Snippet #2710121

Rick Brackwall

He waited as the remainder of the others arrived, most arriving only shortly after him. Caius of course was laggard and it visibly irritated Illusion given how she dropped him in on his back through a portal. Afterwords she segued nicely into the meat of the explanation, giving them a short briefing on the tasks they'll be set with.

"Don't think your prior experience means anything. This Boot Camp is special, something you haven't seen before, Rick. I suggest you all be on guard."

"I await the subversion in expectation with anticipation." He answered simply, giving a short nod before she continued on.


After that she wrapped up her explanation and they proceeded on forward, Illusion bidding the man coming in congratulations. She always did have a means of knowing things about people. Rick was not naive enough to not believe she had a means of prying into someone's business, albeit discreetly as it had yet to run against his mental barrier. All he knew was that lying to her was not an option. Luckily he was always a rather honest man, never truly lying in an outright sense. Just because he almost never lied though didn't mean he was obliged to share information unnecessarily.

As they went outside he spotted Angel along with four other guards escorting a prisoner down the street. He was about to bid Angel a friendly hello when suddenly the scene took a turn for the grisly.

Before long the prisoner's limbs were twisting about, typical results from a demonic possession. The event continued, the displays of self mutilation growing ever greater in gratuity until eventually there was little left of the prisoner save the upper torso and head. Meanwhile the guards who were supposedly keeping watch of the patient had backed from the scene, not acting upon it evidently. Angel himself had been standing aside, his hand clutching Loria the sword he kept at his side at all times. Illusion herself seemed rather unimpressed by the whole event. For the seven he couldn't confirm quite yet.


Rick himself remained composed throughout the event. He was tempted to identify the demon using his new magnifying glass however he was reluctant to show his hand and the fact there was a demon there was not the question he needed answered. What he needed to know here was why the demon chose to do this and what purpose the demonstration showed.

As it started attempting to crawl forth from the tortured victim's lips Rick swiftly gestured an arcane spell.

"Wind barrier." He quietly uttered towards the end of his motions. On queue the winds started to pick up, suddenly quite animated as they begun to swirl about the seven, Illusion and Eine. In addition clean air was being created at Rick's own position, creating a gentle draft against those around him as the clean air diffused into the forming dome of winds cycling around them. Rick's focus of study was more oriented towards offensive magics but most all casters had at least a rudimentary understanding of protection magics.


Thanks to the barrier the demon's stench was repelled, leaving the nine of them watching in relative comfort as the entity spoke. Hoisting himself up in an attempt at intimidation the demon spoke to them, no doubt trying to sow dissent among them before dissipating into smoke. All the while Rick held a fairly good poker face however slight hints showed through that he wasn't all too impressed. As the demon made his monologue he recorded the sigil imprinted on the dead guy's flesh into his clipboard as well as some bullet points regarding the entity himself.

After the demon had left Rick waited a couple seconds to see if the strange smoke had left. Once it could be confirmed to have dissipated he lowered the barrier, turning to Illusion.

"I figure this wasn't part of the Boot Camp experience you had planned. You said this would be something I haven't
seen before..." Rick walked over to the meaty remains of the prisoner, looking down at the discarded skull resting before
his boots.

"... This is all fairly standard for a demon."