Sparks of conflict (BP EXCLUSIVE EVENT)

Akeya had been planning to try and quickly strike at the opponent that Akryn was facing while Akryn took the task of distracting him. She really preferred it when she was the one initiating a fight, because if she did it correctly she could kill the opponents before they had the time to react. However right now that wasn't possible: the ones who had initiated the fight were the adversaries of Blue Pegasus, and even more unfortunately they had done so on their own terms, without warning, and when team Rampage had been completely unprepared. An assassin certainly didn't like being in this kind of situation: it was the worst spot to be in for somebody whose main method of dealing with opponents was taking them down without an actual fight, sneaking in their houses in the night to slit their throats, slipping poison into their food, never actually exposing themselves to battle, instead seeking maximum efficiency. None of those methods were available now, and Akeya wasn't happy.

However this still could work. The opponent was absurdly powerful. He was powerful enough that she and Akryn didn't even stand a ghost of a chance if they only relied on a frontal assault. Like children they stood in front of an adult, a man whose magic power was enough to overwhelm that of her own and Akryn's, nearly making her dizzy with its sheer magnitude and power. As somebody who has a talent for sensing magic it is not always pleasant to be near somebody with so much magic power and no intention of keeping it reined in or harmless. Malvis wasn't here to play around or test their worth: he was opening his throttle as far as he could, planning to take the entirety of Blue Pegasus out. These Scorpions had most likely already raided the vaults that Akryn had wanted Blue Pegasus to empty so they could keep all the valuable artefacts safe. Now the only thing left for the Scorpions was to get rid of the only people who knew about the new powers they had gotten their hands on.

But a sneak attack should still be possible. Akryn and her together couldn't defeat this one enemy even if they worked together perfectly. At least, if they fought together perfectly in a frontal assault. Akryn wasn't a weakling that he would just be destroyed within seconds, even against an enemy like this: he was an experienced fighter, so he should be able to hang on, keep Malvis busy, and offer Akeya time. The half dragon carefully used her abnormally sharp fingernails and tail to move forward on the underside of the platform floating in the air, also using her wings to keep her balance. She didn't really have any way of sticking to surfaces that were upside down. What she was doing right now was more like advanced wall climbing combined with an awkward sort of flying. However, it seemed to be working: the plateau cast a good shadow for her to hide in, and she was still advancing rather quickly. As she once again reached out with one hand Akeya tried to think of what the best way to try and assassinate Malvis would be. With some luck Akryn could keep the guy facing himself so she could just slit his throat from behind...

At that point something fell from the plateau that Akeya was clinging to, which quickly turned out to be Malvis. This made her falter, as she instead stared at the man she was planning to kill through her blue blindfold, making sure that he wouldn't actually feel her gaze. Her focus was always so intense that her glare nearly had physical weight behind it, but now she increased her focus even further, sharpened it to a blade. A blade that was ready to strike if necessary, but now was still invisible amongst the shadows. How had Malvis fallen from the plateau? The idea that Akryn had thrown him off was one that Akeya was keeping in the back of her mind, even though it had low chances of being truth. He could stand his ground, maybe, but unless their adversary was being particularly stupid Akryn could never have just thrown him off. For now the winged girl watched the fall, readying herself to jump after him and slit his throat while he was falling.

However then the reason for the fall was revealed: Malvis had created two wings to fly with, large, dark, and reflecting the light of the sun. Wings of metal. To have those actually help him fly must have taken a lot of doing. He had jumped down so he could make use of the falling speed to get airborne. Those metal wings most likely couldn't immediately get him up in the air. He would need a running start normally, but this time he had made use of the fact that the ground that he was standing up was floating above the actual ground, jumping off and as soon as he had gathered enough speed swooping back upwards again. Akeya frowned as this all went through her head, still not moving as she tried to quickly think of her next move. Now that he was flying she couldn't really assassinate any more. Not until something distracted him for long enough for her to end up right behind him.

