lucetilogs | Zompania Draft - Draftees and Reinforcements, mid-day 4-early 7

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Zompania Draft - Draftees and Reinforcements, mid-day 4-early 7

Who: Draftees and Volunteers
What: The draftees and the reinforcements must hold against the Third Party army until rescue arrives
When: From May 23 through the wee hours of May 26 (days 4-7)
Where: Zompania
Summary: Draftee information and Volunteer information
Rating: Varies on thread, please mark explicit material.

This post is for the rest of the draft, beginning when the volunteer reinforcements arrive. Look up in the sky--your friends are parajumping in! Be sure to use the above info post for any plotting needs you might have. Enjoy!

Be sure to tag this post appropriately: [canon] character name

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[The whole city is one giant knot of frayed ropes now, isn't it? Raven is among them, still fighting largely in the skies, trying to keep the cultists from either taking wing, or descending on unsuspecting draftees. When a purposeful gust of wind catches her, the brunt of the spell shearing past to also miss the cultist with a spear she's busy trying to blast away, she looks for the source of the magic. If she could, she'd glare.

Below her a man stumbles around the battlefield. Well, okay, several men do, they're all down to their last reserves, but this one catches her attention because he's running - and he stops to use magic again and then run some more. And he's about to get hemmed in by cultists and their shift hunter pets on foot.

Without another thought she banks her turn and dives, heading for him as he nears a half-collapsed building. She's aiming to land in front of him, before he can disappear into there. It's not safe. It will become a prison.]

[Frayed but not snapped just yet-- Richard has too much self-possession to let himself fall that far even in the most pressing of circumstances. This may not be Windor, and he may not be king here, but he still feels a certain duty to maintain control and do his best to stay calm and keep fighting.

But that's getting more and more difficult now that he can no longer even see where he's aiming his spells. Retreating eventually becomes inevitable, whether he wants to or not.

He just hopes that he's running in the direction of a building...

His mad dash comes to a sudden and unexpected halt when he collides with something surprisingly soft and yielding with enough force to send him stumbling a few steps backwards. Instinctively, his hand moves to the hilt of his sword as he prepares himself to attack if this strange obstacle proves to be a foe.]

Don't attack me.

[If he tries, she doesn't think she can hold him off without hurting him or herself. Raven looks around quickly, still unable to see some of the enemies she spotted closing in.]

You're going to be trapped if you stay here.

Who are you?

[He takes another step back, and though he makes no move to draw his sword, he doesn't release his grip on the hilt yet either. She's still a stranger to him; until he feels reassured that he can trust her, he's going to remain on alert.]

Raven.

[The simple answer is all they have time for.]

The soldiers are coming for you. Get on.

[The way he's glaring at her, she really can't tell there's a problem.]

Where are they?

[It's a strange question to ask and he knows it. It's also a question that he needs an answer to if he's going to be able to fight against them at all.]

I need to know where to cast my spells.

On all sides. They're still not close enough to hurt you yet.

[She can see one, but her vision as a bird is much better than it is as a person; he isn't moving as fast as he was. Maybe she's scared him off. Maybe he's waiting to spring a trap.]

There are too many to fight alone.

[It's his last chance to leave; soon she won't have enough lead time and her only option will be to fight beside him.]

Then I suppose I will have to ask for your assistance, as much as I hate to do so.

[He certainly would never think of running away and leaving her to fight these unknown opponents. Stranger or not, he could never allow anyone else to put themselves in danger for his sake. Besides, if what she says about them being on all sides is true, then she's his only hope for telling him where to attack.]

[That stings. Is it because she's a monster? Although she's fought in this form for days, largely without considering human bias, encountering it now...still hurts.]

Then get on, so we can go. I can carry you a short distance. [Much farther and he'll prove too heavy, she thinks.]

Get on?

[Richard looks utterly confused by this offer. Whatever he'd run into felt larger than a human, but without being able to see Raven's current form, the offer to carry him is an odd one. He isn't sure he quite understands.]

You won't fall off. [She completely misunderstands his problem, from several different angles.] And I won't- I'm not...going to hurt you.

