower body, but instead she dove straight for their face. Her sword penetrated their helmet fully, her sword going straight their head, splitting it in half. The body continued to move around for a few moments, then dropped to the ground.

The last knight screamed in anger and made their sword become ablaze again, they swung at Anastasia and she tried to dodge. Which was partially effective as she mitigated the amount of damage she could of taken, but they still managed to graze her. Thankfully, she didn’t feel the same burning sensation as before. She then swung at the knight, and for the first time, the knight actually tried to dodge, knowing their armor was useless against her now. The knight then swung sideways at Anastasia, taken advantage of her now compromised position, and sliced her side, making some blood run down. Anastasia growled and grabbed the knight by the arm, and pulled him towards her, sinking the blade into his abdomen. The knight groaned in pain, and weakly tried to hit her with his still on fire blade. But his attacks were weak, and even at point blanks range, he couldn’t penetrate her skin, it still hurt though. Anastasia yelled in his face. “You’re getting pretty fucking annoying you know that!?” She then brought her sword out of his abdomen and repeatedly stabbed his chest and stomach at least ten times before dropping him to the ground. He died on the second hit.

Anastasia exhaled heavily, turning her attention to Idalia. She walked over to her and grabbed the net surrounding her, harshly tearing it away from her. Anastasia then crossed her arms and looked down at Idalia, frowning, and clearly pissed off. “That’s twice now in a very short span of time I had to fight without you… It hurts a fucking lot you know that? Sure I can take them on but these wounds I suffered could have been avoided with your help. How are you gonna make this up to me?” She yelled at Idalia, impatiently waiting for an answer.

Idalia twitched on the ground for a solid minute as steam started to rise from her wounds, the charred skin flaking off as new skin grew in its place, she then groaned and struggled to look up at Anastasia “I c-can heal you... then you won’t have anymore wounds...” she said, digging her fingers into the wall and pulling herself up, then using her other hand to dust herself off.

Anastasia sighed. “That is not the point Idalia. I know you can, but right now I feel like I need more. Also, why did those knights come after you in the first place? Why did they want to capture you? Why does your blood make me feel so….. Good!? I don’t know. I need answers Idalia, and I need them now.”

Idalia rolled her eyes, then closed them as the last of her wounds finished closing “Well, as you may have gathered, I’m not human… I was kidnapped by the Barton ‘family’, and they changed me into something else, something which can take on the traits of other biological creatures that I’ve eaten. In order for my body to be able to store and implement those changes, I have to be able to break down and repair my body… as such, they tortured me in multiple ways, over the course of years, to make sure that my body could repair itself. My blood does that by the way, but I need to ingest more in order to maintain my own existence, otherwise my body tears itself apart. As to why they want me back, well, they want to tear me limb from limb and use my parts to make even more. They’ve already done that with one of us, to make myself and two others, but we escaped, and as such, they attack us with those special nets on sight. While they’re shocking us, we can’t repair ourselves or transform.” She said, all in one breath, huffing and puffing after she had finished.

Anastasia listened to Idalia’s words intently, her frown becoming more and more pronounced as she explained. Once she was finished, Anastasia seemed just as angry, but for an entirely different reason. “Well now I don’t feel so bad killing those knights, they sound like complete assholes.” Anastasia shook her head and then sat herself on the ground. “We should probably do something about them, but I’m not a charity ya know?”

Idalia sighed and bowed her head “I don’t want to see them again, I just want them to leave me alone.” she said, walking over to one of the bodies and kicking it in the head “Besides, they’re defending the city right now, and you have a job to do.” she finished, wiping away some tears.

Anastasia shrugged. “It seems my employer will be fine, so I have no reason to be here now. Plus if the knights are around, we’re just putting ourselves in danger. So let’s just go straight for the colosseum.” Anastasia sighed again, walking over to the bodies to see if they had anything useful on them. Once she grabbed what looked useful, including a very nice piece of armor, they would then head to the Colosseum to finish their mission.

[Mark3000]

Lilith was starting to regret just not robbing the traveler out right. But it was pretty convenient that they were traveling in the same direction. Picking up the pace, Lilith tried to strike up a conversation with her.

"Actually, I'm out her on a job. Have you hear of the Yellow Spider Inn in Fero? I plan on capturing a Depth Lurker and could use someone of your skill" Lilith said trying to sell this horned beauty on the idea of teaming up. " I already have a plan on how to catch one. I just need another set of hand. I'd even be willing to split the payment for the job's completion. And of course I'd be willing to help you with whatever you were up to out here in the wilderness." Lilith said as she continues to walk towards her destination.

[mrblah]

Outwardly, Amun displayed a look of frustration and fear as it... no, he replied. On the inside... well, the were-beast was still feeling that, but he was also feeling relieved. His try at small talk seemed successful as it distracted his opponent somewhat, and it seemed his efforts all had provided enough time for his backup to just arrive. He let out a breath, feeling like a weight was taken off his shoulders at the sight of the competent Captain Prairie and... that attractive girl he hadn't had the chance to flirt with. Huh. Guess sometimes coincidences just do work like that.

He nodded to the captain, body tense and eyes still on their enemy. "It was no easy task... but with you here now," begun Amun as he prepared to extract himself from the dangerous situation, already turning his back to head to the door, "I suppose I can -"

He shut up as Captain Prairie spoke, apparently grouping him in with the combatants to face off against that monster. Amun mentally sighed. "... Goddess, I'm not getting any breaks today..." Maybe this is his punishment for all his womanizing and his lazy attitude to his duties. Be that as it may, he reluctantly pulled out his flimsy dagger to kinda get ready to fight. "I don't have too much experience in combat, Captain, but I'll try not to get in your way."

With that being said, Amun moved to get a bit behind the able fighter, body tense and ready to explode into action at the drop of a hat... and the battle started, just as Prairie made her attack.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The quick sword slash took their enemy by surprise, though his hastily positioned defense wasn't enough to block the sword going for his flesh. The leader of the masked terrorists took a single cut in his side silently, and Amun followed up as soon as he saw a falter in the creature's defense. He came from the left side, trying to make a quick slash at the leg of the monstrous man, when the sudden opening he thought he had quickly closed, just as their deadly opponent turned its head to stare directly at him, a powerful killing intent radiating from its form.

In the end, it was Amun's sharp animalistic instincts that saved him from the powerful blow. The masked man's large chainsaw sword sailed over his head, steam pushing it with enough force to cleave him in two, had he been there. The sheer thought of how he almost died in such a brutal fashion froze the amateur to combat at his position, eyes wide and staring fearfully at the demon which almost took his life, with the taste of an apology and regret on the tip of his tongue threatening to spill out -

The sound of gunfire broke Amun from his horrified daze, a few bullets whizzing by between him and his opponent. He barely registered someone shouting 'Focus!' at him, and the were-beast jumped back away from the masked man with his heart beating wildly in his chest. "Breath... breath..." He mumbled to himself, swallowing something thick. That's right. There was no time to get cold feet now. Cielo still was in danger, and Captain Prairie needed his help to stop its fall. Cielo needed him. His friends and family. The girls in the closet. All of them were counting on their efforts, here and now, to stop this damned monster once and for all... and what better enemy for a monster, if not another monster?

Amun focused deep within himself, capturing the primal feelings of fear and anger that he was feeling, shuddering in revulsion at what he was about to do. Most were-beasts had a darker side to them that they could tap into if needed. Every Khufu was taught to use this ability at a young age, but this was one ability he detested using. Still, it was his best bet to win, and he knew half-assing the job would just end up with all of them dead. This was his only chance at being useful.

Amun's breathing grew ragged and his shoulders slumped with his eyes closing shut, as he focused on the sounds of the battle taking place between Captain Prairie and the masked man. He focused on the gunshots from Lucia's guns, and the shouting and grunts of exertion. The sounds of pain as his allies took damage... the smell of blood as their wounds bled... the feeling of being in the presence of a hunter, and the indignation he felt, of being the prey.

When he opened his eyes, his vision was red. This beast that was once Amun always had poor control and couldn't quite tell friend from foe, but he didn't need to in this case. The biggest threat triggering his fight-or-flight response couldn't have been more obvious to his impaired vision, not with that field and smell of death on him. The utter rage and anger clouding his mind made running out of the question; the beast was too terribly enraged to even consider it. No, not even the difference between their power was accounted for, as he ran in with his vicious battle cry, sharpened claws dropping his dagger and spreading his fingers to tear into his opponent.

It didn't even take a second for him to cross the distance just as Prairie had him locked in a clash, but the masked man had seen the incoming threat. He saw the beast coming for him and he wasn't slow to break Prairie's composure with a sudden shoulder tackle, while immediately then spinning to meet the beast's savage attack. His incredibly dangerous chainsaw sword was flying through the air to end the minor threat, but the beast's instincts proved invaluable as he bent in ways no one could ever think to, curve to the side of the masked man, and lash at him with a strong kick to the face. The masked man stumbled from the blow just a bit, but before the beast's follow-up attack could be made, he pulled back away to dodge the predicted claw swipe - right into an attack made by Captain Prairie from his side.

The beast didn't care for the other enemy's engagement of the threat, but he did try to take advantage of the opening to land another strike. Unfortunately, the masked man had just enough time to gather his bearings, and once again his newly made opening closed, and a chainsaw sword was sailing to the beast's head in its place. His animal instincts saved him once more, but as he dodged to the right, the sword clipped him on the shoulder... and he was crashing right down into the ground with a cry of pain.

