Drake de Lascaux's Story

As she landed back on her feet, Lailah observed Prince Yevoc tending to her wounds. She couldn't make out what they were saying from her spot, but the dark elf seemed... grateful. Somewhat. Even if she still lacked a smile on her face. Oh, how she longed to see that dark elf smile! Even if for just a tiny bit.

The fencer turned to Alexander by her side, and couldn't help but blush at his compliments. "A-ah! Oh, it was n-nothing, really!" she stammered, a grin upon her bright red face. The girl clasped her hands together and twiddled her index fingers, then glanced left and right, unable to meet the angelic knight's eyes. "I-I mean... you.. you didn't think that my actions were... unbecoming?"

Her leather gloves were still stained with the troll's fresh blood. Most of the men she met would have been intimidated or put off by her less graceful side, yet Alexander's praise felt genuine. And unexpected. Yet far from unwanted.

Lost in her thoughts, Lailah failed to notice, until the last second, of the massive, horned form coming upon her and Alexander.

The massive, horned form of a berserk Vanarak.

Her irises shrunk in terror. With a hard shove towards Alexander, the fencer yelled out, "Sir Alexander! WATCH OU-"

A thundering slam.

Vanarak's heavy axe cut through her leather jerkin and crushed her chainmaille without a problem.

A gigantic crater, 2 meters in diameter and half a meter in depth formed on the ground. Lailah laid, face-down, as a bloody, eviscerated pulp inside. The fencer's body convulsed and twitched, the gallons of blood obscuring much of her mangled form.

Drake sighed in relief after the troll was killed. He could hear the bull Therian grumbling and moving about beneath the wreckage of the hut which meant he was okay. Even the Dark Elf was getting her leg tended to. Everyone was okay, everyone was fine. He was alive, the troll was dead, and now... Now? Well now it was time to split the reward among, like, ten people.

Drake sighed once more. So much for making some money up north.

The ex-pirate turned to face Lailah and Alexander, that noblegirl and noble Avian. She had called him Captain Drake. Nobody up here knew him by that name. Nobody outside of Gialpha's southwestern tip knew that name at all, really. He shivered. I'm gonna have to figure out how she knows that name, and that means cornering her in private so as not to make a scene. Ugh. Drake pinched the bridge of his nose and fought off the urge to shiver once more. He needed to grab his coat from the cave before he started to freeze. A bounty hunter was less effective when he had to blow his nose constantly.

As the corsair turned he heard the sudden shift of rubble and wood. A growl. A roar. Just as Drake turned Lailah screamed out and shoved the Avian out of the way of the Therian's massive axe. He watched in horror as the weapon connected with the young girl and sent her flying into the dirt as a crippled mess. The bull didn't stop. The beast kept charging with its weapon, straight for Drake. His breath hitched and his pupils dilated out of realization before he broke his minor catatonic state.

As he dashed to the side, the Therian's grip narrowly missed his arm by mere centimeters. Everything felt like it moved in slow motion for Drake in that instant. He turned as he slid on the slick grass of the village, lashing out with his sword in an attempt to catch the back of the bull's torso or calf, whichever worked honestly.

Yevoc was about to follow the trail of glowing fairy dust Ash had created, when he heard the commotion. He turned just in time to see Vanarak plow his way through Lailah. He was coming straight at Yevoc and Ash like a train. It seemed like he hadn’t gotten the rage out of his system from fighting the troll yet. Yevoc had nowhere to dodge out of the way, but in a split second before Vanarak took him out, Ash grabbed him by the shoulder and poofed the two of them behind the troll’s corpse. “What the hell is wrong with him?”
“I’m not sure that now is the time to worry about that, look.” Ash pointed to the puddle of blood and flesh pudding in the crater that used to be Lailah.
“You got to help her, there’s no way we can get to a healer in time. She’ll bleed out and I can’t just freeze her like I did with the broken leg. Fix her like you did me.”

“I can’t exactly do that. I can’t make a deal with someone if they aren’t awake to do so.”
“Fine make another deal with me, just help her before she dies!”
“I already have what I want from you. However…”
“Oh for fuck sake, whatever it is, it’s a deal.”
“Okay, I want out of the last contract, you’re far too boring, and I want you to name me the court sorcerer of Polara.” Ash demanded as he handed a new contract to Yevoc to sign. Yevoc signed it and ran to the crater.
“Okay, do your stuff.”
“Okay, but this won’t be as easy as your legs.” He raised his hands in the air and projected a blue healing glow enveloping Lailah. He levitated her and rotated her until she was face up. Her wounds slowly began to heal before their eyes, but it was taking a long time.
“This is probably going to take a while; you might want to get on that trail before it dissipates.” Ash suggested. Yevoc turned to see that the glowing trail was already beginning to dim slightly.
“Fine, but after she’s healed come find me. And that’s an order as your Prince.”
Yevoc went off following the trail glad that it was in a different direction than Vanarak’s war path.

It all happened so fast.

One moment, Alexander was listening to the nervous noblewoman's response to his compliments. The next, he was flat on his back as Lailah pushed him out of the way of the bull's charge. Getting back to his feet, the sky knight took in the scene. The white bull seemed to still be in his berserk state, the others appeared to be mostly unharmed...

