War with the seperatists
We find ourselves at the vigil keep in Gendarran Fields. An uneasy silence is echoing throughout the keep. The sky is dark as it is getting closer to Shaevan, Vesper, Ailnir and Gidzar are standing in front of the Asura gates.
"Where is Ethaisa?" asked Vesper. "Don't tell me she didn't get in the portal entry on time?".
Our 4 heroes wait for a few more minuts when finally 1 of the asura gates was glowing. It had a bright white color with a few hints of pink in it. Following by this event a loud buzzer went of and you could see Ethaisa walking out of the gate.
"There you are, we started to think you got behind." Commented Ailnir.
"No, don't worry about me…" Ethaisa replied. "I'm fine!... but why is going on here? Where are the asura gate keepers?"
"I have no idea." Grumbled Shaevan. "They were gone when we got here aswell"
Our group went down the slope towards the merchant area of the keep only to see that the merchants too are gone. All they see is a couple of Vigil warmasters and an asura lionguard in a corner. As our hero's passed the 3 soldiers they could overhear a bit of their conversation.
"I don't know why this is happening!" said one of the vigil warmasters "All I can say is that Gendarren fields is being targetted by bandits.".
"We can't let them get near the refugees, it's already bad enough that they are terrorising the whole west side of Gendarran fields." the lionguard replied.
The voices faded away as our group went onward on the walls of the keep.
"Wait is that Oonk?" shouted gidzar while pointing into the direction of a trebuchet.
Next to the big Trebuchet there was an asura standing. The asura was in a discussion with Almorra Soulkeeper.
"OONK!" Gidzar screamed across the whole wall. The asura turned around his head as he heard his name ringing between the mountain walls over the wall. He then nodded in agreement to something Almorra said and ran towards Ethaisa and the others.
"guys! Good to see you." He said to our group.
"You came right in time! Gendarran fields is under attack by bandits. We fear they want to attack the vigil keep and the refugee camp." He explained.
"Then we are to late already." Grumbled Shaevan "We hoped to stop them before they would do any harm."
"Wait, you know about this?" Oonk asked.
"Yea, those bandits you are talking about are the Seperatists we fought" Ethaisa started explaining. "After you left we found a Seperatist hideout. We encountered their leader but he escaped. We also found an inscription in a wall written by my sister. It said "End the people their suffering in Gendarran Fields". So we assumed that my sister tried to warn us for something the seperatists planned to do. Looks like it already started then." She fully explained.
"Well if that is the case, you should talk to Almorra Soulkeeper." Oonk told the group. "I just spoke with her, we have to report anything we know. I believe she went to the headquarters to talk with the 2 hedgehogs" while Oonk was saying this Ailnir looked around. More and more Vigil warmasters and lionguards were walking on the walls. It looked like they were preparing for a big war. "Alright let's go to Almorra then." Ethaisa mumbled. "you comming with us Oonk?"
"No, Milla told me to stay up here and prepare any comming guildies for tasks or even a war." Oonk replied.
"Okay, good luck."
Ethaisa and the others went down to headquarters but got halted by 2 Vigil guards.
"No entry beyond this point. Orders of Almorra Soulkeeper." 1 of the vigil guards said.
"We have information about the bandits" Ethaisa responded to the guards. "we need to talk with Almorra."
Back in the headquarters you could hear a soft voice followed by "Let them in guards, but only the Human ranger and the mesmer!"
"Yes ma'm" the guards responded.
"Now hold up! We are a group, wherever they go, we go! We are in this togheter!" Gidzar said a bit annoyed.
"It's okay Gidzar, we'll be fine" responded Ethaisa "I think it would be smarter anyway if you guys went back to Oonk and help him with any new arrivals. You know it's always helpful to have a guardian like you around."
Gidzar's mood suddenly changed. "well yea, a guardian like me is always useful, fine we'll go help Oonk!"
"Norns, always so full of pride" Grumbled Shaevan "Ailnir we better go with Gidzar before he does something stupid again."
"alright" Ailnir responded.
Both Vesper and Ethaisa went into the room. It was a big square shaped room with only 5 people in it. They recognized Almorra and the 2 hedgehogs. Besides them there were also 2 strangers in the room. Both dressed in clothes that looked like the ones the order of whispers use. But a different color plan.
"May I introduce you, 'Alexander Solstrum' and 'Lila Tenderlin'" Almorra said when she saw the wondering faces of both Vesper Lynx and Ethaisa.
As soon as almorra introduced the 2 to Vesper and Ethaisa, Miss hedgehog started explaining "These 2 are friendly, from what I understand they are from some sort of organisation named 'Shaded Genesis' a secret organisation. Apperantly you 2 and a few others of our guild are doing a mission that one of their top agents was assigned to. They haven't told use anything else yet."
"allow me to continue" one of the agents insisted. "As almorra already said, I'm Alexander Solstrum and this is Lila Tenderlin. We are part of the Shaded Genesis organisation. And you, Ethaisa, have been doing the mission of your sister. Even though we strongly discouraged you to do…" before Alexander could finish his sentence Ethaisa jumped in "She was my sister! If i can do anything to make her rest in peace, I will do that!" she yelled.
