504-03-30 The battle in the castle's courtyard
From Crossroads Wiki
March 30, 504
The Conjunction reaches its head, the preparations made by the demons in the Abyss successful enough to see Belial, Master of the Game released through the Gateway with a small army of lessers to attack the Keeper and his people.
A thundering roar comes from the stones of the castle, a tremor that echoes through the city, and a cracking sound. Howls and gibbering twitters seem like a moan from the foundations of the city itself. In but moments, there's a thunderclap and a rising shriek of boundless rage that rolls across Crossroads.
Those outside will see it first. In the sky high above Gateway, the red slash of the comet across the sky is like an angry wound, no moons visible to compare. In this ruddy glow, a cloud of winged creatures burst into existence with a swell of sanguine illumination. Demons have been seen in the city before, when Rourke was not yet twenty and his hold on the Gateway weakened. Not since then, though, until tonight. Easily fourty of them circle high above the sky, but they are not the sight of great terror.
At the heart of them is another being, easily thirty-five paces in height. It's wings are the size of buildings, and its tail lashes the air, leaving sparks of lightning in its wake.
Its twin claws are wrapped around the nude form of the Abyssal's daughter, Nysra. It hovers there, holding her in its grasp. Nysra arches subtly in the demonic grip and her laugh spills downwards from above, lilting and and melodic. She draws her hand along the darkness of the demon's claw against her flesh, as gentle as a lover's caress.
"Puling human slaves," rings a Voice from the creature. "My Lord Vetis Semiazas Succorbenoth rises and will be here soon, to command those of you I allow to live into the servitude you so richly deserve." The Voice penetrates stone and flesh, jarring in bones with the power and threat. "I, Belial Mashakoth, High Master of the Game, am here to subjugate you. Bend knee and take the anklet of your status, and you shall survive."
The Greater Demon's lips curl and one tooth is displayed. "Maybe."
Nysra tilts her head back baring her throat as Belial adds, "This is the favored daughter of our Lord, and She has freed us here. She will be honored in our songs for eternity!" Nyx's dark hair spills over the claw as she is lifted toward that Very Large Mouth, and her voice rings out in a seductively sweet, "FATHER! I am YOURS!" A sound like ecstasy escapes her lips, a cry of culmination, as she spreads her arms and not just accepts, but embraces her fate.
And then, Belial's teeth come down on her, and a spill of her blood falls through the air toward the ground below.
Cambric shouts, "Holy shit!"
Eira is running as fast as she possibly can, going all out towards the drawbridge. A destine guard sprints behind her.
Cambric is with a bunch of other knights, waiting with weapons drawn, ready to defend the castle.
And with the spill of blood, the devouring of Nysra, the lesser demons that were gathered around the break apart and begin to spread through the city. They shriek their rage as they go, diving among the citizens and destroying any not kneeling. (and some who might be). A bulk, though, seem headed toward the Guardian tower.
It is then that two distractions are seen in the skies. The first arises with a rallying cry, fire and gold spreading from the wings of the phoenix taking flight from somewhere in the city. To this, many of the lessers flock, hissing and growling while they attack. The second, a form like until Belial, but pure and white as northern ice. Proud and beautiful in a primal way, this creature attacks the form of Belial. An ice-clear sword slashes through the air to meet Belial's black one, and the pair begin to fight.
The demons that swoop toward the castle do make haste toward the gathering of knights, who are definitely /not/ kneeling. And this battle is going to be one that stretches the length of the courtyard as the knights attempt to forestall demons from getting into the castle. With the sheer number of lessers, some do get by. But the way in by human means is certainly blocked by this violent outbreak.
What do you do, Eira, with nowhere to run in a courtyard being attacked by lessers?
"Good luck!" Eira calls to the knights as she dashes towards the drawbridge. But suddenly the demons swoop right in front of her and screaming she stumbles to a hault. Almost immiediatly she doubles back trying to head the other way, but she's going too fast and looses her balance, causing her to fall painfully.
