Battle for the Forest
From SCross
A log of the battle that saw the Espers, defeated, for a time chased from their home to seek refuge in the Barbarian city of Thrain. It marked a turning point in the nature of the forest, leading to the construction of the so far unbreached defenses the residents enjoy today on the refugee's return.
With a sharp click of metal upon metal, the dark templar's massive weapon is freed from the scabbard. Some thirteen feet of adamant swings about his body, deftly controlled in his massive paws, only to be released as it fades out of existence and he folds his arms across his ebon breastplate. The legendary blade Retribution waits dormant as a part of his spirit till he again calls it forward. Forest winds pulling across his cloak, curling the flaps along his impressive frame. "You can no more evade my wrath... " He says blandly looking to the ships coming into assault the empire he has defended before. "...Than you could your own shadow."
The other dragoons take the long way by hopping into boats and paddling to shore as they get ready to defend the forest just like Kristen... As far as they know its all Elliot up to his old tricks again.
Darra holds back and lets the others form a line between her and the incoming invaders, letting them take the brunt of the abuse while she helps with her special abilities.
There is a ship above! But its only one, must be some sort of a small scout ship. It moves to take position over the forest, no doubt to take a look at who might be resisting. Moments later the ship tilts on its side, twirls around, and plummets towards the ground in the distance before it gets very close to the forest. Well, they know not to try airships over the forest now.
Metropolis is... blending in with a tree at the edge of the clearing, as he does a lot of the time.
Turkituck slips into the Mana Tree to look for Flame, since Silence and her family seemed to hang out there a lot. A few minutes later, she emerges with Flame in a sling strapped across her chest, a small basket of baby things over her shoulder. She's decked out in baby stuff. Holding the children close to her, she trots to the south as fast as her big belly will allow. looking at her friends and her mate, flicking her ears back in a sense of foreboding. "Gaia's blessing on all of you..." She catches Shuns eye and smiles a bit at him, murmuring in Western, "Dioag to kagonzo daba fuatlkanata maskwa whurg wakakanata, whurf whurf. Maskwa otelafuatl dioag tiba kanata ojibway.[Lingo]"
Shun rumbles, "Keep yourself safe Turkituck.." Looking off towards the sky where the airship goes down, Shun makes a slightly elated expression. "Seems the air elementals are doing their job.." Exhaling in some small amount of relief, Shun moves forward amongst the others. "I hope the monsters come to my call.."
Ryais glances over to Shun for a moment, "I Usually I dlard tawa ingerdlaput.[Lingo]" He states rather dryly in his native tongue, dropping his head again he starts to focus his will to prepare for battle.
There are sounds from the wood. Having landed towards Drominham not long ago there comes the sound of steady footsteps through the brush. Above it all a monstrous form of a Barbarian Beast with a winged pale form atop it wielding Odin's Lance. Having had her healers work on the ride here she looks mostly fit. The airships wait off by Drominham to intercept any ships that may try and circle around. Marching with Esper colors the Ragers come first, Destry surrounded by the other units that are flying Esper colors. Fashionably late.
Shun smiles faintly, "I see Ryais..well. Ones that have less a mind about them, then." Stepping forward and throwing aside his cloak, he reveals his bone plated arm. Except now.. it crackles with arcane might! A shudder emits from the Druid's arm, and bluish liquid metal pours out from every crack and pore. It solidifies over his arm in the form of a pauldron and interlocking plates, forming at his wrist in a blue crystal. The air about Shun gets denser, and the light in his eyes burns furiously now. All the spirits about him become restless..gathering behind him like a pair of ghostly wings. Shun grips his staff.. hoping that he could call upon Doom Train's aide... now that his connection to the spirits was a bit stronger.
Metropolis keeps himself blended in with the tree is he wrapped around for now. The Esper waiting for the day to end and his strength to come to him.
Aire is still in midair and observes everything for now. Her body blurs into what looks to be dusty air every now and then, reforming a few moments after again. She does nothing more for now, but floating there.
Kristen stands quietly by as she holds her glaive and waits. The dragoons finally getting on shore head up and arrange in formation behind her without so much as a word "Looks like old Elliot is hell bent on burning down this forest don't it?" she comments out loud.
The airships of the Empire seem to not be progressing, but landing towards the north of the forest. Myriads of troops unfold out before them as they take their initial formation in the distance. Swordsman, dragoons, mages, with runic swordsman spread out evenly among them, possibly as a defense against long range magic. Notably, there isn't a great deal of things that are heretical in nature, unless you consider the huge generals to be heresy. Their voices can be heard above the endless thump thump of men marching in time, keeping to a 'safe' distance from the forest. After a moment their formation becomes more obvious. Rather than marching on the forest they are marching around it, apparently with the idea of approaching from all sides. If they are able to complete such, escape will become a lot more difficult.
Shun looks to either side of him just then..and looks to the sky. "The time has come, then. Come, creatures of Gaia. Come and show your devotion to Gaia..in the face of the mortal empire."
Shun emits a bellow of rage that only few knew at all. It echoes across the forest, a wolf's howl, a tiger's roar, and a snake's hiss all in cacophony. A greenish glow surrounds the chimera as he begins to sing the song of the planet.. but not the peaceful song. This was her war song, a song that he remembered from when she was restless..mixed with the tune of her fitful waking state.
"Come monsters! I summon you! Come the Burning! I stoke your fiery rage! Come spirits of the forests, of the earth, sky and water! Aide us as we reach this dark hour!!"
A silent call goes out in the chimera's mind.. to the plane of spirits. Clenching his armored claw, the metal clinks and clanks.. Shun lowers to one knee.
The giant earthen walls await the soldiers, as they had been risen long ago waiting for them since the first incursion. They would have to go through the walls..or the only opening.
Darra nods as she keeps herself hidden behind the others waiting until her talents are needed to use them.
It would be a horrible shame the Generals of the empire tend to think in forms of individuals not the army that appears to rest in the forest. Ryais makes his way to Bellona after hearing the reports, he stands beside Destry shaking his head. "Did they learn nothing from me in all these years. Young green pups. They're spreading their forces.. we can now pick what point we need to breech while the rest play catchup to chase our forces down." He gently scratches at the ears of the great beast. "Else they are confident of something were yet to be appraised of. I doubt it... to thin, why would they spread there forces so thin." He starts to consider this turn of events.
The formation of the Esper of War's army are quiet and start heeding orders to move into their own formation. She looks to Ryais her grip on the powerful lance resting on a support in her hip tigh. she looks down to Ryais and nods at him, her face a blank slate. The mind of the general, of war, having taken over the tall pale espers actions. Destry turns his head to Shun as he roars and once the chimera's bellow dies he raises one of his own in reply even as Ryais moves his hand over the beasts ear. Already her Atwa joins with the intense air of the attack.
Willow roars, and summons her brothers and sisters, calling them through to forests to come defend against the BURNERS. She will work quietly to burn sunlight throughout the area, to allow them to fight as well as they can. They will not allow this again! NEVER! VENGEANCE!!!!
Tempiea idly shifts time, though the people massed in this area will not notice it until they meet the enemy.... the world has slowed around them, leaving them hastened for the coming event. Other than that, the viscountess is certainly no general, especially in this condition, and the Esper of war and the grand warden will be more than up to the task.
Wandering. It's about all someone with a split mind can do. Two worlds colliding in... what? Even she couldn't tell. Ketanana quietly slips under some heavy foliage, looking around with an expression of wonder. This was what she called home? Beautiful, if difficult to move in. The presence bid her continue, that was until things began to move, lots of things. She picks up the pace, trying to figure out exactly what is going on... unfortunately, a lost tarutaru with the symbol of the All-Father on her robes, Phoenix on her pendant, and an almost demonic shield on her back couldn't look any more out-of-place.
Hana comes rocketing back into the clearing from the south, flying still of course as she enters Tempiea's little time bubble. "What'd we miss? Everyone's safe!" she declares at the general mob and Tempiea's rough direction. "Turk' shut the door behind her too so they oughtn't get in even if they find the gate somehow, and.." 'Course then her sharp eyes fall on Ketanana. And her symbols. She yelps in surprise and gains sudden altitude, bow out and pointing. "Who are you?" 'Don't think she ever met the little Taru, but, cute as she was, scaring her with holy things wasn't really helping her..
