A wizards Grace, Akryn (WIP)

Akryn walked slowly in to the town, rubbing the back of his head in an exasperated way. A village full of dead crops and they sent a storm mage. "What, they think a little rains gonna make it all go away? They must be kidding....." he said as he made his way towards the crops, one of the villagers in tow. The crops had been dieing recently for no apparent reason at all, and the villagers suspected a dark mage. But so far Akryn had seen nothing to prove that. Why would anyone want to curse a tiny little village like this? They were harmless.

As soon as he did, all doubts of dark magic were cast aside, as.....plants of all things, began to climb out of the grounds. Tomatoes, corn, broccoli.....Akryn took a moment to stare at the huge, deviant plants before grinning. "Get on out of here. I'll handle this." he said to the villager, who all to happily took off running towards the village. Akryn grinned at the demon plants as they started to head towards him, going over the situation in his head. He doubted electricity would do much to them, and he had to be careful not to destroy the remaining plants. Problematic, he thought to himself. Best thing would be to lure all of them out of the fields. But first, he would have to make sure he had them all......

Akryn was suddenly forced to bend over backwards at the waist as several of the tomatoes spewed.....ketchup? From their mouths at him. He stared at the ketchup as it spewed over him, and as he righted himself, he was forced to leap to the side, as corn quickly followed the first barrage. "Oh what the hell? Come on that is bogus!" he said, regaining his footing quickly and activating his wind step spell and taking off into the air, running above them, thankfully, the little blighters couldn't quite reach him, and his catskill coat made him agile enough to dodge their ranged attacks, even whilst in the air. But he didn't stay in the air long, often dropping to the ground in the field to draw out more of the plant demon things. And he wasn't disappointed either. Everytime he dropped down, more and more plants rose up to take up the chase. And spew their various ranged techniques at him. It was beginning to become increasingly difficult to dodge the attacks, and after about ten minutes of this game, Akryn had already been struck by several corn cobs.

It was time to even the numbers he decided as he dropped down to the ground and took off at a sprint towards the small, empty lot between the field and the village. As he ran, he could hear even more plants rising up around him, and by the crunching sound, they didn't care if they flattened a few plants to get him. Akryn winced, imagining the screaming of the villagers when they saw their precious fields. Still, he couldn't worry about that now. Best thing was to get these bastards out of the field and put em down.

As Akryn reached the small open field, he quickly sprinted to the farthest edge and then span around to face his opponents. And felt his jaw drop. Even he hadn't counted on the number of foes that tore out of the crops to head towards him. No less then twenty broccoli things, and dozens of corns and tomatoes. "Allrighty then.....not my best of ideas." he admitted as he extended his left hand out towards the charging veggies, drew back his right fist to the side of his chest, and positioned his legs for a charge of his own. His opening salvo had to be strong and topple as many as possible, and keep moving. If he let himself get pinned down, it was over.

Akryn took a deep breath as the vegetables neared, drool falling from their mouths, with the broccoli taking a definite lead. As they drew close, almost within striking distance of Akryn himself, he smiled softly. "Show time." he said as he suddenly thrust his right fist forward, the one with the gale glove, sending an extremely powerful blast of wind into the front ranks of his opponents, at the same time activating his spells downpour and hail storm, to send a blast of water into the ranks as well, whilst dropping several large hailstones among the back ranks.

The initial salvo did its job, sending the frontmost ranks sprawling. Akryn took this moment to charge, or more precisely leap, into the ranks of the charging veggies, feet first in a drop kick, nailing a corn cob in the mouth and sending it sprawling as well. Akryn pushed off the falling monsters face into a backflip, landing on his feet before being forced to spin to the left to avoid a charging broccoli, coming out of the spin in a kick, placing his heel into the face of a rushing tomato, squashing it, before he would suddenly drop down low, continuing his spin through to bring the same foot around, and then up, into a corncob as it attempted to body slam him, adding the power of his own kick into the weight of the corncob to shatter its face. Akryn smirked some, but it was short lived as a tomato suddenly rammed him from the side, sending him into a tumble, which he recovered from nicely, only to get a broccoli to the chest in a hard tackle.

