Sha Li's Story

A girl around the age of 17 appeared by Tahlia as she exited the portal. She made her way to the the main gate. She wore her full mage armor and staff embedded with a shining blue crystal. She looked around nervously the was going to be her first real battle. Walking over to Tahlia she pulled herself together.

"Tahlia Where do you need me?" She asked. Her shield was strapped on one arm and she held her small staff in the other. She knew the general plan for the cities defense but she wasn't sure where would be the best position for her to defend.

The troops of guardsmen were met by the blackened eyes of the rampant Hollows. Throughout the cluster some of the creatures could be seen opening their mouth, in which mono-colored balls of energy took form. Seconds later, they exploded into wide beams capable of disintegrating most substances. The columns of energy, known as Cero, were aimed toward the mighty gates of Windcrest, and the guards that lined the exterior.

The remaining Hollows increased their pace by entering a fearless charge to close the remaining distance between them and their prey. They converged on the ground units, grabbing or swinging at them with any appendage capable of killing them. The Hollows were growing in number. As the seconds passed more and more entered the Living World via tunnel created by their Garganta.

---

There was a crackle of lightning in the sky that dissipated horizontally, revealing a shoji hovering above the battlefield.

The gate's doors swung open, and when the brilliant rays from within started to fade, the tattooed Shinigami known by Kaen was standing inside. As the Senkaimon dispelled, Kaen surveyed the area. Not normal for this many Hollow to be in one area. He shrugged his shoulders while descending, "No problem."

The 'shing' produced by his Wakizashi-style Zanpakutō exiting its sheathe rang against his drum. He advanced with utmost confidence, seeming to push off the air with his foot as if it were solid. Swiftly maneuvering out of a Hollow's grasp, he delivered the finishing blow via downward strike to its mask. The resulting blow released a stream of dark blood that dissipated shortly after along with the felled Hollow.

Translucent figure becoming more solid, the dully glowing eyes of Joshua Moon swept to take in Windcrest at the sound of horns. More specifically, at the battle raging at the end of the bridge where spectral monstrosities were attempting to overrun the defenses. He would have kept walking, but for the heating of a mark placed on him by the one who'd given him his charge.

"Bloody hell. And after that journey?"

It seemed he would not be merely ignoring the battle, this time. Changing course, the spirit focused his energies, essence boiling and forming into a ghostly rifle. As he began to glide forward, however, the heavy rounds it fired in chilling silence were anything but intangible. A hollow near the lead had its head virtually blown off, the round dissipating into glowing smoke as it passed through and into the air. Another lost a leg and hand as they aligned at the bullet's impact. And still he fired into the mass, the scarf that covered his face hiding the grim scowl on his face. Shots hammered into the fiends to devastating effect as he continued to advance, then began to drift away from the point of origins to skim out over the chasm, raising himself higher in the air as only a ghost could.

Holy light flared around him, bleeding from the bridge's consecrated ground to assault him. Dark essence writhed in answer, thrusting the aura from him with equal ferocity. A paladin was evidently active, and his dark-tainted spirit was drawing just as much power to him as the damned hollows. The distraction was manifold as he was forced to beat at Kushin's grasping persona, making several shots he fired miss completely.

"Hurry the fuck up and die already, you pale imitations." Josh snarled with the cold fury of the assassin he once had been.

After having arrived in Windcrest via its portals, Achaeos flew through the city streets, startling the few civilians who spotted the translucent wispy form of a fox speeding through their number. Within the spirit realm, where he travelled in truth, activity was at a peak. The sky above twisted and flowed like a tropical storm, spurred into a hurricane of unearthly light and mist by the portal between the realms.

Achaeos bounded in a single leap from the city streets onto the walls, pausing for a moment to gaze across the bridge at the battle beginning in earnest below. The soldiers on the wall stepped back to give the ethereal fox space. To his eyes they were nothing more than hovering wisps of light, their souls given form in the spirit world.

The hollows, as they were called, were visible to him filing towards their portal. When they passed through they took on a more ethereal shape, much as he appeared to the soldiers. Once more the fox leaped. In the air his tail split, becoming nine as he landed on the bridge before Shelby and sped forwards. He passed through the hollows that had already moved into the mortal realm, intangible to them due to his physical form being within the spirit world, until he reached the portal.

The nine-tailed fox darted between the line of hollows and their access portal to the world, flames sparking from his tails and bursting towards them in a nova of bright blue spiritfire, easily enough to incinerate most spirits and harm even more powerful ones. He scored a line before them, cutting them off from their access to the mortal realm and stood proudly, challenging them.