The ground gently trembles as DarkFyre wanders into the area. Apparently he heard the commotion and woke up despite having been constantly going into torpor for lengths of time. The dragon comes to a stop and blinks as he looks around at the gathering of others and then at the army out further yonder.
Most of the espers themselves have fled into the castle, unseen by mortal eyes, as have many of the less aggressive or fearful residents. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of the monsters of the forest have not fled, and at Shun's call, they seem to have been all ready to lash out. Monsters seem to gather from nowhere, surrounding the mana tree in a perimeter and waiting for orders given to them by their leaders, though their organization in most cases is more of a feral swarm rather than real military units. The burning seem to be the most swarming, and look as if they want to basically charge already. And in the background, one could swear that one could hear the sound of a .. train? Its probably just watching, and waiting. The troops of Bellona and Kristen seem to be a contrast to the monsters, more well trained and awaiting specific orders.
Unfortunately, the empire troops do not seem to be getting as sparse as one would hope, though they might be breached with effort. In fact they seem to be getting thicker for the moment as they move outward, more airships from behind unloading as they spread out in what looks like a semi circle. The half circle seems to move around towards the front of the forest where the gates would more easily allow entry, but they themselves seem to be a swarm, and the earth walls may not do much to stop their dragoons and geomancers from gaining entry. There is no communication from the enemies, no announcements, and no effort to negotiate. It looks as though Kalm has been practically emptied in the effort to have an overwhelming force. The stomp of feet and shouts grow louder, and reports come back from the front that there are likely several units of Imperial soldier for every one of theirs, it doesn't seem pretty so far.
Tempiea rasps out what she sees, as the scouts words return, and her scrying eyes survey the enemy. "Bellona, Shun..." She rasps out as she finishes the enemy descriptions. "What are our options....?" She reaches out to tug herself into a seated position, lowering distorted body to the ground.
Kristen stands ready to engage anyone trying to come over the walls. She of course is ready to personally get involved right from the word go.
Darra watches quietly from where she hides for the perfect opportunity or orders from the leaders.
Shun rises up slowly...smiling softly to himself. Etiquette was important. Especially with spirits as such. "Our options are to fight. Or to flee. We will have to see what we can do. The earth elementals will quell their ground troops and swallow them into pits, and the trees themselves will lash out to attack." The great chimera looks about to the monster gathered, roaring to them.
"You must wait until they are close! When you can see them, rip out their hearts, their eyes, rend them limb from limb and remove these foolish mortals from their present coil! Gaia will judge them in the end!!"
Summoning up all his rage, Shun casts off the mein of the Sleepwalker..for the Sleeper as awakened. Standing firm like this, it was the only time he could strike and use all his might..for it was in defense. There had been ample enough times for negotiation. "We must trust in the planet and ourselves. Let our defenses whittle them with attrition. Bombard them with our magics, and try and slow them Tempiea. If all seems to be waning..you should prepare our last resort." A look between Tempiea and the chimera let her know what he meant. "They plan to squash us."
Raising his voice to the sky, he bellows out in spirit. Lowering to the earth and placing his hands on it, murmuring slow and soft.
The beast looks to the others..seeing to the aide they would lend. doom train would do it's own...
Ketanana pauses, though, as she's addressed, looking up toward the flying Hana. Was that for her? For the moment she just looks confused, shivering some. Curiously, her skin seems to be trying to be two tones at once, blotches of either flowing over each other: one is a pale skin tone, the sort one would expect on a tarutaru, the other is... fur? The sort a feline might wear, complete with the markings - black splotches on yellow - of a cheetah. She calls up, "Whataru is going on? Where am I?"
Well, considering Hana had her bow leveled at Ketanana at first.. "You're in the fae forest. Elliot's trying to wipe us out. Stay and fight or run and he'll probably kill you," she explains, trying to sound cold but coming off as a bit shaky, upset that she couldn't offer protection as her weapon lowers. "Sorry, we closed the gate to the safe place already.." Still then she's floating above everyone with her bow raised again, trying to see a target, and waiting until the last moment to raise her short lived shield spells.
Bellona turns and lets Ryais ready himself. She turns to look at Tempiea watching her impassively. "I've my airships ready to bombard them near Drominham to weaken their ranks there if needed. " Her hand tightens on the spear as she watches the Viscountess another moment. "MY troops are ready, archers to shoot as they come over and through the walls. Destry with cut a swath as best he can, but someone's going to need to take care of the mages. My men, the Ragers and Spearmen can handle some of the ground units that the beasts do not. I've also my militia to take hind guard and back the other units up. The know the drills they were trained in while here."
The sun slowly sinks over the horizon. The gates are lowered minutes later, the city slowly settling into sleep.
As the day comes to and end, Metropolis moves away from the tree he had been resting around. The monstrous night Esper gives a soft hiss as razor sharp barbs and blades grow out from all over his legs, claws, head, and body. He then gives a bellow as he both helps to spread his inner darkness outwards as well as summon up all the creatures of the night within the forest to waken and come join the others.
Aire is slowly landing now, close to everyone else, in case she is needed. She won't flee and do her best.
Darkfyre blinks as the enemy continues to pour along and apparently attempt to surround the forest. To this the dragon shakes his head and bristles as his muscles quietly grow even more pronounced against his hide. After watching Shun speak up his head tilts a bit to one side. Hrr.. Oh what the heck? Another twitch of his hide is given as all four feet dig into the ground and anchor with their claws as the beast concentrated. A few seconds later a pale glow rustles across his body and suddenly there's a snarl as armor, like barding fused to his skin, appears as he also grows a bit larger in size. The faint amber glow of his eyes is lost inside a plating of metal as his long-hidden WEAPON side is released. Let the foolish men who dare threaten this forest know they have angered a creature whose mere existence speaks of death and destruction.
Kirii just puffs a bit of hair out of her face as she watches all the drama and then shakes her head. Hmm.. war is so silly at times. The equine glances around again before tapping a cheek. Hmm.. maybe she shouldn't have left poor Edmond all alone with Te'Aela. Gaia knows she'll drive him nuts until she's back.
Tempiea turns to Kristen, her eyes flashing on the woman. "Your dragoons will be tasked, then, with removing the magic threat. They will effectively neutralize our defensive capabilities if allowed to... Conscript those you need to in order to remove this threat so that the Esper of war might leave the ground scattered with the bodies of our enemies." She turns then to shun. "If they breach the defenses, the monsters you have summoned are to hit and fade, remove them one by one as they pass through the trees, funnel them into choke points and traps... I hope there are few of them that reach the tree, but those that do will be rewarded only with death."
Kristen nods to Tempiea "Very well, we will go do it" and with that Kristen motions for her men to follow her "Which direction are they in?" she asks getting ready to march towards the mage units.
Shun narrows his eyes, "Those appear to be the Magitech Knights ...the generals there that they spoke of. They have considerable power.." Gesturing out. "They need to be taken care of before they can demolish our forces. Bellona..it is nice to see you here." The monster looks up to the War Esper and her forces. "That sounds like a good idea. Bombarding them from above will weaken them..let them edge into the forests a bit first before you do so..cut off their supply. It will shake their morale. We can pincer the forces one at a time for our forest is huge, and we know it far better then them. Use guerilla strikes, do not go out into the open or we'll be over before it begins." A look goes to Tempiea. "Do you have Espers at hand that will aide in your casting Tempiea? You could hit some of them with status. Ahh... you have your plans as well.." The monster smiles to Tempiea, and turns to look from their vantage point as they come. He presses his hands together, drawing circles and sigils, honoring the spirits that have come to their aide. He focuses upon their Atwas..with that, Shun becomes a bit paler, wind flows through his hair, and his legs appear more..solid earthy. It was tribute. "Kristen..we are always appreciative of your presence.."
The troops take positions, runic knight units put out evenly. As the magic of slowness moves over them, the runic's react, absorbing the spells and negating much of the effects. The troops continue to spread out, massively, spread over an impossible space with thick units. The airships in the background rise up as they are emptied out, staying outside of the perimeter to engage any air units that try to take them on. Unfortunately for the defenders, the air elementals will make short work of anything in the air, including their own units. There is a crackle in the air, magic building near the walls of the forest, and what seems like a huge explosion rips through. And then another, as sprays of black magic pop against the earthen walls, shattering against them and blasting trees up by their roots along the wall. It seems they have more than a few long range mages, and more than a few with powerful magic already blasting through the walls. Though their mission doesn't seem to be to burn trees, there is certainly a lot of collateral damage from the flare spells.