And it was unlikely that that was going to happen. Akryn, so far as Akeya knew, couldn't really fly. He was a wind mage, one who most likely could use his magic to create a spell that would allow him to stay airborne for longer than a normal person would be able to, but if he could actually use that for flight as skilfully as somebody with wings or other flight abilities this half dragon would be surprised. And there was nobody else left who could act as the distraction. Using her shadows would just alert Malvis that she was trying something. And as she had concluded before, any and all attempts at just frontally assaulting him would be fruitless. In short, right now she couldn't really do anything about Malvis, even as he made a magic circle in the air that made her eyes widen. This was most certainly not a good situation, even if she was a more straightforward fighter. They were vastly outnumbered, and their opponents were not kidding about. They were fully planning to kill every Blue Pegasus member here, and they had the raw firepower to do it. The rest of the group sent to take care of Akryn's family vault was still busy back there. Only she and Akryn were here, against several mages, both of B-Rank and H-Rank. She honestly was starting to feel like they would be better off if she grabbed Akryn and quickly retreated, returning to the other part of the expedition and helping them escape as well. The artefacts in the vault were already a loss, and while Zack most certainly was a powerful mage he couldn't stand up against all this.

Then another presence arrived. One even worse than the H-Ranks that were already present. One with enough raw strength to dwarf the H-Ranks. Akeya felt herself shake, then frowned and forced herself to calm down. Powerful or not, as a half dragon she wasn't going to let herself be forced into submission that quickly or easily. However she couldn't deny that the situation had just gone from bad to worse. Even the other Scorpions appeared to cower in front of this man. And she couldn't blame them. She didn't know what the hell this guy was, but she was very doubtful about him being a human, even a powerful human mage. His magic presence was terrifying, more terrifying than just raw strength could even cause.

Instinctively realizing that she had to keep away from this new threat Akeya let go of the plateau that Akryn was still standing, flying away from the robed danger that now dominated the battlefield merely by being there. However the moment that she left the shadow something flew towards her. She dodged it, but only managed to do so because she sensed the magic, and because of her blindfold which allowed her to see magic as clear as day. The object that flew towards her was...some strange kind of magic orb? No, it wasn't just a magic orb. It was a shell of magic. What kind of attack was that? Akeya's eyes trailed the path that the projectile had followed towards her, ending up at one of the other Scorpions there. The strange, somewhat undersized but bulky mage, only two parts of his form revealed from beneath the robes that covered him: the headress atop his head, and the long staff he was pointing at Akeya. The half dragon hissed, sensing that this one most certainly wasn't human. And she didn't like the scent of him.

As she moved he once again shot that projectile at her, several times, forcing her to dodge. Curiously enough he appeared to know where she was heading, and was aiming the projectiles in such a way that the only way to dodge them was to head towards him instead. Akeya's frown intensified as she tried to use her shadow dash to get away, but the moment that she began to turn into a shade a new obstacle appeared: in the middle of the air, a barrier made out of magic. Formed faster than she could dash through it. She was forced to abandon that plan or otherwise crash. That barrier had been formed extremely quickly, but it still looked very solid and not inclined to be broken. Akeya growled softly as she looked once again towards what apparently was to be her opponent. He was really getting on her nerves, so she turned around and flew straight towards him. Curiously enough when she did that he did not fire his projectiles. Maybe he really wanted to fight her head on?

Without a pause Akeya spun while flying towards him, gathering speed before releasing a drop kick, aimed straight at the head which wore that feathered headdress. But before she could connect she hit something else. Another barrier, this one formed as a shell around the mage, which crackled as she hit it but held, and even bounced her back. With some effort Akeya managed to regain her balance, landing on the plateau several yards away from this nuisance, who still had done nothing but look at her and point with his staff to cast the spells which forced her to come closer. However for Akeya's eyes she could see that the entire plateau was now surrounded by another barrier, with no gaps left to exploit. Apparently she would have to deal with this one before she could even think of doing anything else, either helping Akryn or fighting the other mages.