Akryn let out am oof as he was taken along for the ride, headed towards another charging broccoli. Akryns eyes widened as he looked behind him at the other broccoli and did the first thing he could think of. He turned into a bolt of lightning and bolted to the side, letting the two broccoli smash into eachother, flattening their own heads.

Akryn rematerialized out of the main horde and growled to himself. "Fine. No ones around to see, least none that will give it away. Gloves off." he said as he drew back his head and took a deep breath. As he did, three orbs of energy, water, lightning, and wind, formed over his face, starting to slowly spin in a circle. "Roar of the storm dragon!" he growled, suddenly throwing his head forward towards the oncoming plants. As he did, the three balls of energy became three streams of energy, spiraling around each other like a drill, to smash into, and then tear through, the oncoming plants.

Akryns roar wasn't the most powerful one, or the most widespread. But he felt confident in calling it one of the fastest, and no veggies caught in its path truly had time to react before the drill like beam shredded them. It even caused them to stop, turning to look back at their fallen comrades with what could almost be called fear and confusion. If these things could really feel such emotions.

Akryn smiled a bit, breathing deeply. His barrage, while effective, had drained him a bit. "That's what I get for lureing so many in at once. So much for being tactically minded." he said as he shook his head, an ice arrow frming in his hand. As the vegetables finally began to recover from their surprise, they turned towards him, snarling. He had taken out less then a quarter of this vegetable stand nightmare, even with his most powerful spell, his roar. And they seemed to catch on to that. He could take them, sure he could. But maybe not all of them.

They seemed to be thinking the same thing as they all rushed him as a group. He quickly fired his ice arrow into the frontmost broccoli's face before rushing in, activating his windstep spell again, but suddenly drawing up short and activating his wind wall spell to stop a sudden barrage of ketchup and corn. Wind wall was plenty strong enough to stop that, but the sudden bulk of a broccoli demon as it rushed in was to much for the wall, and Akryn found himself suddenly trampled by a broccoli.

Akryn winced in pain, but suddenly widened his eyes as another broccoli came into sight, trying to slam its head down onto his prone form. Thankfully Akryn had windstep already going, and by stomping his feet downwards, he easily slid out of the way, allowing the broccoli to smash its head into the ground. As Akryn slid, he reached up, putting his hands on the ground and allowing windsteps momentum to propel him up into a hand stand as several vegetables began to close in around him. Akryn responded by remaining in a handstand but opening his legs wide into the splits, then bending both legs at the knees and using windstep again to send himself into a spin, kicking out his legs again once he got the spin truly going to nail several of the vegetables in the face.

But again Akryn was stopped, this time by several tomatoes as they launched their ketchup like attacks again. In his spin, Akryn was in no position to even see the attack, let alone dodge it, and the ketchup attacks sent him sprawling. He opened his eyes just in time to get a broccoli head crashing into his ribs. The attack resulted in several cracks from his chest, as well as a bit of blood spraying from his mouth. As the broccoli lifted its head, several other vegetables moved in, eager for the kill, but as they started to try and hit him, Akryn used shock step again, suddenly zipping away to the side, reappearing on one knee, holding his ribs, blood leaking from his mouth as he stared at the veggies. "Damn......shoulda brought Kyll after all. Hindsight and all that." he said as he gently took a note of his injuries. He counted at least two ribs broken from that last attack, magic almost gone, bruises mainly. Nothing to really stop him, he supposed. But this hurt. A lot. And he had to admit, he was in trouble.

Still, he was making progress. Only a few broccoli remained, a handful of tomatoes. Mainly those damned corns were still standing. Still, he thought to himself. Could always be worse. As he thought that, several of the villagers rushed out, pitchforks and scythes in hand as they rushed towards the field. "Shit. Last thing I need is people to protect. Still, cant blame em for wanting to protect their crops." he muttered to himself, rising to his feet and rushing towards the farmers. Unfortunatly, the veggies had seen them to, and several of them charged. Once they saw Akryn head that way as well, the whole group went, and to Akryns horror, he realized all three groups would meet, and clash, at the same time........