Metropolis doesn't take time to speak, the night Esper moving over to the nearest wall where he curls up into a ball of bladed ouchness, watching the mortals as he waits for the other creatures of the night to join him.
A faint glow that hasn't be seen in this forest for quite a long time flickers through the leaves of a nearby tree, yellow burning eyes peering out through the branches and watching the gathering below, a faint chirp of despair sounding from there
Kristen nods to Shun as she gets ready, her weapon is prepared, her men are ready for battle as they rush towards the sounds of the nearest flare spells. Getting ready to leap the wall and strike from above as they scatter around the trees. She'll lay in wait until they start coming through for now...
"Amaris!" Hana goes and shouts with something far from despair on hearing that chirp. Somehow she seems pretty wilful.. She remains airborne though, watching over everyone from the center and remaining ready to cast her defensive spells when time comes. There really wasn't much could be done though, aside from waiting as the really dangerous core with everyone else, for someone to get in.. still, she drifts between everyone, doing a few small prayers and.. 'seems someone knew a tiniest bit about such things huh? A 'stay safe' is said to Ketanana, and she hovers before Darra a bit looking as if she were trying to say something useful but only coming up with the same, before finally hovering over Aire's head where the little Air Esper is hovering. "Aire.. 'don't suppose you've got any friends from home to help?" she asks, although she sounds more as if she's trying to give friendly word in support, even as she looks up, towards the perimeter of the clearing again. "They're not taking home.. un."
Thelvyn makes his way into the forest, looking around very carefully. His tail flicks behind him, a low growl coming form him as he heads over to where Ketanana is, as if guided by something, his lance in its holder at his side, but his paw on the handle, ready to pull it out.
Shun rumbles to Darra, seeing her indecision. "Darra. Soothe the trees. Make sure that they will respond to our aide.. they will die if we do.. but comfort them that we are defending them, not only ourselves. They will join our cause surely.. if one of the Dryads asks. Hana! Put shield spells on Kristen's troops if you have the strength! They will need it or they will fall!" Narrowing his eyes and looking about, Shun bellows to the monsters to try and bolster their morale. "Where is Silverleaf.." Murmurs the beast. "She should be here."
Darra nods as she starts to run around from tree to tree, speaking to each in a whispery wind though leaves sound, petting them, cuddling some of them, letting them know the spirits are roused and ready to fend them this time.
The darkness around the monstrous night Esper slowly seems to grow.. and grow... and grow as the darkness slowly covers the walls where the beast of an Esper is curled up in a ball just waiting for the enemy.
Stay safe. That's all Ophelia wants to do. The thing drawing Thelvyn to her seems to work both ways as she takes off into the underbrush, slipping under most of the obstacles and looking like she's going to practically plow into the larger cheetah. All the talk of war and conflict behind her, and the flare spells going off? It seems to have the poor thing scared.
"I'll try my best," Hana says with a small nod, before shooting off after Kristen's troops, touching each one in turn as she flies over with pretty impressive speed, Kristen getting something more focused. SHe has the strength, but each burst of shielding is a little weak, only enough to act as a cushion. Else she wouldn't have power for everyone...
Thelvyn comes to a stop as he sees the cheetahess running to him. He murrs, moving his left paw out to take a hold of her when she reaches him, giving her a hug as he looks around the area carefully. "Shhh, I am here love, calm down."
Bellona's troops start to move forward, Destry plowing along with a great rumble. Bellona continues to ride upon the special saddle upon him. Her troops moving forward, ready to start their battle.
Darra continues to move from tree to tree to comfort and reassure each one as Shun asked her to.
The cheetahess shivers as she gets wrapped up by Thelvyn, nestling close, purring something to him, almost as if there's a language in it somewhere. She flicks her tail, still glancing around sharply from place to place.
After a while the small firebird drops out of the tree, a faint aura of fire and white magic surrounding her as she starts to circle over the gathered masses. Being unsure what to do she settles down on Shuns shoulder if he allows it, shivering lightly " Greetings warden shun... I.. have returned finally.. what shall I do ?
Shun growls to Amaris, "Keep to the troops and heal them best you can. That would be your best angle. With your domain, inspire passion in the monsters..I'm sure you can do that Amaris. They are scattered, and swarming.. stoke their fervor up and make them fanatical. We will need all the strength we can get!"
Silverleaf and a couple other what appear to be shamans? Except they're unicorns wander out of a small ripple in space next to Shun. Sil looks over and tilts her head "Yer in some kinda pickle eh?" She asks curiously then grins "I've brought along a little help, what kind of numbers are we facing and I need locations, my friends here will go back to th'men and tell them what's going on."
Amaris nods lightly to Shuns words, gently nipping his ear before she raises into the air again, her flames flaring up immensely. Emitting a loud trill of encouragement she takes off towards the troops, a soft soothing rain of embers sprinkling from her wings with every beat, embers that wont hurt even the most dry tree beneath her.
Hana's soon back over everyone, minor shielding spells al over the place by now, on anything and everything she can touch, although they're little more than cantrips that'll keep the unintended blows at bay. Oh and she shot anything that looked like an enemy while she was out there. Now she's back over the center of the group though hovering and with bow drawn and ready, waiting.
The dragon looks around as he finishes his slight transformation and, upon seeing start to head towards the troops, he starts to follow after. DarkFyre really enjoyed terrifying those soldiers last time something happened. Lets see how they react to having a WEAPON trying to eat, claw, and tail-swipe them to death instead.
Kristen lay in wait on the other side with her troops in formation behind her as she waits the inevitable breaking of the barrier she figures herself and her men can get as many of them as they can while they are still choked off by the bottleneck.
Shun looks to Silverleaf and smiles, "Speak of the devil. Glad to see you here.. what I need most is Shiva's help now. doom train is here so Phoenix might not be happy to arrive. Think about summoning Bahamut only as our last resort..I hope we will not need the Dragon King. You should be careful for the Magitech Knights and the mages, if you can get Shiva to harm them..that would be fantastic. Keeping their movements slow with her powers so the Earth spirits can swallow them up would be helpful, working in tandem with the air spirits.."
The empire airship move up as the allied airship fleet approaches, and they desist their assault on the walls for a moment to apply all force directly at the flying foes. Ship cannons fire before they are barely off the ground, dragoons leap into action, and mages aim their bursts of energy at the airships as well. Some of the ships go down, and some of their troops fall, and though the unit of airships do not do a great deal of damage to an entire military force, the units that directly comprise the path between Drominham and the forest thin out significantly. They hold their ground, and only after they bombard everything they have onto the airships will they move forward once again.
Darra pauses and baps herself, stupid dryad, silly dryad, getting to be as bad as some of them blond sluts you worked with, she dashes off to the non burning variety of moving trees and starts to get them all hyped up and into the fray, reassuring them that the spirits here will keep them from being set alight.
Silverleaf looks at Shun curiously "What about m'armies slightly off in the distance? They're ready for a fight as well." She replies and smiles slightly. "Anyhow, I'll do what I can with summons, I also need to get an estimation of numbers and where y'think maybe we can punch a hole in their lines and maybe turn a flank. I've several battalions of riders out there and ready to help out when needed and mage-knights as well as summoners and beasts lending aid to them as well. And of course th'dragoons." she adds and motions to the shamans "These two will be ready to relay orders if need be and will be watching for Kaelyn." She looks to the two shamans and nods, saying something in Western "Join back with the army, wait to move on the order." SHe then peers back at Shun "They're still a ways away but if we can get the timing right, harrying actions and wedge formation charges on their perimeter will slow their advance."
Kirii squints as Silverleaf arrives with some other unicorns. Right, this is really an odd night. She shakes her head a little and watches as some airships head off to bombard the enemy. Mmm.. what to do? She doesn't exactly have anyone to patch up right now and thus just decides to remain in proximity to all the others for now.
Shun growls to Silverleaf, "..After doom train passes, I want them to calvary charge through their units from behind. Do your best to take out any straggling mages, Silverleaf. Your calvary needs to be swift and kill much. don't let yourself be held down in individual battles."
Ketanana abruptly tenses up in Thelvyn's grasp, the two have been silent for a while... though the cheetah is acting like they've been talking about something. Hopefully, they've moved as far away from the battle lines as they can...