---

Meanwhile Korikami was still mostly just acting as an observer. Zack and his opponent were simply too powerful for him to do anything with. Zack's assault had proven that just trying to overwhelm the one who liked to alter the landscape was not going to work, and beyond that the Shadow Fox didn't really have much that he could do. At least he didn't have to worry about that mountain that was sliding down towards them. Even if Zack hadn't managed to destroy it a Shadow Fox wasn't threatened by something like a mountain falling on top of him. After all, a mountain couldn't crush a shadow.

The other fight that was going on was...interesting. And by interesting it was meant that Korikami did not have a single clue what was going on. The girl mage from Blue Pegasus, the one who had been with Zack before that forest had separated them, was apparently trying to deal with two opponents. Two very...small opponents. The Shadow Fox would have scratched his head if he had a hand instead of a paw. That was rather odd. But he supposed he could still help her out by eating those little guys... At which point something strange began to happen to the girl, making Korikami pause. He was now sitting on top of one of the many branches that was available in this forest that hadn't been there half an hour ago. A branch above Anastasia and her opponents. Something was happening to her, and the Shadow Fox for now watched as he tried to figure out what.

Akryn growled in frustration as he looked to Malvis. This was bad. Blue Pegasus, for the first time ever it seemed, was out manned, out gunned, and out maneuvered, all at the same time. All over his ridiculous and personal errand. If they stayed they would lose, that was a given. But if they fled then he would lose all chances he had at getting at that vault, any chance of securing some truth. Neither option was a great one right now, but as Akryn weighed the options, with that gigantic new magic circle in the sky, his choice became painfully clear. The vault was lost. Escape and life was not. First thing was first, he needed to free up Akeya. Her shadow movement abilities would be key to any escape from such murderous and powerful mages. So, first thing was first....

With a sudden rush Akryn was off the side of his platform, one sword raised high as he leapt out, aiming to fall down towards the barrier mage that was currently giving his ally such a hard time, aiming to bring his deadly blade down and cleave the mans head clean in two. If he could provide a decent enough distraction then perhaps Akeya could finish him off. It was a good theory, a strong plan. It was one that never was to be tested however as Malvis showed a surprising amount of speed. Akryn was focused on his target, intent on his mission to strike down this nuisance, and so much did he underestimate just how fast Malvis was, that Akryn was caught completely by surprise.

As he fell towards the barrier mage a thin, gleaming sliver of steel would appear in his vision quite suddenly. Malvis had flown up behind the falling Akryn and simply extended his hand out, a new scythe forming in his hand, with the blade in front of Akryns face and arced down. Akryn had been to focused and was not prepared for this and his face collided with the scythe which bit deeply into his face, cutting through skin, bone, muscle, and eye. The force of the hit jerked on Akryns head, his body going forward and then up a bit as his head went back and down and he began to flip backwards, his face now cut as he fell. He cursed himself even as he let out a cry of pain and slammed into the ground behind the barrier mage, cursed himself for messing things up once more. He had truly led his friends into a mess.......


Meanwhile Marduk took Zacks blow directly to his face and was sent flying backwards to slam into, and then through, the side of the mountain face, the force creating a crater and causing a small avalanche covering his body. That had been one hell of a blow, one that would have felled any normal opponent. But Marduk was no ordinary opponent, something that was made painfully obvious for Zack as the entire mountain began shaking again before a massive pillar of stone would erupt from the ground, right whrre Marduk had been, aiming to smash into Zack like a battering ram. If that didn't work though, perhaps the sudden dozen or so similar pillars extending from the cliff side above them and arcng down, all aiming to pummel Zack into the dust, like massive malevolent snakes, would do the trick, smashing into the ground with resounding power and causing the side of the mountain to shake and send more loose debris going down the mountain towards Anastasias position where she fought her two odd opponents.....