Cambric does note the girl's fall, running over in her direction as she does land in such a vulnerable spot with demons all around. "Stay down!" he calls, weapon in hand and ready to defend from the demons. Of course, this doesn't work so well when one of the lessers gets in his way, and he wastes no time in engaging the thing with his sword. "Hurry!" he calls to her, "Draw in closer if you can! Stay on your knees!"
There is one of those horrendous creatures that lands a few feet from where Eira landed, stopping to just stare at the healer on the ground, it's head tilting slightly to the side. It's jaw snaps in a wicked threat, a grin sliding across demonic features.
The welcome courtyard is a battlefield right now, with a number of knights trying to keep the swooping demons out of the castle. The way into the castle is blocked by this battle.
In the sky above, the battle rages onwards, the phoenix drawing some of the lessers away while others dive through the village. Now the shrieks are human as much as demon, and blood begins to paint the streets. The city watch spreads out, offering what defense they can. The battle between the white and dark creatures above continues, punctuated by the occasional gout of fire or lash of ice through the air. Belial tosses the pure white creature into a building near the docks, and the warehouse crumbles beneath the weight. A roar, and the battle continues.
Eira just barely hears what Cambric says, but to stay down when that horrible creature lands right in front of her and snaps its jaws at her goes against every single instinct she has. Screaming in sheer terror she tries to get up, half rising but, moving back too quickly she ends up landing on her bum once more. Her legs kick and scramble, trying to put as much distance between her and that creature as possible.
With a mighty slash in the air, Cambric tags one of the lessers which does fly further up in the air, giving him the time to close the distance between himself and Eira, reaching to grab her by the collar and pull her behind him to face the one that landed on the ground.
There is indeed battle going on here, a number of knights fighting a number of lessers, the way to the castle blocked by the fight.
Dante slides his long bow off his back with one smooth motion, knocking an arrow calmly and sighting in on the Demon menacing the fighting man who seems to be trying to protect a tiny red haired woman. One eye squints slightly as he releases the arrow, holding the bow steady for a smooth follow-through.
Already, four knights dead within the courtyard alone, all in different horrible forms of death.
The arrow does pierce through the air close to the demon stalking Cambric and Eira, though it passes as a miss, but not an unnoticed one. While this demon does not stop advancing on knight and healer, a piercing scream is released toward another. It is the one receiving such message that does dive toward Dante.
Eira yelps as she feels herself roughly pulled out of the way and dragged back until she is behind the man with such a strong arm. Eira starts to try to rise once more to her feet, but at the piercing scream she covers her ears and crouches momentarily.
"Stay down!" Cambric yells to Eira, amidst the noise of the screeches and fighting that seems to surround in every direction. "Are you carrying anything useful?!" He does not take his gaze off of that stalking demon, his sword held confidently before him. "Come on, you ugly son of a bitch..."
The knights, even though some face death in this battle, seem eager to fight. Eager to face this enemy.
The castle alarms, those low and sonorous bells that bespeak magic cast in the castle, begin their baleful tolling. The sound is hard to hear among the clashes in the streets and toward the castle. The twin behemoths continue to fight, Belial and the white one, with the latter launching itself into the air and slicing a score at Belial's wing. The phoenix wings further away and draws others with it. Those who can see such, the Guardian tower is peppered with lessers that scrabble at the stone, but most are disappearing inside smashed balcony doors.
Dante quickly yet calmly nocks another arrow and pulls the bow back to full draw. He sights in on the demon diving towards him, attempting to take out the immediate threat. Once again he smoothly releases the arrow, leading the demon enough to get a solid hit this time.
The arrow loosed by Dante rings truer this time, though hardly giving a deathly blow as it embeds itself into the diving demon's shoulder. It /is/ enough, however, to make it's attack falter, at least for a moment as it rears up to check itself before it comes after the man once more with another of the piercing cries.
"Not to fight with! I'm a healer!" shouts Eira over the noise of the alarms and screaming and screeching. With the guard between her and that terrible demon that snapped its jaws at her a moment before, she manages to not be overcome by terror and give into the instinct to rise and run. At that piercing war cry the demon gives as it turns on Dante, the girl cringes and covers her ears.