"Return to your rest, spirits." The fox intoned, "The mortal realm is not your place. I will not hesitate to strike you down should you attempt to pass."

As the creatures mouths opened, the knights moved in unison to raise their shields and stand in a protective line. One could almost feel the hum of energy off them as the beams lanced forth to strike against the row of defenders.

The beams that were unleashed upon the knights didn't reach their mark as they instead met an unseen barrier only inches in front of the shields. The beams that passed overhead struck the walls and caused the ground to tremble as bits of stone rained down - but the walls held. Laced with the adamantium that the mountain was rich in and imbued with the protective enchantments of the Patronus - it would take sustained damage to bring them down.

Some of the men along the wall heights were dislodged from their positions though, and others fell beneath the Hollow's attacks. The majority though were well prepared to return fire.

When the Hollow rushed forward to meet the Knights of Le'thorian they would find themselves bottlenecked at the mouth of the bridge as the knights lowered their shields and engaged the front line of Hollow in combat. In the close melee, the Hollow could no longer utilize their beams of focused energy efficiently without doing as much damage to themselves as their enemies which shifted the advantage to the knights who rend their foes with fierce intent. Their purpose though was only to stem the attack so that those upon the wall could thin the numbers choked up on the bridge.

The Hollow that were unable to progress across the bridge past the Knights of Le'thorian were sitting targets as those upon the wall unleashed a torrent of attacks back down into their masses. Gunshots echoed alongside more primitive weaponry, and flashes of light seared into the Hollow as they were engulfed in a volley of fire, ice, and lightning from elementalists.

Unfortunately the new arrivals, Kaen, and the kitsune Achaeos would be equally caught up in this volley as they were not among the line of defenders. Wading into the horde of Hollow alone had left them both right in the line of fire from both sides of the battle - one of the worst places to be when a city is under siege as it left one at a very high risk of being struck by friendly fire.

Shelby was at the heart of the violent combat at the mouth of the bridge, and each blow that the Hollow's struck against her shield was another bone numbing impact. With Le'thorian's light and the consecrated ground to weaken and dull the blows, what should have broken bones served only to momentarily knock her off balance.

Many of the Hollow fell beneath the wide arc of her sword as it left glowing rends in the bodies of the abominations before the light simply engulfed them in their entirety, and her men at either side of her fought with a matching level of grim fierceness.

Adriaan ducked beneath the wild swing of a Hollow before leaping forward with a powerful stroke of his wings to close the distance between him and it. Driven by the force of his momentum he drove a spiked gauntlet into the creature which dissipated even as the Adriaan's momentum carried him past where the abomination had been standing moments before.

It was with inhuman grace and agility that the avorian monk ducked and weaved his way through each new assault that was thrown his way with little restraint behind his retaliatory blows.

As one of the Hollows opened its mouth to unleash a beam at him - he threw his gauntlets up in front of his face and the volarian steel took the blow as he was skidded back several feet across the icy ground.

The gauntlets held up under the assault, but his clothes and feathers were a bit singed for his efforts. As the beam subsided, Adriaan launched forward once more, this time his feet no longer gracing the ground as he drove his spiked gauntlet through the mouth of the Hollow as it attempted to open it once more.

There seemed to be a steady stream of the creatures arriving, but the purpose of those defending the gates was only to hold the line while the men on the walls did the heavy damage.

While the battle was getting underway Rynhart and several others of the Patronus appeared inside of the garrison within the city where the portal room at the Patronus temple linked up with Windcrest.

As they swept out into the streets Rynhart approached Tahlia to get debriefed on the situation.

Kaen's form was a blur as he moved throughout the horde of hollows, cutting down any that dared step into his path. He showed no worry of being caught in the crossfire, his mastery of Shunpo allowing him to bridge the distance between he and his adversaries in a moment's notice. Upon reaching the other end of the bridge, he fixed his gaze on the large portal floating just above the ground.

So that's where there coming from.. Kaen shunpo'd forward, disappearing into the rift in space-time. Once on the other side, he noticed the cat-like male who blocked the Hollows' path. "They're past the point of rest." he objected, "The only option is purification."

As expected, the Hollows had no intention of abiding by the Kitsune's request, and likely didn't understand him. Instead they were met by a volley of small-scale Cero that moved with considerable speed. The former 3rd Division Captain dashed forward, flickering past the minatory beams fired at him. A series of rapid strokes of his blade created several crescent-shaped waves of energy which, upon contact with the hollows, produced a violent explosion. The surrounding scenery was painted with their charred remains.