Zack began to rapidly dodge the pillars using all of his speed to do so. A small orb of light emerged from his pocket and he spoke to it. " Get Anastasia and anyone else still around. Get moving towards the vault. I'll take care of this guy. They are under your protection now" Zack said as for a short while the pillars stopped coming due to missiles of light shattering at their base. He needed the guild members to get clear because what he was about to unleash would likely destroy most of the surrounding area. He had no choice though. This guy's magic was proving too dangerous to hold back against and he sensed other mage's of this class nearby. He had no choice but to kick things up a notch and right now he only had one easy way to do this. It was time to show his true face. Just as more pillars began to come at him once more he spoke again. "Gate of the Serpent Bearer I open thee. 13th Gate Unlock." With a huge surge of magic power his body let off a tremendous amount of light which the pillars seemed to be held back by as they tried to hit. Dozens of pillars struck at the growing light, but none could penetrate it.

Suddenly with a tremendous shout the pillars which had struck from every angle and hidden the light entirely shattered into pieces causing a huge dust cloud to form. With a mighty sweep of his sword the dust was blown away revealing Zack in his true form as the embodiment of the 13th gate Ophiuchus. He was now 8ft tall and on his left arm was large horned serpent which was clamped down upon a sword whilst his zanbato swirled around him controlled by his mind. On his right was a large wolf head from which a large cannon protruded. "Daiko Taiho." He roared out and from the cannon fired a huge blast of energy in the shape of a snake which went straight for where he could sense Marduk hiding. This would travel at 30m per second for two seconds. It was quite fast.

Zack stood there waiting to see what Marduk's next move would be. As soon as he pinpointed his location Zack's sword would become cloaked in an aura of fire, lightning and light and he would charge at near instaneous speed to the location and ram the sword straight into Marduk. What's more the other sword, the one that was orbiting him would begin to spin rapidly like a buzzsaw aiming to slice Marduk in half. He did not like killing, but he hated those who killed for greed even more. He would not allow his friends to die here.

----------------
The small green orb of light meanwhile had darted through the rubble and arrived near Anastasia before forming into its full size revealing it to be armored woman wielding a spear. What was most unusual about her were her wings which were insectoid but appeared to be composed of light instead of membrane.

"No time to explain. Zack told me to get you out of here and towards the vault." she glanced around raising an eyebrow. "Are you the only one left? If so we need to get out of here now before..." and it was at that moment that Zack activated his takeover. "...well before that happened. Leave the fighting to Zack, we even came on this suicide hunt for...or at least try to at least"

Magic:

Akeya was studying the cloaked adversary standing in front of her carefully, and she knew that he was inspecting her just as thoroughly. Every time that she attempted to make a move she could sense that he was preparing the magic to create a barrier that would prevent her from moving in any way that he did not like. That could only be done if he was studying her very carefully indeed, because even when she used her Shadow Dash he had anticipated her movements nearly perfectly.

However it was also curious how even when she was caught off guard by his barriers, forcing her to leave herself open to a potential attack in her attempts to not crash into the solid wall that appeared without warning, he would not actually move to attack. After having shot those...barrier bullets?...he had only used barriers that would keep Akeya from moving further away, while also making it impossible to actually attack him. The most logical conclusion was that he was just here to keep her busy while the others finished off Akryn.

Speaking of Akryn, while she was still trying to figure out a way to deal with this frustratingly effective tactic she saw her team captain dive down at the cloaked mage, only for his own opponent to rudely remind him that he still existed by appearing right next to him and ripping out his eye. The half dragon's own eyes widened as she saw Akryn smash into the ground helpless, then narrowed as a hiss escaped from her mouth. She wasn't going to say something so foolish as 'how dare you!', because it was Akryn's own duty not to get himself harmed and yelling that to your opponent was kind of a stupid thing to do anyway, but she did not like seeing her ally get harmed like that.

Actually, she felt a lot angrier than she normally felt when something annoying happened. She gave Malvis a glare that should have killed him on the spot, her stance becoming lower as she clenched and released her fists, her tail angrily lashing out behind her as her wings unfurled halfway, her stance becoming a lot more aggressive and threatening than it was before. The barrier mage lifted his staff, ready to deal with the fact that apparently the half dragon was going to fight with a lot more fervour now. Or at least more fury, which would still mean he had to be more careful.