It was just one simple attack, but the damage to his body felt astronomical. Red coated his shaved shoulder and poured from his coughing mouth, with shatters of his teeth mixing with the pool forming in his mouth. It hurt, worse than anything he'd ever been through... if he were still Amun, that attack would've put him out of commission. But this beast had a one-track mind for violence. Even after getting knocked down so roughly, he was still conscious and could think things through. So naturally, he reached out to hastily bite down on his opponent's ankle, his bloodied and broken fangs still enough to break through the cloth and skin in the way to pierce the monster's... no, the human's, flesh. The spilling of his enemy's blood felt revitalizing, but the beast had no time to enjoy the moment as the masked man sought to flick him off like the tiny and insignificant bug he was.

Only for Captain Prairie to roughly grab the beast and pull him back, before interposing herself between the two of them with an attack aimed right at the masked man. He jerked his body back to dodge sharply... but two sudden shockwaves came from her sword moments after her slash, cutting through to impact against the masked man.

It was a solid hit that seemed to do a lot of damage. His armor was greatly damaged, and he was very clearly suffering from many of his wounds while he tried to weather Prairie's most recent attack. But as the cloud of rage and violence left Amun's eyes, he could properly see that they weren't in any better shape. He himself was battered and bruised at just one attack. Lucia was down on the ground nearby with blood soaking her clothes. Captain Prairie was the best looking of them all, though even she was breathing heavily and seemed a bit wobbly, with some wounds and chips on her armor... he needed to go berserk again.

"C... Capt -" He started hacking as he tried to speak, a bit of red liquid coming from his mouth and pouring onto the floor. Prairie didn't seem concerned by it, but she did hand him an elixir, apparently understanding the conclusion he came to. He tilted his head back and drank it greedily, then took the brief lull in combat to safely bring out his untamed side.

Inwardly, even the beast could tell he was hurting greatly. His temporary ally seemed not too worse for wear, and the predator was injured. Time ticked by quickly, but just one more shot at glory was what they needed for the win, he was sure. He struggled to stand up, growling angrily at his weakness and spitting out some more blood. The three of them stared down each other... then, at a silent call as if they were all in unspoken agreement, the three fighters launched themselves at one another for one more clash...

But it wasn't meant to be. Suddenly, their opponent sharply stopped at his charge and braced himself, just as the world seemed to suddenly drop and hurl as if it were falling sharply. The beast couldn't comprehend his situation, but even he knew things weren't looking good for him as he was floored once more. He didn't realize that he had failed in his mission to protect his city, nor the many innocents that would pay for his failure. His battle-starved mind couldn't comprehend the deep pain and grief he would soon be facing due to the consequences of his failure. There was no regret to feel as his world suddenly turned dark. Just a deep and powerful hatred for the man who defeated him.

[lilbooth]

Cee Cee, still emboldened by her previous victory charged on the back of her Owlbear towards the new threat. These skeletons were bolstered with an unseen force that seemed far more powerful than that of the other undead foes. But, the other could be damaged and destroyed, so these must be no different. She and her owl bear attacked with their full might and ferocity. Landing hit after hit, fighting through the toxic black smoke that clawed at her eyes and throat. Despite the enemy's immense strength, Cee Cee, Magni and their new companion managed to down one of the foes. Just as Cee Cee began to switch targets there was a darkness that fell over them all. And moments after the darkness a crushing weight descended upon them all.

[KnightVanilla]

Thinking heavily on her decision to have joined this knight to soon find herself stuck in the frey of combat once more. This was by far the last place she wanted to be. Attempting to take shot after shot with her crossbow only to be hit by poisonous fumes slowly usurping her body... As rush flooded her perceptions to notice only moments before it and happened what could be their demise. The same sensation she felt earlier was about to hit her once more... But this time she saw it coming from above and her fight or flight instincts kicked in. As she pulled herself away from the knight and it's weird mount to attempt to find cover before she got hit.

[RandomRoninKitten]

Chapter 1: Annihilation of Monsteropolis Complete
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69zVn2vNq04

Chapter 2: Castle of Glass Begin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScNNfyq3d_w

Weather: It is now night.



Ophelia/MiscChaos

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Ophelia looks over the horde of the shambling dead in front of her and just barely restrains the urge to sigh. Ophelia knows herself; she's got no chance of taking on all those undead by herself. She also knows she has no chance of surviving the creatures that live in the water. Damned if she does, damned if she doesn't. She takes a moment to figure out what to do. The best option would be to recruit others to help her through this. The closest place to do so, however, would be Monsteropolis. Who, last she saw, is under siege by giant skeletons and legions of the undead. And that's without mentioning the possibility of running into Whip Bitch and the Barbarian Whore. The next best option would be Ferraille, but she's seen what they have to offer. They'd be nothing but cannon fodder and she isn't far gone enough to sacrifice bystanders like this. The next best option would be to try to stealth her way past the spire and get into the Colosseum, which would have a whole new set of issues if she fails. She wonders if there would be enough of her left to let her Lady know what happened to her. She doubts it. She doubts her third option, waiting for her target to leave the Colosseum, would work while the spire is nearby.

So of her options, it looks like the second one is the best one for her right now in terms of completing her mission as quickly as possible for her Lady. She goes into stealth and makes as straight a line for the Colosseum as is possible. All she can hope is she gets close enough before being spotted to run the rest of the way.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Ophelia goes into stealth, however, during her perilous trek through the zombie-infested area, and passed the Spire, a massive crash and an explosion erupt in Monsteropolis behind her, prompting her to glance.

She's met with the sight of Monsteropolis being leveled by the City of Cielo crashing down on it and exploding, sending debris lying in all directions. The wall, however, remains standing, so Ophelia can't see what's going on in the city afterwords.

Continuing her journey, the zombies seem don't seem to detect her presence at all, they just wander aimlessly in every direction, back and forth, around in circles, staying in sight of the spire at all times.

By the time she makes it through the area, night has fallen, but she's finally near the Colosseum, at long last. The feeling of relief, however, would be interrupted by a Zombie bumping into her. Despite the creature's lethargic movements, it manages to follow this up rather quickly, immediately grabbing onto Ophelia's breasts, and whether by accident or intent, it squeezes them hard. With Ophelia now detected, two other Zombies from nearby begin shambling in Ophelia's direction.

Anastasia Ursa/LittleManKitten

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Anastasia gave Idalia a confused look as she tries to hide her face from the knights, but quickly snaps her attention back to the personal guard when they call her a prostitute. Growling at them angrily, her hand instinctively reaches towards her new found weapon. “What did you just-” Her sentence was cut off by the knights shouting at her. No, not her, Idalia. Anastasia immediately goes into a defensive position and looks at the crouched Idalia. “Idalia, get up, judging by their words I think we can take them on if you stop cowering.”

Idalia shakes her head, her whole body trembling “No! I’m not going back! They’re not taking me back!” the panic clear on her face as she attempted to pick herself up, grabbing onto Anastasia’s sleeve for support.

At Idalia’s refusal, Anastasia growls in frustration then quickly scoops her up with one arm easily, as if she weighed nothing to Anastasia.

With Idalia in her grasp, Anastasia bolts in a random direction, using the sudden sandstorm to her advantage. She swerves around buildings and other solid objects to try to lose them as well. Half of them ended up getting separated from the main group one by one. Until eventually Anastasia came upon a deadend and was forced to confront the knights. Gently dropping Idalia on the ground behind her, Anastasia turns around and takes out her sword, getting into a combat position. “Looks like you guys lost some of your friends. If you were being cautious as a full group, what chance do you stand against us with half your manpower?”

One of the knights heeded her words, edging backwards a few feet before breaking into a full run. The other four ignored the loss of their comrade and readied their weapons, standing their ground. She had no choice but to fight now. While three of them moved to one side, the other moved to the left, and threw an object over Anastasia’s shoulder. Before she knew what was happening, Idalia screamed in pain.

Turning backwards in confusion, Anastasia could see Idalia falling from one of the structure walls, wrapped in a net that was shocking her, arcs of electricity bouncing off the walls and floor, as patches of her skin became charred from the force of the shock.

Anastasia didn’t let them prepare for too long. She quickly ran at the closest knight and swung her sword across his chest. The sword easily pierced the armor and a spray of blood splattered onto the walls. The knight grunted in both surprised and pain, with the other three shifting back, clearly not expecting the power of the attack. However, it was clear the knights were professionals, and they quickly recuperated and counter attacked. The knights flicked a switch on the handle of their weapons that engulfed their weapons in flames, and they swung them at Anastasia. Three of them landed their hits, but the injured knight swung to clumsily, and staggered.

Anastasia felt like her body was on fire, mostly because it was. Large burns were made across her body thanks to the attacks, the pain was quite debilitating. She didn’t think that she could handle another attack like that, and was about to panic before she remembered she had bottled some of Idalia’s blood. Fishing out the bottle from her pack, she popped open the lid and took a large swig of it. It was different this time though, as she drank she couldn’t help but feel…. Good, like, she was almost getting off from the blood. It made her want more, but realizing what was happening, she quickly stopped drinking and readied her weapon again. As she was drinking, the knights seemed to be talking to their wounded comrade, seeming to convince him to leave since he was wounded, the knight nodded and turned, preparing to run. Anastasia wasn’t going to let him go, hefting her sword upwards, she brought it down upon the knights back, blood splattered across his friends, and the knight fell down, dying instantly.

The burning wouldn’t stop, it felt like small flames were licking at her wounds. She didn’t have time to do anything about it though, the knights, furious over the death of their comrade, all swung at Anastasia at once. However, they did so in a predictable fashion, and it seems they let the death of their comrade interfere with their professionalism. So Anastasia easily dodged it by taking a small step back, and their swords clashed together in front of her. Anastasia took this opportunity to thrust her sword into one of their shoulders. The knight cried out in pain and stepped back, clutching his shoulder. The hand was used to hold his shield, and he was forced to drop it.