"Hmph, and I haven't even broken a sweat!" he shouted, looking back to Aecheos with a cheerful grin.

---

Many of the Hollow fell to the defenders' barrage of magic and gunfire, left severely mangled or completely destroyed by the counter-attack. Those that remained however stuck to their original tasks: those in front engaging the ground soldiers while the ones who remained behind bombarded the city wall with cero of varying intensity. Although weakest and least intelligent, these class of Hollow still put up a thrilling fight.

It seemed that they were capable of learning, however. For instead of firing randomly at the fortified wall, they focused on the Knights that lined the tops; the width of their cero capable of engulfing several in its lethal rays. Sieging the city would be a lot easier without the constant assault of pesky protectors.

Located as he was within the spirit realm, the insubstantial barely visible form of Achaeos was unharmed by the crossfire from the soldiers on the wall and the hollows already passed into the mortal realm. The attacks were not even visible or audible to him. Behind him on the bridge the hollows, knights and defenders on the wall were little more than wisps of light representing their souls. Occasionally one dissipated and drifted away towards whatever afterlife they were destined for, or flickered out altogether.

His presence in the alternate realm, of course, made it difficult to communicate with him. The fox did not hear Kaen's words, nor see him as more than another wisp. Leaping and bounding upwards, springing off the air as though it were solid ground, he wove his way out of the path of the attacks launched at him.

Fire again burst from his tails and swept through the crowd, each lick of soulflame incinerating the very essence of the hollows it touched. The line of flame he had scored between the hollows and the portal remained constant, largely cutting the flow of reinforcements to the siege in the mortal realm off until they found a way to circumvent it or dissipate it.

Tahlia looked to Sha Li and then to the walls. The girl's talents with lightning made for good offensive capabilities, but also a high risk of friendly fire in confined spaces.

"Help man the walls," she finally decided.

The girl would be able to do more damage up there in the open with the other elementalists than down here in the streets if the Hollow made it inside the walls.

As Rynhart swept over with a number of patroni in tow Tahlia moved to speak with him, gesturing occasionally to the front gates.

"There wasn't much warning, they just came out of nowhere," she told him. "But the walls are holding, and casualties are minimal. It's unlikely they'll breach the walls. It's almost like running drills," she remarked with a roll of her eyes. "You would think this far north that these things would be less common. What do you suppose it'll be next week?" she asked with amusement.

Rynhart shook his head as he moved past Tahlia, pausing only to clamp a supportive hand on her shoulder. "Good work," he told her before he moved to join the walls where he could survey the battle for himself. He was more inclined towards melee combat, but his presence was good for those manning the walls as he joined them up above the city to watch the events below.

Sha Li could hear the sounds of battle as she waited for Tahlia's orders. She had faith in the knights on the bridge but she started to notice that the hollowed attacks were sweeping at the knights on the walls and not the walls themselves. I guess these things aren't completely mindless drones. She thought.

"Alright I'll head right up there." Sha said as she took off in a sprint up the stairs to the walls. She could see more clearly up here she looked at the hoard fighting the knights but she didn't want to risk the chance of her lightning hitting them. She set her eyes on the Hollows that were bombarding the walls and the defenders ontop of them. Raising her staff to the sky she focused as she called down two bolts of lightning from the clouds above. If successful two of the besiegers would be hit, she opted to call down natural lightning for now to save her staffs power for close range. Plus she knew the natural lightning was much more powerful and easier to call down than generating her own.

Jon stepped out from behind the group, undoing the straps upon the sheath on his back as he gave Tahlia and Rynhart a mocking salute, his steps taking him towards the knights as he pulled out his sword, sweeping it in a testing circle with a disappointed look.

The satyr stopped and slammed the tip of his overlarge sword into the ground beneath him, leaning on his hilt and taking a flask from his belt. The satyr tipped his head back and poured something golden brown down his gullet. The satyr threw the empty flask on the ground.

Jon swept his sword up and to his shoulders, giving the knights around him a few smiles and did his damnedest best not to interrupt the groups stuck in fighting, eventually he saw some of the strange creatures not currently engaged in biting, clawing or getting stabbed.

Jon shoulder charged in, throwing his sword in cleaves, he wasn't so much as swinging the sword, it was the sword that was taking him for a ride. It was time to live up the name of Talren's bloody heroes.

