Dreadlords Taskforce

[Henk]

"That's the worst part, Henk. You are worthy and you were worthy, and then you ran. You left us."

Gods, Alistair knew how to infuriate him. Holding his mistakes over him, looking at him with the disdain of a man who thought himself to be so much better than him. Henk's blood burned, his flesh shimmering with seeping light as he held as much as he was able to withstand inside of him for use. "You don't get to decide who's worthy and who isn't." He seethed. "I'm here, now. And if you don't think I should be, then make me leave."

After another sloppy flurry from Henk, Alistair slid back and activated one of his runes. This, he'd been waiting for. Krixus had always been gifted with rune magic, but such magic was so vast that he had no way of knowing what was coming until it was right in front of him.

Where one Alistair had stood, suddenly there were many surrounding him. Henk's eyes shifted around, enumerating the afterimages around him. This wasn't a new trick, and it wasn't one that he was going to fall for. Krixus could put on his little magic show from the ground, after Henk took him down. Again he lunged towards Al, and one of the Afterimages moved to intercept. Henk ignored the illusion as it threw a punch at his jaw. The silly party trick couldn't hurt him.

At least, that's what he'd thought.

Henk was staggered and cut off by the solid fist that connected just under his chin, sending him stumbling off center and catching his balance. His eye flicked between Alistair and his imitation, the smallest modicum of respect hidden beneath his anger.

He'd gotten better. That was a good technique.

It wouldn't be enough.

Alistair and his Images took the offensive, and Henk channeled his mana into his arms once again. this time, the combination of heat and the Dreadlord's energy was enough to engulf his limbs in a sheath of flame. Henk winced at the sudden pain from the shoulders down but bore it. If he burned himself to a crisp fighting Alistair, he wouldn't have had a chance facing an Archon anyways. With every image that lunged at him, solid or not, Henk threw a flaming punch to meet them.

Some dissipated, some flew back, and some got through. The numbers were against him, and Alistair was landing some damaging blows, enough that Henk's flame flickered with each one, only to rage back to an even brighter, more unstable blaze.

Then, Maseno launched his own attack. Shards from behind embedded themselves in his back, sending spikes of agony through his system. It would only grow worse, turning his head to look at the source of the attack left him open once more to Alistair, and more hazardous obstacles had begun to fly as well, creating a deadly storm of objects.

With a frustrated growl, Henk erected a barrier with the excess light coming from his body. Not only around himself but Alistair as well.

"We can do this later." He muttered to Krixus, not turning to face him. "Luana is strong. We have to watch our backs."

The dangerous heat within Henk would quickly begin to reduce, whatever change that had been happening inside of him had been interrupted by Maseno placing Alistair into danger.

Despite Henk's rage, he could not ignore his desire to protect the one he'd called friend.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Make him leave? Why would he do that? They needed more bodies to throw at problems. That was logical. No, Alistair had no plans on making Henk leave. He just wanted to see the man's regret. He wanted him to understand that he had lost something that he could never fully get back. Maybe that thing was trust, maybe it was honor, or maybe it was just friendship. Even so, the glass had broken and there was no way of putting it back perfectly.

He was proud to see his attacks were beginning to slowly chip away at Henk. The longer he chipped away, the bigger the gaps would get and then he would end this. In fact, he thought he saw one of those gaps and was preparing to dive in when something streaked by his head. One of the clones jumped in front of him to intercept another blow before Henk's shield popped up.

A sigh of frustration escaped his lips, but he stopped his attack and his runes. He would not fight if Henk did not desire to defend himself. Instead, he turned his arcane gaze onto Maseno.

He had worked with the initiate once and had been impressed with his skills, but he had clearly been hiding back the magical output.

"That won't be easy. He's throwing objects around, but it's more like an entire field that he has control over. Especially as you get closer to him."

Alistiar's dull grey eyes watched with a curious expression as he watched how Luana's magic controlled everything. Even with that perfect field, he wasn't completely controlling every square inch of it...He probably could but that would be an inefficient energy expenditure.

"He's gonna grab you before you get close...Unless you get to hot handle."

He did not actually know if that was possible, and did not stick around to see how his comment landed. Instead, Alistair actually stepped several feet back before he reached the wall once again. Without anything else being said, he fired off a quick spell before sinking into the wall.

Henk Livia Quinnick Maseno Luana Ivan Skender Zana

 

[Livia Quinnick]

Having anticipated that Maseno would easily deflect the first onslaught of splinters, Livia was quick to keep the momentum of attacks to pull focus to her.

- "Can you keep him distracted?" -

"Easily done." Quinnick was done with the splinters, the last of the barrage having been sent Maseno's way before Livia nocked an arrow and let it loose. Maseno was not her intended target, the arrow points each sinking into the flooring in a circle around him. Her magic caused her many hesitations in the past, but she did not dwell on the negatives or the chance that the corruption would get in her way; instead she will embrace whatever would happen.

Magic that did not feel part of her being, as if it would choose when to obey. Livia only drew enough to keep Maseno's sights on her, her magic crackling within the confines of the area she created with her arrows. It was all show, a way to hopefully keep him worried about what her next move would be. A few times did her magic zap outwards, and Livia who had slowly advanced with assured steps came to a pause, breath hitching as one zap reached all the way out to her.