There are a few more menacing snaps of the jaw as the lesser advances on Cambric and Eira, as if toying with its food. "It might be a good thing you're here, then," Cambric murmurs, mostly to himself as he lunges forward to test the demon's defenses by aiming a jab near its chest when close enough.
Dante's eyes squint and his jaw clenches as the demon lets out another scream. He slides one more arrow out of his quiver, figuring he has enough time for one more shot before he has to drop his bow and go hand to hand. He silently mumbles a quick foresters chant to help his arrow find its prey as he releases it.
And Cambric is met by the creature actually catching his sword mid-thrust and forcing the weapon's hilt back upon its wielder. Hard. And when the knight takes the hilt so hard upon his chest, with the accompanying sound of cracking bones, he ends up falling backward, right over the little healer he is trying to protect.
Eira squeaks painfully when the guard trips over her. She crawls out from under him blindly, which unfortunatly takes her a bit closer than farther away from the demon. When she looks up she freezes in terror, staring with wide eyes.
As time passes, the number of fighting lessers dwindles. Either a they have fallen (two, so far), they have flown to other destinations, or they are yet engaged, but no new ones show up. At the other end of the courtyard, some magic item is used by a knight, sending another demon to the ground.
Dante's shot is another that hits on target, an odd shot indeed, though one that grounds the lesser, the arrow having caught the joint between back and wing. That only makes the demon angry, and it does move forward to try to chomp Dante.
There is a bunch of pained noises and groaning that comes from the downed Cambric, but he's a knight. They are trained to keep fighting, and not to panic. As Eira climbs out from underneath him, he reaches for a dagger in his boot, readying it to throw as he yells, "Get down!"
The demon in front of Eira grins widely, not bothering to hurry as it reaches out a clawed hand toward that pretty face.
As the clawed hand reaches for her face, Eira lurches back, as if something just pushed her in the forehead. Her feet are as lead, but with how she moved, maybe she'll be luck and land on her backside and her face will escape that clawed hand.
Dante drops the bow to the ground and quickly slides his curved short sword out of its sheath with one hand and palms a long dagger in a reverse grip in the other. His weight rolls to the balls of his feet and he crouches slightly as he swings the sword at the demon looking to seperate the monsters head from its shoulders.
As luck would have it, that's exactly what happens, Eira. Except you land on Cambric's legs. It doesn't stop him from giving his all to launching that dagger as hard as he can toward the looming demon. It's a difficult shot when one is on the ground. But he's gotta try something.
There still is fighting in the courtyard going on, a couple of knights engaged with two demons on one side of the courtyard, Dante facing off with another. And a fourth bearing down on Cambric and Eira. There are at least five knights and three demons that lay dead already.
Eira rolls to the side as the dagger is launched, not into the shot but away from it, so that poor Cambric's legs aren't hindered by Eira's weight. The girl is quite light but still, even 90 pounds isn't good to have weight your legs down.
The swing from Dante's sword catches nothing but air as the grounded lesser dodges with a speed that is enough to avoid such a thing. And to counter, sharp claws strike out, swiping at the man's shoulder when exposed post-swing.
That lesser bearing down on the knight and healer does catch that dagger, letting out a shriek of pain as it hits the demon in the gut. It is enough to make the thing back up a few steps as Cambric looks to the healer now. "Run." he tells her. "Run now." He's not going anywhere, himself, pulling out another blade from his other boot.
Harper races out of the castle into the court yard yelling "Brandiveres?" as he enters the fray. Intense blue eyes scanning the carnage and seperating friend from foe while a string of curses flit from his lips. His wooden stave being jabbed into the ground as he plucks a small beetle from a pouch with the other. Fingers curling around the little insect to cup it in his fist as words whispered in the tongue of the arcana stirs the magic within as he focuses upon the Knights and the girl.