More and more people were coming to join the party. At least Josh had managed Kushin, hissing through the link between them threats of getting chained at the bottom of the chasm he stood over by Taima. The power struggle had subsided after that.

On the other hand, it seemed bullets were starting to lose effect, and besides, friendly fire was now an issue. Now that's a term I've never thought before. Worrying about shooting someone on my side? Not even in life.

Time for a change of pace, though Josh snarled as he drifted closer to the bridge where the core of the fighting was taking place. The rifle in hands smoked and seethed, altering into a long, hand and a half blade, and though the holy light flared brighter and his own aura of dark essence boiled with more fury in response, the speed at which the manifestation occurred was just as quick as it ever was. Kushin was the only reason the consecration only slowed Josh, and not drained his power.

After all, as far as undead went, they were tougher than most. Taking a point hovering near the edge, Josh "stepped" into his place at the front of the melee, and went into motion. The sword whipped in and out of the melee as if it were quicksilver, biting deeply into arms, legs, torsos, faces. His presence, though precisely why he didn't bother guessing, seemed to turn the heads of several nearby Hollows his way.

On in particular slithered through the mass with startling speed, masked face yawning wide to bite him as he struck a blow on yet another of its kind. It's only answer from Josh was a flash of Kushin, gleeful fury evident as with monstrous strength and fingers that coiled into talons, he thrust his arm into that maw and ripped its face head off at the top of the spine before casting it away. The change was just that, a tapping of the other as he set back into the mass.

To Jon's side, another member of the Patroni stepped forwards with him as he swung his greatsword mightily through the bizarre undead creatures. Clad from head to toe in armour of black-and-gold, Anria's towering, imposing figure stood fearlessly on the front line bearing her halberd. "Good swinging arm, satyr!" she boomed heartily, grinning beneath her helm, "Or should I be complimenting your sword on how well it bears you?"

She chuckled deeply, swinging the blade of her weapon around to carve into an approaching enemy. When she made contact a small crack of thunder accompanied a flash of lightning that launched the thing backwards into a smoking heap. "As this land's sports fans might say," she quipped, "Four!"

Pausing in consideration, the warrior tilted her head, "Though I'm still not quite sure why they say it."

Any further remarks were to be lost to the battle as Anria made her way fully into the fray

Shelby took note of the arrival of Jon and Anria whom had joined the ranks of her knights. Their presence meant that Rynhart had sent reinforcements from the temple, a fact that further bolstered morale for the city defenders.

She glanced overhead and for a moment spotted him there atop the walls before another Hollow was upon her. She slammed her shield against the swing of one of its appendages before driving her sword down through its head and mask - splitting both in two.

Between the Knights of Le'thorian and the Patronus, the city was in good hands it would seem - as usual.

"Hey, hey Elante," Aeryn called across to his partner as they moved through the air towards the battle at Windcrest's gates. "What's the difference between the bell going off on a grandfather clock and an attack on Windcrest?"

Looking across at Aeryn, Elante raised a questioning eyebrow. "Alright, I'll bite. What?"

"One happens repetitively like clockwork after predictable intervals, can be a minor annoyance if it wakes you up and is never more than a short wait off," the silvis replied, "And the other is the bell on a grandfather clock."

Elante chuckled lightly, rolling his eyes at the joke. "Not the best analogy you've ever come up with," he remarked, "But fairly accurate. I could probably do a statistics study on it and come up with a way to set my watch to the warhorns of the knights sounding the alarm."

Carried upon the currents of wind channeled through the elemental bracers on Elante's arms, the two soared over the walls and came to a halt a distance above the battlefield to look out on the fighting below.

The celestial mage placed his hand on Aeryn's shoulder and a flood of empowering magic moved into him, surrounding him with a protective aura and strengthening him notably. "I'll let you do the honours. Knock yourself out down there."

Grinning broadly, Aeryn gave Elante a kiss to the cheek. "You know me so well. Stay safe up here, watch for death lasers." he said, winking before he dropped into a dive. He landed deep in the fray, near where Kaen was fighting, scattering the hollows like bowling pins with a burst of silverite energy. Straightening, he cracked his neck and whistled, "I love it when there's a lot of them. Mooks make for a lot of satisfying pummelling."

Meanwhile back up on the walls, the defenders were better prepared this time for the beams of cero that lanced across the crenelated heights of the city once more. This time the attacks were met with protective spells and shimmering arcane shields that ran along the length of the wall to absorb the impacts, and a small number of mages could be seen at key intervals of the wall murmuring their defensive incantations in unison. They remained safely behind the row of defenders still volleying their weapons and offensive spells into the Hollow below.