Amaris continues her duties to instill compassion and courage in the fighting Esper troops and their allies. Taking only brief rests to relax her wings she stays airborne most of the time, her valiant song sounding a long distance over the battlefield
Bellona moves in behind Kristen. She'll let the dragoons attack first. Destry waits restlessly as Darkfyre comes up beside him and the archers notch and draw their bows.
Silverleaf nods at Shun "They know their work, and a still horse doesn't do too much." She relays the information to the other shamans along with the timing and they both nod before a pair of small spirits arrive and they both disappear into those odd ripples and are gone. "And Aye, I'll hold Bahamut till it's desperate. Lets just hope we don't have to be making any new lakes."
Darra keeps up the dashing about as she goes to each ent as well as treant she knows and talks to them, nudges them into moving toward the front lines, and strike down the Empire once more. Though they do avoid the Burning as they are night and day so to speak.
Tempiea just sits there, quietly watching the occurrences from the battlefield with her scry, occasionally murmuring to Bellona and Shun what she sees to keep them appraised of the situation.
Thelvyn continues to look around as well. His tail swishes behind him, his stance quite protective of the cheetah in his arms. His eyes are hard as he looks around the battlefield of both sides, staying with the noncombatants.
Hana looks thoughtful for a moment, and then shoots off. She could move fast and the battle wasn't there yet, she could return to the center before any of the enemy if they actually hit them. So Bellona's archers suddenly have her hanging over them, a shield of hers softly shifting the air about the troops. And not so weak a one either, it would at least keep incoming arrows from entering. Although of course those spells were nice in the way they let attacks eave them. She waits though, arrow strung, in fact arrows, awaiting the order to open fire with the rest of the archers under Bellona's order.
Darkfyre's nostrils spill a blast of steam as the dragon stops near Bellona and watches the archers draw their bows. As he is restlessness is starting to set in with the WEAPON having been left out and yet not satisfied with the glee of causing these fools pain. Oh, how he can't wait to start turning the enemies into confetti for the celebration later.
Darra follows behind her trees, relaying commands from Shun to them in the same leafy whispery language as she guides them and controls them for Shun and act as translator.
Ketanana glances around once, then lets out a desperate whimper as she sees to notice something...
Thelvyn murrs softly, holding Ketanana close, stroking her ears soothingly.
And with that, the wave of Empire forces wash forward towards the wall, seeing that it appears to be more blown up than might be the case thanks to the illusion. Upon arriving and finding it not exactly as they anticipated, they barely even slow down. Unsure what to expect, the first wave of units into the forest are almost completely overran, defending troops forming lines against them and bombarding them. THe enemies find walls in places they thought they had removed as arrows rain down from above. Always following behind them, the mages turn their magical energies seeming to fire at random into the forest, along with archer units who seem to be doing the same.
They seem to, notably, be not bothering any trees at all, unaware that they may be poised to attack as well. It seems that they are not interested in actually destroying the forest itself, only its inhabitants. The first wave of troops seems to be dire, but the next wave is right behind them, and a third wave behind that. The Empire is showing very little heed for its own rate of casualties in this as they press on and rely on their sheer numbers to overcome. The monsters defending do not seem swayed so far, cutting down who they can, the burning seem particularly gleeful in their task.
As if this were not enough, scouts soon report that a group of airships is landing on the opposite side of the forest, and likely about to begin unloading a second force on the side of the forest that they anticipate is more empty due to the defenders rushing to the side with the initial force upon it.
Silverleaf looks out over in the attacker's directions and frowns. A small dragon then appears on the Unicorn's shoulder and nods to her, now seemingly all business, well except for the big silly grin on the tiny crystalline dragon's face. Silver then begins in her whole harrying tactics. She blinks at the scouts report, sits down and looks in the direction of the airships. The summoner then pours a large amount of power into a Shiva summon, trying to nip that one in the bud before it gets started.
Darra waits for the word from Shun to tell her trees to attack the enemy who is, thankfully, ignoring them for the moment.
Working her way closer to the frontline Amaris is enclosed in a sudden explosion of flames, spreading outwards from her in the form of a large ball blurring her from sight. As it vanishes her form has changed to a more human one, the wind from her wings turning into a rather heated storm as she emits a cry of defiance towards the attackers, taking a few potshots here and there with a fast barrage of fireballs. But every now and then she returns to her other song, the crystal-clear sound encouraging the monsters below her to give their best
Kirii squints as she, too, notices the ships heading over yonder. The equine joins Silverleaf in 'dealing' with the problem as she points her finger in their direction and.. suddenly a small dot of white appears. Hardly convincing. And then it grows immensely as the female channels her connection to the positive flow of energy to create a much more convincing ball of PAIN and AGONY that she happily sends sailing for the lower section of a ship. Hopefully, if it gets blown out, the stupid thing shall fall and crash.
Metropolis, is in the middle of an usually darkened out area of the walls. The monstrous Esper leading his fellow night creatures in battle against the rush of the enemy. All sorts of unseen things within the darkness having there way with all mortals that enter their dark place.
Kristen stands up straight as she watches them come over the walls and points her pole arm in the direction of the nearest enemies "Turn back or you will die" the large taur warns as her dragoons leap up into the air, raining stabby death on those breaching the walls. Kristen and her dragoons trying to push their way through the breach that the empire forces seem to try pouring into, intending to use it as their way to get out and at the mages more directly.
Hana launches off a salvo of fire along with Bellona's archers when the attack begins in full but then she's gone, her barrier, except for the small remnant floating over the bowmen she'd been with, now focused very strongly about her as she shoots into the undergrowth. From then on, soldier after soldier at seemingly random intervals falls soon after he's inside the trees, as the twins pop suddenly from the undergrowth to fire a single, lethal, accurate shot and the disappear again, whipping out a pretty impressive amount.. for a lone ranger.
Ketanana quietly settles against Thelvyn, taking a few deep breaths, her eyes beginning to glow with the same magic as before.
Darkfyre is quite happy to greet the enemy when they get in. He doesn't bother with the first wave, though, but as the second and third come the WEAPON dragon happily joins in mauling them with the help of his claws, tail, and teeth. Roars constant erupt out, too, as he intentionally draws attention so that the Empire will know it's dealing with one of Gaia's delightful dealers of destruction that they seemed to have awakened.
Tempiea sits amid her webs, taking in the reports from the scouts and her own long distance awareness, pausing only to fire off the occasional hasting spell at extreme range to Bellona's archers, who's rate of fire seems to increase by absurd amounts. She leans back, eyes gazing up at the sky which is clouded with air elementals eagerly awaiting a return to battle.
Cardinal Ryais looks out across the field of battle, the chaos that seems to dance from this battle to the next. A breech in the walls that appears to be swarming with imperials, they have surrounded the forest and thinned out there lines. What is there to hold, he remains upon the high ground watching the flow of the battle making commentary softly to himself alone. He has a rather interesting decision to make, or he would if the Viscountess were not pulling his strings. He summons his legendary sword with a slow nod and starts walking to the front. If the empire has thus far only breeched one point, that is all he requires. He will place him self in front of the wave... pity to those that wish to stand before him. He takes from them there weapons in sweeping blows, leaving behind bleeding hands and startled gazes. "Never shall innocent blood be shed. Yet the blood of the wicked shall flow like a river. I shall spread my blackened wings and be the vengeful striking hammer of the Father." He roars in the faces of those that would stand ground before him, he kills no one... by leaves none unharmed, or armed in his wake.
Bellona begins her harried attack, Destry ducking in and sweeping a unit away and moving back. Archers loosing arrows and ragers and spear men mixed with militia dodging in and taking out troops before retreating as the plan goes for the Earth spirits to arise and shake them. She backs up calling to her units who fight with a fanatical fervor that in itself is intimidating but the glowing spear of Odin and seeming aura of war surrounding her troops in it's hazy red glow only adds to the effect. This is her home, her magnum opus. Arrows start to come faster and faster as the troops take some casualties but continue on against the hated enemy Elliots troops provide.
Ketanana lets the pent-up magical forces release around herself and Thelvyn, the two beginning to shrink sharply... until there's almost nothing to be seen amidst all the underbrush.
