After a tumultuous first few months at the Academy, Lirra finally made the friends she so longed for and is ready to move forward. But the past never really stays dead, does it? She, of all people, would know…
Gravedigger Quest 2 - The Bloody Coin
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1 - What is wrong with this academy? Another murderous test!
- Pronouns
- They/Them
This is a sequel to Gravedigger Quest. While I'll do my best to make it accessible to people who haven't read it, it still is a sequel, so...
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Lirra rolled to the side, barely avoiding a blow to her head. Her sleep-addled eyes tried to make sense of the situation through the shower of feathers as her pillow exploded under the fist of the strange golem that had broken through her door in the middle of the night. At the other side of the room, she could see Tanwen, her obnoxious roommate, catching the fist of another enemy before kicking it apart, her blazing eyes looking down on the remains with contempt. As the first golem brought its fist back for another attack, Lirra dove forward for the shovel at the feet of her bed and, weaving around a second punch, struck its body, bringing it to the ground before severing its head with a downward stab.
"W-what's going on?" Lirra asked, now that there was time to take a breath.
Going by the noise going around the dorms, they weren't the only ones who were attacked. Or the only ones who defended themselves. It was, after all, the dorms of the aspirants of the Sword, those of this academy who had chosen to be at the frontline of the fight against the Dark, what little remained of it in this age, and such a messy skirmish was exactly what they'd been trained for.
"Another of their stupid tests if I had to guess," answered Tanwen. "I'm all for thinning out the weak but did they really have to do that when I fucking sleep?"
Her long horns blazed red with heat for an instant as she angrily commented on the situation, her hooked leather cape already on her shoulders as she readied for more golems to arrive.
Lirra winced at the callous comment, her mind going back to two months ago, during the test to join the Academy. Her party had barely managed to cross the dark forest without casualties - although not without cost for Lirra, as she now owed a Life Debt to Tanwen who had offered to help in exchange, saving the life of the mage Chloe - but it had been a near thing, and so many more aspirants hadn't made it. The echo of a good many of them now resided in Lirra's soul after she had Pyred their bodies, ensuring they wouldn't rise again as undead abominations.
Lirra hurried to put on some pants and, more importantly, her cape. She arranged the hood around her goat-like, verdant horns, and made sure that her ashen hair, the mark of a gravedigger, was hidden. As they were still ashes and not burning embers, she knew that at least no one had died yet. All the same, she hurried and forewent boots as she knew nature would never do something as crass as put splinters or pointy rocks under the feet of a Changeling, then she burst out of her room.
The hallway was a mess. Most doors had been destroyed during the first wave of the attack, and more and more damage was caused by the continuing fights. Just out of her room, Lirra could see Dylis, a rust haired girl with what polite people would call an outspoken personality cover Carwyn with her shield as the latter, a young soft spoken man with darker red hair, conjured a wall of water from the tip of his sword to try and stem the tide of golems.
"Hey, Lirra! Slept well?" Dylis asked with an almost manic grin on her face as she held the line. "Could you give me a hand?"
She didn't have to ask as Lirra was already charging forth, and with her help the two were able to give Carwyn enough room to finish his working. The wall crashed down on the golems, washing them back before freezing solid, stemming the tide at least from this side.
Dylis nodded in thanks before subtly looking over Carwyn to make sure he was fine.
"You could have knocked before coming in, what if I was naked, huh? Is that what you wanted to see!?" she loudly complained once sure he was alright.
"There was no more door, Dy," Carwyn answered, while looking over Dylis in a more overt way. "And didn't we choose to get rooms next to each other exactly for such situations?"
Lirra tuned out their usual bickering to see how the other side of the hallway was doing. As it turned out, it was doing pretty well as Furuta and Pupa were wading knee deep in golem parts. The elegant swordsmanship of the first contrasted with the brutal cleaves of the second, but perhaps not as much as Pupa herself contrasted with her fighting style. Despite holding a wicked looking cleaver and brute forcing her way through the fight, the woman herself was an ever smiling bubbly lady with an elaborate hairdo and an exquisite yellow dress that looked more fit for high society than the battlefield. The greatest question remained how she managed to get into that during a night attack, but there were more pressing matters.
"Are you alright?" Lirra asked as she got closer to the duo.
"It is fine, but they are coming without a stop," answered Furuta in her usual stilted speech. As someone who came from far enough that her language was not included in the translation spell over the Academy and who had only been here for a few months, her mastery was still impressive, if not perfect.
Lirra smiled at the assurance of her friend. Just a few weeks back, she'd forgotten all about her in a magical mishap as she tried to learn more about her legacy, but that incident had thankfully been resolved. Partly in thanks to the effort of Chloe, who dove into Lirra's mind in order to assess the damage, but also thanks to the echo of Lirra's mentor and surrogate father who, despite benefiting from the event, had chosen to sacrifice himself for his daughter once again.
"Good, that's good," Lirra said, less used to fighting than her friend. "Carwyn blocked the other way, so we should be able to pierce through and get to the main hall and then… then I hope someone there has a better idea of what's going on?"
Furuta nodded in agreement as the rest of the Swords came closer.
"Lirra, can you give me your spear for a moment?" Furuta asked, as looked at her blade before sheathing it. "My edge is suffering from cutting what these things are instead of flesh."
At that, Lirra hurried to her room to give her what she asked for. Her spear was, to be entirely honest, quite a poor weapon. It was missing one of its edges as she'd had to whittle it down to avoid a crack from spreading to the rest, and its haft was only holding thanks to the few runes that Melkorka, the Svartalf smith who had been part of her party during the bloody first test, had engraved on its length. That being said, its history made it dear to her heart even if reason told her she probably should update to a weapon that wasn't broken as soon as she could afford it. Aside from familiarity, there was a reason why she'd used her shovel against the golems.
She got back and gave Furuta her weapon, asking her to be careful with it, then the group moved on. Sad to say, Lirra felt a bit underwhelming as the party fought through hallways after hallways against a seemingly endless horde of automatons. As much as she'd idolised knights all her life - as most inhabitants of Emoulin would do - there was no doubt that her training was taking her in a less straightforward and honourable direction. It wasn't to say she was useless, only that she had much catching up to do compared to her present classmates.
Eventually they broke through to the main hall, where many students were holding the line. In the center of the room, a few Staves - the aspirants who were training for a supportive role - and a few others with some knowledge of healing, were patching up the few people who'd gotten hurt, while the more martial aspirants were doing their best to hold this point against the endless tide.
Lirra took the opportunity offered by this reprieve to look around and see if her friends that were not Swords had made it out. After some walking around, helping where she could with her very limited first aid knowledge, she noticed a familiar figure. It was weird to see Lucilia without her trademark red coat and hat, but she'd spent enough time with her and seen her in worse situations to immediately recognise her, even in her night clothes and with her hair down. It would seem that much the same could be said of her, as Lucilia turned to face her and hurried to her side.
"Lirra!" she exclaimed, a relieved smile on her face. "Are you alright? Did you get hurt?"
The taller woman patted her down as she asked that, checking for unseen wounds.
"I-I'm fine Lucilia, it's ok," Lirra said, trying to calm her down. "And you?"
Truth to be told, Lucilia was the friend she was most worried about. Not because she was closer to her than the rest - although that was a fact, since she was one of the few people who knew her secret - but because the bard was not a fighter.
"Oh, I'm fine as well," Lucilia smiled. "I had some help, not all of us Cloaks are here to talk."
As she said that, Lirra noticed a young girl clinging to the bard like a shadow, her eyes blank and a pair of daggers - oversized for her small frame - tightly held in her fists.
"Well, that's… that's good," Lirra said. "Although Melkorka would probably say something abo- Melkorka, Chloe!" she exclaimed, remembering the situation. "Are they here? Do you know what happened to them?"
"Damn, I was hoping you did." Lucilia winced. "I haven't seen them yet…"
Lirra grit her teeths at that, worry coming back to the forefront of her mind.
"We must find them."
They both nodded with no hesitation. It might have been for a short time, but they'd been a party, and one of the first rules adventurers learned was that you never split the party.
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[] Go towards the Staves dormitory. Melkorka might be able to hold her own as good as any Sword, but she's slow on her feet, hardly able to escape an endless horde.
[] Go towards the Stars dormitory. Chloe, for all of her knowledge and arcane prowess, is better suited to libraries than the battlefield.
In case anyone's wondering, I'm just re/introducing the gang, so no one will die. This is a stress free vote.