As the Patronus assembled on the wall to join the other defenders of Windcrest, one amongst them turned her attention to what seemed to be the root of the problem. Stepping forwards to Rynhart's side, the pale and slightly luminescent Aiedai gestured out towards the far side of the bridge where the portal through which the hollows were emerging lay.

"We can see the tear between this realm and theirs," she said, "We will work to end it. It is within our power. We will require protection from interruption while we work."

Rynhart only nodded briefly in response, trusting in the woman to be capable of fullfilling such a task. He turned his attention to the ground fighting below, but the horde of Hollow appeared to be thinning, and it would seem that the situation was well in hand.

Aiedai took a breath and allowed her consciousness to slip away from her immediate surroundings, focusing on reaching out to the portal. The star spirits within her reached with her, and with their power she was able to grasp at it. Slowly, threads of silvery light began to draw shut the tear between the realms, weaving in elegant criss-crossing patterns.

It would take time to shut fully, but already the hollows that made it past Achaeos would find the border between their home and Windcrest to be more difficult to cross. In the meantime, Aiedai remained still, eyes whited out with an ethereal glow and unaware of anything going on around her.

Off to the side, leaning on the battlements, Talren peered down into the mess of fighting. The elf wore a slightly bored expression on his face, and though his bow was held in his grip he didn't show any interest in actually firing it. "I should've just stayed back at the temple and finished my bloody card game," he remarked, "Who attacks the bloody fortress city where all the heroes hang out?" he rolled his eyes and snorted. "Well, apparently everyone. All the time. Surely there must be a village they can pillage more conveniently..."

"It would not serve to grow lax in vigil," Rynhart replied. There was a certain lack of sincerity to his words though, and even Rynhart seemed to find these matters little more than an inconvenience. "The field experience is good for the less experienced of the order."

"You could probably start just skipping drills altogether. One of these days you'll start running drills and by the time you're done there'll already be an actual attack going on." Talren said, flicking a pebble off of the edge of the wall down into the trench surrounding the city. "Either that or you should start running drills for the eventuality that we go a week without being attacked. I'm not sure any of us know what we'd do in that circumstance."

Rynhart couldn't help the low chuckle that Talren's words drew out of the normally pensive swordsmaster.

The large Gillian class Hollows proved to be no match for those who rallied to defend Windcrest; what with their slowness and low intellect. Soon they fell one by one, the immense size threatening to crush guardsmen and Hollow alike. All that remained were a handful of Adjuchas who successfully survived the powerful counter-attack. The creatures varied greatly in appearance; some resembling stocky humanoids while others were animal-like. These greater Menos traversed the battlefield with startling speed, hacking and pummeling any guards in their way.

Unlike the Gillians, the touch of Adjuchas is caustic; capable of corroding any organic tissue they came in contact with. This combined with their intelligence, speed, and overwhelming strength made them a more serious threat. They engaged those called to defend with intense aggression, attempting to overwhelm them with a litany of blows. The metallic shing of Kaen's Wakizashi sliding into its scabbard rang against his eardrum. He suddenly flickered from view, only to reappear in the path of a dashing Adjucha with a retracted fist. The former captain hurled his arm forward, transferring the gathered momentum into his fist. The resulting contact caused an ample amount of focused Reiatsu to burst outward and rip apart his target's abdomen. "Ikkotsu." After having its torso destroyed the mangled remains of the Menos were flung backward, leaving friction with the ground to slow the corpse to a stop.

It felt good to do that. He thought to himself before turning his head to Aeryn. "Mooks you call 'em?!" he shouted, "Fitting name!" Kaen ducked under a razor sharp claw swung at him and raised one hand toward two approaching Menos.

"Hado number thirty-one, Shakkahō." The area around them served as fuel for the perilously fervent flames manifested by his incantation. The fire sprang from the swirling ball of heat before quickly expanding into a pillar that incinerated a single side of each of them; leaving a blackened muss of melted flesh.

With the added assistance of the newly arrived the remaining Adjuchas began to steadily dwindle until all had been slain. Just in time, it seemed. Kaen stood upright after the threat had been eliminated, scanning the field with honey optics. "'Gonna have to start charging these Hollows," he jested, 'They're getting more of a workout than me." The jaunty Shinigami dusted himself off while shifting his gaze to the warriors who caught his attention during the battle. The Paladin and Monk, Anria, Aeryn,the Kitsune and Jon.