Nyx Sadow's Story

Nyx calmly walked in the wake of the bull's pain train stabbing or blasting any goblin that managed to escape the bull's wrath. Soon she came to the room with the others seeing the troll sitting there dark magic filling it's eyes.
" Something or someone very dark is controlling this thing..But even if we free it I don't think it will be friends we will have to kill the creature ethier way... That said he would be easier to kill without the dark magic. If we can identify the source of the magic I could use my invisibility to take it out without alerting the troll."

Vanarak stopped his mad march, Sending the few goblins still clinging onto his weapon flying into the room, smashing themself into small green piles. He shoved his hoof down into the ground spinning on the spot prepared to take out the goblins who would probably have escaped his charge and surrounded him. Curiously enough, there were none. A ragtag bunch of people was behind him, steadfastly covering his back. Even with the terrifying red mist that had descended upon his mind he couldn't help but feel slightly, Strange at the sight. He was being protected...

But that wouldn't last long if his rage took control, The stench of death was so palpable and it was driving him crazy. It would be clear to anyone even remotely good at reading people how much menace he was exuding. Vanarak's eyes were frantically darting around when he finally noticed the fairy clinging onto his shoulder, Tikal. His expression easing slightly.

Following her eyes he managed to gaze through the rage, seeing the troll just inside the room. He truly was a big one. The people around Vanarak were saying something about it, But Vanarak couldn't possibly attempt to listen to them in this state. All he could focus on was the intimidating figure sitting down in the middle of the room, A low, primal growl escaping him.

Vanarak spun back around, facing the room and glancing slightly towards Tikal. He then raised his free hand and quite brashly brushed her off. Well, Gentle wasn't really his mindset right now. And it was more of a miracle that Vanarak still had enough sense to attempt to remove her. Becuse now all of his being was focused on the troll, He had acquired a target. The target for his rage, Something he could safely lose control on.

Vanarak let out a loud booming yell, Like that which a wild beast would do. And then set off again, Running straight through the room, His hooves piercing and kicking up the stone floor. The goblins who still guarded the Troll seemed to have learned a lesson since all of them dived out of the way. Screeching angrily as he passed by. The troll sat still on his large throne. The wierd glow in it's eyes barely focusing on him. Vanarak took one large leap, Taking his axe in both hands aiming directly at it's forehead. It still hadn't moved.

One quick swing, It was no normal movement. No being of that size should be able to move at that speed. The troll had simply leaned down it's arm, Grabbing a large club. The entire thing made completely out of metal and swung it against Vanarak. At a speed which made it impossible for him to even react. The move itself was terrifying, The troll displayed an impossible amount of strength and speed. Swatting Vanarak straight out of the air, Flinging him trough the entire room. Hitting the right wall with an alarming sound of stone breaking underneath him. He hit the ground afterwards, Giving one large exhale as his axe tumbled clumsily out of his hand. The troll displayed no emotion as he remained on the throne

(I did a mistake here, If you haven't read on the forums then this is supposed to take place outside of the cave inside a goblin village. Vanarak instead crashing into a wodden hut. The charge instead a grand jump down from the cave into the village))

In any other normal circumstance the noblegirl's slip would have frozen Drake solid in place. This was no time to go rigid with shock. Drake ignored her slip. For now.

He slashed and stabbed, rent and tore, and kicked and punched his way through the green masses. The goblin force began to seemingly melt away as everyone present took part in the fighting. Each was an exceptional fighter in their own right. Drake couldn't help but notice each individual as they worked through their green skinned foes. Lailah, the noblegirl, stabbed through goblins like a human bullet. Alexander the Avian fought on with his sword and wings. Nyx vaporized the back line with daggers and dark magic. The Snow Elf prince apparently had some fancy ice magic-imbued blades he put to great use. And finally, the massive white bull, whomever he was, cleaved through swathes of goblins.

Most of the greenskins began to fall back, either under order of the troll or by their own volition, deciding suddenly that their life was worth a lot more. Either way, the enemy ranks thinned. The Corsair finished off the last goblin nearest to him, sliding his dagger out from between two of its ribs, feeling the metal glide through flesh by proxy of his handle. He watched as the figure slumped to the ground and turned to locate the rest of his allies. Temporary allies, he reminded himself.

The loudest roar he'd likely ever heard suddenly sounded nearby. He flinched at the sound and looked towards its source. The Therian was apparently in some sort of rage. Given the amount of arrows the goblins had peppered him with earlier, Drake didn't exactly blame him. But then he charged. The ex-pirate looked to where he was heading and found the troll who he oddly hadn't noticed earlier. The creature sat upon some sort of throne in the center of the village. He was big, mean-looking, and apparently had some sort of purple contacts- Ohhhhhhhh. He's totally being controlled by someone.