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Lirra rolled to the side, barely avoiding a blow to her head. Her sleep-addled eyes tried to make sense of the situation through the shower of feathers as her pillow exploded under the fist of the strange golem that had broken through her door in the middle of the night. At the other side of the room, she could see Tanwen, her obnoxious roommate, catching the fist of another enemy before kicking it apart, her blazing eyes looking down on the remains with contempt. As the first golem brought its fist back for another attack, Lirra dove forward for the shovel at the feet of her bed and, weaving around a second punch, struck its body, bringing it to the ground before severing its head with a downward stab.
"W-what's going on?" Lirra asked, now that there was time to take a breath.
Going by the noise going around the dorms, they weren't the only ones who were attacked. Or the only ones who defended themselves. It was, after all, the dorms of the aspirants of the Sword, those of this academy who had chosen to be at the frontline of the fight against the Dark, what little remained of it in this age, and such a messy skirmish was exactly what they'd been trained for.
"Another of their stupid tests if I had to guess," answered Tanwen. "I'm all for thinning out the weak but did they really have to do that when I fucking sleep?"
Her long horns blazed red with heat for an instant as she angrily commented on the situation, her hooked leather cape already on her shoulders as she readied for more golems to arrive.
Lirra winced at the callous comment, her mind going back to two months ago, during the test to join the Academy. Her party had barely managed to cross the dark forest without casualties - although not without cost for Lirra, as she now owed a Life Debt to Tanwen who had offered to help in exchange, saving the life of the mage Chloe - but it had been a near thing, and so many more aspirants hadn't made it. The echo of a good many of them now resided in Lirra's soul after she had Pyred their bodies, ensuring they wouldn't rise again as undead abominations.
Lirra hurried to put on some pants and, more importantly, her cape. She arranged the hood around her goat-like, verdant horns, and made sure that her ashen hair, the mark of a gravedigger, was hidden. As they were still ashes and not burning embers, she knew that at least no one had died yet. All the same, she hurried and forewent boots as she knew nature would never do something as crass as put splinters or pointy rocks under the feet of a Changeling, then she burst out of her room.
The hallway was a mess. Most doors had been destroyed during the first wave of the attack, and more and more damage was caused by the continuing fights. Just out of her room, Lirra could see Dylis, a rust haired girl with what polite people would call an outspoken personality cover Carwyn with her shield as the latter, a young soft spoken man with darker red hair, conjured a wall of water from the tip of his sword to try and stem the tide of golems.
"Hey, Lirra! Slept well?" Dylis asked with an almost manic grin on her face as she held the line. "Could you give me a hand?"
She didn't have to ask as Lirra was already charging forth, and with her help the two were able to give Carwyn enough room to finish his working. The wall crashed down on the golems, washing them back before freezing solid, stemming the tide at least from this side.
Dylis nodded in thanks before subtly looking over Carwyn to make sure he was fine.
"You could have knocked before coming in, what if I was naked, huh? Is that what you wanted to see!?" she loudly complained once sure he was alright.
"There was no more door, Dy," Carwyn answered, while looking over Dylis in a more overt way. "And didn't we choose to get rooms next to each other exactly for such situations?"
Lirra tuned out their usual bickering to see how the other side of the hallway was doing. As it turned out, it was doing pretty well as Furuta and Pupa were wading knee deep in golem parts. The elegant swordsmanship of the first contrasted with the brutal cleaves of the second, but perhaps not as much as Pupa herself contrasted with her fighting style. Despite holding a wicked looking cleaver and brute forcing her way through the fight, the woman herself was an ever smiling bubbly lady with an elaborate hairdo and an exquisite yellow dress that looked more fit for high society than the battlefield. The greatest question remained how she managed to get into that during a night attack, but there were more pressing matters.
"Are you alright?" Lirra asked as she got closer to the duo.
"It is fine, but they are coming without a stop," answered Furuta in her usual stilted speech. As someone who came from far enough that her language was not included in the translation spell over the Academy and who had only been here for a few months, her mastery was still impressive, if not perfect.
Lirra smiled at the assurance of her friend. Just a few weeks back, she'd forgotten all about her in a magical mishap as she tried to learn more about her legacy, but that incident had thankfully been resolved. Partly in thanks to the effort of Chloe, who dove into Lirra's mind in order to assess the damage, but also thanks to the echo of Lirra's mentor and surrogate father who, despite benefiting from the event, had chosen to sacrifice himself for his daughter once again.
"Good, that's good," Lirra said, less used to fighting than her friend. "Carwyn blocked the other way, so we should be able to pierce through and get to the main hall and then… then I hope someone there has a better idea of what's going on?"
Furuta nodded in agreement as the rest of the Swords came closer.
"Lirra, can you give me your spear for a moment?" Furuta asked, as looked at her blade before sheathing it. "My edge is suffering from cutting what these things are instead of flesh."
At that, Lirra hurried to her room to give her what she asked for. Her spear was, to be entirely honest, quite a poor weapon. It was missing one of its edges as she'd had to whittle it down to avoid a crack from spreading to the rest, and its haft was only holding thanks to the few runes that Melkorka, the Svartalf smith who had been part of her party during the bloody first test, had engraved on its length. That being said, its history made it dear to her heart even if reason told her she probably should update to a weapon that wasn't broken as soon as she could afford it. Aside from familiarity, there was a reason why she'd used her shovel against the golems.
She got back and gave Furuta her weapon, asking her to be careful with it, then the group moved on. Sad to say, Lirra felt a bit underwhelming as the party fought through hallways after hallways against a seemingly endless horde of automatons. As much as she'd idolised knights all her life - as most inhabitants of Emoulin would do - there was no doubt that her training was taking her in a less straightforward and honourable direction. It wasn't to say she was useless, only that she had much catching up to do compared to her present classmates.
Eventually they broke through to the main hall, where many students were holding the line. In the center of the room, a few Staves - the aspirants who were training for a supportive role - and a few others with some knowledge of healing, were patching up the few people who'd gotten hurt, while the more martial aspirants were doing their best to hold this point against the endless tide.
Lirra took the opportunity offered by this reprieve to look around and see if her friends that were not Swords had made it out. After some walking around, helping where she could with her very limited first aid knowledge, she noticed a familiar figure. It was weird to see Lucilia without her trademark red coat and hat, but she'd spent enough time with her and seen her in worse situations to immediately recognise her, even in her night clothes and with her hair down. It would seem that much the same could be said of her, as Lucilia turned to face her and hurried to her side.
"Lirra!" she exclaimed, a relieved smile on her face. "Are you alright? Did you get hurt?"
The taller woman patted her down as she asked that, checking for unseen wounds.
"I-I'm fine Lucilia, it's ok," Lirra said, trying to calm her down. "And you?"
Truth to be told, Lucilia was the friend she was most worried about. Not because she was closer to her than the rest - although that was a fact, since she was one of the few people who knew her secret - but because the bard was not a fighter.
"Oh, I'm fine as well," Lucilia smiled. "I had some help, not all of us Cloaks are here to talk."
As she said that, Lirra noticed a young girl clinging to the bard like a shadow, her eyes blank and a pair of daggers - oversized for her small frame - tightly held in her fists.
"Well, that's… that's good," Lirra said. "Although Melkorka would probably say something abo- Melkorka, Chloe!" she exclaimed, remembering the situation. "Are they here? Do you know what happened to them?"
"Damn, I was hoping you did." Lucilia winced. "I haven't seen them yet…"
Lirra grit her teeths at that, worry coming back to the forefront of her mind.
"We must find them."
They both nodded with no hesitation. It might have been for a short time, but they'd been a party, and one of the first rules adventurers learned was that you never split the party.
-----------------
[] Go towards the Staves dormitory. Melkorka might be able to hold her own as good as any Sword, but she's slow on her feet, hardly able to escape an endless horde.
[] Go towards the Stars dormitory. Chloe, for all of her knowledge and arcane prowess, is better suited to libraries than the battlefield.
In case anyone's wondering, I'm just re/introducing the gang, so no one will die. This is a stress free vote.
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Characters
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Lirra
This is you.A Changeling of Emoulin, and a Keeper of Gray, more commonly known as Gravediggers. You spent your youth following your Mentor after being abandoned by a family you never knew. Your youth has been marked by tragedy. Aside from your sad beginnings, Ilinca, your first love, was murdered by bandits alongside her entire caravan. Then, a massive plague swept through the lands, your Mentor being its last victim. You came to the Academy in order to make friends, but also to move beyond the weakness of your past self in order to ensure you will never lose those dear to you ever again.
As a Gravedigger, your knowledge of death has little equal, and you are one of the few beings in this world able to offer a true rest for the dead. When Pyring the dead, you gain part of their memories and also their skills. While it has caused trouble in the past, you may also temporarily sacrifice some of your memories to strengthen the Echo of one of the dead in order to pull more out of them.
