(The following SL has been rated Mature by Ammy-mun for future possible occurrences of: Excess Violence, Blood, Language, Intense Situations, and Mature Conflicts. Permission has been granted to host this thread here by the mun as it ties in with Ammy's character heavily and several others. As agreed upon, anyone participating in this SL must understand that her shop is a neutral, no war zone and must be left out of all fights. *Ammended: We are also including the Red Dragon Inn & Teas'n Tomes rooms as non-fighting zones! Dialogue yes, but no fighting or violence. We take the violence elsewhere.* That said, let the curtains rise finally on the hours of this play!)

Now Added is a roster of those on which sides. *Characters may leave and withdrawl from this SL if they feel the need to. All reasons will be understandable.* We are no longer accepting new characters into the SL as we are in the final phase and ending the SL very soon.

Side of Chaos:
Rastul Dalan
We Lurk In Darkness
Amaretto

Side of Order:
Ammy Spiritor
Crowe Thorne
Arthour
Andu Kirost
Myrlene Wolf-Spiritor
Rawsha
Mirius Pojoris
Fleetwolf

Side of Neutral:
Aramus
Aribius Nylta'al

Wild Cards:
Mako Phoenix
Ama'el Phoenix
Charles Blackstone
Fen Stridar

Index of the Play
Introducing Chaos
A bit of Rastul
Act 1: The Fall of Heroes
Intermission: A change of Location Part 1
Intermission: A change of Location Part 2
Opening of Act 2: The Game
Pieces Scattered About the Game
Father and Daughter Begin the Hunt
White King Captures Market District
A Stab at the White Queen
A Discussion with Chaos
A White Knight's Charge
End Game: Part 1
Knight Attacks - Capture of Mako & Zahra
Knight Attacks - Capture of Calcifer & Merlin
Knight Attacks - Assault on Fang Wood City Part 1
Knight Attacks - Assault on Fang Wood City Part 2
Knight Attacks - Assault on Fang Wood City Part 3
Knight Attacks - Assault on Fang Wood City Part 4
Knight Attacks - Assault on Fang Wood City Part 5
Knight Attacks - Assault on Fang Wood City Part 6
Knight Attacks - Assault on Fang Wood City Part 7
Knight Attacks - Assault on Fang Wood City Part 8
Knight Attacks - One Shall Stand & One Shall Fall
Guest's of the Knight
Marching Orders
The Fall of the Knights Part 1 Art, Crowe, Ripper vs. Knight
The Fall of the Knights Part 2 Aurthur vs. Knight
The Fall of the Knights Part 3 Crowe, Darcy, Icer vs. Knight
The Fall of the Knights Part 4 Ammy, Blizzard, Hope, S'arallo vs. Knight
The Fall of the Knights Part 5 Ama'el, Mokksha vs. Knight
The Fall of the Knights Part 6 Andu vs. Knight
Let's Make a Deal
End Game: Part 2
To Rescue and Kill: Part 1
To Rescue and Kill: Part 2
To Rescue and Kill: Part 3
To Rescue and Kill: Part 4
To Rescue and Kill: Part 5
To Rescue and Kill: Part 6

Rastul sat in his apprentice quarters deep within Fang Wood Academy, and smirked in the deep shadows cast about in the tiny room. His violet eyes glowed brightly with energy barely contained from many of the Ebony Knight artifacts he'd been collecting. His hand trailed over the thorn shaped lance of blackened metal by his side on the simplistic bed.

Finding these artifacts had become games to him at first that finally mutated into a hunt, killing and taking them off of the still warm corpses. Each artifact he had acquired lead him one step closer to making those that oppressed him to kneel before his might, to feel his worth and grovel for his mercy. His quest for power all started with the Ebony Lance, then he killed a pathetic old mage professor for the Ebony Orb. From that murder more fell before his cunning mind and swift, assassin like strikes in the darkness, until he had the shattered pieces of the Ebony Sword; Hilt, Blade, and Pommel but the sword was missing a final piece and laid within a hidden chest in his room dormant. Soon he had acquired the Ebony Boots gracing him with foots steps no elf could hear and access to areas only spiders could dream about. He felled a giant and gained the Ebony Gauntlet that reformed into a pair to fit him gracing him with inhuman strength. Besting a Lich was his second finest moment for the Lich had the Ebony Ring and Ebony Crown.

With the powers of the artifacts he gained, Rastul began creating things only his most wonderful nightmares could envision. Moving statues housing demons within, armored souls, living shadows that were hungrier than any savage beast, mist that could liquefy anything it touched and many more vile things to come, but he did this all in secret for now. He was not all powerful yet. Oh no, not by far. Only by the ancient powers of the being, Chaos, was he able to keep these artifacts and his agendas hidden from the mage instructors and the head mage, Igneous Fi?igoo himself. Ah, the keeper of the artifacts, a being of immense power and chaotic energy. Rastul felt a pleasant shiver and tingle run from tip of tail through is spine then out to his fingertips.

Chaos had spoken to him in the dark hours of many nights explaining to him the wonders that these artifacts could unlock for him. It even understood his burning resentment and hate for all the other mages and commoners that treated him like boot scum. He was so close to making all of them lick his own boots. So close. He only lacked the Ebony Shards, the Ebony Crest, the Ebony Key, and the Ebony Jewel. Until those were obtained he was still fragile vulnerable. He had to be wary of everyone. The being told him he had several enemies in this realm beyond just his bullies; enemies that didn't like others being powerful who would try to take the artifacts away. They had to be stopped before they knew he had the artifacts.

So the being devised a cunning plan for Rastul to stop a large portion of these enemies. A family, it turned out, named Wolf-Spiritor. A powerful family with many talents that had a penchant for putting their talented noses in business not their own. The being warned him not to attack directly, explained and showed with illusions that many before Rastul had tried that tactic and died or were defeated. Instead an ambush was in order when they were at their weakest. The family was heading for a long vacation at a beach resort on another realm. Rastul was to go, lay in wait, and attack.

Still stroking that lance, he felt the tingle of magical power humming in it. A mix of chaos blending with the powerful spells he had absorbed during that ambush on the family. His mind wandered to that memory and he grinned more in the dark.

Leaving that fond memory he left his bed and took up pacing the small room. It was time to continue his plans. He had set watchdogs upon the family, his wondrous Weeping Angel Statues, a marriage of demon and stone. For nearly two months now the family remained in ignorant bliss. He had hoped some would have died, especially that small female he had stung, but the poison he had primed the ornate stinger with that day was incapacitating and not lethal. Now though, his watchdogs were reporting people were meddling with the family. Memories were coming back and he still had Ebony Artifacts to collect. He was running out of time.

Rastul knew that Chaos would come soon and show him where the next artifact was. He needed to find a new place to reside. Too soon someone would discover what he was doing here and he would not have everything fall apart now. It was time for him to search for new real estate and finally end his charade of caring about any studies in this hell hole. With a wave of a hand, a chest appeared on the bed as if cloaked the whole time. The chest on his bed then shrank and he placed into a pocket in his robes. A muttered word and he teleported to the road just beyond the guarded gates of Fang Wood Academy. He looked back at the old fortress and grinned. Soon, you will be in ashes and I'll have your head mounted on a wall Igneous.

Mako's boots made little noise as he moved through the city streets. Dimly glowing blue eyes were searching every face, every shop and every location for clues. Clues to lead him to someone called the Ebony Knight. A mysterious man it seems that had completely stripped his sister, Ammy, of all power and even made her forget about him completely. A man that was not to be left alive. The question was, where did the man reside? How did one find something that ominous and dark.

A variety of ornamental statues decorated shop fronts, roof corners and roof eaves. They were not much to take note of. Whimsical statues, artistic pieces, but they were so much more. They were becoming aware. Aware and watching now of one person on the streets walking below. A human male that seemed to be looking for someone best left unfound. They remained watching.

As Mako walked, his senses were tingling. No he had no magical awareness. True he could do a little magical casting, a latent talent gifted to him by his late mother Elanor Deluwith, but his prowess and skills came from honing genetic gifts his father Talus Phoenix had given him; warriors intuition and battle senses that were just as good as the mythical. He knew when a pathway felt watched and he was being watched right now. A slim smile touched tan lips. He was on the right trail then and kept walking.

The male warrior was watched as he walked through the streets and headed for the gates of Rhydin city. Messages relayed by magic and psionics back to their master. A new game piece was afoot and what should they do about it.

Soon Mako left the gates of the city and walked a bit down the traveled road and stopped. He turned and faced the city again. Blue glowing eyes narrowed in a cold, calculating killers look at the city. There is a net here. A net in the city. The feeling stops past the gate. The watching seems to end. Sister what have you gotten into?

Off to the side of the road in the overhang of trees and bushes, something watched Mako. Silver eyes gleamed cold and deadly.

Mako turned leaving off his study of the city. Perhaps this Ebony Knight simply had a well organized spy ring. That would make sense. He began walking down the road again, those warrior senses tingling again.Ah, watched again and intently this time. Very well. Casually as he walked his hands touched the two katanas at his sash. What will you choose Mako? Promise or oath breaking.

The thing watching Mako noticed the warrior seemed to be absent minded and simply travelling. The Ebony Knight gave it simple orders. Kill the warrior. He is too close to my precious targets.

Not a rustle was made as the thing moved back into the deep shadows and vanished. The Ebony Knight chose it specifically out of all of its summoned menagerie for this simple task. It wouldn't fail. Behind the warrior soon, stalking him down the dusty road was a creature of silver metallic skin. It moved like a cat, was as large as a man, had four arms and two legs and was currently walking on both feet and two of the four hands. The other two hands held wickedly curved scimitars that glowed. Upon its back were two more sheathed scimitars. It was devoid of gender and only its shape was roughly that of a human.

Mako kept walking. He didn't need sound. The feeling of being watched was enough to alert him to potential threat. The stirring of dust the creature was making as it moved was its undoing as the wind was to Mako's back. The smell and feel of road dust let him know he was not alone now. The time for choices and worry about whether he broke a promise to a beloved sister was over. Sometimes we make choices in a heartbeat during war that is right or wrong that others will never understand. He kept walking and lulled whatever followed him to get closer.

This kill would be swift and easy. The warrior was so blind to its approach it thought and hastened its speed now breaking into a full run at Mako. Sound was now made as it was 10 feet from the man and it leapt, the two lower arms unfolding wielding those scimitars of death to strike the human down.

The sounds being made by the thing was the last of its fatal mistakes. As soon as he heard the sound stop, the hallmark of a leap, Mako side stepped to the right, hand going to a katana and with lightning speed turned. He performed a Batojutso slash with godlike speed the instant he saw the silvery humanoid coming down at him with death in each hand. The strike was aimed for the wrists.

The creature, Sillian Sword Golem was not prepared for the humans sudden awareness of it. The strike caught it's wrists, smashing them and the forearms up against its chest and knocking it out of the air. The scimitars clattered to the ground.

Held in Mako's right hand and gleaming in the sun was the reversed edged katana enchanted never to break that Ama'el had given him. He'd made his choice. Mako looked at the thing deciding that it was not a living being. The katana was sheathed and he drew the other katana now, for lethal attacks.

The Sillian didn't stay down long. Magic was already reforming the smashed wrists of the two lower arms. The two upper arms pulled the two scimitars from the back sheaths as it stood up again. It charged Mako, whirling the blades in a scything storm of death.

"Do Ryu Sen!" Mako struck the ground with the tip of the katana and sprayed shrapnel of dirt and rocks at the golem to offer a concealing screen then leaped into the air aiming to go up and over the golem.

Rocks and dirt pinged off of the silvery skin doing little to halt the golems charge. It did obscure its vision and it slowed losing track of the man.

"Ryu Sen Sou Garami!" Mako dropped head first and slashed horizontally at the golems back, then landed on his feet.

The Sillian twitched as tendrils of shock went through it by the katana's enchantment. The blade opened up a bloodless deep rend into the back of the construct and one lower arm fell, cleft clean from just below the shoulder. The Sillian turned and let out a screeching metal scream and lunged forward with the two scimitars.

Mako sheathed his katana, took a step toward the Sillian, and vanished. "Kuzu Ryu Sen"

The Sillian shrieked and shuddered as nine swift strikes hit it at once, parting the golem like a market chicken. It fell to the dusty road with a clatter.

Mako appeared 10 feet away from the golem, an end to his trajectory. Flicking the blade free of any oils or debris he sheathed it and turned. He headed back to the parted golem and pulled up the head.

The eyes of the Sillian stared a Mako for a moment. "A new piece has entered the masters game. A new piece that won't fall. A new piece has entered. Let this new piece fall to the masters game once and for all."

"What?" Mako said in confusion.

The head heated up and began to melt. Mako dropped it quickly to avoid burning his hand. The Sillian was soon just a puddle of transparent slime that soon vanished. Mako looked around the road for a moment. He wasn't near the city anymore, mostly in abandoned farmlands. He was on edge now, his hand never strayed far from the hilts of the katanas. "A game and a new piece? Am I that new piece?"

"You could call yourself a wild card." A voice.

Mako turned around in circles, looking everywhere. "A wild card to what?"

"That depends on what you do next." The voice whispered along the empty road.

"I am not fond of talking to detached voices unless it's from the lips of the severed heads I hold in my hands." Mako spoke coldly.

Amused chuckling. "I am not fond of wasting talent. You are a skilled warrior. Would you do anything to keep your sisters safe?"

"A bargain from one who has already harmed one of my sister smacks ones honor more than a knife slid across a throat." Mako said coldly.

"Ah. I thought as much. You were such a fine killer. Pity. You could have kept them safe. May you fair well in the games Mako Phoenix, General of Blood, the Exiled One."

"I have no attachment to those titles and I will keep them safe if that creature was all you had." Mako said with no tone at all. A simple promise.

No voice was heard. Just a lot of rustling all along both sides of the road. A lot of rustling.

You idiot! The first one was positioning you for an ambush! Mako started backing up the road, keeping to the middle of the roadway and the his hand went to the .45 automatic on his hip.

The creatures came out in an organized fashion. Nightmare hounds slinked out of the grasses, dripping acid from muzzles and their eyes burned with hell fire. Fifteen in front and fifteen slithered out in the back encircling Mako. Next, five Liches floated through the tall grasses moving not a single blade and took up position 30 feet behind the front row of Nightmare hounds, and five more Liches did likewise 30 feet behind the Nightmare hounds in the back. Finally, rising from the road itself, a crack forming and a maelstrom swirl of chaotic energy began as four Chaos Wyrmlings erupted and took flight.

This is not good. If I fall today Ammy, I'm sorry. Mako pulled out the .45 and watched them all array against him. Mako felt fear for the first time. Ama'el... I've let you down. Stay safe. His thoughts unknown to him were sliding out along the bonds the Humaran triplets had.

Then with a grin Mako spoke, "Honestly, 44 monsters just for me? That isn't fair to you all." Safety flicked off, hide the slight tremor of fear in his voice. He smiled once, and closed his eyes for a brief second. An old family prayer started in his mind. Though I fight for my country and my kin . . . Mako took aim and rapidly fired at several Nightmare hounds in front of him as he charged. "Ammy!" he roared in a battle cry.

Ama'el was at her apartment, reading from an old tome, something to do with family lines and histories, when a sense of dread and worry came over her, she heard whispers upon her bond with her bonds with her brother, closing her eyes she called her platinum staff to her and disappeared from the chair, the book laying open on the cushion of the chair.

Two Nightmare hounds shrieked as they were hit. One with a hollow point the other with a nethicite round but they didn't die. They ran for the foolish human warrior. The Liches held back content to watch the lap dogs play for now. The Chaos Wyrmlings hovered on high, circling.

Though the enemy be set before me in a mighty tide . . . Mako continued to fire. He would empty his clip before switching to his katana and selected the lethal one. None of them here deserved life. He was breaking no oath today. He would slash at anything that reached him first.

More hisses rose through the Nightmare Hound ranks as the bullets flew. One lucky shot of nethicite hit a hound square in the eye and killed it, the round negating it's magical brain and it vanished. The katana would slash into the lead hound charging him, the shocking enchantment annoying it, the physical wounds only slowing it down a little. It went to bite for his neck or face. The second hound charging started to spit acid at Mako and the other Nightmare Hound.

The link between Arthour and Ammy via telepathic crystal, allowed him to hear the thoughts Mako sent to her. Appearing a few feet away, Arthour was behind Mako and the fifteen Nightmare Hounds there. Arthour pulled the .44 magnum he carried and pulled the hammer back, taking aim at one of the hounds, he squeezed the trigger. The .44 mana burn bullet roared through the air, and he re-aimed at the next Hound.

One hound went down by that .44 mana burn shot. Eight Nightmare hounds rushed in at Art. Seeing someone new in the fray the Liches were not idle now. They began to cast and weave spells.

Mako was unaware of the help he had coming just yet.

When Ama'el appeared next, it would be on top of an old barn, she was hidden by the slant in the roof of the old structure, but she had a great view of the hordes which had built up along the road, and she let out a small gasp as she saw at the center, her brother...she set to casting a few spells one after another, first a summoning, then a protection around herself, then she motioned the staff at the ground below and she targeted one of the lich, along the ground a circle of light moved toward the nearest undead and once it was under it the light erupted upwards around it, exploding into a direct nova of arcane and holy energy around it.

The .44 was in Arthour's left hand, his right hand pulled his sword free of its sheath. The blade's arcane runes powered up and he took aim at one of the eight rushing him, and he squeezed the trigger again.

A Phoenix will rise from the ash and blood to conquer the foes! Mako's left auto-mail hand swept up, drawing the reversed blade katana. "Ryu Shou Sen" He smashed the blade into the biting head, moving the Hound between him and the other hounds acid avoiding most of the splash.

The targeted lich of Ama'els spell vaporized from the arcane/holy energy that trapped it. Art's .44 sent another hound down, the remaining seven kept at him and fanned out to try and pick away at him. The hound hit with acid dissolved by its own fellow hounds attack and vanished. The remaining nine Liches noticed one of their own go up in holy flames. Three in front targeted Ama'el's position and began casting nether ray missiles at her. The Liches in the back started to cast nether rays at Art.

The remaining Lich in front not targeting Ama'el was waiting for Mako to get closer. The Chaos Wyrmlings noted the mage on the roof and began to circle that barn. The remaining thirteen hounds in the front facing Mako were circling him, leaving five hounds in the back guarding the rear Liches.

A katana in each hand now, Mako heard the shots from Arthour's gun and the spell casting from Ama'el. Hell he felt her cast that magic.

One missile hit Ama'els protective shield and started to wear the invisible force down, but it would hold for now, she would open her palm and cast magic missile with a toppling effect back at one of the three Liches, then looking up she saw the chaos wyrmlings had circled closer far above.

Mako watched the 13 Nightmare hounds draw closer to him and crouched.

As five hounds closed, Arthour suddenly drove the point of his sword in the ground and shouted: "Edar, lleisgar!" in draconic. The words rang out with power and the ground surrounding Arthour cracked, and shuddered as jagged spikes of earth ripped up from beneath the feet of the Hounds, hopefully crushing them and also acting as a shield against the nether rays from the Lichs:

The Lich targeted by Ama'el was hit and knocked to the ground, stunned as a fine web of holy/arcane energy pinned it there from the missile wearing away at the Liches life force. The Chaos Wyrmlings began to roar at Ama'el. One would dive for her perch, an array of talons of chaotic energy reaching out for her. The five closest Nightmare hounds to Art were smashed by his ground spell. The resulting rock shield absorbed the nether rays fired by the five Liches targeting him. The two hounds that weren't close to Art leapt on top of the earth shield and jumped down to attack him. The thirteen hounds closing in on Mako continued and circled him faster. The two Liches still targeting Ama'el starting casting arcane fire balls at her. The one watching Mako began to weave a spell.

"Ryu Son Sen!" Mako spun at the last moment in a 360 arc, both katanas flashing in the daylight. To this he added one elemental spell effect. "Fire!" the blades flared with flame.

Out of reflex Ama'el would dodge to the side of the claw attack and lift the staff she holds to cast a ray of light up at the closest wyrmling, then another circle of light was cast out through the air at ground bellow but at the same time the fireballs hit, mostly hitting the barn but after that assault, the old structure couldn't hold up and started to groan under foot, at last a great cloud of dirt, straw, stone and cobwebs took Ama'ell to the ground as the structure collapsed, taking her into the debris.

As the hounds leaped into the circle of earth Arthour had risen up from the ground, he grinned. Before closing his eyes, and gripped his sword blade. Fire welled in both his hands, and he gathered yet more power to himself, before letting it out a blast of divine flames that erupted out in a massive area of effect spell. Contained only by the earth that surround both him, and the hounds.

One Chaos Wyrmling fell to the ground, not out of the fight, just winged as the ray of light clipped off a wing. The light circle went astray of Ama'els original targeting and slammed into the rear ranks and vaporized two Nightmare hounds and a Lich. Mako's 360 spin of flame and steel sliced through all 13 hounds attacking him making them vanish in a ring of smoke. Art ashed the two hounds jumping in at him.

The Lich facing Mako finished the spell weaving and cast a power of ram spell twined with black flame effect and stun. The downed Chaos Wyrmling lumbered for the debris of the barn intent on a mage snack. The downed Lich from Amae'ls prior spell was free and up but looked severely weakened now. The four Lichs in front and four Liches in back began to start casting again. The five remaining Nightmare hounds that had stayed with the rear most Lichs began to charge Art and started to spit vile demon acid at him. The three circling airborne Chaos wyrmlings continued to watch.

The sounds of battle had been somewhat muted, muffled..and Ama'el's surroundings were dark when she came to a few seconds later, laying among aged horse manure, dust and debris, she coughed and shook dirt from her face, then reached up pulling back a board and could see one wyrmling above in the air, she tried to push to her feet, realizing her right arm was pinned beneath fallen stone, she closed her eyes and laid still a small grin on her lips as she focused.

Ash-Bringer strikes again. Arthour pulled his sword from the ground, and with it the earth returned to its place in the ground. He started towards the barn that Ama'el had been on top of, raising his magnum once more, aiming at the three hounds charging him. He had two rounds. Running, he squeezed off those two shots, and holstered his gun, aiming to block the acid with a barrier spell, he would strike at the third hound with his sword, hopefully, he killed the other two with his magnum.

Mako was unprepared for the spell cast from the Lich. It hit him right on but the anti-magic vest he wore under his armor helped lessen the lethality of the dark flame element. His kimono was shredded and he was thrown off the road and into the tall grasses of one unused field, dazed as the stun effect took hold.

~~Charles! You hearing this?~~ Arthour sent out, via the telepathic crystal, hoping the man would hear him: ~~Track this signal, and bring your god damned rifle!~~

Arthour killed one hound with the magnum, the second shot just missed. The demon acid sizzled on his barrier shield starting to eat the magic away rapidly. The hound Art struck at watched it's body from a new angle as the head parted from the body. A Chaos Wyrmling angled and began to dive where it saw Mako flung into the field. An easy snack it thought. The Liches began opening up on Art with frost rays. The chaos wyrmling on the ground missing a wing was now snuffling and digging through the debris of the barn in search of its tasty mage snack.

~~In bound. What the....~~ Charles was a distance away, but the fight was already easily scene. Standing atop a building the deafening sound of his rifle firing off quick successive rounds, focusing on the only targets he had clean shots on, the Liches casting their spells. All 10 rounds were sent that way as he tried to quickly reload, tossing the heavy magazine to the ground and sliding a new one into the rifle.

When the chaos Wyrmling on the ground came sniffing about the debris, there was a explosion of arcane energy from the barn and as things settled again a great wyrm red dragon with golden lines and scales rose up out of a hole where the barn had been with a roar that shook the ground, the dragon snapped its mighty jaws toward the grounded chaos wyrm aiming to rip, rend and maim, once it was through with that one, it would leap into the air to come and side swipe the diving wyrm who was coming closer to the ground.

Frost rays? Pft. Arthour raised his blade again, aiming to attack the second hound. His left hand now free, he was able to shoot back at the Lichs with powerful, divine fire bolts that screamed through the air. ~~Shoot the Wrymlings! I'll get the magic slinging barstards!!~~

Mako was starting to fight off the stun effects and his glowing blue eyes narrowed as he saw a Chaos Wyrmling diving for him. "Oh for the love of Ammy's tits. You have got to be kidding me!"

The Chaos Wyrmling that was diving soon found Charles, it becoming the next target. He lead just slightly before sending a round directly for its head, hopefully stopping it from hitting Mako.

Three Liches were scattered to the beyond as the head shots from Chalres' rifle hit home. The remainder of the 10 rounds fired phased through the rest of the Liches as they caught on. Ama'el's red dragon summons squarely drove the downed chaos wyrmling flat to the ground and ripped its chaos energy apart making it dissipate. With that mighty leap it hit the wings of the diving chaos wyrmling aiming for Mako just as the shot from Charles hit the wyrmling in the head. The mass of chaos energy hit the field 10 feet away from Mako's still prone body. Art split a nightmare hound in two, leaving one more hound to deal with. A lich went down by divine fireball as the remaining four Liches shielded against them.

The two remaining Chaos Wyrmlings started to open up on the party below with blasts of chaotic energy from their maws. The four Liches split their attack. Two targeted Art and cast spells of Greater Binding at him. The other two aimed to take down the red dragon that was summoned with grand bolts of lightning from the sky. The lone Nightmare hound slipped away into the tall grass and vanished for a moment.

Ama'el was pinned under the debris of the barn, but had full view of the battlefield once more through the eyes of the great wyrm, it would let the next chaos wyrmling drop to the ground and it was then the dragon reared up and spouts of flame rose from its nostrils, then it spotted the Liches which where summoning the lightening that pelted its back scales and wings, it opened its great maw and breathed in a cone directed at the Liches as many as it could get in its massive breath without roasting companions.

The frost rays from before, struck Arthours shield and caused it to break. But had the added effect of freezing what was left of the acid, so a win-win there. The last Hound now had Arthour's attention, and he was forced to ignore the threat of the Greater Binding spell for the moment, flicking his sword towards the four Liches in the hope that the jagged lumps of earth that shot up from beneath the ground would have some effect as he brought the blade back around to slice through the last hound's head....He hoped anyway.

That impact of the chaos wyrm was close to Mako. Too close! The adrenaline that pumped through him unlocked the last bit of stun spell on him and he sat up and moved into a crouch. His katanas were dropped somewhere. He pulled out his gun and slipped a fresh clip in.

The Wyrmlings that were now opening up became his next targets. He took a shot on the further one from him, then a second shot following up to ensure the kill if it were to hit. Then he shifted his aim. But his rifle jammed on him. Tossing it to the side he gathering his energy up before bolting at the speed of light towards the other Wyrmling, attempting to knock it to the ground.

Two Liches were roasted and impaled by the attacks of Arthour and from Ama'els great Red Dragon. The last two Liches phased allowing the stone to pass through them without harm. The Nightmare hound was fast enough to escape Art's blade. The chaotic blasts from the Chaos Wyrmlings rocked the grounds with craters that oozed dark energy and a black mist that began to slither out, eating away at rock and vegetation. One Chaos wyrlmling vaporized from the double tap by Charles. The other Chaos Wyrmling was not slammed to the ground but did move a bit in the air as it was impacted by Charles himself. It appeared it had an unwanted passenger.

The nightmare hound raced for Mako, grass parting slightly as it moved then cloaked itself from sight. The chaos wymling was now barrel rolling to attempt to dislodge Charles. The chaotic energy it was made of sizzling and eating at the man. The remaining to Liches Greater Binding spells were disrupted by the earth thrown at them. They began to summon more Liches. The corrosive mists from the craters sneaked out after Art and some flowed down into the field eating what was in its path heading for Amael.

The burning of the Chaotic energy made short work of Charles, he was thrown off of the beast in a similar barrel roll. Heading straight to the ground he flung a line of light energy towards the Wyrmling just as he hit the ground... hard.

Mako froze a moment. He heard something rustle. Gun was up and he slowly turned watching the grass around him.

Well, with the hound gone, Arthour turned his attentions to spell slinging barsterds. He raised his sword, and slashed at the remaining Liches, a bolt of air arched through the space between him and them, soaring at that, it was moving fast enough and sharp enough to cut them in half. Even if the spell failed to cause harm, it might provide enough time for Arthour to finish the sigil of holding he was already beginning to form in his mind, around the Liches.

Ama'el could feel, energy creeping in close and she pulled at her arm trying to dislodge it from the pin under the stone, she felt, the wet, inkiness of the liquid chaos, brush over the stone that pinned her arm and felt a scream pass over her lips, she quieted herself and pulled her now free arm back, she glanced at her hand and saw that the flesh was crawling with the chaos she held her staff in the other hand and cast a sphere of light around herself, its glow started at five feet, then started to grow, ten, fifteen, then twenty feet out....a light that no darkness or shadow could hid in the great wyrm fizzled out of sight.

Arthour succeeded in terminating the last two Liches. The last chaos wyrmling circled in the air and roared at them, it fired more chaotic blasts, aiming for Art. The nightmare hound ran swiftly and leapt for Mako's back, snapping at his neck. The corrosive mist evaporated from that sphere of pure light from Ama'el.

Mako felt the weight of the Hound on his back and he fell forward, and rolled bringing the gun to bare. Teeth grazed his exposed neck and stung as the acid from the hounds muzzle burned at his skin and muscles. He unloaded the clip on the hound.

Ama'el finally was able to move out of the debris of the barn and looked up seeing the last chaos wyrm as she sat down on a few stones, she felt rather dazed but gathered her thoughts and looked up at the clouded sky above, she would will the clouds be blown away and sunlight spilled through, returning the sky to a rich blue with sunlight from a late afternoon sun, hoping this bit of wind magic would help destroy the chaos below, before she went silent and lowered her head to try and regain composure.

Charles gathered all of his energy and aimed a large light energy bolt towards the last Wyrmling, hoping to hit this time. He cringed as he was on the ground, injured, but not out of the fight yet.

The mists burned away in the sunlight. It would seem Arthour had vanished under the barrage from the Chaos Wyrmling. It circled more wanting to swoop in a kill until the bolt from Charles killed it. The rounds from the .45 of Mako's shattered the energy of the Nightmare Hound and it was gone. The road way was . . . silent.

With his job done Charles laid his head back and took a deep breath. No way he could heal the extent of internal wounds that the impact with the harsh ground. So he just lay there, not wanting to struggle to his feet yet.

Ama'el sat on the stones, a pile of what remained standing of the barn, small fires burned all around where the barn had been, she leaned against her staff, her white magi robes with red embroidery work and red pants where torn and ragged, even bloody in spots, her long platinum hair with its natural elegant red streaks was loose and a few strands blew in the wind, she was staring at her right arm and hand, skin had been burned by shadow and chaos, she ached a bit more than she expected she was staring at the skin on her hand, where the chaos mist had touched.

The beast gone, Mako stood up and put his fingers to his neck and hissed as his fingers stung from the acid on the armor under his tattered kimono and neck. Holstering the .45 he picked his way back to the road through the long grass and re-acquired his katana's sheathing them a again. Once on the road, he looked about not sure if the fight was over or not. Blood lust and adrenaline still coursed through his body reminding him of endless battles back home. His mind finally registered through the battle haze that was leaving his glowing blue eyes that he had allies. He began to look around. "Hello?"

To Mako's hello Charles just called back "Hey..... A little bit of help." He was a distance, but still close enough that his weak voice could be heard. He had fared alright beside the internal injuries of meeting the ground. His uniform was trashed from sliding along the ground.

