IC: Sanctuary REVAMPED

[Cucoo5]

Pine Grove

Achlys and Aion exchanged glances, hers of victory and his of defeat, before addressing Zena's questions. "Well, I'm not the best Necromancer out there, but I might be able to replace whoever possesses the dragon if I know how they did it. As for Mr. One-Trick-Wonder over here..." Aion rolled his eyes at this comment. "He can use an ability most Chronomancers could only dream of mastering, but he can't really use anything else."

Aion now seemed resigned to the fact they were now going to help and thus had given up his resistance. "Right. I can open Fissures of Time to jump between timelines for short amounts of time. It's taxing and risky sometimes, considering I don't know what's on the other side. One time a Fire Dragon followed me through, which was... exciting."

A smirk flitted across Achlys's face at the mention of that event. "Anyway, we should Introduce ourselves proper now. My name is Achlys Noxima."

"Aion Rixtravius."

"So! We'll just follow your lead, then, and help wherever we can." Achlys said, clapping her hands together.

[WriggleRid3r]

Automaton Workshop | Chronomancer's Tower - Outskirts of Pine Grove | Time: 4:10 PM

---

"A chair... are you asking me to sit?" Lavender asked in a perplexed manner, noticing the chair brought in by one of the spider automatons. It looked awfully comfortable, with boreal wood framing and red velvet covering the seating. It honestly made her want to sit down... and the mechanical giant's poor attempt at speaking confirmed her temptation.

"Aaaah..." Lavender sat down on the chair and emitted a sigh of relief. Lavender did not show it, but 3 days of continuous walking with nary a proper break made her legs rather sore... being able to sit and rest on a comfortable chair relaxed her tense muscles. "That feels good. Thanks for the chair, mister... robot... spider... thing!"

[S121]

Interior | Chronomancer's Tower

As Azeruk saw Seki fade off into the distance, he couldn't help but lightly sigh now that his ordeal was over, at least for now. Azeruk took a few steps back, and the tile he was standing upon shifted upward by just a millimeter before all the ornate designs down the hall opened up. Right after the carvings had opened up, large metal slabs slid out from the openings, sealing the way shut. Now that Azeruk thought about it, it really was a good thing that his master had told him not to progress any further, or else he would have activated the mechanism. Now that he was temporarily rid of Seki, he now had to get to Lavender as soon as possible and lead her to safety. With that in mind, Azeruk clenched his fists and golden light started to flow around him, speeding him up before he dashed off towards where he knew Lavender would be taken.





Door - Down The Hall - Interior | Chronomancer's Tower

All of a sudden, the door that Seki had knocked let out a cacophony of noise as ancient gears could be heard grinding together and springing to life, forcing the door open for Seki and bathing her in an almost blinding light. There was nothing dangerous about this light, and it was warm on her skin. The fresh scent of pine permeated her nose and the chirping of birds could be faintly heard as her vision slowly began to adapt to the light.





Automaton Workshop | Chronomancer's Tower - Outskirts of Pine Grove | Time: 4:11 PM

The mechanical spider clicked its claws together before taking a light bow to Lavender. Afterward, it quickly scurried off to one of the nearby automatons and began to assist in repairing them. Meanwhile, the large mechanical man that had escorted her here simply stared down at her, observing her in case she either needed something of it or if her current condition changed.

[SUSTIC]

Pine Grove

Saru beat his chest with his fists and let out a war cry"Then come friends that dragon is not going to defeat itself. We must act quickly!" the eager apex swiftly hopped on the back of Zena's horse. The fire in his eyes said it all. He was either going to slay the dragon or die trying.

[Tewi_Inaba]

Pine Grove

Zena couldn't help but give a small giggle at the young monkey boy's display.She turned back to the other two and quickly introduced herself. "My name is Zena, these are my friens Saru Zero and Nera. But Saru is right, if we don't act quickly the beast might fly away again." With that the elf paladin mounted her house and prepared herself. Once Saru was holding on sh cried out "YA!" and the horse raced off. It wouldn't' take her long to catch up with Zero and Nera and the four of them.. or ratthr the six of them now were quickly closing in on their objective.