"Stay.." Hana says, as a volley of arrows shoots from her bush and three charging soldiers fall, before there's a rush as she's ducking and weaving on the wing between branches and bushes, ".. out.." only two this time, but they mightn't have even known where it came from, and at no point were they there long enough for a retaliatory attack, ".. of .." one from that shrub, "Our..." four, way easier when shooting from the branches of a tree, ".. home.." and two more, a the pair falling from plain, lethal arrow shots, the serrated barbs of the arrows disappearing into them as they find themselves shot from a hollow.
Silverleaf grins at Kirii and looks back in the direction of the landing forces, launching attack after attack after attack, Shiva, Morkaleb, then Kaelyn even to slow the troops and spread confusion. She tries to keep the place from being completely enclosed. The unicorn blasts troops on the ground, but also tries to disable airships in the air, trying to make the things crash. Meteo is even mixed in as she lobs a hail of meteors at airships miles distant.
From the darkness covered area of the walls that have claimed countless numbers of the enemy, bolts of Black can be seen lancing out at times to strike the enemy dead as well as spined, quilled, and armored limbs pulling all near the darkness into it with only screams coming back out from the darkened area of the walls.
Thelvyn closes his eyes, letting the magic flow over him, shrinking him. He humms as both himself and Ketanana get lost in the underbrush, grass, and foliage, no longer visible to normal sight due to the small size of their new forms.
Amaris emits a shrill sound of warning as she spots airships going down at the opposite of the forest. Launching a last volley of Fireballs she hurries back towards the mana-tree to inform Tempiea of her observation. Once done she heads further into that direction, keeping an close eye on the enemy approaching from the back
And once the cheetahs are gone, Ketanana and Thelvyn, all that's left of them is a rustling, heading for the lines. Course, it's just a couple of scampering forest critters, rabbits even, who's going to bother with them?
Darra talks to her trees and shoos them forward to do Shun's bidding, to attack and harry the mortals, to hurt them all they can, to force them to the weak places where the other spirits will have an easier time to kill the mortals, some acting like shields against the arrows for the weaker spirits, etc. She hangs back and watches, talking to them, keeping their spirits up (no pun intended) as she watches them go to work on the human armies.
There is a burst in the sky, and Shiva forms in a cloud of ice, giving an annoyed look to some of the air spirits when they start to rush her and then back off line yelping dogs. Raising a fist towards the second group of airships, many of them suddenly find their ships ceasing up with the cold before they actually land, causing more than a few to crash. A good sized nip indeed as Shiva dissipates, but most of the crashed airships still pour out troops as they quickly move to take formation around the runic knights. Kirii's summoning hits shortly after and blasts a few of the ships down as well, the forces pausing a moment to wear the force of the blow before continuing to form, their own white mages rushing to heal their troops. The other summons seem to be having an effect as well, but only a fraction of the enemy forces have even engaged the defenders. And in all this chaos, no, bunnies will not be stopped.
As the trees suddenly begin attacking, and the earth opens up into pits, many more enemy soldiers fall, and the new arrivals learn quickly to attack the trees as well. The soldiers aren't very effective against them, but the magic users seem to have far more of an effect. Still, trees that aren't moving seem to be ignored.
Encouraged by the efforts from the espers, the monsters break into a frenzy against the onslaught, and the first line of enemies is taking heavy damage. The main difficulty is the sheer numbers behind them even as they are stricken with flames and arrows and rended with claws. At this point one of the main generals stands on the bow, and raises a hand. There is a blast of light, and many of the first wave of troops that has fallen rise up again, moving to flood into attacks again. That's right, they have a summoner too, and he just summoned Phoenix himself for his own troops. Its hard to tell from here if she seems peeved at the order, but she follows it regardless.
Thelvyn makes his way quickly but quietly with Ketanana, the two of them moving off to safety, his eyes darting everywhere, little bunny tail twitching as they make their escape.
The deep darkness of night pervades all, the sounds of night crickets chirp quietly as the witching hour passes.
Bellona keeps her troops moving with her commanding presence and her leadership capabilities. A runner is constantly sent back to Tempiea..informing her of the goings on. And despite it all, as much as she'd wish otherwise Bellona encourages the Viscountess to start preparing a withdrawal. This battle will be fought but it is important that important Espers make it through, and have the option to get out. Despite the report Bellona and her forces surge forth again, losing some but spurred by the domain of the Esper of War they are fierce and loyal and continue at the orders. Jumping in and attacking, before retreating again for more spirit and summon assaults.
At one point, one of the rabbits simply stop, watching the summoning of Phoenix going on... seems Ketanana just got a look at her own patron.
Thelvyn noses Ketanana quickly, getting her moving once again, tail flicking behind him softly
Hana stops, just stops as she sees her last two kills get up again. Only for a moment though, and before the pair can once more take stock she shoots them dead once more, and then rockets into the canopy. From there she rushes back to the gaggle of espers at the center, casting one quick spell between Tempiea and anyone else nearby, not to mention herself, and then she's off again, this time headed as close to the bottom of the air spirit based death as she can. All she needed was a clear line of sight to the general, with a long bow, more or less anything inside a couple of kilometers was going to be in range, and they were the ones to shoot it.
The darkened area around part of the walls grows a little larger as Metro and his troops guard a slightly larger area of the walls in that sightless darkness they are working within. A few blast of earth spreading out as a few earth elementals give aid to the night dwellers. Bolts of Black still shooting out to drop the mortals... again.
Kristen leads her dragoons over the wall, because lets face it the physical barrier isn't that high for them and they're not going super high into the air as they drop down on the outside ambushing from above but not in the omg destructive manner that would normally be expected as the group rushes at the airship containing the summoner or general or both... Lets face if they don't drop them they'll lose... and she was given the task to deal with their magic users... That includes summoners. The large taur of course giving her men a blessing of speed just incase...
Ketanana after a moment of just watching....moves on again. And with that, the line is easily infiltrated, the two moving as fast as they can into the clear.
As Phoenix emerges to raise the enemies fallen ones another cry of anger can be heard from Amaris, her attention being drawn away from the enemy's secondary forces and towards that one general. Shrouding herself in a cover of blurring flames she begins to approach the bow of the enemies formation in an atempt to aid Hana with her own firespells.
As the enemies suddenly get back up DarkFyre seems to pause; then snarls in anger as they resume their assault. His attention turns to the one who was responsible, but, seeing Kristen already far ahead he turns to begin mauling down the soldiers once again. Being as thickly armored as the dragon is he doesn't seem to be especially bothered getting struck by blows; and, in fact, only gets that much more pissed.
Silverleaf joins in on the raising fast, the unicorn summoning Guardian to lend his protection over the entirety of the defending force. She then frowns and concentrates on the enemy attacking mages, the unicorn summoning Shiva again, followed by casting white, then Meteo, finally summoning Morkaleb, a massive black dragon to render justice on the attackers!
Kirii doesn't seem very enthused by the fact a lot of the people killed suddenly rise. But, seeing as so many others are going to go give the summoner an OMFGRAPEd moment she focuses on other matters and begins to muster up another ball of white energy before sending it sailing at the white mages she noticed healing the injured. Lets see them do that while they're the ones being molestified by magic.
Tempiea holds her hands out to tug on suddenly appearing glowing strands, eyes turning white as she gazes into the future, various runners standing by for her word.
Bellona starts holding her hand up and Destry lets out a bellow that only Bellona's troops and those who work closely with them know. Holding the troops off as they begin to retreat and another runner is sent to Tempiea.
The summoner generally quickly realizes that all attacks are seeming to be suddenly on him, and using pure rage it seems the troops cut a line in the enemy forces and darts directly towards him. He gives a mighty fight, sending several dragoons flying with one swing of his fist before being blotted out with the black magic from shadow monsters moving around him. Not long after the phoenix summoner's soul is sent to Phoenix itself, perhaps a special fate will be allotted him. More enemy troops rush in to retaliate to his attackers.
Even as this occurs the troops along the other side of the forest begin marching towards, mages blasting at the wall the same as they did on the other side, rending parts of it asunder as they prepare to enter the less defended opposite half. Both sides of the enemies are pummeled with magical effects, the mages backing up a bit as they are hit as well, allowing some of the frontline enemy troops to stray from their path. The enemy attackers, to note, are taking more casualties than they are dishing out, and only proceeding forward by sheer numbers.
