Dreadlords New Lessons[Fate]

[Rowley Stone]

Corvus did not know much about Edric's powers. He knew they guy could fight, otherwise, the Academy would not have sent him to beat people up. He had heard that he was nearly impossible to kill, but that might just be an exaggeration. He knew that he could make you feel cold like life was getting sucked out of you. Why? Because that was happening right now.

Until it wasn't, the cold feeling disappeared just long enough for Edric to suddenly conjure some sort of shield that pushed away at the winds. Ok, so maybe force fields were his things. He did not get long to wonder before he was tackled down to the floor.

Corvus ignored the pain in his chest, as he threw punches wildly at the rogue Dreadlord. All he wanted to do was hurt him. He had not begun to notice yet, but the wind was just starting to die down and he was a bit weaker, Edric's abilities finally started to show their work. And...

For the first time, a moment of clarity broke through as he realized, he was crying. He was still crying. Had he been crying this entire fight? Where was Cassi?

He would have looked around only for a punch to connect with his jaw. Corvus focused back on the fight as he threw another punch, calling all the winds he could to get this man off of him.

Edric Zaire

 

[Zaire]

He couldn’t believe their awful luck, or rather, he couldn’t believe his bad luck. It was supposed to be an easy mission! Keyword: easy!

Zaire was frozen, Cassi limply hanging off of his shoulder. Right before the initiate was Edric on top of Corvus. Together they looked like a cat that had finally pinned that pesky rat. Corvus was throwing punches but they were weak, nothing like the punches that Edric seemed to be throwing back at the initiate.

Out of reflex, he turned his head to the side when he noticed the tears in Corvus’ eyes— dreadlords, or initiates, weren’t supposed to cry.

A split second later, he was regretting that decision. Unsure whether to put Cassi down or to make the decision to leave with her and run away and hide, Zaire decided to do neither. His personal magic was only for support, and it seemed in this case it would do little to help Corvus defeat Edric. He thought of a spell, any spell that could do something, and came up with nothing.

His chest felt tight. At this moment, in his indecision, Zaire wanted to hide away from everyone in this stupid mansion.

Feeling breathless, Zaire rushed over to where Corvus and Edric were wrestling with one another, Cassi still over his shoulder, and aimed a kick to Edric’s side in hopes of getting him off of Corvus.

Edric Corvus Azura

 

[Edric]

Every blow, every impact of Corvus' blows upon his skin was like another shove forward.

The Initiate pressed him, pushed him further and further towards a cliff of red. Anger flickered through Edric, and every time Corvus struck him, every time another dash of wind pounded against his flesh Edric could not help but step closer to that edge.

It took him.

The innate and feral need to stop someone from hurting you. That bestial line.

His fists slammed into Corvus. Brutally and without the same forethought that he had given before. His knuckles struck crimson, his own or the Initiate's as the assault continued. Every strike as hard as could be, enough to fracture bone.

He would have continued.

Strike after strike until Corvus was nothing less than a bloody mass. Yet in the haze he still managed to see, was aware enough of a struggling Zaire finally finding his decision. The other Initiate's step thundered on the ancient treads of the hall, and just as Edric went to strike Corvus his hand redirected.

Head jerking up, fingers catching Zaire's shin just inches before it was due to strike his side. Snake like eyes locked with the Initiate's mismatched gaze. The stare of a feral beast, starved and at it’s edge looking up at him.

Then the wind struck Edric.

 

[Rowley Stone]

Corvus was too lost in his rage to realize when started losing, at some point, his punches just stopped stopping Edric. The first punch that came did not hurt as much as surprise him, but then came another and another, each one with plenty of strength beside it.

At some point, his right eye had swollen shut and he could feel blood gushing from his nose. Each new punch literally beat the energy out of him until the winds completely stopped. All that was left was the sound of Edric brutalizing him.

He did not care, this was how a failure should die. He failed the mission. He failed his teammate. Most importantly, he failed his sister. Corvus wants to close his eyes and let the darkness take him.

Then came the thunder of boots before Zaire was there. He could not see exactly what his fellow initiate had done, but the beating stopped. For just a brief moment there was silence. Then something clicked.

