Closed Party Magic Doesn't Belong On The Battle-Field.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He grimaced, but there were other things to attend to. Thankfully, it seemed that such an unabashed attack had briefly stunned the few others that were likely hiding around the area. They didn't want the same to happen to them, and he didn't blame them. Blood was pooling about the man's leg, and though he certainly wasn't dead, he'd need immediate help... and he probably wouldn't be using that leg for a long time, either. Nobody wanted the same thing to happen to them.. what had once been a grinning man was reduced to a stuttering, crying babe clutching the misshapen piece of meat that had been his leg. It could still twitch awkwardly, but every time it did another low cry left his open mouth.

"You want me to do it again, huh? YOU WANT ME TO DO IT AGAIN?" He wheeled back on the man on the ground and shouted with all the volume he could muster in his baritone voice, and the man nearly screamed as he clutched the leg. He could take that as a no.. and the others were taking it as a sign to get the petch out of there before something worse happened. The thudding of what few arrows remained soon ceased, the attackers fading away slowly. Arch, by that point, was pretty content to let them leave. Chasing after them would send them all the way into the Wildlands before he caught any of them, and then what was he supposed to do with them? He didn't want to end up like the man and the boy, hypnotized to do their bidding. Let the mage-knights deal with the mage-bandits, and let that be that, he was ready to say as he turned back to the recovering Gray Baxter.

This wasn't enough for Nivel, however. "Let him go, Nivel! Just let him go!" Either he was ignored or just wasn't heard at all, because the other Pycon was already mounted surprisingly fast and disappearing between the trees after one of them. If she chases them right into an ambush or a kidnapping, I'm going to end up being the one to run back and save her again. Then again, she seemed pretty competent with all of this magic stuff.. she knew about holes in shields and weak-points, she could crawl through them and disappear away into the undergrowth or something. That didn't mean he could leave her alone either. Reluctantly, he clapped both of his paws together and drew Xarex close to his side, before steadily mounting him and nudging into his sides with both ankles.

Just as the bandit had a head-start on Nivel, Nivel had a head-start on Archailist. The trees forced him to weave a path around the trunks and through the bushes, struggling to keep a line of sight with the Pycon and her Kelvic-mount. When all else was lost, he had to rely on little more than the hope that he was going in the right direction.. and he was, for after a few ticks he caught sight of her in the distance and spurred his mount into an even faster run. "Nivel... NIVEL! Slow down!" Damn it all, he hated being so small. If he was larger, he could have ridden a bigger mount.. heck, he could have run all the way to her and caught up to draw her back. Instead, he could only watch as the man turned around and tried to step on the pair of them with his large foot. Shyke, where's Ser Iros when you need him... Lo and behold, he soon emerged from the undergrowth, but he didn't seem to do anything more than stop atop his humongous mount and watch from the tree-line just a few feet away; he could easily bowl over the man, run him down if he tried to escape and blockade his path before he made it a few steps atop such a huge and hearty horse. Even on foot. The elderly man was likely trapped, but the Akalak never moved to intervene. Wait... what are you doing?

[Nivel]