Upon that realization, Drake watched in horror as the troll swatted the Therian away with the effort it took a human being to simply shoo away a fly. Once again, his jaw dropped. Perhaps now was the time to start distracting the troll with Alexander and Nyx's skills.

Yevoc watched on in horror as the troll swatted Vanarak across the village into a hut, smashing it to pieces. The Dark Elf picking up on the magic enchantment controlling the troll as well as the other fairy. “I can barely trace the enchantment. Whatever is controlling him seems to be in Frosthiem. I can’t place the exact location, though.” Ash called out to the two of them. “We can’t teleport if we don’t know where we’re going. We’re going to have to take this thing out, but we’re all going to have to work together.”
Without waiting for the others to finish with the goblins, Yevoc pointed both his blades at the troll and began to unleash his full fury through his blades. Yevoc’s eyes went from silver to glowing a pale blue and his whole body began to glow with an aura of the same color. He let out a primal yell as he blasted at the troll. The beams blasting from his blades went from blue to pure white. One beam was focused on the troll’s upper body, the other on his legs. The troll was soon completely encased in a solid block of ice except for his head, freezing him to the throne on which he was sitting. “I’m not sure how long that will hold him, so we better take him out while we can.”

At this point the bulk of the goblin horde had either been butchered by Alexander and the others, or had fled the field of battle. All that was left was to face their troll leader in glorious battle. A troll whose eyes exhibited clear signs of some sort of mind control of possession. Readying his sword and advancing cautiously, he took note of the Therian berserker making a wild charge at the troll, only to be casually knocked aside almost immediately. The sky knight knew from experience that a head-on attack would be sheer folly. What they needed was a distraction.

A distraction that came in the form of the elf prince, channelling his ice magic to encase its body, preventing it from striking anyone else, at least for a short while. Alexander saw his chance. The light of battle seemed to gleam in his helmet's optics. Taking a run up, he made a soaring leap, his wings able to carry him despite the weight of his armour. As he passed by the brute, he took a swing at its unprotected head with his magic-enhanced sword, the momentum carrying him past the troll and landing behind it. Without hesitation, he went on the attack once more, taking a flying leap past to make another swing with the glowing greatsword.

Lailah watched with awe as Prince Yevoc displayed the raw power of his enchanted blades, encasing the troll from torso to toe in pure ice, and creating an opening which Alexander proceeded to take advantage of. The Sky Knight dashed through the air, unencumbered by his heavy armor, and delivered two heavy blows with his greatsword. The blue eyed fencer stood completely still, entranced by the sight. Like a knight in shining armor, straight out of the storybooks....

The noble girl glanced to Captain Drake and pouted. "Goodness! Those two are already superhuman without their enchanted blades. It's hardly sporting," she half-jokingly complained.

Quickly, her expression turned serious once more. Lailah stood straight, her heels pressed against one another. With her head down, her eyes closed, and her blade held in front of her face, the fencer solemnly prayed, "May the Gods bring rest upon your poor soul!"

Like a mortar, the fencer launched through the air, her cape fluttering like a flag. Lailah flipped and stopped for a split second above the troll's head, pointing her side sword straight down.

And with a bellowing battle cry, she dived straight down.

"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"

Like a mighty spear, the thin blade sank deep and straight into the troll's skull, with Lailah's feet firmly upon the block of ice. A determined smirk formed upon fencer's face.

"I'm stronger than I look!" She claimed. Her hands balled into fists, and after bracing herself for another half second, Lailah pummeled the troll's head, bare handed, again and again and again, the noise of each crushing blow becoming wetter and squishier.

After the seventh blow, Lailah grabbed onto her sword's hilt, and with the might of her whole body, forcefully yanked it off, before flipping away to safety, a shower of blood trailing behind her.

Nyx soon joined the assault sending bolts of shadow at each of the the troll's eyes. The creature bellowed as Nyx teleported onto it's face. Stabbing her dagger into one eye she began to channel her dark magic.

" Reveal yourself!" She yelled attempt to use her magic to find the scorce of the thing contorling the troll. She twisted her dagger deeper into the troll's eye. "Shadows grant me sight!"