As Akryn and the vegetables rushed towards the villagers, and they charged the demon veggies, pitchforks and farming scicles held at the ready, Akryn realized there was nothing he could do to stop this and his heart sank, fearing how many villagers might get hurt.

As he worried though, dozens of large, thorn covered vines suddenly tore up from the ground creating a barrier between the villagers and the veggies. The villagers slid to a halt, confused and wary of this new trick, as did the vegetables and Akryn. It took a moment for Akryn to realize this had nothing to do with the veggy people, and as he looked around he spotted the source of the vines, a tall, handsome man with a thin, well trimmed mustache and slicked back hair, wearing high end, brown boots, orange pants, and a fancy red tunic, open down to his navel, showing off plenty of his caramel colored skin, well toned muscles.....and a black scorpion tattoo on the center of his chest. Akryn stood there for a moment, staring in disbelief as a brief flashback came to his eyes. That same tattoo. On a man about to kill him, not long ago. "Scorpion Tail....."

As Akryn stared, the scorpion tail member walked forward, taking a moment to glance at Akryn curiously, before focusing once more on the demon veggies, who by now had turned back to Akryn and the new comer. "Citizens! My name is Inigo Montoya, of Scorpion Tail. I understand your wish to protect your fields, but please, allow me and my fellow wizard to handle these abominations. We are better equipped to face them, and as a wizard of pants myself, I do so wish to punish these.....creatures myself." he said calmly, with a very foreign accent. He would then glance over at Akryn. "You have done well. Truly so many foes would have taken most men. My commendations to you. But now, allow me t handle the rest. Regain your strength my friend, for I fear there may be more." he said before walking towards the veggie demons, leaveing Akryn to stand there and stare, dumbfounded by this newest entrance, and what he might be able to do.

That question was answered quickly as Inigo raised his arms into the air, as the remaining veggie men charged. As soon as he raised his arms, hundreds of rose petals erupted from his sleeves and the opening in his shirt, flieing into the air to start raining down on the area in a cloud of beautiful red. The veggie people still charged however, oblivious to the imminent danger until it was to late. As the last one entered the cloud of petals, just as the first broccoli man was about to ram into Inigo, he smiled softly and used his magic. "Rose Ripper." he said softly, suddenly throwing his hands out to either side. As he did, the rose petals suddenly began flying inwards, into the horde of veggie people, and slashing right through them, like knives through normal vegetables. In a matter of moments, all the vegetable demons that had given Akryn such trouble, and such a beating, were laying around in what had to be the worlds biggest salad.

Akryn continued to stare at the man in silent shock, even as he turned around to look at Akryn, a look of confused irritation on his face. "Can I help you senior? You have been staring at me since I arrived and saved you, and the villagers. Is it such a surprising concept, one wizard aiding another?" he asked, shrugging and holding one hand out to the side.

Akryn stared at him more before shaking his head. "No. Not so unusual for wizards to help each other. Except for when dark wizards help legal ones." he said, his fists suddenly erupting in electricity. "You're Scorpion Tail. Last time I met you goons, you tried to kill me. The time before that......you succeeded in obliterating my entire guild and family. You guys murdered everyone I ever loved. So forgive me for not exactly trusting your good Samaritan act." he said through gritted teeth.

Inigo looked at Akryn with a look of purest confusion for a moment. "Destroyed your guild? No no, that is not possible. The only guild we have ever destroyed was......our own." he said, his eyes widening in sudden realization as he quickly backstepped away from Akryn. "You! You are one of the remaining Motomiji brothers that Master Mirasol has put a bounty on!"