The foot slammed down on the ground leaving dust clouds in it's wake, Patcha dodged the massive foot with a backward lunge while Nivel held on tight. The onslaught of stamping feet didn't stop but Patcha nimbly dodged each attack. Unfortunately with all the jostling, Nivel was too busy holding on to the saddle and found it extremely difficult to preform a counter attack. The pycon could sense magic coming from this tall folk even while being hurled around. It was hard to concentrate but she took a look at his aura and it didn't come as a surprise that this mage had a shield similar to the other mage. Although this one was only one layer and the only weak spot she see was a tiny one behind his shoulder. It didn't give Nivel a whole lot of options, she couldn't very well jump off her mount with all the movement and she would need to do a great deal of climbing to get to this mans weak area. Then an idea came to her, Nivel used her clawed tails to fiddle with the latch on Patcha's saddle. “I need you to transform” she whispered into her mounts ear as she finally managed to undo the latch. Nivel quickly hopped onto the kelvics head as she suddenly grew to her much taller human form. Nivel pushed off Patcha's head and managed to do a decent mid air flip before landing on the left arm of the Mage. The man was so shocked to see a dog transform into a naked women that it gave Nivel the perfect opportunity to jump onto the opponent without having to worry about being pushed off right way. Nivel clung to the mans filthy shirt, she tried to climb up but didn't make much progress, it was hard enough just staying attached. She used her tail claws to try and attack the mans shoulder despite fighting blind. One attacked her actual target and another went to the mans ribs as a diversion. The claws bit into the target like vicious snakes and the man screamed in pain. What surprised Nivel was how effective both attacks were, the shield the mage had should have stopped one of the attacks but it didn't. It seemed like the different layers stopped different things, she wondered what the Bandits shield protected him from and if he could make more. An arm came to rip Nivel off but she used the leverage from her attacks to pull herself up to his shoulder. She shifted the clay from her one arm into her other giving it added bulk so she could swing it like a mallet at the Mages head. She made a loud and terrible sounding battle scream as she hurled her attack at the bandits head. Although with the weight of her attack and the weakness of her legs she ended up falling off his shoulder only just grazing the mans head in the process. As she plummeted toward the forest floor she grabbed onto something between the mans legs with one of her tail claws. The man screamed again this time more high pitched and louder than before. She tightened her grip and the man screamed louder clutching the area but unable to do anything else. He fell to his knees still screaming and Nivel even noticed a bit of water leaking from his eyes. It seemed the pycon had found a weak area and she was ready to exploit it. “Are you the last of them?!” Nivel bellowed as she did her best to mimic the squirrels intimidation methods. The man didn't respond so she gripped harder. “ Yes!!” he yelped “There was only 4 of us! that masked witch and that red demon took care of the others!” The man seemed to be driven mad with pain. “PLEASE stop..” he pleaded. “okay, but don't you dare think of running away..” she let go and the man fell to his side clutching his nether regions. Nivel turned to see the squirrel had arrived as well as his Patron. “Oh you both are here” she said with surprise “ I handled this guy all by myself but I'm glad you had my back.” Nivel said as she puffed her chest out in an effort to look tough. Patcha came up in her dog form holding her saddle in her mouth and Nivel gave her a pat on the head before strapping the saddle back on. “so what now?” She asked.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

As the scene unfolded before the pair of them, the squirrel slowly came to understand what was happening. The Akalak turned his steed and guided it slowly around until he was stood beside the smaller squirrel. Together, they watched in complete silence.. though the Akalak's expression changed many times to that of pain, fear and a little bit of sympathy - likely for the man, that looked as though he was about ready to cry with the amount of torture that the small female Pycon was inflicting upon him. Neither Pycon nor Akalak made any move to stop her, per se.. but they certainly were intrigued when he began finally talking. The squirrel knew that the region she was grabbing had a certain effect on certain humans. For the one male he'd kicked there, who also happened to be a sergeant knight, it seemed to cause excruciating amounts of pain.

"Well, glad to know you could finally handle a few things by yourself." Once everything was finished, the squirrel lightly touched Xarex's head and guided him around in a half-circle. Then he headed off towards where they'd once come from, with the crimson Akalak taking over and escorting the mage knight briefly after them - being continuously prodded on the end of a spear, at the very least. "Suppose now it's over.. we've got the four, now we escort them back to the city and take them to the Tank, correct?" He glanced back over to the crimson Akalak, who nodded in testament. The rogue must have known what the squirrel was talking about, because he could have sworn all the colour drained from his face as if the djed itself had been sucked dry.

"First," the Akalak interrupted, "I think we should make sure that your mage-Patron is feeling well enough to take the ride back on her own two feet, Squire Nivel." True - in the flesh of the battle, the squirrel had completely forgot about the patron they'd abandoned with the others. He hoped that she was still alright, given the fact that they'd practically left her alone with the remaining mages that hadn't been utterly crippled. Then again, they'd all done a pretty good job at breaking away the defenses of many of them, so he supposed she should be fine. "Some of them may be too injured to be able to walk back to the city.. I'll have to lend them my horse." The Akalak flicked a glance back to the squirrel but said nothing.