Suprised that anyone would dare to interupt him.
He looked at Ethaisa with a calm face.
"Now if we are all finished interupting me, I can continue. As I was saying…. Even though you took over your sisters mission, we do however don't mind. We have noticed that you have the same qualities as your sister. And you got a couple of very capable friends around you…"
Vesper joined in the conversation as she was tired of just listening. "All good and well but we found out that The seperatists are planning to attack the refugee camp." She told as she thought it was urgent.
"We found a clue from Ethaisa's sister…" Vesper got stopped.
"We know what you saw, that's why we're here. We assume you have met Cedric of Ascalon. The leader of the seperatists. We think he is going to be here anytime soon to watch over the atta…"
"INCOMMING!".
A vigil warmaster ran of the stairs towards almorra.
"We are under attack, a massive army of bandits is marching towards the keep. Over 10 000 man big."
Lila sighted.
"Guess there is no way back. Almorra, Miss and mister hedgehog. You know what we have agreed on."
Almorra and the 2 hedgehogs nodded and ran upstairs.
"Ethaisa & Vesper, go join them. We'll need any able body to defend the refugees and the keep. We'll meet again before the end of this battle."
Both Ethaisa & Vesper went up the stairs. But what they saw there was unbelievable. On one side, outside the castle, thousands and thousands of people marching towards the keep. On the other side everyone getting ready for war. General Almorra shouting out orders to her vigil comrades. The mister hedgehog preparing trebuchets, catapults, arrow carts. Mister Hedgehog giving instructions to every class. "Rangers get your bows ready! I don't want any arrow to be a miss!" he screamed over the walls. "Mesmers, make clones! Make the enemy think that they are outnumbered!" he followed up with the commands, after that he yelled a couple more… every class had it's specific command.
Ethaisa saw both Shaevan and Ailnir standing at the edge of the wall. She overheard them making a bet.
"If I have more kills then you shaevan, you'll be paying every drink in the lion's shadow inn for a week!" Ailnir dared shaevan.
Vesper tapped on Ethaisa's shoulder. "look there!"
At the asura gate a real lightshow was showing. All asura gates were flashing in a bright white with a hint of pink. Buzzing nonstop. Hundreds of people came out of the gates. Everyone was here. They saw Milla & ben, but also Pona and many others of the guild, even Bnok was there. Bnok was boasting already "haha leave them all to me! I'll take them all on myself!"
Behind all Ethaisa's guild members a lot of strangers popped up. Ethaisa recognised only a few. That's how she knew that many other guilds showed up aswell. Guilds as Going Postal, Unit Sacrementum, Eternal Invictus and Dark Reavers where among them. Everyone was getting ready for the war.
As the preparation went on, the seperatists army came closer and closer. And pretty soon the first fireball was shot from the attacking force side. The fireball landed right in between a couple Eternal Invictus guys killing them in a simple instant. Everyone was pumped. It was agreed that Excessum guild would take the vanguard and so the whole Excessum guild charged down the hill to meet the enemy in close combat battle. It was chaos!
Gidzar would pummel one seperatist after the other down. While Ailnir and Shaevan shot arrow after arrow, killing a seperatist with each arrow. Catapults shot boulder after boulder washing enemies away. Both friends and foes fell down either wounded or dead on the battlefield.
It was then that Ethaisa saw the leader of the seperatists standing on a hill shouting orders.
He was standing to far away to kill him with an arrow but Ethaisa was certain she would be the one to kill him. She wanted revenge. Not because he got away on their last encounter. But for her sister. He was the guy that killed her. He is the one she has to kill to let her sister be able to rest in peace. Ethaisa broke rank, but that wasn't to bad. Alexander already told the hedgehogs that this would happen. They foresaw it and made it part of their plan. Ethaisa ran towards the enemy leader but then she got stopped my a hand grabbing her arm.
"you're not going there alone Ethaisa!" It was Vesper Lynx, She had to shout in order for Ethaisa to hear her. The surrounding sounds of Steel swords smashing into eachother of warhorns and of the screams of dying people was to loud.
"I'm comming with you!" she shouted again.
Both Vesper and Ethaisa ran into the enemies army. Slashing one enemy after another. But at that time they got surrounded by enemies… standing back to back both Vesper and Ethaisa saw that they could not kill all of them without getting hurt themselves.
Suddenly a rifleshout echoes near. It was Albiner, the engineer. Next to him was Dahlia Murder standing, a necromancer.
"Go, we'll take care of these guys!" Dahlia shouted.
Dahlia raised her scepter and mubled a couple words. A few seconds later a couple bone minions and a flesh golem appeared next to Ethaisa attacking the closest enemies tot hem.
"Haha don't leave me behind!" Albiner screamed. He drank a homebrewed potion and transformed into something 10 times his normal size, it still didn't look to big because he was an asura but his power multiplied so much that you could feel the earth shake with every step he took.
"here's albiner!" he laughed. He grab a seperatists leg and started using him as a bat to knock over multiple other enemies.
"Thank you!" Ethaisa shouted and she went onward towards the leader with Vesper behind her.