Anastasia’s burns suddenly seemed to flare up, and she could see bits of her pristine white skin turn red and bubbly. As if it was boiling. Anastasia coughed, and she could taste blood. The knights then attacked again, this time splitting off in such a way that when the first two attacked, she was forced to dodge into the third. The third then raised their sword and swung at Anastasia side. The burn seemed to have made it easier for them to penetrate her naturally tough skin, and the cut went much deeper than any wound Anastasia has had before. Yea, these guys knew what they were doing. Anastasia was forced to step back and take the bottle of blood out again, quickly chugging the rest. Her wounds immediately started to seal up, and she could hear the knights grunt in what sounded like annoyance. Damn did she want more of it though, she started to feel shaky. What the hell was happening to her? She didn’t have time to think about it though, aiming for the knight she hit before, Anastasia quickly slashed across their stomach. A spray of blood covered the area, and the knight made a gurgling sound, blood coming out of their helmet, before dropping to the ground. At this point, Anastasia wasn’t the only one shaking.

Luckily for her, the burning sensation started to fade, and her skin started turning as white as paper again. Probably thanks to Idalia’s blood. The knights then brought their shields together, and pointed them in random directions. It took a moment for Anastasia to figure out what they were doing, but she quickly found out that they were attempting to point the light of the sun into her eyes. It worked, and as soon as it happened, her eyes felt almost like they had used their fire swords on it. It burned quite a lot, but luckily, thanks to her innate toughness as a Spectross, she didn’t lose her sight, though there were lots of bright spots. Anastasia yelled in anger, and charged for one of the knights, they seemed to expect her to go for their lower body, but instead she dove straight for their face. Her sword penetrated their helmet fully, her sword going straight their head, splitting it in half. The body continued to move around for a few moments, then dropped to the ground.

The last knight screamed in anger and made their sword become ablaze again, they swung at Anastasia and she tried to dodge. Which was partially effective as she mitigated the amount of damage she could of taken, but they still managed to graze her. Thankfully, she didn’t feel the same burning sensation as before. She then swung at the knight, and for the first time, the knight actually tried to dodge, knowing their armor was useless against her now. The knight then swung sideways at Anastasia, taken advantage of her now compromised position, and sliced her side, making some blood run down. Anastasia growled and grabbed the knight by the arm, and pulled him towards her, sinking the blade into his abdomen. The knight groaned in pain, and weakly tried to hit her with his still on fire blade. But his attacks were weak, and even at point blanks range, he couldn’t penetrate her skin, it still hurt though. Anastasia yelled in his face. “You’re getting pretty fucking annoying you know that!?” She then brought her sword out of his abdomen and repeatedly stabbed his chest and stomach at least ten times before dropping him to the ground. He died on the second hit.

Anastasia exhaled heavily, turning her attention to Idalia. She walked over to her and grabbed the net surrounding her, harshly tearing it away from her. Anastasia then crossed her arms and looked down at Idalia, frowning, and clearly pissed off. “That’s twice now in a very short span of time I had to fight without you… It hurts a fucking lot you know that? Sure I can take them on but these wounds I suffered could have been avoided with your help. How are you gonna make this up to me?” She yelled at Idalia, impatiently waiting for an answer.

Idalia twitched on the ground for a solid minute as steam started to rise from her wounds, the charred skin flaking off as new skin grew in its place, she then groaned and struggled to look up at Anastasia “I c-can heal you... then you won’t have anymore wounds...” she said, digging her fingers into the wall and pulling herself up, then using her other hand to dust herself off.

Anastasia sighed. “That is not the point Idalia. I know you can, but right now I feel like I need more. Also, why did those knights come after you in the first place? Why did they want to capture you? Why does your blood make me feel so….. Good!? I don’t know. I need answers Idalia, and I need them now.”

Idalia rolled her eyes, then closed them as the last of her wounds finished closing “Well, as you may have gathered, I’m not human… I was kidnapped by the Barton ‘family’, and they changed me into something else, something which can take on the traits of other biological creatures that I’ve eaten. In order for my body to be able to store and implement those changes, I have to be able to break down and repair my body… as such, they tortured me in multiple ways, over the course of years, to make sure that my body could repair itself. My blood does that by the way, but I need to ingest more in order to maintain my own existence, otherwise my body tears itself apart. As to why they want me back, well, they want to tear me limb from limb and use my parts to make even more. They’ve already done that with one of us, to make myself and two others, but we escaped, and as such, they attack us with those special nets on sight. While they’re shocking us, we can’t repair ourselves or transform.” She said, all in one breath, huffing and puffing after she had finished.

Anastasia listened to Idalia’s words intently, her frown becoming more and more pronounced as she explained. Once she was finished, Anastasia seemed just as angry, but for an entirely different reason. “Well now I don’t feel so bad killing those knights, they sound like complete assholes.” Anastasia shook her head and then sat herself on the ground. “We should probably do something about them, but I’m not a charity ya know?”

Idalia sighed and bowed her head “I don’t want to see them again, I just want them to leave me alone.” she said, walking over to one of the bodies and kicking it in the head “Besides, they’re defending the city right now, and you have a job to do.” she finished, wiping away some tears.

Anastasia shrugged. “It seems my employer will be fine, so I have no reason to be here now. Plus if the knights are around, we’re just putting ourselves in danger. So let’s just go straight for the colosseum.” Anastasia sighed again, walking over to the bodies to see if they had anything useful on them. Once she grabbed what looked useful, including a very nice piece of armor, they would then head to the Colosseum to finish their mission.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As they turned to leave, Idalia suddenly stopped and looked up, while grabbing Anastasia's hand "Uhh... uhhh... ANA, GET DOWN!" she screams, then in one swift motion, she shoves Anastasia under a nearby underpass, then makes a jerking motion in her direction, in an apparent attempt to join Anastasia under the underpass, however, in a panic, she looks down and sees that one of the Barton Knights, barely clinging to life, had grabbed her ankle.

She falls to the ground and starts to kick at the dying man, however, she takes too long to get him off, and the world around Anastasia explodes and turns to complete darkness.

When Anastasia wakens, she's surrounded by rubble from sections of collapsed underpass, and the world around her is on fired, covered with scraps of what looks like the city of Cielo, and rubble from destroyed buildings, none of which seem to be left standing, All that's left of Monsteropolis are corpses, rubble flames, and scrap.

Up above, time seems to have elapsed into night, and not one single living person is around her. Moving out of the mostly collapsed underpass, under a pile of rubble, she would find a purple-sleeved arm sticking out under a pile of rubble, with blood flowing out from beneath it, the fingers twitching, grabbing, and scratching at the ground in the pool of blood.

Anastasia would also find that all of the Barton corpses have seemingly vanished, with not so much as a trace of their existence left in the area. Of course, if there had been, it would be somewhat difficult to find beneath all of the rubble.

Lilith Rose/Mark3000

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Lilith was starting to regret just not robbing the traveler out right. But it was pretty convenient that they were traveling in the same direction. Picking up the pace, Lilith tried to strike up a conversation with her.

"Actually, I'm out her on a job. Have you hear of the Yellow Spider Inn in Fero? I plan on capturing a Depth Lurker and could use someone of your skill" Lilith said trying to sell this horned beauty on the idea of teaming up. " I already have a plan on how to catch one. I just need another set of hand. I'd even be willing to split the payment for the job's completion. And of course I'd be willing to help you with whatever you were up to out here in the wilderness." Lilith said as she continues to walk towards her destination.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The woman froze when Lilith mentioned the Yellow Spider Inn, but only briefly "I could use the additional equipment and a place to stay... fine, I'll help you on your suicide mission." she said, pointing her nose upward in a snobby way as she continued walking in the direction they were already going. As an after thought, she half-looked at Lilith and stated "My name is Metia, by the way... furthermore... you probably shouldn't introduce yourself as working for a specific mercenary company, only as a mercenary. There are rival mercenaries that would attack you simply for being part of another company... hmph."

They reached the edge of the Dark Forest, and by that time, the sun had begun to set. They walked along the river, to make it to the lake, from which the Depth Lurker had been spotter, however, on their way there, Lilith could see a hand sticking up out of the deep end of the river, waving erratically as if someone was drowning. If she ran to the edge and grabbed the hand, she may be able to pull them out of the water.

Amun Khufu/MrBlah

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Outwardly, Amun displayed a look of frustration and fear as it... no, he replied. On the inside... well, the were-beast was still feeling that, but he was also feeling relieved. His try at small talk seemed successful as it distracted his opponent somewhat, and it seemed his efforts all had provided enough time for his backup to just arrive. He let out a breath, feeling like a weight was taken off his shoulders at the sight of the competent Captain Prairie and... that attractive girl he hadn't had the chance to flirt with. Huh. Guess sometimes coincidences just do work like that.

He nodded to the captain, body tense and eyes still on their enemy. "It was no easy task... but with you here now," begun Amun as he prepared to extract himself from the dangerous situation, already turning his back to head to the door, "I suppose I can -"

He shut up as Captain Prairie spoke, apparently grouping him in with the combatants to face off against that monster. Amun mentally sighed. "... Goddess, I'm not getting any breaks today..." Maybe this is his punishment for all his womanizing and his lazy attitude to his duties. Be that as it may, he reluctantly pulled out his flimsy dagger to kinda get ready to fight. "I don't have too much experience in combat, Captain, but I'll try not to get in your way."