"Hey.. those were mine.. that bitch..." its not a real voice so to speak, but the eerie feel of the Doom Train is unmistakable, the steady chugging suddenly intensifying as the train rushes across the front lines. This undoes a great deal of the Phoenix summoning, and just from number difference more enemy troops are pummeled through than allies. This is further helped along by the order to retreat which seems to happen just in time. Some of the enemy troops take pause at the rather unexpected event, giving a moment for the allies to react in some manner before they have time to push forward again.
The forces around are overpowering, Ryais does what he can till he is relieved from his post by a barbarian unit holding the swarms at bay for a time. The Templar makes his way back to the crest of the hill where the officers of the Esper empire are meeting thrusting his massive sword into his scabbard he shakes his head. He was here for a simple meeting, this is a little much for him to tolerate after he fought so long and hard for the freedom of a people.
The spider Esper stands up, and sounds for a withdrawal... She sends a runner to the ents and burning to envelop the main line, and replace the withdrawing barbarian troops from the engagement. Another runner goes to Bellona with a order to withdraw back to the forest center, and prepare for a solid push to Drom's walls. Another runner, this one a flying flitting one, heads to Silverleaf, indicating that her cavalry should clear a path to flank the enemy soldiers to buy us time....then do what she has to to make those bastards pay for their insolence. All other espers and the like are to escape with their own methods and regroup in Drom. Earth elementals are to swallow those sons of bitches whole into the earth, bubble up magma, whatever hellish things they wish to upon the Magitech knights and their mortal kin. The air elementals are told to suffocate the enemy if they are able to, to cover our retreat.
Once the summoner is taken out Amaris throws herself around in midair to head back towards the center of the forest to help with the retreat, her bright feathers being a prime beacon for those gathering for the next attack. And never does her song falter a single time as she circles above the forest
Hana reacts alright. She hovers a moment, refocusing, before casting a very powerful barrier on herself of the re-raise variety. Ad then she's off again after potting a few people, shooting through the canopy again, popping out, firing again. And.. oh look a general. Well, she doesn't stay to engage him, but she has a clearish shot. Lord knows what the guy's main skill is, but he finds three arrows of the multiple-shot, aim, lock-on.. any-non-conflicting-ranged-special-you-care-to-name variety. It should it, it should Really hurt.. and if the guy isn't terribly strong it might even kill. But then she's back in the canopy, shooting at anything that moves again, the by now rather animate trees parting for her to make life even easier. Oh look lots died too. No retreat yet.
Kristen stands tall and holds up her weapon in front of the troops coming towards her as she gives the men orders "Destroy this ship... Kill them all" and with that she swings her pole arm around and smiles as she casts a quick restorative spell for her injured men to keep them up before motioning for the nearest unit to bring it on.
Bellona was already on her way back and a few moments after Tempiea sends her messenger the messenger with Bellona's message about Destry is added. The beast moving surprisingly fast when he wants to as the barbarians retreat under cover joining with Ryais and Tempiea in the center of the wood and ready their push. She knows, having looked at the numbers that even the first wave down doesn't mean jack and she's got her troops prepared to push. Destry lowers his head for Tempiea and Bellona ensures the pregnant Viscountess gets a look that broaches no objection. Ryais too gets the look, the beast not even hindered ready to use his sheer size to amass through the lines. The beast can take down whole cities, wading through a sea of bodies shouldn't be much trouble. Especially with Odin on their side.. after all tactics are most important in battle.
The darkened area at the walls slowly starts dwindling, showing a mostly still intact wall where there was only darkness and the screams of death moments before..
Darra retreats, giving her trees one last order to keep fighting, they are the hardest to kill so they can do the worse damage, as she returns to Tempiea's side ready to follow her to where ever her leader is going.
Ryais has his own plans as he takes command of a unit of barbarian ragers, they move past the mana tree and with little regard of respect for the dead. They savagely dig up and start collecting 'all' the bodies of the Esper dead from the tiny graveyard. There is no time for consideration, they shove placks in bags with magicite, leave behind nothing that cannot be destroyed.. and if it can, it is. Ryais himself has a hand in assistance, but his actions while fast are much more reverent. The armies should hold long enough for this task to be hastily completed.. and himself at the head of the ragers chasing after the retreating Esper units with there dead. No one gets left behind.
Silverleaf nods to her self, then sends Kae off to deliver the message. The Atreities troops are waiting and willing. Off in the distance a dull thunder can be heard as over 12000 troops begin to mobilize, forming into three wedges of 4000 heavy cavalry, with lighter cavalry on the edges, horse archers and mounted mages filling the gaps between the wedges ready to take the lead. As the cavalry races toward the troops they are heard long before they're seen, a dull thunder rising quickly to a loud pounding of heavy shod hooves. KNights and horses in gleaming plate armor can be seen in the lead shortly before a hail of spells leave the second and third ranks along with arrows lobbing from their ranks into the enemy lines in one controlled area, the troops hoping to knock a hole in the enemy lines. As soon as they make contact the Atreities summoners begin to work as well summons appearing out of ripples in the air and unleashing their furies at the edge of the wedges, and in between in one massive, well coordinated attack. Over the tops of the ground troops appear a large number of massive dragons, their riders leaping from their backs and plummeting into the enemy troops, targeting mages and magitech knights as they drop in, the dragons peeling off and blasting fire left and right of the wedge to limit the numbers of troops that can get at the charging cavalry.
Meanwhile Silver begins to concentrate, a rather large summoning circle beginning to form around the summoner as she chants in an odd combination of spirit speech and draconic.
Oh how he doesn't want to turn and retreat. Sadly, with the others pulling back, DarkFyre has little choice and begins to do the same. He remains a little behind, though, happily taking out anyone that tries to follow while basically shielding those ahead from attack.
Tempiea is helped up onto the massive beast while Silverleaf flanks the crap out of the army that's got it's back to it. Tempiea's hate is almost palpable, and it seems like this pregnant spider countess wants nothing more than the forest to be fed with the rich rotting corpses of the Empire's army. Still, a responsible spider knows when she needs to move and regroup. So far, retreat from holding the breached walls is a good idea. Let them come into the forest to face the burning and the swarming monsters and the traps, meanwhile, the Atreities will slaughter them from the rear.
Darra moves to follow Tempiea and Silverleaf, pausing to give her tree a hug, hoping the bastard Empire keeps up the "no burning trees" tactic, as if her tree goes, she goes literally.
Bellona's troops still launch volleys and pick off those that sneak through. She allows Tempiea to sit behind her on the beast and turns to look for Ryais before the almost counch sounding roar of Destry rings the air again and the troops start moving to a more strategical position. Darra is allowed to climb on the gargantuan creature if she so chooses as are those who want a ride out.
Amaris keeps close to Tempiea as well now, her fiery aura encasing the spider as well in a protective way. When ever an in juried allies comes close to them she shoots of a bolt of white magic.
Darra scrambles up onto the large beast behind Tempiea and sighs "Hope the Empire won't burn the forest down like last time. Bastards. Hope Doom Train takes them all."
Tempiea looks out at the battle from her new vantage, flinging invisible stop spells at the enemy with just a glance, leaving them sitting ducks for the slaughter. She smiles at that, no longer having any sympathy for those who serve the emperor.
Kirii narrows her eyes as the retreat is mentioned. Very well.. but if she's going it won't be without claiming something important to the Imperials. Arms are spread out as she closes her eyes and starts to concentrate on.. calling someone.. to render a bit of aide to the cause.
All at once things seem to be together as multiple plans are put into action at once. The barbarian calvary speed across the field of battle and strike into the opposite side of the invading troops, moving to meet many of their mages and white mages that were tucked away safely from direct enemy combat. The forces move to counter this effort with waves of their own troops. The generals are none too pleased with this, one of them screaming out various profane choice words about the 'traitors' as they turn to mass the fight. Luckily this seem to take some of the focus off the forest itself.
Just as it seems like it may or may not be enough to cut a line, holes open in the gaping earth, and shadow beasts flood out to rend through the enemy lines, moving if they can towards the generals, though movement has made it hard to predict where the generals would be when they surfaced. Flooding behind them are a multitude of shadow creatures, a true irony as shade like creatures rush out to help cut a path for the espers to escape, led by Metropolis himself. This puts himself in a precarious situation, as in distracting the troops from his Esper brethren he has found himself at their very center.