Though she continued the stare at her hand Ama'els mind reached out to Mako over their bond- Mako...are you..alright? Her thoughts might have seemed distant as if she was off on some mountaintop, at least in her mind, but she was close. So much fighting...I felt your words...to us before battle.

Ama'el... I thought that was your magic and presence I felt. I am glad you came. I am not seriously hurt. Some beast raked my neck with teeth and burned me with some acid. I am a bit smoky from a Lich blast as well. He heard Charles' voice and walked a bit down the road to find him.

Ama'el finally stood up and started toward the road across a small field, she was holding her staff still in her left hand and had lowered the right one for now, she took a moment to look over the damage on the land and saw the two of them in the distance down the road, she moved that way slowly.

Charles sat up, seeing Mako and waved. That was a painful act in itself. "Right here!"

"You okay?" Mako wasn't in much better shape. His attire looked like he went through a shredder and bbq.

"Well other than a good 200 foot fall, I am good" Charles laughed a bit, chuckling onto his chest to do so.

Ama'el soon came within ten feet of them and looked over the two, she just watched them, then spoke. "Glad everyone still lives...after that." she smelled like rotten things and dirt-

"Define living." Mako said. His neck still burned like hell so did his right hand. "Beginning to wonder what the hell our dear sister is involved in."

"She didn't recognize me the other day. I went to her shop. bought a few things of value to make sure she is well off" Charles said.

Mako nodded with a small sigh. "Ammy doesn't even remember me. Her own brother." He looked to Ama'el. "Perhaps we travel together and get back to the city and rest. I don't care to tangle with more things today."

Ama'el rubbed fingers along her burnt wrist and hand and nodded. "Dire times indeed" She spoke softly and moved to stand with them, she nodded to her brother. "Aye..I would like company brother...your welcome to come rest at my apartment." She didn't want to be alone at the moment. "Maybe a nice warm meal...and a chance to talk"

"Indeed." He said to Ama'el. He looked to Charles. "Need assistance to safe shelter?"

"Just some healing" Charles nodded. "After that I will be fine"

Mako fished around in a few pouches on his armor and tossed two vials of Phoenix Weed potion to him. "From my sister, Ammy. That should fix you up."

Ama'el looked off toward the city, then to her brother, she waited to walk with him back home. Once Mako was sure Charles had the vials he'd offer a protective arm to Ama'el and walk her home.

"See you all"Charles grabbed the vials and used them.

Ama'el walked with Mako, talking quietly, she moved homeward.

Myrlene stopped by the beach house to check on the family. She was growing concerned for her mother and father. The concern was not the typical concern a daughter had about health or how they were doing in business or affairs. This was concern in a deeper, darker area. A few weeks back a strange being she'd barely remembered, Aramus, a creature of pure chaos that had taken the habbit of viewing the world with amusement and interacting with it in a light fun annoyance had gifted her and her family with magical puzzle boxes. Those boxes let them see pictures, memories they had forgotten if they had solved the puzzles fast enough, otherwise the picture reset to a different memory.

Lene had flown through the puzzle box rapidly over the weeks she had it and regained her memories and with it the heavy weight and horror of what had happened to them all. The attacks on her family on the beach vaguely filled in her mind, but the image of the person who did it still eluded her. That was the only clue left and she had started to seek out clues. With her regained powers and magic, she had started to track the feelings of evil and ancient energy criscrossing all over Rhydins realm like a fish net slowly closing in on several things she couldn't quite tell what they were. One thing she could feel it closing around was her families home.

She went up the porch steps and knocked on the front door though blinked her eyes a bit seeing a tripod mount on the porch railing for a sniper rifle. What was that doing there? The door creaked open.

"Lene..." Fleet said in a voice that sounded flat, troubled and not like her father at all.

"Father, is everything okay? There's a sniper rifle mount on the porch railing out here." Lene asked him.

"Oh, that's where it went. Bring it inside Lene." Fleet vanished from the door.

Lene just stared at the door for a long moment. What was with her father? He sounded so . . . detached. She went to the rail, detached the rifles tripod and went inside the house and into the living room and about dropped the tripod. Her eyes went wide. Weapons were laying out all over the couches and floor. Armor kits and armor were out and inspected, some repaired or modified, the living room had been transformed into an armory. She took a moment to sense the house and found her sisters, brother and mothers in some of the other rooms resting. She slowly walked up to Fleet who was checking several katanas.

"Father?" She asked, her voice a bit nervous.

Could he be finally remembering the events too? She looked around at the living room and felt uneasy. This was beyond just remembering an attack though. This was a Lupinossai going to the depths of war and beyond.

"Lene, how much do you remember? Do you have your powers back? Where is your son and husband?" Fleet asked Lene rapidly in a flat tone that field commanders possessed.

"I remember everything but who attacked us. I... do have access to all of my powers and abilities. Calcifer and Moonshine are safe at Icer's lair. Father... did something more happen? I've never seen this much weaponry in mothers house." she said a bit scared.

Fleet sheathed the katan he inspected, satisfied with the blades condition and looked squarely at his eldest daughter. Crimson eyes glowing looked in to her crystal blues.

"Your mother was attacked by a mad woman we though was a possible friend. Mirius and Rawsha were attacked by a Lich summoned by Rawsha during a game of 'let's play war with undead' and we have an Ebony Knight out to kill us. My patience has run out with every idiot out there targeting my family and my wife. I am coming out of retirement and killing every last one of them." his crimson orbs burned with white hot fire.

"And these weapons have always been in this house Lene. They are all your mothers. She left her amory unlocked last night. Now then, I want you to do something for your father. Go, get your son, bring him here. Calcifer will be safer with Ammy under this house were even a deity can't crack it. I won't expect Moonshine to budge. He's as stubborn as I but I'd rather minimize any threats to Icer's clan as possible." He lifted the sniper rifle Ammy had used last night to inspect it again.

Lene swallowed hard. This was not the father she'd remembered. This was someone totally new to her. A father long locked away in a realm soaked in blood and war.

"Okay father." She would use a teleport spell and vanished.

Soon she had returned with a half sleepy Calcifer. Fleet was waiting for them. He gave his grandson a warm smile, a kiss on the forehead and a blessing and had Lene set him up with favorite buddy Rawsha for now. Soon Lene was back.

"Okay, then fuzzy Rambo. You look hell bent on starting a war. Moonshine was not happy about having his soon removed from his protection but I won him over to reason and even won over his help to make things for us." Lene said as she looked up into her fathers eyes.

"Us?" Fleet looked down at Lene.

Lene held up a hand and ticked off fingers. "You remember as much as I do. Mom can't do anything anymore. I'm as much a Lupe warrior deity as you are. You are my father and I am not letting you go alone. You aren't young anymore father. Yes, us." she stared right at him.

Fleet held Lene's stare for a long moment. She was always a stubborn daughter and took after him and Ammy the most and that's what he loved most about Lene. That spirit she possessed.

"Very well my little valkyrie. We begin the hunt." He walked into his study that was down the hall, to the left, past the bathroom, and to the right.

Lene followed him into his study. There Fleet showed a wide map of the Realm of Rhydin and a map of Rhydin city as well. They began to discuss what all they felt and where they felt it and what they suspected they'd find. They began marking the maps with colored pins and soon stepped back looking grim.

"That's alot of ground to cover and a lot of enemy units to eliminate father for two people." Lene said softly.

"You're right. We'll need some help, but for now we'll start here and here." he stabbed a finger at the Twilight Island and the Market Place, both areas that contained the places his family were at the most.

Fleet rubbed his chin for a long moment in thought. They needed more allies in this, particularly soldiers or killers. "I think I need to visit Ammy's brother."

Lene just looked up at her father in shock.

((A round of applause for guest appearances by: Icer1978, CameronBernardino, MagusBernardino, Mai Silverblood and Fae Pendragon. Thank you for bringing color to this attack.))

The beaches of the Twilight Island were not safe today. No not at all. Something wicked was felt in the wind. Something tainted filled the air. It would seem the Ebony Knight was sending out his pieces once more in retaliation to losing his foothold in the Marketplace district. Who or what he sent was hidden still along the beach, waiting for the right time to strike.

Ammy had taken up walking the beaches of the Twilight Island to get fresh air and exercise as she was told to stay at home or her shop for safety. Dressed in jeans and a yellow t-shirt with a wolf on it, she was enjoying the cool breezes and the sound of waves lapping onto the sand.

Ammy, was not the only one who was walking the beaches of the Island tonight. Listening to the sound of water on the beach, he quirked his head, thinking for a moment. He flexed his fingers and rolled his shoulders. Something, was...Off:

The waters were beginning to churn a bit as the White Queen was felt nearby. Beneath the watery surfaces, multiple eyes glowed with reptilian malice. Things were starting to move under the water for the beach, drawing closer to the area Ammy was walking into.

Ammy felt a little shiver go up her spine as she walked. She paused a moment and looked behind her, then around her. She hated this feeling she got. Like she was being watched and stalked. Not seeing anyone around she continued to walk a bit hesitant. Was the island safe? Thoughts of heading back to the house were weighing heavy on her mind.

That's right. Closer. Come closer to your doom. The master won't mind us removing this game piece early from the game. The waters calmed as several things below the surface held still, waiting for the perfect time to strike. Scales could be seen bellow the water, multiple heads too, all horned and scaled.

Arthour moved on with an increased pace. For the moment, he couldn't see Ammy. But he was approaching fast as that feeling that something was...Just, not right, increased further. His eyes scanned the area around him, focusing particularly, on the waters:

Ammy found a nice area of the beach where it shallow water for up to 20 feet. She started to walk into ankle deep water and stopped to wiggle her toes into the wet sand enjoying the feeling. Golden eyes looked past the ruby lenses at the calm water. This was a relaxing morning for a beach walk.

The waters that were deeper, started to surge and froth as things moved. 5 clusters of 8 dragon heads broke the surface of the water and roared at Ammy. Three heads spat frost weapons at the shallow waters, turning them into rapidly solidifying ice sheets with the hope of trapping Ammy where she was.

The roaring of the 40 heads shocked Ammy and she stared at them in horror, not realizing the shallows had grown ice cold. When the seconds of panic lifted, she tried to turn and run, but looked down in fear. Her feet and ankles were trapped in frozen water.

Icer had gone for a flight, and had slipped through the portal onto the island.

The roaring heads roared louder, seeing their prey was caught. Two of the hydra's moved up into the shallow, now frozen water. Their massive bodies' dwarfed Ammy. Why the master was afraid of this pathetic woman the Hydra's could not fathom. Several heads darted down to snap at Ammy.

Well, roaring dragons was a good way of getting Arthour's attention. He set to running up the beach, cloak fluttering behind him as he went. Cresting a rise, he looked down on Ammy and the forty heads that had appeared from under the water. With a flick of his hand, he formed a number of crystal shards on his fingers and flicked them towards the Hydra's moving to attack Ammy:

Icer had been gliding upon the breeze, enjoying the peace, until.. Ice blue eyes caught sight of her sister, and what in the world. Soon wings were beating faster as she wheeled that way.

Seeing those heads rushing for her, Ammy swallowed hard and a trembling hand grasped a gold, heart shaped locket around her neck. The enchanted spell within enclosed her with a magic shield that would repel attacks. It was all she could do at the moment in her panicked state.

The heads snapping at Ammy found their prize not an easy one as they smashed into the invisible shield. They recoiled and roared at Ammy readying breath weapons of fire and acid until shards of crystal broke upon their scales. Both hydras now looked up at the beach. The White Queen was not alone. The hydra's roared in challenge and unleashed breath weapons of Ice, Fire, Acid, Lightning, and dark energy. 16 breath weapons in all hit the beach area.

Nostrils flared as Icer readied her own breath weapon. Soon the icy blast was aimed at one of the creature's many heads.

The one hydra roared as a head that spat fire was frozen solid by Icer's attack. It's 7 remaining heads swiveled to challenge Icer with more roaring and a torrent of breath weapons lit the sky.

"Need a hand?" Said a voice, from behind Arthour. It was a Cameron thing. He was often just there, like he had just appear, or had always been there, having gone unnoticed. It irked Fae to know end that he did things like that, but just the same, he was present. He looked up with a quirked brow, to see the various breath weapons. "Oh, that's not..." suddenly, there was a loud sound from below. Almost like an earthquake as the very earth itself came ripping through the beach, with rock and sand to form a wall between himself, along with Arthour and the myriad amount of attacks coming their way. Ammy seemed to be covered. ".... good."

The massive unleashing of breath weapons had Ammy cowering low, with that shield humming around her. Using her stone hand, she began to beat at the ice trying to free her feet.

Icer was weaving, bobbing in the air, though a few of the hydra's weapons hit their mark.

Great....Sixteen attacks came at Arthour, well....He ignored the fire attack. Demi-god of fire. So, totally not worried. He raised both hands towards the incoming attacks and formed a shimmering, gold shield before looking at Cameron: "How in the....Umm, yeah please" :The shield, was now redundant it seemed as the wall of earth imposed itself between them. "Good timing"

The three hydras that were still submerged in the water with their heads up, took up pelting the beach with their breath weapons. The Ebony Knight today, appeared not to be taking chances with is move.

A snarl as the fire hit Icer's right wing, and she dipped and dove, landing with a SPLASH!

"It's a talent. Hold on, I'm calling re-enforcements. I might be able to take these things down alone... but keeping you, the dragon, and the girl over there alive... Well, that's not quite as easy.." Said off handedly. The wall appeared to be re-enforced by something Cameron was doing. It certainly should be crumbling by its own weight and wasn't. He looked up, eying the dragon as it fell. "C'mon, old man," whispered, mostly to himself.

The ice around Ammy's feet was slowly starting to crack. One of the heads on the hydra close to her started to spit frost at her.

Icer did not surface yet. Using her tail to propel herself through the waters. Her wing sore from where the hydra had managed to catch her with its attack. Soon she was nearing the underwater bulk. Horns lowered, she would charge forward through the waves.

Seeing the ice crack gave Ammy hope until the cracks healed. The shield kept the ice breath from hitting her, but it deflected the attack to the froze water, buffing it up more. Ammy touched an emerald ring on her finger, a desperate hope that this new gift as well would work. She hammered at the ice again with panic.

Cameron needed to learn to be patient. There was something that sounded much like a thunder clap, as Magus came from above out of virtually nowhere, and landed on the ice before Ammy. Hard enough to shatter an ice sheet 20 meters thick, though he didn't submerge. He stood between Ammy and the attack, the shattered ice and sea itself moving up to counter what remand of the frost coming Amy's way. He pushed the water in the breath weapon's path to do much like Cameron did and create a barrier. He called back to Ammy, as his force should have released her. "Get moving to beach. Behind the wall."

One of the submerged hydras wailed in agony as Icer found it's mark with her horn. Heads dove under the water in attempts to snap at whatever impaled it.

"Well, While you do that. I'm gonna...." Arthour looked at his ring: "I just thought....My wife is about to make an appearance..." He looked...Distinctly worried right now.

"And please hurry. I want to hit them with my sword." Magus said under a grin.

Ammy nodded to Magus as she was now freed and backed out of the water and darted up the sand behind the wall of earth.

Icer freed herself, hissing at the jaws that snapped at her. Another hiss as a fang grazed her side, though she was already wheeling for another go.

He Had a right to be, Mai stepped from a shadowy portal, heading towards Art, "Seriously, I go to put Camellia down for a nap and I sense fighting" Looking around, her eyes filling with crimson "So........Dragons or hell hounds? or even Orcs? what do you like the sound of?" Sending her energy to back his up

The ring summoning worked. From high in the air several arrows of pure soul energy laced with pure lightning zipped by for one of the hydras in the shallow water. Flapping his neon blue angel wings, Fleet held a bow made of pure soul energy.

"Hey, it'll be a party." Said offhandedly, as he lifted into the air behind the wall. "I'll be back." Yes, Cameron appeared to be flying. Right up and over the wall. "You know what happens when you hit something a truck-ton of pseudo mass and a lot of momentum?" Suddenly Cameron, not unlike his father, launched forward, toward the Hyrda nearest Ammy and Cameron. He simply punched in an almost superman-esque way. right through the water to where it's body should be. With enough force to leave a small crater in a mountain.

"Ammy!" Arthour called to the Lupe as she appeared, taking a quick glance around the wall of earth to take a peek at what was going on....Looked like Icer was kicking some Hydra heads in? Well, at any rate, he's gonna grab Ammy the instant she's in arms reach and drag her behind the wall..And there's his wife. "Not my fault! I was just out for a walk, minding my own business, and then Hydras started attacking Ammy!"

Mai smirked watching Cameron "Show off!" Looking at Art "Darling, you can go for a walk and it would rain Acid, your just not that lucky with timing."

Icer would surface for only a moment. Breathing was a lovely thing. Soon she would dive again.

The impaled hydra dove after the dragon that hit it, heads trying to snap and follow the wheeling Icer. Soon it had a problem, its eight necks were now tangled and knotted up. The soul shots from Fleet hit three heads on the wounded, 7 headed hydra, stunning them. The hydra staggered back in shock and found its body smashed to a pulp by Cameron.

Ammy was pulled behind that wall of earth to safety for the moment.

Icer floated for a moment, watching the hydra with the knotted up necks. Before Charging for the next body. Jaws snapping at tail, or was that a neck?

The three hydras not occupied started to light up the beach again with breath weapons and also aimed at Magus and Cameron too.

Arthour bowed his head in agreement, and looked at the giant wall of sand. He pressed a hand against it, shut his eyes a moment. Soon, all that sand, got very hot. Then? It turned to crystal. Much more impervious than simple earth and sand. He also set down a sigil around the entire area behind the wall, creating another shield and smiled at Mai: "My timing is perfect. It's the rest of the world that has a problem"

"I was just walking..." Ammy muttered.

Fleet gestured in the sky, making the weather cloud over with dark, black clouds. Lightning crackled in the sky.

Arthour patted Ammy's shoulder: "Hey, so was I! You alright Ammy?" He asked, concern in his voice and a critical eye looked the lupe over.

"I'm fine..." Ammy said a little shook up. "Thankfully my mates equipped me well to keep me safe." She was still holding onto that locket around her neck.

Magus couldn't agree with Mai more. He shot into the air in what was not unlike a inhuman leap, sword drawn in an instant as he opted for an easier defense; avoidance of the breath weapons. The nearest hydra was his target as the slashed the sword in mid-air, toward its necks. Like Cameron, he could manipulate things to have physical properties they didn't actually have, and the slash of his sword extended not only past his back, but past the necks of his target. "Let's see what grows back?"

Cameron as he came up grabbed the body he'd crushed and now was lifting it. Control of kinetic force makes for easy lifting, after all. He used the battered body as a shield as he came into the air with the large thing. "Gonna hit you with your brother... " He simply threw it toward the breath weapon targeting him. Like a meaty broken projectile to remove the thing trying to attack him.

Sighing, Mai closed her eyes focusing, muttering a spell as the shadows gather and shimmer moving in closer to them swirling slowly, opening her eyes as her hands raised over her head a black bladed Katana forming in her hands

Arthour looked at Mai. He looked at her sword. He looked at her: "If you think your going out there, you've another thing coming, my love."

Five heads fell into the water from Magus' strike, 10 more grew back and all started to snap at Magus. Another Hydra was impaled by Icer. Four heads struck down in the water to snap at Icer. The remaining for unleashed Ice and Fire at Fleet in the air. The remaining Hydra in the water back peddled as the crushed body of the dead hydra thumped into it.

Well now Icer had their attention! A rumble and she snapped at the nearest head.

Without even a ripple of energy or sparkling twinkle in sight. The wild little imp was simply there, sitting on top of the wall that Art had turned to marble. Watching the fight out on the water. Legs dangling over the side, like Fae was at the beach and watching a show and not a life and death struggle. Not that she looked all that impressed by the view. Nope.

Fleet caught the lightning blasts, charging up his deity powers more. He let out a sonic bark that broke the sound barrier shaking the ice attacks out of the air. Seeing one hydra bogged down by a dead hydra body he spoke. ~Ignit hamta~ Several columns of lightning fell from the sky with a hope of hitting the hydra.

Another growl and Icer's tail would thrash another of the heads nearing.

Icer found her mark, biting onto one of the hydra's submerged heads, another submerged head was tail wacked. The hydra lifted its bit head out of the water hoping to flick Icer off if she was still attached.

With that said, Arthour poked his head around the wall again, to get a feel of what was going on.

"Very nice... Let's see if the legends are true..." Magus said as he was descending on the creature. Somewhere further out, the water was rapidly turning to ice. His blade started to take on a hot glow then as he came down, leaching heat from the water's well beyond them all. A tiny bit of manipulation and landed as if the water were solid and in a lightning-fast dash leapt twice in two short points making a 7 shape that would bring the actual sword across the 10 necks now snapping in his direction, with the searing hot sword.

"I aint going love, just watch." Shadows and air circled the blade Mai was summoning. "Cameron, you, Icer and whoever he is better get out outta there for a bit!"

Down the beach, wearing simple mage robes and leaning against a lance in the shape of a giant thorn made of blackened metal, Rastul watched his pawns. Violet eyes calculated the battle and possibly the odds of shifting it to his favor.

Stubborn dragon that Icer was, she would cling to that head, and snarl. Jaws keeping their grip as her wings buffeted the air, aiming for an eye.

"Good" Arthour replied to Mai, watching Magus and Icer carefully to see if they needed help. Spotting a little Imp on the wall, he waved at her, and assumed she could look after herself up there.

Ow, the hydra roared more as Icer's fangs sunk deeper into its face and found an eye. The other heads on the now distracted hydra snapped at Icer. The hydra Magus hit lost the ten new heads. The cauterized stumps steamed and no heads grew back. The remaining three heads on the hydra aimed at Magus and fired dark energy. The lightning strike from Fleet made the hydra in the water flail as it was shocked into a stupor. The dead hydra body though exploded from the lightning strikes that cooked it sending gobs of hydra flesh all over the beach and water.

Now Cameon was hovering in the air, hands extended toward the Hydra making almost a choking gesture. The water around the think and it's batter brother began to... shrink? No, it was contracting, creating a sphere of uninhibited pressure around the two bodies. Luckily Cameron was well up into the air, this also severed Fleet's lightning from the rest of the body of water. Cameron wasn't a fool.

Seeing the hydra stunned, Fleet darted in like a hawk, from a sheath was pulled a vorpal katana and he began to strike at the hydra's body and necks as he landed.

Watching for the moment, wielding the blade wending the shadowy slash towards one of the Hydras, aiming for the body. "I'm not a piece of porcelain ya know, I may look it, but I'm not!" Mai said.

Magus ducked down and lifted his gauntlet adorned off-hand at a blackness opened up in his palm. A void between he and the breath weapons. Magus didn't care for Magic. Much of it he had no innate defense against and finding something to act in surrogate, such as this gauntlet took him many years. In theory, if the energy was magic, it the gauntlet would swallow it, a dark gem on it coming to bright light. Afford the opportunity, he'd take a look to see how many of the beasts remained.

Arthour quirked his head a bit. It looked like they were winning. He quirked his head slightly, his mind searching for something. He could feel a certain...Presence nearby that he recognized from before. His head turned to look down the beach. Hearing Mai, he smiled. "I know love. But I'm fairly certain you don't mind me treating you like it"

Rastul was amused by the tactics. Feeling where the lone hydra was under the water with tangled necks, he murmured within his cloak and held out the lance at the water. Something flashed under the water. Then he pointed at the sandy beach above the holed up fighters. Another flash of light, then he faded from view with a powerful spell to watch the new event.

One head managed to snag Icer's wing. A snarl, and she let go of one head and snapped for the other.

It seems Cameron just assisted in sending hydra chunks all over the beach. He looked back and suddenly shot toward the wall he and Art had built, landing on it. "Dad, just get them all out of there!" And then a bright orb formed in one of Cameron's palms.

Magus absorbed the breath weapons fired at him. Three hydras were seen. One with head wounds from Icer, another that was stunned from Fleet and losing its heads by vorpal blade and the body was suddenly cut in two by Mai's attack. The one by Magus had just three heads.

Gone before he could act on it....Arthour's eyes narrowed as he felt Rastul vanish. Then he moved to stand in the middle of the sigil shield that was surrounding himself, Mai and Ammy. Fae was likely inside it as well, since she was on the earth/crystal wall and rolled his shoulders, flexing his hands. The sigils forming the shield, glowed brighter, increasing in power. He didn't trust the Black Knight at all. The sigils shifted and flowed, changing shape as they seared their pattern in the sands.

"Only when it doesn't annoy me". Mai batted her lashes at him, then jumping up, floating to sit beside Fae. "I'll sit here and stay out of trouble shall I?"

Fae would have waved to Art, but she was watching the fight in the water. Bouncing something in her lap, up and down. A finger out and pointing out stuff. "That is a Hydra. It is a sorta dragon." Telling the small bundle of wriggling limbs. "A naughty dragon. Yes. Very naughty. Not like the good dragons.." And magic was being cast. It caught attention. Mhmmmmm. Yummy. Glanced to Mai as she sat by her side. "Are you being over protected darling Mai?" At closer sight the wiggling bundle would turn out to be a child. Only the imp would bring a toddler into a battle scene.

The unseen hydra with knotted up necks shimmered as the master touched it with a transmutation spell. The hydra separated into eight great wyrms of chaos under the water and they broke free of the wet prison taking to the air. That flash by the people protected by shields? Chaotic magic runes appeared in the sand, sending out drain spells against Art's shield work. Suddenly hands appeared in the sands going under the shielding and trying to smash through from below.

Knight: A single pair of boot prints, lightly visible appeared behind the shielded group. What was up now?

Icer was tenacious as ever. Still clinging to the second head of the hydra, before eying the eight wyrms.

The chaotic great wyrms circled the beach and opened up with chaotic breath weapons. Weapons started corrupting and eating the land wherever it fell.

Magus already know what was about to occur, and as the void swallowed the weapons, he took to sharp spin. Suddenly a spherical glow surrounded him, and the space around him warped in an odd fashion. Then each of the combatants -- himself as well as Fleet and even the large Icer should be surrounded by a sphere. It wasn't a teleportation spell, or any such thing, but rather, the space around them had been forcible warped and squeezed out on the beach where they should all have been sent, near the gathered group. Magus, arriving looking up at the wyrms. "Cam..."

"Tch, really? Come on now." Arthour quirked his head slightly with a smile. The Sigils, shifted again. They flared and spluttered slightly, before shifting again. Countering the runes trying to drain their magic by sumping magic into the surrounding area around the shield, trying to trick the runes into pulling magic residual magic rather than the magic in the shield itself. Another layer of sigils formed after the first, reducing the size of the circle that the people inside the shield were standing in slightly. Another layer of shielding appeared on the inside of the first shield.

Chaos magic! It was like being home. Glee!! Well, it would have been if it was not going to be acting against her. That was just wrong. Fun. But wrong!! "I have a feeling I am going to get a hell of a lecture for being here." Bounce, bounce of the child. Letting her shift and turn to watch who she wished. Mostly splashing chaos worms and colorful magic spells hitting the bubble of protection.

"I see them..." Cameron used his free arm to scoop Fae up to his shoulder, then grabbed Mai by the scruff of her clothing with the same arm. "Dad, I power, you aim." He then dropped down and sent the orb into the wall which cracked and shattered only to freeze in midair, and start glowing white hot. Now floating, razor shrapnel infused with heat and kinetic energy. Cameron dropped into the sand with the girls, Magus would take care of the rest.

The hydra attacked by Icer roared more and flailed to get her off of it.

"Got it." One hand extended out to his side, toward the wall as if to act as a guide and 'feel' what he was about to do. As the wall shattered the shrapnel shot out like a swarm of miniature missiles all spreading out and from under the shield to make wild spirals toward all the remaining creatures.

Icer clung to the flailing hydra, but released her jaws, just long enough to send an icy blast at one of the chaotic wyrms overhead.

The hydra was free of Icer only to be hit shrapnel. The other hydras where shredded and died. The chaos great wyrms took the attacks and roared more. The shrapnel and ice did little to them. They dove for Cam and Magus.

Fleet found himself in a temporal shift as he moved from the Hydra. He watched the fight ensue by two men he didn't know but was thankful for.

Almost. Almost! Lost the babe, but she came along with them. With a rather happy squeal. Which was not what Fae was going to do once feet hit the ground. "I can move myself." Got free and with a half smile. Pushed the child into his arms. "Hold your daughter for a moment." Bombshells a plenty. Then she was vanishing out of the bubble. Right into the chaos of the battle. To go protect Icer from the missiles that were flying. The dragon couldn't fight and dodge all that rubble. Protecting friends was fun!

Ammy was in the temporal shift and she watched with wide eyed terror.

"Cam, loan me some kinetic energy. You power I drive," Magus called over, hand still outstretched.

Oddly an area around the shield area was not hit by shrapnel. Something absorbed the projectiles. Rastul saw the temporal bubble and smirked. Lifting his lance he struck at the bubble, if the effect worked the lance would absorb the energies used to make the bubble allowing him access to it. He was coming for Ammy.

"Already on it," said as the ground beneath them began to rumble and pillars of rock and sand erupted from the beach, each flowing almost like liquid filled with barely contained momentum up into the sky. "Do it!"

Magus did. He took Cam's pillars under his influence each grew like rocky, sharp, trees, expanding into a web of twist impaling lances each moving to surround one of the wyrms that were now above, diving for the white haired twins. But his eyes were turning toward the Knight. "I would recommend another day, you're certainly outnumbered, if not outmatched."

A voice hit the beach. Outmatched? Hahaha. Chaos was present. The whole island shook.

The chaos worms were battered by the debris by Cam and Magus. They were starting to flicker as Rastuls magic was waning on them.

Shaking out her damaged wing, soon Icer was taking to the air. Slowly at first, but then gaining ramming speed for one of the chaotic wyrms.

Still. Fae did what she set out to do. Dust any spikes of rock or crystal that flew to close to her dragon friend. So she could battle it out.

The hidden Rastul listened to his master then to the men speaking. He could see the dragons failing. He was wisely seeing he needed more artifacts. He withdrew his lance for now. Master, we have tested their defense. Tactical withdrawal and more planning to be had. Rastul's voice filtered over the beach. Yes, he was still a bit too weak to take this game piece. Soon though, Ammy will fall to him. This was his goal. Rastul vanished from the beach.

Cameron blinked down at the child he was holding, thanks to Fae, the words just rang in his head that she had uttered. He blinked several times, and barely managed to maintain enough focus to power Magus' earth-spikes.

"Good choice..." Magus said curtly as he was stabilizing Cameron's ability, adding what power he himself had. He'd heard Fae, even if Cameron didn't have the attention span for it. "Let's wrap this up, people. If you got anything left to finish these things off, go for it."

There was a quirk of Arthour's head again, as he felt something vanish from the area. He smiled slightly. The Black Knight was gone again. He put more power to his shield however, as a matter of course.

The all out assault on the chaos wyrms broke the last threads of magic on them. They evaporated into thin air. Leaving behind one very mutilated hydra in the shallow water. It slowly started to withdraw into the water, sluggish as if something had controlled it's mind.

Fae was having fun and she was even doing it without glitter. Just blowing up the rocks as they flew. As for killing the last monster she shook her head. "Nah....Don't kill it...Poor thing. It's a puppet."

Fleet would land and jog towards Ammy. Seems the twilight island was him and Lene's next target for a cleansing soon.

Cameron let the effect falter as he cradled the baby in his arms, blinking a few times down at the child.

Ammy saw Fleet coming and looked worried. "I stayed on the island and stayed safe. I did what I was told..."

Magus allowed the debris of his tree-like spikes to fall apart, but they fell as if there was a dome over the beach, clear of the pack of people and the two still slightly afar, larger pieces thumping into the sand.