Akryn growled at the man, activating his shock palm spell, preparing to attack, befre a voice interrupted them. "Oh do wait a moment. See, as much as I can appreciate your desires to settle meaningless rivalries, I have an issue. See, you seem to have wacked all my weeds. And I was growing oh so attached to them." said a tall man in black robes, slowly walking out of the field. He was tall, topping six foot at least, with a long, shimmering black beard that tapered down to a point just below his belt buckle, with no hair on his head and a long, wooden staff that curled at the top into a rather impressive looking club.

Akryn and Inigo took a moment to eye the man, before glancing back at each other. "Come Motomiji. Let us put aside our dispute for a moment to finish the job at least. Afterwards we may settle this contension." Said Inigo, walking towards the right of the mage from the field.

Akryn sneered at the man but didn't have much choice. Those veggies had hurt him worse than he was willing to admit, and there was no telling what this new comer could do. Akryn would need the help, and the guild was to far away to send in a call. So he was stuck with what he had. "Fine. You take lead then and I will support ya. Magics runnin a bit low." he said, stepping back from the fight a bit.

The man with the beard smiled a bit, bowing to them. "Ah that's what I lke to see. Age old wisdom in control of youthful enthusiasm. Truly it is what the world needs. Though I fear it will do either of you much good. Allow my to name myself. I am Strauss Veegerbend. Gardener extrordinaire." he said with a smirk, before waving his staff in the air. "And I shall be your end." he said, right before six more broccoli demons rushed from the rows of plants towards Akryn and Inigo.

Inigo was prepared for the attacking veggies, and as they rushedhim he raised his hands. "Royal obstruction!" he called out, several thick, thorn covered vines erupting from the ground, to both ensnare, and block the broccolis. "now Motomiji!" he called.

Akryn was quick to respond. "hail storm!" he said, whipping his hand through the air. As he did though, the dark mage Strauss, waved his staff as well. Suddenly, Akryns spell, instead of aiming at Strauss, was aimed at ther back of Inigo, who let out a cry as several hail stones pummeled his back.

"What the hell Motomiji? I thought we were on the same team for now!"

"It wasbnt me! I was aiming at him! He must have redirected him somehow!

Strauss grinned as the broccoli monsters still fought against the vines. "Very good young man. I did indeed redirect the attack, or just made it backfire to be more precise. It is one of my specialties."

Both Akryn and Inigo groaned at this revelation. "Curse magic." Inigo said, looking back at Akryn."We will have to get in close. And hope. Where in the hells did this puta learn curse magic?" he said, suddenly shocing a hand forward, a vine erupting from his arm to spear a broccoli man.

"Agreed. I can handle that actually if you can cover me. Close melee is one of my specialties. Allright. I'm up." he said, suddenly rushing past the vine wall and broccoli men, towards the bearded dark mage.

The bearded mage smirked as Akryn rushed in, drawing back a hand for a punch. But as he neared, the mage drew back his own fist, to his hip, as he used another spell. Suddenly, Akryns left leg went completely limp as he was running, causing him to stumble forward, just in time to get Strauss' large fist to the nose, breaking it and shattering his glasses, as he was thrown to his back by the sheer force of the blow.

But Strauss wasn't done, and Akryn managed to focus just in time to roll to the left, as the dark mage brought the thick end of his staff down, trying to smash Akryn, who quickly rolled to hhis feet again and once more rushed in, throwing a punch that nailed Strauss right in the jaw, causing him to stumble away. But the large wizard quickly righted himself, and as Akryn threw another punch, Strauss caught it before suddenly headbutting Akryn in his already broken nose, causing Akryn to stumble backwards. But Strauss caught Akryn by the arm as he fell back, and turned, tugging on Akryns arm and tossing Akryn over his shoulder, and onto the ground with a thud,

Akryn was completely caught off by the dark mages fighting prowess and hit the ground hard, before a heavy boot would stomp down on his chest, where several ribs were already broken. Akryn let out a cry of pain, and as Strauss lifted his foot to stomp again, he quickly rolled away to his hands and knees. But Strauss was much faster than he looked and was already on Akryn, kicking him in the ribs and forcing him to roll away again.