As a Changeling, you are of the Fae, and as such are vulnerable to iron, its touch burning your skin. You are also incapable of outright lies. Your blood doesn't only come with negatives, however, as nature itself loves you. A beloved child of the forest, the soil will be your bed, and roots your path. Even rivers and lakes will never halt your advance. You are also able to perform basic Fae magic, this being some minor illusions and weak geasa, taboos that offer a benefit as long as they aren't broken but promise a terrible fate to the transgressors.
Being from Emoulin, you idolise chivalry and have little to no understanding of lies, irony and sarcasm.
At the Academy, you chose the path of the Sword, the frontline fighters in the battle against the Dark. While you wished to be a dashing knight, your teachers pushed you in a more subtle direction, taking advantage of your speed and dexterity for hit and run tactics with a spear.
Physically, you are a rather short girl with goat-like horns covered in moss, ashen hair - quite literally, the mark of a Gravedigger - green eyes with square pupils and very sharp teeth. Your skin is pale and covered with freckles.
Swords
Tanwen
An alleged Changeling and generally unpleasant person. You are the only person with which she tries to be civil. You owe her a life debt for the dragon blood she offered you in order to save Chloe, which she must call in the next following three years. She seems intent on seeing you safe and powerful, at least until then. A supremely powerful fighter, the only issue is her personality as she's incapable of teamwork. She knows your secret as a Gravedigger.A tall woman with well defined muscles, skin on the darker side, blazing snake-like eyes and a pair of sharp and long horns curving above her head and down her back that look as though they are made of barely solidified magma. Her hair is made in a series of braids, the only thing she seems to spend effort on, appearance-wise.
Furuta
A traveller coming from distant lands. She is focused, polite and a hard worker. A dear friend of yours despite her discomfort at showing emotions and also your sparring partner. An excellent swordswoman and spearmaster.A short woman (still taller than you) with wiry muscles and straight dark hair held in a ponytail.
Dylis
A young woman from Nivion. While she means well, she has a tendency to let her emotions and imagination take her on wild rides, which she insists on sharing with anyone in hearing range. A childhood friend of Carwyn, it is virtually impossible to see one without the other. She favours the sword and shield in a defensive and supportive style, quite a surprise given her personality.
Her long rust-coloured hair is held up in elaborate twintails.
Carwyn
A young man from Nivion. Soft spoken and reserved, you don't know much about him except that he's childhood friends with Dylis. A surprisingly competent spellblade of the Nivian school of magic, favouring water.
His dark red hair has a page cut and his iris faintly glow as with all human mages.
Alvi
A young man from Svartfald. Loud and boisterous, with little to no subtlety, he's a friendly man always ready to support his companions and drink them under the table. He seems to have made you getting some meat on your bones (through getting meat in your stomach) his personal mission after he nearly knocked you out on the first day of classes.His pale skin is covered in blue tattoos and his red hair is half shaved and ends in a braid. A giant of a man, he is more than twice as tall as you are.
Pupa
An ever smiling lady who always seems to be half a step removed from the situation at hand. She seems to have virtually endless endurance and is indefatigable in her curiosity. Her skin is glacial to the touch and she seems unwilling to be seen out of the elaborate yellow dress she always wears. Her fighting style is surprisingly savage as she strikes without finesse with a massive cleaver.She is on the tall side, very thin with rosy cheeks and pale eyes. Her hair is done in an elaborate updo.
Cloaks
Lucilia
A beautiful bard who hides her pain behind smiles and songs. She comes from a rich family in Amessa, where she accidentally caused the death of her lover. She came to the Academy to expiate or die, whichever comes first, although you've done your best to push her to keep on living. A very dear friend, she knows your secret as a Gravedigger.A model of beauty, she has light brown hair, piercing blue eyes and a sunny complexion. She is rarely seen without her crimson coat and hat.
Nia
A young girl with a troubled past. It seems she was used as an assassin in Nivion before she came to the Academy. Lucilia's roommate.
A small girl with dark messy hair and dead eyes.
Staves
Melkorka
A Svartalf rune smith determined to have her weapons go down in legends. Gruff and uncomfortable with affection, she is nonetheless caring in her own way. Surprisingly for a Staff, she is a frontline fighter, standing strong in heavy armour with her shield and hammer.An albino Svartalf, she has massive bat-like ears, red eyes and a high nose. No idea on the rest as she always is at least in an all covering chain-mail.
Leirion
A cute mage of the Maathian school of alteration. She seems to be a healer and helps Melkorka in her day to day life.
A girl on the tall side whose brown hair's underside has been dyed blue. She wears baggy Maathian robes.
Stars
Chloe
A diminutive mind mage from Maath. Her magic left her almost incapable of speaking out loud and she favours telepathy when she really has to say something. You saved her life during the first test, and she healed your mind after a meditation mishap saw you lose part of your memories. You tried to tell her your secret and she awkwardly informed you that she already read your mind about it.A short girl with messy dark hair done in a crown braid. Her glowing cobalt eyes are hidden behind large glasses and she favours blue mage robes.
Others
Aida Al-Wahid
The main teacher of the Swords. She is an old woman from the deserts around Endercross. Sharp and acerbic, she does her best to ensure the survival of her wards once they reach the field, but does not coddle them, quite the opposite in fact. She seems to favour the spear.An old, dark skinned woman. She is missing her left arm. As a matter of fact, most of her left side is taken with strange emerald like scars that look almost scale-like.
Melissa Oideas
An old woman, the owner of the general shop Cuimideas in the Academy town. In the past, she was friends with many adventurers and was helped by a Fae. This has led her to feel some kinship with you, and you currently help at her store during the week-ends.An old, gentle woman. Her grey hair is held by a pair of red beads.
Ilinca
Your first love. She was a Rinagi whose caravan you chanced upon. You spent a few weeks with her until she tragically died in a bandit attack. She was the first person you Pyred. Her dream was to become a bard and travel the world.A pretty girl with tan skin, big dark eyes and a luscious mane of black hair.
Mentor
Your father in all but blood. Much like you he was abandoned without even a name. He chose to break the cycle of cruelty the world inflicted on him and his predecessor by taking care of you as a daughter. He died of the plague he contracted after his power failed when he was taking care of a town overrun with the undead.
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2 - Someone’s left behind? Rescue mission!
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] Go towards the Staves dormitory. Melkorka might be able to hold her own as good as a Sword, but she's slow on her feet, hardly able to escape an endless horde.
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The question remained of who to help first. While in an ideal world, they could simply help both, they sadly couldn't duplicate themselves in order to go to both locations at once. With what happened to Chloe back during the first test, of course they wanted to save her. As a matter of fact, given it was Lucilia's mistake that had seen Chloe almost get killed, the bard was pushing for it hard, probably out of guilt. Lirra almost agreed; running through the woods and feeling the mage's body get colder and colder was an experience that would likely haunt her for a long time and that she didn't want to repeat ever again, but despite having seen Chloe at her weakest, she trusted the mage. After all, those golems were clearly a magical creation, and she didn't doubt that Chloe, for all that she didn't seem well versed in combat magic, knew the weaknesses of those things. Knowing things was, after all, what she did.
While Melkorka, at first glance, seemed the safer of the two with her being able to be a frontline fighter, Lirra had her doubts. The first and most obvious was that she fought while encased in heavy armour, and while Lirra never saw the Svartalf without at least a chainmail and greaves on, she still highly doubted that Melkorka slept with armour on.
Before they could lose more time arguing, however, the small assassin tugged on Lucilia's coat to notify her of people approaching. Thankfully, it wasn't more golems as the blockades were still holding, but the party Lirra first arrived with now that they had finished looking around for their own allies.
"Lirra, did you happen to see a woman - a Star - with long black hair, reddish purple eyes and probably holding an ornate staff that kind of looks like burnt wood with silver decorations and red gems? She'll probably be in expensive clothes and, uh…" Carwyn started to ask before trailing off.
"And is a massive pain," Dylis concluded for him. "She'd be ordering people around if she were here and nothing's on fire so she probably hasn't arrived, huh?"
Carwyn gave her a look but didn't correct her. That didn't bode well for the personality of the girl they were looking for. Lirra actually had seen that woman… but that was months ago before they entered the forest. She didn't know she'd made it. Good for her. She told them as much.
"Damn," Carwyn passed a hand in his hair, looking to the hallways. "I guess we have to go get her, then… Thanks anyway, Lirra."
He was about to leave when Lirra got an idea.