One of her first lessons upon arrival at the Academy was on fear. How to use it and how to wield it. Just as she did with Maseno now, Livia was taught to keep to a concentrated area, to overwhelm with magic and not let herself be afraid of what she had been blessed with. The wayward cracks and zaps stopped growing outwards, now moving through the buzzing to the inner circle, towards Maseno.

There was no doubt he would be able to reach past the barrier and knock her back once again, but she was good at getting back onto her feet. Even if she was severely outmatched against Luana, Livia at least hoped she distracted him enough to allow Skender to do as he planned.

"Perhaps I should be taking lessons from you, Maseno. Once my ribs have healed from their bruising, I think." Her side throbbed again, as if to remind her she truly had been wounded after being sent through the archery targets. Liv smiled through the pain, bracing herself for whatever would happen next.

 

[Ivan Skender]

Ivan kept his channelling stance for a good long while as Livia went on the offensive. Slowly but surely, his charm started to take hold, and his magic to make an impact on the surrounding environment.

The black, viscous manifestation of his decay powers that seemingly ran from his neck and shoulders, down his arms, and along the length of his veins found an intermediate settling point around his wrists, where it coalesced before dropping down to the floor. While only a thin, dark thread at first, as though a cut had caused a few drops of his blood to drip down onto the ground, the charm soon consolidated into a visible construct. To the outside viewer, it would look almost at though Ivan was chained to the floor.

Of course that this wasn't the case, not really. What he was in fact doing was using his decay powers to corrode the foundations of the training grounds. His dark "chains" were simply aesthetically visible manifestations of a charm that attempted to burrow deep under the stone of the courtyard - well beneath the range of Maseno's force field - and that sought to target not Luana himself, but rather the ground under his feet.

All around him the battle raged on. Somewhere in the distance, Livia unleashed her barrage of arrows which, though it failed to hit Maseno, did keep Luana's focus away from Ivan, and to which followed Maseno's own barrage. This was where the barrier he'd put up really came in handy. As all manner of projectiles scurried forth towards his position, none of them would be able to get past his shield, instead being ground to rusty dust as they sought to cross the safeguard.

Ivan pushed all of these events to the back of his mind. All that mattered at that time was winning - or at least not get wrecked during - this engagement. And for this end, it would appear as though Livia had made an outstanding job of distracting Maseno. Indeed, as Luana looked on with seeming pride at the absolute mayhem he kept causing, Ivan felt his charm's work done.

He raised his arm, and then, with a swift, fluid movement, he projected it downwards and backwards. What followed was chaos in the level of that which Luana had unleashed twice now, although for different reasons. All around the practice fields the ground began to shake and crack as his charm was put into overdrive to corrode whatever foundations were left. These crevices all seemed to point and converge onto the exact same location: Maseno Luana's position.

Indeed, Ivan had not left much to chance this time, and soon after Maseno gazed upon the mess he'd caused on the training fields, he would feel himself being swallowed by the earth itself, the figurative rug being pulled from under him, as those last stone foundations that supported the ground he stood on were withered away to nothing.

With that, Ivan clasped his hands together, causing his magical shield - invisible until now - to materialize as a dark curtain of ash and black. He projected his arms forward, causing the barrier to lunge forward, as a seemingly great tidal-wave headed straight for Luana. The aim of his ploy with the barrier was not so much to corrode Maseno to oblivion - he knew Luana could have other tricks up his sleeve, even in dealing with magic as powerful as this charm - but rather to disrupt his opponent's force field.

Indeed, as his charm pushed forward, it soon made contact with Maseno's force field, causing the magics to become unstable and to burst into explosions that projected into every direction around them.

It was as this new scene unfolded before his eyes, that Ivan made ready for yet another attack. He tightened his grip around the hilt of his enchanted war-hammer, and dug his heels as he prepared to start a dash. He was panting already, something unsurprising as either of the two charms he'd just launched at Maseno were very taxing to him. Whether it was the intensity of the barrier - capable of dissolving whatever was thrown its way in the blink of an eye - or of the underground charm - whose goal to corrode stone was something rather difficult for him - his strength had been sapped somewhat by this attack. Now though, it was time for the final plunge.

With the remnants of his barrier causing havoc amid Maseno's force field, and a big crater now adorning the training fields, Ivan lunged at his opponent once again.​

 

[Zana]

Zana had retreated to one of the benches that ran along the edges of the training arena. Grey, the large direwolf who shadowed her every step, had come to lay at her feet. Every now and then she would scratch at his ears but her attention was entirely fixed on the battle that raged before her. At one point she had taken out a notebook and scribbled away coded notes for herself later on. The Guards had left the Dreadlords to it and fought among themselves, whilst the Dreadlords kept to themselves. The later group in particular seemed to have something to prove. To themselves or her she couldn't tell.

She hadn't intended on getting involved but when the youngsters started ripping up the fort...

Purple energy began to crackle up over the structure of the building and those who had been tugging on the bricks and mortar or weakening the structures with the force of their attacks, were suddenly repelled back. The building stopped trembling and once more became solid and stable.

"Try not to destroy the building, please children."

She had enough of that at home.