Eira's a healer. Even if she's a student healer her place is in the Infirmary. Rising to her feet unsteadily, she takes a deep breath and dashes to the demon's right, taking a risk and trying to reach the drawbridge to be able to get inside the castle.
Dante lets out a growl of frustration as his strike misses. Experience on his side, he anticipates as much as sees the demon's strike coming and tries to twist out of the way to avoid it but not put himself in a poor position in regards to striking back.
Dante's experience pays off as he does manage to escape the sharp claws of the lesser. The being's injured wing flaps erratically, catching it off guard for a moment.
As the spell cast toward the knight and healer fails, the demon lashes out in a haze of pain toward Eira as she streaks by. But it does not stop advancing still on the downed knight, who holds his dagger tightly and focuses upon the approaching demon.
There's some fighting going on here! A bunch of dead bodies, both local and demon are strewn across the courtyard. Two demons still live and are being fought off.
Eira is running toward the castle. Dante is fighting one of the demons, and Cambric is on his back, clutching a short blade and facing the second demon.
As he entires the courtyard, Thorvald spots the surviving demons. Immediately, he raises his bow, aims, and lets fly at the nearer of the two.
There's a knight carrying a young crying bundle, doing his damndest to be out of any attention drawing by the living demons. He's got two other knights with him, weapons drawn and ready to engage if it takes that. It seems that the Imperial rescue mission has not made it very far yet.
The ravaging batte between the greater demon and its stunningly white adversary continues through the city, another building shattered when the dark one is caught and hurled from the sky into it. Then the white is on it, driving downward with a sword twice as tall as a man, the blade blazing and sharp as a winter's freeze. Demons have melted away into the streets, some destroyed, many still destroying.
A twist of his arm and Harper yanks the staff from the ground back into his grip, wasting little time as he whirls it up while growling out another incantation. Tongues of flame lick at his fingers and hand, curling around shaft of his wooden stave up to the carved dragon head as his pours his energy into weaving the spell, channeling through his stave to send a ball of fire at the demon going for Sir Cambric.
Signy is hurrying as fast as her wounded leg and dripping side allow her to. She still makes pace with the others, the pain wracking her face but the adrenaline pushing it to the side for now. "Lets go!" She groans, nearly falling over onto her face.
Eira cries out in pain as the demon sileces her arm deeply, but that doesn't stop her. When she sees a host of people emerge from the castle and one of them bearing a crying bundle she falters and hesitates. "Is it worse in there?" she asks them, shouting over the noise.
Having dodged the demons attack, Dante swings the curved short sword at the vile creature a second time.
At the sight of more conflict, Gerard moves off to the archer's flank, covering Thorvald's side so he's free to shoot without his imposing girth blocking his aim. Lowering his mace as he draws it back, ready to swing at the first Demon within range, cold and calculating.
The magic thrown at the lesser over Cambric does hit, causing the demon to arch its back as if to escape the magical flame that burns it. As it so happens, this opens the creature up for a clean strike by Thorvald's bolt, hitting true and putting the demon down. Unluckily for Cambric, it falls onto his outstretched legs.
The knights with Jordan have one goal and that's to stay under the radar and get the boy to safety. They keep moving through at a brisk pace, perhaps easy to spot for those that were part of the original escort.
Which leaves only one, others having flown off to wreak havoc elsewhere. Even taking a slice from Dante's short blade, the lesser presses forward, slashing out again with hungry claws, a high shriek accompanying the attack.
As soon as Thorvald can be reasonably sure his arrow will hit, he nocks another and aims it at the remaining demon. His attention divided between the shot and the fleeing prince, he fires; once the arrow leaves his bow cleanly, he runs in pursuit of the prince -- breathing hard, bleeding, and looking half dead.
Signy moves towards the other one and while it slashes out with it's hungry claws, she launches her own attack from behind, slashing her at it's neck, giving a grim and loud grunt. "Eira follow us!" She calls out.
Signy moves on towards the knights and the bundle and seeing Eira stop, she looks back towards the girl. "Eira, follow us!" She calls out, groaning a bit as she nearly stumbles over the blood. Both hers and inky blackness is all over her.