Chronomancer's Tower | Outside

When Seki saw the pine forest it confused her at first. It actually took her a short moment to realized what had happened. When it finally donged on her she couldn't help but chuckle. "That's what i get for showing mercy." The girl sighed and snapped her fingers. The simple snap was all it took for her next plan to start. From the fortress on the dragon's back came a small army of undead creatures. from skeletons to ghosts to lesser vampires, They had all been given orders to attack the tower on her command. Luckily for Azeruk the dragon itself remained on standby. However he would still have to deal with a small army of about 200 undead soldiers. the creatures began to jump down the opening Seki's dragon had made earlier and prepared to attack anything that moved.

Meanwhile Seki simply knocked down the door she had exited to re-enter the tower from where she came. She used this as her way of getting back inside and hunting for the true entrance to the vault while her minions attacked the rest of the tower. The boy of cores was long gone by this point, but that didnt' really bother her. She honestly couldn't care less if the boy lived or died so long as she got the book. Much to her dismay however it seemed the young chronomancer was smarter than he looked. It was not one but several doors that stood between her and her objective. Rather then blowing ther all of them one by one she left that area and desired to walk around and enter from the hole she had made before. However these events would not yet occur for Azeruk as time was currently moving much much slower for him.

[Zekai]

Pine Grove

As Zena and Saru caught up to Zero, he ran with them to where Nera was and then Zero's wind felt something off. "Bad news, an army over 150 undeads are coming out of the dragon and are about to enter the tower!" He said to them looking ahead. "I'm going on ahead to stall them. You better catch up quickly." He said and then concentrated wind at his feet and in an instant, was 20 feet in the air and closing in on the tower. "Now or never." He said to himself as he takes his left hand and removes the sword off his back and draws his sword and tosses the sheathe aside. "Hiiiiiiiyaaaaaaa!!!" He yelled as he slashed while falling towards the ground making multiple arcs flying towards the undead with them slicing the undead up. Zero lands in the front but not after around 70 undeads or so making it in. "You ain't going in there." Zero said as he readies for an attack.

[Tewi_Inaba]

Pine Grove | Chronomancer's Tower

The little blond necromancer made it back around to the front of the tower quickly enough. Only to see this would be hero trying to take on her soldiers before they could reach the inside of the tower. She approached unarmed and without doing anything remotly threatening at first. "What a bother." She said as she approched alerting him to her presence. she couldnt' have been more than 16 years old from her appearance and her body was so petite and slender she hardly looked threatening, if anything she was quite adorable. But despire her cuddly appearance she wore a face of annoyance.

"Usually I have a policy against killing stupid children but unfortunately you caught me in a bad mood." As the girl stared down Zero from about 20 feet away she held up her right hand forming a small orb of dark magic in her palm. "You'll make a fine addition to my little family. now die." With those words the dark orb in her hand flew forward. It moved faster than a mortal's eye, Only the most weathered of worriers would be able to track such a thing with their eyes and even then to actually avoid it would take an incredible amount of skill. the orb didn't strike him directly however. It stopped two feet in front of his face. The orb expanded slightly as it's mass increased and it suddenly shrank to a smaller size than it originally was. What it was doing was simply creating more mass and then quickly compacting itself to be a great deal more dense. the same amount of mass was still within the ball but it was a lot more compressed.

the dark orb then quickly grew unstable and ruptured and exploaded causing a wave of dark energy to burst forth from the darkness the wave formed a ring of dark matter that started out small and dense and then quickly expanded outwards. The force and speed of the expanding ring was enough to level a portion of the forest around them. maybe of the pine trees were torn into twigs upon contanct. Zena, Saru and Nera were all fairly far away from the initial blast and thus could easily survive the blow with little to nno damage depending on how the reacted. Zero however was right in the midst of the attack. If he didn't act quickly the attack would rip him in half and leave not but a torn corps of the half dragon. He would have to be quick but he could still make it out of this alive.