Soon Icer was hovering. Watching the chaos wyrms evaporate. A rumble and soon the pain forced her to land.

Fae not killing stuff. Chalk it up. It happened. Drifted back to Cameron and the toddler he was left holding. "Yeah, I was getting around to telling you about this.."

"So, that was fun," Magus said as he looked to his son, one of the only two people present he knew.

Arthour flexed his fingers. slowly, the shield faded, falling and stopped. The sigils remained imprinted in the ground around them however, in case something came at them again and turned around to look at everyone present

Cameron looked up at her with something that fell just short of being a scowl. "What happened to her?"

The wounded hydra slid into the water to swim away from the beach that caused it so much pain for reasons unknown.

Magus moved, across the sand, toward Cameron and Fae, to move up and behind Cam's shoulder to peer down at the babe. "Well, hello there..."

Fleet pulled Ammy into his arms and held her. "I know, I know. Didn't think he'd get ballsy enough to strike here. Lene and I will get down to rooting out his foot hold here soon."

Soon Icer was moving toward Art, Ammy and company.

Ammy looked up at Fleet for a moment. "He... tried to kill me. Why?"

Seeing the dragoness land, Arthour moved in her direction. Remembering now that she'd been hit earlier. "Icer, show me your wing please. And stand still" He said, in that classic 'doctor' tone of voice:

"I'm fine Art." Though Icer did extend the wing that had been hit.

"Nothing.." Fae gave a little shrug of shoulders. "As you say, to cut a long guilt trip short. She blamed us for never getting to have a proper childhood. That she never experienced growing up. That the danger we placed her in, forced her to take a more mature form. So she could protect herself. So she chose to experience it. Not sure how long she'll stay that way. If she intends to grow up or just change when she has her fill."

Fleet sighed and held Ammy close. "You don't remember this Ammy, but we stopped the last two Ebony Knights before this one. Chaos is playing hard ball. He wants his threats eliminated. With you magicless and without your arcane memories, he has a shot at hurting you."

Arthour moved closer to said wing, glancing at the dragoness: "No, no you're not. I saw you get hit Icer" He replied, and started looking over the wing for any injuries.

Blessing or curse, Cameron wasn't sure, blinking a few times, speechless. He didn't know exactly what to say, so he didn't say anything, for once. He just rocked the child, before lifting her up to hold against his shoulder. After a long pause, finally he spoke. "Maybe it's a second chance for both of us.." Were red eyes welling up with tears? He squinted, obviously trying to hide it.

There was a little bit of char where the fire had hit Icer, and a puncture mark or two.

Magus clapped a hand onto Cam's free shoulder and gave a squeeze. "I'll let you guys... do ... whatever this is." A faint chuckle, like something was all coming together for him. He turned, Magus had an uncanny awareness of what was around him, and didn't emit even the faintest sign of being magical. He turned and started crossing the sand toward Fleet and Ammy. "So, what was that all about?" He inquired as his bare right hand was moving to buff at the back of the gauntlet that adorned his left.

Arthour sighed and reached out with both hands, and gently resets his finger tips on the wing, near the puncture marks first. Closing his eyes, he brought up his healing magic. Golden tendrils of healing magic, seeped from his fingers, into her scales and started to work their way into the wounds, getting the healing process started. It was a steady, slow process. First, it dulled the pain, before starting to get the tissue to re work itself, stitching back together slowly, steadily healing the damage to the wound.

"We took him down with magic?" Ammy said surprised.

A slight twitch as the magic seeped in, but Icer stood still.

"Yes. we did sweety. I'm getting you home now. Where it's safe." he looked to Magus. "A very old enemy that sucker punched us once already and took most of the memories of my wife and family. I'm working to stop him. Art can fill you in more. I am getting my wife to safety." He put an around Ammy and said a few words. They teleported to Ammy's beach house where nothing could penetrate the wards. Ammy hugged onto Fleet and vanished.

Left standing in the spot alone made Magus look a little awkward before he shook it off. "Just like the old days." He glanced over his shoulder inquiring with a whisper to himself. "Which one is Art...?"

Throughout Twilight Island, the minions of the Ebony Knight had taken up residence. They held the island in their shadowy control to allow their master access to the heart of the White Queens forces. A direct route to that house of hers with wards and magic impenetrable.

A shadowy presence not gone unnoticed. Myrlene walked up the sandy beach. Her armor moved without much of a sound, crafted by her deity magic it was beyond compare to any other armor she ever wore. Her crystal blue eyes scanned the beach. She wasn't lost or aimlessly walking around. Oh no. Her training in the dark arts from her prior mistress, Takhisis had taught her well to hone in on the energies of others using dark magic and chaos. Lene was walking right for the forest.

From the shadows of the forest they watched her. Numerous eyes, hungry to rip into anyone foolish enough to come their way. Massive shapes shifted within the deep forest. In front of Myrlene, two massive earth elementals formed, part sand, part coral, part dirt, part stone. They took the shape of giants, their mighty arms forming into massive maces. A single glowing eye of pure violet energy sat above their heads.

Lene watched the elementals form. She flicked the crystal visor guard down and unsheathed Myrlene M'sai, her sword. A massive howl erupted from the sword as she unsheathed it. Around her shimmered a mist of ice crystals. Lene never stopped her steady march. She saluted the two earth elementals with her sword. "Today, you taste the blade of Diidarikia. I reclaim this island in the name of law and order. In the name of Ammy Spiritor and my saint, the Platinum Fang you fall!"

The elementals made grinding noises of sand and stone moving against each other. One slammed a heavy stone mace that was its arm into the ground. A voice rumbled over the Island. "Foolish child. You challenge something larger than you can ever imagine. May the game begin." The elementals charged at Lene. A swirling sand storm blew before them as maces lifted on high to smash the small Lupinossai to a pulp.

"You're mistake for thinking I am a mere child." Lene murmured and raised her wing as a shield against the incoming sand. She summoned her shield and took a deep breath. She let out a sonic roar that rivaled any dire wolf or tiger. The sonic wave was laced with ice shards and crystal. She aimed the roar at the heart of the sand storm and ran right behind it.

The sand storm, hit by that powerful roar of sound, ice and crystal blew backwards into the elementals charging for Lene. They let the sand and rock collide harmlessly on their bodies. The ice and crystal shards chipped away at their bodies slowly. Two massive stone maces came crashing down at the charging Lene.

Lene snapped her wings out. and leapt forward, flapping them twice to give her a boost. She dodged the first mace in a forward dash, dragged clawed toes in the sand and spun around the impact of the second mace that sent sand spraying her. Her shield was raised to deflect the sand as she crouched and leapt. Her small sword lengthened and she brought an overhead chop down at the nearest elemental's arm.

The arm of stone, sand and coral was severed in two with a ring of divine steel going through it. Black ice coated both ends of the severed arm and flowed up and at the elementals body. The second elemental turned and brought both maces down at Lene. The first elemental was moving slowly as black ice tried to encase its earthy body.

Lene saw the shadows of the two maces darken the ground around her. She spun and brought her shield up. "Repego!" The shield shimmered with a pulse of blue, icy light.

The maces contacted the shield with an ear piercing screech. One mace was repulsed back into the elementals body. The other mace shattered, covered in black ice from the contact of the shield.

Lene leapt into the air and flapped her wings for a moment or two to hover above the elementals. Her shield vanished and a copy of her sword appeared in the other hand. Two more upward flaps and she let out another battle roar at the lead elemental and dove in at him like a hawk. Twin swords flashing with hungry light, the ethereal forms of winter dire wolves riding those blades. She would spin and twist setting the blades to create a blenders effect on something hard.

The elemental was rocked back a moment as that mighty roar hammered it causing the 20 foot construct to sway. The blender effect Lene was going for more showed as a shimmer of sparks as the blades clipped, chipped, clove and rent the elemental apart sending pieces flying. The first elemental toppled to the sand in pieces.

The second elemental managed to break the black ice that was encasing it. It was looming over Lene now. The arms were now swords of jagged coral and it sliced at Lene in a scissoring motion.

Lene parried one massive coral blade. The other one caught her in the side, barely scratching the armor and sent her flying over the sand and impacting the shallow water of the lagoon with a loud splash.

"Charge the downed warrior!" A voice boomed over the island. The elemental lead the charge as from the forests depths rushed trolls, ogres, soul knights, and a few chaos dragons all bent on annihilating the small Lupe.

Lene broke the surface of the water and stood up in the shallow waters that were up to her knees. She gasped for air thankfully and saw the rushing creatures. "Now... you've pissed me off!" She lifted her hand and her sword reappeared in it.

"Shari til moreth. Drakno resum agua." she lifted her other hand as she spoke. From the waters swirled up a conjured leviathan of water, with scales of black ice. "Atri!" she roared and pointed at the chaos dragons. The leviathan exploded out of the water for the dragons. A cold and wet mass of destruction heading their way. She took her sword, took one step forward and spoke. "Riv friinta waf!" she slashed forward three times. Furrows would rend the sand with force, ice, water and nether rays combined in them.

The levitation clashed with the chaos dragons in a battle of swirling dark magic and elemental fury. The three slashes up the beach head smashed into and through the leading elemental, tearing it apart. The force and power didn't stop there. It smashed into the charging ogres, trolls, and soul knights tossing bodies out of their paths.

Lene exploded from the water with the help of the Force and ran like the wind up the beach, darting in and out of the fallen bodies. Her sword in one hand aiming for quick deaths, her shield in on her arm again to bludgeon any dumb enough to be in its way. Her crystal blue eyes shimmered with platinum light.

Those that had living bodies were finding themselves either put into oblivion by her deft sword strikes or hurtled along the sands and into the water by her shield. The soul knights were regrouping and raised their hands. A barrage of soul blasts was sent her way.

Lene was close to stabbing a troll through the skull and watched it evaporate from the first soul blast. She spun and brought her shield up. She was a tad too slow. Lene took a few hits to her armor. The soul blasts though were designed for armor in mind and she stumbled and gasped as they penetrated her right thigh, right shoulder, and right wing. Her shield hummed and wailed as the rest of the shots hit it and made her slide back in the sand.

Above the sandy beach in the air, ice, water and chaos energy were shed as the chaos dragons and the leviathan battled. Several chaos dragons were sent to the waters bellow.

The soul knights charged up for their salvo of soul blasts, aimed at Lene. Any remaining ogres or trolls were scythed down during the last soul blast attack.

Lene could feel the soul knights charging up. She wouldn't be able to take more hits like she did. She felt her soul weakening and her powers draining from the hits that did land. Lene stretched out her wings, cried as the one that was hit screamed in pain through her body. She swept the wings forward, and sent out a swirl of her feathers. As they left her wings they hardened like sharpened blades and swirled in at the soul knights.

The feathers of death rained through the soul knights, cutting them all to metal ribbons before the discharging of their soul blasts. The beach was a war zone. Above the leviathan shredded the last chaos dragon then shattered into rain and snow.

Lene watched her dragon shatter. She didn't know what had hit it.

"Foolish girl. I applaud your valiant efforts here, you took on a small army by yourself. But now you fall." A figure clad in bone armor and pulsing with chaotic energy spoke as it left the forest. More eyes were milling about in the forest behind it. "Don't even think about your little pet. It won't be coming back anytime soon. My leach spells will see to that. Now then, let's tend to you." it raised a hand and snapped fingers at Lene.

Lene let out a scream of pain as her right thigh bone just snapped. She dropped to the sand on her left knee and hands.

"Where's the fight in you now girl? One little broken leg and you go to pieces. Well let's not keep your leg lonely." It snapped twice at Lene as it got closer.

Lene grunted as two ribs snapped and she fought for breath.

"Do you find it curious that I can just break your bones? Such a power over a being like you with all that magic and power? It squatted before her and lifted her head up to look at it. "You should be more careful with you powers. Making little pets and letting them fight gives me juicy targets to leach energy from you. Once I have your power, I can get inside you with ease." It laughed.

"Go...to...hell!" Lene spat blood on his face and summoned her sword to her right hand. She sliced at the being.

The being jerked back as the sword bit a deep gash into its skull helmet. "Pitty. I was looking forward to collecting your bones with the least amount of damage to them. Can't be helped now that I'll have to collect a few that are damaged." It snapped fingers again at Lene.

Lene howled in pain more as both bones in her right forearm snapped. She dropped the sword.

"Now let's see how thick you're skull really is." It held fingers poised and ready to snap.

With Lene using her Diidarikia powers on the beach, Eclipse finally found his long lost student. The war angel appeared behind the bone armored being and swung the flat of his great sword at the beings skull helmet. "I like that idea."

The sword met helmet and sent the being tumbling to the sand to sprawl face down.

"Ecl..ipse..." Lene passed out from the pain.

The war angel just smiled once hearing his name but focused on the sprawled being. "You are on the wrong island to start picking fights with my student." Eclipse rested the great sword on his shoulder. "Pick yourself up and take your minions out of here."

The being stood up slowly with the grind and cracking of bones. It spun and flung several ethereal rays at Eclipse in hopes to leech his power.

Eclipse spun his blade in a twirl, deflecting the rays. Around his was floating gray feather, but he didn't have wings. He leveled the great sword at the being and the blade glowed. "You should have left." he dashed over the ground with the speed of light and that the floating feathers snapped into rigid metal spear heads following him like a nightmare cloud. He aimed his thrust right at the center of the being.

The being back pedaled and flung more rays at Eclipse.

Eclipse caught each ray with that glowing blade and continued straight for the being. "Pathetic."

The being was pierced by the glowing blade and the following storm of feathers. The feather began to glow and the being erupted in a blinding light of holy power. Not a trace was left of it.

Eclipse turned and eyed the forest. He could feel the darkness there.

Hungry eyes watched him and the downed Lene.

"By the name of Solis. Be gone from this island. I cast you all out in the name of truth and balance!" Eclipse raised his hand and shot a barrage of holy light into the dark forest.

The island thundered as holy light smote through the forest depths chasing out the minions of the Ebony Knight from the island, removing the strangle hold the Knight had on the island.

The island cleansed, Eclipse looked down at the unconscious Lene. "Always trouble with you. Tsk." He knelt by her and lift her limp body up. "I am sorry I was late." He walked down the beach to the beach house in the distance.

Lene laid in Eclipses arms, limp. The pain of so many broken bones was too much for her mind to handle.

Eclipse carried her to the beach house and waited outside the boundary of the wards. He wasn't sure if he was welcome past the wards of the house. So he called out. "Hello?"

Ammy opened the front door and looked stepped out onto the porch. "Who is..." She went silent seeing Lene limp in some strangers arms.

"Permission to cross you wards, sister being. One of your own is hurt."

Rawsha had been in her room, she had made a promise to her mother to stay out of trouble and was working on keeping true to it, she the window in her room was open letting in that summer breeze, she had heard and felt things weren't right on the island but earlier but now someone was near the house, Rawsha pulled on her robe leaving it loose over the white clothes she wears and the cast on her left arm, she headed for the front door and heard Ammy.

"Put her down and step away from her." Ammy said in a threatening tone. Reaching behind the door she pulled out a shotgun that was modified to fire magical rounds. She held it in both hands and walked out onto the porch.

Eclipse knelt down and gently laid Lene on the sand. He stood and took several steps back away from her still form. His hands were up. "She still breathes and lives, but she has several broken bones. She was fighting rather dark minions in the forest area of this island."

Ammy raised the shotgun and pulled back the hammer. "How do I know you aren't one of the minions that attacked her and trying to get entry to my home." She took careful aim on Eclipses head.

Rawsha came up behind Ammy slowly and peers outside, blinking softly she saw Lene and the stranger, she looks up at Ammy and noticed the shotgun.

"I'm a war angel. Eclipse of the god of Solis. I was training your daughter to be a warrior god. Did she not tell you?"

"Oh. You're the one that sent her home one day with a broken arm for a few weeks." Ammy tightened her grip on the shotgun, her finger tightening on the trigger slowly.

"She came to me for training. Lower the weapon fellow sister. I am away from your own, I have not harmed her, and I will not try to enter your home or wards." Eclipse said.

Rawsha heard Eclipse, she knew that Lene was receiving training from someone but had never met the teacher. "Hey Ammy.." she said softly "...he brought her home today...and helped her this far..let's take care of her..." Rawsha wanted to go to Lene but didn't want to get in the way of the gun.

Ammy slowly lowered the gun. "If there are minions on the island. Where are they now?"

"Banished by my holy light." Eclipse said.

"Very well. We'll take her, but you come no farther. I can trust so few these days. You will understand I hope." Ammy said.

"Understood fellow sister. You are beset by many things." Eclipse vanished in a small flurry of gray feathers.

Within the forested area of Twilight Island, 2 hours till dusk:

The denser woods of the Twilight Islands had intrigued Mako ever since he found Addy in those caves. He was investigating the forest area more to see what all was really here.

Fleety was walking a trail in those same woods. Shi'd been read about various plant life and rocks that could help with healing and spell casting.

Moving through the brush with a silent grace, the rogue mage moved. Within his mind certain timing was ticking away internally as if he was synched to a master clock. Rastul moved on, deeper into the forest, his prey he knew well.

Zahra was wandering around on the island some. She had really wanted to visit the island again and had gotten a couple guards to watch over her for a little bit. Like last time they mostly stayed at the portal to keep her from going back to escape. She wore a baseball cap, some blue jeans, white shoes and a pink shirt. She was maybe hoping to come across Rawsha or someone she knew again.

Mako had moved past the caverns and soon investigating a nice, small field surrounded by trees. He found the place peaceful though he kept imagining he was feeling a cold wind moving through the trees. Perhaps he was just tired.

Following a trail Fleety knew lead to a small field shi was getting a creeping sense along hir spine. The forest wasn't that dark or even scary in the least bit but shi felt it was becoming so. Some sunlight and open fields would sooth hir soon enough.

As Zahra walked a trail, she took her pendant into her hand and opened it looking at the picture of her parents. She gave a soft sigh. She wished she was free and could live out here without her parents.

Rastul was closing in on his prey though he felt now, two others. Ah, perhaps he would have a choice in a second victim tonight then. The Drow/Lupinossai continued to stalk the woods and saw small clearing through bushes up ahead. It seemed a logical ambush point and he moved into the bushes and peered into the field. He saw Mako alone though he felt the other two were drawing near to the field as well. He decided to wait, like the spider for the flies to come in.

Glowing blues swept the field. The calm and peace Mako felt it in the field was vanishing for some odd reason. His trained and slightly heightened senses were sadly not keen on picking up presences or magic. He moved to the center of the field and rested on hand on a sword hilt. He looked up to the sky and watched a few clouds pass. This island had a lot of oddities on it.

Soon Fleety came upon the open field and gladly walked into the. The creepy dark feeling seemed to stop at the edge of the field and now shi was confused and curious. Did something chase hir into this field? Fleety's glowing crimsons spotted Makon standing in the field. "Mako?"

Zahra eventually came across a couple fields she had passed by. One had Mako standing in it and when she noticed she looked over with a smile, although she saw a Lupinossai there though. She stayed standing just outside the clearing watching not feeling so comfortable about getting close to the Lupinossai.

Mako looked to Fleet with a raised eyebrow. "What are you doing here?"

"Studying flowers, rocks, hiking. You?" Fleety noticed Zahra and was quiet. Shi wasn't fond of Humarans and didn't move.

Those violet eyes of Rastul surveyed the group?s interactions. That was the mate of Ammy. The gray furred one. The human woman he had no clue, but it would seem Mako was not so friendly with the Lupinossai and both the Lupinossai and the woman looked edgy. Oh this was too perfect.

"Exploring ruins and looking at flowers." Mako said to Fleet. Hearing Zahra he smiled. "Hello Zahra." He noticed her concern for Fleet being there. "Shi won?t bite. Zahra, meet by brother-in-law." he sighed. "This is Fleet. My sister?s husband."

Zahral would make a small wave to Fleety and Mako when Mako introduced them. She would slowly walk out into the field finally now and she went to Mako's side and went to hug him. "Hi, Mako."

"I don't bite humans. The taste never leaves no matter how much you brush." Fleety said in a joking tone to hopefully melt the tension.

"It is nice to meet you again Zahra. I think I figured out little Addie's mystery." Mako smiled.

Looking over the three Rastul noticed only one was of a real threat, Fleety. The others seemed very mortal and non-magical to his senses. A fast strike, subduing tactics, perhaps even combat were required. He held out his hand and let a phantom sword appear in the black gauntleted hand. The other gauntlet glowed with power. A spell was charging up as he raised a hand in the bushes concealing him. He pointed at Fleet as it charged.

"Some Lupes do bite, though." Zahra said softly. She was staying at Mako's side and was often looking up at Fleety unsure of what shi was like. Then she looked to Mako when he spoke of Addie. "Her mystery? You mean you found her parents?"

"Uhm. No. But I have more information on who she is. Seems she's some reincarnated necromancer called Artisia." Mako said to Zahra.

?I'm nice. Even fluffy. Feel free to touch me if you wish." Fleety would allow the degradation to insure no hostility was present.

"She's reincarnated?" Zahra asked surprised then another look to Fleety. "I don't know," she said softly and nervously.

"Divi Vici Lom Staka!" Rastul intoned the words as everything around him withered and died. The pointing gauntlet flared with black energy laced with red lightning as it shot for Fleety. If it hit it was going to hurt like hell, causing burns to a deity and dazing senses. He was already moving into the field, phantom sword raised to strike at Mako when he closed.

Mako heard the uttered words before he even saw the blast that lanced out for Fleet. He grabbed Zahra's shoulder with one arm and spun, putting her behind him as the hand resting on the sword hilt withdrew the reverse blade katana. His eyes locked on the sight of some mage in half armor of black metal charging him with a phantom blade.

Fleety felt a swelling of power that seemed like a spell coming from the bushes. Shi turned and saw the plant life within a 10 ft radius wither and die before hearing the last of the spell and a ray caught hir in the ribs. Shi cried out in pain as hir skin felt blistering hot and a wave of pain and disorientation hit hir mind. Was that someone rushing at them or was shi hallucinating from pain? Shi reached out and produced a sword with magic after two failed attempts barely standing up.

Zahra screamed when she saw someone attacking and let Mako put her behind him. "What's going on?" she asked out loud in fear.

Phantom blade crashed with the reversed edge sword. Being magical and only existing as a ghostly weapon, it slid through Mako?s real metal blade to strike Mako in the shoulder and chest.

"An idiot attacking... gah!" Mako gasped as he felt his blade block nothing and an ice cold jolt bit into his shoulder and chest. His body was feeling very heavy.

Shaking hir head some, Fleety could see that figment attacking Mako so it was real. Shi took stumbling steps for them, going too slow and raised hir paw. "Fri?is Fri?inta Sas!" Two lances of ice shot out for Rastul.

Rastul gasped sharply as the two ice lances pierced his side. No. No. No. He wasn't prepared for an assault from Fleet. He yanked the bloodied ice projectiles from his side and swung the phantom sword at Mako once more.

His body moving sluggish, Mako tried to block the next attack, not sure what to do to combat a phantom sword. He felt ice cold bite into his belly and took a step back and fell to one knee panting. He felt so heavy, so cold.

Within striking range now. Fleety swung hir sword, it had a static zapping sound to it as the blade hummed with lightning aiming the blade for Rastuls back.

Zahra was shaking in fear and was watching the three of them battling now. She started backing away from Mako some. She wasn't sure if she should stay near Mako or run hoping to escape and maybe get back to the guards.

The blade struck Rastul and he grunted as lightning tingled through him. How his brothers thought he was capable of fighting off this Lupinossai without armor was beyond him. A slash to his back now and his side punctured twice. He needed to move quickly to secure these hostages before his life blood was spent. Rastul took a few steps to move away from Fleets blade, and back handed Mako with one Ebony Gauntlet. He pointed at Zahra and spoke. "Stini?i." From the finger a thin, green ray would strike out at Zahra. If it hit her, it would stun her.

Metal met flesh and bone whipping Makos head to the side. Stars flashed before his eyes and the warrior fell to the ground, stunned and senseless.

Zahra screamed when she saw that green ray coming at her, but she wasn't quick enough to dodge it. It hit her and suddenly she felt frozen in place and unable to move. For a moment she thought she was about to die until she realized she was still alive and completely immobile.

Fleety pressed hir attack but was stumbling more as the burning spell made hir body feel even hotter. Shi was panting hard, suffering heat exhaustion as shi moved and went down and feeling the coolness of the field's dirt and damp grass. The pain and burning made hir want to just lay still and succumb to darkness of dreamless sleep than stay awake to the pain.

Seeing Mako pacified, and Fleet down and rendered useless, Rastul moved for the frozen girl. His breath came to him in wet, ragged gasps; punctured lungs finally registering to his mind. He would reach out an Ebony gauntlet to her. It glowed eerily as a teleport spell was ready. Touching her, he would send her directly to his city for imprisonment. The girl taken care of, he turned slowly, painfully and took measured steps towards Mako. He knelt with stiffness by the warrior and touched him as well with the glowing gauntlet. The warrior was sent back to Rastul's city by magic.

Zahra watched Rastul with fear in her eyes as he had approached her. In seconds she would realize he had teleported her to somewhere not familiar to her. She wanted to cry and scream, but she couldn't do anything. Zahra feared she was going to be at the madman's mercy.

His goal accomplished, Rastul gave one last wheeze and fell to the ground, dead. A shimmering, cracking sound of crystal was heard and where the body had been, a step or two away from Fleet, was gone, replaced by a cracked crystal shard of orange that was now blackened and burned.

Soon the pain would recede from Fleety?s mind and body as the spell wore off slowly. Shi sat up and looked around. The field was empty save for the strange, cracked crystal. Shi felt a bit of panic as realization came to hir clearing mind. The Knight had Mako and an innocent woman and shi had failed. Fleety went to pull hir cell phone out to call Ammy. Shi pulled out charred and blistered plastic as the pocket it was in was where the spell had hit. Shi took a long deep breath and took the crystal and slowly stood up. Shi started to move for the trails and to the beach house at a slow, weary pace until shi felt a jolt of panic, rage, shock and bitterness. That was from Ammy. Shi ran for their home as one thing rang over the bond link. The Knight took the children!

In the outback wilds of Rhydin, Dusk:

Further off in Fangwood, attendants were seeing to Igneous's pet. Blizzard had been given a proper bathing, and now the dragon was standing out in the cool air. It wouldn't be much longer until it was time for her evening stroll. Wings beat in the cool air. Soon her attendants were walking to her side. A light pat given.

Igneous was standing out on an open air porch looking out over the scruffy wilderness of the outback. He was entertaining Mirius and Rawsha who came to visit tonight. He watched the scenery as he sipped some wine.

Rawsha was standing near her mother and Iggy, she drank from a cup of icy water and was looking up at the sky, watching clouds and stars way above, she felt uneasy tonight and hadn't touched any food she had been offered

Mirius was standing near Igneous while she wore a black shirt and gray denim pants. She had her hair in a pony tail made of two braids. "You know, Iggy, think I'm getting some respect for you having to deal with an entire den. Especially after I had to start helping run Den City."

Igneous put a hand on his very promising students shoulder. He felt that he was finally succeeding with a city that was old, and rustic but growing in power physically and magically. Except the nagging concern he had that one of his magic teachers was murdered within the academy itself. Add to that a certain student was suddenly absent and missing for months now. He looked to Mirius and sipped more wine. He grinned. "Not as glamorous as it sounds is it?"

Rawsha sips her drink, she wears her black robes with the maroon lining, her long sandy hair pulled back in a French style braid, she smiled at Iggy and lets the two of them talk.

Igneous held company, so Blizzard?s tenders coaxed the white out further, one on each side. They knew she wouldn't run. "Easy now, steady."

Igneous was wearing scarlet robes embroidered with pearlescent orange beads to mimic flames. He rubbed Rawsha's back. "Ah, there is your pet dragon, Rawsha. I have been keeping her healthy for you." he pointed to the emerging handlers and the white dragon below.

"Not really. I feel like smacking people every day. Already threw some office objects at some people as it is." Mirius laughed. She smiled, "Still glad you're teaching Rawsha."

Oh, this god forsaken road. How Rastul hated it every day of his apprentice hood, but now he stood 100 yards from the gates and glared at the city of Fang Wood with hateful, violet eyes. The sun was starting to set and he could feel his brothers. They had succeeded twice now. It was upon him to attempt a third success. To bring Fang Wood to her knees and behead it's ruling mage, Igneous Fi'igoo.

"Our academy is always open, Mirius to all inquisitive in magic. We remold the weak into the strong. I hear you have children in that house that exhibit magic. When might Ammy bring them in for lessons?" Another sip of wine though he felt a slight stab of pressure at his mind. As if someone had walked over his grave. He looked out at the dusk scenery again, that topaz jeweled eye sensing someone out there. "Who are you...." he whispered.

Nostrils twitched and flared a moment, though her handlers were still coaxing the white from the stables. There would be promises of treats to be doled out later.

Rastul took five steps forward, his gauntlets both aglow. He made slitting gestures to the air and a rip in the fabric of reality formed from either gesture opening two shadow gates connected to Mist Noire. It was time to cull some of his lower minions. The herds were growing massive and what better use for fodder than to bring a city to its knees. Nothing stirred from the gates yet, though thousands of eyes reflected the setting sun in them.

Rawsha?s fur wanted to stand on end, she felt something out on the plains lands, when Iggy pointed out the dragon, the pet from the war, she watched the handlers with the dragon and then she looked back out over the plains. "Something?s there...I feel it.? She didn't point but she was staring, then she felt the magic flare up, she was in tune with it after all. "something...massive" Her voice gained warning.

Mirius gave him a long look and a cross of her arms at that question. "The day you walk up to Ammy and apologize to her and ask her for forgiveness is the day those twins will be enrolled here. Do that and I'll let them come here. I might be a mate of yours, but I still haven't forgotten the things you've done, Iggy." she said to him firmly. "What're you two going on about?"

Igneous went to the balcony railing and leaned forward, focusing on a distant figure yards away from his city's front gate. His eyes hardened as he saw and felt two shadow gates opening. Igneous nodded to Rawsha. "Indeed. Something massive is here. Mirius... arm yourself..." No sooner had he said that than the blare of horns lit up the city. A call to arms, staves and spells! Fang Wood was on alert.

Sentries stood upon the gates and had seen the lone figure approaching the city. This was nothing new as many came to the city for training or study. It was when the figure stopped and the glowing gauntlets came into view that they took up the battle horns and blew them loudly!

"Archers! Take position! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!" A Drow, Larus, stood atop a section of blasted wall. The right hand military officer of Igneous. Archers, human, Dwarven, Drow, Lupinossai and Draconian appeared atop the walls and a few paces from the breeches and they unleashed the hornets? nest of angrily buzzing arrows into the rushing masses.

Goblins fell like rain to the ground as arrows took their lives where they were trampled by the giants. More goblins surged along. The ogres and trolls sported many arrows stuck into them but they had momentum, mass and endurance to their advantage as well as dull senses to pain.

Blizzard never did have good timing! Nearly bouncing off a giant's leg. Scaly lips curled back to bear fangs. The giant that Blizzard ran into bellowed and rose to large fists to bring them down attempting to crush the dragon. There was enough sense to retreat, backing up with wings splayed as the fists landed where Blizzard had been only moments before.

Rawsha had used greater invisibility on herself, as she went she would move down stairs and steady herself, she saw a mass of goblins terrorizing running non-fighting couple she cast a surge of icy water that would aim only at the goblins and wash around the citizens like wave. The goblins tumbled and slid into walls as Rawsha's spell hit them. They were not out though!