"Carwyn, wait," she asked. The boy turned curiously. "I-we have a friend in the Stars that isn't here as well, but we also have one with the Staves, so… I know it's a lot to ask with the situation, but could you…" she trailed off.
The spellsword nodded with a smile.
"Your friend who always reads books, right?" he confirmed before putting a fist on his heart. "We'll get her too, don't worry."
For once Dylis didn't criticise him, and… was she blushing? Before Lirra could ask about that, Furuta moved next to him.
"I will also go to make sure we can attain her," she said. "Or do you want me to be with you?"
Lirra hesitated an instant, her eyes going to Lucilia and the small girl, thinking.
"I think we can be faster if we sneak through so you can go with them."
"Goodest of luck in battle, then." Furuta turned and started to walk away with the other two.
"Please be safe…" Lirra whispered as she watched them go.
—
"Ok, so you want to go through to the Staves' dorm and grab your girlfriend? Hahaha, look at that hero!" Alvi hit Lirra's back with his massive hand, making her take a few steps forward in order to keep her balance. "When you do that we'll probably use the diversion to move everyone to the outer walls, near the forest. Not in the forest, obviously, but those things come from inside, so we should have more luck holding on further away. Come to us once you're done."
This hallway was held by what looked like a mix of Swords and Stars, Alvi and his sister first amongst them. The first few meters from the entrance were covered in bits and pieces of golems, which was impressive at first glance. If you thought longer about what it meant, however, it was clear that they were losing ground. Their planned retreat was a good idea. With a bit of coordination and some luck, it should be relatively safe to move back once the few search and rescue parties passed through.
But everyone knows what is said about tempting fate.
"Hold on," one of the aspirants called. "New wave."
As one, they readied to push it back like the previous ones. However, as it got closer, the aspirants' eyes went up and up and up, and a few of them took a few steps back in fear. Then the line exploded as a massive golem broke through. It rolled over the unfortunate few that were directly in its path as it flew through them like a cannonball before unfolding its limbs and starting to fight in earnest. The smaller golems behind it took the opportunity to get in and Lirra believed she saw a few dragging aspirants away.
It took less than a second for everything to go to hell, but it took just as long for a few brave souls to meet the new challenge head on. Alvi let out a bellowing roar as he rushed at the giant golem while his sister did her best to reorganise the line. Further back in the room, the Staves, the wounded and the few who were hovering around them to protect them were hurrying their preparation to retreat. Lirra saw Pupa gleefully joining in the melee as the main group carried those who couldn't move by themselves away.
Lirra strengthened her grip on her shovel and prepared to help Alvi.
"Go!" Alvi caught one of the massive fists of the golem with both his weapons - an axe and a cutlass - his long braid flying in the wind created by the impact. "Your friend's probably in even deeper shit so go! We can handle it!"
Lirra hesitated. Would he handle it? Could Lucilia and her friend manage to save Melkorka without her? She knew that the second was a no, but she hated that the first one likely was the same. She gritted her teeth and, with one last look towards Alvi, she nodded to her party and they rushed in the hallway through an opening in the line, Lirra clearing a path through the few golems that weren't yet engaged.
—
A few minutes later, hidden in a room whose door had only been half torn off instead of completely shattered, Lirra and Lucilia were catching their breath. The assassin had gone alone to scout the area.
"So who's that girl anyway?" Lirra asked. "I don't remember seeing her when you were with Cloaks before and she seems very attached to you. Quite literally."
"Well, not seeing her doesn't mean much when it comes to her." Lucilia smiled. "But yes, it's a relatively recent thing. After that night when I… told you about what happened to make me come here, I started thinking. You'd told me to become someone I could like, and I was a bit stumped. And that's around when I saw her in my room, apparently she'd been sleeping in the rafters all along and had… I guess gotten used to me enough that she showed herself?" She looked to the side, guilty about what the girl would have seen in the meanwhile. "I don't really know, it kind of had that feeling when a stray cat decides to adopt you and moves into your house, if I have to be entirely honest.
"Anyway, Nia - that's her name - obviously didn't have a great life before. I only gathered that she came from Nivion and she's been branded by a Great Family. Probably used as an assassin. I thought Amessa was bad, but by the Light, this country is evil. Long story short, now she's living with me and I'm doing my best to not be a bad exemple and have her find things she likes. I ruined one life, so maybe if I manage to fix another I won't feel as bad every morning."
Lirra grabbed Lucilia's hands during the silence as she digested the rather heavy story. Lucilia gave her a tired smile and was about to say something when they noticed Nia was standing between the two of them, gazing dispassionately through a crack on the door.
"The way's clear, only a single patrol. No aspirants," she reported.
They nodded and opened the door, silently moving further in the Staves dorms. The search for Melkorka was made more complicated by the fact that none of them had actually ever been invited to her room - the svartalf kept to herself and they had both been quite busy, a fact they both regretted right now - and so they had to check every room on the way. It seemed the Staves had fared much worse than the more militant branches, which made sense as they were healers and supporters. Blood could be seen here and there, although thankfully not in a quantity that would have guaranteed someone's death. More sinister, however, were the nail marks going out of the wooden floor of one room, as someone visibly had desperately tried to hold on and resist being dragged away to parts unknown.
Lirra's mind went back to the barricade, where she'd seen the golems do the same to some of the vanquished, and took heart in the fact that she hadn't sensed anyone dying. That was that, at least. Unlike during the first test, it would seem that this test, whatever it was, was not lethal this time. At least she hoped. She wouldn't put it beyond the Academy to simply do their dirty work at some other location. For what purpose she didn't know, but it was all too easy for her to imagine some dark ritual where the kidnapped were sacrificed so their death would… what, reinforce the survivors? She had heard something about a spell over the Academy that allowed its students to get stronger faster than they should have been able to, and given the lack of older aspirants running around, it didn't look like this whole situation was an accident.
Their search was cut short once Lirra's sharp ears caught some distant noise. Fighting noises that weren't coming from behind. She hoped she hadn't been lost in her imagination for too long as she told her two companions to hurry up in that direction. They started running and soon all three of them could hear the battle ahead of them. However, as they sped through the hallways, focusing on distant noises to guide their way, they ran into the patrol Nia had mentioned earlier. Five golems turned their heads in their direction, featureless if not for the blue glowing orb that occupied the center of their faces like some baleful eye. The blue light locked on them and the constructs started rushing.
With a hand, Lirra pushed Lucilia back, then with a nod of confirmation from Nia, she charged forth. Now that she wasn't taken by surprise in her sleep, her first opponent barely slowed her down. She slid between its legs, sweeping its right foot before she parried the attack of a second golem. Behind them, she could hear Nia's daggers finishing her first opponent and she refocused on the one she was locked in battle with. With her back secured, she started pushing the creature and then, once she felt it start to resist, jumped back. During the instant it was off balance, she pushed her shovel forward and pierced its orb. As it shattered, the light that animated the golem faded and it fell down.
In the meanwhile, she saw that Nia had been defending against two golems and she let out a curse as the last of the three remaining ones got in her way. Before she had to do anything, however, a loud bang resounded from behind her, and she saw Lucilia peeking out of the room she'd been shoved in, her pistol smoking, giving her a small nod. Her way clear, she leapt forward to help Nia and they made short work of their last enemies.
With this interruption dealt with, they doubled their pace. Mainly because the sounds of battle weren't fading from their destination, but also to avoid getting pincered by some other patrol who'd heard Lucilia's shot.
As they progressed, they noticed the walls and floors had turned weird. Stone had turned into overly smooth, slippery surfaces and as she caught herself, Lirra noticed that some of the walls had traces of heavy impacts. That being said, there were no golem bodies to account for whatever had done this. Then they finally reached the battle. One of the rooms had a few golems piling in, trying to force their way in like a disorganised mob. The ground was being reshaped under their feet over and over again, but despite slowing them severely, minute by minute, inch by inch, the golems were advancing, and if the sounds from inside were anything to go by, some already had reached their destination.
Lirra's first instinct was to rush in and start swinging her shovel, but without knowing exactly how many there were - on top of their advantage in cramped quarters as they were fighting bare-handed - her odds of victory weren't great. She gestured at the other two to hide in a room as she silently crouched to grab some rubble - small pieces of the walls that hadn't fared well during the fight - and gently blew on them. It had been a while since she'd done this. Not since she'd arrived at the Academy, actually, so focused she was on her ambition of becoming a gallant knight. Still, she was a Fey, and despite their inability to outright lie, Fey were tricksters. She stepped back into the same room where her two companions were then, with a flick of the wrist, she threw the handful of gravel she had enchanted.
Clack click clack clack
The sound came from the hallway further down. Much like debris moved around by people. Much like the sound of steps hurrying away. Much like steps hurrying away. Much like the steps of the people moving down the hallway.