With that being said, Amun moved to get a bit behind the able fighter, body tense and ready to explode into action at the drop of a hat... and the battle started, just as Prairie made her attack.
The quick sword slash took their enemy by surprise, though his hastily positioned defense wasn't enough to block the sword going for his flesh. The leader of the masked terrorists took a single cut in his side silently, and Amun followed up as soon as he saw a falter in the creature's defense. He came from the left side, trying to make a quick slash at the leg of the monstrous man, when the sudden opening he thought he had quickly closed, just as their deadly opponent turned its head to stare directly at him, a powerful killing intent radiating from its form.

In the end, it was Amun's sharp animalistic instincts that saved him from the powerful blow. The masked man's large chainsaw sword sailed over his head, steam pushing it with enough force to cleave him in two, had he been there. The sheer thought of how he almost died in such a brutal fashion froze the amateur to combat at his position, eyes wide and staring fearfully at the demon which almost took his life, with the taste of an apology and regret on the tip of his tongue threatening to spill out -

The sound of gunfire broke Amun from his horrified daze, a few bullets whizzing by between him and his opponent. He barely registered someone shouting 'Focus!' at him, and the were-beast jumped back away from the masked man with his heart beating wildly in his chest. "Breath... breath..." He mumbled to himself, swallowing something thick. That's right. There was no time to get cold feet now. Cielo still was in danger, and Captain Prairie needed his help to stop its fall. Cielo needed him. His friends and family. The girls in the closet. All of them were counting on their efforts, here and now, to stop this damned monster once and for all... and what better enemy for a monster, if not another monster?

Amun focused deep within himself, capturing the primal feelings of fear and anger that he was feeling, shuddering in revulsion at what he was about to do. Most were-beasts had a darker side to them that they could tap into if needed. Every Khufu was taught to use this ability at a young age, but this was one ability he detested using. Still, it was his best bet to win, and he knew half-assing the job would just end up with all of them dead. This was his only chance at being useful.

Amun's breathing grew ragged and his shoulders slumped with his eyes closing shut, as he focused on the sounds of the battle taking place between Captain Prairie and the masked man. He focused on the gunshots from Lucia's guns, and the shouting and grunts of exertion. The sounds of pain as his allies took damage... the smell of blood as their wounds bled... the feeling of being in the presence of a hunter, and the indignation he felt, of being the prey.

When he opened his eyes, his vision was red. This beast that was once Amun always had poor control and couldn't quite tell friend from foe, but he didn't need to in this case. The biggest threat triggering his fight-or-flight response couldn't have been more obvious to his impaired vision, not with that field and smell of death on him. The utter rage and anger clouding his mind made running out of the question; the beast was too terribly enraged to even consider it. No, not even the difference between their power was accounted for, as he ran in with his vicious battle cry, sharpened claws dropping his dagger and spreading his fingers to tear into his opponent.

It didn't even take a second for him to cross the distance just as Prairie had him locked in a clash, but the masked man had seen the incoming threat. He saw the beast coming for him and he wasn't slow to break Prairie's composure with a sudden shoulder tackle, while immediately then spinning to meet the beast's savage attack. His incredibly dangerous chainsaw sword was flying through the air to end the minor threat, but the beast's instincts proved invaluable as he bent in ways no one could ever think to, curve to the side of the masked man, and lash at him with a strong kick to the face. The masked man stumbled from the blow just a bit, but before the beast's follow-up attack could be made, he pulled back away to dodge the predicted claw swipe - right into an attack made by Captain Prairie from his side.

The beast didn't care for the other enemy's engagement of the threat, but he did try to take advantage of the opening to land another strike. Unfortunately, the masked man had just enough time to gather his bearings, and once again his newly made opening closed, and a chainsaw sword was sailing to the beast's head in its place. His animal instincts saved him once more, but as he dodged to the right, the sword clipped him on the shoulder... and he was crashing right down into the ground with a cry of pain.

It was just one simple attack, but the damage to his body felt astronomical. Red coated his shaved shoulder and poured from his coughing mouth, with shatters of his teeth mixing with the pool forming in his mouth. It hurt, worse than anything he'd ever been through... if he were still Amun, that attack would've put him out of commission. But this beast had a one-track mind for violence. Even after getting knocked down so roughly, he was still conscious and could think things through. So naturally, he reached out to hastily bite down on his opponent's ankle, his bloodied and broken fangs still enough to break through the cloth and skin in the way to pierce the monster's... no, the human's, flesh. The spilling of his enemy's blood felt revitalizing, but the beast had no time to enjoy the moment as the masked man sought to flick him off like the tiny and insignificant bug he was.

Only for Captain Prairie to roughly grab the beast and pull him back, before interposing herself between the two of them with an attack aimed right at the masked man. He jerked his body back to dodge sharply... but two sudden shockwaves came from her sword moments after her slash, cutting through to impact against the masked man.

It was a solid hit that seemed to do a lot of damage. His armor was greatly damaged, and he was very clearly suffering from many of his wounds while he tried to weather Prairie's most recent attack. But as the cloud of rage and violence left Amun's eyes, he could properly see that they weren't in any better shape. He himself was battered and bruised at just one attack. Lucia was down on the ground nearby with blood soaking her clothes. Captain Prairie was the best looking of them all, though even she was breathing heavily and seemed a bit wobbly, with some wounds and chips on her armor... he needed to go berserk again.

"C... Capt -" He started hacking as he tried to speak, a bit of red liquid coming from his mouth and pouring onto the floor. Prairie didn't seem concerned by it, but she did hand him an elixir, apparently understanding the conclusion he came to. He tilted his head back and drank it greedily, then took the brief lull in combat to safely bring out his untamed side.

Inwardly, even the beast could tell he was hurting greatly. His temporary ally seemed not too worse for wear, and the predator was injured. Time ticked by quickly, but just one more shot at glory was what they needed for the win, he was sure. He struggled to stand up, growling angrily at his weakness and spitting out some more blood. The three of them stared down each other... then, at a silent call as if they were all in unspoken agreement, the three fighters launched themselves at one another for one more clash...

But it wasn't meant to be. Suddenly, their opponent sharply stopped at his charge and braced himself, just as the world seemed to suddenly drop and hurl as if it were falling sharply. The beast couldn't comprehend his situation, but even he knew things weren't looking good for him as he was floored once more. He didn't realize that he had failed in his mission to protect his city, nor the many innocents that would pay for his failure. His battle-starved mind couldn't comprehend the deep pain and grief he would soon be facing due to the consequences of his failure. There was no regret to feel as his world suddenly turned dark. Just a deep and powerful hatred for the man who defeated him.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The sound of flames and settling wreckage filled Amun's ears, and a sharp pain burned though... his entire body. He started to open his eyes, his vision blurring. With his eyes now opened, he could see nothing but darkness, aside from two lights.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and his vision sharpened, he could make out a shape... the lights were coming from the two cat-like eyes in the shape making up the head. The shape spoke as soon as could clearly see it, "Nap time is over?" it said, cocking the black cloud making up its head, the voice being that of a girl, but sounding as though it were two entities, whispering and speaking normally in unison. Looking a bit lower, Amun would see that it is holding a stuffed rat, and clutching it to its chest.

The creature then nudges Amun with its foot, rolling him slightly, and causing him to feel a sharp pain in his stomach and side, alerting Amun to the fact that he has a sharp chunk of metal impaled through his stomach, and a wound on his side, however this didn't seem to bother the creature, it just reaches down and grabs Amun's arm with her free hand, and pulls him roughly until he gets to his feet. THEN the creature seemed to notice the sheet of metal, and gets on its knees, flicking the chunk with her finger and giggling with that odd unison whisper occurring at the same time.

Around Amun, the area was made up of mounds of Cielo wreckage and destroyed Monsteropolis buildings, as well as corpses and bones, however, his original group is nowhere in sight, nobody he recognizes is anywhere around him, just mounds of wreckage and corpses he doesn't recognize.

Despite the destruction, the city walls seem to be intact, aside from one section to the west.

CeeCee/Lilbooth

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Cee Cee, still emboldened by her previous victory charged on the back of her Owlbear towards the new threat. These skeletons were bolstered with an unseen force that seemed far more powerful than that of the other undead foes. But, the other could be damaged and destroyed, so these must be no different. She and her owl bear attacked with their full might and ferocity. Landing hit after hit, fighting through the toxic black smoke that clawed at her eyes and throat. Despite the enemy's immense strength, Cee Cee, Magni and their new companion managed to down one of the foes. Just as Cee Cee began to switch targets there was a darkness that fell over them all. And moments after the darkness a crushing weight descended upon them all.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

When CeeCee finally awakened, she was under water. The immediate reaction of anyone in this situation would be immediate panic and the expectation of impending death, however, when he vision adjusted, she would find that this was not ordinary water, and she was no longer outside. She was in a glass tank, with a mask over her mouth, allowing her to breathe.

Outside the tank, Lord Barton tapped on the glass with his cane and spoke, "Ah, I see you're awake. It seems that despite our best efforts to protect the city, Cielo had been hijacked by some evildoers, and crashed directly into Monteropolis. We managed to recover you, and the bodies of our fallen comrades, however most of what we found were corpses of the residents of Cielo and Monsteropolis." he explained, continuing to rest his cane on the glass as he spoke. Looking from side to side, CeeCee would be able to see many other rows of glass tanks with muscular, blond men, with pale skin, all of them exactly the same in terms of appearance. Lord Barton would notice this, and speak up again "Oh, that, yes. You see, these are the knights that you fight alongside when working with us. I constructed them in my likeness, using lost arts that I found in a Dark Forest on one of my adventures. Because of this, they're all identical physically, mentally, and technically. I suppose you could say that they're all twins, and my sons." he said, nodding as if to confirm his statement. After a few seconds, a clock began chiming, and he flipped a switch on the tank CeeCee was in, causing the liquid to drain, then he pulled a lever. the grinding of gears was heard, and the tank slowly lowered, with a cranking sound, until CeeCee was free, sitting on the floor, wearing just a plain black bikini.