Pine Grove

Zena had been following behind trying to catch up with Zero as quickly as she could. However what came next caught her off guard. the shock wave created by the necromancer was strong enough to nearly knock her off her horse. The beast struggled greatly to stay on it's feet but it somehow managed to stay standing By the time the dark ring reached the others it's density was only slightly more desne than air, making it a lot less deadly to the rest of them. ("That attack, what are we getting ourselves into?") She thought to herself looking at the forest around them showed the true range of her last attack. the further you went from the origin of the blast the lesser the damage to the forest seemed to be. The fallen lumber between Zero and the others however made it a lot mor difficult to reach him. Zena and Saru would have to go on foot.

"Not good. We must hurry. Zero needs our help" Said the elf girl as she quickly dismounted her horse and ran. Jumping from log to log as she pressed towards what was left of the tower.

[Zekai]

Pine Grove - Chronomacer's Tower

Zero was preparing for an attack by the undead when the words "What a bother" caught his attention and so he looked and saw a young female, close to his age. "What a strong smell of death, must be the necromancer." He thought. Of course he was surprised that the necromancer was a young girl. Before Zero can say anything, she told him to die and threw a black orb and before Zero can react, it was 2 feet in front on him. "Fast, too fast." He thought as his eyes looked at the orb expand and shrink. His dragon instincts are telling him to run but before he can react, the orb exploded. "Crap." Was all he said before he was hit by the blastwave.

There was smoke around the area where Zero was. The sound of coughing and blood falling was coming from inside the smoke and as wind blows, it clears up showing Zero still alive but with his left body exposed, showing his Jin side. His clothes are torn to shreds with his right top barely there and his pants turned into shorts. Blood was falling out of many wounds all over his body due to the blastwave. His left eye is shut and his hair completely down. Zero is on his left knee and his sword stabbed into the ground to hold him up. "That.........-cough-.. was close....." He said coughing and in pain. Just before the blast hit him, Zero's sword beated and created a wind aura around him in time that it took just enough damage away to keep him alive, even if it was just barely. "-pant, pant, pant- I own you big time Molack and Mister Odion for the sword." He said softly to himself as he stumbles a bit. "Hope Zena and the others are ok. I can use the help right about now." Zero thought as he looks at the necromancer.

[Kristia]

Pine Grove - Chronomacer's Tower


"So much for stealth" the yaju muttered as she started moving, but not directly towards the group, she was going around the tower, still unseen by the one controlling the dead, sure some of the skeletons saw her, but they couldn`t even make a move as their heads were destroyed by the ice hook and mithril rope that the fox used as a weapon. She was getting closer to the tower and saw a figure (complexion is thin, female, not so old by the looks of it, strong energy reserves, smell of death, a nechromancer) she thought and then felt a powerful magic coming diirectly to the dragon hybrid (not good) was all she thought while holding on something as the blast came in.

Holding her place, Nera took the hook and with a swift launch, she send it to one of the tower`s windows, she used the battle to hide her own sounds and got inside (focus on your senses, hear the bone grinding, the crackle of the long gone, the scent of rot) making use of the throwing knives, the yaju made her way in the tower, stealthily, breaking necks and slicing bones off their places, following the source of magic of the nechromancer.

[SUSTIC]

((Done now.))
Pine Grove

As Saru was riding with Zena, clearly ready for battle. They were stopped dead in their tracks when a shockwave had leveled the forest around them, knocked Zena off her horse, and left some trees blocking the way for the horse. Seeing this Saru quickly hopped off the horse as well, as he wasn't as easily knocked off of it. He seemed to be ready for anything at the current moment, but even then this did catch him off guard quite a bit... mostly due to the sheer power of the attack. After jumping off the horse, he didn't even need to hear Zena say they had to continue on foot. He was already running at full speed, weaving back and fort and over the fallen trees. His tail wrapped tightly around his drawn staff, and him on all fours going at full speed. He was quickly approaching Zero and Seki's current location.