The yell that escaped Corvus' lips was the loudest, but no one heard it. The silence was suddenly ended by a forceful ball of wind that expanded out from him. It spread with the force of an incredible explosion, destroying everything it came across. Corvus felt like his body was breaking apart from this explosion of energy, but it kept going, he could no longer stop it.

Corvus wasn't sure when he was aware enough to think about it, but at the last second, a ball of wind wrapped around Zaire to try and protect him, and then...

The darkness took Corvus.

 

[Zaire]

His breath hitched right in his sternum, as if Edric’s hand was not gripping his shin but his neck instead. Fear was evident in his eyes, like a rabbit staring into the maw of a wolf. Zaire, no matter how much time he spent at the academy, wasn’t a fighter— not really, at least. He was always behind someone else, supporting them, amping their powers to the max and giving them the opportunity to fight at their prime (regardless if they where there yet.)

Corvus opened his mouth and a torrent of wind sucked both Zaire and Edric into it. Zaire held onto Cassi with both arms wrapped around her, pressing her so hard against his chest that he may have broken a rib of hers by accident. He closed his eyes tightly, gritting his teeth together as his whole entire world spun around them before he was suddenly launched back to crash into a wall.

The wind was knocked out of him and Zaire laid down on his back, sprawled among the debris. Eyes nearly as wide as mouth as he gasped for breath like a fish flopping along the deck of a fishing boat. His whole body felt hot with pain.

He realized that the warmth in his mouth that kept pooling up was blood, and he registered another sticky pool of warmth in a few other places. Cassi was still held to his chest but her head felt like a boulder that was trying to crush his lungs into a pancake.

Twitching like a bug, Zaire closed his eyes. His heart was pounding, in his chest and head and gut, and the more he focused on that, the more in tune he became with his body. He could feel it, the blood flowing through his veins. He could feel each breath fueling his heart, and soon enough he was no longer gasping for air.

Edric Corvus Azura

 

[Edric]

"Stupid, fucking useless kids."​

A voice broke through the din of the aftermath. Splinters and pieces of wreckage lay scattered all around them. Walls lay toppled, columns leaned left and right, beautiful paintings were scattered on the ground and torn. Ancient works of art that had been in the holdings of House Urr were completely destroyed.

Among the ruins walked the patriarch of House Urr. His face was a mess of cuts and bruises, a limp dragged his leg behind him, but he pushed through the wreckage still alive. His face was a contortion of emotions as he pushed aside another stack of rubble.

"Look at my house, my beautiful home. They were supposed to protect it-me!"​

A sound twisted the man's head, his lips thinning as he spotted something.

"YOU! This is your fault!"​

Quickly the man stalked over towards the figure he spotted in the rubble. A man, his chest pierced through with a piece of broken steel. Splinters of wood as long as ones forearm stabbing through his flesh, limbs broken and body a ragged doll.

A hand slapped over bodies face, the strike filled with rage.

"Serves you right you piece of fucking tr-"​

The man aimed to strike again, but his hand was caught in a vice like grip. The corpse hanging upon the piece of steel suddenly moving, It's eyes flickering open even as it stood pinned in place. Horror dawned on the man's face, he moved to take a step back.

Edric followed him.

The wound in his chest squelching as steel pulled through flesh.

"No. What the hell?! H-how?! Y-yo-you should be dead."​

Edric's head slowly cocked to the side, another step forward taken. His body pulling itself off the length of steel. Blood spurted from both ends of the wound, but slowly his flesh began to knit itself back together. The grip on the other man tightened, and fear took over the father of House Urr.

His voice echoed out, calling, screaming for someone to help him as his skin began to shrivel. The flesh on his face drawing tighter, and the life drawing from his form. Within seconds his cries turned to whimpers, and a minute later his body became little more than dust.

Blowing away upon the breeze. A loud clatter echoing out as the man’s rings and jewerly hit the floor.

For a second he stood there, aches and pains throbbing throughout the whole of his body. Splinters of wood still embedded within his flesh. He paused before leaning down, plucking one of the rings from the ground. Then, slowly Edric's head turned, searching as he stepped forward through the ruined building.