At which point Shuhei showed up, pretty much turning the entire systematic execution of BP upside down as he destroyed the grand barrier that the cloaked mage had erected to keep Akeya and Akryn from running, and also proved to be a great distraction. Not wasting a second Akeya immediately dashed away once she caught Akryn, unfurling her wings fully and moving away as fast as she could. The mage with the headdress, who had created a floating barrier to stand on after Shuhei destroyed the earth platform, pointed his staff at the two of them, but by then Akeya had already reached one of the shadows generated by Shuhei's light show, slipping away like a cat's shadow while carrying Akryn. The barrier mage watched them leave, then turned around and pointed his staff at Shuhei instead, a low mumbling coming out of the hidden mouth as a new barrier appeared around the mage, along with several small spherical barriers that hovered around him as he waited for this new opponent to make his next move.

Akeya meanwhile tapped Akryn's shoulder, trying to see if he was still conscious. If he was she would speak, her voice tense.

"Where to?"

---

Korikami watched as the fight between Anastasia and her opponents suddenly was ended rather abruptly when some kind of darkness surrounded the songstress, a darkness which made the Shadow Fox hiss. That wasn't the kind of darkness that he liked. He also didn't like how suddenly the sky was filled with a new light as Shuhei began to bombard the pillars that had arisen to stab at Zack. This place was quickly becoming rather dangerous even for the Shadow Fox, who reluctantly jumped down at the same time as the fairy reached the female mage, after the glowing small creature had spoke using his tail to point towards where they were supposed to be heading if they wanted to reach the vault.

Akryn was indeed still conscious and by the time Akeya had reached him he had already regained his feet, one hand holding his newly torn face, his other hand still holding the sword. "I'm fine! To the others, time now! We will head to the vaults, cautiously this time, gather whatever may be left, and split. Zack and Shuhei are good but they are sorely outnumbered here. At the same time, I don't think I could look any of the guild in the eye again if we returned empty handed and beaten from this." He said as he sheathed his sword and turned to grasp her shoulder, still covering his new wound.

Still, even as they planned to flee Akryn couldn't help but feel painfully aware of that massive magic circle in the sky. It was now a whopping three miles across! Whatever was going to come from that would be devastating to everything below, and with a sinking feeling Akryn realized that wasn't just them. "Actually, forget the vault. There is a small village not far from here that is going to get caught up in that massive spell. We go to the others, grab em and go there to evacuate. We have lost, that's plain, the only question now is how we take it."


MEANWHILE

As the ash and smoke rose from Zacks attack, shockingly a pair of massive wooden hands would erupt from the ground, shooting up at an arc to try and squash Zack between them. Not far away a familiar shape would rise from the stone of the mountain to grin at Zack tauntingly. "I have free control over everything on this mountainside, you really think I would be so easy to beat as one giant blast? Seriously?" He said before making a fist and thrusting it towards Zack, huge chunks of stone tearing out of the mountain to fly at his location, trying to smash him from the sky.

Seeing that Akryn was not yet out of the fight was good, although Akeya doubted that he could actually participate in any serious confrontation as long as he had that new wound on his face to worry about. For one thing, she was pretty sure that he had lost his eye when that blade tore through his flesh, and even if he didn't it would distract him. That, and he was bleeding rather strongly.

The half dragon prepared to head straight towards the vault, carrying Akryn, when suddenly her teammate told her that they should prioritize saving some village that was nearby. Looking up Akeya knew what he was thinking. That magic circle up there looked like it was going to change the landscape here permanently. She didn't know what it would do, but it was too big, and contained too much raw magic power, for it not to have some tremendous, and dangerous, effects. Anything in that area which wasn't protected in some way would most likely end up lost. So naturally, Akryn wanted to save everybody in the area.

However...

"If there's a village then they're already dead. We don't have the ability to get so many people out of the range of whatever magic is being prepared up there. The best we can do is group up with the others and get out of range ourselves."