"Thank you for helping us protect the city, even if we did fail. As promised, in exchange for accompanying me to bed, you may live here in this castle. After you've finished resting, I do have another assignment for you, if you'd like to earn some additional equipment." he said, motioning for CeeCee to follow him up some stairs. "However, for now, it's time for bed, if you don't mind."

Caelic Nemian

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Thinking heavily on her decision to have joined this knight to soon find herself stuck in the frey of combat once more. This was by far the last place she wanted to be. Attempting to take shot after shot with her crossbow only to be hit by poisonous fumes slowly usurping her body... As rush flooded her perceptions to notice only moments before it and happened what could be their demise. The same sensation she felt earlier was about to hit her once more... But this time she saw it coming from above and her fight or flight instincts kicked in. As she pulled herself away from the knight and it's weird mount to attempt to find cover before she got hit.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

A loud rumble and a crash is heard from behind her, then a massive explosion, before Caelic's world goes entirely dark.

Caelic's eyes flutter open, and she is met with a window. Outside looked dark, so she had been out for quite some time. The fact that the window was there, and she was warm, meant that she wasn't where she had been before. The appearance of the terrain, towering mushrooms instead of trees, and swamplands, heavily implied they were nowhere near Monsteropolis anymore.

"Oh, good evening." said a shaky voice behind her. Sitting up, she could see that she was in a log cabin, with windows on two sides, like it was a long hallway, with windows only on the ends. It was a cozy place, with a fireplace, and flames in it, with food cooking in a pan above it. Standing next to her was an old man, wearing a white robe and brown clothes beneath it, with a red cap on his head. He spoke again as she looked around "I found you heavily wounded, and brought you inside to treat you, I hope you don't mind... I was traveling to conduct some business in Monsteropolis and... well, I guess nobody can conduct business there anymore. I'm cooking some soup if you're hungry." he said, motioning towards the pot.

LuLu/Nobudi

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

LuLu enters the room with Captain Prairie, leaving Lyanna to finish off the Bronze Golem by herself, at her own insistance. Upon entering the control room, they find Amun had been distracting the Boss through sheer Charisma, however, with their arrival, the fight needed to begin.

Amun and Prairie immediately engage the creature in close range, taking their own beatings from the creature's immense strength and speed. LuLu supports by firing repeated shots at the creature, every single one missing the creature entirely, despite the fact that the creature wasn't THAT fast, and was actually a huge target, AND she was firing rapidly with two weapons at once, but the creature seems to become annoyed anyway, and uses a shoulder charge to stagger the two of them, then with one single mighty swing, he downs LuLu instantly, causing the world to go black for her.

When LuLu awakens, she finds that she's no longer on the flying city of Cielo, but instead laying beneath a pile of scrap metal and rubble, surrounded by nothing but more of the same, as well as corpses, strewn everywhere around her, and rising flames. Despite the widespread destruction, three of the four walls around her seemed to be standing, with one broken down. Above her, there was nothing but darkness, as night seems to have fallen.

LuLu's entire body burned with pain, and she had a gaping, bleeding wound across her front, from hip to shoulder, her clothes ripped where the wound was, but luckily her bra was intact.

[MiscChaos]

Ophelia's not sure what to feel about the flying city crashing into Monsteropolis. On the one hand, she's sure that such a large loss of life could be something to be mourned according to what morals her Lady saw fit to instill in her. It bothers her a bit as well since she has no idea what caused this crash to happen and has a small thought in the back of her mind on whether she should be worried about anything else falling. On the other hand, the last time she saw Wire Whore and the Barbarian Bitch, they were somewhere near the city. With luck, they're now so much paste across the floor. It shouldn't bother her if this has happened, but she still has that annoying thought in the back of her mind that she wishes she'd been the one to strike them down and humiliate them. It's an insidious thought. She's an assassin, all she should be concerned about is her targets dying and nothing more. It shouldn't matter if she's the one to kill them or how they die so long as they do so. The idea of needing to be the one to cause their suffering is one that will impact her effectiveness. But she still can't shake it...

She brushes the entire thing off for now. She has an objective and needs to see it completed. That means continuing her trek to the Colosseum. Hopefully soon. It's night out and nothing good shows up at night. Of course, her rush may have been detrimental as she bumps into a zombie. A perverted zombie by the fact that it immediately grabs onto her breasts. Rather painfully too. She doesn't care, but her Lady demands to be the only one to touch Ophelia in such ways so she should probably punish the zombie for violating an order from her Lady.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

It takes exactly one hit for her to realize that this was a bad idea. Confident in the strength of her new weapon and the experience she gained fighting the beetle, she swings at the zombie in front of her. Only to meet air as it nimbly avoids her blow. She didn't think nimbly was a word that could even apply to zombies, but she has had that illusion thoroughly broken. It's only because she's expecting reprisal that she sways under the returning strike, bite that assuredly would have done her no favors, and makes one of her own while the thing is still off balance. She makes solid contact... but the zombie barely seems swayed but the attack. Not only that, but from the wound a black cloud a poisonous gas bursts forth. Not expecting that at all, she breathes it deep. And almost instantly begins coughing up blood.

"Poison" she can't help but think. While she's under her coughing fit, the second zombie, and she can't help but think these can't be run of the mill zombies, moves closer and... launches its tongue at her. Glowing blue and snake-like, she sees it clearly in the night sky as it wraps around her mask and pulls the bottom half to the side so that it can force the appendage down her throat. She can only feel outrage by such a thing before she notices the... saliva she supposes, is causing her tongue and throat to go numb. While she's trying to force the thing out of her mouth, the second ranged higher zombie uses that same style of tongue and wraps it around her hips. It's hard to feel her legs through the numbing effects of the saliva. She remembers where they are though when the thing shows just how strong that tongue is by lifting her, thankfully pulling the first tongue out of her, and slamming her against the the ground. Repeatedly. At least 3 times, more than enough for her ass to become sore. But at least she has feeling in her legs now.

She immediately pulls herself onto her feet, resets her mask, then makes everything else in the area more interesting than her, slipping into the shadows to make her escape. Even without seeing her though, the zombies stay close, throwing a wide net to keep her between them. She curses her luck and swallows the next round of bloody coughing and uses an iron will to force the effects from her body. Or maybe she vomited the poison out last time. The former sounds better though so if she has to retell this to her Lady, she'll go with that. Either way, she doesn't feel like her body is being torn apart from the inside anymore so it makes holding stealth easier. Easy enough that she manages to avoid the notice of all of her opponents while they search the area for her. She needed that confidence boost since the last time she attempted this... well, an idiot barbarian found her. Her confidence in her ability to remain unseen plummeted after that. Buoyed by this new rush, she makes her escape again and this time no one sees her go. She runs in the direction of the Colosseum until the zombies are nothing but a bad memory of indecent touches.

[Littlemankitten]

Anastasia stumbled around confusedly as Idalia shoved her under the underpass, not comprehending what was happening. Seeing the Barton knight however, she did understand. She hoisted herself back up and prepared to finish him off once and for all, before suddenly her world turned to black.

When Anastasia came back to reality, she groaned and shakily lifted herself off the ground, trying to find her footing amongst the rubble. What the actual fuck just happened? Did a fuck huge monster just come along out of the blue and decided to fuck this city in particular at the exact wrong time? That wouldn't make any sense though. Wait, wasn't the city of Cielo in the sky a few minutes ago? Looking around, she noticed it wasn't in the sky. Sure it could of left in the time it became night but... Did it crash into Monsteropolis? That seemed to be the only logical conclusion. Either way, it didn't matter why the city was destroyed, she had to focus on getting out. Wait, were was Idalia? Quickly glancing around, she couldn't see her, but after a quick search, she found her arm under a pile of rubble. It was still moving, so she must still be alive! Grabbing the large piece of rubble and hefting it out of the way, she found it was ONLY her arm. But, it was still moving as if it was attached to her body. That's... Disturbing. But where is Idalia herself? She couldn't be dead, cause her body would be there. Idalia has also showed that she would have remarkable resilience. Plus, her one companion couldn't of died with something so out of her control. Could she? Anastasia sighed. Great. Either way, now she was all alone. The question was, should she go finish her job, or look for Idalia? First, she should see if her employer was still alive, if he wasn't that basically eliminated the need to care about her job. So she headed towards where she remembered the tower of her employer being.

[lilbooth]

After the initial terror of drowning had passed, and CeeCee had adjusted to breathing through the strange mask, she was happy to see a recognizable face. And the fact it was Lord Barton was relieving perhaps? It was a mixed emotion for sure. She had been stripped of all her gear and fitted into strange undergarments.WIth her weapons, armor, and companion nowhere to be seen she was little worried. She had agreed to take Lord Barton to bed, but after being crushed nearly to death twice, and violated by the ruthless purple roots, her libido was quite low. Despite this, the man had rescued her twice over and she was in his debt. If he wanted her body, it was a small price to pay. She waited patiently and listened to Lord Barton's short monologue, certainly intrigued by the use of the lost arts found in a dark forest. He had amassed an entire armor, of not only strong but loyal knights, that he could simply replace when he needed to. Or so it seemed that way, perhaps he had a limited supply. Still, it was very impressive either way. When Barton had finished his short speech and let CeeCee out of the tank she stood up quite quickly and rid herself of the mask. As soon as she had adjusted back to normal air she stood up, surprisingly springy and comfortable.
"Thank you for offering your safety again, Lord Barton." She Said as she looked around inside the castle. The level of technology for a small castle was immense. She had been to many houses and estates of the rich and noble class but none of them had anything like this, "Before we proceed to bed time I have to ask what has become of my belongings, and my owl bear. Where they all recovered as well?" She asked as she stepped towards the stairs and hooked her arm with Lord Barton's.