As Silverleaf begins the summon, a darkness seems to spread out from her position, as if fate itself is frowning upon the enemies. Weakened by the calvary and sudden unexpected shadow attack, the path towards Drominham could be easily plowed, but plowing it without taking some of their own might be tricky.
All behind this the ragers find little resistance or attack on their general position due to distractions, and are able to take most if not all of the magicite that are whole enough for actual use within a very short time. On the opposite side, the doom train seems to be pausing after the pass, sucking in souls in near orgasmic glee. Bellona's troops are able to pick off enough of the enemies that do still storm through the lines that they are able to complete their task, and their leader is kept safe as she is loaded.
Hana's arrows find target on one of the generals, taking a few of the arrows and deflecting a few more. He looks more than pissed off for a brief moment, before a shadow moves up behind him and Taoryu opens up behind him, rage burning at the technological atrocity calling itself a general. A moment later the summoning pops out of existence, leaving the one general toasted in the combination, and another one finds himself under assault from the same spirit, bringing his troops around to attempt to defend from the anger of the summoning. The enemies are in turmoil for a moment as they prepare to regroup, the forces on the opposite side of the woods plowing into the walls to attack themselves, but will take some time to cut through trees to arrives at the main front.
The ragers under Ryais's command return from there task to save the relics of the espers, no matter the condition a rich history is worth having taken the risk for. They blend out of the forest and into line behind Destry along with the massive figure of the Northern Knight. Ryais shoulders his bag, ties it off and takes up his sword running along side of the Beast of War, for now.
Well as the Dragoons destroy the ship Kristen points forward at the nearest enemy mage unit "When the Empire becomes corrupt, it is your duty to put an end to that Empire!" she shouts loud enough for the enemy to hear "Only through ending the Empire can a newer, better Empire arise from the ashes! Now Flee, or you will start being my gift for the Doom Train" the large taur taunts as she leaps up into the air, followed shortly by the other dragoons as they launch themselves at the nearest mage unit, likely doing devastatingly gruesome damage to the unit...
Once set the barbarian army, having taken some hits starts for the opening. Destry charging like a mighty unstoppable tank. Bodies crunching under his feet for those who stand in front of him. Which is why the army has fallen into formation behind him. Along the way as much as can be saved is, the way being made for the others in hopes they will get out. Kirii and Kristen and Silverleaf.
Metropolis gives a roar of glee when he sees that his night troops have come up in the middle of the enemy! He leads them right into the mortals, eating an arm here and a leg there as he bites those that he passes while making his way to the mages and leaders, fully planning on dinning right there and now on his enemies as he eats them a bite at a time, a limb of this one and the head of that one! The other shades, night alligned monsters/espers, elementals as well as a handful of huge bulking monsters simply work at killing any and all that are within reach while slowly pushing out to stay with their beastly leader.
Hana keeps shooting things. She never saw whether or not her target died. By then she'd already felled several more unfortunates from cover as she made her way back towards the center, and woe betide any enemy that had made it to there or onto her path. They probably wouldn't even have a clue where they'd been killed from. She arrives just in time to see Destry pulling off, and she's immediately flying alongside Bellona and Tempiea, yelling at them while Still shooting at targets of opportunity, "Hey! What about the ones hiding in the castle? We can't leave them!"
Ryais's flat voice intones "Sever the ethereal tie... it's been done before." He continues alongside Destry, though he's mentally preparing to break through a line to escape.
Darkfyre continues to follow along behind Bellona's troops while cutting down anything that gets in his way. At the summoning of another dragon however he stops and watches one of the generals get PWN'd before another is assaulted. Well cripes, that has to hurt. Funny they won't be coming back with Doom Train readily eating souls to prevent such. He turns back to the matters at hand, however, and takes to barreling along to get ahead of the others so as to make sure he'll be meeting any resistance along the way. For some odd reason.. these humans taste damn good right now.
The summoning circle around the unicorn spreads, forming a large number of runes before the outer line forms, the whole circle rapidly filling with brightly glowing energies and then flaring up into a brilliant ethereal flame. Above the summoner the sky clouds up and then in its center a vast opening appears showing nothing but star-lit sky. Then it slowly focuses in on the moon. A small speck is then seen before the speck grows as a vast black dragon drops from the torn sky. He's here, Bahamut. The dragon its self dwarfs the forest as it drops in and hovers over the tree's, vast wings spanning greater than the width of the Esper's home. The dragon's great horned head turns and survey's the area, head twisting as the king of spirits glares at the Imperial army.
There is suddenly a rush of wind as the great beast begins sucking in air, his chest expanding as his maw opens wide. In the back of his throat a spark, then suddenly a great ball of energy forms, filling the massive maw before it's unleashed. A beam of brilliant blue white light lances from Bahamut's mouth and blasting into the enemy forces surrounding the forest, cutting a swath of destruction, rending people, ground and anything in its destructive path in a great rippling explosion. Another blast is unleashed shortly after that in a different quadrant, followed by a second, then a third, each one cutting a massive curved crater in the ground and sending a massive shockwave of energy radiating out from each impact. Oddly enough the defenders and Atreities troops remain unscathed.
As the Dragon finishes he glares at anyone remaining, saying "This ends now. The Esper forest is to be left alone." is all he says before suddenly shooting back up into the sky, disappearing through a closing vortex of darkness.
At the moment Kirii isn't retreating. No, she's busy trying to aide the dragon that suddenly appeared and began to eat the generals one by one. As some troops go to help out the equine female waves her arms a bit and summons that familiar white ball before sending it sailing towards them to blast them and keep them from interfering. And then, as Bahamut gets summoned, she just shakes her head. What a conversation they'll be having in the Spirit world tonight. She'll certainly have to listen in.
Kristen watches Bahamut basically rape the enemy forces well she's not gonna let a chance like that go. The large taur's eyes go black for a moment as she takes a deep breath in, energy particles gathering in her mouth much like was witnessed moments earlier by the greater spirit itself as she duplicates the effect, unleashing a beam of destruction aimed at any of the ships that seem to still be marching people out, likely destroying everything in its path, except friendlies... Oh yeah take that bitches, they probably wont even know what hit them! Muahahaha.
Bellona's men take on the thinned forces and keep the way open. She looks to Hana, "Get the people in the castle. Now. Bring them this way I trust you to protect them. I regret this, I do, but we need to regroup. Collect the Summoners if you can to they ill be given a place to stay within our people. Collect who we can.. this will not be forgiven but nor can we resist exhausting our recourses and destroying the forest. If we do we will have destroyed everything we fight for..! Quickly now.." She sends runners out to deliver this message to those still fighting.
Amaris shifts into her smaller form again and settles down on the head of Tempiea's war beast, chirping nervously as she keeps her protective aura extended around the spider, her eyes flicking in all kind of colors but shades of red are predominant it seems
Metropolis and his shady/night forces just keeps eating, rending, splitting, and mutilating all mortals that fall within their area of darkness as they keep moving in a large circle to follow Metro while he aims at eating the head and or heart of all the mages and leader types that he can sink his teeth into with his troops killing in his wake. The few gigantic monsters simply taking a hold of a horse and swinging the animals like clubs as they beat the mortals around like rag-dolls.
Kristen fights her way back to the lake to get back to her airship and get out... Yeah the whole Bahamut megaflaring everything worked good...
Hana hovers for a quiet moment, looking rather sad. They'd just got back... but then she looks up, gives a sharp nod but doesn't say anything but, "We'll rejoin you soon as we can," before flying what was basically a meteoric crash dive for the gateway. She was a ranger, maybe the second best the forest had, if not the very best, there was no Way the enemy was going to think she was doing more than jumping into one more bush, and not finding her there would only have reason to assume she'd just popped out somewhere else to shoot somebody new. And, once she was through the gate she'd be making quite a tumble across the foyer floor.
The units blocking the path towards Drom are taking heavy damage, and the enemy troops seem to open up, pulling around as they at first attempt to back up towards the armies advancing on the other side. The units advancing from the rear flank of the forest have met comparatively little resistance, and continue towards the center of the forest. Even after taking heavy damage though, they seem to have a plan. Those units on the north and south flanks that were not hit as much advance straight towards Silverleaf, much the same as their Phoenix summoner was taken out. The forces on the other side have not gone without realizing this as well, looking as if they will center their advance on the perceived source of the largest summoning. The reprieve isn't going to last long as the opposite forces keep advancing, and don't look like they intend to give them time to summon that a second time as they advance. The remaining generals are furious at the difficulty they are having, and continue to advance even as some of the more demoralized troops make off.
