Adrian Retter's Story

Iator

Iator looked as the others jumped at the chance to show off their skills to this baby of an elf. He found it hilarious and was having trouble holding it in. He covered his mouth, trying his hardest to keep from laughing. The youngest of their group punched a hole in the ground and the paladin actually cut himself and healed it up in a second. The gnome swallowed his laughter and spoke up, "A show of prowess? Eh? Watch this."

He stood still, he did absolutely nothing with his hands. He spoke no words. For nearly 10 seconds, he stood in silence. Then he simply vanished. As he vanished, he appeared behind the girl and tugged on her sleeve. "Good enough?"

Randi nodded to Adrian. "That is fine, thank you." She narrowed her eyes at Gale. "I can leave you here for the guards to do with as they please, remember that." Randi nodded to Thaethion, her eyebrow slightly raised, impressed. "A very useful skill, we will definitely be needing it." She glanced back at Iator, her eyes hard and cold but also narrowed at his obvious amusement to this situation. "Yes, that's fine."

"Threats now, is it?" Gale said calmly, raising a brow. "Why am I not surprised?" He turned to Asha and gestured with a quick jerk of his head. "Want to deal with this in one swoop, Asha? Go ahead and draw your sword."

"I guess it'd be faster this way," she said, turning around to face him. She unsheathed her Gatekeeper Blade and directed its point toward him. "Are you ready?"

"More or less."

Gale made the first move, morphing his hand into a mantis claw and swinging forward. Asha responded by advancing toward the attack and ducking just under the blow, making a quick horizontal slash. He leapt over the blade and boosted himself even higher by sprouting wings, spraying black acid at the ground at her feet. While it seemed like they were engaged in deadly combat, they were controlling their attacks carefully enough so that none of them would actually connect in a fine display of power and skill. His arm changed again, this time into a golem fist - Even though they were already apart from each other, Asha hopped backwards to further increase the distance, transitioning into a steady spin that released a wave of clear energy from her blade as she slashed outward - the razorwind technique, an aura skill that allowed the force of the sword to extend far beyond the blade. He narrowly side-stepped the rapidly moving blur, watching with some anxiety as a large slash was left on the wall behind him. She was hiding something like that under her sleeve during our fight? he thought, swallowing nervously at the idea that she could've used it at any time against him. That could've been dangerous, it's nearly invisible... They left it at that, giving a short bow to each other after the demonstration.

"Anything else? Or can we leave already?"

Pravus

The young girl stood before them and addressed them all. It appeared that she was trying to look intimidating and commanding but failed for a number of reasons.

#1: She was a foot shorter than him.
#2: He's seen things that human minds weren't meant to witness. Back in his home city as the undead were rising they had started to change themselves. Bodies feasting on bodies, the shape their forms took changing as they grew. These differences between each of the changes the undead in Sed had undergone were as numerous as they were revolting. Needless to say, he wasn't going to find himself cowed by this small bodied girl.


Each of the people there all performed demonstrations of their ability to the girl, one after another. Nothing he saw here surprised him in the slightest. Back in the war he served in the Ru'ulian's fielded capabilities just as numerous if not more so.

Inevitably all had demonstrated their talents to the girl. All except for Pravus. He still stood as the last two finished dueling each other. The room was rather silent as the girl who was judging turned to him last.

His tone was low, his voice was gruff and somewhat scratchy from the damage his throat had suffered from the dark plague which inevitably took his life. "I... Dig."

He spoke with a very thick accent, an accent which no one present would be able to identify. Most of how he learned to speak Londean was learned from a young village girl, probably just a little younger than the girl judging them seemed to be. For the brief time he had spent acclimating himself to this lively land he learned a few words so he could get by. There was not a single word he knew to describe anything close to combat so he went with the next most prominent skill of his. He didn't know what he was being tested for but he'd try to understand them if he could.

Randi nodded to Gale and Asha. "If you can change into anything that will be especially helpful." She said to Gale then dipped her head to Asha. "You are an excellent swordswoman, I'm sure if I put any of you against my top men I would not be certain who would win, though I am certain it would be an intense battle."