[Nobudi]

Everything had become a blur to Lucia. It was supposed be simple. Take out the opposition. Take back control of the city. However, her weapons were ultimately useless against the enemy. Her last thought before the world went black was that they had failed.

When she awoke, she was alone. The City had fallen. She was injured, and the cold winds of the evening nipped at her exposed skin. Looking around, she saw that her bag had gone missing, so she was now with nothing. Her clothes were damaged, but salvageable. But the biggest problem was that she was alone, injured without a kit to disinfect the wounds. Healing was going to be slow and painful, and there wasn't any help around, with only corpses around her. None of them, she was shamefully thankful for, were familiar.

Coughing and racked with pain, she began to crawl. She needed to find a shelter and quickly. The darkness hid potential dangers, and the opened wall of the city did nothing to allay her fears.

[Mark3000]

Lilith was getting the impression that if it wasn't for the offer, Metia would have taken the Nomad for all shes worth. But for now the two were allies. She'd even gotten some helpful advice from the haughty warrior. "Thanks I'll keep that in mind" Lilith said simply as the two traveled together.

When they finally reached the lake, Lilith began surveying the area for a place to wait out the night. Normally, Lilith would set up tripwires around the site to alert them of danger. But before that, Lilith spotted the hand float in the lake. That's when she remember what the inn owner had told her. It could have easily been a trap to entice more prey. Creatures like this were clever and can easily turn the tide on their prey.

Reaching into her inventory, Lilith pull out the rope gifted to her and fashioned a lasso. It wasn't that different from some of her traps. Throwing it out she tries to pull in who ever's attached to this hand. "Could you give me a hand Metia?" Lilith asked.

[mrblah]

He woke up with hazy vision, black spots swimming around here and there with blurry dancing lights in the background. His body felt like he was just burned, stabbed, tossed, and ran over in short order; namely, he felt terrible. That was something he discovered in full as he sat up and rubbed his eyes to clear his vision.

... Where was he? Amun looked around the wreckage with vacant, surprised eyes, before he caught sight of the thing that was right in front of him. As slow as his mind was, it took him a moment to process the information that the thing staring at him was most certainly abnormal. When it did, he shrieked a bit and tried to jump away from it—bad move. Pain erupted all over his body, and he cried out again as his futile attempt to run immediately punished him, and his pushing afterward was just icing to his cake. "D-damn it... what's the matter with you?! Can you not see that I am injured?!"

His complaints seemed to have fallen on deaf (or possibly nonexistent he's not really sure) ears, and Amun once more cursed and screamed as the creature pulled him up to a standing position, despite the terrifying metal piercing his stomach and the sharp gash on his side, along with many other less life-threatening wounds. He tried to steady himself, vision swimming for a second as he wavered. Amun knew his injuries were very dangerous. He probably lost a lot of blood by now, and this thing not-so-gently pulling him to his feet only worsened that...

Now standing, Amun looked around the wreckage to see if anything stood out, before a persistently nagging question reared its head, now that he had the time to take notice of it. "What happened..? Where's... anyone?" Those questions were the ones most plaguing him, yet just as he asked them; the memories of the past few hours came to him. He remembered the invasion. The fighting, what he had been tasked with, the captain and the other woman, the two innocents he tried to hide in the closet, and the many... many lives that were just lost, thanks to his failure.

He choked, feeling a sudden tightness in his chest as his vision blurred. So many people—a whole city full of people, and he failed. His family, his friends, his entire life... dead. Amun took a slow, shuddering breath, closing his eyes to the world. Survivor's guilt was eating away at him. The sting of failure... knowing he truly could have prevented all of this, and he didn't. It was all his fault. They counted on him and he failed them. Their deaths might as well have been on his hands. He would have to pay dearly for this.

"Ack!" A sharp twinge of pain brought him back to Earth, and he glared at the shadow girl thing that flicked the metal jammed into his gut... but it served to remind him of his situation. Alone, out in the dark, heavily wounded, and in dangerous territory. Suffice to say, if Cielo crashing hadn't killed him; whatever could happen now might. He needed to get somewhere safe, and he needed to tend to his wounds. Next was searching for any possible survivors. If he had, it should have been possible that others had too? Maybe his father, or his brothers. He just needed to cling to that hope.

Ignoring the shadow girl who pulled him up and tormented him, he got to limping to find the nearest, most intact looking wreck to hide in momentarily.

[KnightVanilla]

This darkness was a familiar feeling... The fight, the city crashing on top of another city... The undead attacking her new home. That all was definitely a dream right? It wasn't until she roused out of unconsciousness that she felt his sore she was. Ever bit of moment was accented with pop of her joints and muscles. It was difficult to muster the strength of will to move. The sensation of awakening still fogging her mind as she tried her best or just comprehend where she was at first.

slowly pulling herself up to see the surroundings around her. This unfamiliar place left her wary until she was fully greeted by her apparent savior. She found it hard to speak, not because of any emotional shock. However she found that she may have inhaled a bit of the dusty debris... to which the sound of soup was made more appealing. Once receiving a bowl she would scarf down what she could before properly clearing her throat. "Uh, where am i?"

[RandomRoninKitten]

Ophelia/MiscChaos

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Ophelia's not sure what to feel about the flying city crashing into Monsteropolis. On the one hand, she's sure that such a large loss of life could be something to be mourned according to what morals her Lady saw fit to instill in her. It bothers her a bit as well since she has no idea what caused this crash to happen and has a small thought in the back of her mind on whether she should be worried about anything else falling. On the other hand, the last time she saw Wire Whore and the Barbarian Bitch, they were somewhere near the city. With luck, they're now so much paste across the floor. It shouldn't bother her if this has happened, but she still has that annoying thought in the back of her mind that she wishes she'd been the one to strike them down and humiliate them. It's an insidious thought. She's an assassin, all she should be concerned about is her targets dying and nothing more. It shouldn't matter if she's the one to kill them or how they die so long as they do so. The idea of needing to be the one to cause their suffering is one that will impact her effectiveness. But she still can't shake it...

She brushes the entire thing off for now. She has an objective and needs to see it completed. That means continuing her trek to the Colosseum. Hopefully soon. It's night out and nothing good shows up at night. Of course, her rush may have been detrimental as she bumps into a zombie. A perverted zombie by the fact that it immediately grabs onto her breasts. Rather painfully too. She doesn't care, but her Lady demands to be the only one to touch Ophelia in such ways so she should probably punish the zombie for violating an order from her Lady.

It takes exactly one hit for her to realize that this was a bad idea. Confident in the strength of her new weapon and the experience she gained fighting the beetle, she swings at the zombie in front of her. Only to meet air as it nimbly avoids her blow. She didn't think nimbly was a word that could even apply to zombies, but she has had that illusion thoroughly broken. It's only because she's expecting reprisal that she sways under the returning strike, bite that assuredly would have done her no favors, and makes one of her own while the thing is still off balance. She makes solid contact... but the zombie barely seems swayed but the attack. Not only that, but from the wound a black cloud a poisonous gas bursts forth. Not expecting that at all, she breathes it deep. And almost instantly begins coughing up blood.

"Poison" she can't help but think. While she's under her coughing fit, the second zombie, and she can't help but think these can't be run of the mill zombies, moves closer and... launches its tongue at her. Glowing blue and snake-like, she sees it clearly in the night sky as it wraps around her mask and pulls the bottom half to the side so that it can force the appendage down her throat. She can only feel outrage by such a thing before she notices the... saliva she supposes, is causing her tongue and throat to go numb. While she's trying to force the thing out of her mouth, the second ranged higher zombie uses that same style of tongue and wraps it around her hips. It's hard to feel her legs through the numbing effects of the saliva. She remembers where they are though when the thing shows just how strong that tongue is by lifting her, thankfully pulling the first tongue out of her, and slamming her against the the ground. Repeatedly. At least 3 times, more than enough for her ass to become sore. But at least she has feeling in her legs now.

She immediately pulls herself onto her feet, resets her mask, then makes everything else in the area more interesting than her, slipping into the shadows to make her escape. Even without seeing her though, the zombies stay close, throwing a wide net to keep her between them. She curses her luck and swallows the next round of bloody coughing and uses an iron will to force the effects from her body. Or maybe she vomited the poison out last time. The former sounds better though so if she has to retell this to her Lady, she'll go with that. Either way, she doesn't feel like her body is being torn apart from the inside anymore so it makes holding stealth easier. Easy enough that she manages to avoid the notice of all of her opponents while they search the area for her. She needed that confidence boost since the last time she attempted this... well, an idiot barbarian found her. Her confidence in her ability to remain unseen plummeted after that. Buoyed by this new rush, she makes her escape again and this time no one sees her go. She runs in the direction of the Colosseum until the zombies are nothing but a bad memory of indecent touches.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Ophelia manages to escape the zombies, and away from the black spire, and in a few miles, makes it to the Colosseum of Fools, a massive stone structure, the size of roughly half a city, where she is met by a pair of guards, talking to a red-haired girl in a red overcoat, black leggings, and a black skirt, with a giant black bow in her hair.