"Pitiful young man, did you really think I was so unprepared for such an assault? I have been a wizard far longer than you, and despite what you think, you are not the only one prepared for physical conflict. Now stay down." he said as he lifted his staff into the air. Something suddenly caught his eye though, to the side, and he turned just in time to get a boot to the face, causing him to go sprawling.

Inigo landed next to Akryn in a crouch, his eyes on Strauss, and the broccoli men in shreds not far from the fight. "Get up Motomiji. From what I saw, it will take both of us to take him down. He is quite strong, and surprisingly skilled, and by how fast he is rising to his feet, able to take a punch. We will have to fight him together Motomiji. Get up! Make your brothers proud." he said, turning to look Akryn in the eye.

Akryn turned to look at Inigo with one eye. Blood was gushing from his nose and leaking from his mouth, and it was obvious he was in serious pain. But the look in his eye said he was far from done. "What do you know of my brothers?"he growled as he began to slowly force himself up to his feet.

"I know little to be honest, but I shall tell you what I know if we win here. Now come Motomiji! Fight beside me!" said Inigo before he turned and charged towards strauss, who by now had regained his feet and was enraged.

However, as Akryn had underestimated his opponent, Inigo was more prepared, and as he charged he thrust a hand forward, rose petals erupting from it. "Rose ripper!" he said, as the rose petals swooped in to try and slice Strauss, who quickly waved his staff, causing the spell to split in half and double back towards Inigo, and then through him in a sudden cloud of petals.

Strauss' eyes widened as he realized what had happened, and he turned and raised his arm, just in time to block Inigos leg from connecting with his skull. With a snarl, he pushed the leg away and brought his staff around, aiming to whack Inigo with it, but when an arrow made of ice thudded into his arm he stopped and quickly began backpedaling, turning to eye Akryn who had regained his feet and looked down right livid, one hand extended, the other limp at his side

"Excellent timing my friend!" Inigo called before rushing the dark mage again and throwing a series of jabs, aimed at the mans midsection. It was like punching iron and Inigo was forced to hop back as the man quickly recovered and swung his staff at Inigo's head.

"I shall rip you both to shreds! You have nothing to beat me, either of you!" Strauss declared as he lifted his staff up and brought it down in a mighty, two handed strike, aimed at Inigo. As the staff descended though, there was a sudden flash of electricity, as Akryn came back into the fight in a big way, his gloved fist meeting the staff about half way up, with the gale glove activating. The force was enough to shatter the staff in half, and the wind forced Strauss to go flying backwards, to sprawl on the ground, as Akryn fell to the ground between Inigo and Strauss.

Inigo stood there, staring in mild disbelief as he looked at Akryn, panting on the ground, injured, exhausted, almost out of magic, and still, somehow, finding a way to be useful. "You are as tenacious as I have been told your bloodline was." he said, walking over to kneel next to Akryn and place a hand on the young mans shoulder. "My guild master often compared your family to badgers. And I can see now why. You are injured, barely able to stand. Why use your final magic to help me?"

"Because....everytime he casts a curse.....he waves that damn stick. My guess, its how he uses it. A holder version of curse magic......Figured without it, you might have a real shot at beating this bastard."Akryn said as he began forcing himself to his hands and knees. "Go on. I'll rest here and help as I can. Go on, don't worry about me."

Inigo nodded and rose to his feet, turning to eye Strauss, who by now had regained his feet and was staring at his staff in an apparent rage. "You.....you bastards broke my staff.....I will kill you." he said, looking up at Inigo, purest rage in his eyes. "I will kill you both! Here and now!" He snarled, tearing away his black robes to reveal a surprisingly muscular body, protected by armor on the belly and lower chest, and the back. Strauss threw away both ends of the shattered staff and charged at Inigo, right hand drawn back, ready to throw a punch.