There are people down the hallway.
As soon as the illusion took hold, the golems that were trying to get in turned at once and started walking over each other in a rush to pursue whoever was there. Sliding on the smooth stone, one crashed near the entrance of the room Lirra was hiding in, much too close for comfort, but whatever it had where a mind would be was already taken by the illusion and it rushed after the others.
Lirra let out a breath with Lucilia doing much the same, then came out of the room. It was time to finish this fight. When she got in Melkorka's room, she saw the Svartalf on her bed, desperately struggling against a golem. She was in her nightclothes and was doing her best, hammer in hand, but was unable to do more than keep it at bay. To her side, the room had twisted in order to form some sort of shield lattice around a mage, but the repeated blows of two other golems were breaking it down, and she was running out of material to defend herself.
She noticed Lirra coming in and her expression calmed down, terror giving room to relief. Unfortunately, the golems saw that and Lirra barely had the time to put her arm in the way of a blow that would have struck her in the face. She winced at the impact but had no time to change tactics as the golems approached her with a flurry of blows. She stepped to the side, trying to line them up so they'd be in each other's way, but with the limited room it was not an easy feat.
"Lirra, grab behind you!" she heard Melkorka's voice from behind her and instinctively closed her hand on the haft of a familiar spear.
It was the same weapon that had seen her survive the first test. It had been standing on one of the many racks that dotted the room and presented Melkorka's work. One of the few that hadn't fallen down or been converted into an obstacle in the mage's desperate struggle.
The runes on the spear lit up as Lirra moved, and the changeling witnessed the progress of the smith with joy as the weapon moved with supernatural smoothness. It was as if her hands were following the weapon rather than the opposite. With that and the arrival of Nia in the melee, it wasn't long until the golems were made into so much rubble.
"Melkorka, are you alright?" Lirra asked, massaging her arm where it had been struck, hissing in pain when she touched the damage.
"Yea, I'm fine. Thanks to you," she answered. "If not for that, I don't think we would have lasted for long."
"Yes, thank you for saving us," the mage added. She passed her hand alongside the bruises on her arms and face and Lirra could see them recede. "I'm Leirion, by the way. I don't think we've met?"
Quick introductions were made as Melkorka bent forward and reached for her knees before pulling her legs to the side and dragging them to the side of her bed where they dangled. The svartalf noticed Lirra's gaze and shrugged before continuing.
"How long do we have? I need some time to put my greaves on before I can do much of anything."
Leirion had already started searching through the broken remains of the room and placed a sabaton next to the bed. Inside, Lirra could see a complex array of runes that likely helped Melkorka move since, while the smith had never been fast on her feet, it was the first time she saw her immobilised like that.
She looked outside the room and listened. She could hear footsteps all around, but the echo made it hard to tell how many golems were around and if the ones that got caught in an illusion were already coming back.
No matter what, she didn't fancy the idea of staying here any longer than she needed to.
------------------
[] Just grab Melkorka and run
[] Take what gear you can, have Leirion patch you up, and carry Melkorka away
[] Hold the line until Melkorka is ready to move
------------------
The question remained of who to help first. While in an ideal world, they could simply help both, they sadly couldn't duplicate themselves in order to go to both locations at once. With what happened to Chloe back during the first test, of course they wanted to save her. As a matter of fact, given it was Lucilia's mistake that had seen Chloe almost get killed, the bard was pushing for it hard, probably out of guilt. Lirra almost agreed; running through the woods and feeling the mage's body get colder and colder was an experience that would likely haunt her for a long time and that she didn't want to repeat ever again, but despite having seen Chloe at her weakest, she trusted the mage. After all, those golems were clearly a magical creation, and she didn't doubt that Chloe, for all that she didn't seem well versed in combat magic, knew the weaknesses of those things. Knowing things was, after all, what she did.
While Melkorka, at first glance, seemed the safer of the two with her being able to be a frontline fighter, Lirra had her doubts. The first and most obvious was that she fought while encased in heavy armour, and while Lirra never saw the Svartalf without at least a chainmail and greaves on, she still highly doubted that Melkorka slept with armour on.
Before they could lose more time arguing, however, the small assassin tugged on Lucilia's coat to notify her of people approaching. Thankfully, it wasn't more golems as the blockades were still holding, but the party Lirra first arrived with now that they had finished looking around for their own allies.
"Lirra, did you happen to see a woman - a Star - with long black hair, reddish purple eyes and probably holding an ornate staff that kind of looks like burnt wood with silver decorations and red gems? She'll probably be in expensive clothes and, uh…" Carwyn started to ask before trailing off.
"And is a massive pain," Dylis concluded for him. "She'd be ordering people around if she were here and nothing's on fire so she probably hasn't arrived, huh?"
Carwyn gave her a look but didn't correct her. That didn't bode well for the personality of the girl they were looking for. Lirra actually had seen that woman… but that was months ago before they entered the forest. She didn't know she'd made it. Good for her. She told them as much.
"Damn," Carwyn passed a hand in his hair, looking to the hallways. "I guess we have to go get her, then… Thanks anyway, Lirra."
He was about to leave when Lirra got an idea.
"Carwyn, wait," she asked. The boy turned curiously. "I-we have a friend in the Stars that isn't here as well, but we also have one with the Staves, so… I know it's a lot to ask with the situation, but could you…" she trailed off.
The spellsword nodded with a smile.
"Your friend who always reads books, right?" he confirmed before putting a fist on his heart. "We'll get her too, don't worry."
For once Dylis didn't criticise him, and… was she blushing? Before Lirra could ask about that, Furuta moved next to him.
"I will also go to make sure we can attain her," she said. "Or do you want me to be with you?"
Lirra hesitated an instant, her eyes going to Lucilia and the small girl, thinking.
"I think we can be faster if we sneak through so you can go with them."
"Goodest of luck in battle, then." Furuta turned and started to walk away with the other two.
"Please be safe…" Lirra whispered as she watched them go.
—
"Ok, so you want to go through to the Staves' dorm and grab your girlfriend? Hahaha, look at that hero!" Alvi hit Lirra's back with his massive hand, making her take a few steps forward in order to keep her balance. "When you do that we'll probably use the diversion to move everyone to the outer walls, near the forest. Not in the forest, obviously, but those things come from inside, so we should have more luck holding on further away. Come to us once you're done."
This hallway was held by what looked like a mix of Swords and Stars, Alvi and his sister first amongst them. The first few meters from the entrance were covered in bits and pieces of golems, which was impressive at first glance. If you thought longer about what it meant, however, it was clear that they were losing ground. Their planned retreat was a good idea. With a bit of coordination and some luck, it should be relatively safe to move back once the few search and rescue parties passed through.
But everyone knows what is said about tempting fate.
"Hold on," one of the aspirants called. "New wave."
As one, they readied to push it back like the previous ones. However, as it got closer, the aspirants' eyes went up and up and up, and a few of them took a few steps back in fear. Then the line exploded as a massive golem broke through. It rolled over the unfortunate few that were directly in its path as it flew through them like a cannonball before unfolding its limbs and starting to fight in earnest. The smaller golems behind it took the opportunity to get in and Lirra believed she saw a few dragging aspirants away.
It took less than a second for everything to go to hell, but it took just as long for a few brave souls to meet the new challenge head on. Alvi let out a bellowing roar as he rushed at the giant golem while his sister did her best to reorganise the line. Further back in the room, the Staves, the wounded and the few who were hovering around them to protect them were hurrying their preparation to retreat. Lirra saw Pupa gleefully joining in the melee as the main group carried those who couldn't move by themselves away.
Lirra strengthened her grip on her shovel and prepared to help Alvi.
"Go!" Alvi caught one of the massive fists of the golem with both his weapons - an axe and a cutlass - his long braid flying in the wind created by the impact. "Your friend's probably in even deeper shit so go! We can handle it!"
Lirra hesitated. Would he handle it? Could Lucilia and her friend manage to save Melkorka without her? She knew that the second was a no, but she hated that the first one likely was the same. She gritted her teeth and, with one last look towards Alvi, she nodded to her party and they rushed in the hallway through an opening in the line, Lirra clearing a path through the few golems that weren't yet engaged.
—
A few minutes later, hidden in a room whose door had only been half torn off instead of completely shattered, Lirra and Lucilia were catching their breath. The assassin had gone alone to scout the area.
"So who's that girl anyway?" Lirra asked. "I don't remember seeing her when you were with Cloaks before and she seems very attached to you. Quite literally."
