Jellicle's Creed
Frozen Memories
Seqeunce 10
Memory 2 What Did they Aim For...
28 May 2055
Arendelle
Arko District
Midmorning
"Dont bother me, I wont become a hero"
- Lady Hawkthorne
Barely into the fight and they were backup. On the ship, which was ordered, by Elsa no less, to be commanded by Diana as reserve forces in the extreme case wherein they'd have to shell the district, if it came to that, which they all hoped it never would do so, they were to keep half their cannon aimed towards shore at various angles, the rest with a wary eye on the lone vessel in the harbor at that time. With Serenity as quartermaster as Serena had returned to their home to inform their mother and aunt of the pending battle it left little choice for the water loving Tigris to sit at a rail giving orders as the men, she knew the men were boered beyond help just like she was.
Why were they stuck on the ship when they could be ambushing Templars in alleys or buildings ?
The chatter of the crew was nothing that wasn't to be expected. The typical banter between men and women of food, training, fighting, family, reasons for fighting, and so on. Marion stood off to the side of the helm, a spyglass raised to her eye as she observed the Duke's Command Ship closely. She saw the flash of another spy glass and smirked, lowering her own and retracting it before putting it in her pocket. i"Perfect. They've noticed us."/i Diamond said.
"Exactly my plan." Marion replied softly, so that none would hear her.
On the Duke's Ship
"What the fuck is that?" said one sentry.
"What are you tal-...holy fuck..."
The Whitesparrow's massive sails bellowed in the low breeze of the Fjord. Easilly five rows of Cannons on both sides of the ship, not including the main deck, all of them at least twenty-pounder guns. The very wood seemed to glow, as did the sails...hell even the nails glowed. "What the fuck..." the sentry whispered to himself again. "Inform the Duke..." the other Sentry paused, nervous, but nodded.
The sound of running and clamboring down the many ladders and stairs of the ship was heard as the man all but slammed into the Duke's door, the thing all but falling off its hinges at the impact. "Sir! Sir there's something you're going to want to see..." he was panting, out of breath and tired. "Big...sails! Wood, glowing...holy shit..." Finally he passed out from lack of breath, slumping to the floor then and there.
The Duke watched and tried to piece together what the man tried to tell him before passing out, turning to the Wolf Queen he asked simply "Did you by any chance understand any of that ?" She just looked at him, the Duke rolled his eyes and stood from his table, moving to the window as something killed the sunlight. "What in the..." He faltered seeing the massive prow of the Whitesparrow blocking out the sun, and it was only 500 feet away... Oh dear
On the Whitesparrow
Serenity spotted the smaller ship the minute they entered the harbor. she was sure as well that Diana saw it as the woman retook the helm and guided the ship towards the middle area of the harbor, keeping both an angle on Arko, and a wary eye upon the smaller vessel, She spotted the Templar flag. "That... that is a Weselton ship" Serenity mused aloud, catching the attention of three people, wto of which were commanding the ship from the helm, the other a nearby Assassin
"Masters, what should we do ?" asked the Assassin, a low Footpad ranked fellow by the look of him. A low footpad rank most likely, they had many of them. If the Duke was there observing the fight...
Serenity looked towards Marion, in this caase Diana. Or rather, Diamond. Where did the white haired green and white dressed woman come from again ? Serenity made a mental note to ask when the battle was over, in the meanwhile she turned to the Assassin to speak "Watch the vessel, but act like we never noticed it. Spread word to observe for now Best case scenario they noticed us first..." Yep, they did notice, Serenity spotted a sentry fleeing below decks, apparently to tell the duke what had arrived. Serenity smuiled, turning towards Diana, or what had to be Diana she saw not the woman who had briefly replaced her but Diana herself. This was confusing
It didnt matter, "We've been seen" Diana said simply as she guided the vessel towards their desired anchor point, the middle point between the Weselton Ship and the Arko District shoreline.
"So what now ?" Serenity asked
"We wait for our orders"
"And afterwards ?"
"We follow them"
The Tigris sighed, she hated waiting. She wondered briefly how her brother was doing. By look of things, the silver bird was circling in two areas at once. Wait a minute, two silver birds ? Serenity stood and using the spyglass watched the birds carefully.