...and then he saw Lailah's mangled body, lying in a pool of her own blood. Her strength had saved his life. At the cost of her own. For what felt like an eternity, he stared in horror. He could have taken the hit instead. If only he had reacted faster, or made sure to keep track of the berserker's location so that this would not have come to pass in the first place...

Alexander gripped the hilt of his sword. Rage of his own bubbled within. The Therian's frenzy would put yet more lives in danger if he were to continue running amok. While the elven prince's fairy companion attempted to tend to Lailah's body, the Avian charged towards her assailant, leaping with the aid of his wings as he closed the distance. So long as he still drew breath, he would not allow this beast to strike down anyone else here.

Nyx looked on in horror as the bull ripped into Lailah there was nothing she could do but watch as it all unfolded before her. As the snow elf made a pact with his fairy and turned to leave she shouted after him " You're just going leave us? We got to stop this bull!"
Nyx took a step only to fall on her face.
" Be calm darklight.."
Darklight? Only one person had ever called her that. She looked up to see a female avian in white robes landing in front of her.
"Sel.." Nyx started but was hushed by the newcomer who placed her hand on Nyx's leg healing it like new.
"I'm sorry I am late but I was just set upon your course. I wish I was here just a few moments before...I could have saved your snow elf from a foolish pact..."

"Set on my course? What are you talking about?"

" No time now we must stop your bull"

With that The Guardian lifted into the air as Nyx with new strength ran toward the bull slinging a spell of blindness at the mad bull hopefully blinding him to the blunt end of The Guardian's spear coming down from above towards his face.

It was painful, In several ways. Vanarak was still

conscious,

So to say. Even if his mind was trapped inside this red mist which had lowered around him. He was fighting, But it felt so wrong. He could feel a familiar sense hit his skin, blood, But also that was, wrong. The blood made him rear back, like it was painful to the touch. Yet his frenzied mind could not be distracted. He dove for more targets, grabbing almost aimlessly in the direction of whatever that was infront of him. But he touched nothing. Something gently caressed his back. It was a sword, carving through his skin. Of course for Vanarak this was barely even felt, It wasn't even enough to stagger him.

In act of pure instict while turning around to face additional opponents Vanarak swung his head downwards forcing his horns down into earth attempting to simply impale Drake while spinning around. No more action could be taken as a weapon, of a size matching his own was being bringed down upon him. Raising his axe to attempt to block it, It would normally be considered a stupid way to try and block but withing the fuming anger there wasn't much room for thought, And Vanarak knew that he had more than enough Physical strength to block most attacks.

The blade struck against his axe. But the attack was just slightly off center, Something seemed to impact the wielder making his attack slightly inbalanced, instead striking the left most side of Vanarak's axe's handle. Giving him the chance to do an unexpectedly tactical maneuver, Switching the balance in his grip, letting the greatsword simply slip off the side. Vanarak's savage fury would probably have continued onto the knight who had swung at him. But a pitch black bolt impacted directly onto his face, The black goo-ish matter seemingly covering his eyes making him rear backwards. Only for The Guardian to make an impressive dive, Striking the blunt end of her spear onto his forehead, A resounding crack echoing from it.

The strike was powerful, definitely something that could break a mans skull. Vanarak stood completely still, But just for a second. A blunt weapon hitting him against his head was almost as ineffecient as an attack against him could get as Vanarak's skull was like a thick helmet. Bullheaded became a saying for a reason. Yet the attack was definitely felt, The blinding magic kept Vanarak from making any sort of preparation and the blow, well,

It knocked some sense into him

Perhaps as the blow knocked out some of the frenzied consciousness it made room for his sane consciousness. Expending some of the escaping anger Vanarak swung his free hand upwards attempting to simply grab the legs of The Guardian and slam her against the ground. Before finally taking several steps back. Dropping his axe and using his right hand to cover his face while the left tugged at his horn "Argh! No- uhh"

Vanarak fell to his knees, It was his mind fighting against his every bit of survival instinct. Every fiber of his body yelled at him to pick up his axe and swing it until nothing would dare to oppose him, Until nothing could oppose him. But he couldn't. Something was far too wrong.

I am in Control, I'm not a beast, I'm not a monster!

Drake swore he would have been gored had it not been for Alexander throwing the bull's attack off. Oddly enough, it seemed even the professional knight of noble stead hadn't landed a good blow. He could see the Avian try to orient himself after the attack, clearly off balance from something.

The bull Therian stumbled and turned away as dark magic impacted him from Nyx accompanied by some other stranger he hadn't seen with them before. Wherever she came from, her help was welcome.

Drake frowned as Vanarak began to stumble away from them and drop his axe. The beast roared and mumbled to himself while tugging his horn and clawing at his face. Perhaps the saying that bulls see red held more truth to it than probably the entire party wanted to admit.