"Well, not seeing her doesn't mean much when it comes to her." Lucilia smiled. "But yes, it's a relatively recent thing. After that night when I… told you about what happened to make me come here, I started thinking. You'd told me to become someone I could like, and I was a bit stumped. And that's around when I saw her in my room, apparently she'd been sleeping in the rafters all along and had… I guess gotten used to me enough that she showed herself?" She looked to the side, guilty about what the girl would have seen in the meanwhile. "I don't really know, it kind of had that feeling when a stray cat decides to adopt you and moves into your house, if I have to be entirely honest.
"Anyway, Nia - that's her name - obviously didn't have a great life before. I only gathered that she came from Nivion and she's been branded by a Great Family. Probably used as an assassin. I thought Amessa was bad, but by the Light, this country is evil. Long story short, now she's living with me and I'm doing my best to not be a bad exemple and have her find things she likes. I ruined one life, so maybe if I manage to fix another I won't feel as bad every morning."
Lirra grabbed Lucilia's hands during the silence as she digested the rather heavy story. Lucilia gave her a tired smile and was about to say something when they noticed Nia was standing between the two of them, gazing dispassionately through a crack on the door.
"The way's clear, only a single patrol. No aspirants," she reported.
They nodded and opened the door, silently moving further in the Staves dorms. The search for Melkorka was made more complicated by the fact that none of them had actually ever been invited to her room - the svartalf kept to herself and they had both been quite busy, a fact they both regretted right now - and so they had to check every room on the way. It seemed the Staves had fared much worse than the more militant branches, which made sense as they were healers and supporters. Blood could be seen here and there, although thankfully not in a quantity that would have guaranteed someone's death. More sinister, however, were the nail marks going out of the wooden floor of one room, as someone visibly had desperately tried to hold on and resist being dragged away to parts unknown.
Lirra's mind went back to the barricade, where she'd seen the golems do the same to some of the vanquished, and took heart in the fact that she hadn't sensed anyone dying. That was that, at least. Unlike during the first test, it would seem that this test, whatever it was, was not lethal this time. At least she hoped. She wouldn't put it beyond the Academy to simply do their dirty work at some other location. For what purpose she didn't know, but it was all too easy for her to imagine some dark ritual where the kidnapped were sacrificed so their death would… what, reinforce the survivors? She had heard something about a spell over the Academy that allowed its students to get stronger faster than they should have been able to, and given the lack of older aspirants running around, it didn't look like this whole situation was an accident.
Their search was cut short once Lirra's sharp ears caught some distant noise. Fighting noises that weren't coming from behind. She hoped she hadn't been lost in her imagination for too long as she told her two companions to hurry up in that direction. They started running and soon all three of them could hear the battle ahead of them. However, as they sped through the hallways, focusing on distant noises to guide their way, they ran into the patrol Nia had mentioned earlier. Five golems turned their heads in their direction, featureless if not for the blue glowing orb that occupied the center of their faces like some baleful eye. The blue light locked on them and the constructs started rushing.
With a hand, Lirra pushed Lucilia back, then with a nod of confirmation from Nia, she charged forth. Now that she wasn't taken by surprise in her sleep, her first opponent barely slowed her down. She slid between its legs, sweeping its right foot before she parried the attack of a second golem. Behind them, she could hear Nia's daggers finishing her first opponent and she refocused on the one she was locked in battle with. With her back secured, she started pushing the creature and then, once she felt it start to resist, jumped back. During the instant it was off balance, she pushed her shovel forward and pierced its orb. As it shattered, the light that animated the golem faded and it fell down.
In the meanwhile, she saw that Nia had been defending against two golems and she let out a curse as the last of the three remaining ones got in her way. Before she had to do anything, however, a loud bang resounded from behind her, and she saw Lucilia peeking out of the room she'd been shoved in, her pistol smoking, giving her a small nod. Her way clear, she leapt forward to help Nia and they made short work of their last enemies.
With this interruption dealt with, they doubled their pace. Mainly because the sounds of battle weren't fading from their destination, but also to avoid getting pincered by some other patrol who'd heard Lucilia's shot.
As they progressed, they noticed the walls and floors had turned weird. Stone had turned into overly smooth, slippery surfaces and as she caught herself, Lirra noticed that some of the walls had traces of heavy impacts. That being said, there were no golem bodies to account for whatever had done this. Then they finally reached the battle. One of the rooms had a few golems piling in, trying to force their way in like a disorganised mob. The ground was being reshaped under their feet over and over again, but despite slowing them severely, minute by minute, inch by inch, the golems were advancing, and if the sounds from inside were anything to go by, some already had reached their destination.
Lirra's first instinct was to rush in and start swinging her shovel, but without knowing exactly how many there were - on top of their advantage in cramped quarters as they were fighting bare-handed - her odds of victory weren't great. She gestured at the other two to hide in a room as she silently crouched to grab some rubble - small pieces of the walls that hadn't fared well during the fight - and gently blew on them. It had been a while since she'd done this. Not since she'd arrived at the Academy, actually, so focused she was on her ambition of becoming a gallant knight. Still, she was a Fey, and despite their inability to outright lie, Fey were tricksters. She stepped back into the same room where her two companions were then, with a flick of the wrist, she threw the handful of gravel she had enchanted.
Clack click clack clack
The sound came from the hallway further down. Much like debris moved around by people. Much like the sound of steps hurrying away. Much like steps hurrying away. Much like the steps of the people moving down the hallway.
There are people down the hallway.
As soon as the illusion took hold, the golems that were trying to get in turned at once and started walking over each other in a rush to pursue whoever was there. Sliding on the smooth stone, one crashed near the entrance of the room Lirra was hiding in, much too close for comfort, but whatever it had where a mind would be was already taken by the illusion and it rushed after the others.
Lirra let out a breath with Lucilia doing much the same, then came out of the room. It was time to finish this fight. When she got in Melkorka's room, she saw the Svartalf on her bed, desperately struggling against a golem. She was in her nightclothes and was doing her best, hammer in hand, but was unable to do more than keep it at bay. To her side, the room had twisted in order to form some sort of shield lattice around a mage, but the repeated blows of two other golems were breaking it down, and she was running out of material to defend herself.
She noticed Lirra coming in and her expression calmed down, terror giving room to relief. Unfortunately, the golems saw that and Lirra barely had the time to put her arm in the way of a blow that would have struck her in the face. She winced at the impact but had no time to change tactics as the golems approached her with a flurry of blows. She stepped to the side, trying to line them up so they'd be in each other's way, but with the limited room it was not an easy feat.
"Lirra, grab behind you!" she heard Melkorka's voice from behind her and instinctively closed her hand on the haft of a familiar spear.
It was the same weapon that had seen her survive the first test. It had been standing on one of the many racks that dotted the room and presented Melkorka's work. One of the few that hadn't fallen down or been converted into an obstacle in the mage's desperate struggle.
The runes on the spear lit up as Lirra moved, and the changeling witnessed the progress of the smith with joy as the weapon moved with supernatural smoothness. It was as if her hands were following the weapon rather than the opposite. With that and the arrival of Nia in the melee, it wasn't long until the golems were made into so much rubble.
"Melkorka, are you alright?" Lirra asked, massaging her arm where it had been struck, hissing in pain when she touched the damage.
"Yea, I'm fine. Thanks to you," she answered. "If not for that, I don't think we would have lasted for long."
"Yes, thank you for saving us," the mage added. She passed her hand alongside the bruises on her arms and face and Lirra could see them recede. "I'm Leirion, by the way. I don't think we've met?"
Quick introductions were made as Melkorka bent forward and reached for her knees before pulling her legs to the side and dragging them to the side of her bed where they dangled. The svartalf noticed Lirra's gaze and shrugged before continuing.
"How long do we have? I need some time to put my greaves on before I can do much of anything."
Leirion had already started searching through the broken remains of the room and placed a sabaton next to the bed. Inside, Lirra could see a complex array of runes that likely helped Melkorka move since, while the smith had never been fast on her feet, it was the first time she saw her immobilised like that.
She looked outside the room and listened. She could hear footsteps all around, but the echo made it hard to tell how many golems were around and if the ones that got caught in an illusion were already coming back.
No matter what, she didn't fancy the idea of staying here any longer than she needed to.
------------------
[] Just grab Melkorka and run
[] Take what gear you can, have Leirion patch you up, and carry Melkorka away
[] Hold the line until Melkorka is ready to move
Vote closed
- Pronouns
- They/Them
3 - How long does it take to put on armour? Hold the line!
