by Gladiia Stralken 8th May 2022, 5:29 pm
Gladiia was very fortunate that she had a career where masking your expressions was valuable and gave lot's of opportunities to practice, because she would had not been able to hide her confusion otherwise. It wasn't she misunderstood her leader's orders, but just his over all demeanor. Here he chose a target that apparently he had prior dealings with who had access to influence a whole village's magic and decided to choose them to fight. It wasn't the worst idea, but his casualness about the whole thing made her question his reasoning. As they approached the entrance to the village he filled her in more details about what he wanted to do, proving that he may have been insane. Gladiia wasn't naïve, she knew what extents she would have to go to gain the power she sought, and that it would take her to some dark places. But the fact he addressed it so casually like vandalizing a store...well what other mind could had organized such a guild?
Gladiia spotted the people beginning to emerge from the huts and homes around, causing her to stop in her tracks. Arnaluuk also stopped near her but Odhran kept walking forward. Gladiia watched as they began a variety attacks onto her guildmaster, and she prepared herself to move forward to at least deter some of the attackers when a outstretched hand stopped her. Looking at Arnaluuk confused, she stayed in place as soon Odhran disappeared in a barrage of attacks, smoke and dust rising to the sky from the ferocity of it all. However she did not detect his signature to waver or disappear, so it was no surprise to see him after it had all cleared. What was surprising though was the giant skeleton now behind him. "Is that really a summon?" she would had muttered to herself, watching how after he scolded the group he and the bone monstrosity let loose lasers tearing and ripping through the former defense. Odhran would had finished his display of destruction with a simple side step and splattering the organizer of the initial attack.
After correctly assuming that those were more of the same conjurations of before, he gave Gladiia leeway to do what she wanted with the rest of the town. Another test, or laziness? "As you wish ser." Before moving past him to continue the assault on the town she would had etched into the air a summoning symbol, first a circle followed with three triangles on the top and bottom of it, resembling a open fanged mouth. From it a portal would open, and in front of it would materialize her summon Amoux. Standing a whole foot taller then Gladiia, he would had looked at her first, then Arnaluuk, Odhran, and the giant skeleton behind him. "What in the name of the serpent have you dragged me into this time Gladiia?"
"Hush Amoux, were destroying some defenders of this village at our client's request." She would had responded, ensuring he knew the client in question was Odhran.
"And he can't manage that with the giant fuck off skeleton behind him?"
"Forgive me, I have forgotten how menacing a group of illiterate smelly villagers can be for you."
"Tch! Lets get this over with." Having his sore spot poked at, he would had walked forward, hand on his greatsword while the other on a parrying dagger underneath his cloak. Gladiia would had looked back at the two with a apologetic expression before she herself moved forward, wary of what awaited her as she had her lance at the ready. It wouldn't have taken long for them to find resistance, one of the huts opened up with a large barreled gun as it fired a cannonball of all things at the two. Both of them jumped in different directions avoiding the shot that exploded with...beartraps? Unfortunately for Amoux he chose to dodge in their sight as soon a hail of arrows and magical bolts erupted from the windows of the home. While he was trying to avoid be turned into a minstrel cheese, Gladiia would had snuck up on the house. Finding a unoccupied window, she would had breathed out a scalding steam cloud into the house. The attacks would stop, and screams would begin to be heard as the inhabitants would no doubt begun to succumb to the heat.
"Steamed eh? I prefer over a fire myself." Amoux would had chimed as the two looked around. "Before I forget, we want to scavenge for loot from the village, so don't try to destroy more then you have to." Amoux nodded at Gladiia's request as the house behind them suddenly erupted in a huge fireball, smoke rising to the sky. "I thought you said-" "I didn't intend for that!" Both would had suddenly sensed another presence as they turned around to face a cloaked figure with a wooden mask, rolling eyes and a long stick nose. A puppet clearly, it moved and jerked around like one, though the power radiating from it told Gladiia it was powerful. "Oh no! Run everyone! The plumed serpent has come to take our women and pillage our homes! kekekekekekeke." It would had suddenly lunged from the hut to the empty street where it faced the two plumed serpent members. "Honestly how disappointing! Only two members to assault us? Where's the respect? Especially when its smelly Odhran and some B-rank bitch. Seriously, did you think it would be enough? Mmmm, we'll run you over, then teach Odhran to respect his elders."
The puppet would had opened the cloak to reveal a pitch black abyss. From it, creatures of hellish appearances came out, no doubt gathered from the wasteland's of Sin. The came out in waves of flesh and pus to assault the duo, who answered with silence as they brought out their weapons. The first wave would had came crashing down as soon fire would rise to the sky, both Gladiia and Amoux began launching lashes of fire at their foes keeping them at bay. The survivors scattered and began to circle around as the second wave came pouring out, this time fliers shot out globs of poison and blood at the duo. Peppered from the assault, the two scattered as they were met with the survivors now corralling them into the firing area. Gladiia would put a stop to that as with a swing of her lance, a twister would had formed in front of her before colliding with the fliers grounding them. Now vulnerable, the duo cleaned up the remainder of the monsters, before Gladiia glared at the puppet with animosity. The puppet was slack jawed as it stay afloat, ruffling it's cape as if trying to shake out any foes it had for them. "Well, I guess we should take you seriously, kekekeke-" a sudden burst of fire from Gladiia would had burned the wooden puppet, stopping it's annoying laughter.
She sighed as she examined the destruction that the two would had weaved, the nearby buildings were on fire as the smell of gunpowder was heavy in the air. Gunpowder? Gladiia's nose had picked up the scent of the stuff and not burnt flesh. Too late she realized the trap as it appeared before her, the puppet and piles of monsters soon disappeared to reveal fuses that had been lit, leading to the homes around them. Gladiia would had not been able to outrun the resulting explosion, as far as she knew the whole damn town might have been rigged to explode. Which begged the question, had they been led into a trap this whole time?
WC: 1270/2047