Finally she turned her attention to the last one, a man dressed heavily for the warm weather, he seemed to not be very good at speaking their language, she could tell by his slow, careful response and the heavy accent that caused him to press and pull at the sounds wrong, so she tried to make her question simple for him to understand. "Can you fight?" She asked slowly, then demonstrated by drawing her throwing knives and holding them between her fingers, getting in a ready stance to attack, then quirking an eyebrow at him.

Pravus

He watched the girl's every movement as she slowly spoke to him before producing some throwing daggers and standing in a fighting stance. He did not understand the words but from the demonstrations prior and the girls actions he could assume her intent.

He brought his shovel up from off his shoulder and planted it handle-down by his side, standing in a formal military stance. His back straight as a board, his feet aligned perfectly together, his off-hand arm held tightly to the side of his body and his shovel perfect vertical by his side. This was the manner in which all soldiers stood while in formation outside of battle. In battle the shields would form a shield formation while he and the other spears would stand right beside them, shoulder to shoulder as they impaled the charging horde of beasts and men.

He knew well enough how to fight on his own however. Between thorough training from the military, life threatening encounters during the riots and even unlife threatening encounters in the streets after the plague he had more than enough experience to fight opponents without proper shield men to protect him.

As for this current situation he simply waited. If the girl wanted to duel him he was willing to allow her the first attack. Otherwise he'd stand until permitted to leave the jail for one reason or another.

Randi watched the man get into military stance. "Military man huh?" She said and nodded to him, dipping her head in respect and then jumping to attack, throwing her knives so they just grazed his arm and shoulder. Then as she dropped down she swung her leg out in an attempt to trip him.

Pravus

It seemed his assumption was a correct one. He'd put her words to memory so he'd know what their word for Fight was. As for his current situation he responded without really needing to put much thought into it.

twenty years of non-stop warfare and several more years of fighting off roaming undead. By this point the very act of fighting was second nature to him. As she tossed the daggers he brought the flat of his shovel in front of his face, effectively covering his head. He knew that the knifes would be of little effect against his armor which pretty much covered all of his upper torso and arms. His hands though unarmored would prove a difficult target for even a professional knife thrower. The only other valid target would be his legs but he knew it would take more than just a couple throwing knifes to disable those.

Tink! Rattle!

The first knife grazed his shoulder which was securely protected by a pauldron. The only damage it caused was a mild superficial cut in his cloak. The second knife just barely connected with his arm which was armored by a protective chain mail sleeve. The chain links rattled a little and his shirt received another nick to add to the holes, cuts and blood stains that decorate it. Had the attempt to wound him with these knifes been real he'd still probably think little of their effectiveness against armored opponents like him.


As she kicked out for a trip he swept his back in a quarter-circle in the same direction her trip was going. With his cloak sweeping with the motion, kicking up what little dirt and dust occupied the ground, His shins were now facing directly to her shins again as their legs collided against each other. Trying to sweep someone without first compromising the target's balance was already a challenging enough task. Her attacks did little to move him because his legs were planted like tree trunks when it came to the trip. Naturally the way to sweep a person's leg would be to make the opponent's foot go in the direction it's already facing. His feat were going nowhere and she'd be lucky not to have bruised her shin in the attempt.

With her attack taken care of it was time to strike. Since she was close up to him he moved his grip up closer to the shovel's head. He didn't really need the power behind his stabs right now since he assumed they were just sparring and she was too close to make full use of his range. With his hands in place he brought the shovel down and stabbed upwards right below the ribcage. This technique comes up right underneath the elbows, right where people normally guard when they aren't using shields or wearing breastplate.

His thrust was accurate to say the least. Having done this exact motion thousands of times, honed and perfected in combat, his attack flowed as naturally as a water stream down a mountain. His intent behind this attack was not to harm her however. Should she fail to block the incoming shot he'd have the shovel's point stop just short of the solar plexus region of her body, close enough to indicate beyond any doubt that he could of pierced her if he really wanted to.

As the stabbing shovel head neared it's target...

Randi smirked, glad to have a tactful sparring partner. She used his hard planted legs as leverage to kick her own legs up, her hands planted on the ground as her feet swung up and collided not with his hands but with his fingers, the part of the body that's easiest to dislodge. With the attack deterred in the least she used her hands to back-hand-spring herself back to her feet a few yards away from him. She smirked as she stared him down then ran in to attack, no weapons.