Akeya looked at Akryn, still moving towards where she knew that she would find Korikami, who had the command of following the others who had stayed behind. Her team leader either had the choice of following her, or trying out his own plan of saving that village. Either way, from the looks of it he wouldn't be able to convince the half dragon that they should try to save that village: she was displaying her usual focus and stubbornness, and unfortunately right now that included believing that attempts at evacuation would be a waste.

---

The shadow fox halted as he saw that the girl, or whatever it was that was possessing her, was now looking straight at him. While still emanating that kind of darkness which made Korikami hesitate to get closer, in sharp contrast to how he would usually react to darkness. He wasn't sure how he should react now, so he was relieved when the fairy managed to get her to stop staring at him and instead move towards where he believed that they should be moving. He looked around at where the fight between Zack and the other powerful mage occurred. He didn't believe he could be of any use there, so he went after Anastasia and Devon, sticking to the shadows as his white eyes watched the masked girl from behind. He still wasn't particularly happy about the darkness that surrounded her.

When the other two went low to avoid being detected Korikami stuck to the current shadow that he had been inhabiting, looking in the same direction as Anastasia and Devon. Some kind of humanoid construction, meant for travelling. And only one person guarding it. Apparently the fairy wanted to try and take the vehicle for themselves. However the masked girl kept acting... well, in a way that made Korikami rather wary of her. Although, to be fair, he himself and his master weren't exactly the most safe of people to be around either. Akeya might be controlled, but also rather cold and apathetic. But for now he'd just help Anastasia out. With one of her arms dangling like that she most likely needed at least some backup.

Although he wondered what the man meant, that only one of their own could have such a dark aura. What kind of group was that blind guy part of?

---

The cloaked barrier mage watched as Shuhei began his fight with the two other Scorpion mages, not yet interfering as instead he kept bolstering his own barriers and the spherical barriers that were floating around him. The White Dragon was too strong an enemy for him to confront head on, so instead he would have to see if he could exploit his weaknesses. Although even recognizing Shuhei as too strong for him to handle normally, he still looked unfazed as Shuhei pulled out his Dragoon form. If anything, his grip on his staff tightened and he took a step forward, almost as if intrigued.

If Shuhei thought that he would be easily dealt with though, he'd have to take a closer look. While the barrier mage's aura wasn't as impressive as that of his two allies, he wasn't some weak pushover either. That, and the barriers that he had created looked like they were changing. At first they had been barely visible, but now they looked...reflective? When light touched the barrier he had formed around his own body it was bounced back and scattered, leaving only a distorted view of the cloaked mage himself. The barrier spheres floating around him had become even more reflective, now looking like shining orbs.

As the hands came towards him Zack suddenly vanished appearing right next to the man aiming a slice at head height aiming to decapitate him in one swift blow. This was his weapon's ability 'Instant Light' and it allowed him to travel at the speed of light for a short distance ending with a sword slash. As soon as the slash was completed if his opponent moved out of the way of the blow he would blur again and strike once more. This would be repeated a third time. The large wooden hands had missed him entirely and the stone chunks whilst they hit him were not enough to manage to knock the large figure of 13th Soul mode Zack. There were too many enhancements on his body at this point in time. He was aiming to destroy this being with everything he had.

"No, but it got you out of your hole coward." Zack said his voice booming due to his current form. He seemed a lot more serious in this state. Perhaps because Ophiuchus was more of an influence on his actions in this form.

----------------
Devon meanwhile had lead Anastasia onto a ship and the two had been accosted by a blind man. For some reason, Anastasia had a very dark aura and so the man had confused her for one of Scorpion Tail. Devon herself was a demonic fairy so her aura too was dark to some extent. This was perfect. "Old man. How could you not recognise us?" she said trying to sound a bit more dark and forboding.

As Shuhei attacked the others the large man in the mask watched quietly. He would not take part in this part of the fight for he had no orders or interest in it. What happened to the other three was beyond his care. However he did begin moving, walking slowly towards where Akryn had fallen. He was curious about these two...