"Archers! Fire! Heavy infantry to the line! Mages take position! Fire at will! Skirmishers, ready for engagement!" More goblins fell to the archers and so did some orcs and ogres. The hoards were to the breeches now and starting to pour inside. Mages fired battle spells between the front ranks of heavy infantry. Fireballs, lightning and acid crashed into the masses moving into the breached city. The mage assault felled more goblins and ogres, orcs and some trolls. Giants where picking up the dead for meaty shields and plowing through the breeches. The giants had entered the city as more of the smaller minions kept coming, pouring from the shadow gates.

Mirius came back to where Igneous was with an assault rifle in her paws and had a belt with clips of ammo attached. She looked around for a moment and then sighed realizing just Igneous was there. "Dang it, Where did Rawsha go? I thought you were watching after her." she scolded Igneous even though she didn't tell him to watch her in the first place.

Igneous retrieved an old staff and waved for Mirius to follow. "She fights for the city, I am to assume. Now quickly! To the streets we go." He took her paw and they teleported bellow to the main street were soldiers were moving into position. "She can handle herself."

Mirius held Igneous? paw when he took it and teleported with him to the streets. Mirius looked around for a moment to see what was going on. "Yeah, not entirely doubting her." she gave a sigh. Mirius still had her motherly protection to get over as she never did want Rawsha to be fighting, at least not at this age, but there wasn't anything she could do right now. She held up her rifle at the ready now for anything that came within view, though she stayed next to Igneous.

Soon a hiss sounded as Blizzard spat a gout of icy flames at one of those fists. The giant pursued Blizzard and roared as ice coated its fist. It was too slow to feel the pain much and tried to batter the dragon with the massive icy fist. She was barely fast enough, though her poor tail took a pounding, leading to a pained and angry roar. The giant fared no better than Blizzard. His frozen hand shattered into bloody crystals as it made smashing contact. That was enough pain to make it real back, and bellow in horror. That gave her enough time to put distance between herself and the giant, nostrils flaring. Her tail still stung from where the giant had managed to catch a hit.

Rawsha moved closer to the goblins and took a dagger from her inner robe belt, she let the invisibility drop but remained in the shadows hiding, but the first goblin that stood up in that group would get a dagger to the back of the neck in a sneak-attack. The goblins that had fallen from icy water were getting up. One fell as the dagger from Rawsha found its mark. The others, about four in total left moved for her, though footing was slick from ice.

"This is not good. Even with power on our side, we'll be overrun just by the masses that press in on us. Those gates have to close. I'm going after the knight." he broke off from Mirius and headed for the troops blocking the any further entry into the city by way of shattered gate. Igneous started barking orders. "Hold the lines! Reserves! Grab firearms for close fighting! Bullets will drop them faster!"

"Are you kidding me?" Mirius asked and started chasing after Igneous. "Can't do everything alone you know!"

Rastul felt the heat from the massive fire wave. The fire general was at his prime tonight. He moved forward as ash swirled around him and more creatures rushed past him. "Igneous! I will have your head and lay your city to rubble!" Gauntlet raised, he lashed at the Spiritor mage with tendrils of black fire and ice.

Igneous twisted, spun his staff and spoke. "Refractum." the assault on him shattered and he moved for the Knight. "You want a fight?"

Rawsha grinned and watched the battle below, she raise her paws and the heavens above opened, thunder rolled madly and meteors flew from the heavens, three fell toward the creatures heading toward the city from that last gate. The meteors fell one at a time quickly, the last of the three meteors would fall closer to the last standing shadow gate. Massive pounding and shuddering sounded as the meteors fell smashing the creatures boiling out but the gate remained.

While they were doing an effective job of protecting Igneous, something they didn't expect from behind so much was a small group of orcs and trolls were using dead people as meat shields as they rushed the group. During that time Mirius' phone was ringing and it caught her off guard for a moment. She only took one second to see that it was Ammy calling, but by that time the enemy group barged into the squad knocking her and a few others down. Some of the squad had their backs turned at the moment not realizing what was going on right away.

Mirius shouted in pain feeling a big orc on top of her starting to punch her and slashing and trying to stab her with a crude looking knife. A few of the soldiers were getting slaughtered and others in the squad were now focused on helping their fellow comrades. Mirius had her pistol at her hip and quickly grabbed it when she could and fired shot after shot into the torso of the orc. By the time she had this Orc killed the dead body of it was on top of her. Mirius had some gashes in her arms and chest and was having trouble pushing the big body off.

A few of the soldiers were dead and a few others injured, but the remaining stable ones would help get the others up, including helping the big dead orc off of Mirius. She was cringing and groaning in pain as she as lifted up. "Are you okay?" One asked her. Mirius just shook her head. Her shirt was getting a bit soaked in blood from the wounds. She then looked around and saw the phone. It was crushed in pieces from being stomped on during the flanking. Mirius only groaned more at that. Something wasn't right and she was getting a very uneasy feeling now that this was the least of her worries. "Rest of you able?s stay together, go help others. Iggy has himself covered. One of you stay with me." They all nodded and rushed off. She went over next to a building and sat down resting against the building breathing heavily.

While Mirius sat near a door against the wall, she reloaded her pistol and motioned for the injured and the 1 able to get inside the building. While they dragged themselves and and helped each other she sat there and started firing at any who came around the corners to give some covering fire while the injured got inside.

Igneous? right hand Drow, Larus, came upon Mirius. He was still barking orders, shoving units where he could, encouraging resupply to go faster. He had a split scalp oozing blood from a hasty field bandage and a mangled left arm. He knelt by Mirius with an assault rifle braced against a hip and fired two round bursts at any emerging creatures. "Governor Mirius. Welcome to Fang Wood. We would've rolled out the red carpets more but I don't think these beasties are house trained."

Mirius started laughing when the Drow came up greeting and talking to her. "Seems like a common problem as usual here." she laughed and staggered to stand up cringing in pain "Got the injured inside the building. I assume the last able is patching them up. Help me inside." She had noticed someone getting mauled by a goblin and went to fire, but her pistol was out of ammo and she had no more spare bullets for her pistol. She just sighed and stumbled towards the door.

"Can't save them all Governor." Larus lifted one of her arms around his good shoulder and helped her inside. "We need a miracle or we're going to die here. Everything is running low. We weren?t prepared for a magical assault of this level backed by legions of foul creatures."

"I know," Mirius said softly and walked into the building with his help. She'd get herself moved to a chair to rest for a moment and looked at the others. No owners were home and the soldiers were using whatever medical supplies or even clothing and other fabrics to patch themselves up, making use of anything they could find.

"You guys, when you're patched up. Watch the windows and door. We hold here for now." When they could they would get themselves set up near the windows and other areas. Mirius sat there in the chair looking over her wounds. "Really wish I asked Canis for healing magic," she cringed. "Help me cover all these wounds... they feel deep and I might bleed out." she had dropped her pistol by now. She had no ammo for it anyways.

At least one of the charges was searching for any sign of their dragon, frowning as not even a scale seemed left behind.

The giants had Blizzard pulled out of the city and for that last gate. Sadly... they were squished by one of those meteors as the fought over who got dragon haunches. Blizzard was lucky enough to be out of impact range. She was laying out cold on the ground still. Giants hurt. Several trolls found Blizzard and dragged her by tail, wings, legs and even nostrils to the shadow gate. Grunting slightly as she felt herself moving, but her eyes still didn't want to open. Trolls even smelled foul! Nostrils flared against the fingers that had found her snout. The trolls got Blizzard drug through the shadow gate and back to master?s city, Mist Noire.

Finally Blizzard was starting to stir. The sound of clinking soon had her opening her eyes. Everything hurt. Wings shifted, only to make another clanking sound. One eye swiveling as her head lolled a bit. It was dark, and she could barely see anything. Though her tenders were nowhere to be seen. Were there eyes?

Nostrils flared as she was slowly regaining the ability to breath. Jaws parting slightly. Maybe she was seeing things. Her head finding the floor. Soon she arched her back with a hiss. No, that didn't feel good at all. In the shadowed room, she had given up on slipping free from the chains that bound her. Pain still wracked her tail and clouded her sight. Not to mention her spine. Wings lay unfurled at her sides. There was no comfortable stall, no tenders to see to her. A wing twitched, sending another bolt of pain through her side. A hiss soon resounding through the darkness.

While Mirius' remaining group stayed holed up in the building they would often fire out the windows hitting who they could. Mirius herself was soon patched up and looking like a bloody mess, but she sat there quietly with her eyes closed. Even though things were bad in the city right now, things felt wrong elsewhere. She wasn't sure what it is, but it was becoming overwhelming like a little storm cloud lingering over her

The sound of renewed fighting picked up as creatures howled in death. A few soldiers with zeal picked up discarded rifles that were empty and pulled the trigger in adrenaline fueled haze. The weapons fired. They were firing even when empty, spitting out blessed rounds of energy from the barrels. Creatures screamed more as they were being mowed down by divine rounds of energy.

The tenders of the dragon were still searching, the frowns growing by the second. It was near a wall they spotted a hint of white, coated through with crimson. Picking up the scale, there might have been a feeling of dread before the women took off in search of one of the mayors. The pair of women was running through corridors, stopping only to catch their breath. Somehow they managed to find their way, though the scale clattered to the floor.

Rastul bellowed a gleeful laugh of triumph. "Here falls the pompous Igneous Fi'igoo before me, the Ebony Knight!" The ground rumbled around the hole and a column of solid rock rose with Igneous perched on top covered in dirt.

"Gloating are we?" He glared at Rastul. "You forget I master the earth as well as the fire." He raised a hand, the soul gems flared and chunks of rock broke from the ground and he sent them raining down upon the Knight. Rastul?s triumph was cut short as he barely avoided the smashing debris.

Rastul summoned lightning from the sky to rain upon Igneous. Igneous conjured a lightning rod that sent the strikes into the solid stone column. The rocks cracked and splintered from all of the raw power coursing into them. Rastul couldn't understand how the old mage was countering his spells. "Chaos, hear me! Grant me more power." He summoned his lance once more. Something answered his call and he shimmered in sparking, swirling energy.

He charged for Igneous and leapt into the air at the mage. He lunged with that lance. Igneous saw Rastul leaping up at him. He formed a magic barrier before him but the Chaos blessing on Rastul and that lance weakened the shield. He gave a sharp grunt as he felt the lance pierce his shoulder, ripping free and sending him falling to the ground.

Lene kept the defenders of the city pressing forward. "Hold the line here, where the walls were standing! Do not go into that mage fight!" she looked about and saw the shadow gate open still. "Small detachment, on me now! We take that gate! Charge!" She roared a battle cry, shaking the earth as they ran and many creatures fled from them, those too slow were cut down. Nothing was stopping Myrlene's path of destruction for the gate.

The creatures spewing out were now trying to avoid instant death from the warrior goddess and following troops by trying to push back into the shadow gates and escape. Many were being trampled. Smaller groups of defenders were coming from behind the defense line and went around the city, starting to mop up creatures that may have stuck around.

Reaching the gate, she snarled. "Tear upon the beating heart of Rhydin, you do not belong here. Festering wound in this realms energy, I send thee back from whence thou came!" she held up her sword and it glowed with the energy of Rhydin. She slashed the shadow gate and it shrieked, collapsing. It vanished. "Spread out and wipe out!" she barked. The deffenders killed the last handful of giants, a smattering of ogres and a few orcs left. The creatures had been defeated.

"Guys, let's go help outside." she ordered the remainder for the small squad. Mirius soon decided to stand up and she walked outside the building. The others had followed her out. She motioned to them with a paw to head to the front lines to help defend. But she stayed behind standing there and looking around. She saw so many dead people everywhere and lots of things in flames.

Sadness started to overwhelm her as she kept looking. One of the tenders looked distraught, the other placed a hand upon her shoulder, before picking up the scale, and the pair followed the others out. Both hung back a bit, watching Mirius. Soon the women moved closer to Mirius, one looked down at her hands while the other reached out to carefully set a reassuring hand on the woman's shoulder.

Mirius looked over and saw the women coming up to her and she smiled at them just a little bit, "Everything okay?" she asked them with a exhausted tone. They shook their heads to Mirius.

Den City and the Southern Glen, six hours before Dusk:

A gnome courier arrived at the office of Dr. Fen Stridar, located within Whisper Paws Hospital. Knocking on the door, the courier was admitted into the office. A letter in a plain envelope was handed to the receptionist and she signed that the letter was received. The courier left as Arca stood and walked the letter into Fen?s personal office space and handed it to him. Fen smiled to Arca, took the letter from her and opened it. He began to read and that smile vanished.

The letter contained the following message:
To my predecessor,
I want my artifact back. If you value the lives of children and family you will bring the Ebony Shards to the old copse in the Southern Glen by dusk. You will come alone and you will hand the shards over to me, or I will harm those I will have captured by the time of our meeting.
~Rastul Dalan, The Ebony Knight~

Fen was silent for a moment then took and destroyed the letter in the fire place. He ordered Arca to clear his schedule for the next few days and he left for his home. Mokksha was away attending their children and helping with orphans. This gave him the time he needed to think long and hard on his choices. He didn?t know who?d been taken yet, but he knew this Ebony Knight was neither a figment nor a hoax. How can you not believe in something when you were once that nightmare?

He walked into the bedroom and unsealed an oak chest with magic he seldom used anymore. It worried his wife too much. Within lay the shrapnel that was left of the Ebony Knights armor threaded onto a leather cord. So the Knight wanted his armor back. He couldn?t just give the Knight the artifact. But he couldn?t stand to think that his actions cost others their lives. Perhaps a middle ground, if he was cunning enough he could kill the Knight. Without the armor, the avatar would be very vulnerable if you attacked just right. He took up the fragments, pocketed them and put the chest away.

Fen took a few of the precious hours till dusk to focus. He took every moment of his wonderful new life, every memory and trapping and lovingly stored them deep in his mind. Then he dove into the darkness he had sealed away, ripped away the barriers keeping him the kind and gentle doctor. The normally kind amber eyes the healer had vanished once the focus was over. Glowing reds now took their place. Fen left a note for Mokksha, then left the house.

The Letter to Mokksha:
My loving wife and reason for every day I breathe free and sane. I must put myself on the line and hope to save several lives taken hostage by a new Ebony Knight avatar. Know this, my precious Mokkie, that I love you and our children dearly and hope I will see you again. If I die, join with Ammy and raise our children in the love and care you always bestow.
~Fen Stridar, Your Mate and Former Ebony Knight~

Daylight settled on a copse of twisted, ancient trees touched by old magic in days long forgotten. Standing at the center of the copse was Rastul. His charcoal grey mage robes rustled lightly in a wind kicking up. The Ebony Artifacts upon him glowed dark green and ominously. Violet eyes, no longer covered by dark welding goggles glowed as they watched the only opening into the twisted refuge.

Fen approached the copse of trees wearing black armor that was scarred, pitted and showing the signs of several millenniums of war. It was the real Ebony Armor, armor he forged himself when he attained godhood and became the dark god of the Lupinossai so long ago. In a satchel secured to his sword belt rested the fragments of the armor Chaos had given him once and he never had worn again after he wrenched the powers of Chaos for himself. He wore no helm and his ears canted forward seeing Rastul waiting for him. He entered the circle of trees and stood there, red eyes glowing and soaking up the details of this new Ebony Knight.

Rastul spoke first. ?So you are the traitor. The turncoat Knight that Chaos will never forget. I must say you?re looking a bit haggard and old.?

Fen watched Rastul a long moment. ?Careful what you say. Chaos seems to be picking young boys for its dirty work these days. Cast aside the artifacts now and return to a life without chaos.?

Rastul laughed. ?So says the former Knight. You are missing the power aren?t you? Craving the hum and electricity it fills you with. All the power to bring what you want and desire to your hands.?

Fen snorted and rolled his eyes once. ?Hardly. The powers granted to me by that entity was but a simple taste of what can truly be gained when you take that power further. I do not miss the deceptive taint Chaos weaves into it. Again, I ask you to give up the artifacts before Chaos erode all that is you and you become nothing but an empty shell.?

?I will not be swayed by your weak tactics to gain back your powers. How does it feel to be the weak one? I have the powers and you are just a washed up traitor.? Rastul gloated.

Fen looked disgusted at Rastul. He shifted his stance, gauntleted hand riding on a wicked sword of black crystal and saw tooth edged. ?Not only has Chaos chosen young boys, but ignorant ones as well. It is a waste of my time to spend more breath on someone rushing to his death. You have taken people hostage, who are they??

Rastul?s tail flicked in annoyance, the glint of silver from the scorpion stinger was seen in the fading light. ?Quick to the point I see. I have the young child of Ammy Spiritor, the child of Myrlene Wolf-Spiritor, a man named Mako Phoenix, brother to Ammy Spiritor and an urchin of a Humaran girl that I am still deciding on what to do with. As well as a lovely dragon by now. Now, hand me the shards and I will not harm them, yet. Resist and I?ll start with the girl then the children, the dragon and finally the warrior for last.? Rastul said.

Fen stiffened just a little hearing the roster. ?It is a shame they are captured, but I can?t let you have the shards. If I stop you, they will not come to harm much until we find them.?

Fens gauntlets began to glow red. Rastul took on step back in surprise then scowled. His own gauntlets glowed green. He started to circle Fen. Fen mirrored Rastul, reds glowing as they watched the burning violets in the deepening dusk. The copse filled with the hum of rising magical energy building in the two Knights.

?So you are quick to toss away the very lives you?ve taken oaths to cure and help?? Rastul said as he flicked one hand at Fen, a sizzling bolt of necrotic energy surging for him.

Flicking a black gauntlet, red light surged forth and swallowed the bolt. ?Oaths, just like principles and rules are breakable when a greater need is at hand. A few lives cast into pain, even death is nothing to me to keep another Knight from walking this realm.?

Fen strode forward, five quick measured strides as he unsheathed his black crystal sword and swung it in a low scything arc. Coldness sucked the energy from the air that the blade passed through. Rastul?s gauntlets flared green and the crystal blade met the metal of his lance. A discordant shriek erupted as the weapons met. Fen broke off, his blade leaving black sparks as it slid along the lance. He lashed out with a heavy booted foot while signing in the air summoning a swarm of crimson wasps. They swarmed out at Rastul, each one a blistering fire elemental. Rastul slipped back, twirling the lance, batting aside a few of the fire wasps but a few got past singing holes in his robes. He ended the twirl of the lance into a thrust forward for Fens stomach. With a snap of fingers, whirling blades of energy swirled past Rastul to follow on the heels of the thrust.

A circular parry with is black crystal blade kept Fen?s armored belly safe. The whirling blades of energy were too quick to dodge or deflect. They tried to tear into his armor but sparks just flew as the energy of the spells smashed into Fen?s wards and fizzled out. Fen laughed at the paltry attempt to shred him. A raise of his hand and from the ground rose phantom blades of pale white. Pointing towards Rastul, the blades howled like banshees thirsting for Rastul?s blood. Rastul tried to spin the lance and deflect them, but the lance passed through each blade. He side stepped one phantom blade, but a second sunk deep into his body making him shiver in fright as something touched his soul. He darted and ducked, raising a magical shield to keep two at bay, but each strike from the blade wore down the shield rapidly. The look on Rastul?s face was of shock.

?That is not the power of Chaos you fight off, fool. It is the darkness of the true Ebony Knight, Dark God of Lupinoss. You fight for your soul.? Fen spoke, each word drenched in dark cold tones.

Fen pressed his magical attack with several more swings of his blade, focusing on keeping Rastul distracted watching for incoming strikes. Rastul kept deflecting the blows, but the lance was not meant for close fighting. He abandoned the lance soon, conjuring his own phantom sword to wield and went to match blades with Fen. He was in for a rude surprise as the blades met, the black crystal blade glowed green as it fed on the phantom powers of the sword Rastul used. Rastul backed up as his sword faded away.

?This is impossible. I have all the powers! Not you! You should be the one at a disadvantage!? He shrieked, tail lashing violently.

Rastul flicked his fingers forward slamming arcing energy at Fen. Fen crouched, waving his hand in circular motion causing the energy to deflect, hitting several trees catching them on fire.

?You have no real powers, fool. You are just a suckling parasite being fed by an entity wanting your body. You?re just a puppet dancing with the devil himself.? Fen snarled.

Swinging his blade around and above his head, Fen slammed the point deep into the earth. Chasms burst forth, racing for Rastul, gouts of hell fire and subtractive energy burst like geysers from the rends in the earth. Rastul turned and ran from the chasms, his footing precarious at times. A spoken word and wings that sparked with a maelstrom of energy took him up into the air and away from the hell fire and subtractive magic. Releasing his grip on the sword, Fen's hand was outstretched, a bow crafted from bones formed in his gauntlet. Fen drew back on the empty space where a bow string should be and crimson energy flared to life, making string and cruel arrow appear. Runes glowed eerily green along the bow and Fen let loose with the arrow. It streaked out and thudded into Rastul?s left shoulder. Rastul grunted and spiraled down into the ground.

Fen knocked another soul arrow and sent it arching high into the sky. It burst into a shower of burning brimstone and acid upon the area Rastul landed. Rastul saw his impending doom plummeting down upon him. He surrounded himself in layers of magic as the bombardment fell, rocking the ground. Screams ripped from Rastul?s throat as the acid ate through his mage armor, burning away robe, peeling off flesh, liquefying muscle and eating bone. The hell fire didn?t touch him, but they incinerated all around him, choking him on the gases from everything being atomized. Rastul crawled from the crater he was in, his chest and legs blistered, bleeding, and raw; bones gleaming wet and pink. Agony tore into his belly like a wolf?s teeth into the soft flesh of a rabbit. The soul arrow lodged in his shoulder inched its way slowly to his heart, boring in deeper and deeper.

Fen strode forward; bow vanishing, gauntleted hand wrenched the black crystal sword from the ground. ?I am putting you out of your misery before you bring ruin to anymore lives or cause grief to this realm a minute longer than you already have.? That black blade rose high, waiting to descend into Rastul?s neck and spill his warm blood to quench the hellfire. ?Any last words??

Rastul looked up, his face blacker than drow heritage allowed, blistered and charred from acid. He looked at Fen with one blazing violet eye, the other lost, just a empty, bleeding socket. He saw blood trickling from Fens nostrils, and Rastul began to utter a rasping laugh.

?You may be the devil himself, but even I can see the power forsakes you! You are alienated from it and it will kill you like the chaos it is within you!? Rastul said and cackled.

Fen raised fingers to his muzzle and they came back slick with his own blood. No, this is happening too soon. He was feeling his head pound and the power he worked hard to focus on for this fight ebbing from his body. Fen swept the raised blade down to finish Rastul before he lost his power. It was too late, Fen?s surprise was broadcasted clear as day to Rastul and the rogue mage lifted his hand. Power erupted from his glowing green gauntlet, lashing out at Fen in raw, black rage. Fen was forced back violently by the blast, his armor, once shrugging off Rastul?s magic now began to crack.

Rastul stood, Chaos magic swirling about him as the being touched its game piece, restoring mutilated flesh and melted eye. Rastul grinned and started to fling mage fire, one after the other at Fen. Fen raised his hands to ward off the strikes but a few balls of mage fire slid past his failing shields, blistering and cracking his armor more. Each time he moved, Fen could hear the armor flake off and expose himself to more attacks upon his body.

Rastul closed in on Fen, from his belt he withdrew an obsidian dagger for hand to hand work. He was a flurry of slashing pain raining upon Fen?s crumbling armor. Fen did his best to deflect the strikes with his gauntlets, but he failed to see the danger he?d allowed to slip in when Rastul fought him so close. That danger came to clarity as Rastul kept Fen busy blocking the dagger. He spun, slashing twice, letting them be blocked as he whipped his tail around and struck Fen?s exposed chest with the ornate scorpion stinger. Fen gasped and clutched his chest staggering back. His body flared with pain then went cold with numbness. He was gasping for air as he sunk to his knees. Rastul grinned and slashed Fen across the face, aiming for his eyes. Fen fell backwards, screaming in pain as the obsidian blade slid across his eyes, warm blood sheeting his cheeks in red.

Rastul walked up to Fen and put his boot upon Fen?s chest. He leaned on the boot and delighted in hearing Fen struggle for breath. ?I do hope you enjoy today?s choice of poison. It?ll build in your body, slowing you down, robbing you of everything you love in life, holding your head under the waters of dark, endless sleep until the last few bubble of life expire.?

Leaning down, he ripped the satchel off of Fen?s belt and opened it up laughing as he saw the shards within. ?Finally, I am nearing my completion of power!? Rastul shouted in triumph.

Fingers were eager to put the shard necklace about his neck and when they hung close to his chest, black metal flowed over his skin and robes. Rastul was now ensconced within the Ebony Armor. A glance to Fen showed the former Knight was drawing closer and closer to deaths door and Rastul just laughed. The Ebony Knight walked away from the copse to leave Fen to his long avoided reward as a traitor.

Once the Knight had left though, something rustled in the bushes and Arca stepped out, shaken and afraid from what she saw. She looked around to ensure the insane man had left and went to Fen?s side. She knew he?d be upset that she?d had followed him, but she knew Fen could get into deep trouble given her boss? prior history. Seeing the condition Fen was in she called Whisper Paws via cell phone quickly asking for emergency evac to come out to her location. As she waited, she wept seeing Fen bleeding and torn so much. She took a small field kit she had and did her best to staunch the wound to his face.

Fen raised a hand shakily and put it on Arca?s forearm. ?Tell Mokksha I love her.? His hand slid away and he was quiet, still breathing shallowly but no longer responding to anything around him.

Fen and Arca soon were taken to the hospital as the emergency evac team reached them. The good doctor would be in a coma for days to come.

It had been a few days since Rastul had entertained his guests, though the name Rastul was a very distant memory now. Ever since acquiring the Ebony Shards, what used to be the apprentice mage was now a pale memory to what was now living in that armor. Not complete just yet, the Knight was needed the Ebony Crest, the crystallized heart of the former avatar to complete the ascension to full Chaos.

The Knight though was not some mindless pawn under Chaos' control now. He was more influenced and gifted in higher intelligence than Rastul had ever been. The Knight knew that capture of his guest's has rallied an alliance of several associations into a new force. It was all part of Chaos' grand gambit in the chess game to bring in the Black King to play. But would this gambit work? It was true that if you capture a few higher pieces you send your opponent scrambling to make sense of what has happened, but in the long run, once the opponent was collected a retaliation was inevitable.

The Knight leaned on the balcony railing of his Ebony Spire and contemplated that fact. Most sane creatures would work with him to barter back for their lost loved ones. But when has the white queen ever been sane? Never. He was well aware of how long Chaos has watched and nipped at Ammy Spiritor's heels. He knew she'd be out there, gathering powers and coming for what is hers like a tsunami bearing down on an island village.

And this was the thought that lead to his strategy to let the captives be the trap for Ammy and her associates. He will let them in to his city like a spider letting a fly into a funnel web. Yet, she had allies that would not stand idle and mostly likely be helping her mount an attack. That, he could not allow. He had to smash and shatter their gathered ranks. Scatter them as much as possible.

From the dark entry of the tower, several glowing violet eyes appeared. Onto the balcony stepped six Ebony Knights. The Gilgamesh crystal was coming in handy. Rastul turned and looked to the doppelgangers. He pointed to the lead Knight, the one that had captured the children from Ammy and Lene.

"We have struck hard but now is not the time to relax. The enemy will be gathering strength and searching for us. You will allow them to find a portion of our city to draw the leaders into a trap. The rest of you will spread out. One to find the Ebony Crest, one to assault the Shimmerscale Clan, one to find the white knights Crowe and Arthur and kill them, the other to rough up the white queen to keep her off balanced. You have your orders, now go."

They all bowed to Rastul though one spoke. "What will you be doing Master?"

"Visiting a potential dark ally."

As the life of the prior Knight shattered, the next one flowed like a silver screen cinema. Two days passed and the Glen was once more in the view of another Knight doppelganger as the presence of a dragon, Author Shimmerscale came into being.

Aurthur still had not heard anything about his grand child's whereabouts. None of the dragon scouting parties he had sent out had been able to find a trace of him either. So now the blue dragon was out on his own, against all sane judgment, and on the ground no less. He had thought this to be a good idea, as if they had found nothing from the air; surely he would find something upon the ground.

Perhaps sanity was over rated. The knight was out again in the Glen. Seem the hunting of the white queen?s allies was good in this area and he was looking to see what today?s catch would bring. The violet eyes glowed brilliantly even in daylight as he looked about, his armor pitch black. He could since a dragon close by and knew it was one of the ones he was meant to dispatch. So he walked to the top of a grassy hill and waited in the path the dragon seemed to be taking. As he stood and waited, he summoned his ebony lance and leaned against it. He had felt the passing of one of his other shard brothers. He?d succeeded marginally and died. Could he best that one?s achievements?
Eyes swept the landscape, looking for anything of interest, but frustratingly, he found absolutely nothing. He was about to give up and go home when, in the path ahead of him, a knight blocked his path. A black knight.....His muscles tensed as he took a few steps closer and stopped, half crouched, his body ready to spring. "It is not particularly wise to block a dragon's path, you know....Step aside so that I can pass."

The Knight heard and saw the dragon now. "I block any path I choose, dragon. Do you hail from the Shimmerscale Clan?" his voice boomed and crackled.

The knight speaking his family name put Aurthur further on the edge, and his talons extended into the earth. He smiled a dragon's toothy smile, his tail weaving back and forth slowly. Sometimes a dragon's smile can be dangerous. "Indeed, I do hail from the Shimmerscale clan. I am Aurthur Shimmerscale, the Patriarch of the Shimmerscale clan."

"Perfect." His voice boomed. "Fall to the Ebony Knight." He rent the lance from the ground and pointed it at Aurthur. Several sharp bolts of black lightning wrapped with the cold energy of Takhisis soared for Aurthur. If any touched, they'd blister and burn scale and skin. Hit or miss, the distinct signature of Myrlenes magic, Calcifers mother, would be felt in the attack.

Aurthur jumped backwards, wings unfurling with a loud snap, he back winged away from bolts of lightning as best as he was, but he did not escape unscathed. A bit of charring down his side showed that he had been grazed by the magic. Hissing in anger, he planted his feet and folded his wings, charging at the night with a lowered head, but turned out of the range of that lance, and lashed his thick, heavy tail, aiming for the knight's head. As his tail flew through the air, the acidic/poisonous defense spikes unsheathed along the length of his tail, a splatter of the deadly fluids glimmered as it flew through the air.

The speed of so much moving mass was astounding to watch, but the Knight was no fool. He dropped to a knee, summoning a shield and felt the impact of tail and spikes hit. He was shoved 20 feet away and the summoned shield ripped from him as the spikes embedded into it. The plating over his shield arm punctured. He bled a little but the poison had no affect on his body, filled with chaos magic. "Good, a strong opponent." He boomed and raised both gauntlets. He fired four orbs of pitch darkness at Aurthur. If they hit they would induce a psionic attack that feed on the minds worst fears and make them real to fight the victim. If they missed, they would hit the ground and produce black mist that would cause hallucinations.

The impact of his tail on the shield and the sound of crunching metal was most satisfying, and even more so was the feel of one of Aurthur?s spines embedding itself into the knights flesh. He had thought, momentarily, that he had won. It wasn't easy to survive his venom, after all. So once the counter-attack was launched, he barely got himself out of the way in time. He coughs as he inhaled the vapor, and beat his wings, taking to the air. That was when he saw a whole wing of wyvern, huge wyvern coming right for him. "Trickery! Calling in reinforcements! A real knight fights alone!" Keeping one eye on the approaching 'wyvern', and the other on the knight. "Call them off, and fight me like a human! Or better yet, tell me where you?re keeping my grandson!"

