- OOC:
OOC: Combining 4 normals into a boss, and 2 normals for a strong, making the total count: 1 weak, 1 normal, 1 strong, and 1 boss.
Additionally, the contents of this post and the following two posts by Gangting and Aura were established before hand, and all three posts occur during the same span of time, hence how they are written.
Sigurd was embarrassed to have forgotten about Gangting’s trouble reading the language of Fiore. Though they hadn’t known each other for all that long, they were still supposed to be close allies, and that was something that Sigurd should most definitely have remembered about the foreign king. He was relieved to hear, however, that his companion was interested in taking the job with him, though still, based on the gravity of the job request, he thought that the two of them would benefit from a little extra manpower… or “womanpower,” as it would seem.
Sigurd’s first impression of Kenna was that she was incredibly confident in her abilities as a mage. As she was a member of the guild Sabertooth, he already looked up to her status as a legal mage, let alone one that was worthy of fighting alongside her guildmaster against the very same opponents that they were now considering doing battle with. She seemed comfortable in her seemingly heavy, intimidating armor, and he could feel some magical pressure coming off her, putting the idea of her potential as a magical fighter squarely in his mind. She certainly fits the bill of what he was looking for in terms of help, plust it seemed as though she knew about this situation already.
He glared at her from behind his frightening helmet, attempting to impress with a similar level of confidence, though he did not expect her to be easily intimidated. He introduced himself,
“I am Darknight, Superhero, and Defender of the Void. I’d be honored to take on this mission with you, as I’m sure my friend Gangting would as well,” he nodded towards the giant,
“It seems as though you know more about this than either of us do, so would you care to lead the way?”They had only just set foot in Fat Monsterland. They had been making small talk, and actually, Sigurd was about to ask Kenna a question about being a legal mage when all three of them began to feel a strong magical presence. Sure enough, a bolt of lightning raced towards them. Sigurd rolled out of the way and began running towards its source. The knight of darkness drew his sword and charged towards the monster who had ambushed them… a giant lightning elemental! He attempted to swing, but couldn’t manage to land a solid hit against its fleet footwork. Frustrated, he realized he needed to use one of his summons… someone fast… he outstretched his hand and began to call out the name of his fastest summon, Shinebright,
“Come! Defender of…” he felt something come over him as he spoke,
“Fields! Plant!” he exclaimed as one of the heroes from his comic book, but not one that he had ever summoned, appeared before him. It was a small green, plant like creature. Immediately it seemed to understand it’s circumstances, and took off at a pace which outdid even Shinebright. In fact, Sigurd could feel his “upgrade” had made him faster than Shinebright, but Plant was a whole ‘nother level. It ran circles around the elemental, occasionally thrusting and kicking the beast. It managed to get in about 3 hits before Sigurd snapped out of his confusion at having made a new summon, and he swung his sword at the now distracted elemental, first cutting at it’s left leg, then its right. Though it didn’t immobilize the creature, as it could regrow, the crackling of the beast began to recede, showing that their attacks were working. Axil stabbed the beast once more, as Plant punched it with his bulb again. However, the lightning monster finally got a hand up on Plant, and struck it, destroying it in one hit. Luckily, the distraction that provided allowed Sigurd to get two more swipes in before he jumped back. Noticing that Gangting was not fighting the elemental alongside himself and Kenna, he turned to see his comrade engaging in a fight with two giant… well, Sigurd himself couldn’t quite come up with a word for them. They were roughly the same size as the elemental, but they seemed to have humanoid bodies. Of course that is if you ignored the draconic head, wings, and tail that accompanied them. One of the Half-Dragon Giants had jet black skin on his giant bits, while his draconic elements were a deep purple. The other had a deep, navy tinge to his skin, but had black scales studding his reptilian features. It seemed that Gangting was managing to occupy both of them, but Sigurd figured two against one was less than a fair fight.
He shouted over at Kenna,
“Take care of the elemental, I’m going to help Gangting,” and thundered off, not noticing the elemental beginning to dissipate in an act of retreat.
As he reached his earth slayer friend, he was in the depths of combat against the two scaly titans. Sigurd charged forward towards the black scaled dragon man, but was swept aside by the purple dragon giant’s tail, who had noticed him trying to ambush his comrade. It was then that he noticed the neon green smile of the purple dragon, the very same which then blew a noxious gas at the summoner.
“Come, Wall, Defender of the Earth!” he managed to get out before he was hit. Wall activated her defenses, and both the summon and the earthen wall were completely overtaken by the green vapors. When the smoke cleared, the wall had been completely melted, and Wall was heavily damaged. Realizing he needed to capitalize on what was left of her endurance, he charged forward, telepathically communicating an attack plan to her. He leaped forward, landing on her arms, and being thrown up, as the purple dragon’s tail swished by, finishing off his summon, dissipating her into a shining mist. Her efforts were executed flawlessly, however, and the dark knight had landed on the shoulders of the poison dragon. He flipped his sword, and plunged it into the shoulder of the beast, causing it to stumble around in pain.