Meanwhile Akryn listened to Akeya and thought about it for a moment before hanging his head in defeat, blood dripping from his head. She was right of course, as usual. He had messed many things up here, and it was his fault any innocents in the area would die. All he could do now was to try and escape with the others. With that thought he forced himself to his feet, preparing to go with Akeya towads the vault. However, as soon as he reached his feet he froze as an absolutely crushing amount of magical power surged out from the three mile wide magical circle in the sky. It seemed Malvis' spell was done charging, and with a look of dread Akryn look up into the sky. Swords began to protrude from the circle and begin falling. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands? No, to many for the human eye to count or even track. The sun itself was blotted out as massive, ten foot long, great swords began to rain down on the mountain side, even bigger, thirty foot swords falling as well to slam into various places. The entire mountainside was being destroyed, pounded into a rolling avalanche. This one attack seemed to be about to change the landscape of the entire area.

Akryn stared at the falling swords with wide eyes. Not even he could dodge all of that, or even hope to block it all. "AKEYA! To the survivors now, get them out of here!" He shouted as he raised his sword and summoned his seven cuts, preparing to do what he could before a flash of steel and the color of sand blocked his vision.....

The remaining Scorpion Tail mages would respond in various ways. Malvis created a shell or steel around himself which the swords glanced off of with sparks, digging into the ground pounding the shell into the dirt, and then burying it. Kratos had to rely on the barrier mage who rushed to his side and began activating his defensive spells, stacking them one on another to cover himself and his master.

The ship, with the old man, Devon, and Anastasia would be fine as well, as the swords would seem to pass harmlessly through it to smash into, and destroy the mountainside below it.


Meanwhile with Zack, as he had cut off the mans head he would likely be incredibly frustrated as the sword severed nothing but stone and wood in the shape of Marduk. A resounding laugh would begin as multiple clones of Marduk would begin to rise from the ground all around Zack. "Me? Come from my hole? Certainly not." He would say with a grin, pointing to the sky as the rain of swords began. "Not until after that anyway. I wasn't meant to win, you fool. I was meant to stall you until Malvis could activate his spell! Rea Baldo!" He screamed with maniacal glee, just as the swords began to strike the earth. "STRIKE OF A MILLION KINGS!"

Akeya just looked at Akryn as she saw her team mate look rather conflicted about what she had to say. He clearly wanted to go and save the people of that village, who only happened to be in harm's way because Blue Pegasus had gone and walked straight into an ambush of Scorpion Tail. They had done nothing to deserve this so far as the half dragon knew, and many people would say that it was the duty of Blue Pegasus for keeping them safe if it was also their fault that they had become endangered in the first place. It was only natural that Akryn would not like having to abandon them.

However Akeya wasn't planning to let that kind of empathy result in them doing something utterly futile. She personally did not feel any obligation to save that village. Yes, it was their fault that those people would die whenever that giant magic circle hanging up there in the skies would finish charging and unleash whatever hell it had in store for the people down below, but Akeya was not that nice a person, nor did she feel guilty for the fact that those enemy mages would go so far as to decimate anything living in this location purely to get rid of Blue Pegasus. That was the sin of the Scorpions, not the Pegasi, and to try and carry that sin was not in Akeya's book of things she felt inclined to do.

She had been part of Blue Pegasus for quite some time by now, and Akeya had come to the conclusion that she honestly wasn't that much of a good person. She managed to survive in and be part of a legal guild mostly because she was not somebody who would go out of her way to inconvenience others. She was not outright malevolent, not psychopathic. She simply saw no reason to care about the lives of others if they were not close to her or were of some use to her. That village was just a group of people that happened to be living nearby when something happened that would cause their death. It was unlikely that saving them would grant Akeya rewards worth the trouble of doing so, especially since even if she tried the attempt would most likely be fruitless and only waste time that she could have spent doing things she actually had an acceptable chance of succeeding at.

