The red leaves of fall heralded the harvest and its red moon - only this year, the harvest moon emerged, bloodier than ever. The sounds of the capital were subdued, as an unnatural cold blew through the walled city - and then the howl of the beasts rang through the night.
They struck as a pack, mottled red and black fur raging like a river towards the walls of the Capital. They slammed through the gates, once, twice, and then with a great crash a towering earthen golem broke through the main gates. Fires alighted all over the city as bells tolled a long-forgotten haunting rhythm - the Dragon's toll.
You felt a sensation within your soul, a demand for Oskaria to use you as a vessel. Absent the restrictions, the chains which you had carefully enticed it to accept before - Oskaria needed you in your totality, not a restricted form.
You breathed in, and nodded your head.
[Blessings: Conceptual Perk Activation: Vessel]
The gemstone upon your neck flares with a red light as you feel the power of Oskaria flow through you from the depths of your soul through the tips of your fingers. Your body, mind, and soul expands its dominion over all before its gaze, for all of it is Oskaria, and you find yourself as displeased with the state of Oskaria as you always have been.
Your eyes see the thousand cracks, the thousand deficits where Oskaria has been allowed or made to slip, the thousand ways that you have been held back - and you are perennially dissatisfied.
But no matter. You immediately look over at Kerrie, whose loyalty was unquestionable. She hesitates before the look in your eyes - but then again, these agents of the will of Oskaria were always more hesitant when you assumed your full power. You gesture for the sword in Kerrie's hand, and she hands it to you. The moment it touches the domain of your existence, you extend your power through it as it suffuses with a golden-red light.
You order them to follow, as you rally the defenses.
They nod, and you take off at a run.
[Tactics: Logistics: 0 + 150 (Oskaria's Blessing) : Required: 20]
You see the great beasts streaming in a group too tight to be merely the cunning of beasts - this must be directed by some spirit or vessel, and Oskaria was telling you that it had to be the great towering golem lumbering forward, looking to eviscerate the Royal Arsenal before the guns could be turned upon the beasts. Everywhere they trampled, however, they huffed gouts of blackish fire and instilled the primordial fear into the terrified townspeople and guardsmen - the garrisons of the city stripped of their best and sent to fight in a foreign land, leaving behind only these dregs, fleeing, crying, and gasping in fear and despair both.
[Tactics: Logistics Artificial Perk Activation: Second Wind]
[Tactics: Logistics Artificial Perk Activation: Look Left, Look Right]
[Tactics: Logistics: 0 + 150 (Oskaria's Blessing : Required: 100]
With a voice that pierces through the din of the crowds and the roar of the fires, you demand the heroes of Oskaria to rise. Surely they have seen how terrifying these beasts of the wild are! Their savagery is the savagery of nature, it's true! That is why the heroes must stand and fight, for their courage and their bravery and their valor is all that will stand between the beasts and their families! To be afraid is natural, but rest assured in the certainty of victory, for you shall lead them to it!
The ones who had teetered on the edge of the brink of despair seize their guns and their pikes and roar their bravery, as the ones whose mind and soul had given way before the all-consuming fear shakily stand and let loose their fear in a cleansing cheer. The force you lead into the flanks of the charging horde scythes through their ranks, your golden blade carving through beastflesh and beastfire alike. Wintry chill blasts through the air, the frost snuffing out the beastfire wherever you cannot be and freezing the beasts where they slow too much. Shots crack through the air, the impacts of the musketballs gouging great holes in the beasts. Over even the cracks of the muskets roar the cannons, wheeled through the narrow alleys of the city and parked atop the ramparts of the Arsenal.
This proves to be too much for even the unnatural cunning of these beasts, and they wildly stampede in all directions. For every twenty paving stones they cross the muskets and the cannons and the pikes cleave through another ten of them, but there are hundreds charging in all directions. Some of them manage to break through, the terrified peasant meeting the terrified beasts and breaking first. You move to pursue, but a giant slab of stone abruptly cuts you off from the fleeing stone beasts.
Evidently, the giant stone golem was possessed of a greater will, even as all it could do was communicate in roars. Its eerie emerald-green eyes stared down at you as you realized it blamed you for all of its ills. The great mass of stone and treeflesh interposed itself in front of you, demanding your full attention with a bellowed roar.