"I've summoned no aide, Aurthur. You fight your mind!" He bellowed with a laugh. "Grandson? Ah, the halfbreed lupe/dragon I've done wonderful things too. You won?t see him." The Knight boomed and summoned a bow. He drew back the string and a bolt of pure chaos magic appeared as he took aim with patience.

Aurthur looked down at the knight, ignoring the wyvern. He shouldn't have said that, now he knew the wyvern weren't real, just a figment of his imagination, and as soon as he owned up to that, they began to disappear one by one. Summoning up his strength, he leaned his head forward, and he roared. He roared with such rage, such power, such raw emotion as he never had before, and folded his wings, diving down flying towards the knight at great speed, though he was certainly aware that the knight had drawn a bead on him with that great bow, and he had no doubts that it was VERY real, and could inflict mortal damage to him if he wasn't careful.

The roaring rattled the ground upon which the Knight stood. Rattled his armor and caused the bow to waiver. Glorious! He had long wanted to fight a dragon! But first, he aimed and loosed his arrow, hoping to strike a shoulder joint of one of Aurthur?s wings. His intent was grounding the dragon. After the arrow was loosed, he leaped to the right, hoping to get clear of the diving dragon.

Aurhtur saw the arrow coming, and focused his attention on it. He tried to time his wing flap to push it to the ground, but he was a little off. The arrow struck nothing, but it punched through his wing with painful force, making him roar in anger and pain. He came to ground with a heavy thump, inspecting the hole. He wouldn't be able to fly correctly, certainly not well enough to fight. "You made a mistake, challenging me! You didn't know it when you met me here, but you?re walking on your own grave!"

The Knight had barely escaped, a nice talon tear through the metal plating on his right leg. A bit more blood flowed, but he paid no heed to it. He had wounded the beast a little and it was good. The Knight made a flaming flamberge appear and approached Aurthur. "Ah, but live or die I am serving my purpose." He charged in and gave a lunge for Aurthurs side with that flamberge.

Despite his size, Aurthur moved with the fluid grace of a warrior born, the adrenaline pumping through his body as the sword passed so close to his body he could feel the heat. He smelled the Knight's blood, and though he didn't eat humans, or any hominid, the desire to taste of the warriors blood was almost maddening. "And what purpose does you trying to kill me serve?!" Talons whistled through the air as he tried to take the knight's head clean off. "I DEMAND you tell me where my grandchild is, and what you have done with him!!"

The Knight?s lunge missing, a duck barely missing the decapitation though he lost his helm as it clattered to the ground 50 feet away. He twirled the flaming sword trying to get close for a strike at the dragons chest. Unhelmed, Aurthor would see the knight was a mix of Drow and Lupinossai, the violet eyes glowing intensely. "Kill or maim you and you cannot aid the white queen, Ammy, when she assaults our city, Mist Noire."

Aurthur roared out in agony as the flaming sword scored the flesh of his breast, a spray of his hot blood splashing onto the unhelmed knight. The wound was little more than a scratch, but it throbbed and burned abominably, and yet he still fought on. He thought of his mate, his children, his family.....With so much to live for, he wouldn't die here, not today! "Kill me, and you'll have the entire Shimmerscale clan to contend with!" With the knight so close, Aurthur lunged, his large fangs exposed, his intent was clear: He meant to chomp right through the knight, armor and all!

The Knight spun away but not without a price. Aurthur got metal and flesh in his maw as the knight was now missing his left arm. He grimaced in pain, spoke a few words and sealed the wound. He raised his hand and fired a spell at Aurthur. It was a bolt of glowing black energy that felt like alchemy. Ammy's alchemy and it would deconstruct whatever it touched if it hit.

Aurthur grinned around his mouthful of metal and flesh, spitting the limb away. But the grin quickly fell away when he felt the presence of Alchemy, his body trembling of its own accord. He studied Alchemy, even dabbled in it himself, but this......Forgetting his punctured wing, he leapt into the air and hovered briefly before thumping back down with a roar. The bolt had taken a third of his tail!

"Ah. So glad the white queen?s powers aren't useless." The Knight fired another bolt at Aurthur as he advanced.

"Borrowed powers, knight?? Aurthur dodged the next bolt easily enough, now wary of any spell the knight might fire. "You knights certainly have changed a bit since the old days, but you always try to make a name for yourself in the hide of a dragon.....Some things never change."Aurthur had no magic of his own to use. He was no magician, nor an alchemist. But he did have his breath weapons. Changing his technique, he whipped his head forward, using Icefire, learned from his beloved wife, the deadly mix of both elements flashing towards the knight at alarming speed.

The Knight laughed summoned his lance and strode forward as the Icefire hit his lance and was absorbed. "I am no simple mortal knight. I have no chivalry. No code, no honor. I am but a vessel for the master and he will soon walk this realm." The lance and his armor glowed then he fired the IceFire back at Aurthur.

Icefire was a dangerous thing, even for dragons. Aurthur hopped and back winged awkwardly, getting out of range, and almost slipping on the resulting Ice. That armor and the lance were dangerous, and obviously held reflective properties.....But his bite, the knight had not been able to stop, and with only one arm, his defenses were weakened..... "You are brave, I'll give you that. But you are also foolish.....You could do such good, if only you adopted a code, some standard for living, other than to kill and destroy.....I am a husband, a father, a grandfather.....And for that reason, I am stronger than you will ever be!" Being careful to avoid the slippery ground, Aurthur roared again and charged.

"I am but the vessel for a power more ancient and stronger than you dragon." The lance vanished and the Knight side stepped but it was painfully slow. His injured leg slowing him down. He had a whip summoned of dark fire and lightning. He cracked it at the charging Aurthur. Perhaps he was not to best the achievements of his brother.

Aurthur turned his head aside, but the whip cracked him across the face, right between his eyes. He could feel the blood pouring from the deep wound, and still he came. He couldn't die here, he WOULDN'T die here. Through the pain of his wounds, he kept coming, lowering his deadly sharp horns, a fierce snarl on his face, the blood pouring giving his an utterly savage appearance.

The Knight had no hope of dodging this fast charge being injured as he was. He simply grinned and whipped once more then braced for impact. "Master I have done my task."

The whip sailed over Aurthur's head as he lowered it in the last instant, and gave a roar, snapping his head back up and impaling the knight through with his horns. The weight of the armor on his neck was heavy, but still he shook his head, bouncing the knight upon his horns, making sure the deed was done. He tossed his head to the side to dislodge the knight, panting for breath as he sat down on his haunches with a heavy thump, looking over his various wounds. Still, he kept an eye on the knight, just in case. It occurred to him that perhaps he should burn he body.

The body was tossed to the side and it crumpled with a metallic clang. Wet breath rattled in the shattered body still. Then it went silent and the body exploded, filling the air with a nasty hum of ebony shrapnel. The metal bits laced with chaos energy and necrotic taint.

The back alley fades from the entities vision as night continues on and the Marketplace fills the scene.

Ammy walked for the door of her shop. It was night time and she was too antsy to stay at home and rest. Her mind kept turning over details and ideas for rescuing her kidnapped family.
Reaching her shop, she put a hand on the door and it unlocked, sensing who she was and the wards vanished on just the door. Ammy entered her shop and closed the door feeling a mix of stress and depression. Her family was in distress constantly and the worry that her son and grandson were possibly being tortured or dead by now made her sick. She moved to the counter and started making some soothing tummy tea and pulled out her cell phone. She needed distraction for the night. Soon a strategy meeting would be held. For now, relaxation was needed. She dialed S'arallo's number.
While at home S?arallo heard his phone ringing and soon it picked up. "Hello? This is S'arallo speaking," He said over the phone.
"Hey S'arallo. Ammy here..." She started mixing some tea up as the water boiled. "I... I'm... would you mind coming to my shop for a little night time hobby work on the car?" Her voice was restless and strained.
?That I can do. I will be there soon, Ammy. I do not have much else happening. See you soon." He said with a calm, but happy tone.
Heading for the city, high in the night sky, rode the Ebony Knight upon a rather reluctant mount his master had captured. The doppelganger was not overly fond of the blue dragon?s mood tonight.
Reluctant indeed! A few times Blizzard even tried bucking him off. He wouldn't be happy if he had spent days, and weeks in chains. Nostrils twitched, then flared and a snort sounded through the bridle.
The Knight kicked sharp spurs deep into the flanks of Blizzard to elicit obedience. They were still a ways out and he didn't want to walk to the city, nor parade through the streets attracting every freak hero in the town.
A hiss sounded as the spurs dug into Blizzard?s flanks, and soon she was straightening out her flight pattern. Though don't think she'd be completely obedient. Soon she slowed her wing beats, and twisted her neck to stare at the knight that rode upon her back.
Violet eyes of the Knight stared right back at the dragon. "I will make a plushy out of you if you don't watch it, beast." He snapped at the dragon.
He was lucky she was bridled! Another snort and Blizzard bucked again. At least his ride wouldn't be comfortable!
Oh the Knight would love to pluck the wings off this infernal dragon. Maybe master wouldn't miss him not bringing the beast back from this mission. They were soon flying over the city, passing by the outskirts.
Most likely he would. A growl and Blizzard was soon diving, then pulling up above the clouds; wings straightening out again.

Hope had heard of the magical shop, however had been reluctant to go in. Finally gathering herself to go in she pushed on the door lightly and looked around. She was in a flowing burnt orange dress that matched the season. She was quiet as her bare feet carried her around the shop.
Ammy flipped the phone closed and poured the boiling water into the tea cup. The sound of a late night customer startled her some; then again she forgot that the open sign was spelled to say open when she was there. She rubbed the bridge of her muzzle for a moment and looked to the door. "Hello, how can I help?"
Hope looked up and jumped a bit as well, not expecting Ammy to be there. Softly clearing her throat. ?Well two things.? Pondering for a moment. ?Firstly do you have any violins, like magical ones?? Just pondering. But the other is of a different matter. I have this.. demon problem.? Looks at Ammy earnestly. ?Was wonderin' if you knew anything to help out.?
Ammy's ear twitched. So not her night, but she had a customer. She let her tea steep for a bit. "Magical violins I do not have on hand at this moment, though I know a few good contacts and can order you one if you would like? As to demon issues... depends on the issue and the demon." She leaned on the front counter to stare at the young lady.
?Well...? She trailed off. ? It?s hard to explain. He came at my time of need and provided salvation.? Takes in a breath as she was gazing right back into Ammy's eyes and blushed lightly, twas her nature. ?But now he is a curse, always wanting to destroy the things I love, the people I love.?
Ammy gave what the lady told her some thought. Hope may notice some dark circles under the Lupes eyes. She moved to finish fixing her cup of tea and had it in hand before regard the lady once more. "That can be a very tricky problem to solve."
In a little while S'arallo would arrive at the shop, though he was on foot. He wore black denim pants and a black T-shirt expecting to help Ammy work on the vehicle. He liked to wear black more often when working on vehicles since some stains and things showed up less. His light saber was hanging from his belt as he walked up to the door and went to push the door open gently to enter the shop.
?Always has been.? Trust Ammy for the time being she turned her back to her for a moment and started to browse. ?It?s a curse that has its benefits at the same time. But when I cannot look at a flower without worrying it will burst into flames and die, that is when it is too far? She nodded to S'arallo as he entered
Ammy looked to S'arallo as he came. She smiled and felt a bit better now. "Evening S'arallo. It'll be a little while before we get to my garage. A late night customer to help first. Have a few cookies and some of my tummy tea if you like or a help yourself to a free drink on me. It affects your vision?" Ammy said to the woman. "Perhaps you should look at the tome, Raistlin Majere, Cursed Magi of Krynn. He had a very similar problem.?
Nodding lightly as Hope was reading some. ?Yes, as well as my touch and breath even. He wants to manifest his will through me even when I am reluctant.?

S?arallo gave a nod to the customer and a friendly smile. Though he chuckled hearing Ammy. "Coookies make up for waiting." He would grin and would take a couple cookies to nibble on as he went to the book shelves to look at what else Ammy had in the shop.
"Then I'd add the tale of Midas' Touch to your research as well." Ammy sipped her tea. Demon problems. She could sympathize with the woman if her current state of tension from another demon holding her family wasn't riding high.
The Knight growled and drove the spurs into her once more. He could see the shopping district soon and started to tug and rein her flight in to land at near a shop that was all glass.
Hissing as the spurs once more bit into Blizzards flank, even drawing a bit of blood to the surface. Still she obeyed the command, and glided to a landing.
Hope nodded lightly. ?Well I would hate to waste your time by not buying anything.?Browsing for a moment and nodding as she grabbed a book that just looked interesting, it had a large star on the front. ?How much Ma'am??
Ammy glanced at the book?s cover. "Celestial Chorus? I believe the standard tome price." She looked at a listing for a moment. "100 crowns."
The feline male would take a book that had to do with different kinds of plants and what they did and sat down with the book. S?arallo started reading thoroughly through the book and even seeming interesting. There were a lot of things he had never seen or heard of before.
Hope smiled brightly, something that would create its own light if it could. ?Great I'll take it!? Clutching onto the book she skipped towards Ammy and dug into her purse for the money. Counting it out all the way to 100 she neatly stacked it and moved it to Ammy. ?All there! Also my name is Hope? Teenage grin.
"Thank you Hope." Ammy accepted the money and then wrote a receipt for her. "Would you like a bag?"
A shake of the head. ?I'll carry it on my own.? Earnest smile as Hope glanced around one more before starting to hum.
Having landed the Knight dismounted and turned on the dragon. His gauntlet cracked with chaotic energy and a dark globe appeared. He would toss it at Blizzard and if it touched, she would be magically blinded and held to the spot she was in by chaos magic.
Nostrils flared as soon all Blizzard saw was darkness; wings flapping and flaring.
The dragon secured, the Knight walked for the shop and stopped in front of it. He could feel the aura and the wards upon it. He lifted his gauntleted hand up into the air. "Master, ruler of chaotic energy and my liege, grant me thy power to do thy bidding and bring down the enemies defenses." A crackle of thunder hit the sky and the Knight began to glow an eerie green then pointed at the front of the shop.

The crackle of thunder had her jump back. ?Um... it?s not supposed to rain today.? Hope gave a hesitant glance towards Ammy then back to the door.
Ammy looked up hearing the crack of thunder and her golden eyes widened in shock. "Hit the deck!" Ammy dove for cover.
Ears flattened at the sound of thunder, and Blizzard tugged against the chaos energy; an angry shriek, soon clawing at the ground.
Hope didn't have to be told twice. Tome in hand she dove to the ground and covered herself up.
S'arallo looked back in confusion wondering what was going on. He was deep into reading that book on plants. "What?"
The Ebony Knight crackled with a maelstrom of chaos energy. From his armored finger tip pulsed a glaring violet orb; it coalesced then accelerated towards the shop. If the spell took hold, Ammy's wards would begin to decay and shatter leaving the building vulnerable.
The orb hit the glass of Ammy?s shop and dissipated with a nasty red flare of magic repelling magic. The whole outer surface of the shop glowed with active magic in the form of red pulsing webs on the glass. That web work of protection though started fading as a black spot starting at the front door spread, swallowing the red webbing. Ammy's wards were failing. Ammy peeked over the counter and cursed seeing what happened. This wasn't good.
The Knight looked to the dragon. He flung an energy bolt at Blizzard in an attempt to stun the stupid beast into silence.
Another shriek as the bolt hit, and soon Blizzard had slumped to the ground; her flank weeping a bit of blood still.
Hope felt every bit of the magic that hit the wards. Wincing under her own breath she peeked towards the door. Those calm icy blues were changing however, from cold to a deep blue right now, but they continue to grow warmer and warmer.

Ammy looked to S'arallo. "Uh, we've got some nasty company S'arallo. How good is your Force and Saber work?" She swallowed a bit, but was moving into action. She leapt over the counter and moved for the door, clapping her paws and forming a rapier out of thin air. She was cursing herself for leaving her light saber at home.
"I uh... could take on a battle droid riding a fambaa any day." S?arallo said in response. That may or may not have been a reassuring statement but that was the only thing he could say that came to mind. He stood up, putting the book to the side, took his saber hilt off his belt and ignited it. A white beam coming from the saber, although he was more than careful not to slice or burn anything in Ammy's shop. "What is attacking us?" He called from the other side of the shop.
The dragon quieted, the Knight looked at the shop and saw Ammy moving already. Raising his hand he fired a beam of pure chaos energy at the shops glass door aiming for Ammy.
Hope stood up and mumbled and stumbled. ?Watch out!? Goes diving for the beam of chaos energy.
"The Ebony Knight. The jerk that took my..." Ammy was hit square on and was flung backwards into the glass counter shattering it as she hit the solid glass wall of her lab with a crack. Glass was spilling all over the floor from the Knights attacks at the front door; the all glass store front was hit by the blasts first.
Seeing the young girl being heroic, the Knight had no qualms killing bystanders. He flung two chaos beams at Hope. Should they hit, they'd disorient the mind, burn the skin, and overload nerves with electricity.
Hope was sliding on the ground when the bolts came. She only reacted enough to miss the first only to get flung back by the second. Not moving for a moment or two before she slowly stood up, her hands and most other joints were twitching uncontrollably and the front of her body was deeply burnt. Her eyes were no longer blue, rather something akin to scarlet. No time wasted as she retaliated with a ball of darkness infused fire.
The ball of fire infused with darkness hit the Knight squarely in the chest. His armor glowed and the magic spell was absorbed. Raising his other gauntlet he fired that same spell right back at Hope.
S'arallo was thrown off guard at what was happening. He looked around quickly and with a thought he looked at all the items around him. He was going to have to pay Ammy back on the idea he had if it worked. While one hand held his saber, he started taking a bunch of books and went for the windows. When he would be there he would send all the books and their papers flying randomly at the knight as a distraction. But after those books S'arallo charged forward with his saber ready wanting to slash through the Knight.
Ammy shook her head a moment, dazed a bit, but finding herself recovering quickly thanks to Aribius' bond. She got to her feet wobbly a moment and watched S'arallo moving into action. Shaking her senses clear, she started to form an alchemy array in her mind but stopped seeing the Ebony Knight absorb magic and redirect it. Shiiitttt!
The spell came back to Hop and although it physically hit her, it spread out over her body surface. Walking ever so calmly with a ballerina's grace she placed herself askew to Ammy and watching S'arallo quietly for a moment.
Magical spells and enraged Lupinossai the Knight was ready for. Flying books? No. Several of the tomes smacked his helm and he batted them away distracted. He caught a glimmer of S'arallo and back stepped enough to avoid sudden death, but at the cost of his left arm neatly sliced off by the light saber at the elbow.
The darkness still embraced Blizzard, keeping her grounded, and blinded, and a groan sounding.
After cutting the knight's arm off and moving past him due to the momentum of the charge. S'arallo was not one for talking and fighting. When he fought he stayed focused and kept going. After the first attack he spun around and tried to make another slash at the knight with his saber hoping to get lucky with another hit.
S'arallo's attack gave her hope. Ammy moved forward again, and on her way to the front of the shop she grabbed a sample of metal that spilled from the shattered counter. Her eyes glowed a moment and her fur went from white to a grey metal sheen as she used alchemy to armor herself. She broke into a run out the shattered front door and right for the knight. Her now metal coated stone hand glowing black from an activated array in her mind.

The pain of losing his arm was intense. Only by sheer force of will did the Knight fall back another step or two missing that humming energy blade. He stretched out his hand and the Ebony Lance materialized in his grasp. He was now facing close combat from two or three people. He aimed the lance at Ammy and fired a ray of black energy, then swung the lance at S'arallo's head.
Sensing something of another there, Hope moved past the fight, something not of her forte , and ran towards Blizzard. Although her eyes still red she was calmer and soon was next to the dragon trying to decipher what was going on.
S'arallo hissed when he missed the night with his saber. When he eyed the motion of the lance heading in his direction his saber quickly made a move back upwards to deflect the direction of the lance if it was unable to cut through it.
Ammy sidestepped the blast of the lance. It hit her shop, blowing out the glass paneling of a side wall and littering the street with merchandise. She kept moving, pissed, lunging with her hand glowing black for any part of the Knight.
Blizzard was still out of it; nostrils flaring with each breath taken, though it hurt still to even try moving.
The Knight lost his footing some as the light saber met the enchanted lance and they connected, sparked in a shower of angry green sparks and the lance was deflected with a slight scorch mark on it. It gave a good opening for Ammy to strike the side of his armored torso and the knight grunted as bits of the armor crumbled and turned to dust where she hit.
Ammy smirked as she got a small piece of victory. Her deconstruction array not a direct magical attack but one that picked apart the fabric of all things it touched. She tried another strike, aiming for his chest.
Sensing the chaos energy her demon took to the back seat as she got as close to blizzard as she could, her mind searching deeply, trying to solve a puzzle. Moments passed before she thinks she has it. As if trying to blow a dam open to get a river flowing again she sent a pulse of her own energy to attempt to break the bond and cause it to implode. Either way she would have nearly passed out from the exertion used.
The Knight pivoted at his waist, swung the lance to collide with Ammy's waist.
Blizzard flinched as the energy hit the chaos energy that held. That even hurt worse.
With the deflection working and S'arallo working his feet to be on the opposite side that Ammy was on two give the advantage of being at a different angle. When the knight tried to swing at Ammy, S'arallo saw it as a chance to try and slash at the knight's legs now hoping to cut more limbs off to incapacitate this attacker.
Ammy grunted as the lance smashed the metal fur, bruised her belly and flung her back into the shop at an angle. She ended up smashing through the left side of the shops glass wall and hit the street and rolled, winded.
Hope murmured and took a deep breath in. ?One more try.? Breathing in and out another, larger pulse of energy hit a singular point in the bond. From there she tried to condense the energy she injected until it started to literally make a mini-star in the darkness of the bonds. Successful or not Hope would collapse next to blizzard.
The binding magic on Blizzard fizzled as its chaotic energy was sucked into the mini-star Hope made. The dragon would be free and no longer blind or stuck to the spot she was at.
A hiss in pain, until the one nearby collapsed. Though soon Blizzard snorted, and shook the darkness from her eyes. Bridled snout gave a testing nudge to the fallen one, though she didn't move much herself yet.
Oh, S'arallo got the perfect line up. The pivot attack the Knight pulled on Ammy left his thigh wide open for attack. The light saber sliced through his leg and he collapsed to the ground with a long metal clatter missing an arm and a leg on his left side.
Ammy picked herself up. The hit had knocked her breathless for the moment, broke three ribs that were healing already and shut her concentration down on her armor spell. Her fur turned white again. She felt like hell but saw the Knight fall.
S'arallo didn't stop there after slicing off a leg. This being seemed so powerful and deadly. He went to the point of trying to slice off the other leg and arm as well. He wanted to leave this aggressor harmless by all means and wasn't sure if Ammy wanted him dead immediately or not.
This left a stumpy, gasping and rasping Knight on the street with no arms or legs.

Ammy walked up to S'arallo, holding her side in pain. She was glaring death at the Knight and put a clawed foot on his chest plate. "You're going to talk." She spat in anger.
The Knight coughed as he laughed hearing Ammy.
Ammy growled and her foot began to glow black using the deconstruction spell and letting it emanate from her foot.
The chest plate cracked and crumbled to dust exposing tattered robes and the bare chest of the Knight. "Killing me will do nothing for your children. Nor will torture." He laughed more, deranged from pain. "He has them. Master has them and you know where to find him. Hahahahahahahahahahaha. I'm merely a distraction while my brothers attack your allies."

Long moments would pass before the slightest movement, a twitch of the limbs from the left over electricity from that first attack sent Hope?s nerve endings into a fit, causing an arm to twitch. Her chest did move with each breath, she was alive, just. The nudge would get a mumble of incoherency and pain.
Soon Blizzard was moving toward Ammy and the knight.
"Mean people like you don't get very far in life." S'arallo said and his saber lowered, the end near the knight's head threatening to kill the knight now. "Just say the word, Ammy."
"Attacks?" Ammy leaned on her foot, the deconstruction spell still active.
Fur and flesh on his chest began to burn and turn to ash as her spell broke down every atom of the Knights fur and skin leaving raw muscle to bleed and flare from nerves exposed. "Your allies are disarrayed. You're knights, even the dragons have been hit." He laughed hard and coughed wetly as her spell was chewing into muscle and bone.
Ammy took her foot off of the knight and hauled up the Knight?s torso to bring him eye to eye with her; eyes glowing crimson red now and she snarled, the sound humming through the air with magic. "What have you done to them? Where's my son and grandson!"
Soon moving toward the knight, giving a rumble; Blizzard owed him for the spurs!
More deranged laughter. "You know where they are. You'll never get them back.? The Knight laughed more.
Ammy noticed movement to her side and saw the dragon he flew in one getting closer. It didn't look to happy and it oddly resembled someone she knew. Ammy looked at the Knight cruelly. Her teeth flashing white in the night and sharpening some like the daemon she used to be. "I... will.. get... them back...!" she flung the Knight to the dragon.
Even with the bridle, Blizzard managed to gnaw the knight.
The Knight was still laughing as he was tossed to Blizzard, even when she drove claws into his chest. The laughing was soon cut to ragged screaming as he was gnawed on. Once he went silent, his body would shimmer, the sound of shrieking crystal heard and at Blizzard feet was a shard of orange crystal, broken into two pieces and burnt black a bit.

Chaos slowed its viewing of the memories to consider the impact of gaining two vital pieces to the game. The entity had little use for emotions, yet it was now chuckling as excitement touched the ancient force. It was close to walking the realm without pulling puppet strings. The feeling spent, Chaos resumed watching the last doppelganger?s memories.

Failure. Failure was not accepted by master and only a show of force would redeem the Knight?s honor to serve the Master. A week past before the Knight was sent out on a mission.

The moon was full tonight and shown down on the train tracks running through the Southern Glen. Standing upon the tracks, his full size blocking the passage stood an Ebony Knight. Violet eyes glowed as they peered out of the visor slits. The thorn shaped Ebony Lance was in his right gauntlet. What drew the knight here when the stirrings of the enemy forces could be felt amassing against the city, Mist Noire? A command from its master. The White Bishop was being seen more publicly in war regalia. His mission tonight was simple. Lure, attack and if at all possible maim, disable or delay the white bishops involvement in the counter attack on his master. He lowered the lance tip and it spat several acid balls along the tracks, chewing away at the rails and supports. Time to lure him out.

The train's driver doesn't wait to reach the destroyed roadbed, as soon as the Knight and damage is sighted; he's hitting his comlink and screaming into it. ?ZULU ZULU ZULU.? The train and all those on it are wrapped in a column of shimmering blue light that quickly fills with golden sparkles and then fades. In 3 seconds flat the train and all its occupants are gone.

The trap was set and the bait taken. The Knight shifted his stance and began muttering words. The other clones before him had fallen and given the master vital data on how the enemy fought. The knight took time to raise vital wards to guard against various attacks.

It is only a few seconds later, and another column of shimmering blue light forms, when it fades, Andu stands there in his full lamellar war gear. Naginata in one hand, Tommy gun slung over his shoulder, and haversack slung over his back. ?You rang, shorty?? Andu really doesn't like having innocents under his protection threatened.

The Knight flashed white a moment as the wards were finished granting him a moderate amount of durability to physical and magical attacks. He placed those glowing violets upon Andu and his voice boomed slightly. "Predictable. I knew you would appear and I have harmed none on your precious train. I knew you'd rescue them, white bishop. Just like the rest of your allies, you give life too high of a value."

Andu snorts in amusement. ?You know nothing of life or its value. You have to have lived first. You want to tangle with me??

"Master was once alive but he's been cured of that disease." the Knight leveled the lance at Andu. "Fighting is my master's wishes. His wishes are my every driving thought. Let's see what you got white bishop."

?Okay.? Andu drops to one knee, unslingin his Tommy gun, and leveling it at the Knight, a single pull of the trigger, and a stream of 16 High explosive grenades are loosed right at the figure.

The explosions ripple out and kicked up debris and twisted railing. Among the smoke a small cough was heard and as things settled Andu would see a firestorm of magic flicking around the Knight erratically. A mage shield had taken a good chunk of the impact force from the explosions but he wasn't unscathed. Shrapnel was embedded in his armor causing bleed from the left leg, right shoulder and belly region. The shield flickered and shattered around him. "Impressive. You like toys." He said with a slight rasp in his tone. He raised his gauntlets at Andu, the lance torn from his grasp in the explosion. They glowed blue and crackled. "My turn. Shra'akti'i!" he fired a divine bolt of electricity at Andu. The energy signature and magic type was from Fleet's divinity spells.

?That's a polite way of putting it.? Andu grins as the bolt hits his armor, or rather seems to strike, and pass right through the armor to someplace else, leaving the minotaur untouched. Using that kneels as a sprinter's start, the Tommy gun dropped as the Naginata is taken into hand for a full bull rush charge, aiming to run down or impale the Knight. Andu is fast, but merely a mortal fast.

The fired spell noted as ineffective, the Knight faced the charging minotaur. Appearing in his hands with a quick summoning were a flamberge of dark flame and a whip of pure chaotic energy. He would side step from the charge, though his speed reduced from the injured left leg. A horn would gouge his chest plate barely missing the skin as the Knight would snap out the whip, hopefully snagging a limb and tripping or hindering it hit. The black flame flamberge held ready to follow up with a slash or thrust if all went well.

The whip does snag an arm, but then the Knight gets to feel what it's like to catch 1 ton of charging minotaur backed by legs able to help lift 4.5 tons.

The Knight digs in his heels, gouging the ground deeply as he works to slow the minotaur?s charge. The chaotic energy of the whip would attempt to chew upon the armor Andu wore and test for any electrical it could short out. Sword held in one hand, whip in the other, he let the gauntlet holding the whip glow black. A spell sped from the gauntlet along the whip like a high speed train heading for Andu. If it hit, it will be nasty. Ammy's deconstruction alchemy was being used.

If the Knight manages to retain his footing, Andu would jerk to a stop, rearing back upright, for the moment his back exposed. Unfortunately, Andu's arms are covered by his armor, and that armor is busy sucking at the Chaos energy from the whip, though it is more than happy to take the spell along for the ride to where ever it is the shield is sending it. Once Andu has his feet under him, he spins. And uses the force and speed of that spin along with the strength of his arms to slam the blade of the Naginata right toward the Knight's Torso, praying the high tech material Izumi used in making it are able to with stand the force as she promised they would.::

The Knight was finding the use of spells a losing bargain it seems. He did retain his footing but as Andu stood up, it was a telegraph sign of a physical attack coming. The Knight let go of the whip and stepped back parrying the Naginata with his black flamberge. He was trying to work out why his attacks were failing his master as they were the results of studying the other battles. He pressed forward after the parry trying to slash for Andu's gut. The knight could be heard starting to intone another spell.

Andu just grins as the Flamberge strikes his armor, though he does give an involuntary grunt at the hit, the only damage is from the force of the blow, the blade's edge seemingly unable to penetrate the armor. Andu's response is to rear back, and bring his own head crashing forward, aiming to hit the Knight's head with his own, trusting in the skull strength nature and years of fighting and training have given him.

Oh gods, that hurt. The Knight staggered back as the impact rang the helm loudly and smashed in the visor. The spell was interrupted. The knight peeled off the mangled helm showing his face had been burned and melted by another ally from a failed assault. "I will not fail him twice!" He roared. He spat a single word in arcane mystery and around them black mist rose, filled with psionic chaos, seeking out to prey on all but the knights mind for nightmares to feed and use against its victims. He would vanish back into the mist around them and words of a spell started up again.