For a moment Nyx's eyes glazed over like the troll's as images flashed in her mind... Snow? Catacombs? A tomb? Nothing made sense. And then the vision stopped as the troll broke an arm free grabbing Nyx and tossing her. Nyx managed to use her power to avoid death but as she landed her leg went the wrong way with a sickening snap. Nyx screamed out grabbing her broken leg in pain.

It was now clear that the troll had been neutralized. What few goblins survived scurried off like roaches when the light was turned on. Yevoc immediately went to the side of the dark elf who had broken her leg when she fell. “That doesn’t look good. I’m gonna have to set it until we can get you to a healer in Frosthiem. This is gonna hurt.” Yevoc informed the elf. He pulled the leg back to its normal position before placing his hands just above the leg and encasing it in the equivalent of a cast made of ice. “This will also help to numb the pain and prevent swelling.”
“So what’s the plan now Snowflake?” Ash sneered after shrinking and landing on Yevoc’s shoulder. “Sure you killed the troll, but what about the reward? I heard there was quite the bounty on that now squishy head. Who gets to collect? Or do you really think that all of you can split it?”
“I don’t care about the damn reward, what I’m worried about is what was controlling that troll and why.” Yevoc snapped at the fairy. “So let the others worry about the reward, you and I are going to trace that enchantment back to where it came from and find out who was controlling the troll and what they’re really after.”
“You really know how to take the fun out adventuring. You’re so noble and boring.” He whined and stomped his foot.
“Cool it hot head.” He chuckled before pointing a finger at Ash and shooting a tiny blast of ice and snow at him. “Now get to tracking.”
“I’m a fairy not a bloodhound.”
“Well if you’re going to be tagging along with me, you’re going to make yourself useful. Or you could leave.”
“Fine.” Ash sighed as he waved his hand and a cloud of blue fairy dust filled the air and a path began to glow. “Follow the path and it should lead us to the source of the enchantment.”

Nyx grimaced as the snow elf set her leg "Thanks... Name's Nyx by the way" she said still in pain as she looked around seeing the troll dead and a frantic fairy trying to wake the bull.
Nyx listened to the snow elf and another fairy as she slowly stood leaning heavy on her good leg. She grimaced as she turned and looking at the snow elf said "The tombs..At least it looked like tombs the vision wasn't clear"

Alexander stood by, sword ready as ever, watching Lailah and Nyx finish the troll off. The sky knight was impressed by the noblewoman's strength and the dark elf's speed. Unfortunately the latter misjudged her landing and Alexander heard the snap of bone. He rushed to assist but the snow elf prince was nearer, setting the broken bone and forming a leg cast made of ice. Seeing that his presence would not be needed, he decided to see how Lailah was faring.

"Miss Lailah, are you all right? No major injuries that require attention?" he asked with a touch of concern. "I must say, I have never seen a noblewoman of all people fight with such skill. Or strength, for that matter..." While elves were well known for fighters who relied on their agility, it was quite strange to see a human perform feats of strength who lacked bulging biceps or an apparent magical or technological aid. Most curious...

It was... Dark, Vanarak had only left himself for a moment. He did not feel a single thing from the impact. Nothing at all. Simply because of the fact. There was nothing left in his body but that bubbling rage. In reality he had broken two ribs from the impact the club had made. But he was a minotaur, The ribs would cause nothing but pain and his anatomy would make it so that somebody would have to repeatedly puch him in the chest if they wished for one of the bones to penetrate his lungs. A large grunt eminated from the pile of wood before the different boards and rubble flew upwards like a volcano flying haphazardly around him.

He had stood directly up, Crashing both his arms around him, breaking planks in their way, and on instict grabbing the axe on his right. It was still perfectly fine. Another growl bellowed out from him, Like a wolf about to do a deadly trashing upon being forced into a corner. Vanarak had lost control. There had been cases where he had lost it even more than this, But this was still very bad. His eyes, now more animalistic than anything else, His vision was still blurry, only seeing movement around him. He rose up from the pile, swinging his axe in an arc towards Tikal, It was more of a a clumsy swat, Simply attempting to remove anything in his way. The strike did not have much hope to hit.

But Vanarak was in a charge, more blind and deadly than the earlier ones. He was running directly towards Alexander and Lailah, more just spurred by the big figure he could make out. On instict he did one of his favorite moves, grabbing his axe with both hands and doing a grand leap, Swinging the axe in a downwards arc towards both of them. The strike going for Alexander's shoulder and Lailah's chest.

If the strike was to miss or just cut through both of them then Vanarak's charge would continue, Rushing towards Drake, Attempting to simply grab him and slam him into the ground, hoping to just crack his neck in the process

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.