[Slowly, cautiously, he lifts one hand up and holds it out, feeling around in the air to see if he can find the object he ran into just a few moments ago (which he is now fairly certain is Raven).

If she didn't understand the problem before, she no doubt will now.]

[At first, she thinks he's afraid to touch her despite her telling him it was fine. Then he misses a few times, swatting the air, looking uncertain. She met someone else with this problem once; automatically, she assumes this man died just as that one had.

Sighing, Raven looks around again to be sure they aren't in attack range, then lowers her head to meet his hand.]

[He starts for a moment out of instinct when he feels that contact against his hand-- it's soft, far softer than he'd expected, although to be honest he hadn't been entirely sure what he was expecting. Once he is sure that she's all right with it, he gives a few slow, gentle strokes over the feathers, just feeling out the shape of her head beneath his hand.

So she's a bird. The name 'Raven' makes that much more sense to him now, and for a brief moment he finds himself wondering if she really is a giant raven.]

I apologize; I should have told you that I can't see.

Edited 2014-06-09 05:40 (UTC)

It's fine. [A little awkward to have someone petting her, but she has more important things on her mind.] They're too close to get away, we'll have to fight some of them.

I can use my magic against them if you tell me where to aim my spells. We won't even need to get within attacking distance of them if we fight them that way.

[Sorry Raven, touch is one of the senses Richard is forced to rely on for the time being. At least his petting is gentle and hesitant and he's not stroking her feathers the wrong way.]

Their beasts may not fall to magic.

[What Raven wants and needs now is maneuverability on the ground. She ducks gently out of the space beneath Richard's hand, so she can transform without startling him too much.

Expecting the worst anyway, Raven draws her sword.]

They're right in front of you. Two soldiers, two...dogs.

The beasts will need to be decapitated.

[It's brutal and awful and he hates having to do it even if they ARE monsters, but he also knows from experience that it's necessary in order to kill them permanently.]

It's the only way to keep them from reviving. I can stun them so that you can cut off their heads, but I'm afraid I won't be able to handle that part myself. Can you do it?

Not two at once. [Not four at once, either, there are Cultists with spears at the heels of their vicious pets. Armor-wearing pets, at that; Raven looks at her sword and hopes it is as sturdy as it has ever been.]

I'll do it. [He can't see her, he won't know she's limping and favoring one side.]

Be ready to strike when I give the word. It won't take me long to cast.

[Already the beginnings of a glyph are flickering blue beneath his feet as he prepares to cast Vengeant Fangs on the creatures. It will be a matter of seconds once he begins casting in earnest; he just wants to be sure that he's aiming it at the right place first.]

How far in front of us are they?

[First priority is getting far enough away from him that none of her is touching that glyph. She doesn't know how it works.]

They're running in too fast. [Right in time with the spike of urgency in her voice.] Twenty yards?

[That's enough of a ballpark estimate for Richard-- no sooner does she finish her sentence than the glyph glows brighter, and a second after that a wave of green light will strike the Shift Hunters with enough force to knock them off their feet, just as he'd promised.

This is Raven's best chance to take them out before they regain their bearings.]

[She gets to one pretty fast, despite her physical setbacks; it takes more than one strike to get past its armor and sever its head. Raven swallows several times, turning to the other only to find it getting to its feet.]

I only got one! [Richard ought to know. As Raven is the closer enemy, the Shift Hunter turns for her first. She raises her sword, and teeth and armor clash with it, almost ringing.]

Watch out!

[That's all the warning he can really give before he casts another spell targeted at the same location as before. With no visual ability to tell whether or not she's in the line of fire, he's reduced to hoping that verbal warning will be enough to allow her to dodge or duck the spell.

If not, well...]

[She manages, barely, to shake the Shift Hunter and stumble backward, away from the spell. Landing hard on her backside on the ground, breathing hard through clenched teeth for a moment, she sees the creature stunned again and knows she has to get back up. She's prey, now; so is he, especially if she goes down first.

So Raven drags herself to her feet and shouts once as she rushes the Shift Hunter to cut off its head, too.]

Day 6, early

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