Dante dodges the demon's clawing strike again. He notices Thorvald make a shot a the demon but can't follow the arrow's flight due to being a just a little distracted by razor-clawed death waiting to sink into his flesh.
Another true hit from the archer. The lesser, who was previously injured, two other arrows already sticking out of him, takes his last slash at Dante before it falls over from the lethal strike from Thorvald's arrow.
Eira hesitates but as shots are fired and the battle carries on, she dashes to linger behind those attacking the demons. Her hand clutches at her arm, trying to stifle the flow of blood. Silently she watches the demon from behind the group as it falls to the ground. Even as it falls though she looks around for others.
"All of you -- follow us!" Thorvald shouts, yet again knocking another arrow -- how many demons -are- there, anyway? Three is -quite- enough.
With the Demons being taken care of quickly, Gerard flags on Drusilla and the other Knights to follow on after the Prince, not wanting their ward to get too far ahead.
Following the orders of those who know alot more about situations like these than her, Eira scurries to follow.
Harper quickens his pace up to the downed Knight, pressing his stave to the lesser's deceased body to try and roll it off Cambric's legs. "No place for a Knight, up up lad. We need you fighters on your feet. You there, swordsman, gravely hurt?" hollered to Dante.
Cambric does try to help kick the lesser off of himself, though he does look as if every movement does pain him. "Son of a bitch cracked me with my own sword," he complains through clenched teeth. "I think it broke my ribs."
Dante sheaths his blades and retrieves his bow, automatically checking it for damage as he rushes to help pull the demon off of the Knight's legs. "Not a scratch...yet."
Harper places a hand on Cambric's shoulder to stop him from moving too much when he talks of a broken rib, "Good to hear, we'll need you yet swordsman. I'm Master Moriarty." offering his name to both while he turns intense blue eyes onto Cambric staring into his own, "Look at me good sir, look into my eyes and listen to my voice." letting it drop into a soothing timbre as he presses a hand to the Knight's side. "Relax... do not breath to deeply, just relax. Imagine for a moment you are far from this battle. A noisy tavern perhaps, among the company of friends. Their cheer and laughter embracing you, comforting you, warming you." speaking to distract the Knight while he weaves another web. "There is no pain in your ribs.. a simple muscle strain.. nothing much. Don't over do it and you'll be find." Sounding like he himself believes it while his words are laced now with his magic to lend an extra element of comfort.
Dante keeps a lookout just waiting for more trouble to rear its ugly head as Harper works his magic. His fingers pluck at one of the daggers in a wrist sheath, sliding it in and out of the sheath, as his eyes continue to scan the area.
Cambric looks at Harper just oddly at first, though that does melt away, ending with a nod. "Sure, it will be fine, I'm sure as hell not going to die from it." He does start to haul himself to his feet, reaching for his dropped sword on the way up. "Thanks for the help, Master Moriarty. Glad you came by."
The raging battle between the dark behemoth of Belial and his white opponent whizzes above the Plaza of the Keeper Center. The lash of one table caves in the roof of the Odds & Ends Variety Store, as the two wrestle. They twist in the air, and a spray of hot, searing blood spills down in a torrent, black ichor that's poison upon all it hits. Both the light and the dark are covered with wounds by now, when the light drives the dark toward the castle. The whole world seems to fall silent for an instant as the blade of winter white perfection spears through the darker creature, pinning it to the castle. Then, the Greater Demon Belial bursts into flames.
Harper rises to his feet and dusts off his knees for a moment, "Right place at the right time. Searching for my students, the Brandiveres. But till I cross their paths I'm at both of your service if you've the need for a metamage.. among other things." Harper says with a crooked twist of his lips.
Dante's gaze is fixed on the battle above and its climatic conclusion. Seeing that the battle seems to have come to an end, at least for now, the ranger silently disappears into the shadows seeking more prey.
Cambric can't help but look up toward the figures fighting above, luckily out of the way of falling blood as the demon Belial is run through. "Holy Providence above," he murmurs in awe.