[Tewi_Inaba]

Pine Grove | Chronomancer's Tower

The necromancer smirked as she saw the boy had survived the first attack. It seemed he had somehow partially blocked it, perhaps by using his own weapon. However he was in bad shape and now that he was injured he would be a much easier target." I commend you. Few are quick enough to survive an attack like that. But can you survive the next?" With a sadistic grin Seki formed another black orb in the palm of her hand, and then another in her left hand. She paused for a moment to let this sink in before conjuring up 13 more of them in formation behind her body, making a total of 15. It seemed she had every intention of launching them all at once, and considering what only one of them had done, the destructive power of this attack would have leveled the entire area.

That is if the attack were allowed to be used. Just as all hope seemed lost the elf paladin could be heard shouting from near by. "SARU COVER YOUR EYES!" this caught the necromancer off guard and caused her to look in the elf's direction. It would seem that had been Zena's plan as well as she then unsheathed her blad, holding it between herself and the necromancer. However she had no intention to strike her with the blade. Instead she lined up the blade just right so the sunlight glaring from her blade would be directly i the girl's eyes. Once this was done she used her light magic to enhance the brightness of said light to be blinding, causing a large flash of light that would leave the girl stunned.

"AAHHHG!' The necromancer groaned as she averted her eyes and tried to regain her composure. While she was still blinded Zena quickly took hold of Zero's arm and took cover behind some of the fallen lumber

"Keep quite, I'm going to heal your wounds" she said as she sheathed her blade again and swiftly got to her task. Using her light magic she numbed the pain and slowly but surely started closing his wounds. This would take a bit of time however and the necromancer wouldn't' stay blinded for long. She couldn't leave Saru to face her alone but neither could she leave Zero in this state of distress. What to do?

[Cucoo5]

Pine Grove

"Achlys!" As the group began to head for the dragon, Achlys was slightly ahead of Aion, but the shockwave soon changed that. He had slammed the Shield of Mercurius into the ground, as if it were a gauntlet, creating a steadfast barrier around him and his charge. "Are you alright?" Achlys could only nod in response as if the blast had stunned her.

"T-That energy... what was that?" She looked at the fallen trees in utter disbelief.

Aion didn't waste any time; He estimated how far ahead the battle was happening and calculated how long it would take him to run there. Ok If I open a rift I can run past the trees...But I want to keep Achlys safe so I'll drop her off behind the trees. A flash of his sword was all that could be seen as he cut open a fissure in front of him. To the untrained eye, there was nothing there. To those more familiar with the technique, fragments of space-time could be seen as if the air was shattered like glass. In a blink of the eye, he grabbed Achlys and pulled her into the Rift with him, vanishing from the current timeline. A mere moment later Achlys appeared next to Zena and Zero. Aion vaulted over the trees, charging straight for Seki with sword and shield in hand.

With deft swordplay he cut down any skeleton that was in his way and in one smooth motion he tore open another fissure and vanished again only to reappear behind her with his shield in mid swing towards her. He was a step too far away from her when he had left the alternate timeline and had to compensate slightly in his attack.

Despite the outcome of his attack, he was primed to open yet another fissure to disappear immediately again.

***

Meanwhile Achlys seemed slightly disoriented as she glanced about and looked over the fallen trees. "Damn, ok, what's the plan now? What kind of magic was that blast? Who is this girl?"