Alright, he thought,
time to see what other new tricks I’ve learned. He pointed the ground by Gangting and spoke instinctively,
“Come, Nautilus, Defender of the Seas!” The man that emerged was shorter than many of his other heroes, but Sigurd felt from his presence that he was much stronger. He raised the gun he carried and fired a concentrated blast of water into the mouth of the black dragon man, causing him to stagger, as he had supposedly been preparing a breath based attack, before he turned and charged at the shin of the purple dragon, tackling him hard. The giant stumbled, and Sigurd managed to plunge his sword into its shoulder two more times before its twisting and turning threw him off, onto the ground. Nautilus however, struck his foot with the butt of his gun. Sigurd figured that was enough damage against the purple one, and turned to the black dragon.
Nautilus had already done some magical damage with his water blast, and the black dragon’s breath attack seemed to be stunted, giving ample time for Sigurd to get in there and stab his shin, before spinning to slice his foot, and then finishing with a cut to the achilles tendon. Nautilus assisted with another brute force tackle to his left leg. With all of this damage to his feet, the dragon giant stumbled and fell, giving an ample opening for Sigurd’s comrades to attack it.
Speaking of which Kenna, who Sigurd assumed had dispatched the elemental, began charging towards them. He remembered that she was a dragon slayer, and figured she wanted a crack at the draconic enemies. Looking to see what potential enemy he could trade off with her for, He noticed a giant skeletal beast, which it seemed she had done some damage to before coming to aid him and Gangting. The beast was massive, and, seeing as though they had already done a number on the dragon giants, Sigurd looked over at Gangting to get his attention, and then at the prehistoric skeletal crocodile. Hoping he got his message, he stormed off, with Nautilus lagging behind. It seemed as though this particular summon was not as fast as his others, but his heavy armor provided a reasonable explanation for that.
As he made it to the scene of the skeletal crocodile, Sigurd was delighted to notice Gangting beginning to engage it alongside him. Together the two of them began whacking away at it’s bones. Sigurd began to strike it directly in the skull with his blade while Nautilus struck it with his fists. After landing two cuts on the monster, with Nautilus providing a third and fourth hit, the beast, despite the laws of nature not permitting it, roared, sending them flying. It then inhaled drawing them towards it. Sigurd grabbed onto a protruding rock formation and managed to avoid being swallowed, but Nautilus was dragged in, and was crunched down on a number of times, eventually dissipating into golden mist. Angered that his summons were going down so easily against these enemies, Sigurd joined Gangting in resuming their assault on the beast. Now in a heightened physical state, due to the adrenaline of having lost one of his powerful new comrades, he leaped forward,running down the length of the beast, and landing slashes. He landed about 10 by the time he had ran over the skull, and finally stabbed the top of it’s spinal cord. As the monster was battered with injuries from both Kenna and Gangting it began collapsing into a pile of bones, utterly defeated by the team of mages.
All of a sudden, the lightning elemental reappeared, desperate, and on it’s last leg, but seemingly hoping to deal some damage, attacked Gangting. Though Sigurd wanted to help him, a much bigger problem dropped in from the sky. A giant, menacing Gryphon Lord dropped down, ready to destroy the team of mages where they stood. Sigurd looked at Kenna, who, having defeated the two Dragon Giants, seemed to be open to taking down this “boss” of a monster. He charged forward, weapon drawn.
He slashed into the flesh of the beast at it’s ankles twice before being thrown back by a powerful kick. Sigurd landed on his feet, just barely and made his way back, stabbing his opponent another two times before strategically jumping back to avoid another kick. The last one really did a number to him, and he needed to be more careful. He could feel one more new summon in him, and as he landed a fifth hit on the monster, called forth,
“Rebel, Defender of the Dark.” The new summon radiated demonic energy, and towered over the summoner. He felt out what abilities he had, and then grabbed onto his body, commanding him to grapple onto the Gryphon with his claws. The demon man obliged, doing a 6th hit of damage, and lodging his stretchy arms into a gap in the golden war gear donned by the flying terror. Just as he retracted, bringing Sigurd up onto the back of the beast, the Gryphon beat its wings and took off into the air. It became a relief for Sigurd that he was on the back, as he didn’t have that any ranged attacks at his disposal, and he began stabbing the Gryphon wherever he could find exposed feathers and flesh, with his summon doing the same. They had to have hit the beast 20 to 30 times. Though the damage wasn’t entirely significant, they definitely had some impact on the beast as it reacted to their stabbings, but seemingly it could not reach where they were located on its back. Sigurd secure in his place, however, he began to feel the beast turn. As the Gryphon flipped upside down, he realized that it was simply biding time to get high enough that the fall would kill him. By the time he fully grasped what was happening, Sigurd was already falling from a significant height in the air, landing after a few seconds with a thud. Rebel did the same, and completely disintegrated, leaving a bruised and bloody Sigurd on the ground.
It seems riding the beast was quite a reckless strategy Sigurd thought, finding his recklessness, which he realized stemmed from his newfound strength, humorous.
Kenna, Gangting, it’s up to you now… was his final thought before he passed out from exhaustion and his injuries.
[WC: 2085]
[TPWC: 2657]