When they finally arrived, everything seemed to be moderately peaceful. The man that had been beaten senseless by the squirrel was now whimpering quietly at the side, with the other two apparently up but moderately dazed by the attacks. The one that'd received a good kicking in the groin was still cradling his crotch, as well as the blood-stained shin. He'd likely be able to hobble back, at the very least. The one that'd received a good pummelling from the butt of Ser Iros' spear was looking a little worse - dried blood caked the side of his head, which he grasped weakly as he glanced about with bloodshot eyes. He'd be fine, as long as he was kept under control. The most important one, though Sera Gray, seemed to be fine - sat with her legs crossed, taking deep breaths. Steadying herself, he didn't know.

[Nivel]

Nivel nodded at Arch's statement not really grasping the fact that he wasn't really complimenting her. She could barely catch on to social nuances on a regular day but she was beyond tired right now and nodding was all she could think to do. “Oh your right!” she said in alarm in response the Akalak's statement. She wanted to rush on ahead but she had already done enough of that for one day and was far to exhausted so she stayed back and waited as they got the injured bandit ready for transport. The mage squire was thankful for patcha as her clay legs were the most tired part of her body. She could have fallen asleep on the kelvic's furry back but forced herself to stay awake for the ride. When she got to the area where the others were, Nivel let out a sigh of relief that the mage knight was okay. The previously hypnotized man had finished tending to her leg and it was far from healed but would hopefully make the process easier. Grey was lost in meditation possibly to ease the pain or help relax herself after such a great ordeal. Grey's horse had found her somehow, it was a fairly loyal creature so it may have tracked their master down now that the coast seemed to be clear. With the help of the man, Grey was able to mount her horse. The surviving bandits were tied up and the group headed back to the city to throw the bandits in the tank and bring the victims back to safety.

[Katelyn Marks]

Due Rewards

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”

― Philip Pullman

Archailist

Skill	EXP
Socialization	+4
Observation	+5
Acrobatics	+2
Unarmed Combat: Pyken	+3
Climbing	+2
Endurance	+2
Tactics	+1
Intimidation	+1
Riding: Dog	+3

Lores

➢ Signature Style: Extreme Close Combat
➢ Ser Iros: Dislikes Sera Baxter
➢ Sera Baxter: Rumors Behind the Mask
➢ Sera Baxter: Patron Knight of Nivel
➢ Sera Baxter: A Weak Mage-Knight
➢ Shields: An Unfair Advantage
➢ Pyken: Breaking a Knee

Shield Points: +1 for patron, +4 for patrolling, +1 for charging into battle to help your fellow squire

Nivel

Skill	EXP
Socialization	+4
Observation	+5
Flux	+1
Auristics	+2
Unarmed Combat: Pyken	+4
Meditation	+1
Acrobatics	+2
Climbing	+2
Endurance	+2
Running	+1
Interrogation	+1
Tactics	+1
Leadership	+2
Riding: Dog	+3

Lores

➢ Ser Iros: Patron Knight of Archailist
➢ Ser Iros: An Akalak
➢ Ser Iros: A Rude Man
➢ Auristics: A Shield's Aura
➢ Auristics: Spotting Holes in Shields

Shield Points: +1 for patron, +4 for patrolling, +1 for charging into battle to help your patron

Consequences: Nivel is going to be sore for the next day with pains in her legs and Nexus (aka headaches) from very mild Flux overgiving. It will hurt to walk but she will be back to normal in approximately 1 day.

Comments

Note :

I want to note that in the future if you want to receive riding experience, I suggest trying to be more detailed in portraying the skill. Arch, you especially with your level should try doing so. Still, I awarded you both.

If you have any concerns about your grade please feel free to send me a message.