The red-haired girl, at first, didn't seem to notice Ophelia, she was explaining to the guards that she's a detective and needed to get into the building to do her jobs. "No, seriously, I'm a detective, and I need to get into that building, I have to in order to do my job!" to which one of the guards replied "Only fighters are allowed through here, you otherwise can only get into the spectator stands", to which she replied "No, I need to get into the back, just let me in long enough to look around, I'll be in and out."

The girl then saw Ophelia standing behind her and quickly stepped aside "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to block your entrance" she said, looking down at the ground. The guards looked Ophelia up and down, then spoke "We don't let prostitutes into the Colosseum" he said, scowling and blocking the doorway with the other guard.

Anastasia Ursa/LittleManKitten

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Anastasia stumbled around confusedly as Idalia shoved her under the underpass, not comprehending what was happening. Seeing the Barton knight however, she did understand. She hoisted herself back up and prepared to finish him off once and for all, before suddenly her world turned to black.

When Anastasia came back to reality, she groaned and shakily lifted herself off the ground, trying to find her footing amongst the rubble. What the actual fuck just happened? Did a fuck huge monster just come along out of the blue and decided to fuck this city in particular at the exact wrong time? That wouldn't make any sense though. Wait, wasn't the city of Cielo in the sky a few minutes ago? Looking around, she noticed it wasn't in the sky. Sure it could of left in the time it became night but... Did it crash into Monsteropolis? That seemed to be the only logical conclusion. Either way, it didn't matter why the city was destroyed, she had to focus on getting out. Wait, were was Idalia? Quickly glancing around, she couldn't see her, but after a quick search, she found her arm under a pile of rubble. It was still moving, so she must still be alive! Grabbing the large piece of rubble and hefting it out of the way, she found it was ONLY her arm. But, it was still moving as if it was attached to her body. That's... Disturbing. But where is Idalia herself? She couldn't be dead, cause her body would be there. Idalia has also showed that she would have remarkable resilience. Plus, her one companion couldn't of died with something so out of her control. Could she? Anastasia sighed. Great. Either way, now she was all alone. The question was, should she go finish her job, or look for Idalia? First, she should see if her employer was still alive, if he wasn't that basically eliminated the need to care about her job. So she headed towards where she remembered the tower of her employer being.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Anastasia's hands begin shaking and her mouth feels dry. She also begins to sweat, despite the weather being relatively cool, and her tongue starts to feel numb.

Anastasia decided to travel over to the employer's building. In front of what was once the tower, were the two corpses of the guards, laying in pools of blood in front of the heavily cracked and splintered door, which was attached to the remaining 25% of the tower.

From inside the remaining part of the tower, she could hear rummaging, and opened the door to find her employer, who she could recognize from his voice as he mumbled to himself and packed. After several minutes, he actually noticed her "YOU, I hired you, I remember" he said, shakily, as he threw his stuff together into a large back pack and threw it on. "I'm glad you came back, now, more than ever, it's even more important that you make that man pay his debts, I just lost at least half of everything I own. I can still pay you, but I need to start collecting debts so I can re-amass my fortune" he said, somehow managing to keep it together, just barely, despite it being clear that he was panicking "I'll throw in a bonus, too. If you find the piece of garbage who did this and bring their head back to me, I'll pay you triple what this job is worth." he concluded, before pushing running up some stairs, then returning with a large group of guards, which all, along with him, pushed passed her and outside, acing out into the night in the direction of Azraq.

Watching after him, one would likely come to the conclusion that he'll make it to Azraq with no remaining guards.

Standing at the tower, however, just on the edge of Anastasia's vision, she could see, dangling from an edge of the broken wall, a ripped brown tie, blowing in the wind, with blood staining the edges, and, staring at it, Anastasia could feel that she recognized the accessory.

CeeCee/Lilbooth

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

After the initial terror of drowning had passed, and CeeCee had adjusted to breathing through the strange mask, she was happy to see a recognizable face. And the fact it was Lord Barton was relieving perhaps? It was a mixed emotion for sure. She had been stripped of all her gear and fitted into strange undergarments.WIth her weapons, armor, and companion nowhere to be seen she was little worried. She had agreed to take Lord Barton to bed, but after being crushed nearly to death twice, and violated by the ruthless purple roots, her libido was quite low. Despite this, the man had rescued her twice over and she was in his debt. If he wanted her body, it was a small price to pay. She waited patiently and listened to Lord Barton's short monologue, certainly intrigued by the use of the lost arts found in a dark forest. He had amassed an entire armor, of not only strong but loyal knights, that he could simply replace when he needed to. Or so it seemed that way, perhaps he had a limited supply. Still, it was very impressive either way. When Barton had finished his short speech and let CeeCee out of the tank she stood up quite quickly and rid herself of the mask. As soon as she had adjusted back to normal air she stood up, surprisingly springy and comfortable.
"Thank you for offering your safety again, Lord Barton." She Said as she looked around inside the castle. The level of technology for a small castle was immense. She had been to many houses and estates of the rich and noble class but none of them had anything like this, "Before we proceed to bed time I have to ask what has become of my belongings, and my owl bear. Where they all recovered as well?" She asked as she stepped towards the stairs and hooked her arm with Lord Barton's.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Lord Barton smiled at first "Not to worry, my dear, your belongings are in the closet of our room. It was all in one place when we found you, so we're quite confident that nothing was lost." he then paused for a moment and continues hesitantly "As for your companion, I'm sorry to say, he did not survive the collision of the two cities. We used the full extent of the lost arts available to us to attempt to bring him back, even some of our own experimental arts, however, the best we could do was harvest his likeness and hope to create another creature from it." He said, stroking his chin with one hand, while gently squeezing CeeCee's arm with his own, continuing "If you'd like, while you're out on your next mission, we could attempt to create a creature in yours, his, and my own likeness. It would take time to grow, if it works, but it would be like our own child." He said, seemingly impressed with the prospect.

They arrived in Lord Barton's room, and he gently lowered himself into a sitting position on the bed, helping CeeCee onto the bed next to him. The room was red and gold, just like the rest of the castle, with a tapestry on one wall, with the House Barton emblem on it. Across from them, a closet was standing open, with CeeCee's belongings neatly packed into it. Next to the bed was a fish tank, with many ACTUAL BENIGN species of fish in it, a thing that would have either been treacherous OR expensive to obtain. On the opposite wall were MANY different suits of armor, each from a different mercenary company, detailing Lord Barton's long Mercenary career. Among them were names that would be recognized anywhere; The Blue Scorpion, The Purple Crab, Death's Head, Friendly Mushroom, The Yellow Spider, and many that CeeCee didn't recognize. Typically an individual who had worked for many different mercenary companies would have been highly sought after, however, with so many Mercenary Companies in Lord Barton's history, he would have had to be one of the best.

LuLu,The Stormtrooper of Cielo/Nobudi

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Everything had become a blur to Lucia. It was supposed be simple. Take out the opposition. Take back control of the city. However, her weapons were ultimately useless against the enemy. Her last thought before the world went black was that they had failed.

When she awoke, she was alone. The City had fallen. She was injured, and the cold winds of the evening nipped at her exposed skin. Looking around, she saw that her bag had gone missing, so she was now with nothing. Her clothes were damaged, but salvageable. But the biggest problem was that she was alone, injured without a kit to disinfect the wounds. Healing was going to be slow and painful, and there wasn't any help around, with only corpses around her. None of them, she was shamefully thankful for, were familiar.

Coughing and racked with pain, she began to crawl. She needed to find a shelter and quickly. The darkness hid potential dangers, and the opened wall of the city did nothing to allay her fears.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Crawling for what seemed like an eternity, through the debris of the two cities, LuLu came upon a mostly-collapsed underpass, which looked like the only place to take shelter, due to every other structure in sight being completely obliterated into a pile of rubble. However, before reaching the underpass, she felt her ankle grabbed by small hand. Turning to look, she found a disembodied arm, clothed in a torn purple sleeve, with blood spurting out where the upper arm would be.

The arm was holding onto her ankle with a vice grip, however not painfully. It clearly had long nails, but wasn't using them to dig into her skin, just holding onto her very tightly and adamantly. The hand, however, wouldn't be all that convenient if she left it, as it wasn't too heavy to keep moving.

Lilith Rose/Mark3000

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Lilith was getting the impression that if it wasn't for the offer, Metia would have taken the Nomad for all shes worth. But for now the two were allies. She'd even gotten some helpful advice from the haughty warrior. "Thanks I'll keep that in mind" Lilith said simply as the two traveled together.

When they finally reached the lake, Lilith began surveying the area for a place to wait out the night. Normally, Lilith would set up tripwires around the site to alert them of danger. But before that, Lilith spotted the hand float in the lake. That's when she remember what the inn owner had told her. It could have easily been a trap to entice more prey. Creatures like this were clever and can easily turn the tide on their prey.

Reaching into her inventory, Lilith pull out the rope gifted to her and fashioned a lasso. It wasn't that different from some of her traps. Throwing it out she tries to pull in who ever's attached to this hand. "Could you give me a hand Metia?" Lilith asked.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As soon as Lilith throws the rope around the hand, Metia's eyes go wide and a look of panic crosses her face "Oh my fucking Nour, what the fuck are you doing?!" she shrieked, then she ducked behind one of the trees.

At that moment, a creature began to rise out of the water, attached to the hand, then looked at Lilith with the smuggest look she had ever seen.


In one swift motion, it tugged the rope with the hand on its head, while grabbing onto it, yanking Lilith into the murky water.