"Parrot shit" the Tigris grumbled. "The templars are using an old trick, divide enemy forces, thin the ranks at the core..." What could they do now ?"
"That doesn't matter. Remember who is leading our forces. Mark and Elsa themselves. I'm sure it'll be fine. Let's hope we're not needed." Marion said calmly, smiling behind her mask, and placing a reassuring hand on Serenity's shoulder. The screech of Ulnaus caught her attention, and she turned to look. Ulnaus, circling over the Northern part of the District, where Elsa was. The Screech of another bird also caught her attention, Fang, circling overhead Mark's position in the southern section of the District.
"That must be where the fighting is taking place." She said calmly. She paused for a moment before turning to her crew. "Load all Canons. Load the side facing Arko with Grape Shot, load the side facing Weselton with the heaviest things we got onboard." she said. The whole crew paused, staring at her. "You heard me, did you not? Precaution! Grapeshot only hurts people, the district was evacuated a long time ago, the only thing you can kill now are Templars! Get it done!" She reassured the crew, who nodded, and got to work.
The sentry observing the Weselton ship remained at his post as the orders were set to the letter. The grapshot was loaded, the only things they could kill were Templars, that was good, the bad thing was however the sentry observing the Weselton ship saw movement... lots of it. "Masters. Weselton ship is offloading troops and lots of them!" The sentry pointed, Serenity psotted the ships docked at one opf the nearby peirs, they had been so focused on their duties had it not been for the sentry observing the Weselton ship they'd have missed it entirely!
Casting a glance towards Diana, the captain simply nodded. Serenity smirked, "Bow canons, destroy the Weselton landing craft! Ensure they cannot leave that district!" She barked out. Six canons rang clear, reducing the landing craft of the Weselton ships to splintered wood and steel. A dozen dead Templars laid where they stood guard over the ships.
One target down.
On the Dukes ship
Of course it made the Duke only slightly nervous...
He smirked however as the Wolf Queen spoke watching on the map "They took the bait" She said simply
"Yes, our men are safely within the district with Prince Hans now. There is no time to lose." A soldier stepped into the cabin "Signal Prince Hans, he may begin the party. He gives no quarter."
"And us ?" Ingrid said
"Are your shields active ?"
"Against that kind of firepower ? Are you mad ?"
"No, thinking. Shield us long enough for us to get away should we have to run, and we will be fine"
"We wait for the Prince as planned"
"Without a landing craft he cannot reboard"
"I taught him a skill. He will transport to us should things go sour for him"
The Duke raised an eyebrow, The Necromancer had taught Prince Hans how to use the transportation Arrays ? This was interesting, hopefully things wouldnt go sour. But if they were attacked, then... well... they could easily get the fuck out of that harbor before getting blasted
In the Arko District, south subden
At that same moment
Mark paused, the whispers around him stopped as well, Kalda barked a single command in his mind. i"Make Ready."/i
"They're coming!" Mark called out to his men. The sounds of swords unsheathing and guns loading filled the southern section of the District. Mark himself did nothing, he'd use his claws for this wave; much faster than needing his sword. He looked to Asaca. "Do you sense anything?" He asked her quickly.
Asaca had stood stock still as the men around them got into postition. Her eyes scanning the heavens when out of nowhere a silver feather lodged itself directly before Mark. After which a hail of gunfire raned from nearby buildings in a deadly crossfire. If it wasnt for her fast thinking, and the advance warning from Fang far above, they'd have lost lives. But thankfully her sudden defense runes flared as bullets shattered in thin air. "Yes." She finally said after a brief lull in the gunfire.
Her look said it all as a single woman, a ghostly figure, appeared in a nearby alley... The fuck ? Where had Mark seen that same white creature before ? But this ghostly creature seemed to goad him into following her.
Of course it was Taris' Albino Shadowling. She didnt want to be bait herself, so she crafted a Albino Shadowling, a ghost so to speak, to bait the bodyguard into the alley. Nasty had thought it up...