Andu grins at the ringing of the Knight's helm, he doesn't even seem to notice the psionic chaos, though the ring in his nose does glow a bit. ?Coward!? For the moment at least, not knowing where is enemy is, Andu start's spinning in place, twirling the 16 foot Naginata over his head, and then lowering it to spin in full circle, covering as much area as possible.

Soon the spells final words were heard. Req'um Sacrum Sanctum Licitum Di'ia Vun Decens En Clensmere Til Holme Elicitum Fi'ir Ren Sanctum Fi'ir The clear sky clouded in an instant and the ground shook from a mighty rumble as the Knight tapped into the highest spell he'd encountered with Fleet. From the sky poured multiple lightning strikes upon the ground in a four city block radius, stabbing through the mists and hitting any not lucky with wrathful lightning and holy energy. Another spell was on the knights tongue even as the lightning was sizzling through him, tormenting the soul within the captive body in the armor.

Andu staggers as the physical blows from a couple of the strikes cause him to stumble, but the lightning brings thoughts of rain, and rain, water. Then his eyes glow blue, and using the staggering to make his movements seem random as he spins, Andu suddenly steps out at an apparently random point, though straight for the Knight; the momentum of the spins being added to his own strength as he performs what has to be a random Haymaker slash with the Naginata. Though in reality his aim is to cleave the Knight from collar to opposite hip, using the very water content of his mortal body as a target.

As Andu moved in for the lethal strike for the Knight, he released one last spell. Knowing his actions were not prepared enough for the white bishop, but knew his body forfeit to master he welcomed the Naginata's slash as he uttered the words, "Da'arikai ni hast teh..." As the Naginata cleaved through the remnants of his magical wards and slid through neck, collarbone, ribs, sternum and finally slicing a bit of hip bone, the perverted warrior shout that Shori used activated. Instead of an encouraging blast of spirit to lift a warriors soul it was a gnawing living thing hungering to feast on a strong soul and fighting spirit. The blast of frost that followed it was tainted black with necrotic poisons and nether energy. As his life past from his eyes in an instant his body, like the others exploded throwing shrapnel of ebony shards laced with necromantic energy and toxins to leave behind a burnt orange crystal snapped in two where a body would be.

Well, fortunately for Andu, he long ago learned the wisdom of protecting soul and spirit more than anything. The rings on both ears as well as the one in his nose glow brightly, and the hungering thing finds nothing to feed on, for a target that can't be found, is safer than one protected by even the best armor or shields. Andu's physical body isn't so fortunate; though only his head and hands are exposed both take hits from the shrapnel, staggering the minotaur. Andu staggers and drops to his knees as the battle ends, and his injuries assert themselves. It takes him a moment, and then he has tap at his ComBand with his chin, his right arm being cradled against his chest. ?Gaia, Sick Bay, please, and don't forget to get my Tommy gun and to clean up this mess before you send the road crews out to fix the road.? A shimmering column of blue light, and he is gone.

The last of the Knight?s doppelgangers destroyed, Chaos waved a hand the pieces vanished from its sight and the board. The burnt crystals left behind would crumble to dust for any holding them. The entity sat back and contemplated events of its Champion. This realm of Rhydin has proven to be a worthy game in the ancient existence of the entity. Could it win? It was close, very close to winning this game yet the opposition were truly skilled and arrayed now. The time was night to appear to the Ebony Knight once more and further the game.

Ammy sat at her desk in her study at the beach house. She had her eyes closed as she contemplated all that has happened during the year. The memory loss and memories she?d regained. The friends and allies made when she hardly knew herself. The changes brought about in many of those she once thought enemy, but now they are greeted as friend and ally. The chaos and suffering brought about by the hands of a lost soul. The many cracks appearing the carefully planned and smoothed wall she had built over the years that was Ammy the Alchemist; how the war general and killer she used to be was rearing its nasty head.

She let out a long, deep breath as she meditated more. How close have I come to hurting many I call friend by who I used to be? To what end has the fighting this Knight has caused will lead me? My children and brother are captives. Remaining family and allies harassed; not a moment?s rest or joy in the life we have. I can no longer be just the Alchemist with a caring soul, nor can I be the General with a soul of ice and fire. I need to be both, an alchemist who will care and help when asked but can react, protect and harm when needed. Will I lose the soul and caring that many know should I take up this task? To reforge what I?ve been, reforge what I am and emerge as a new weapon?

Her fingers caressed a picture of her and the parents she never knew, never will know as death separated them for eternity. She opened her eyes to look at the picture. Oh, how she wished for the wise council of her mother or the strong warrior spirit she knew her father must have possessed. Ammy sat the picture down and rubbed her neck. Many things around her had changed and she was the only one that seemed to be resisting change. Perhaps it was time to embrace it and take care of her family in all their needs.

Ammy looked around her office, at all the mementos in her life. She stood and considered her life in Rhydin and her past. She had sworn to put her life of being a weapon away but never again. Weapons had their use in peacetime and war. She left her study, her resolve set. She was getting her family back and she was going to emerge from the flames of this trial as something stronger and re-tempered. It was now time for war.

Ammy went out to the glen?s lake. She stood on a large flat rock that spanned over the water about 30 feet. She let her golden eyes ringed with vibrant green stare at the lake for long moments. Her mind was unlocking the vast spells she had laid to rest long ago; necromancy, summoning, war magic, blood magic and more. She couldn't collect or assemble a massive real army in time to deal with the Knight, but she could raise one over night. Ammy closed her eyes and raised her hands as if she were about to conduct an orchestra.
~Rastum lem hana. Til nuk duwim dehast. Muerto denai hulst. Ris, ris, ris, ris, soulte ees humre. Ris, ris, ris, ris maeter vumae! Maeter vumae!~

Her voice rang out over the Glen and would echo three times. Nothing seemed to happen. Then the entire glen shook and thrummed with power. Grass and dirt buckled and rolled as the spell took hold. From the glens womb, every grassy knoll, every forested landscape, from every field and even the lake itself emerged the slain; some skeletal, some in various degrees of decay, others ghostly phantoms and spirits. All were armored, all were armed. They marched into ranks of 500 hundred and stopped before the rock to salute Ammy. 3,000 dead warriors stood ready to follow her will. She turned and looked at her undead. She raised a hand to the empty field to their right and spoke once more.

~Manisto soulte. Muerto il Yasmiir. Manisto, serzante. Manisto serzante teh requiem.~

Her voice rang like a clarion bell as the sky opened up, a rift formed linking Rhydin to the world of Sliinkaa. In the sky was seen the desolate island continent of Yasmiir, to this day still uninhabited from the massive attack she?d performed on it. Something streamed from the island continent, through the rift to fill the empty field. She lowered her hand the rift closed as 30,000 souls stood next to her 3,000 undead. The souls looked hungry and wracked with anger.

"Who do you serve?" Her voice rang out.

In unison, the legions replied in a hollow, rumbling answer. "Ammy Phoenix. Hail Ammy Phoenix."

Ammy raised her left hand in salute. "At ease and know this. You serve Ammy Spiritor as well. Now vanish for a time. I will call upon you all soon." She looked to the souls. "Serve me well and I will release your souls from the anguish my magic has placed you into for four centuries." The souls all took a knee and bowed. The massive army had now vanished.

She left the glen to gear up and form her strike squad. The Knight was getting his war.

~*~*~*~*~

Deep within the temple fortress, Chaos sat by the Well of Dark Souls. The former Lich King would have succeeded in his goals of power and domination if it had only dug the temple foundations deeper. Chaos cared little for the Lich King that now served its Knight like a common slave. By the entity lay four of the 5 remaining Ebony Artifacts; a cloak, a ring, a jewel and a crystallized heart, still pulsing with life beneath the crystal and etched with red glaring runes. Chaos could feel its power ringing through them, the strongest being the heart or Ebony Crest.

The ring of metal shod boots drew the entities attention to the approaching Ebony Knight. Chaos stood and regarded what used to be a living creature called Rastul. Long gone was that beings drive, emotions and thoughts. Just the few flickers of a broken soul remain and it was time to snuff that out.

?You have done a decent enough job at handling the tasks I ask of you. However, it is time to close the chapter in this book and begin the new chapter of my rein over this realm. All but one of the final artifacts lay here by me. They are enough for me to begin my siege on this realm. Don them, Knight, and become one with me. Become the Ebony King!?

The Ebony Knight approached and knelt before his master. Hearing the words issued, he spoke. ?Master, I look forward to this long awaited honor, but even one crack in your mighty assemblage could lead to a piercing downfall. Should we not collect the last piece??

The entity walked up to the kneeling Knight and circled him like a shark. ?You speak wise council given how often the white queen and her allies have thwarted you through such cracks, but I shall not fall, this close to my prize. A single artifact, easily replaced by my wealth of energy to command will not be missed for now. There is no more time for games. I see the white queen mounting her attack. She is coming and she is bringing destruction. As valiant as you have been, Knight, it is a Kings duty to vanquish its final foe and subjugate the lands around us.?

Chaos lifted its hand, a hand shaped by swirling, erratic energy and the four artifacts floated between it and the Knight. ?You know what to do. Don them, my servant.?

Knowing to speak of concern again was foolish; the Knight stood and looked upon the remaining artifacts. Reaching out, he placed the ring on his finger; thunder peeled from the roiling mists that darkened the city. The hum of the Knight?s magic vibrated the very stones of the dark temple. He attached the cloak to his armor, and unless he was seen from the front where the cloak was not drawn closed, he was invisible to the eye and magical senses. His heart was racing with each addition. He took the jewel, and with a wave of a gauntlet several other artifacts appeared; hilt, pommel and blade. The Knight assembled the pieces; slipping hilt over the tang of the blade, attaching the pommel and crowning the pommel by placing the jewel into the snarling wolf?s head muzzle.

The pieces connected formed a two handed great sword floating before him. Unlike the lance and armor, this sword destroyed spells, slices through magic, foes, reality and even erase things from existence. The Knight took up the sword and sheathed it. The temple was trembling and echoing the power the he radiated. Within the Knight, stirred the last of the memories of Rastul, his consciousness, fears, joys, sadness and resentment for all people. The sparks of his soul glimmered through the Knight for a few moments as he reached for the Ebony Crest. Those sparks flared with fear. Fear of loss and dark loneliness even as the mind realized it had finally obtained the power it so longed for. The Knight pressed the Ebony Crest to his breast plate; the crystal heart beat in time with his own and it slid through the armor, into the man and now beat as the heart of the Knight. This was the moment, Rastul was no more. Gone was the mage, the drow/lupinossai who hated life and wanted power. Gone was all rationality, emotions and life.

The Knight stood still for a long time. Then it took several breaths. What was once violet light emanating from the slits in the visor was now jade green. The armor was no longer just pitch black but now bore sigils, runes and crests of pulsing red and orange. The fingers flexed and the arms were raised. The legs were moved and bent. Chaos gloried in feeling a body to allow it to walk the realms. Yet it felt a small prick in its energy; a missing piece that it soon overlooked as things were working in its favor now. The Ebony King strolled from the temple soon and looked upon the city that Rastul had built. The white queen was coming, it knew for sure and it could feel it was very, very soon.

Lifting its hands, Chaos spoke in an ancient, dark language lost before time existed. From the building and towers poured forth the massing creatures that had come to Rastul like moths to a fire. Many were the host, nearing 200,000 living beings. The white queen would never win this game now. It sent the creatures back to their living quarters and spoke again. Many more creatures, from the dark planes began to appear in Mist Noire as Chaos summoned more and more creatures. Soon the city was filled with many things it would release once the white queen fell. The Ebony King strolled back into its temple and tower.

Let the white queen come to her doom. All she will find is a strangling, killing web that will bring her to the spider.

The sounds of armor in the distance, coming from the entry of the canyon caught Ammy's ears. "Reinforcements are coming I suggest we run ahead and not be here when they arrive." She waved everyone to follow her and she took off jogging deeper in to the ruins. Lene and Fleety would follow, Amaretto helping with the Twibble wrangling as Ammy lead them on. Soon with the group moving quickly they were out of the ruins and into a canyon valley that was smooth and void of any sign of life. Just a few rocks and boulders, sand and more black mist that seemed.... thicker.

With a breeze of the wind Ferunoth would turn to dust for now, disappearing as they all left the area.

Mirius would hurry and followed Ammy. "I ever tell you that dragon weird?s me out, Ammy?" Mirius said to Ammy.

S'arallo would stay back some with Amaretto and Fleety just to make sure they didn't get in any trouble being further back.

"Ferunoth can take some time to get used to." Ammy told Mirius as they kept jogging. She looked back to the others following and noted S'arallo dropped back to help with the Twibbles. "Damn things are going to be trouble if they can't keep up with the group."

As they ran on the black mist thickened, had a smell of burning flesh to it and something in the mist was trying to prey upon the minds of the group. Probing, groping and searching for nightmares to use against them. Ammy came up a bit short as she saw faces of the dead before her for a moment and she shook her head as one looked like James. She raised a fist for the group slow and stop a moment.

Lene was panting a bit, not from running but a bit from fear. The goddess was working on throwing off some psionic attack as she saw Takhasis standing in the mists, wanting to flay her alive. Fleety noticed the group slowing and saw the signal to stop. Shi looked about the thick mist, sniffed it and wrinkled hir muzzle as Spiritor forces started to charge hir from the mists. Shi stood hir ground knowing that those forces were long gone.

Amaretto just walked through the mists, leading the herd of Twibbles and just stared at the others, not understanding what was hitting these daft idiots. "Something wrong, Ammy? You look positively scared of something." She grinned showing her sharp demon fangs.

Ammy gave a few deep breaths and closed her eyes clearing it, the links she with Aribius, through his marriage to Amaretto, had weakened the pull on her mind that was beyond fatigued and nightmare ravaged from months of dealing with the Knight. "The Mist.... careful guys... it plays with your head."

S'arallo felt something trying to mess with his mind. Images and voices seemed to be fading in and out to him and he shook his head. "It is trying to get into mine as well," he said displeased.

Mirius was walking with hem and didn't feel anything at first, but then she stopped in her tracks. Ammy and Fleet may feel it over the link as Mirius started going into panic mode. She started looking everywhere, panting frantically and even went to the point of ducking for cover. By the time she was on the ground she had her SMG in her paws again. The mist was throwing Mirius into a flashback and she suddenly believing she was somewhere else, likely being in a battle she had been in. In moments she had even started firing the gun aimlessly into the mist thinking she was shooting enemy soldiers.

Fleety snapped out of hir haziness hearing the gun fire and jumped onto Mirius wrestling to get her hands off of the trigger. "Mirius! Calm down! Breathe! The mist is playing with your mind!" Fleety hissed into her ears shi lay on top of Mirius.

Ammy felt a few rounds shatter on rock and ricocheted plinking off of her armor. She went to Fleety and Mirius and knelt by them and put her stone hand on Mirius' forehead. ~Calm, Mirius. Calm. Hear my thoughts and stay calm. The mist wants your fears. I want you stay calm. You're with strong friends and you won?t be hurt. Calm. Stay Calm.~

The gunfire echoing through the canyons was a bit loud. Lene, having banished the old, dark goddess to the mists of imagination looked behind them with worry. They were standing still too long and she could start hearing the echoes of armor coming into the canyon valley.

Amaretto watched everyone amused. "Guess I fear nothing."

Mirius started screaming and flailing when the gun was taken out of her hands, but she still seemed to be in panic mode. The things they said seemed to be perceived differently in her mind. "No.. no, you're lying! You're just going to take me and torture me!" Her paw reached over to the side as if grabbing something and her soul magic sparked and a knife made of soul magic appeared and she went to try and stab Fleety and while doing that she tried to bite at Ammy's hand and forearm.

S'arallo looked to Amaretto noticing she wasn't being affected. He may have wanted to say something, but he didn't. He moved to where Mirius was being held down and he looked to them. "I do have practice in tricking one's mind. Perhaps I can help her out of it?"

Mirius would only find a stone hand to bite on Ammy. Fleety rolled away as the knife sliced into hir shoulder, not causing any bleeding but burning like hell as the soul energy bypassed hir old armor and touched hir own soul. Shi watched Mirius warrily, her gun in Fleety's hands.

Ammy looked to S'arallo. "By all means, try. We can't afford for her to be violent." She could hear the approaching armor and was quietly cursing. She pointed at Amaretto and Lene. "You two. Investigate. Don't engage unless you have to." She snarled in a low tone.

Amaretto and Lene nodded. Their usual hatred for each other shelved for this mutual mission. Both Lupes vanished into the mist behind the group to investigate the noise of armor while the rest worked on Mirius.

Mirius yipped when her teeth bit down very hard on the stone, breaking a few teeth and making her gums bleed. That blood taste in her mouth started leading to more violence. She tried to get up and was about to jump at Fleet until S'arallo used the Force and slammed her down onto her back. She was flailing and trying to get free, but soon even her limbs were pinned down by the Force. S'arallo stayed very calm as he held her there and he kneeled down beside her. He would wave his other hand in front of her as he spoke in a soothing voice. "Mirius, everything is well. You are here with family and friends but being blinded by a false image. You're turning against them. You don't want to harm them. Go to sleep and you will awaken from this nightmare soon." S'arallo had repeated it twice since Mirius was still going wild, but after the second time she started to calm down and look more peaceful and eventually her eyes closed and breathing slowed down to a relaxed state. S'arallo gave a sigh and went to lift Mirius up and carried her in her arms. "We have to get out of this area before she wakes up. I don't know how long it'll hold on her with this stuff still around."

Soon Amaretto and Lene were behind a few rocks getting a glimpse at an approaching group of Soul Armor. 40 of the walking suits powered by souls were marching close ranks, and armed with shields and spears.

Amaretto looked to Lene. "Come. Let's take them. They are just souls in armor."

Lene looked hesitant. "Mother said not to engage. Just observe and report back."

Amaretto snorted at Lene's words. "Do you follow your mothers every word like a blind puppy? You're a goddess of war. Look at our situation. One of our own is out of her mind at the moment and we have many enemies approaching. What do you think will happen if we face larger numbers ahead of us?"

Lene swallowed hard. "We'd be trapped and taken down. Alright... on 3 then. Hit hard, and fast. If it gets too hot we're bolting Amaretto." She unsheathed her snarling wolf sword and spoke a small prayer, arming her with vigilance.

Amaretto held out a hand and a dark steel long sword appeared, enchanted to never break and be sharp as anything ever made. "1..." she started to count. "2..." Lene replied, crouching and getting ready. "3." They said together and bolted from the rocky hiding place and attacked the walking Soul Armors.

Ammy looked to S'arallo and nodded seeing Mirius was contained for now. "Start running ahead S'arallo. There's a big gorge that the valley empties into. Hopefully this thick mist is thin there." She looked to Fleety. "You okay love?"

Fleety stood and nodded, holding onto the SMG still. "Shoulder stings but it'll fade soon. I'll head with S'arallo. You wait for Lene and Amaretto?" Shi asked.

Ammy nodded and then heard the sound of clashing steel deep in the mist. "Shiit. Move. I'll come back with those two." Ammy ran into the mist behind them heading in Amaretto and Lene's direction.

Fleety watched her leave and shivered a moment. "I get this feeling that splitting a party is never a good idea." Shi looked to S'arallo and would follow him, the Twibbles keeping up better as there was little rubble to distract them here.

S'arallo sighed and nodded to Fleety. "it is a very uneasy feeling, especially in situations like this." He started moving forward while holding the sleeping Mirius, who twitched very often in her sleep and made whimpers. "She's strong at heart, but trouble with the mind isn't she?" S'arallo asked Fleety as he moved forward.

Fleety sighed. "You have no idea S'arallo." As Fleety and S'arallo reached the clearing the site before them would make them slow. The mist was indeed thinner here and not feeling like it clouded the mind but the open area in the canyon was not empty. It was a massive, ancient graveyard filled with tombstones, statues, crypts and mausoleums. "Well... I guess we went from the frying pan and into the fire." Fleety said.

S'arallo gave a soft sigh again. "Well, Fleety, if it is alright with you and Ammy and of course her, perhaps I could help her into meditation. My master taught me much about soothing the mind and not letting emotions get the best of me." When they reached there he would go to gently place Mirius down onto the ground and on her back.

The Soul Armors were proving formidable. The spears they wielded kept Lene and Amaretto at bay and from getting close often. When they could get close, the heavy shields blocked their sword strikes. Lene slashed at the ground sending three blasts of condensed air at them, trying to break them up, as soon as the blew back, others took their place in classic Phalanx defense. Amaretto changed her tactics from trying to hit the Soul Armor and went for their spears, slashing at the hafts to remove the spear heads.

Ammy neared the fight and saw what was happening. This was not going to bode well for them if that group kept following them. She slid to a stop, knelt, evoked a protection spell on the cables lying on the sandy floor then looked to either side of the canyon walls. Both hands glowed as she invoked two spells. "Amaretto, Lene, run!" She stood and pointed to either canyon wall with her each hand and blasted the rock with a sonic blast each. The walls started to rumble and groan.

Lene and Amaretto heard Ammy, saw the blasts and they stopped their attacks. They backed up, turned and ran past Ammy as a rock avalanche crashed down on the 40 Soul Armors, crushing them under a ton of rocks. Ammy soon was running with Lene and Amaretto until they caught up with where S'arallo, Fleety and Mirius had gone.

S?arallo saw Ammy, Amaretto and Lene reach them again. "Did things go well?" he asked the girls.

Ammy stopped running and looked at was ahead of them. "We were being flanked by Soul Armor. 40 units. Buried them in an avalanche. Not sure if that'll stop them or just slow them."

Lene stopped by S'arallo and Mirius and knelt by her. "She doing okay?" She asked S'arallo.

Amaretto took up a spot at the head of the group, that sword still in her hand and looked over the cemetery. "I'll have to come back here sometime and have a picnic."

Fleety just looked at Amaretto and shook hir head. "I don't know how you and Ammy can be from the same soul." Shi moved into the cemetery a bit further, SMG held in hands and trained in front of hir.

"She is well, Lene. If there's more thick mist I recommend she stay more behind us so she doesn't freak out again by accident. Her mind doesn't seem to be strong against these things. I'd like to take her into meditation like I was wanting with your mother." He leaned over Mirius some and gently shook her shoulder. "Mirius, wake up. Wake up." he said softly.

Mirius' eyes would open after whimpering a lot and she woke up with a scream and sat up quickly. She started crying and leaned against Lene and held onto her. She felt confused and scared.

Ammy walked over to Mirius and held her for a moment freeing Lene. She whispered soft words into her ear. "Shh.... shh... it's okay. No one was hurt. Mirius, hold still. I'm going to put a protecting ward on your forehead. It won't hurt but it'll block more mental attacks. Can you be brave for me and keep fighting love?" She looked into Mirius' eyes. The once gentle gold eyes Ammy used to have were replaced with gold eyes having a green ring around the inner part of the eye. They were calm, focused and stern eyes of someone ready to make a lot of hard decisions. She was letting bravery and courage flow over the mate bonds.

Lene just watched her mothers for a bit. Fleety and Amaretto had gone a bit further in the cemetery but stopped. So far they found no threats, but with so many statues, it was hard to tell which were possessed and which weren't.

Mirius sniffled and looked into Ammy's eyes. She gave a quiet nod to Ammy. "Okay," she said softly. "I'll keep going." The bond was helping her slowly start to feel better and less panicked now.
Ammy's stone hand glowed white and she traced a warding glyph on Mirius' forehead then drew the same glyph on her own forehead. "Anything attacking your mind has to get through me first now." She stood and held out her hand to Mirius. "Come on love. Our kids are waiting for us to rescue them."

S'arallo would stand up and left Mirius to Ammy now. He moved and stood beside Myrlene. "Guess it?s either this or a bunch of psychotic Sith, yes?" He said with a grin to Myrlene.

Lene nodded to S'arallo. "Think I'd rather take the Sith... at least their predictable." She moved from S'arallo and into the cemetery, light saber out and activated, watching every statue she past. Fleety and Amaretto pressed deeper into the cemetery seeing everyone starting come in as well. The Twibbles kept rolling and pulling cable, those cables acting as emergency evac and sensor feeds for Andu's Gaia.

Mirius smiled at Ammy and took her hand and got up with her help. "Thank you, Ammy. I'm sorry." she would give her a gentle kiss then looked at the twibbles. "They're so weird and cute at the same time." She made a little giggle.

S'arallo walked with Myrlene staying by her. Seemed everyone was walking in pairs so he stayed with Myrlene. "Did you learn your force sensitivity skills from your mother?" He asked quietly.

Lene looked to S'arallo a moment then back to the statues. "No. Mother was taught by a gray Jedi Master, Ember Pallin. He trained me at the same time as mother learned. Master Pallin taught us the use of both light and dark and how the Force can create even elemental attacks." Her purple light saber hummed, casting garish lavender light on the tombstones and statues. She paused thinking one statue moved, or was that just shadows playing tricks? It was a very large looking statue in the form of some ancient horned beast. The stone ears twitched as she watched it.

Ammy agreed with Mirius about the Twibbles as Mirius got up. "Fleety has your SMG for now. Shi'll probably hand it back soon. Shi's up ahead with Amaretto. It's frightening seeing how my family is getting along with former enemies." She headed into the cemetery, keeping Mirius with her, light saber in hand, deactivated.

Up ahead, about 500 feet Fleety and Amaretto looked around more. "I don't get this... it seems a lot of these obstacles we face could bring down the average, stubborn, foolish adventurer. Do you think the Knight has other hostages?" Fleety asked Amaretto.

Amaretto kept looking about. She was getting the feeling that many eyes were watching her in the cemetery and the fur on her neck was bristling. She kept scanning. "I wouldn't put it past the Knight not to enslave many for amusement." Her eyes caught some statues that shouldn't belong in the cemetery. They had real armor on though they didn't move. She pointed at them. "I think we have company ahead. 6 of them."

"I learned from a Jedi we came across during my travels when I was in space on an exploration ship. I volunteered with another to take in a chance to understand their culture. We often had volunteers on our ship to try and learn the cultures of other species throughout long distances and would always take notes. It was fun while it lasted." S?arallo said with a small smile. He noticed she was looking at a statue and then he looked at it as well.

Mirius would start moving with Ammy. "Fleety uses guns?" She asked and heard about Amaretto with Fleety. "Think they want to bang?" she asked Ammy with a small grin.

"I'd rather not think that my husband wants anything to do with that skank." Ammy said as she noticed a few more odd statues like the ones Amaretto saw. Armored statues. "I think we better get out of this cemetery quick. It feels like a hunting ground for..." She never finished that line as a statue wearing armor appeared by them and stabbed at them with a very real, very none stone spear.

The statues Amaretto saw were now moving. They held glowing weapons, marking them magical and they fanned out to keep Fleety or Mirius from running through a gap in their closing net.

Fleety just grinned at the statues. "Time for them to eat lead." shi pulled the trigger and it did nothing. The SMG wouldn?t fire. Fleety looked down at the gun confused now.

Amaretto sighed and walked past him, hands burning with spells as she held onto her dark steel long sword. "Did you check that the safety was off, you moron." She said to Fleety and approached the nearest statue. She flung a deconstruction spell at it, and the armor absorbed the spell. She curse and closed in close enough to slash at the Statue with her sword.

The statue S'arallo and Lene stared at, blinked, stared right back at them leapt off of its pedestal with a large, loud thump and grind of stone. It put its head down, four very sharp horns crowned its head and it pawed the ground as it was getting ready for a charge.

S'arallo quickly activated his light saber again and glared at the statue. He reached up with his free hand toward the creature and started trying to use the Force to lift the large creature off the ground.

Mirius yipped some and jumped to the side and quickly pulled out the chimera pistol which was still left on its own deconstruction alchemy settings and fired a few shots before it ran out of its clip when firing at the enemy hoping to hurt it.

Mirius' shots would have the same effect as Amaretto?s spells and get absorbed by the Soul Armor the statue wore. Ammy side stepped, the spear skimming across her armor, scratching it a little. Golden light shown as her saber snap-hissed to life and she brought the plasma blade around in a smooth arc, cleanly severing the hands from the statue. She stepped in and gave the thing a powerful kick to the chest, knocking it back into a tombstone. She was moved back as well as the statue was heavier than her.

Fleety was trying to find the safety on the SMG and gave up, not familiar with the gun. Shi saw Amaretto closing in with one of the six armored statues in front of the group. Shi saw Ammy and Mirius deal with a few as well. "Mirius! Catch!" Shi flung the SMG towards Mirius over the 500 ft span and held out hir hands. From nothing appeared the great sword of Canis-Lupis and shi moved towards the other 5 statues. Shi held the humming, holy blade and swung in a high arc at three coming statues.

Amaretto closed in with the statue and her sword was slicing into the armor it had but not making much progress as the statue wielded two swords enchanted with fire. It kept blocking and trying to lunge at her with those flames.

S'arallo succeeded in lifting the huge statue off of the ground enough for it to lose traction and slowly flail three inches off of the ground. Lene saw S'arallo had kept the beast from charging with the Force. She lifted her empty hand, the other with the humming light saber in it and clenched her fist. She fueled her Force power with the hatred she felt for the Knight and ripped up the surrounding tombstones around her and sent them crashing into the beast statue, causing it to crack and crumble apart.

S'arallo would grin to Myrlene as they worked together to take down the large statue creature. "One Jedi for this evil person is trouble, two is a big problem." He gave Myrlene a wink and looked around. "Do you want to go help your mothers and I the other two?"

Mirius heard Fleety call out for her to catch something. All she knows is she turned around and saw an object fly out of the mist real quickly and hit her in the chest from not being able to see it early. She stumbled back some startled and from the hit. "Fleet! What the hell?!" She yelled out in his direction.

Fleety sliced through two statue heads with helmets, but the third had ducked and came in close to Fleety and jabbed hir hard with a superhuman punch. Fleety was knocked back a bit, hir armor dented and buckling on one side. Shi grimaced as the hit cracked a rib. Hir great sword was lost among the tombstones for now.

Lene nodded to S'arallo. "Will do." She darted back to Ammy and Mirius as several unseen armored statues appeared quickly to attack Ammy and Mirius. Lene held out her empty hand and slammed two of the 10 that appeared now into an empty crypt. Another motion of her hand and she slammed the heavy stone door close.

Ammy stabbed the head of the armored statue she'd cut the hands off and barely missed getting clocked by a morning star mace that grazed her helmet, almost ripping it off of her head as the mace slammed into a granite statue and was stuck. Ammy snarled, reached out to the statue and closed her hand tight, letting rage flow through her. The armored statue crumpled into a compact ball of stone dust and mangled metal.

Amaretto was finding the duel of swords to be rather irritating and barked a spell at the statue. ~Kas Dwemo Rinte Loom.~ The demon in the statue and the soul in the armor were banished. The statue toppled, lifeless.

S'arallo raced to Fleety and Amaretto's direction. Seeing Amaretto had herself handled, he threw his saber using the Force and guided it past Fleet, without hurting Fleet, and had it to try and go straight through the statue before having it boomerang back to his hand.

Mirius saw more of these things pop up now and she quickly went to lift up her SMG back into her hands. She saw the safety on and clicked it off. The moment she did she would turn to a statue and fired at it, emptying the rest of the clip from the gun. Mirius riddled the armored statue with her SMG fire and it crumbled from the inside, the armor falling apart.

S'arallo's saber cleaved the armor statue into two halves, from top of head to groin. Fleety gave the Jedi a thumbs up and unsheathed hir vorpal katana. The great sword shi'd lost had vanished, back to its storage once Fleety no longer held it. Katana in hand she closed in on 3 statues that emerged around hir, Amaretto and S'arallo as backup.