He began to explore, the pain still plaguing him, only finding what he was looking for after near an hour.

Three bodies.

All were pulled from the rubble, dragged from the ruined manor house and to the front gardens where a few flowers still bloomed. Edric pressed a finger to each of their foreheads, a simple touch. One that would be just enough to see them live.

Only then did he leave. Only then did he rip the splinters free from his flesh and allow himself to heal.

 

[Rowley Stone]

Corvus shot awake as he looked around for his sister. Yes, sister was first. He found her lying next to him, along with Zaire. His head whipped around as he looked for any sign of Edric. He was gone, and he did not need to do much looking to know that the noble was likely head. If it wasn't because of Edric then it was because of Corvus.

All three of them were lying in the bushes just outside the house...well, what remained of the house. The place had nearly been completely destroyed. Had he done that? He did not actually need to ask the question. The rage had blocked out most of the events but he could remember a little bit of it.

Corvus shook his head as he tried to ignore the imagery. He reached over and tried to wake Zaire up.

"Z-Zaire, are you awake?"

Oh, if he had not only lost his sister, but been the reason for one of his classmates' deaths...then he was better off dead.

Zaire

 

[Zaire]

Zaire was awake. Had been the entire time. He hadn’t passed out, even with the blood lost. Through his breathing techniques, and his magic, he had slowly began the process of regulating and healing his injuries. Yes, Zaire had been awake, and yes, he had pretended to be asleep the entire time.

Letting Edric accomplish whatever he had wanted— even if it meant the man of the mansion had died.

Zaire had let Edric move him, Corvus and Cassi without even flinching.

He had pretended to be limp in his hands, and remained still even as Edric had healed them.

Zaire was pretending to be asleep now, as Corvus moved like a old dog around him. He noted how he went to Cassi first, then him.

Truthfully, Zaire had wanted to keep pretending to be asleep— to deal with all of this in the morning.

“Yeah. I’m awake.” Zaire said, popping open a eye. “I wish I was wasn’t.”

Corvus Azura

 

[Rowley Stone]

Corvus expected to feel some sort of joy at seeing Zaire alive, but he didn't. He just felt numb...to everything. He was not angry, sad, or anything else. He was broken.

He nodded in acceptance before slowly pulling himself to his feet. A groan escaped his list, his body was tearing itself apart. Corvus suspects he had broken bones, torn muscles, and even worse damage. One would think that the pain he was suffering from would be the only thing he could focus on, but...

Everything was silent. Not literally, he could hear Zaire and the sounds of him dragging his feet across the ground, but it all felt empty. The connection that he always had with Cassi was gone like something was blocking it.

When he was little, he use to wake Cassi up by screaming into her head, which was always funny, but he knew it would not work now. It felt like a sixth sense that he had for his entire life was suddenly gone.

Sadness began to bubble up inside him and threatened tears, but he pushed it down.

"We need to get back and report all of this...Edric was not supposed to be here. They will want to figure out why he was."

Zaire

 

[Zaire]

A long, drawn out sigh was the only sound that came from Zaire. He wanted to tell Corvus who would even care? He also wanted to tell Corvus that the last thing he wanted to do was to be all buddy-buddy with him after his display of mighty rage.

They were half in this predicament because he couldn’t keep his shit together.

But Zaire said none of this. His face was neutral as he stood up, brushing some of the rubble and dust off from his thighs and shoulders.

“Well we need to report that we failed. So yeah. I guess it’s time we started heading back to the academy.” The initiate said with a shrug, looking around and finding his glaive. Picking it up he began to head back to the academy.

 

[Rowley Stone]

Corvus's next words caught in his mouth as he watched Zaire walk away. He wanted to apologize for all of this. He knew it was his fault, and he would submit himself to the punishment that would follow. The rage he had shown back then was like nothing he had ever experienced. When it had taken hold, it almost felt like an out-of-body experience, he could not control himself at all.

He just frowned though as he moved over to his sister and lifted her up. His body screamed in protest as his injuries became apparent, but he had to carry her back. She wasn't dead, he could still feel the pulse, but she was...sleeping, somewhere very far away.

Corvus followed along after Zaire, silently as they figured out their return to the Academy.

Zaire