"Lure him into the alley, I dont care how, dance naked to draw him in if you have to. I dont care how. just draw him into the alley. I'll take it from there" Taris saw clearly at the time her sister wanted pure revenge on the man. So she nodded
Doing exactly as Nasty said to bait Mark into the alley, which was make the same ghost he'd destroyed before in his own bedroom three years before...
And strangely enough, it worked, with Asaca distracted now suddenly by a massive creature of black smokey broken armor that tackled her from a shadow, the Shadow Minotoaur slammed into the purple scaled woman with all the love of a cement truck without brakes as all hell broke lose within the south subden location. Nasty smiled from her hiding place, this was working better than hoped! But the day was just getting on. It was time for sheer hell!
Arendelle
Arko District
North Subden
At that same moment
Two sets of Coal red eyes opened in the alleyway overlooking Elsa as she commanded the Assassins, those two red eyes narrowed a bit as well as they saw her fighting so...effortlessly. "Use the Legion to surround her with fighting, then we attack." Jr. suggested. Sutri was silent for a few seconds.
"Use the Legion to push her to us, where we are strongest...then attack." she suggested. Jr. nodded, and snapped his fingers. From across the street, nimble creatures made of pure shadow launched themselves into the fray, attacking both Assassin and Templar alike at first, before simply focusing on Assassins. Four large Creatures with tall, Roman-Like shields approached Elsa, pushing her back towards the alley way where Sutri and Jr. Waited for her, Jr with his sword drawn, Sutri with her magic at the ready.
Elsa had seen how others directed den defenses. and so she learned from that example. In so far of troop placement and barricades. Sadly certain barricades only had so much strength and thankfully the Templars didnt have heavy artillery... yet. It got dirty very quickly however within moments after she arrived at the subden. Templars had set up barricades of their own and in some houses, which were empty of belongings or people, had been overrun with Templars and used as staging points for the fighting.
Gunfire rang out, her armor, ice in make yet designed almost identical to Marks own armor sparked as the bullet caroomed off and struck a pillar, chipping the stone, fragments flew everywhere. Elsa brought up a hand as more gunfire rang out, a shield of ice formed and caught most of the bullets aimed her way, a few bullets shattered the shield and broke through, but struck her armor. However one did strike her in the arm
Then it happened, a brief respit of about a moment or two. But it was all the Templars needed to press another round of attacks. Elsa looked up however as she heard cannonfire,. Quickly diving for cover as grapshot rained down upon the Templar horde she struck and parried with her twin swords of sheer ice. Steel met unearthly ice in a frantic dance of death before isomething/i pounced out of the shadows
Swinging her sword one way she struck down a shadow, then something with a massive tower shield sklammed into her; nearly sending her weapon from her hand as ice raked on the ink black smokey surface of the shield. Elsa turned and scampered up a set of steps, another smaller shadow thing tried to attack her, she slit through it, sending it in pieces to the grown below as another shadow thing with a tower sheild slammed into her. Hopping off the stairs she tackled a Templar and rolled into the alley
The same alley that certain shadowblack dragons waited within
As soon as Elsa was close enough, the two Shadowblacks charged forward, Sutri with her arms enveloped in Shadowfire, and Jr. with his sword eveloped in the same thing. The two roared in challenge of the queen, moving towards her in tandem, forcing her to focus on one, but not forget the other lest she be stabbed or clobbered. Jr's face shimmered, scales of minight black appearing on his skin as his sword aimed down towards Elsa's shoulder to slash across her body. Sutri's clothing, as usual, acted as a forward attack to try and trip up the Queen, leaving the shadowblack's legs mostly bare and a few Assassins and Templars dumbstruck before the fighting continued and Sutri aimed a solid punch to Elsa's kidney.
Elsa had seen it happen once or twice with Mark and Georgina, a swarm of Assassin's attacked the new arrivals to the fight with ferver and briefly, very ever so briefly, the Tempalrs at the south subden forgot who their enemies were and attackewd the shadows while ignoring the Assassins. Elsa had seen the move howefver that the two dragons were doing. As Jr's weapon aimed for her shoulder he brought her right hand up, ice sword ready to block the strike before pushing upwards and swan diving into a roll over Sutries trip attack.
Rolling to her feet Elsa drew her second ice sword from thin air and settled into a more... defendeable stance. Flicking her wrists she briefly moved her blades along her arms, the flat edges against her elbows as she settled into her stance. The twin sisters of Mark were good teachers, though Blackmane seemed more or less responsible for Elsas training in the last year or so since Elsa had gotten too good for the twins to spar with
Jr hopped over his sister, flipping while doing so, while Sutri continued after Elsa, her upper body now almost completely bare as she came with two slashes with shadow-fire infested Shadow from her arms like whips, and Jr went low with his sword, aiming another flurry of slashes to go across her chest and belly, using his single sword in both hands for maximum strength and speed.
Sutri would land on her brother's shoulders, bouncing off and over Elsa to draw a pair of daggers from the small of her back, aiming to stab Elsa in the back while she was at it.
Thankfully as Jrs sword came swinging in like a baseball player looking for a home run shot dead down the middle his blade met only air, then solid ice as Elsa brought her left arm up to block the wing dead as it came. Had she not made tyhe armor, shed have lost her arm, but the armor cracked, and held before reforming to smooth almost dragonscaled ice. Moving fast Elsa twisted her body as Sutri jumpped over her, dodging as her whips of shadows slung for her crazily before the shedragon jumped over her.
Elsas free arm, sword and all came up, and briefly she was locked between both dragons. She recognised one of them however, oddly so. Ice ringed eyes stared briefly at Sutri. Where had she seen that dragon before ? The style of fighting made her think back... the ambush! The weight of Jr pressed on her left arm as she held steady Sutri's twin daggers. Finally she spoke But then again did she ? "You!" With newfound strength Elsa pushed back against Jr's blade. Forcing the young man towards a wall as her armor glittered.
But then again, Sutri could have sworn that Elsa only stared at her. Someone else entirely had spoken
Sutri smiled eventually, spinning, her whole body mostly bare to the world as a whirlwind of strikes tainted with Shadow and Shadowfire came hurtling towards Elsa in a almost unblockable flurry. "Hello there~! Miss me, sweetheart?" She taunted, Jr hurtling himself towards the Queen with his own flurry of shadowfire tainted strikes, as well as a stomping kick towards her knee.
Mark's words rang out in Elsa's head about fighting two opponents, as he had supervised a lot of the two on one matches not just for Elsa, but for all Assassins. i"Never catch yourself in the middle of two opponents who know what they're doing. Better yet, never get caught in general. If you have to, grab one and toss them to the side, that'll buy you a few extra seconds of one-on-one combat to finish off your attackers."/i that statement of course being followed by a demonstration by Mark to those he was training.
Elsa had magic on her side, but so did her enemies. She'd need to get creative with singling them out.
As Jr's foot connected Elsa didnt feel a thing, focused instead on Sutri she had forgone Jr, casting, without thinking it, her left sword and glove at the young man, it fought, on its own, thanks to someone else entirely. Kinda hard not to see the person or fight against a person when all there is is the persons sword fighting you on its own. Which in a way was creepy.
Elsa surged forwards at Sutri, a third sword appearing in her free hand as ice reformed into the armored glove. "Rematch time!" Someone shrieked as Shadows and ice locked as Elsas swords formed a solid defense and Sutri's own unblockable flurried barely dodged before Elsa managed to get the upper hand, barely, by tripping Sutri, from above.
Quickly blocking a strike Elsa ran for a wall, went up two steps before hopping a railing, cut down a shadow then used the shadow to trip up Sutri befoer going at Jr as he managed to get the sword knocked away before it whacked him back, on the flat side no less, dead on the ass with a rather hilarious SMACK
The fighting stalled as the pair of Shadowblacks stood together, Jr growled, one hand holding his sword while the other smacked his ass where the sword had smacked him. He snarled. i"She's not fighting alone."/i he growed in draconian to his sister. i"Something is controlling that sword...I smell it."/i
"Well then how about we switch it up?"
"With your fighting style? You'll end up like our sister; with a badly done boob-job."
"Can it, brat. You're just lucky you didn't have to watch Father put her back together."
The two lowered their stances and narrowed their eyes, charging at the same time once more.
Arendelle
Arko District
South Subden
At that same moment
Mark pulled the trigger of his gun when he spotted that strange white ghost, but upon missing he narrowed his eyes, and followed it, firing a few more rounds as he did; obvlivious to the world around him. He had sheathed his sword before, and as he walked towards the alley the Shadow was leading him to, he narrowed his eyes. Blinking his eyes blazed Bronze and he lowered into a stance, slowly walking as he holstered his fun and drew his sword. There was something in that Alleyway, and he didn't like it. He stopped at the edge, and lowered into his signature stance a low hiss coming from his throat, from Kalda as he stared into the darkness.
The white ghostlike Shadowling continued walking into the alley, but when mark stopped it turned around seemingly to face him, clearly wondering why he wasnt following. It walked again, backwards before fading out of view as a set of pink orbs ringed in blood red almost like smoke suddenly stared directly at him.
Taris hated being the bait herself, but the plan was to draw Mark, the bodyguard as they knew him, into the alley, Nasty was going to take it from there and alsl Taris was to do was ensure the Legion kept the assassins busy in the main battle areas once Nasty began fighting the bodyguard. But first Taris had to lure the man in...
The red ringed pink orbs 'blinked' a voice travled on the shadows of the alley. "iWhat are you waiting for ?/i" It was almost a child like voice, almost as if goading Kalda, and Mark alike, to get closer, Taris knew how to be seduceitve, since she had made Zendum, her sisters had become somewhat more respective towards her and Sutri even offered to teach her some tricks of seduction, then again the fact her fathers massive personal Kobold that Taris as a baby had affectionately named Fluffy was there to ensure that neither twin would harm either of the two younger siblings it was actually Sutris idea. Taris magic and sdhadows werent as strong, but like their mother, Taris could plan, and if needed, seduce her targets
Mark was one such target. But, would even Kalda fall for it ? Seeing, briefly, an image of Xeir in the alley, beaten and left for dead might do it for sure. Somehow the shadows deduced that...
Mark blinked at the image of Xeir beaten appeared before him. Kalda took over briefly i"Xeir!"/i he cried out before moving towards her cautious but still quick, his sword lowering and his eyes narrowing, the brown, silver-ringed eyes shifting slightly as the iris became vertical, similar to the Dragons that were around him. He huffed, it smelled in this alleyway.
It smelled like death.
Mark's boot stopped a foot away from the image of Kalda's wife, and he looked around. This was off, she would have reacted, even a little if she were here. Loosening his wrist he spun it slowly, and while Mark did so, Kalda kept his eyes firmly on the woman's body before him. His hand tightened into a fist and he began to kneel to further inspect the image before him.
It proved to be his undoing. Keeping focused soley on the image that their dear old dad had proviced by way of his stories as infants of how he'd fought, but lost, and how Xeir, his mortasl enemy had been left wounded on a rock before he himself was bested, but he never said WHO had bested him. The kids never asked, thinknig that it was a good story, actions always had concequences. Their father both won and lost and somehow walked away with his life... mostly
WHAM!
Something heavy slammed into Mark with all the love, and weight of a minivan without brakes. The red ringed pink orbs disappeared from sight and sound as too did the image of Xeir as a growling voice was heard in Marks ear as his face was close to the ground "I never forgot the injury you gave me... Silver... I intend to give back twice as much to you!"
Ah yes, the sound of sweet revenge was strong in the Shadowblacks voice. She let mark get up. She had rules when it came to fighting others, in this case, no weapons. Mark could see clearly she had no blades of any kind on her person as inkblack shadows shimmered across her body leaving a brief trail of even darker black scales, like a dragon.
Nasty settled into her favorite stance, Eagle, with a personal flair of matis added in for some reason. Scales glittered in the light of the morning sunlight.. She motioned with a hand "Come hither" A very wicked smile on her face.
Mark and Kalda snarled together at the voice, ignoring the fact that they were just slammed into, the armor taking the brunt of the hit. "You will try, child." they growled together, Mark's voice being the dominant of the two. He slowly stood, claws scraping the ground, sparking as he turned into a Tiger-Style Stance, though with an added TaeKwonDo flair to it with his legs, being close together with the heel lifted off the ground slightly. Mark took in a deep breath and closed his eyes and when they opened, he moved. For a man of his size and weight he moved shockingly fast, the muscle beneath his armor and cloak strong and ready for combat.
He jumped while spinning, extending his right leg into a devastating opening Tornado Kick aimed for the neck of the Shadowblack before him.
Nasty didnt even flinch. Bringing up her fist she caught Marks kick and flipped him backwards before jumping at him, aiming her jackhammer him down to the pavement. While out from behind him another shadow perched, and slammed into Mark dead on. Crashing into his armor and pretty much pulling him downbards allowing Nasty to slam downwards, and miss entirely, her shadows and scales digging into the rock, shards of stone flew everywhere from the impact
Mark had brought up his arms to block Nasty's downward strike, but didn't expect the second version of Nasty to tackle him. Stopping himself with his legs, he spun and slammed an elbow into her jaw, before doing it again on the other side, and then the other, and the other, and he repeated this four times before spinning and slashing across with his claws towards her throat, aiming to end it quick and not let it drag out like last time. Moving on, he moved towards the other Nasty, aiming a quick side-kick to her gut before following it up with a hook kick to the face which would cause him to land with his leg back, and then allow him to aim an upwards strike to grab her face with his claws, and dig them into her cheeks.
The double faded into shadows and smoke as seven hits to the jaw sent one shadow double to the ground, dead, another however snaked out a hand as Mark aimed to rake the true nasty's cheek. She already had a mess of scars that occasionally bleed shadowy ink black blood. Black runes of strange make span briefly around Marks wrist mere inches from Nastys face as another double of nasty stood there, which was in fact the true Nasty. The double Mark was about to kick struck fast, but Marks movement was too fast and another double bit the dust.
Nasty briefly danced out of reach and caused a thick black fog to fill the alley around Mark. "And you call yourself a fighter..." Nastys voice rang out calmly. Four shadow tendriles snaked out of the walls, two on each side, darting for Mark This of course was round one. The tendrils to distract, while Nasty went for the big game!
"Speak for yourself, coward." Mark growled before slamming his claws to the ground, intensifying the Gravity and smashing everything around him with its own weight before he rolled backwards and drew his Pistol, firing the remaining four shots at random spots into the shadow, the Anti-Magic rounds glowing and lighting up the darkness.
He dropped the magazine and loaded another in the blink of an eye, holstering the weapon before his eyes flashed again and he stopped moving all together, one knee up while he assumed a more Crane-like Stance, his hands still open for Tiger Style. He closed his eyes, and waited.
Behind him a seductive voice spoke "Only a coward uses a gun..." Nasty whispered from the shadows as at once four of her came from four different directions. Above, below and both sides. Four Nastys. Each one aiming for something, a limb, But the ink black shadows sealed the alleyway mouth, there was no way through.
Out of the inkblack shadow came something else entirely... Shadowfire. the size of the atomic fireball candies pelted the stonework ground around him, even chipping the building wall to his left as the facade crumbled under its own weight. The inkblack shadow seemed to be shrinking on itself ?
Suddenly out of it came a gout of the shadowfire, it blasted into everything, ate it up and burnt dark death in its path. It missed mark, then again Nasty never was a good shot to begin with. and slammed into one of the doubles, of course it didnt harm it uother then turn it into a bony shadowy skeletan creature before even those broke apart
"I'm going to give you as much power as you need...don't waste it...you have my memories now. Use them." Kalda's voice rang out in Mark's mind. It was time to fight Dirty.
Mark opened his eyes, and with Kalda guiding him clapped his hands together while slamming himself into a Horse-Stance. The Bronze glow of his eyes switched to white, and Mark spread his arms out. And a torrent of Lightfire blazed in front of him to block the Shadowfire, when it missed, Mark kept his arms spread, switching from horizontal to vertical and then clapping them together again, bringing them to his chest.
Suddenly Mark's entire body was covered in Light Fire, blazing away yet not burning as he spun once more and caught two Doubles with his hands, the one from above with his forehead in a jump, and completely missed the two going for his legs. He squeezed his hand until a fist was made on the two doubles he'd caught, not caring where he'd grabbed them, before dropping them. He reached up and slammed one hand into the above Double's stomach, fingers penetrating her flesh and Gravity holding him in the air before he slammed her downwards while returning gravity to its normal state, slamming down on three of the doubles, which immediately caught on fire, their bodies alight to combat the darkness.
Mark spun once more into a Horse Stance, the flames going out, and he let out a deep breath. "More." he called out. "Give me more!" He challenged, his voice closer to Kalda's than anything now as he stood tall and gripped his hands into fists. His armor was glowing brightly now, allowing him to see clearly everything around him.
"More you ask for..." Came Nasty's voice as tghe Shadows dispelled, in her place stood a semitruck sized inkblack and dripping with shadows dragon. purple eyes ringed in black shadows seemed to have mirth to them. "Amazing... But that wont save you!" Nasty opened her massive maw and spat a gout of Shadowfire at Mark. about as round as a round bale of hay, and six times as long and seemingly never ending in a torrent of black air
Finally the Shadows stopped as Nasty smirked again. Gravity mark could only change within his line of sight, or just within his reach or just out of it. So. Nasty brought up a massive paw, flicking her claws at Mark as if flicking away a intrusive bug she said simply "Bye bye ya little wannabe plastic surgeon!" Rocksolid muscle, and a man sizes claw slammed into Mark, hard and fast, flicking at him, backwards. Surely that much power the man used to make the Pheonix cloak could tire him out faster than hoped
Of course Mark went flying backwards into the building like a bullet fired from a gun, through the wall and into the street. Well, that was that... wait... Oh fuck. Didnt she just get rid of him ?
Using a singular jet of concentrated Ice-Fire, he dissipated the torrent of Shadowfire, however as he was flicked across the alleyway, he smirked, a Transport array appearing on the wall behind him. Vanishing through it, he appeared from the wall above Nasty without her knowing. Suddenly the Gravity around her slammed her into the ground, and Mark onto her back, a rib or two cracking actually proving to be more or less refreshing than painful. For now.
"You're right I was an amateur, but now...I've got my Scalpel." He said, drawing his sword and grabbing a wing, claws digging into the scales while Light Fire coursed down his Sword, and he moved to cripple her wings with a swift cut to the area where it meets her back, turning to slash at the other wing as well. He then raised his sword, and held it in both hands as it flipped downwards, ready to stab down into her spine itself.
"Clear!"
Down his sword fell, pushed by his strong arms, and the heightened gravity. until it stopped, just above her scales, the fire snuffing itself out. "No...this isn't right." Kalda said.
"Need I remind you she's here to kill us?"
"Well she can't very well do that now, can she? Look at her, you've literally clipped her wings almost entirely off. She's done!"
"So I finish the job and put her out of her misery!"
"And incur the wrath of her entire family!? Think boy! You can't fight all of them! They're too strong even for me"
CRACK...TWANG... THUNK... WHAM!
A bullet slammed into the sword with such force it sent it from Marks hand as Nasty waited the killing blow, already dreading becoming part of her fathers own army and the severe punshiment for the loss. Nasty had closed her eyes, as the pain slammed into her from her wings being torn into by Mark.
But as she waited four things happened, Four things, and the first was intense pain as gravity suddenly let up.
She heard a crack. The sound a sniper rifle made. The kind of crack that made one hope they made peace with their maker before waking up dead.
Nasty also heard a twang, as if a sword had been sent flying, which it had, it landed in the stone pament a foot from her right eye, she stared at the blade coated in her blood. The sword landing in the stonework was the thunk
The fourth thing however, was the sudden appearance of someone slamming into, and tackling Mark clean off of her back, her sister, the runt, coming to save her life. A minivan saving the life of a semitruck, which seemed odd for sure. Taris had seen the damage Mark did to Nasty, and instructed Zendu to oversee the battle whiel she tended to her sister.
Taris and Mark slammed into the alley pavement directly before Nasty as she slowly shifted back to her human form, her back and left arm pretty much through a meatgrinder as she laid on the pavement. Basil, one of her fathers higher ranking Kobolds arrived witrhin a few heartbeats as Taris pretty much jack hammered Mark into a wall, hammering his armor with scaled fists. Pure raw adrenaline fueled her movements, adrenaline at seeing what he did to her sister.
Kalda was right. Mark couldnt take on the whole family.
Taris shoved off of Mark then, diving for the sword lodged nearly to its hilt in the stone pavement she span around as she easily wrenched it from the rock, the blade swinging wide. She wanted to behead the man who tried to kill her sister. the man they were sent to defeat. She felt slight resistence, but it wasnt her desiered angle
Steel met flesh, of a face.
Mark grunted when he was tackled, and was powerless to stop the flurry of hard hitting strikes to his body from the Runt of the Nest. He attempted one counter strike, stepping forward and slashing, but the girl rolled away. He turned to face her and his eyes widened, and he froze in fear. Duradaeden met flesh, blood ran. Mark's face turned with the blade raking his right cheek, down across his lips, and barely missing a nerve in his jaw before stopping its cut and finishing the swing. The Alley was eerily quiet as blood dripped down Mark's face to his chin, dripping onto the ground with a soft iplit/i.
Mark was quiet still before a low, feline rumble of a growl came from his throat, resembling that of a Siberian Tiger. Slowly he turned towards Taris, yellow irises ringed in Silver with Reptilian Irises staring down at the youngest and smallest of the Shadowblacks as his teeth were bared.
Though steeped in rage, Mark was not careless. His sword vanished from her hand digitizing down to his own hand, where he sheathed it. Stepping forward with another Feline snarl he reached to grab her by the front of her Draconian Leather Corset with his left hand, aiming to lift her up and slam his right elbow across her face.
He was strong sure, but the girl, nah the young woman he held by the corset was stronger than even a Tigris, Eagle, Human and Dragon combined! With a sudden CRACK his shoulder was disloacted as she twisted her body, all but wrenching his arm from its socket, if it werent for the armor she'd have wrenched the arm clean off. Turning hard and fast Taris lifted mark up and over her shoulder, once more against an alley wall.
Taris was in a rage just like he was, only she was intent on saving her sister. She then started hamemring into his stomach and sides, unbelivably fast. A blur of movement Taris was as she hammered into Mark, pounding him merceilessly. He'd feel it come morning for sure, but the armor took the most of it...
After five minutes of relentless hammering a voice, a voice in sheer pain made her stop. "Taris... he's beaten, like Father in his stories, we both won and lost, and still walk away" Nasty placed her good hand on her sisters shoulder. "Can we go home ?" Nasty gave a dark look towards Mark who had a new cut across his face, and was spitting up a bit of blood from Taris' hammering him
Mark glared at the two of them as they vanished into the darkness, spitting a good amount of blood at the shadow they vanished into before falling to his knees, and beginning to wretch, eventually a large mouthful of blood splattered on the ground, and he sighed. He grabbed his bad arm, and took in a sharp breath, lifting it and twisting hard, the thing popping back into his socket with a sickening crunch. He let out a sharp growl and coughed up another mouthful of blood, spitting it off to the side before standing, and walking out of the alleyway to see his barricades, and the subden destroyed. His eye twitched. He opened up communications. "Any Surviving Assassins of the South Den...retreat to the main den. Man the Barricades...I hate to say it but take the ammo off of our fallen, get the injured to another district and out of the fight...I'll meet you at the main Den..." he said a transport array appearing before him, flashing bright bronze when he stepped through it, leaving it open for Asaca, as he sensed she was nearby.
"As if you'll leave without me... iKaal/i" Came a known voice, a blooded, very human looking hand and arm poked up from under a dead minotaur before reforming into dragon claws and stabbing the thing briefly allowing Asaca to stand up, her hand reformning into a human appearance. her clothing was torn, but she was otherwise in good shape. She felt no deaths, only injuries on the Assassin's side of things. She tutned briefly toewards the north subden building, only to see the last two supports crumble and the building fall apart. Well, at least they didnt lose any lives in that fight