You rolled your neck and readied your blade, the ruby gem pulsing with the power coursing through your hot blood.
[Mobility: Surety: 20 + 100 (Oskaria's Blessing) : Required: 120]
The giant stone golem's stone blade first came down in a wild one-handed swing, and you hop backwards slightly.
[Combat: Melee: 0 + 150 (Oskaria's Blessing) + 100 (Ready Stance) + 400 (Tax Cut) = 650: Required: 250]
[Combat: Melee: 0 + 150 (Oskaria's Blessing) + 100 (Lunge) + 400 (Tax Cut) = 650: Required: 100]
The mass of stone meets your braced golden blade well past its own point of balance, and finds itself thrown back as your stance remains unbroken. Your body flows with the momentum it imparted to spin on one foot as you coil your legs. When the rotation completes you plant your foot back on the ground and explode forward. The tip of your sword shines with a golden light that turns night into day as you soar through the air. The blade plunges through the emerald hollows where the golem's eyes should be, and as it sinks in the light vanishes into the golem's skull. With another planted foot and a kick, your blade smoothly withdraws from dimly glowing eye.
Just as your feet touch the ground, golden light explodes from the eye socket that you had stabbed into. The light shines for several heartbeats, casting everything in stark golden light. The stone giant is blasted backwards, head rocking at an angle that would have snapped had the golem been in any way natural. Clutching its face with its free hand, the giant roars at you, and it cannot even elicit anything more than a scoff from you. You see and feel the energy crackling within the mockery of a throat, but that is not a concern.
[Mobility: Agility Artificial Perk Activation: Blur]
Your bound through the burning street, surpassing a speed that reason can keep up with. The great gouts of magical energy pours forth from the giant's throat, but your every step carries you three strides away from where the giant's eyes saw you last, let alone the slow spells it tried to throw at you. You speed past the last desperate swing of the giant's sword to stab it through the throat, golden light building up just as before.
You suddenly realize your mistake when your sword runs into a gelatinous ooze, one that you cannot smoothly remove your sword from. You pull once, twice, and then the giant grabs hold of you with its free hand and pulls you free from its throat. The sword is torn from your grip as you're thrown bodily through the air - but Oskaria guides your body, allowing you to slide along the terraced rooftops. The giant itself sank to one knee and heaved mightily, only a handful of its giant steps away from the Arsenal which it had fought to reach. It hacked loud and long, and out came Tax Cut. In came a great breath of air, and you saw the giant glow green all over as its eye and throat seemed to knit itself before your eyes - and with a glance up at the abandoned cannons atop the arsenal walls, you know that you will not be able to kill this beast.
But that did not mean you were out of options.
You hop down next to Cormag, whipping the spirits into a frenzy with the Gnarled Rod in his left hand as the Wintercore Wand helped slowly but surely seal off the ways the beasts could continue their rampage. You ask for the Wintercore Wand, and Cormag gratefully nods as he hands it to you.
You run back to the street, where the giant was still kneeling, attempting to catch its breath.
[Mystical: Projections: 50 + 150 (Oskaria) = 200 : Required: 20]
You let loose a howling gale of frost from the tip of the Wintercore Wand. The gale slams into the giant, blowing it backwards as the stone giant began to slowly freeze over. Snow and hail begin to pour from the wand as it demanded to let more of its essence and shape more of your power, and you gladly let the wand drink deeply as it spews out a howling blizzard. The giant attempts to stand up, to spit an angry reply back - but the frosty beam freezes the spell in the beast's throat. The giant beast at last staggers backward, finally afraid for its life - but it's too little, too late, and the stone golem collapses against the walls of the Arsenal as the Wintercore Wand coats its body with a great coat of ice.
[Mystical: Runes: 0 + 100 (Oskaria) = 100 : Required: 80]
Just to be certain, Oskaria instructs you to carve one last set of runes, draining the power out of the giant and using it to continuously freeze the coat of ice upon it.
You sigh, the giant taken care of, and turn back to the blazing city.
Tonight was going to be a long night.
+5 Respect. Title: The Maiden of Light.