The diggers themselves find that they have gotten any of the magicite that are there, and for now the beast retreating their leader seems to be making its way safely, if only because the enemy troops don't realize the one on it is the leader.
Kristen takes her troops and rushes to Silverleaf's aid, at least while they are all so concentrated on the summoner they should be easy pickings for the dragoons right? Leap attacks all over the place as they cut through the enemies while shouting "The Empire is Corrupt, You are all corrupt for fighting for it. Do not defile this place, flee and go home and pretend this never happened" she orders the enemies as she occasionally heals herself and her dragoons to keep them up.
Taoryu continues their slipping from one general to the next, but the general's seem to wise up to their being targeted, and the spirit does take damage as their troops pummel them with each attack, until it is forced to unsummon back into the spirit realm. Most of the general's remain, but enough have been lost to ensure they'll be hurting from this.
The unicorn summoner looks around, blinks and then begins to race as fast as she can out of dodge as it were, they're gonna go to where they think the summon originated and she's not gonna stay!" The unicorn races through the forest, trying to meet up with her troops now and trying to keep a low profile as it were whilst placing a mass of protective spells on her self. She nods at Kristen on her way by, but otherwise, doesn't want to be there when the enemy gets there!
The hugely big monsters keeps knocking the small humans around with their horse-clubs. Some, the ones that don't have hands, just kick and swing their limbs about to send the little ones flying away. The hordes of shades and night alligned monsters keep following in Metro's wake as his way from general to general, feasting on their limbs and heads before moving on to the next one, leaving most of the troops to the torrent of his followers.
Well it was fun while it lasted. And, Kirii does feel rather guilty for Taoryu being forced to return to the spirit world. On the other hand it isn't permanent, so.. The equine-morph, realizing that the enemy is coming for Silverleaf, ends up heading towards her until the other unicorn takes off. Well damn. She does her best to keep up but isn't exactly into running after calling the dragon and firing so many white energy blasts earlier.
Kristen motions for Silverleaf to follow her, the taur has an escape plan... and that plan involves the airship she has parked on the lake... plus a unit of dragoons and Kristen is probably better protection for the summoner than her being alone.
Archers and troops cover Silverleaf and Kirii's retreat. Bellona watching and commanding as best she can. She keeps an eye for Hana and the others as the more damaged of her units start filtering into Drominham to make use of the teleporters there. She doesn't care how people get out just so long as the majority get out.
"Everyone!" Hana yells at the general mob of spirits, non-combat espers, not to mention Turkituck once she's managed to get to her feet again in the foyer. "We're safe here. 'Can even try to cut the gate for a while. But Bellona said retreat, so everyone's gonna go to Drominham and regroup. "'Anyone stays here we'll stay with, but if you wanna go we have to run with you, right now, 'fore we're closed on again." She's got quite a voice in the echoey halls, although the tremors of emotion in it are hard to withhold.
Silverleaf scoops Kirii and throws her on the uni's lower back as she waves to Kristen "Gotta get with my troops!" She calls out and soon enough she meets with them, working her way to her soldiers "controlled retreat to Drominham, leave no one behind." she states to one and the word is passed, the large Atreities army then begin a break-out maneuver, forming up again as Sil gets in with them, making a line directly toward Drominham.
Turkituck's voice rings out from the main hall, where she'd been sitting with Chesire and Flame and the other young ones, spirits mostly. "We're staying right here, Hana! I saw Lord Bahamut!! WHy are we retreating if He came? I heard him tell the Empire to leave us alone! Why won't they just let us be?!" Hormonal, terrified and trying to protect the babes of the Esper forest.
Kristen hops onto the airship in the lake along with her remaining dragoons, which shouldn't be too much losses, completely forgoing the lil boats they used to get on shore for just leaping right onto the deck and getting the ship up and out.
Bellona keeps the line open with her troops. But she can't wait forever.. One or two support runners are sent to the castle while being covered. Bellona wont wait much longer nearly all her wounded are making their way to Drom. Kristen's headed out and Silver and her troops are gone. She's ready to go..she knows the castle is safe.
"We dunno if he'll come again Turk'.." Hana replies, hovering up to be roughly in the middle of the mob. "We really knocked them for six, I promise! But, if we keep fighting now we'll get ground down, and, they didn't run away after Lord Bahamut.." She takes a breath, then says one more time. "Everyone, this is last time! We go now, or we hold out here 'til it's safe to go or someone comes and saves us!" The great tree caste was able to support them, at the very least for a while of course.. and anyone that stumbled in if they couldn't close the gate would last seconds. "We go right now or we stay."
"But, the castle Is gonna be safe no matter what happens.."
Kirii's eyes lid shut as she's lifted onto Silverleaf's lower back. .oO I wish.. Te'Aela had been here to see her father.. I'll have to tell her about it tomorrow.. Oo. muses the equine-morph as she nearly lists into subconscious before managing to pull herself into awareness and look ahead to see where they're going. Not that she feels like it at this point, but, the unicorn does her best to aid the escape by keeping the Atreities healed.
The other flank marches on, arriving where Silverleaf was and regrouping as they find the troops retreating. Not stopping for their own wounded, they continue forward for a while. However they do not seem to push their luck into Drominham territory, unwilling to risk the rich metal flow out of the neutral city so easily after having lost troops taking the forest itself. Instead they concentrate on searching the forest itself for survivors, obviously intending to kill any they find. Magicite, a top priority in any excursion here, will no doubt come up short, but they are searching for it nonetheless. The gate of the ethereal castle is not long going to be in the clear to escape, and leaving it now does not seem safe as the troops move towards it without knowing it is there.
Bellona's runners come back seeing this and Hana and the others are left with a bellow of final retreat from the barbarian beast and the last of the troops are filtered onto Drominham Soil with a prayer for the fallen. Bellona is much like Tempiea. Rage burning silently in her crimson eyes.
A huge display of lighting erupts in the sky, almost like a beacon. Nature's electricity takes the shape of the symbol of the Esper Forest, the ultimate moral boosting banner. The Espers would win this, they would live in peace after this and they -would- survive.
The hidden castle was safe for the survivors and no one was in a hurry to leave it. Turkituck's lighting message to her friends fades from the sky as the fox and her charges bunker down into the safe Main Hall of the castle. To wait... and pray...
Silverleaf transfers Kirii to another rider and pauses as she looks back toward the forest. She's going to need to get to those still inside she thinks and frowns. She tries to commune as it were with Bahamut, wondering if he can surgical strike those troops within the forest without turning it into a crater.
Darra is more sad, worried, and upset, feed back from her tree mixed with her own depression having to leave her tree behind, but she does trust the Empire isn't going to do any burning this time.
Hana looks down for a moment with the explosion of lightning, but, there's a very, Very small smile. This was what she would have chosen too.. "Nice," she comments best she can on Turk's display, listening to the bellow of farewell and murmuring her own prayers for everyone, before stumbling, and, after a moment, her brother's out instead, looking a tiniest bit sheepish. Still, he looks over everyone then, from Turk', to Chesire, to the smallest of the surrounding spirits, and in an obviously suppressed voice.. "Let's find a way of closing the gate then."
Metropolis senses the coming of day and gives a bellow to his night dwelling fellows. The group turning back to where the huge ones are still at to make their way back into the tunnels to make their escape while the big ones give them time enough to get to their sleeping places for the coming day.
Bellona waits for her riders.
This day will end in defeat for the Esper empire and will not soon be forgotten by those that fought so hard for the freedoms of this nation that was blindsided.
The darkness of the night numbers ends up where it first came up out from the ground, slowly going away as they retreat into the earth before they run out of night. Fleeing back to their homes of rest while the huge beast make there get away good for a minute longer. Then they too go into the holes, making sure that the tunnels collapses behind them so they are not followed.
Silverleaf grins slightly and after conversing, the unicorn starting her summon again out of sight of the enemy army. A summoning circle appears around the summoner again and also filling, again it's a rather large amounts of energy. She continues running as the sky opens up and out pops Shiva. She then rains down massive shards of ice into the enemy encampments, large man-sized daggers concentrating in and around the enemy generals as Sil follows the ordered retreat.
Thanks to Blayze for keeping the log safe!
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