Amaretto dodged a nasty whip strike at her and got behind the six, armored statues. She pointed to the ground and made dark tentacles rise from the ground, spiked and massive. They would slam into the armored statues.

Ammy and Lene fought with 5 of the armored statues that circled them. They were back to back, sabers, gold and violet humming and spinning with death. Statues would lose weapons and limbs as those plasma blades met them. Ammy and Lene would slam the delimbed statues back into the cemetery with strong blasts of Force push.

Mirius reloaded her SMG as she looked at the remaining ones still near her, Ammy and Lene. "Dammit, why didn't I bring a shotgun instead if we were going to deal with this crap." she shouted. Dropping another clip and loading in another she picked one of the three, aimed and started firing.

S'arallo would run up to stand near Fleety and Amaretto with his saber ready to attack when they were.

The tentacles from Amaretto smashed and flattened for of the six armored statues. Fleety, nearing one of the two remaining statues up front, slashed with hir vorpal katana as the statue parried with an enchanted long sword. Ethereal sparks flared as the two countered back and forth. The other armored statue was attempting to circle behind Fleety and stab hir with two green glowing daggers.

Mirius' focused and aimed fire ripped apart the armored statue she picked. Ammy looked to Lene and Lene grinned and held out a hand. "How about a twirl mom." Lene's saber was still active. Ammy deactivated her saber, grabbed Lene's hand drew on some of her Force power and spun Lene around rapidly then released, sending her daughter straight for the last two armored statues. Lene snapped out her wings just enough to make her twirl like a cork screw and slashed apart the two statues as she spun between then. Lene evened out, stopped her spin and landed, flicking her saber to side as if she had a katana and shaking off the blood.

Mirius would smile as they took out the three statues and lowered her weapon. Though Mirius held a paw over her muzzle and started groaning loudly in pain. She didn't realize she had broken teeth until now and the pain caught up with her. "mmm, dammit why do my teeth hurt?!" She nearly shouted. "Even taste blood."

S'arallo glanced over and saw one of the statues trying to sneak up behind Fleety. He charged for that statue and went to try and make a quick slice at its waist. The statue S'arallo targeted whirled sensing the Jedi and brought it's glowing daggers up to block the light saber's path. The statue lost both of its hands and the daggers, disarmed for now. Fleety's fight with the other statue was coming to a close, as shi got a clear opening to the statues chest. Shi stabbed the statue through, the statue and armor vanished, sucked into a void dimension.

Ammy looked around and didn't see any more statues that were apparently active. She moved to Mirius. "Pop a Phoenix Weed vial Mirius. That'll numb the pain and stop the bleeding. You lost a few teeth trying to bit my marble hand." She raised her stone hand and showed the faint teeth marks on it.

Lene walked over to Mirius and Ammy. "So far we are getting hit lightly...." she sounded worried. "The Ebony Knight had a ton of powerful beings he's attacked us with, but now that we are here, were are they?"

Amaretto saw Fleety and S'arallo had things in hand, she glanced about the old cemetery once more trying to get a feeling.

"Why the hell did I bite your hand?" Mirius asked Ammy. Mirius didn't seem to remember what happened so well, but she did take a vial Ammy said and drank some of it and felt the pain slowly starting to go away. "Dammit, now I need a dentist after this." she rubbed the side of her muzzle.

S'arallo grinned a little when he disarmed the statue. His saber would make another round at the statue now that it was unarmed and went for the kill, showing no mercy against them.

"I can restore your teeth Mirius with magic, but I can't spare that frivolity right now." Ammy gave Mirius shoulder a squeeze of care. "The potion will keep you comfy for a day." Her tone was like a commander making sure each troop she had was healthy enough not to get killed or get others killed. She moved past Mirius and went up to the ending battle with Fleety, S'arallo and Amaretto.

Lene would stop by Mirius on her way to follow Ammy. "I've... never seen mom this focused before. It's as if..." She couldn't quite put her finger on how mother felt.

S'arallo terminated the statue, cutting it in half efficiently.

With no enemies around, Fleety looked about the cemetery. "Damn things are hard to spot unless they move or wear armor. Best we keep moving. Ammy, how far do we have to go still to reach our way point."

Ammy made it up to Fleety and pulled out her map and looked it over. "About 2 miles of a canyon valley past the northern end of this city." She put the map away and with the need to defend and kill past her, she took out her tri-corder scanner and activated it over the dusty remains of the statues and armor.

Amaretto had left the group behind and scouted further up. Oddly, one of the Twibbles ran into her foot, cable still tethered to it. She knelt by it and gave the Twibble a few strokes as her tri-colored eyes kept wary.

Mirius nodded to Ammy, "okay." she said softly then looked to Myrlene. "As to the knight's unit situation. A man once said if everything is going according to plan, it's an ambush." Then she went to give Myrlene a big hug all the sudden and nuzzled her ear with a sigh. "Think Ammy's going into leader mode. And I just want you to know I love you, Lene. I don't know if something bad or not is going to happen, but I just want you to know that. And I'm still sorry for slapping you."

S'arallo would deactivate his saber and looked around cautiously and looked to Ammy. "Too bad we do not have a vehicle to get through all of this faster as well as take out these numbers easier."

Ammy finished scanning the statue and stood. She started to turn in a slow circle, scanning the areas around them. "I'm picking up large groups of statues to either side of us, about 800 feet away. They don't appear active right now. If we keep going north, we'll slip past them and get out of this cemetery. I considered a vehicle, S'arallo, but many that we have are either too noisy, or may likely be disabled by this mist." She clipped the tri-corder back to her belt and started to walk ahead of them, North and to where Amaretto was keeping watch.

Fleety sheathed hir katana and looked at the rest of the group a moment and sighed. "I'd just like a few sun beams in the dark gray hell." Shi moved to follow Ammy now. Shi saw all but one Twibble by Amaretto. "Seems we lost a trailer."

Lene hugged Mirius back and then would walk with her to where the others were. "I think I like mom this way. She doesn't seem scared like she used to be."

Amaretto stood seeing Ammy aproach. "You're turning into an apt warrior. I guess the rumors you used to kill for a living are true." She grinned, showing those sharp teeth. "I can't detect or feel anything up ahead. We should be clear."

Ammy nodded to her for a long moment. "I scanned the armor and statues. All of you have scanners. They have been updated with the signatures of both armor and statues. Use them to scan and area if you're unsure about that area. Better safe than dead." She looked at her map again. "2 miles to go people. Let's double time it." she rolled up the map and started jogging ahead of them.

Mirius would walk with Myrlene towards the group ahead. "To be honest I kinda get turned on when she's like this," Mirius said with a giggle. It probably wasn't the right thing to say out loud, but she said it anyways.

S'arallo nodded and looked at the virtual map as they walked. "That is a shame. If only we had more time, although I understand time is not always a luxury."

Lene nodded to S'arallo and worked her way down one of the rows of cages trying to get closer to Mako's voice. "Hang in there! We're coming! Who are you?" She asked.

Mako heard Lene's voice and was never so happy to hear someone close to his sister. "M..Mako." He called out.

Lene moved faster up the row of cages. "Hang in there uncle!"

Amaretto couldn't move away from the lunge of Zahra quickly enough. Those poisoned talons ripped into her side causing her to bleed a lot. She staggered back holding her side as she called upon Airibius link with her to heal her wounds, but she was feeling dizzy and ill now from the nasty poison.

Fleety found dragon teeth sinking into hir back and shi howled in pain, raising a hand and slapping at hir back forcing a jolting zap of electricity to pass into Calcifers dragon/lupe muzzle. Cal did a very un-dragon like yelp and released his pray, hissing and backing away from Fleety. He crouched low, prepping his breath weapons. Fleety's back was bleeding pretty badly and shi was feeling numb. Seem this dragon thing... shi looked closer and felt hir heart sink... hir grandson had neurotoxin venom being feral. Shi dug into hir med pack with numb fingers popped a Phoenix Weed potion and tried to stay on hir feet.

At this point in time, the shadow clone Mako darted from the shadows of one of the arena entries behind lizard-like Zahra and fired his four barreled gun at Amaretto, thinking her Ammy from her looks as he closed in on the numbed Fleety, katana poised for a slashing strike to hir neck.

Fleety managed a week parry with her vorpal katana, keeping hir head intact but hir left shoulder was slashed open from the blade. The phoenix weed potion in hir system the only thing keeping hir from bleeding out but shi was in a lot of pain from the fresh injury.

S'arallo would walk with Myrlene through the room of cages as they looked for Mako and as they got closer he heard something behind them. He looked back at the crystal creature was starting to reform and reshape itself. But it was no longer going into a humanoid form, it instead took on a four legged creature like a dog and it looked just as deadly. It started charging after him and S'arallo turned around. "Myrlene, look out!" S'arallo shouted as it lunged and jumped at Myrlene. But before it hit her it suddenly changed form and turned into a bombardment of cotton balls at Myrlene. S'arallo had this very strange surprised look on his face wondering what just happened. He was speechless.

Zahra had jumped at Amaretto wanting to tackle her and try to kill her, but there was a sudden scream from the mutated girl. She had jumped in front of clone Mako's gunfire and the bullets going through her back. She would have collapsed before getting to Amaretto, whimpering and groaning in pain as she bled from the wounds.

Lene heard the shouted warning. Spun, and she felt she was in slow motion as she saw the destroyed crystal monster was back and pouncing them. Then her mind snapped a little as she was showered with cotton balls. She just stood there a long moment, very, very confused by this.

Amaretto, seeing the lizard thing being shot by a new enemy that attack Fleety gave her a chance. Still sick feeling and dizzy. She ran wobbly toward the downed Zahara and took her sword and began hacking away at the beast.

Fleety staggered back from what shi saw was Mako. "Why? Why are you attacking me Mako? We're not enemies!"

Mako lunged with his katana for Fleety trying to skewer him. Fleety lurched to the side, missed the thrust at hir belly and snapped hir vorpal katana out in an arc taking Makos left leg. Mako crashed to the ground and howled in pain for a moment before his leg re-grew rapidly and he stood again grinning at Fleety. "Not so fast..."

Cal snorted in rage. His prey was taken from him! How dare that human take his prey! His primal mind roared in rage and he vented his cold breath upon Mako, freezing the man solid in a thick cube of magical ice.

S'arallo looked around then back at Myrlene and how she was surrounded by cotton balls now. "I am going to assume this knight has a strange sense of humor." He slowly started heading towards Mako's cage now. "Are you okay?" he asked the man.

The mutated Zahra started screeching and squirming in pain as Amaretto started hacking at her, cutting into her and killing her. Eventually the mutated lizard girl would stop screaming, moving and breathing. A pool of blood would start to appear around her body as all the blood drained from all her wounds.

Lene just shook her head. "At this rate, I don't know anymore S'arallo." She moved by him to the cage.

Mako looked haggard, very thin, covered in filth and smelled horrible. He smiled seeing Lene there, his lips cracked and bleeding. "Myrlene.... where's my sister? Where's Ammy?"

Lene worked on opening the cage using the Force to rip apart the lock. "Mom's gone off to recon the rest of the city. She's not with us. Hold still uncle and I'll get those chains off you very soon Mako."

Mako seemed to relax a bit. "So the image of her in the arena?"

Lene grinned. "Her dark twin Amaretto masquerading as her."

"Thank the gods...." Mako murmured as Lene worked on removing the chains. To S'arallo he spoke. "I?m a bit under the weather but I am doing as good as I can be in this circumstance. Get me a weapon and I'll help you all get out of here."

Amaretto darted back as the acid in Zahra's blood created noxious fumes as it mixed with the sand and gravel. She turned to see someone in a block of solid ice and a snarling dragon coming towards them. She looked to Fleety and noticed shi was pretty banged up. Her own wounds were sealed by Airibius' power and the poison was slowing down. She pointed at the dragon and fired several fire balls at him.

Cal snarled and hissed more as the fireball were flung at him. Some of them hitting scales and dissipated. Others scorching the ground. Two hit fur and burned him, causing him pain. He spat fire breath then ice breath at Amaretto, and then hissed more finding this prey too strong. He snapped his wings open, leaped into the air and flew up high in the arena.

Fleety watched Mako be frozen, and then saw hir grandson fly away. Shi could let him escape but shi didn't want to hurt him either. Shi raised a hand and let fly a blast of ice and lightning at Cal.

Cal was caught by the blast in the side, not hurting him but it did slam him off course and he smashed through a large viewing window on a floor below the highest floor. He rolled along the room smashing benches and chair before stopping. He roared in frustration snapping his bladed tail around the room smashing things and putting holes in the walls around him. Some of the splintered furniture was batted out of the broken window to smash on the arena floor bellow. His rage coddled for now, he paused and scented the air. Something above him smelled like prey. Like young prey. He moved on all fours, forcing his way through the narrow doorway in the room, widening the opening and taking out a part of the walls around him. Cal began to roam the halls of the floor, looking for a way up to the prey.

Amaretto looked at Fleety with amusement. "You didn't kill that creature." She threw her sword to the ground, the acid in Zahra's blood eating the blade away.

FLeety looked at Amaretto and shook hir head. "I can't kill my grandson. Come, let?s find the others then head up." She tapped the commband. "Lene, S'arallo, come in. This is Fleety. We ran into hostile in the arena. One killed the other frozen and I think I ran into Calicefer. He took off."

S'arallo would smile some to Mako. Then h replied over the com to Fleety, "We ran into something hostile as well. A crystalline creature that tried to kill us and almost Myrlene, but then it turned into cotton balls. I think Myrlene might suffer some fluffy injuries." He looked around to make sure no one was sneaking up on them and then he saw something odd. "And now there is trees blocking our path we came." He stared at that for a long moment. S'arallo didn't know if this was some kind of odd behavior from the knight or not. "How do trees appear inside a building like this?? he asked anyone.

Soon Fleety and Amaretto would hear faint sounds of hissing and soon they would notice there was a swarm of snakes coming at them in their direction.

Fleety cursed. "This day keeps getting better. We got a ton of snakes coming at us. I don't know if we can get to you. We'll try to. Lene. Cal went up several floors. I smacked him through a window. He's up there somewhere and made. Be careful Lene.... he isn't right." Fleety started backing up, pulled out hir .45 and started firing at the snakes. Amaretto backed away from them too and flung balls of acid at them.

Lene finally got the chains off of Mako and looked at the trees S'arallo mentioned. "Trees.... and a monster that turned into cotton balls..." She was getting a feeling this should make sense to her somehow. She handed Mako her .45 pistol. "Hope you can shoot well uncle. Let's head for this arena or find a way up." She moved past Mako's cage now.

Mako accepted the .45 from Lene and rubbed his wrists. He moved to follow them slowly, weakened from his long imprisonment and lack of food. "I'm a bit shaky but I can still shoot the nuts off of a gnat."

Calcifer was a walking disaster zone. Tail lashing around ripping up the hallways he walked, still searching for the prey he smelled.

The snakes were dying easily, but more and more kept coming endlessly. Some even coming from other directions trying to get on Amaretto and Fleety to try to bite them with venomous bites.

The other way out for S?arallo and them seemed to have voices coming from that end, whispers of multiple voices though no words could be made out. Soon glowing red eyed creatures that crawled or ran hunched over were coming for them. They were all coming for Mako, Lene and S'arallo.

S'arallo would pull out his blaster and fire at these shadowy looking creatures. They seemed to turn to ashes when they were hit, but that didn't more wasn't coming.

Around this time a blotch shadow from under Myrlene would appear and a creature with claws and long arms would come from under Myrlene, go to grab her by her feet and went to drag her down into the shadow.

Lene looked at the shadows with glowing eyes. "What the hell are.... gah!" she was grabbed and yanked into the shadow.

Mako tried to grab for Lene but she was gone. As he was crouched, Mako fired rounds at on coming shadow things.

Fleety was soon finding snakes wrapping around hir legs and bodies. "Would now be a bad time to say that I hate snakes!" Shi wrestled to get them off of hir, feeling bites trying to puncture hir old armor and hoping they wouldn't get through.

Amaretto was killing snakes with acid as much as possible but she had a new problem. Shadow Mako had somehow broke free of the ice block and he was closing in on who he thought was Ammy. He raised his gun and fired at Amaretto, shooting her in the chest. She staggered back as she was shot in the lungs. She crumpled on the floor, rasping for air. Fleety was fighting more with the snakes and screamed at the commband. "Aribius! Get her out of here now!"

S'arallo would have kept firing his blaster at the things along with Mako. They all would be turned to ash and soon no more came. S'arallo looked around. "Myrlene? Myrlene!?" Then he started speaking over the com, "Fleety, Myrlene is gone. Something took her and we do not know where she's at!"

Aribius would soon appear by Amaretto with a loud growl. A cyclone of fire would encircle him, Amaretto and Fleety. The snakes would start burning and soon slithered away, none could reach them anymore. He kneeled down by Amaretto, had his paw slip into her as if his hand had the abilities of a ghost and he grabbed the bullets from her body and took them out, then started to heal her. Given that he was a very angry god now he glared at the Mako clone and he held out a paw towards a wall, ripped a large section off and sent it at the Mako clone wanting to crush him.

Shadow clone Mako was crushed by the flying section of wall. It moved to fast for even the clone to move. The wall segment smeared him over arena's floor and nothing regenerated. Fleety panted a few times and gave Airibus a nod of thanks.

"Fleety here. Amaretto is down, and I was attacked by Mako. He's... dead..." Shi looked at the blood smear wondering how to tell Ammy she lost her brother.

Mako heard Fleety and looked at S'arallo. "A fake. That was a fake. I am Mako."

Amaretto was breathing normally now as Aribius removed the bullets from her chest and healed her. "You are going to have a lot of booboo's to kiss on me mister when this is all over." She grinned.

S'arallo spoke over the com as well, "I am standing beside Mako right now." Then he looked to Mako, "Do you know where to go to get out of here?"

Aribius would stop the cyclone of fire and lifted Amaretto up into his arms, carrying her. "Mm, don't worry, my love. I'll have you feeling better once we're home again." he licked Amaretto's nose before looking over to Fleet. "What is next on the agenda?"

Fleety heard S'arallo and breathed a sigh of relief. He looked to Aribius. "My grandson flew up there." Shi pointed to the broken window 200 feet in the air. "He's not right. The Knight's made him... bigger, feral. He bit me and started using breath weapons on us. I must get him back, so I am going to look for a way up. If you need too Aribius, you can get Amaretto out to safety." Shi moved for one of the dark entries leading out of the arena.

Amaretto smiled at Aribius. "You can let me walk. I am well enough."

Mako gave S'arallo a nod. "The knight I think goes up that row then takes a left. I don't know what else is up there but it may be a way out." He was ready to follow, the pistol ready.

Calcifer had found wide stairs going up and the feral lupe/dragon began working his way up, ripping up the steps with his claws. He could smell someone up here. A young someone. Sleeping. Yes, he was getting closer to his prey.

Aribius would use a sharp claw and would make a small cut on Amaretto's leg and grinned. "Oh no, you're hurt. You might have to stay off your feet for a week with this injury." He snickered Even though they were in a risky area, Aribius enjoyed danger.

Fleety would soon come across what was a werewolf that seemed to be roaming one of the halls and then it saw Fleety. Soon it started charging at hir while snarling.

S'arallo nodded to Mako and started walking down the hall with him.

Amaretto just smirked at Aribius. "We need to help Fleety. Gods forbid shi gets maimed then all I'll hear is Ammy bitching at me nonstop."

Mako followed S'arallo as they walked and would find an exit into a long hall that showed a glimpse of a werewolf suddenly charging Fleety. Fleety wasn't expecting a werewolf here and took a moment to think for raising a hand and summoning silver spikes that shi shot out at the werewolf.

The werewolf charging Fleety would let out a loud yelp and then fall to the ground dead from the silver spikes.

S'arallo would give a sigh of relief when the werewolf went down and he waved over to Fleety. "Have you seen Myrlene?" he asked as he walked for Fleety.

Fleety looked to S'arallo and sighed in relief seeing him and a very ill kept Mako. "Seen Lene? She's missing? When? Where? She's not come this way nor was she in the arena." Hir tone held a sharp, worried not. Not again. Shi wasn't losing her daughter again to some psycho.

Mako followed more and hearing Fleety he spoke. "She vanished. Pulled into some shadow on the floor that vanished."

Fleety looked at Mako unsure what to make of that report.

S'arallo moved to stand near Fleet as he spoke, "Did you not get my message over the com? I did explain as to what Mako just said. Something just... took her. She disappeared and we don't know what happened. But we were being attacked by these... transparent creatures which did not put up much of a fight and she was taken during that."

Fleety rubbed hir head and sighed. "Sorry, been a bit banged up and numbed by a bit from my grandson." Shi looked about the hallway and saw stairs going up. Shi pointed at them and started up them. Mako would follow.

Amaretto would look at Aribius to see if he was interested in leaving the group or following.

Calcifer reached a wide hall with windows looking over the whole arena. A locked door was before him and he could smell his prey coming from under the crack at the bottom of the door. He lunged at the door and crashed to a halt as it was very thick, and well made as well as enchanted to resist damage. He let out a loud roar of challenge and went at the door again with claws, fire breath and brute force trying to tear it down.

Aribius would start to carry Amaretto to where Fleety and they were, "Suppose you are right, dear. Their family did help me ascend so the least I could do his help." He would grin and also went to gently put her down onto her feet again.

S'arallo would follow Fleety and Mako up the stairs now.

Aribius would walk with his wife up the stairs and followed the group. While they headed up to the next level he, and probably everyone else, would notice something extremely odd. "What the hell is this?" Aribius asked as he looked at their new opponents.

In the hallways there was a large amount of creatures and things, oddest part was, they were all from children shows. All the things children would often watch on their TV was sitting there and now staring at the group with a very evil look.

Fleety would just pause looking at the hallway, unsure what was going on. "Is that.... demonic Care Bears? Hellish My Little Ponies and vampire ducks from Ducktales?" Shi wasn't sure if shi should be concerned or giggling. This was all very confusing. Fleety decided to head down hallway, vorpal katana out.

Mako just looked at the creatures in the hallway and heard Fleety. "No clue what you all just said, fluffy, but I'll shoot first then speculate." .45 was up in his shaking hands.

Amaretto looked at the creatures and tapped her chin. "Mabella-Donna would love these in her room, don't you think, darky-kins?" she called Aribius by a love name.

Aribius started to chuckle hearing Amaretto, "I bet she would. Okay, we can capture a few for her and surprise her."

S'arallo stood at the ready, his light saber activating as he took a defensive stance, "My starship crew will not believe this story."

It only took a minute before all the creatures started rushing down the hallway screaming in some type of cute anger although it seemed their intent was they were wanting to kill the group.

Fleety side stepped a Care Bear that was shouting it loved hir while it tried to bash hir brains out with a heavy maul. Shi'd stab at it with hir vorpal katana and threw a lightning bolt at a demonic, cutesy unicorn trying to hit hir with a fireball. "I'm sorry, but kiddy time is over. It's time for the adult show!" shi snarled.

Amaretto grinned hearing Aribus and started flinging void spheres at the rushing mob hoping to teleport some back home to her delightful daughter.

Mako stayed quiet and fired with deadly aim, taking on the whole black and blue Smurf team.

While the whole toony assault was going on, and large crash could be heard two floors up. Cal had battered the door down finally. His head was bloodied and a horn was snapped off. Snarling and scenting for any challengers lurking to steal his prey he moved in slowly then sniffed for his prey. He found it in a glass box of some kind. Sleeping and surrounded with ruins. It was a young puppy, fidgeting in nightmare. Cal nosed and nudged the glass box looking for a way to get into and tear the child apart. To lap his young blood and devour the soft, sweet body.

S'arallo would switch between using his light saber to slash through all the adorably angry creatures and using his force powers to push back large numbers to keep them all from being overwhelmed and even using force lightning to shock many of the enemies.

Aribius was sitting back and grinning. He would often flick his fingers catching some things on fire, making other things explode or even using spells to turn them against each other. He was having fun with this, "Oh, I'm so glad we came tonight, my dark queen."

Mako had wiped out the whole Smurf squad and the gun clicked. He was out of ammo and threw the empty gun to smack into the face of giant teddy bear that wanted to get too huggy.

Fleety was lopping heads off left and right. It seemed the hoard was not ending. "I am not going die under a sea of cuteness!? Shi stepped back a bit and hir crimson eyes glowed. "Fiir nistum rona!" shi flung hir paw out in an underhanded wizards greeting and a gout of dragons fire roared down the hall setting things on fire.

Amaretto stayed back watching as the group had the critters under control and Mabella-Donna would have enough toys sent to her for now.

The massive horde of all the children animals would soon be on fire, burning and screaming to death. S'arallo would pause in his attacks and let Fleety set them all on fire now. He would slice any that still came at them while they were on fire just so they didn't hurt anyone. But soon there was little to nothing left of them. Mostly burning bodies and ash.

Aribius leaned over and started giving Amaretto a long kiss, "Mmm, this should count as a date for us."

~*~*~*

Mirius sniped the other three orcs in the group. Ammy summoned an alchemy array to her mind in an instant and set the air on fire around the three remaining hobgoblins burning them to ash. Ammy was about to find where her mangled helmet was tossed and changed her mind as a disintegration ray blasted a chunk of dirt and sand burning it black. Ammy looked up and due to her training resisted the instant shock and stun of seeing two Beholders floating for them. She turned and ran for Mirius. "Run, run, run, run, run!"

Mirius glanced over for a moment and saw the beholders coming for them. She quickly stood up and started following Ammy, "Good lord, Ammy, you're attracting everything!" Mirius held her gun with one hand and started to summon up what appeared to be a type of grenade in her hand using her soul energy. "Don't look back!" She said as she turned some to throw it far behind them and kept running with Ammy. It was a soul-energy variant of a flash bang. In moments it would emit a very bright flash when it went off. Mirius was hoping to temporarily blind the Beholders to buy time.

The soul flash bang worked. Bright light that was soul energy based blinded both beholders that started to emit high pitched screeching like an alarm. Ammy kept running. "Sorry, but I think since the Knight tangled with me and others, he knows our energy and magic so his goons are on alert for anything I do magical now." As she ran she pulled out her .45 and her light saber. "Guess I gotta make myself not blip on his radar anymore! Over here!" she darted down a cramped alleyway that was in the main living complex near their target.

Mirius kept running, although she was starting to feel tired. All this soul energy use was exhausting her and she was even start panting a lot as she followed Ammy into the alleyway.

Ammy crouched low in the alleyway by some debris and took a few deep breaths. She was wearing out as well, not being used to so much physical strain and tension. "We take a breather. I don't think we've been followed. How are you holding up love?" she asked Mirius.

Mirius would sit by Ammy as she panted and tried to regain her energy. "Feeling tired, everything feels a little heavy. Using too much soul-shot magic," she said tiredly to Ammy. She looked up at her, "Where to next?"

Ammy leaned against a wall and took a canteen off of her belt and drank some water then pulled out a ration bar. She looked down the alleyway and saw the building they wanted so close to them. "Looks like our target is close. It's right over there if we can just get to it without alerting more Beholders. That place looks like some kind of temple tower and big. Hope we can find him fast." She bit into her ration bar. "Still certain about staying married to a crazy lady dragging you through war zones for personal revenge?" She grinned at Mirius.

Mirius started to chuckle listening to Ammy, "I thought this was our third date?" she giggled and slowly stood up. "Think I'm feeling a little better. I just don't think I can pull another trick like that without passing out."

Ferunoth would appear on the wall above Ammy and Mirius, sitting all comfortable vertically and defying gravity as he stared down at the two women, "It's so cute watching you two run around," he whispered.

Ammy just had to laugh slowly hearing Mirius. "If this was our third date, I gotta work better on my choices for romantic destinations." She ate more of her ration bar and looked up at Ferunoth. "Hey scaly. Any reports from the others? I've heard nothing, not sure if my commband is working and we've been all over this place dealing with trouble."

Ferunoth would reply to Ammy, "oh, they're fine. They're just dandy."

Mirius giggled listening to Ammy and looked up to Ferunoth, "Ferunoth, if we attract any more trouble can you help us take care of those beholders and things?"

Ferunoth thought about that. "Hmm, only if you cook me a big dinner afterwards."

"Whatever you want. I just want us to make it out of this place alive and we finish with this knight bullcrap." Mirius said.

Ferunoth chuckled, "Very well."

Ammy heard Mirius and groaned. "Great. You think we don't have food after he ate last time, we won?t have anything in the house now." She stood and put her canteen back on her back. "Time to move and I recommend you save the soul energy Mirius. Best we stick to high tech or low tech weapons and keep the magic offline for now. The Knight is in that temple somewhere. It's time to take the head off of this massive army." She moved to the exit of the alley way, looked left and right and waved Mirius to follow as she ran quickly for the massive temple of black stone.

Ammy and Mirius would reach the dark stoned temple without another incident with Beholders, but a peek inside of the nearest high archway showed the temple was full of beings. Ammy felt her heart sink. "This is going to be a very tough fight." She whispered.

Mirius would stop near Ammy and looked over some and felt uneasy as well. "That's a lot of enemies," she said softly, "more bullets than I have."

Ferunoth tip toed and followed them. He stopped by them and listened. "Well, a certain dragon could go all stompy stompy. Then again a certain dragon could always fly others to a high up window to sneak in. But then again, this dragon isn't feeling as enthused as he possibly could." He said and started leaning in towards Ammy, even staring at her as if wanting something from her.

Ammy looked up at Ferunoth noting a silent implication of something desired for services to be rendered. "What do you want if I were to ask for you to fly us up a level and make a big distraction out here once we are inside?" She was probably going to regret asking.

Ferunoth pointed at Mirius as he spoke to Ammy, "Just say whatever like she said and we'll talk about it all later."

Mirius just rolled her eyes at that.

Ammy sighed and nodded to Ferunoth. "Alright. Anything. Let's get up a floor then you are yourself and give the Knight's guard a good headache for us."

Ferunoth quickly turned into his regular dragon form and made an over enthusiastic squeal. He was still in his 12ft form and he got down on his belly. "Hop on and I'll take it you up then. I?ll be sure to make a very big ruckus down here afterwards."

Mirius would climb onto Ferunoth's back, "Not going to screw us over are you?" she asked Ferunoth.

"Mirius, I am a dragon of my word. I have little need to ever lie and I have my own personal grudge against the Knight. For me to do anything to help honestly pleases me."

Ammy climbed onto Ferunoth's back and held on. "Let's get going then." She was sounding a bit more tired now.

Ferunoth flapped his wings and leaped up into the air and took off up to a higher level of the building. Once at a higher level he would make a landing and lowered onto his stomach. "Give him your best. Show no mercy." Then he summoned a gem and handed it to them. "I suggest you both use this crystal. It will restore some of your energy. Careful, it does not have much." Then he bolted off the side and landed on the bottom floor and went into the entrance way on the lower level of the building. He was heading straight for the army on his own with a deep growl.

Mirius would have hopped off the dragon and then looked at the crystal. She picked it up and felt a bit better when it restored some of her own energy, and then she handed it to Ammy.

Ammy took the gem and it restored some energy to her. The crystal was still now. She dropped it to the floor and took her light saber out. "Now, it's time to get serious love. Pretty sure he knows we're here. Lock and load." She darted through the open archway and ran into the Lich King and several undead warriors. "Ah Hell!" she snarled and rolled to her left as a blast of eldritch energy just missed her, blasting a hole through the tower wall.