Akryn, however much he acted as a battle crazed brute, still had too much of a heart to think about it like that. From his point of view he still had the responsibility, and wanted to try and save those villagers even if he most likely already knew that it would be pointless even when he gave his half dragon companion the command to head in the direction of the settlement. As rough as he tried to be he still found the lives of others too important. Which was interesting, because from the way that he spoke Akeya had the feeling his own life hadn't been devoid of killing either. If he had tried to redeem himself somewhere along the way he had maybe done too good a job of it, seeing how it hindered his ability to make solid decisions.

When Akryn finally looked like he had resigned himself to leaving the village to its own fate Akeya only nodded, not speaking either to comfort him or chastise him for taking too long. As little as she herself cared she would not try and chide Akryn for thinking differently when they had more pressing matters to focus on. That magic circle was still up there, and it looked like it could finish charging any second-

And as if both her thoughts and that magic circle were controlled by the hand of some god who loved to time things like that the magic that had been gathering and building up exploded, and Akeya saw what kind of danger had been unleashed. The raw burst of magic had left her somewhat unsteady, but she managed to get a grip on the situation. This area, hell, this section of the mountain range, would soon be nothing but an endless graveyard, and each tombstone would be a giant sword that had fallen out of the sky as if the message from an angry deity. That wasn't something either she or Akryn could do anything about. However hearing him yell that she should go while he himself acted as if he was planning to stay behind made her hesitate.

She didn't have enough time to try and argue though. The swords were already falling down, so the half dragon dashed away, straight towards where she knew Korikami and the last of the newcomers were. At least she could avoid being either crushed or split apart using her Shadow Form, so she personally was relatively safe against this merciless onslaught. She just wondered how everybody else would fare. She didn't expect Akryn to die, but he most likely would receive some heavy wounds from this.

The more pleasant surprise was that Shuhei took the time to break away from his fight against the people who before that point had been pretty much prepping themselves up for killing herself and Akryn, and instead at least saved the city from being crushed by the rain of metal that could as well have been in the form of a tsunamy when looking at the amount and type of magic that was done. Where the swords fell the ground wasn't so much stabbed as crushed.

Leaving Shuhei to his own devices, and planning to at least reassure Akryn that the village had been saved once they were done with all this, Akeya accelerated as she headed towards her new destination. It was time to just get to the vault, grab what they could grab, and leave this place. There was no real victory to be had here against Scorpion Tail except to keep as many of those relics out of their hands as possible.

---

Korikami watched as the man healed the girl, and then went on to blather about stuff that the Shadow Fox honestly couldn't care about. He was still mostly focused on the girl and that strange evil aura that surrounded her. It didn't feel good at all. At least the girl should no longer need him to watch her back now that her arm had been repaired. Interesting how the man managed to remove such a serious injury with almost no trouble and then continued to speak nonsense that made Korikami roll his eyes.

Although the reaction from Anastasia made him blink. She was threatening the one who had just healed her. That wasn't usual among humans, at least so far as the Shadow Fox knew. Then again they weren't exactly either his favourite or best subject, so instead of questioning that Korikami just readied himself to also attack, in case that became necessary.

Zack saw the magic circle and saw the blades fall from the sky. "You just pushed the wrong button buddy." Zack's aura which had once been pure as starlight began to slowly fade from pale blue to a violent purple that reeked of negativity. The armored-like form changed to become Crimson. He raised a hand to his eyes and looked about his eyes glowing with the same purple energy. His vision changed to show the magic auras of everything around here. The aura in one particular area was a lot stronger. He flew at it like an arrow and smashed into it with his fire and lightning laced sword and full strength. However, rather than hitting it he went straight through it like it was water to hit whatever was beneath.

The aura was strong enough there, as far as he could tell, that it had to either be the magic aura of his target or some other natural source of magic or a decoy perhaps. Either way it was something he aimed to destroy.
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With the dark noise attack that Anastasia launched Devon struck at the old man's stomach with the butt of his spear knocking the wind out of him and then quickly rammed her spear blade first into the ground and swung round it kicking the man and sending him flying into some shelves. She held her spear blade at his throat. "You will activate the ship and get it to take us to the vault. Or we will destroy this ship with you in it." the demonic fairy said with a definite threatening tone to her voice. "

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