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] Hold the line until Melkorka is ready to move
—
While there was little doubt that no one wanted to stay here longer than absolutely needed, getting out of the Academy while carrying someone who couldn't move by herself if anything went wrong seemed like a bad idea. Lirra shuddered as she remembered carrying Chloe in a similar situation through the forest, the blood seeping from the mage all the way through Lirra's cape, the skin getting colder and colder as her grip on life faded…
"If- if we're fast enough, we could get away with Melkorka on her feet," Lirra said, trying to avoid those bad memories.
Lucilia walked to Melkorka and kneeled at her side, looking at the armour.
"I'll help get her suited, then. See what you can do to prepare if we're too slow."
Lirra nodded at Lucilia's instructions. As a Changeling she couldn't help her with that given the armour was made of steel, so she went back to the entrance to see what she had to work with. As it turned out, what she had was a lot of broken down golems, the doors from the nearby rooms and a lot of sharp implements, courtesy of Melkorka.
"So… how long does it take to put that armour on, actually?" Lirra asked Leirion, who was also on fortification duty.
Leirion just looked to the side with a nervous smile.
"Anyway, could you quickly go see if there's anything solid we could use in the nearby rooms?" she asked in turn instead.
Nodding, Lirra ran to search for materials, wondering if she hadn't, just maybe, slightly underestimated the complexity of putting on armour by a lot.
Unfortunately, Staves weren't as likely to have weapons or armour in their room as Swords were - Melkorka the smith, with her dozens of weapons, was an outlier and shouldn't be counted - but Lirra still managed to bring back a few metal items, held in a bedsheet to avoid burning herself, and deposited them at Leirion's feet. The mage had been shaping barricades around the door with the wood she'd already twisted to defend herself, but the repeated transformations, while aesthetically pleasing in a weird organic way, had left them brittle.
"Thank you, Lirra," said Leirion. "Now, what would help you fight against them? Holding them at the door kind of worked long enough for you to arrive in time, but…" She shuddered.
"Ah, well… It would be nice if I had enough room to move my spear, and if they couldn't swarm me."
Leirion nodded at that, thinking for a bit, then told Lirra to go back into the room.
"After this I'll be pretty much useless, but it should work," she said before taking a deep breath.
When Leirion opened her eyes they shone a bright pink, and soon a series of arcane sigils started floating around her. Strange lines went from them and crawled on the floor and walls, forming upon them a strange mystical web. Then, with visible effort, Leirion had her hands move in a series of precise positions, and the lines started shifting. And as their cage was transformed, so were the things beneath them. The ground started to cave, and the walls distorted. Pretty soon, the hallway outside the room was replaced by something akin to a moat, with a small platform - the untouched entrance - jutting out so one could defend from all directions against whatever tried to climb. Finally, and rather anticlimactically, some of the wood Lirra had brought turned into a long plank and fell on the ground next to Leirion, who soon did the same.
"There…" she gasped, taking heavy breaths. "We'll just… put the plank down to go over the hole once we're ready."
Lirra took a few hesitant steps on the platform. She did a small jump and winced as some dirt - or whatever the stone and wood had been turned into could be called - crumbled at the edge and fell down, bouncing between the various blades that jutted from the strangely organic moat's cliff until resting on the ground two meters down.
She twirled her spear, content that at least it didn't risk catching on a doorframe or anything.
It would have to do.
—
Soon enough, golems started to appear and Melkorka still wasn't suited up. Lirra could hear some bickering from inside as the bard struggled to help the Svartalf. It would have been nice if Leirion could help them, but sadly the mage was still recovering from her spell. She was half meditating, half comatose, sitting on the ground back against the entrance of the room, only able to lightly advise the two.
Lirra just had to trust the others to do their parts and do hers. As golems started literally pouring down the moat, she started stabbing those who got back up first as they tried climbing up. Given her position it wasn't that hard. It was much like shooting fishes in a barrel, if the fishes were piranhas and you were keenly aware of the leak in your boat but unable to do anything about it except increase your rate of fire.
Melkorka's runic spear was flying through the air, cutting through the horde with ease, but they were just coming and coming without cease. Pretty soon, Lirra could see stone hands grabbing the ledge and the baleful glow of the golems' single eye peering over. The fragile construction of the platform played in her favour as a few just fell back as it crumbled under their grip, and she stabbed those that held on. Unfortunately, it was only to see more had climbed over from the other side. She got rid of those, but the same repeated over and over.
Turn. Stab. Turn. Slash. Turn. Stab. Stab. Turn. Stab. Turn…
She was losing ground.
Stab. Turn. Stab.
She heard a scream from behind. Her spear flew instantly, piercing through the head of the golem that had grabbed Leirion's arm. The mage was sprawled on the ground, doing her best to crawl away as Lirra stepped back to the door. She pushed back a few golems, using the length of her haft to block a wide area. Her eyes widened in horror as one of them grabbed onto it as it fell down, dragging her along. Unable to get her footing back in time, she stumbled over the edge, but was able to step onto the head of a golem, then another and a third until she was back on solid ground… on the other side of the moat.
Lirra took an instant to assess the situation. Could she go back? Maybe. She might be grabbed on the way without the surprise of the first time. Would there be a point? The platform was lost. How could she save the three girls? Her grip on the spear tightened.
"Block the entrance with the plank!" she shouted, before flipping her grip.
She widened her stance, gauged the distance then threw her spear like a javelin. She didn't aim at a golem - there were too many, it wouldn't change anything - but at the platform. It was fragile, after all, and without a footing, the golems would be hard pressed to break down the defences and get in. If there wasn't a need to thin the horde in order to get out afterwards, it would probably have been best to do that from the start. Speaking of…
"Come out! Face me!" she taunted, pulling her shovel out. "You… you dumb, mean rocks!"
That probably needed some more work, but it still did the job as the horde turned to her, losing interest in those it couldn't reach in favour of the one it could. Lirra could likely outrun them - in a forest it wouldn't even have been a question - but in that particular situation it wasn't an option. If she lost them, they would come back here, so she had to be smart. Hit and run, close enough for them to pursue, but far enough for Lirra not to get overwhelmed.
And so she did just that. She struck down golems as they climbed up, then ran once she couldn't keep them down anymore. She did the same at the corner further down the hallway. Then to the next. And the next. Still, she was starting to tire down, and her ribs were hurting from a blow she received during her last retreat. As she was thinking of cutting and running - she was far enough from Melkorka's room now - she had the bad surprise of another group of golems coming from the next corner just as she was passing it.
She managed to parry the blow just in time, but she was pushed back and stumbled against the wall. By the time she recovered, she was surrounded. She stepped to the side, trying to lure the golems into moving in a circle with her so she'd have an opening but it didn't work. For all that their lack of sentience made them easy to trick, it seemed it also stopped them from being baited. As they slowly marched forward, a half circle growing smaller and smaller around Lirra, she glanced to the window on the wall. If she managed to jump far enough to reach the tree, it would break her fall, but with no running start and no time to actually open the window… She was pretty sure the golems wouldn't kill her if she was caught, but after the first test could she actually believe it?
The Academy wasn't above pointless slaughter. If she had to take a risk, then she might as well do something instead of just hoping for kindness from an institution that had shown to have none.
With a swipe of her shovel, she opened a path, took one step, two steps, and jumped. In a crash, she broke through the window, wincing in pain as sharp shards of glass tore through her cape and skin, and for an instant she was flying. Still, the ground came closer and closer fast. Too fast. She saw branches reaching to her, and soon leaves were filling her vision as she heard a series of cracks - the branches and not her bones, she hoped - then a final one as she hit the ground hard. Not as hard as it could have been, but still too fast for her leg who bent in a way a leg never should. The tree had done its best, but she just hadn't gotten enough speed before jumping.
In the distance, she could see the people that had been in the great hall running to the outer walls. So they'd made it. She smiled then tried to get back up, with her shovel as a crutch. She was slow and in pain, but she couldn't tarry. Already, one golem had fallen from the broken window, and while it didn't get back up, she didn't doubt that more would be pouring out of the gates soon with the noise they made.
She was proven right just a few steps later as she limped away. With no hope of running away now, she put her weight on her one good foot and readied for a last stand. With shovel and horn, root and branch and - she was desperate - even her teeth at some point, she put up as good a fight as the situation could hope for, but in the end she was overwhelmed. Her head rang as a fist connected, and her blurry vision could barely see the next one in time, but not soon enough to dodge it.
After that, merciful darkness took her before she could hurt much more.
—
Lirra wakes up in a cell…
[] … in the middle of chaos, as a rescue party is making its way here.
[] … under the cold gaze of Aida, her teacher, here to explain where she messed up.
[] … as the sun rises, hopefully soon to be followed by an explanation.