[Tewi_Inaba]

(making a quick post for sustic so he can post his thing)

Pine Grove | Chronomancer's Tower

The girl was still dazed from the bright light she had just been exposed too. However this didnt' disrupt her other senses. she couldn't' see the swordsmen coming at her but she could still hear him. One moment he was in front of her slaying an undead skeleton and the next he was behind her. This attack would have worked perfectly if he hadn't been one step off in his calculations. Seki was able to hear the one step he took and thus acted swiftly as she could. ("He's either a chronomancer or Santa brought him a portal gun for Christmas") She thought to herself as swiftly ducked and turned her body 180 degrees. Mid turn she brought her wrists together in a stance that made them look like a snake. She then launched both hands forward in a motion that looked as though the snake was opening it's mouth. from this an unfocused blast of dark energy was released. This blast however was not nearly as deadly as the last as it would simply knock him backwards if he were unable to avoid it. This was because Seki was acting defensively as opposed to trying to kill him. Of cores it was still possible that the swordsmen would have been able to avoid the attack.

Edit: addid an edit by request of cucoo

The girl's attack was launched into thin air as the swordsman had already disappeared into another fissure.

[SUSTIC]

((Time to introduce Braum. Been meaning to in my last several posts... but things have been preventing me from doing so. Remember. I DO HAVE HIM AS A CHARACTER IN THIS! Just check the OOC :3 ))
Pine Grove | Chronomancer's Tower

Meanwhile.

When Zena had quickly reacted by shooting a blinding flash of light in the area, Saru had done as told as he shielded his eyes with his arm so he won't be blinded while Zena took Zero to safety. While the light died down Saru uncovered his face and looked at Seki while he used his tail to toss up his staff into the air quickly before kicking it towards Seki with his foot with surprising accuracy, causing the simple wooden staff to fly through the air towards the stunned Necromancer. However... something unexpected happened. For as soon as Seki had tried to attack Aion, the sound of large heavy footsteps could be heard right in front of Seki.

However these were not the footsteps of an attacker for the words of the new arrival could be heard plain as day.

"Stand behind Braum's shield little girl! For Braum will protect you!" Braum yelled in a rather jolly, loud, friendly, and stern tone as he slammed his gigantic stone shield embued with a shard of magical true ice onto the ground to block Saru's staff. Of which when Saru's staff struck the shield head on, the tip of the staff actually... smashed up against it, ruining part of Saru's wooden weapon as it then fell to the ground in front of Braum.


Braum was not intending to protect the Necromancer. He is unaware that the young girl is the one who started the attack. From what he saw though all he saw was a group of people attacking what looked to be a rather small and frail girl. When Seki's eyes finally recover from being blinded she would see the large man in front of her. Standing tall at 6ft 6, lacking hair all over his body save for a rather thick moustache on his face, and dressed in some rather simple looking boots with fur, pants made out of cow leather, two bracers on each arm, a fancy shoulder pad lined with fur of some animal, and tattoos on left shoulder.

What was most striking about him though was his large stone shield which had a Ram head carved into it, with a single glowing blue shard in the center. He stood over Seki and turned to her while he had his shield still pointed at a stunned, shocked, and confused Saru. The man then spoke again to Seki.

"Little girl should go seek shelter. For Braum will fend off these... mean people, and Hairy Monkey Man." Braum spoke with a reassuring smile, still blissfully unaware to the fact that he was HELPING THE ENEMY.

Saru on the other hand after hearing himself being called a "Hair Monkey Man" seemed to go balistic with enraged howls and screeches you'd expect a pissed off monkey to yell all the while getting into a combat stance. It was clear that he was pissed not just at the fact that his own weapon has been damaged, but that this strange man had called him a... Monkey. A term he does not like being called one bit.

[Zekai]

Pine Grove - Chronomacer's Tower

Seki commended Zero for surviving the attack and formed not only another orb but 15 of them. "Damn, I ......... can't move." Zero said as he tries to move but can't. Just then, he heard Zena yelling at Saru to cover his eyes but by the time Zero could react, a blinding light hit him. In the blindness, Zero felt his arm being took hold of.

Zero was able to open his right eye after a moment and saw that him and Zena were hiding behind some fallen lumber. Zena told him to be quiet while she heals him. "I'm sorry. I nearly got killed by the necromancer." Zero said to Zena apologizing for his current state. "But being saved by a cute girl isn't bad." He said to himself, forgetting to lower his voice causing Zena to hear him.