Ferunoth's charge drew the attention of several Beholders, scores of goblins, hobgoblins, a few large ogres and several smaller sized, undead dragons. That all rushed at him amid disintegration rays from the beholders.

Mirius was about to run in with Ammy but then saw the enemies lying within and she stayed around the corner. She set her sniper over her back and pulled out her SMG again and peeked around the corner and started giving Ammy covering fire, hoping to help her out of trouble.

Ferunoth would growl and roar very loudly at the oncoming forces. The disintegration rays burning holes into the black dragon, but it did not stop him. As they got closer he took a deep breath and in moments he started breathing a stream of fire upon all the enemies.

Ammy's light saber was up as the Lich King fired another eldritch blast. She caught it with her plasma blade and flicked it back at the Lich. The Lich King stumbled back then glared at Ammy with hateful, smoldering coals for eyes. Opening it's skeletally grinning mouth, arcane words spoke and he fired chain lightning at her, hit two of his undead warriors to ensure Ammy would be caught in an electrical arc. The lightning hit her, the armor she work sucked on the lightning shunting it somewhere, but something in the mist that was still here if not then started shorting out the circuits in her suit. She could feel it shutting down the protection field. She flung her saber at the Lich King planting it deep in the being chest. It howled eerily, trying to remove it.

Ferunoth was doing well roasting things with his fiery ancient dragon?s breath, torching most of the minions to ash, melting stone and Beholders. Once he cleared them, he'd feel a powerful chaotic vibe humming from a large spiral stare case that wound down into deep darkness, vanishing from site.

Mirius would take down several of the undead, ripping them apart with her SMG fire. That gun proving very effective today.

Mirius ran out of the clip and only had two left of the SMG by now. She put in another one and moved in, looking around and aiming her gun making sure there were no others sneaking around as she watched Ammy's back.

Ferunoth felt something powerful coming from the staircase and looked towards it. He went to the staircase and followed this source of power. The dragon was in a state of rage and he wasn't looking to stop killing things now.

~*~*~*~

Myrlene would see nothing but blackness for some time and even feel like she was falling, but if she were to blink just once she would realize she was then somewhere else. She was in a dark lit forest. A silent forest with no sound of wild life anywhere.

Lene blinked a bit and looked around. "What the hell is going on?" She moved about walking through the dark, lifeless forest. "S'arallo? Fleety? Mako? Anyone?" she hollered and looked around confused. She was supposed to be in an Arena, looking for her son and brother. She'd had found her uncle. How... did she get here? How?!

Myrlene would notice there was still nothing alive out there. Well, until there were whispers. Her com band wouldn't work either, all communication was lost and there'd be nothing but static. Maybe once or twice she would see the human Zahra for a split second peeking around trees or bushes.

Lene jumped a bit seeing the human Zahra peeking from different things. The voice set her on edge a bit and the static on the comband made her worried. Where was she? "Hello!" She shouted out. "Hello!" She kept walking the dark, lifeless forest.

Myrlene would soon find the young girl, Zahra, standing in front of her. She stared at Myrlene with tears in her eyes for a long moment before speaking, "You all deserve to die."

Lene backed up a bit from the girl she saw crying. "W..what do you mean we all deserve to die? Who are you?" She asked the crying child. Worried for the child she assumed was real.

The entity of Zahra slowly started backing away from Myrlene, "You're all horrible. You should all die." she said as she cried. Then she vanished. Suddenly the dark forest became very loud. There were creatures that could be heard, but not seen. Growls, hissing, roars, screams, many unholy sounds were made. Not far from Myrlene was also what seemed to be a cabin with a door that remained closed.

Finding the noises disconcerting even for a warrior goddess, Lene went with prudence and headed for the cabin as fast as possible, reaching out to test the door to see if it would open.

Myrlene would be able to enter the cabin and when she did the door would slam shut behind her. The noises stopped instantly and everything was silent. There was candles inside the cabin giving off some light. In one window there was Zahra staring through watching Myrlene, but another window from the room shattered as one of those previous, shadowy creatures with glowing eyes came rushing at Myrlene.

Lene cursed hearing the glass shatter. She barely registered Zahra was watching her as she spun, light saber snapping up and hissing to life in violent violet. She charged at the shadow with glowing eyes with a battle charge, swinging her light saber in a lethal arc.

Myrlene would kill the shadow creature, though soon another came as it busted down the door and came after her, wanting to claw at her. These attacks from nowhere wouldn't be the only strange thing. Eventually, Myrlene would realize that the threshold that was once the cabin door would now lead to what appeared to be the hallway of a home.

Lene was wondering if she was going nuts. She spun and attacked the new creature slashing like before, trying to work for towards that home hallway. Any where that may lead back to the arena.

The cabin would disappear and Myrlene seemed to be in just a home now. It was a nice place. Blue, soft carpet floors and light blue walls. There were doors; each one leading to a room and down the hall was a stairway that lead downstairs to the main floor. Downstairs there were sounds of a child crying and shouting.

Lene just froze in the house a long moment; the sudden shift to such a peaceful house was so odd and jarring. Her light saber was deactivated and she looked around. Her ear flicking, hearing the sound of a child?s cry and shouts. Was it a trick? Was she going to be attacked more? How many oddities was she going to be in before she found the arena? Was she trapped in a special hell for not coming for her son any sooner? Her thoughts raced as she hesitantly went to the stairs and walked down them, following the crying and shouts.

What Myrlene would see is the stairs lead down towards the living room. There was three Humarans. Two parents and the little girl Myrlene had seen. There a few Lupinossai there, two appearing to be guards and another being a male/female who was confronting the parents about money. It seemed they were arguing about money and falling behind and the arguing between the adults escalated. Eventually, one of the guards had went over and snatched up the collared girl and started taking her away. Then the other adults started fighting though the Humarans were being subdued, gagged and then pulled away out the front door. It seemed no one took notice to Myrlene's existence no matter what.

The front door would have slammed closed after everyone was gone.

Lene stood there watching what happened. Ice blue eyes flecked with gold wondered if this was the fate of the child she saw and if so, why was she shown? She looked around the house and spoke. "What are you showing this to me for? Am I supposed to avenge you? Help you? Heal or rescue you? Why are you keeping me from my child?"

Myrlene got no answer in the house. The only noise was a door repeatedly opening and closing. It was the back door that was shaking back and forth.

Lene, hearing no response walked for the sound of the door opening and closing. She caught the door and opened it.

The door would open at Myrlene's will and what would be on the other side was a room. On the other side was a door that was busted in and there was the half-dragon Calcifer that was feral. Whenever Myrlene would walk past that door, where she came from would disappear and no longer exist.

As Ferunoth descended he'd find several full grown Cerberus Hounds, nearly matching his size, blocking his decent. Three of the hellish canine heads upon the five hell hounds gave Ferunoth fifteen snarling, snapping and fire breathing heads.

Ferunoth would stop and stare at all the hell hounds. He kept staring at them and looked at each one. He looked at himself and all the holes that were put into him from the beholders and had a thought. He could fight or maybe try to trick them.

The black dragon would tap his claws on the ground a few times and soon a giant corpse of a mammoth was on the ground in front of them. "Mmm, I bet you're all hungry. Don't it just look delicious?"

The five Cerberuses snarled and looked at the dead mammoth. They seemed to be inclined to feast on the mammoth, ignoring the dragon, for now.

Ferunoth started to snicker and turned himself into a small spider. He crawled up onto the wall and the ceiling and started crawling past all the hellhounds to go down the hallway without a problem

Ferunoth would find his way deeper into the bowels of the temple and soon find a large ceremonial chamber, lit with green flame candles, and in the center of the chamber was the massive well of dark souls that glowed black. It pulsed with power, soul energy and chaos. Sitting on the lip of it was a young boy.

Ferunoth would eventually reach the room and returned to his dragon form now, without the holes that were in him earlier. He looked around the room and noticed the boy and the well of souls. He made a dining table appear beside him with dishes all over it and then knocked it over on purpose. "Oh gee I'm so clumsy. Hope no one minds the mess here." he said. Ferunoth was likely just trying to catch the attention of the evil that dwelled in the room, except in an annoying way.

"Oh please. Do continue to revel in chaos." Said the young boy sitting on the wells lip. "I advise you to turn around and leave Ferunoth." The boy said, knowing the dragons name already.

Ferunoth looked at the table then the boy. "Oh please, that's not chaos. That's a messy floor. Or is chaos the equivalent of a dirty floor...." Ferunoth went into a pondering thought. "Now that I think about it he really never was a clean entity.... Wasn't maids his worst nemesis for a long time?" the dragon snickered.

The young boy just grinned and stood. "You've changed little Ferunoth. Still upset by being killed by some insignificant Lupinossai? Forced to be his pet. His hound." The boy hopped on the ground and walked toward the dragon. A slide of his hand and the mess was smashed to the side.

"Life will always have unfavorable outcomes no matter what one does. If it was not him then something unsatisfactory would have happened. One must always take life as it comes." He watched the boy and knew it was chaos down here. "So why the appearance of a boy this time?" The dragon was about to start walking around the boy as if nothing was going to stop him from doing so, although Ferunoth expected something to happen.

The boy watched Ferunoth circle him. "The appearance of the youth beating the old and wise in to subjugation is such a sweet thing to observe." The boy snapped his fingers and he summoned forth a lance nastier than the Knight. It was pure chaos energy. He twirled it a bit, watching Ferunoth. "Care to fall one more time?" The boy grinned. As he twirled the lance, energy poured out into a circle of magic that would blast outward like an explosion around him.

Ferunoth stood there as the explosion happened. He was hit by the explosion, but he didn't die. Instead when things cleared away Ferunoth was nothing but a skeleton. "Well, gee, OW! You know that hurts a lot!" he exclaimed. That was when Ferunoth shrunk down more towards the boy?s size. Except now Ferunoth was in a humanoid form, wearing a full set of metal armor and held a glowing blue sword. Even his armor was starting to glow. "You always did act like a child."

The small boy grinned. "I play by the rules and bend them where I can." Holding his lance he walked towards Ferunoth, jabbing at him in random areas with the tip of pure chaos. "And you always did act like a loud mouth. I see you're getting soft on a few of the mortals Ammy has for family. You even getting soft and loving her as well aren't you." Each phrase was punctuated with a jab.

Ferunoth stared at the boy. "Rules. Those things meant to be broken. Created by those that want to control others. And yes, I do talk as I always do, though I would not say I am as soft. Killing gets old after a few centuries. You set a village on fire, people go screaming, eat a few of them and their livestock. It got a little repetitive." He stood there with his sword at the ready, but he didn't move. Instead he just stood there waiting for chaos.

The boy was close now just smiled at Ferunoth. "Don't you see why I bend rules. The primal forces and these wriggling things called living beings restrict me from doing as I wish. I tire of being denied my right to walk this realm because of pathetic civilization. Surely you can't fault me for wanting to take what's mine." He swept the lance of chaos for Ferunoth?s side.

Ferunoth used his own sword and blocked the boy's attack. After that block he didn't say anymore words and slowly started moving towards the well of souls that the boy was sitting at. He made no quick movements either.

The boy watched Ferunoth block his attack and walk for the well of dark souls. He decided to follow Ferunoth. The lance vanishing as he was curious now. "Thinking about gaining power for yourself?"

Ferunoth kept walking for the well of souls and stopped near it. He spoke as he stood beside it and looked towards the boy. "Power is an accessory for dragons. We don't care much for accessories." He went to hold a hand over the well and started chanting in some ancient dragon language, his hand starting to glow. Ferunoth was going to put a damper on things and free all the souls that lived in the well.

The boy watched Ferunoth and listened as he spoke. "Hmm. You are an odd dragon. Most like hoards, power, killing, maidens, yet you have an agenda against my brother?" He was soon on the lip of the well watching the magic being worked. "You do realize, if you release those very angry souls, they will flood out and kill everyone on this planet. If you work for me, I could get rid of your pesky Lupe problem."

Ferunoth continued chanting and his hand glowed brighter and that blue energy started flowing from his hand and down into the well. Then he stopped chanting just for a moment to reply. "Too bad. I'm not here to save the world. I'm here to take you down." He said a last few words before he started to try and rip every soul out of that well.

The small boy sighed. "Can't fault a being for trying." He stood and he was no longer a boy, but Chaos stood there, power swirling through him. He flicked fingers out at Ferunoth, slamming a wave of chaos magic at him, intent on frying his body and numbing the dragon.

Ferunoth swiped his sword creating a defensive directional shield at Chaos to absorb the attack, though the shield shattered after it did. He created a glass orb with the same magic to drive all the power out of the well and he dropped it into the well so it could start to try and expel all the chaos magic and disrupt it. Then Ferunoth held up his sword and glared at Chaos. "You'll never learn." he snarled.

"Never learn what, Ferun? That every realm is mine by rights. That I spawn all life in the beginning and end it all?" He reached for the glass orb and missed it. "You really shouldn't have done that." Chaos snarled and advanced on Ferunoth, a long spear appearing that glowed in his hands. He started to attack Ferunoth, thrusting the spear head at him, trying to get passed that sword.

Ferunoth was quick on his feet and did a side-step and his sword moving quickly to parry the spear to another direction. "I'll have you know I won 2 fencing tournaments." he said and then summoned a round metal shield for his left arm now. "Medieval fighting. We're going old school." He charged at Chaos and tried to bash him with the shield.

"Fencing? When do dragons take up fencing?" Chaos said. His spear vanished, replaced with battle axe and shield. Chaos braced for impact and tried swinging the axe past Ferunsoth?s shield hoping to get around the edge of the shield and slice him.

The orb dropped in the well would continue to fall, but slowly as the soul energy was very thick in the well.

Ferunoth would make a low duck and used his shield to deflect the slice attack. "I swear people need to learn more about dragons." he said as he would try to make a low cut aiming for Chaos' legs.

"I think you're an exception to most dragons Ferunoth." Chaos brought his shield down blocking the swing and the stepped forward trying to bash against Ferunoth hoping to make him lose his footing.

Ferunoth got pushed back from the bashing. And then he had a fun idea. With some magic, he made lots small creature spawn everywhere in the room. Snakes, bunnies, wolverines, badgers, bunnies, various types of lizards, rats and more. And soon they'd all start to swarm and assault Chaos, trying to bite him and scratch at his face and all kinds of things they could do to harm him.

Chaos was swarmed by the critters. He pulsed once, sending a wave of chaotic energy setting some critters on fire, scaring other off, killing some, and vaporizing others. He brought his axe down at Ferunoth?s head.

Ferunoth huffed, "Animal hater." He brought his shield above himself letting the shield block the lethal blow. That was when he would charge Chaos with his right shoulder and sword held inverted in his hand. He was hoping if the shield was used to block his body, he was going to try to have his hand with the sword come up under the shield to hopefully jab at Chaos.

Chaos was knocked back and felt Ferunoth's sword penetrate him. He looked down at the sword, then looked at Ferunoth. "Oops. I guess I don't really have a body in this form. Just a shape." He melted into a cloud of chaotic mist that flowed behind Ferunoth, reforming into that human body again. Chaos raised a hand and tried to spear Ferunoth in the back with chaos energy.

Ferunoth would shriek at feeling the spear go into his back. He teleported himself away from Chaos only for a moment and shifted into his skeletal dragon form. "Getting quite tired of holes being put into me today." Although, Ferunoth was starting to have another idea to work on Chaos and stood there, watching Chaos

Chaos looked amused at Ferunoth. "Perhaps if you slither back under your rock you won?t find anymore..." Chaos seemed to pause and a look of surprise was on his face.

The glass orb Ferunoth had dumped into the well of souls had been starting a long struggle during the fight, with the Knight and Chaos occupied, the will power to hold the souls in the well was weakened, letting the glass orb pulse with that glowing blue light that showed Ferunoth's spell was working. An eerie howl was heard as a few souls escaped the well and flitted around the underground chamber.

Ferunoth would snarl some at that. "Not happening," he said with a growl and stood near the well again. He saw the few souls being purged from it. "You should leave and not return here, Chaos."

Chaos let the surprise past. He tried to pour more will into the well to hang onto the souls but Ferunoth?s spell had been building up and it was proving to be a losing battle. He looked at Ferunoth and glared a moment. "I only leave when I am defeated." Raising his hands he produced a repeating cross bow and fired five bolts at Ferunoth, each bolt laced with dragon?s bane.

Ferunoth went wide eyed for a moment seeing that crossbow and he transformed into a mouse that was skittering across the floor to get away from Chaos firing bolts at him. That wasn't all though. Ferunoth was even teleporting around the room, even on the walls and even on the ceiling and skittering across them.

Chaos continued to track Ferunoth trying to hit him as more crossbow bolts kept flying from the repeating crossbow. More souls were pouring out of the well of souls and Chaos was having trouble trying to hold his form while also being the Knight.

Ferunoth was still teleporting everywhere all over the room. Then to mix things up he spawned mice running all over the room, crawling on the ceilings and walls even just to confuse Chaos or at least annoy him.

More souls were escaping and soon they were attacking Chaos, passing through his weakening form, taking energy from him on each pass. Soon he dropped the crossbow and was getting weaker and weaker, staggering around the room.

Ferunoth saw Chaos starting to have problems and was looking unstable. All the mice would poof and he turned into a dragon standing on the floor again. With a low growl he started breathing out a stream of fire over the night. The fire having a purple color to it, being a magical burning fire he was breathing. Even the floor and walls near Chaos would begin to catch on fire, the fire seeming to only grow. "Take your leave, you know this is not your fight, Chaos. The souls you depend on are now turning on you."

Chaos was kneeling and soon on his hands and knees. "This.. this is never over Ferunoth. If not this realm, then I'll take another and one day I will be back to claim this realm. You can never remove chaos from life!"

"Feel free to come back then. I'll be waiting another thousand years." Ferunoth said and went to snap Chaos' physical body into his teeth and then went to toss him across the room.

Chaos was broken in two and the tossed body vanished. The well of souls was now just pouring souls out, none stop, some of them trying to attack Ferunoth many just going deep into the earth.

~*~*~*~*

The two undead caught in the chained lightning crumpled to the floor, charred, by Ammy's feet. She stared at the Lich King as it yanked the light saber out of its chest. The golden plasma blade vanished as the Lich King held the hilt. Ammy reached out for the light saber to call it back, but the Lich's grasp denied her use of the Force.

"Now, now. You don't need your toy to fight me woman." The Lich King spoke. It held out a skeletal hand and launched four balls of bone chilling darkness at Ammy.

Ammy's eyes flashed white a moment as the dark balls slammed into her, the shielding in the suit blowing circuits as the Lich's shadow realm attack reached into Ammy trying to rend the soul out of her body. Ammy glowed a faint red as her eyes returned to normal and she just grinned at the Lich King. She raised her stone and spoke four words. "Tuwath Evim Domen Itz." They resonated with ancient power from the nine hells and the planes of darkness.

The Lich King shrieked in agony as it began to fall apart from Ammy's spell. Ammy just watched the Lich King disintegrate. "Foolish Lich. You cannot claim what you do not own nor fight a champion of another Lich King long gone. I hope you enjoyed the agony of power while you were aware." She walked to the ash pile of the Lich's vestigial remains and plucked her light saber from it.

Mirius had watched Ammy defeat the Lich with ease. After Ammy was done and motioned to her, Mirius would follow Ammy up the stairs now. "Ammy, what's the worst that can happen with us and the knight? I mean, we are angels and things..." she asked softly.

Brushing the ash off she clipped it to her belt and looked around the room they were in. Seeing the room was sparse with only a few bits of laboratory equipment to give meaning to the room. A set of stairs going up were partially hidden in deeper shadows. "Up we go." Ammy said and waved Mirius to follow as she moved quickly for the steps and ascending them.

As Ammy ascended the steps, she looked at Mirius. "Death would be hard unless he lopped off our heads... he can make us hurt like hell. Maim us, but it's not going to stop the pain I'm going to bring to him." She looked a bit peaceful at the moment as they walked up the stairs. A thrum of power would be felt by them both, a sign they were getting closer to the Knight as they went up the flight of stairs that now spiraled around the inside of the tower and going higher and higher.

Mirius sighed and followed Ammy up the steps. "So, pretty much I can imagine me getting myself captive again and going into pain, except this time I won't die or go into a coma?" she asked as she kept walking up the stairs.

Ammy sighed hearing Mirius. "Welcome to being an angel. Bitch ain't it? Now you know why I tell you suicide is pointless. It's hard to cut your own head off and every other method is just torture."

Soon they appeared on a large landing at the top of the tower. As they moved out on the landing, they could see the whole city of Mist Noire below. The arena was brightly lit with fire and billowing out smoke. Ammy saw it, worried a moment then returned to her calm. She could feel a powerful presence here, but nothing was seen on the landing. Ammy got edgy, activated her light saber.

Mirius had made another sigh. Living forever might be nice, but it sure was going to suck a lot too. She stood on top of the landing with Ammy and looked out over the land and saw the other place on fire. "And they said I was bad in the war. Our family's gone done and set that whole thing on fire." she chuckled some trying to make the situation a little lighter.

Ammy looked to Mirius for a moment. "Well, when we make it a family event, it's not fun until something is burning."

A bolt of lightning sizzled out of nowhere at Ammy and Mirius. It hit a magical shield Ammy brought into place in an instant. She was expecting a first move.

"We aren't alone Mirius." the golden glow of her light saber made her white fur and armor shine. She looked around the landing and sighed. "If you are going to hide behind illusion and invisibility..." She snapped her furred fingers. A blast of glittering color doused the landing in vibrant red except around Mirius and Ammy where the shield was in place. It settled on the cloaked form of the Knight, standing in the center of the platform. "... try not to be on the same level as your enemy."

Mirius giggled only for a moment until the lightning attack happened. She turned around and saw Ammy make the glittering color go everywhere and saw the night there. Mirius held up her gun in the direction of the knight, although she didn't fire since she was within Ammy's shield. She let out a deep growl towards the knight.

The Knight deactivated his cloak, the sparkling color still clinging to his cloak. "Aptly done White Queen." His voice boomed. "You've managed to rescue the leverage, burn down my arena, assault a small handful of my massive army and now confront me as if you could kill me this night. I am no longer a knight, but a king." He raised both gauntlets and fired a blast of subtractive energy at Ammy's shield, shattering it into never existing. "Are you ready to die, White Queen?" He lunged for Ammy, his gauntlets glowing as summoned the Ebony Sword and swung at Ammy and Mirius.

Ammy moved in front of Mirius and circled her light saber, golden sparks flew as plasma met Ebony Blade then her light saber shut off, the subtractive magic of the Ebony Blade removing the plasma and the energy producing it. "Not good...." Ammy hissed and pushed Mirius back as she backed up. "Try and find a weak spot on him Mirius. If you can. Take the shot." She clapped her hands together and manifested a flaming rapier and lunge with a thrust that the Knight parried, the blade and flame of Ammy's rapier vanishing and then reappearing as she willed the blade back into existence with her circle less alchemy. "Let's dance."

Mirius backed up and was going to have to owe Ammy a lot for saving her butt like this already. She ran off to the side and started examining the night as she held her SMG close. She was trying to find if the knight had any unprotected spots on him that she might could shoot and possible weaken him while Ammy kept him distracted.

Mirius would note he seemed to be covered in armor head to toe that glowed with magical buffs. The buffs though did seem to flicker every few seconds.

The Knight backed up a few steps as he struck out at Ammy with his blade again. Ammy parried more with her ever renewing rapier, though she knew she couldn't keep that trick going for long. She snapped a foot out, will Force to her kick. The kick knocked him back a bit, a dent in his armor that soon vanished.

"You kick like a mule and are as stubborn as one, White Queen." The Knight rumbled. He flung out darts of Nethicite at Ammy.

Ammy waved her hand, flicking the darts back with a blast of Force. "Oh, you can try your damn tricks Knight! They won?t work on me!" She lunged out with her rapier once more, the flames suddenly bursting into white light as she drew on arcane magic, lacing the blade with holy power.

"Tricks won't work you say?" The Knight back stepped then split; one showing up behind Ammy, a dark shadowy copy of the Knight. It brought glowing gauntlets down together on top of Ammy's shoulders and back, denting and crumpling the armor she wore, driving her to her knees with a scream of pain. The clone held Ammy in place as the Knight slide forward to ram the Ebony Blade at Ammy's heart.

Ammy said a word, not more than a breath and shimmered into wolf form, slipping away from the clone as the blade came close to impaling her. The Knight stabbed his clone and he shuddered a bit as the clone vanished from existence. She ran between his legs and came out behind the Knight. She shifted back to Lupinossai, her armor gone, left on the floor, just a black halter top and black pants. She jabbed her stone hand to the small of the Knight?s back, crumpling armor, making it ring like a bell and staggering him forward a step or two, the armor reforming and removing the crumpling.

Mirius was trying to take aimed shots, but the knight and Ammy were moving around so much it was hard for her to even use this gun without accidentally shooting Ammy. A sigh was given and she switched to her sniper and took a few moments to aim now. She had noticed the shields around the knight flickering every few seconds and patiently waited. Each time it would fade out she would try to shoot the knight, preferably in places like the head and the torso.

Mirius would get two shots in during that bit of scuffle. The first shot just missed hitting his armor when the buff was off. It's come back on just barely, shattering the bullet. The second one nailed home and into his left shoulder joint. The hole in the armor sealed up but it seemed it had an effect on the body evident by a few drops of blood dripping on the floor.

Ammy moved in on the Knight not giving him a chance to recover from his mistake. "I am getting very, very, very annoyed at every being out there waltzing in expecting to fuuck with my family!" She mashed her stone fist into his back again, hitting were Mirius shot him.

The armor crumpled and stayed damaged, spinning the Knight around to face her, and bring with his spin a solid right hook with glowing gauntlet. It flung Ammy to the edge of the platform, rolling her off of it. She avoided smashing to the ground 1,000 feet below by gripping the edge of the platform. Her left eye was swollen shut, cheek bone broken. She kicked her feet as she worked on trying to pull herself up. The Knight didn't forget about Mirius who had shot him. Walked for her, malice glowing red from the visor slits.

Mirius gasped seeing Ammy go flying off to the side. Ammy? Ammy!? Are you okay? She sent over the mental link praying Ammy was okay. Mirius looked to the knight and growled at him. She took one of the Nethicite grenades, flicked the pin off of it and held it for a few seconds and tossed it at the night. She had cooked the grenade so by the time it got towards the night it'd explode, releasing a Nethicite to disable his magic.

The Knight kept walking for Mirius seeing little fear in an explosive device with his wards up. He faltered in his steps as the device blew and showered him in silver white metallic powder. His wards flickered and failed as the magic powering them died, but Ammy miscalculated the effects of Nethicite on the Knight. It didn't neutralize the artifacts and they began to glow, trying to burn off the clinging, anti-magic powder.

Ammy heard Mirius over the link and grunted as she soon got herself up and onto the platform. I'm fine love... Almost went sky diving. She stood and saw the powder all over the platform. It would play a bit of havoc with her own magic, but it was a risk she'd take.

Ammy took a few deep breaths sizing up her options as she stood on the dusted Nethicite powder. The Knight was still holding that Ebony Sword of his. Ammy knelt and using the dark black stone of the floor formed a black sword that was solid and real. She couldn't trust her rapier to work or to stay summoned if she walked over that power. Standing she walked for the Knight, weaving her blade in the air.

The Knight looked at Ammy coming towards him and he held his sword ready, but he didn't advance on Ammy, he moved for Mirius intent on capturing her to use as a shield.

Mirius started backing up from the knight feeling a bit nervous about letting him in close. She would fire a few shots before having to reload, though at that point she was nearing the edge and stopped and then tried to run to the side to try and get out of the knight's grasping range.

The Knight twitched twice as two shots made it past his failing buffs from the Ebony Shards. A few hit the buffs and shattered. While it seemed the rounds that hit hurt, it wasn't stopping him. He reached out to grab her, missed, backed away from the edge to keep from falling and swept the Ebony Sword up, hoping to slash Mirius, but he found a black stone blade crashing down on his blade blocking his swing as Ammy appeared next to him.

"Miss me sweety?" Ammy said to the Knight in a sickeningly sweet voice. She gave the Knight a head butt, and regretted that action as her head was not protected. She did get his helm ring, though it left her with a throbbing head.

Mirius sighed softly feeling relieved she didn't get caught and fully reloaded her gun while Ammy had her covered. She started moving to the side some wanting to get a better angle on the knight. She was starting to wish she brought a sword. Or maybe that shotgun she mentioned earlier. With careful aiming and trying to time things right, she'd fire a couple shots hoping to hit the knight in the head.

The Knight brought his sword up and around, freeing his blade from Ammy's stone sword. He tried stabbing her with a thrust of the great sword. Ammy dodged the sword thrust, having no armor on increased her agility but doubled her vulnerability. She grabbed his one of his wrists swung her up against his helm, with the flat of the blade to ring his bell again, leaving Mirius a clear firing line. Several of her rounds chewed through the armor and into his legs and belly. The Knight just laughed, even though his helm was getting mangled. Each attack was knocking more of the powder off of him. He worked his gauntlet Ammy held and a shocking spell worked for a few seconds, causing Ammy to let go and take a few steps back. Ammy shook her hand as it was numbed from the shocking.

Mirius groaned, "Ammy, why won't he die?!" she shouted. She fired some more shots at the knight, before having to reload again.

Ammy looked to Mirius and shook her head. "He's tethered to something giving him power. It has to be that. Maybe if I can take his head off..." She said and moved in against the Knight. She was striking him with her sword, trying to take his head off.

The Knight parried Ammy's strike and his sword cleaved through her stone blade. Mirius' shots ripped into his arm and he dropped the Ebony Blade as the bullets chewed through nerves and muscle. He darted back from Ammy trying to get out of the Nethicite powder. The outer area of the platform and near the door were clear of Nethicite. He chose the spot near the door and blocked any possible escape. As his left the powder his artifacts flared back to life, burning off what is left on his armor. He used is magic to form a solid stone wall behind him, cutting off escape. Raising his gauntlets, they glowed and a strong gale wind ripped across the platform. The Nethicite powder was blown away, scoured clean of the platform.

Ammy dove for the floor to keep from getting blown off the platform.

Mirius would get swept off her feet and fallen onto her back. Her gun dropped to the ground. "I don't know if they'd o any good Ammy, considering I shot him in the head a million times already!"

Ammy felt her magic flicker back to life as the powder was swept away. "Beginning to regret not bringing grenades and really wished Fleety taught me soul magic like he taught you."

Feeling the platform was free of the negating dust, the Knight stalked forward, holding out his gauntlet. The Ebony Sword returning to his regenerated hand and arm. Armed, he ran at Ammy, bringing the sword swinging up, flipped around and down hoping to pin her to the floor.

Ammy rolled away from that nasty sword, missing getting pinned. She came up on one knee and gestured with her hands sending out scything waves of hot magma at the Knight. The waves crashed against the Knight, driving him back a bit but not cutting into his armor. "Mirius... his armor isn't absorbing magic... I think Nethicite powder is caked inside of it. If you have any Nethicite rounds, pump them into him, maybe that'll help."

The Knight brought up his sword and slashed straight ahead of him, sending a brilliant wave of chaos energy at Ammy and Mirius. Ammy brought up a magical shield that absorbed most of the attack, but a bit of the chaos energy slid past that shield. It'd burn skin and jolt the body if it hits either Ammy or Mirius.

"I don't have much, but I can do it." She said. Mirius was about to start switching out her clip after picking up her sniper rifle until that wave of chaos energy went through her. The gun was dropped again as Mirius started screaming when she felt her hands, feet and her head all starting to burn from the chaos energy, though her armor protecting most of her body. