[Event] Pumpkin Portents (Akeya/Leila Vergious)

Event Details:

"I don't know about you, but I find it rather suspicious that someone would ask so many mages to help gather pumpkins. I can understand that they might need a lot of people, but you don't need to be capable of using magic to collect some pumpkins." It wasn't the first time that Akeya had voiced her doubts about this assignment, even if it was entirely voluntary and there was nothing really forcing her to be here. Although from a certain perspective it was precisely because it was entirely voluntarily that she'd come: she also found it suspicious that someone would ask for mages but then not place any other requirements whatsoever, nor much of a way to make it an obligation.

The dragoness was talking to Leila, her mate and rather often her companion on expeditions these days. Aside from the fact that she actually found the goddess's presence pleasant she also would readily acknowledge that the silver-haired mage was both a powerful and useful ally to have. Aside from magical ability it also helped to have someone accompanying you with a more acceptable social attitude if you wanted to give the impression of being no threat to civilization.

Not that she thought that Leila's powers would be needed today, but she'd be a rather poor mate if she only ever asked Leila to accompany her for practical purposes. The dragoness still had difficulty with how to be more sensitive and caring, but at least she was willing to make the effort. There was a lot of trial and error involved, and it was a good thing that Leila was more patient than many others would have been as Akeya did something which, to her mind, was perfectly rational and logical but which completely ignored social protocols or even the feelings of others.

The two of them were walking towards a pumpkin patch located near Peace Village, a site chosen because the assassin was pretty sure no other mages had gone there yet for the pumpkin collecting. Almost nobody ever went to Peace Village, it was about the least eventful place in the entirety of Fiore. Given how enthusiastic and powerful mages could be it would be rather stupid to have entire groups of mages gather pumpkins from the same field. They'd get all excited trying to gather the most pumpkins and make a mess of it.

So far the weather had been good, albeit the chill of autumn that had only been hinted at during the harvest festival was now setting in for real. Akeya's draconic blood made her resistant to minor things such as a little cold, but pretty much anybody whose body wasn't notably enduring had already switched their daily attires to something better suited for keeping the cold at bay. Still, the skies were a clear blue and there was only a mild breeze, and the sun still shone strongly enough that if one made themselves comfortable in the its warm light they could imagine that summer hadn't completely left yet.

WC: 506
TWC: 506/1,500

Akeya snorted at Leila's suggestion. "If that's really what they were thinking they must never have met a fire mage. Not that I wouldn't put it past them." Leila's suggestion had more merit, albeit more as an example of how oblivious people could be. Or just plain ignorant. A fire mage would be great for clearing the field, but if you wanted to actually use the pumpkins afterwards you'd probably want to keep the same fire mage far away from the field. Of course the dragoness had known fire users who were very precise with what they burned, but in general the pyromaniacs had a tendency to be a bit too uncaring about collateral damage.

She was dressed the same as always, with a top and a loincloth of the same colour as her midnight blue scales which served more to preserve the bare minimum of decency than anything else. Although of course Akeya herself would argue that with her body she didn't need clothes to make herself look good.

Regardless of whatever reason had driven someone to ask all mages to gather pumpkins, the matter of the fact was that the dragoness and the goddess were approaching the pumpkin patch even as they discussed the issue. Or rather, Akeya complained about the issue and Leila tried to keep the other woman for going on about it for too long.

That said the dragoness had another reason to be a bit on edge about this whole business. Pretty much every year this period of time something big happened, and she had little reason to believe that this year would be any different. There was something about the days surrounding Halloween that caused the world to go pear-shaped. She just hoped it wouldn't be anything too drastic this time.

The two of them quickly reached the pumpkin patch, a large field that lay across the peaceful area like a blanket of brown dotted with orange circles and green lines. The pumpkins looked as round and ripe as you could ask for, but as they approached Akeya noted that clouds were beginning to cover the skies as well. So far it was just the grey of an autumn day, but given that she was already on edge she still noted it down as bad news,

However she wouldn't spend her entire time doing nothing but looking out for trouble. Looking out over the pumpkin patch she tried to estimate the size of it. "This could keep us busy for a while. Especially since nobody else seems to be bothering." Indeed, the entire field was devoid of anyone else harvesting the ripe pumpkins, even though it was the right time for it. The dragoness tried to dismiss the feeling of unease as she instead looked at Leila. "I know your magic is mostly about drawing forth the Garden, but could you also use your magic to speed up the pumpkin collecting?" She could easily think of a couple of ways to use her own magic for it, but she was curious what Leila would be able to pull off. She was a nature mage after all, even if a bit of an unusual one.

WC: 531
TWC: 1,036/1,500

Akeya shrugged as Leila appeared to be bothered by the dragoness feeling the need to ask that question. She could see where the goddess might be coming from, since it was true that they should know each other's magic by this point, but on the other hand... "Sorry. You make a point of saying that your bond with Eden means you're different from other nature mages so I'm always a little uncertain." Of course she was aware that most nature mages didn't serve as the other side of a goddess while at the same time having a strong bond with an entirely different dimension.

She didn't have much to do as her mate got to work on gathering all the pumpkins and dumping them in the cart(s) that were meant to carry them away to... wherever they were needed. Akeya assumed that the village would keep a fair amount of them and the rest would be transported to other settlements who didn't have enough pumpkins for all the festivities.

She shrugged again as Leila voiced her opinion on the situation. "Given that something strange happens around this time of year nearly every single year it pays to be careful. If nothing happens that would just be good luck, even if that means I came here for nothing." As she spoke she glanced up towards the skies, which had turned completely grey rather quickly. Her magical senses were also ringing now. "However I don't think we're done here just yet. Look up!"

Even as she spoke and pointed up at the skies the thing she was warning Leila about was already taking shape. Along with the dark grey clouds came birds, black birds which let loose a cry which wasn't beautiful or elegant. Crows. Crows, and yet more crows, who all seemed to be converging in the skies above the pumpkin patch and the two mages. Faster than one could normally believe there was an entire murder of crows, and now they were quickly descending.

The dragoness didn't wait to see what their intentions were. Crows usually had a link to the less pleasant types of magic, due to their nature as carrion eaters and opportunists both for trinkets and corpses on the battlefield. If within the span of mere minutes the skies turned from bright blue to grey and suddenly a huge murder was bearing down on you, you didn't just stand there and wait for the crows to hold a presentation regarding their intentions.

With several motions of one clawed hand shadows shot out from her and wrapped around the first crows, the once which already had their talons and beaks ready to claw and peck. With a loud crowing they fell onto the ground, from their immobile bodies more shadows shooting outwards to create a chain reaction where every caught crow served as a nucleus from which more shadows stretched outwards.

"I'd suggest we just run away since we already have the pumpkins, but I'm guessing you'd want to save the village, since that's probably where the crows will go if we depart now." That and the dragoness wasn't one to run away from a bunch of birds normally. She just wondered what more there was to this.

WC: 540
TWC: 1,576/1,500

Once again Akeya couldn't deny that Leila had a point. She was aware that the wolf girl could control nature, so the question was why she'd bother asking if she knew the answer already. "I guess I just asked a stupid question." That was the dragoness's eventual reply, since she really couldn't think of a good justification. The only thing she could possibly have said was that whenever she treated Leila like she would any other nature mage the goddess had a bit of a habit of pointing out she wasn't a normal nature mage, but even the asocial assassin could tell that was a flimsy argument at best and a pathetic excuse at worst.

She didn't have Leila's link with nature, and as such couldn't immediately tell that these were wholly unnatural crows. However she was a very acute magic sensor and she could definitely tell that there was magic involved in their sudden appearance and their assault, which was why she didn't wait to take action against them. She watched with narrow eyes as the shadows spread out, tracking the movements of every single one of the black birds to verify that they were all caught before she returned her attention back to Leila.

"And here I thought softening me up was part of your plan. But what I mean is that as long as we've got the pumpkins we don't have much reason to fight these birds, especially since I imagine you'd object to killing them." Possibly a bit of a stickler between the two of them, given that Akeya was a predator and an assassin and Leila carried that trait common among nature mages to be against killing. The dragoness didn't find it an ideal situation but she did her best to cope. At least she wasn't one of those idiots who took pleasure from killing: she just thought it a valid solution should the situation require it.

Noticing something from the corner of her eye she sharply turned her head, returning to a more active stance as she saw that the crows were... deforming. Where they had been laid out across the now barren pumpkin patch, crowing and struggling, their bodies turned into a near-amorphous mass of black feathers which slipped through the shadow bindings to congregate and reform into something quite a bit bigger. And very, very much not natural.

Now, the average mage might have stood there and waited for it to finish forming. Be it a desire to fight powerful opponents, straightforward curiosity, deep shock or just uncertainty, a lot of magical creatures got away with transforming before the fight continued.

In Akeya's case however the shadows that had been binding the crows all wrapped themselves around the still-forming undead monstrosity in a snap as if given a very sharp tug, and the dragoness was holding one 'thread' of darkness in her clawed hand. Pulling on it she lifted the Lord of Crows from the ground, then sharply moved her hand as if cracking a whip. Although instead of a whip the black-feathered monster was rammed against the ground with enough force to send clods of dirt flying everywhere.

"Speaking of not killing things, would you consider whatever this thing is alive?"

WC: 540
TWC: 2,116/1,500

It looked like Akeya's whip attack had done enough damage that the strange monster was dazed for a while. The dragoness however kept a firm grip on it with her shadows, not wanting to give it the opportunity to recover. Although she was going to delay her next attack long enough to respond to Leila.

"Brutal works. And you might have more complicated motivations than just whether something is alive or not, but I assume that you're still less vehemently against the destruction of lifeless constructs." After all constructs didn't exactly have feelings or anything like that. Although Leila's announcement that they were dealing with a wraith returned Akeya's attention to the still mostly shapeless mass of black feathers and magic. "Aren't those usually formed with the essence of the tormented dead?" Honestly it could be difficult to keep track of all the different kinds of undead, especially the ghost types.

However Leila had the situation well in hand. The assassin held the creature in place while the goddess showed off an appearance that she wasn't familiar with, possibly because it required so much mana that this might have been the first time Leila was trying it out in the field. It certainly was a spectacle to behold, the dragoness studying her mate with some interest even as the now flower-clad maiden split into multiple selves and followed up by cleanly slicing the abominable black figure into twain.

Once she was certain that the creature was actually done for, as proven by how its essence was dispersing and seeping back into the ground, Akeya removed the shadows that had been binding it as she turned to Leila. "I haven't seen that one before. A new trick?"

Leila's answer would have to wait for a bit, however, as another figure shot forward out of nowhere and struck at Akeya. A scarecrow, which up until this point had been the only figure standing lonely in the pumpkin patch, had come to life with a hellish fire and a wicked scythe. Its intentions were clear as it brought the scythe back and then swung it forward as if reaping the field, except the one to be reaped would be the twilight dragon.

Of course that would require Akeya to either cooperate or be caught off guard, and neither happened. Just before the scythe hit her there was a flash and a burst as Akeya's upper body turned into light and the lower half turned into dark. The scythe passed between the two halves without hitting anything. The two halves then reconnected and from the point of merging a wave shot outwards. The wave left behind a visible distortion in the air before it repaired itself. The scarecrow, however, wasn't so lucky.

The animated strawman hadn't stopped moving after its first attack. It was clear that it was going to keep slicing until the two mages were dead. However instead it was now tumbling to the ground in several pieces. Where the wave had passed it its body had been sliced into pieces with a cut cleaner than you could even expect from surgical equipment.

Stepping forward Akeya lifted one clawed foot, then brought it down upon the head of the scarecrow to crush it and banish the last flames which had still been burning with resentment.

"Every year, really."

WC: 556
TWC: 2,672/1,500

With the cleanly bisected scarecrow unmoving Akeya turned back to Leila, inspecting the goddess as she twirled to show off her new appearance from all sides. The dragoness raised an eyebrow, then shrugged and nodded. "I've never been one for fancy dresses myself but it looks good on you." She briefly glanced down at herself before returning her gaze to the scarecrow. "I can tell it contains a lot of magic, but does it do anything other than increasing the amount of power you can put out?" She wasn't trying to sound dismissive with that question: from her perspective it was a perfectly valid question to ask, to learn whether Leila's new form had any special tricks to it or if it served as a straightforward power boost.

She'd also noticed that her mate had to move to evade the assassin's counter attack to the scarecrow. That was something which bothered her a bit, because in her quick reaction to the animated construct she'd forgotten to warn Leila. A possible leftover from years of not having to look after another's well-being, but not something she could exactly tolerate of herself given her current circumstances.

"Probably some cursed entity which is using the magical properties of this time of the year to break through and wreak havoc. I just wish they'd stop using pumpkins. It's difficult to take these threats seriously when it comes at you in the shape of pumpkins and candy and silly costumes." Halloween was a time when it became easier to cross from one realm into the other. It was the perfect setting for some extra-dimensional threats to come forth. The dragoness, who had a rather serious personality, just found herself rather peeved that for some reason the threats always seemed to be intent on following the theme of Halloween.

However she was also looking around as the fog which had been lingering suddenly rose up, covering most of the pumpkin patch even as from the middle rose a sinister figure... with a pumpkin for a head. The dragoness let out another sigh. "Excuse me for a moment."

Raising one clawed hand she released two bursts of light which shot straight into the pumpkin king's eyes. As the wraith-like regent recoiled Akeya dashed forward in the form of a shadow. Once she was right in front of the monster she jumped up and spun in the air, releasing a vertical wave of shadow which split the creature into two neat pieces.

But this king wouldn't die so easily. The two halves reattached and it released a dark burst of energy towards Akeya. The dragoness (who had landed on the ground in the meantime) raised a claw and absorbed the dark. She followed up by dashing straight through her adversary, forcing it to restore itself once more. Turning around to face the scaled assassin it found itself facing a burst of light instead. Raising its claws to counter with a burst of dark its concentration was broken when it was kicked in the head. What followed was a quick demise.

In the time that the pumpkin king took to recover and turn around Akeya had been moving at high speed. First she'd moved behind the wraith-like regent and released the burst of light. Then she'd flashed back to the other side and released a burst of dark. Then she'd jumped up and kicked the pumpkin head to keep her prey off balance for long enough that it wouldn't be able to move out of the way or counter her attacks.

Negating a light attack with a dark attack was one of the smartest methods. The reverse also worked pretty well. However in Akeya's case there were two things which made it less successful of a plan.

The first one was that she was quite good at infusing things with her light and dark energies. Having to live with both light and dark inside of her meant she had learned a lot about subjects such as balancing different elements and the integration of energy and magic with other things. She couldn't exactly give someone else the ability to use dark or light magic but she could temporarily infuse them.

The second one was that she specifically aimed to make sure the annihilation happened inside of her targets, with part of their body infused with dark and the other part infused with light.

The dragoness walked back to Leila even as behind her the pumpkin king essentially ceased to exist, its body negated along with the light and the dark. "I think I'd like to spend the rest of the day not having to deal with anything Halloween related."

WC: 779
TWC: 3,451/1,500