Pravus

Deep in the dark concealing recesses of his mask his eyes were trained on her. As his attack neared she used him as a platform, jumping off from his hard-set leg and throwing out a kick to his fingers. The kick connected and his opponent hand sprung out of his range.

He didn't even flinch from her attack at his hand since there was no pain to feel from it. Covered by the glove by all appearances he was absolutely fine. In truth a couple fingers were misaligned but the damage's effect on his performance was minimal. As long as they could still function he could use them.

She attempted to stare him down from afar but it was to no avail. His eyes were not visible behind the glass eyes of the mask but if they were she'd see his stern, cold, unblinking gaze. He noticed that she had no weapons of her own or if there were she hid them very well. Given that she was fighting unarmed and he wasn't it seemed a bit unfair. Now, Pravus was never one to shirk practicality in favor of honorable combat. As a matter of fact he believed that in combat if there's anything he could exploit in an enemy he'd abuse it to maximum effect until his opponent was either dead or disabled.


This wasn't real combat though. His aim was not to kill her but to prove his ability to fight. In light of the nature of this duel he set his shovel against the back wall, turning to face her once more. He tightened both fists but the ring and pinky finger weren't closing fully. He brought his right hand up and closed his left hand around the problem fingers. With a series of sickening pops he pressed the fingers back into proper alignment until they could move unhindered once more.

Once that was done he watched her charge across the room towards him. Assuming a strong fighting stance he brought both his hands up to eye level in a proper hand to hand guard. Not making a single sound he awaited her assault.

Adrian watched as Taethion cut his arm and healed it in an instant. He knew that it was to prove his worth and he can easily heal it, but he didn't like that he would casually inflict wound on himself. Iator later walked up front and stood still for a good 10 seconds. He vanished in an instant and Adrian started to look for him, only to realized he teleported behind Randi when he asked if it was good enough. "He really is amusing." He thought with a smile. Asha and Gale later walked up and had a sparing match, later followed by the doctor like man and Randi herself. Adrian is not really quite the type that can judge a fight, all he knows that the two sparring matches was good.

Randi ran charged up to Pravus, but didn't make a direct attack, instead, she jumped into the air and swung herself up and around so that her legs locked around one of the beams that ran across the ceiling, she pulled out a customized mini bow and knocked an arrow, aiming it and firing it so that it would just graze his head. Little did he know that during her run Cerin, her magic pet snake, had slipped out of her clothes, at the time he was only a couple inches long, and while Pravus was distracted by Randi's arrow, he shot up to be 10 yards long, bearing down on Pravus.

Iator

The gnome had seen enough. "Perhaps our time would be better spent actually facing the dragon instead of showing our abilities, hmm?" These two were now just showing off. He spoke quickly in words that were not words. It was too late to stop the arrow but his spell was meant to stop hostilities. It was simple enough to make fighting seem stupid with normal words. With these words of power, the fighters should finish near immediately. Even the snake should be filled with tranquility.

Randi and Cerin stopped in their attacks and Randi let out an annoyed sigh, sensing the spell placed on her but it did remind her that this sparing match wasn't just for fun, she dropped down from the rafters and Cerin shrunk down again, slithering over to Randi and sliding up into her clothes again. She righted herself and nodded to everyone. "Sorry for the delay. I find that you are all capable enough to help me face the dragon to retrieve the princess. But I will have you know that the king had specifically ordered me to lead this mission. If I find any of you to be suspicious or untrustworthy I will have you sent to the nearest jail."

Adrian also thought that the fight was dragging out too long. for like 3 days."So... With that taken care off... Hey, since we're all gonna be a group for a long time... Lets get to know each other more. I am Adrian, thought you guys already heard it back in the prison, well it just feel proper that's all." Adrian said to everyone with a smile. while shrugging at the last part. "And I'm a bit hungry." He announced casually. The only food he ate since coming to the city was a single piece of apple, he can't help it if he's hungry.

Randi nodded. "Right, I'm sure you're all a little hungry. Follow me, we'll go to the mess hall in my part of the castle that I use to train my men. And my name is Randionalia Ashengrits. I'm the head of the kings group of assassins." She turned and began to lead them out of the jail.