—
While there was little doubt that no one wanted to stay here longer than absolutely needed, getting out of the Academy while carrying someone who couldn't move by herself if anything went wrong seemed like a bad idea. Lirra shuddered as she remembered carrying Chloe in a similar situation through the forest, the blood seeping from the mage all the way through Lirra's cape, the skin getting colder and colder as her grip on life faded…
"If- if we're fast enough, we could get away with Melkorka on her feet," Lirra said, trying to avoid those bad memories.
Lucilia walked to Melkorka and kneeled at her side, looking at the armour.
"I'll help get her suited, then. See what you can do to prepare if we're too slow."
Lirra nodded at Lucilia's instructions. As a Changeling she couldn't help her with that given the armour was made of steel, so she went back to the entrance to see what she had to work with. As it turned out, what she had was a lot of broken down golems, the doors from the nearby rooms and a lot of sharp implements, courtesy of Melkorka.
"So… how long does it take to put that armour on, actually?" Lirra asked Leirion, who was also on fortification duty.
Leirion just looked to the side with a nervous smile.
"Anyway, could you quickly go see if there's anything solid we could use in the nearby rooms?" she asked in turn instead.
Nodding, Lirra ran to search for materials, wondering if she hadn't, just maybe, slightly underestimated the complexity of putting on armour by a lot.
Unfortunately, Staves weren't as likely to have weapons or armour in their room as Swords were - Melkorka the smith, with her dozens of weapons, was an outlier and shouldn't be counted - but Lirra still managed to bring back a few metal items, held in a bedsheet to avoid burning herself, and deposited them at Leirion's feet. The mage had been shaping barricades around the door with the wood she'd already twisted to defend herself, but the repeated transformations, while aesthetically pleasing in a weird organic way, had left them brittle.
"Thank you, Lirra," said Leirion. "Now, what would help you fight against them? Holding them at the door kind of worked long enough for you to arrive in time, but…" She shuddered.
"Ah, well… It would be nice if I had enough room to move my spear, and if they couldn't swarm me."
Leirion nodded at that, thinking for a bit, then told Lirra to go back into the room.
"After this I'll be pretty much useless, but it should work," she said before taking a deep breath.
When Leirion opened her eyes they shone a bright pink, and soon a series of arcane sigils started floating around her. Strange lines went from them and crawled on the floor and walls, forming upon them a strange mystical web. Then, with visible effort, Leirion had her hands move in a series of precise positions, and the lines started shifting. And as their cage was transformed, so were the things beneath them. The ground started to cave, and the walls distorted. Pretty soon, the hallway outside the room was replaced by something akin to a moat, with a small platform - the untouched entrance - jutting out so one could defend from all directions against whatever tried to climb. Finally, and rather anticlimactically, some of the wood Lirra had brought turned into a long plank and fell on the ground next to Leirion, who soon did the same.
"There…" she gasped, taking heavy breaths. "We'll just… put the plank down to go over the hole once we're ready."
Lirra took a few hesitant steps on the platform. She did a small jump and winced as some dirt - or whatever the stone and wood had been turned into could be called - crumbled at the edge and fell down, bouncing between the various blades that jutted from the strangely organic moat's cliff until resting on the ground two meters down.
She twirled her spear, content that at least it didn't risk catching on a doorframe or anything.
It would have to do.
—
Soon enough, golems started to appear and Melkorka still wasn't suited up. Lirra could hear some bickering from inside as the bard struggled to help the Svartalf. It would have been nice if Leirion could help them, but sadly the mage was still recovering from her spell. She was half meditating, half comatose, sitting on the ground back against the entrance of the room, only able to lightly advise the two.
Lirra just had to trust the others to do their parts and do hers. As golems started literally pouring down the moat, she started stabbing those who got back up first as they tried climbing up. Given her position it wasn't that hard. It was much like shooting fishes in a barrel, if the fishes were piranhas and you were keenly aware of the leak in your boat but unable to do anything about it except increase your rate of fire.
Melkorka's runic spear was flying through the air, cutting through the horde with ease, but they were just coming and coming without cease. Pretty soon, Lirra could see stone hands grabbing the ledge and the baleful glow of the golems' single eye peering over. The fragile construction of the platform played in her favour as a few just fell back as it crumbled under their grip, and she stabbed those that held on. Unfortunately, it was only to see more had climbed over from the other side. She got rid of those, but the same repeated over and over.
Turn. Stab. Turn. Slash. Turn. Stab. Stab. Turn. Stab. Turn…
She was losing ground.
Stab. Turn. Stab.
She heard a scream from behind. Her spear flew instantly, piercing through the head of the golem that had grabbed Leirion's arm. The mage was sprawled on the ground, doing her best to crawl away as Lirra stepped back to the door. She pushed back a few golems, using the length of her haft to block a wide area. Her eyes widened in horror as one of them grabbed onto it as it fell down, dragging her along. Unable to get her footing back in time, she stumbled over the edge, but was able to step onto the head of a golem, then another and a third until she was back on solid ground… on the other side of the moat.
Lirra took an instant to assess the situation. Could she go back? Maybe. She might be grabbed on the way without the surprise of the first time. Would there be a point? The platform was lost. How could she save the three girls? Her grip on the spear tightened.
"Block the entrance with the plank!" she shouted, before flipping her grip.
She widened her stance, gauged the distance then threw her spear like a javelin. She didn't aim at a golem - there were too many, it wouldn't change anything - but at the platform. It was fragile, after all, and without a footing, the golems would be hard pressed to break down the defences and get in. If there wasn't a need to thin the horde in order to get out afterwards, it would probably have been best to do that from the start. Speaking of…
"Come out! Face me!" she taunted, pulling her shovel out. "You… you dumb, mean rocks!"
That probably needed some more work, but it still did the job as the horde turned to her, losing interest in those it couldn't reach in favour of the one it could. Lirra could likely outrun them - in a forest it wouldn't even have been a question - but in that particular situation it wasn't an option. If she lost them, they would come back here, so she had to be smart. Hit and run, close enough for them to pursue, but far enough for Lirra not to get overwhelmed.
And so she did just that. She struck down golems as they climbed up, then ran once she couldn't keep them down anymore. She did the same at the corner further down the hallway. Then to the next. And the next. Still, she was starting to tire down, and her ribs were hurting from a blow she received during her last retreat. As she was thinking of cutting and running - she was far enough from Melkorka's room now - she had the bad surprise of another group of golems coming from the next corner just as she was passing it.
She managed to parry the blow just in time, but she was pushed back and stumbled against the wall. By the time she recovered, she was surrounded. She stepped to the side, trying to lure the golems into moving in a circle with her so she'd have an opening but it didn't work. For all that their lack of sentience made them easy to trick, it seemed it also stopped them from being baited. As they slowly marched forward, a half circle growing smaller and smaller around Lirra, she glanced to the window on the wall. If she managed to jump far enough to reach the tree, it would break her fall, but with no running start and no time to actually open the window… She was pretty sure the golems wouldn't kill her if she was caught, but after the first test could she actually believe it?
The Academy wasn't above pointless slaughter. If she had to take a risk, then she might as well do something instead of just hoping for kindness from an institution that had shown to have none.
With a swipe of her shovel, she opened a path, took one step, two steps, and jumped. In a crash, she broke through the window, wincing in pain as sharp shards of glass tore through her cape and skin, and for an instant she was flying. Still, the ground came closer and closer fast. Too fast. She saw branches reaching to her, and soon leaves were filling her vision as she heard a series of cracks - the branches and not her bones, she hoped - then a final one as she hit the ground hard. Not as hard as it could have been, but still too fast for her leg who bent in a way a leg never should. The tree had done its best, but she just hadn't gotten enough speed before jumping.
In the distance, she could see the people that had been in the great hall running to the outer walls. So they'd made it. She smiled then tried to get back up, with her shovel as a crutch. She was slow and in pain, but she couldn't tarry. Already, one golem had fallen from the broken window, and while it didn't get back up, she didn't doubt that more would be pouring out of the gates soon with the noise they made.
She was proven right just a few steps later as she limped away. With no hope of running away now, she put her weight on her one good foot and readied for a last stand. With shovel and horn, root and branch and - she was desperate - even her teeth at some point, she put up as good a fight as the situation could hope for, but in the end she was overwhelmed. Her head rang as a fist connected, and her blurry vision could barely see the next one in time, but not soon enough to dodge it.
After that, merciful darkness took her before she could hurt much more.
—
Lirra wakes up in a cell…
[] … in the middle of chaos, as a rescue party is making its way here.
[] … under the cold gaze of Aida, her teacher, here to explain where she messed up.
[] … as the sun rises, hopefully soon to be followed by an explanation.