While beneath the water, Lilith could only hear muffled sounds, but the creature's roaring laughter was audible even while muffled. Lilith was then tugged by the rope, up and out of the water, until she was face to face with the creature, laughing in her face. With one swift motion, the creature looped the rope around her wrists and let her dangle in front of it. It then dunked her under the water and held her there until just before she ran out of air, then lifted her back up and out of the water again, still laughing maniacally. Somewhere behind her, she could hear Metia screaming at her "WHY THE FUCKING FUCK WOULD YOU GET THAT CLOSE TO WATER AT NIGHT?! OR AT ALL FOR THAT MATTER, GREAT NOUR ALMIGHTY!". It was somewhat difficult to hear anymore of what she said as the creature dunked her back into the water and waited for her to run out of breath again. Beneath the murky depths, she could barely see that the creature's pale white body stretched on as far as she could see. This, of course, was normal, as most aquatic creatures were unfathomably massive and powerful to such a degree that entire kingdoms lived in constant fear of them, and dreaded the day that one could move onto land, as it could easily destroy every Kingdom on the continent.

The creature then yanked her back out of the water, right when she started to drown, and slammed her down on more shallow part of the water, knocking the wind out of her momentarily, while keeping her bound by her wrists, staring at her with its beady eyes and scanning her body up and down.

Amun Khufu/MrBlah

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

He woke up with hazy vision, black spots swimming around here and there with blurry dancing lights in the background. His body felt like he was just burned, stabbed, tossed, and ran over in short order; namely, he felt terrible. That was something he discovered in full as he sat up and rubbed his eyes to clear his vision.

... Where was he? Amun looked around the wreckage with vacant, surprised eyes, before he caught sight of the thing that was right in front of him. As slow as his mind was, it took him a moment to process the information that the thing staring at him was most certainly abnormal. When it did, he shrieked a bit and tried to jump away from it—bad move. Pain erupted all over his body, and he cried out again as his futile attempt to run immediately punished him, and his pushing afterward was just icing to his cake. "D-damn it... what's the matter with you?! Can you not see that I am injured?!"

His complaints seemed to have fallen on deaf (or possibly nonexistent he's not really sure) ears, and Amun once more cursed and screamed as the creature pulled him up to a standing position, despite the terrifying metal piercing his stomach and the sharp gash on his side, along with many other less life-threatening wounds. He tried to steady himself, vision swimming for a second as he wavered. Amun knew his injuries were very dangerous. He probably lost a lot of blood by now, and this thing not-so-gently pulling him to his feet only worsened that...

Now standing, Amun looked around the wreckage to see if anything stood out, before a persistently nagging question reared its head, now that he had the time to take notice of it. "What happened..? Where's... anyone?" Those questions were the ones most plaguing him, yet just as he asked them; the memories of the past few hours came to him. He remembered the invasion. The fighting, what he had been tasked with, the captain and the other woman, the two innocents he tried to hide in the closet, and the many... many lives that were just lost, thanks to his failure.

He choked, feeling a sudden tightness in his chest as his vision blurred. So many people—a whole city full of people, and he failed. His family, his friends, his entire life... dead. Amun took a slow, shuddering breath, closing his eyes to the world. Survivor's guilt was eating away at him. The sting of failure... knowing he truly could have prevented all of this, and he didn't. It was all his fault. They counted on him and he failed them. Their deaths might as well have been on his hands. He would have to pay dearly for this.

"Ack!" A sharp twinge of pain brought him back to Earth, and he glared at the shadow girl thing that flicked the metal jammed into his gut... but it served to remind him of his situation. Alone, out in the dark, heavily wounded, and in dangerous territory. Suffice to say, if Cielo crashing hadn't killed him; whatever could happen now might. He needed to get somewhere safe, and he needed to tend to his wounds. Next was searching for any possible survivors. If he had, it should have been possible that others had too? Maybe his father, or his brothers. He just needed to cling to that hope.

Ignoring the shadow girl who pulled him up and tormented him, he got to limping to find the nearest, most intact looking wreck to hide in momentarily.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The shadow girl follows Amun around the destroyed city, mumbling something to her stuffed rat the entire time. Amun finds nothing but dead bodies, residents of Cielo that he may or may not have spoken to at one time, residents of Monsteropolis that he definitely hadn't met. Soldiers, civilians alike, some bodies that looked like they had been dead for awhile.

Amun eventually came upon a house which collapsed into another, creating a sort of cave, just large enough to fit a few people, and dark enough that he wouldn't be seen in there. Before Amun could enter, the shadow girl ducked in and... started stacking pieces of debris, mumbling something to herself as she did. When she had finished, she knocked it over with her arm, saying "Boom!" not really loudly, but also not softly.

The girl then started stacking them back up, one at a time.

Caelic Nemian/KnightVanilla

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

This darkness was a familiar feeling... The fight, the city crashing on top of another city... The undead attacking her new home. That all was definitely a dream right? It wasn't until she roused out of unconsciousness that she felt his sore she was. Ever bit of moment was accented with pop of her joints and muscles. It was difficult to muster the strength of will to move. The sensation of awakening still fogging her mind as she tried her best or just comprehend where she was at first.

slowly pulling herself up to see the surroundings around her. This unfamiliar place left her wary until she was fully greeted by her apparent savior. She found it hard to speak, not because of any emotional shock. However she found that she may have inhaled a bit of the dusty debris... to which the sound of soup was made more appealing. Once receiving a bowl she would scarf down what she could before properly clearing her throat. "Uh, where am i?"

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As the old man went about dipping Caelic some soup, she could get a better look at him. He was relatively short, and had rather long fingernails, though, living out in the swamp, he likely had little chance to trim them. When he handed the bowl of soup to Caelic, he accidentally knocked over a few large stones that were in a pile next to the fireplace, which he quickly started stacking back up after Caelic grabbed the bowl.

While Caelic gobbled it down, the old man responded to her question "We're in the Fungal Wastes, north of Nirvana, East of what used to be known as Monsteropolis, child." he explained "Technically Mushroom Man territory, however, they'll leave us alone in this cabin, you need not worry. If you exit the cabin, however, you do need to worry." he said, and as he spoke, Caelic could see what she could only assume was the silhouette of a Mushroom man walk towards the cabin, only to turn 180 degrees and walk in the opposite direction.

[MiscChaos]

Ophelia breathes a sigh of relief as the higher zombies become dots in the distance. She's not sure she could handle one of them, let alone 3. Between needing help with the Beetle, the confrontation with Wire Whore and Barbarian Bitch, and this one just now, it's becoming apparent to her that she is outliving her usefulness to her Lady. After all, if she can't survive the journey to her target without getting lucky, then she can't kill the people her Lady decides needs to die. She needs to either become stronger or develop a network of contacts to make this easier. Or both, the two don't have to be mutually exclusive. One will be easier than the other though. She knows that the way she was raised as left her with certain disadvantages. She is not what one would call a people person. She rarely speaks to anyone beyond her Lady to be honest and usually it's just to acknowledge a command that has been given. It... will be something she has to work on.

Her thoughts are interrupted by arriving at the Colosseum and the stink being raised at its doorway. She lets the insinuation flow off of her. Given her get up, she's not 100% surprised that's the assumption she got pinned with, but it's still but a minor annoyance. Actually, given the rather intimidating mask she's wearing, she decides she doesn't understand. Whore isn't the first thing she would think when seeing someone with her mask. In the interest of working on her nonexistent people skills, she decides to speak to the detective before the guards. "It is of no consequence. I am in no rush. If it would be quicker for you to conclude your business, I can wait." She says to the detective, raising her voice a touch since she literally just thought she needs to work on her people skills and she knows that her voice is rather quiet. Then she turns to the guards. "I am not a prostitute and I question your taste in women if my mask is what you desire in a prostitute. Do you wish for a woman to hurt you in bed? But this is irrelevant; I wish to enter the Colosseum. There is someone I wish to find. I believe I heard something about spectator entrance and fighter entrance?"

[Littlemankitten]

As Anastasia travelled to the tower, she felt... Suddenly sick. Like she just caught a minor flu. As if she didn't have enough to worry about. When she made it to the tower, she found that her employer was still alive. Anastasia was both disappointed and relieved. She can still get paid for the job, which was good. But now there was a problem. Did she try to find Idalia or finish her job? If she goes for the job, who knows what will have happened to Idalia, and if she's really hurt, which given what just happened, seems very likely, she may die or disappear. But if she goes for Idalia, she risks her target also disappearing, in which case she doesn't get paid, and therefor her entire reason for being here is rendered useless. She doesn't even say anything to her employer as he rambles on, though the idea of triple pay seems alluring, Anastasia knew that there would most likely be no way to figure out how any of this happened, especially when she didn't even know what happened exactly. Anastasia stood there for a few minutes after her employer and his entourage left. When she finally comes back to reality however, she notices something. A brown tie that looked very familiar. Liked in belonged to someone with purple clothes. She grabbed the tie and looked at it, sighing. She crunched it in her hand and shoved it in a pocket. Well, if you can't decide something for yourself, let some cheesy fate decide it for you. Anastasia decided to look for Idalia first, and she had an idea of where to start. Those Barton guards didn't seem to like her, and while they seemed to be gone from this area, she heard that they had a large force stationed in Bakersville, but something happened. That would probably be the best place to look first unless she ran across a Barton guard here. Bakersville also happened to be in the same direction of the Colosseum, so she can quickly stop by there then continue on towards Bakersville. With an objective in mind, Anastasia heads out, but quickly stops in front of the two dead guards. Thinking they might have something useful, she quickly searches there things for something good, then once finished, continues towards the colosseum.