Part of the Corsair wanted to drop everything and run to see what became of Lailah, if she even managed to hold on somehow or not. He glanced in her direction and found blue aura around her body projected by some sort of fairy. He had seen the fae associate with Yevoc previously, though it was a minute detail he had simply shrugged off to focus on more important things like an entire goblin village controlled by an ice troll with glowing eyes. Regardless, satisfied that Lailah was at least being tended to in some way Drake turned to Vanarak the Therian bull and watched him like a hawk, bloodied sword in hand. Anything else, even the pleas of another fae present for them to stop, simply melted into background noise as the sound of his thumping heart filled his ears and the hoarse, angered breathing of the Therian continued to puff out in a visible mist due to the cold. The moment it made a move he didn't like, he'd pounce.

Lailah's mangled form spurted blood and twitched every few seconds. The young noble to drift in and out of consciousness, completely numb to pain in her state. Everything seemed so cold and dark...

Then, slowly, warmth came upon her. She could not see, hear, or comprehend where or why this warmth came about. All she knew was that it was a most pleasant feeling, akin to taking a rose scented bath. A sensation which washed away all woes and worries. Vaguely, in the back of her mind, she could hear the clashing of steel, the shattering of earth, and some hot-blooded shouting. The knight in her urged her to wake up and help, yet...

I'm sure Alexander, Captain Drake, and the others are more than capable of taking care of it...," she thought, her lips curling into a slight smile as Ash's blue light gradually restored her face.

So much was going on around him, Ash was finding it hard to concentrate. The bull seemed to be settling down, though not at all calm. A new avian seemed to appear out of nowhere and was helping the others for which he was grateful. He could sense that Lailah was beginning to wake but he wasn’t finished healing her yet. He knew he had to speed up the process and the blood that had pooled in the crater began to flow from the crater back into the few open wounds that remained like a waterfall going in reverse. Ash knew the blood would help her to regain her strength. After all the blood had gone back into her there was nothing more he could do, she was healed but she had to wake up on her own. He took her back to the cave to get away from the bull should he decide to go on a rampage again. He set her down gently. “Hey, uh… girl, you need to wake up. We’re not exactly in a safe place right now.” He spoke as he shook her shoulders in an attempt to wake her up.

Yevoc was following the trail of dust as quickly as he could before it dissipated. He managed to get to the center of Frosthiem before it completely vanished. Luckily, he saw that the trail had led directly to an old cemetery and seemed to end abruptly at a plain looking headstone. As he walked through the city he was met with stares, muffled gasps, pointing and whispering. He had almost forgotten the fact that he was royalty until these people began to make a big deal out of seeing one of eleven princes of Polara. Before he could get to the gate of the cemetery, he was already swarmed by a mob of people. “Okay, look everyone, I need you all to back off of me.” He began to shout in order to be heard. “I have some important business to take care of, but afterward I will sign autographs and answer all the questions you want. Just let me do what I have to do first. Please go back to your daily routines.”

Barrelling towards the wild bull, Alexander was taken completely by surprise when he felt a hitherto unseen projectile slam into him like a sack of potatoes. While the force of the blow did not stop him outright, it did stagger him enough that his charge veered off course, only able to strike a glancing blow at the Therian, if that.

Briefly glancing round to try and see what on earth had hit him, the sky knight saw that Nyx was now up and about and trying to subdue the minotaur despite breaking her leg mere minutes ago. The dark elf was also accompanied by a robed Avian woman. Latecomer to the bounty or not, the extra help was most welcome.

The winged maiden landed a most palpable hit on the Therian's head, and Alexander hefted his greatsword in preparation for making a killing blow when the bull fell to his knees, covering his face and tugging at one horn. Confusion overrode anger as Alexander held back, though he didn't dare relax his stance. As had only recently been proven, even a momentary lapse in concentration can prove fatal.

Vanarak's mind was in a complete uproar. What was he supposed to do!? His thoughts melded with each other. Would they try to kill him? Should he let them? And then that bubbling rage inside him. Vanarak knew that even if he was to decide on letting the people kill him then his mad part would take control. He would fight to survive, no matter what. He unconsciously reached towards the axe, receiving killing glances from both Drake and Alexander. He muttered a quiet apology as his hands grasped the axe. So this is how it's supposed to be?

His eyes focused, there was more than his attackers. His eyes suddenly fixating on the small woman approaching him, Tikal. His left hand still partly covering his face as she begun to talk with him. Vanny? Vanarak was about to release a small chuckle as the grip on his axe was reminded. The bubbling inside his chest feeling like a volcano just about to explode. He hefted the axe upwards, The visage of Tikal was growing blurry, everything turning slightly reddish.

A gentle tune penetrated his mind. His head was completely blank, just that lone tune wandering throughout him. It was... soothing. Just before everything blew, he had no control of his arm as he overhead swung it directly infront of him with enough power to jam it into the ground. Missing Tikal with a few centimeters.

Vanarak loosened the grip on his axe falling backwards. Sitting himself down in the snow. His head hanging lowly downwards, like a shamed animal. His mind was gently reforming his thoughts. The soft tune working its way throughout him. Vanarak's first thought was the simple one that he had never felt more relaxed.

He wanted to thank Tikal, He wanted to check on the girl. He wanted to apologize to the warriors and he wanted to act imposing to the Avian who had hit him. But he really couldn't attempt to move. And in all honestly, that was rather nice.