Inigo smirked as the large man charged, and decided to save his own magic for now. Akryns guess at the staff had been just that, a guess, and there was no need to test its validity with magic. With that thought in mind, Inigo rushed in as well, at the last minute dropping down into a slide, letting his momentum carry him into the feet of Strauss.

Strauss was caught completely off guard by this tactic and it worked like a charm, As the big man toppled, Inigo quickly rolled to the left and hopped back to his feet, preparing for another attack

Meanwhile, Akryn sat on the ground, off to the side, taking stock of his situation. He was in absolutely wretched shape. If Inigo had not shown up, he would be dead by now, and he had absolutely no doubt of that. But the saving rose mage was also an enemy, an agent of scorpion tail! Odds were he was saving Akryn just to take him off to his bosses. Akryn took a moment to curse his luck as he gingerly reached down with his one good arm and felt the blood leaking from his right knee. The dark color of his pants hid the blood, but Akryn was in horrible shape. Almost all his ribs were broken, or close to it. His nose was broken, his left eye was swollen almost shut, his left arm was numb and hard to use, and his right knee would very likely not support his weight. If he was gonna get out of this one he would need to finish both of the others in one shot. And call for help. With a sigh, Akryn tapped into his guild mark, sending an urgent distress signal back to the guild, putting all the pain and fear he could into it to let them know just what kind of trouble he was in.

After that was done, Akryn took a moment to collect himself, before opening his mouth and taking a bite of the air in front of him. His greatest secret was the fact that he was a dragon slayer, a storm dragon slayer to be precise. Meaning he could regain magic by eating of his element. In his case, there were three. Lightning, water, and most importantly right now, wind. He had found that wind provided the least boost, where as lightning provided the biggest boost. But right now he would take what he could get, and so he chewed on the air around him, slowly regaining his magic as Inigo and Strauss fought.

Akryn sat there, letting his magic build as Strauss and Inigo wailed on each other. Strauss was without his magic thanks to Akryn shattering his staff, but was physically much more powerful, and skilled than Inigo. On the other hand, Inigo was faster, and his magic provided a significant advantage to this fight. As Akryn saw it, the fight between these two could go on for a lot longer. He had to end it first.

Once Akryn was finally satisfied with the amount of magic he had rebuilt, he made his move. He activated his shock step, turning into a bolt of lightning to zip in just as both of them were about to throw a punch, appearing in between them both.

Inigo had taken more damage, and could take less, so for a moment Akryn ignored him, instead turning his attention to Strauss. The look of surprise on the dark mages face was genuine, and so was the look of pain, as Akryn drew back his head before using his most powerful spell in his entire repitoire. Roar of the storm dragon.

The triple blast of elements nailed the would be evil doer right in the chest, lifting the large man off his feet, and carrying him in a spiral backwards to slam through the wall of a nearby windmill.

Inigo, on the other side of Akryn, let out a cheer of victory. Right until Akryn spun midair to throw a right jab at Inigo's face, activating both his shock palm and his gale glove at the same time, just as his fist connected with inigo's face, sending him careening through the air, to collapse in a heap in the fields.

Akryn was not far behind in the field of collapsing to the ground, with a little squeak of pain. He had put absolutely everything into that last barrage, and he truly hoped they had pounded each other enough for that final assault to have done the trick. Akryn knew, that if either of them forced themselves back to their feet, he would be of absolutely defenseless.

Thankfully, as he lay there, the first ones to find him were not the dark mages, but instead, the villagers who had been forced back before. Akryn had never been happier to see a perfect stranger before, as they gingerly picked him up and carried him back towards the village, to wait for his guildmates, who were certainly on the way to pick him up. He really hoped it wasn't Kyll. Kyll would be livid at his condition.

Much to Akryns dismay however, when the villagers went to arrest the other two, Inigo was gone. Apparently Akryn had lacked the punch necessary to down the man. A shame really. Akryn had truly longed for the information on his brothers that Inigo had promised. Still, the promise that his brothers were still alive was hope enough. With that thought in mind Akryn closed his eyes, and tried hard to not think of what Kyll would say to him.....