"I did what I was asked to, but I don't recall signing up for your dumb mission," Gale said dismissively with a wave of his hand. "Suspicious or untrustworthy and you'll throw us in prison? Is that your idea of being funny? Or are you really expecting everybody to excitedly jump into this with that kind of attitude? As far as I'm aware, you don't threaten the people you're asking help from. No wonder the kingdom's in such an awful state seeing how it's being run by a bunch of clowns. Gotta recruit a bunch of travelers you just met because nobody else thinks its worth their time to save your sorry little princess? Yeah, I'm starting to see why. Forget this silly little game, I'm out."

As he turned around to walk away, Asha snagged him by the tail of his robe.

"Huh? Asha? What do you want?" he asked.

"You're a shape-shifter, right?" she said. "If you could shift into a dragon..."

"What? What are you..." he trailed off, moving her hand away. He stood still for a moment, though, pondering her last sentence. "But I guess...hm, that might be nice, actually...A dragon, huh? Yeah, I'd definitely be unstoppable, this isn't starting to sound too shabby now that I think about it. It might be interesting, to see what's it's like to soar through the eyes of a dragon. Why do you care, though?"

"This is an important mission for me," she answered, unsheathing her Gatekeeper Blade. "I'll take any help I can get, too."

"What is that? An enchanted sword?"

"You can call it that," she said softly, looking down at it. "It's inscribed with seven runes, each signifying the name of a great beast. Once it is felled, the rune will glow red - The dragon is one of those great beasts."

"And what happens when they all turn red?"

"This sword is a key. When its steel turns red, it will open the gate to paradise...or it will open the gate to hell."

"Sounds like some scary, world-altering stuff," Gale said, suddenly incredibly wary of the sword in the girl's hand. "Let's hope it's the former. What are the other great beasts?"

"Behemoth, Colossus, Archfiend, and Guardian. I've already slain Basilisk and Gemini."

"Interesting..." Gale said, his caution around Asha now doubled what it was before. "Well, I guess that's that, then."

Day 1

Still with her hood pulled up, the green haired maiden continued walking through the streets. Normally, she liked having her hood down, but few people seemed comfortable seeing girls with green hair...wonder why that was?

Especially when you had a green-feathered, red-eyed bird on your shoulder and no one around you seemed to bat an eye at it.

Glancing out from under the hood, she spotted some peaches on sale. They looked ripe enough, even if no fruit she had ever come across on her journey tasted quite as good as the fruit from her home...taking a few in her hand, the girl pulled her hood up just high enough so that her eyes could be seen. With a friendly smile, she handed over the money to the shopkeeper, bade him "Enjoy your afternoon, sir" and walked away.

Who knew you could be so introverted? she heard from her partner. You looked like your heart was about to burst.

Then you're terrible at reading emotions, the girl replied indignantly, trying not to have her facial expression reflect her mood from that comment. Lifting one of the peaches to her lips, she took a bite. It was actually rather sweet and juicy.

But then, when the girl looked up at her path again, she stopped walking. Both tamer and bird now wore tense expressions. A few meters away, walking out of a building with bars over nearly every window was a group of seven people...some of whom she recognized from the chaos from earlier. Were they about to wreak more havoc?

Guard up, Pirika, she thought to her familiar. Don't do anything suspicious, but be careful while those people are here. She resumed walking forward, casually taking another bite out of the peach in her hand as she did so.

Iator

The gnome couldn't help but overhear the conversation between Gale and Asha. He was more than willing to join this quest so he followed the group, his eyebrows raised as Asha mentioned the powers of her sword. He also couldn't help but feel that Gale was hiding something interesting about his powers as well. He closed the distance between himself and them. "You know. You two are very similar."


Kamlin

The Guard Captain led the new recruit towards the castle just in time to see Randionalia exiting the jail area with the strangers. He called out to her, passing a hooded individual with a green bird. "My Lady." He said, trying to get her attention. "We have one more ready to fight the dragon."

Randi glared over at Gale but looked up as she heard the Guard Captain, she looked over at the new recruit suspiciously. "Oh? And who might this be? More importantly, what abilities do you have?"