The leader of the seperatists had already noticed her. To be fair that wasn't to hard either…. The path that Ethaisa and Vesper had been running was covered in dead bodies, and those that weren't dead ran away in fear.
The seperatist leader jumped down from his rock and waited for the his 2 challengers to stand in front of him.
"So want to try this dance again?" he asked quietly when Ethaisa and vesper stood in front of him.
"Do you really think there is going to be a difference with last time?"
"there is going to be a big difference, this time you'll be dead instead of escaping."
Ethaisa replied.
"well it's a shame that you made me lose my ascalonian sword. Now i'm forced to use my best weapon."
He had barely spoken this words and a big greatsword started to take a vast form on his back. The hilt of the sword was made out of steel, it had a dark grey color and the shapes of vampires with wings were made out of the steel. Slowly the blade of the sword took shape too… it had a deep black color with red hints. Ethaisa would swear she could also see stars in the blade.
"I know that sword!" said Vesper to Ethaisa. "That's 'Twilight', legend says that that the greatsword he is holding could slash through the shadows itself."
"You got that right mesmer, this sword is unbeatable!" the seperatist leader said.
Ethaisa's face went from pure anger to a deadly calm look.
"I will kill you no mather what sword you use. You killed my sister and now i'm going to return the favor. I promised her!" Ethaisa said, she said it with such a tone that even Vesper who was on her side had a cold chill over her spine.
The seperatist started laughing, grabbed his sword and charged to end the 2 in a single slash. Yet he missed, Ethaisa had his sword blocked with her own sword. Ethaisa was holding a corrupted sword.
"Seems like I got the only sword that can stop yours?" she said while grinning.
She used her dagger to stab him but only scratched his arm.
"Impossible!" her foe grumbled.
"You'll find that with the right cause AND the support of your friends, everything is possible!" Ehaisa shouted.
Upon these words Vesper summoned Phantasms. Every single phantasm she could was there. A warlock, a rogue, a gunner and a couple more.
The phantasm were just used as a decoy, they kept the leader busy but the 'Twilight' lived up to his name. It slashed every phantasm into nothingness before they could even do something.
When the leader looked up to Ethaisa and Vesper he saw Ethaisa standing with her bow aimed on him.
"you really think that is going to work? You already tried that before!" he yelled.
"I'm just going to dodge it again!"
Ethaisa aimed for her enemies head but decided to aim a little lower. If she would shoot him in his gut she would have a bigger target and her foe wouldn't die immediatly. He would feel the life leaving his body.
"You'll just miss again, don't even try!" the seperatist looked around.
He could see his men, his army being massacred. He saw his plan failing but he would not give up. Not now! Not as long as he had Twilight in his hands. An arrow flew out of the blue right in the leg of the seperatist leader. Exactly the same place where Ethaisa had shot an arrow only houres ago.
"Argh!" he screamed it out.
He fell on his knees not knowing what happend. He saw a third person standing next to Ethaisa and Vesper
"I told you we would meet again before the end of this war?" the third person said to Ethaisa. It was Lila, she had catched up with them.
"It's over Cedric! Your men are either dead or fled!" she screamed to the seperatist. "Finish it Ethaisa. But be fast, he can still dodge anything you throw at him." She went on on.
Ethaisa aimed her arrow again and intented to shoot. As she showed she would release her arrow she winked to Vesper. Vesper instantly whispered "Time Warp."
A pink dome appeared over Ethaisa as she shot her arrow. The arrow flew away with 10 times the speed of a normal arrow fired.
The seperatist suprised by this action failed to dodge the arrow. The arrow pierced himself in between the eyes of the seperatist. Finishing this mission with a simple action.
"It's over Lesselte" Ethaisa whispered to herself "Rest in peace now sister"
on the background you could hear cheers of joy and victory. Hundreds of allies already celebrating that the battle was over!
"This is all thanks to you 2" Lila said to Vesper and Ethaisa. "Now go and celebrate your victory with your friends. The Shaded Genesis will take care of clearing gendarran fields."
2 days have passed and the celebration of the victory over the seperatists is still going on. All our hero's are togheter in the Lion's shadow inn. Ethaisa and Vesper sitting togheter laughing. Bnok standing on the table telling his tale of how he defeated over 50 bandits and how he received the nasty looking black eye. "… When I was nearly killing number 47 I dodged his sword ..."
"…Right into the rock next to you!" shaevan laughed before bnok could finish his sentence.
"Well at least he doesn't have to pay a whole week for drinks, right shaevan?" Ailnir responded. "2 Ales for everyone, Shaevan pays!" she shouted.
Albiner was feeling a bit sick, some sort of side effect from his homebrewed potion but that didn't stop him drinking ale after ale.
The 2 hedgehogs placed themselves on the same table as Ethaisa and Vesper.
"It's pretty cool that you 2 got to be honor members of Shaded genesis" Miss Hedgehog noted. "And you 2 sort of got inseperable."
"Haha just what will happen next week, you never know with this guild, but it's always a lot of fun!" Mister hedgehog said.
And so the party went on for days… Shaevan was paying for the drinks anyway!
The end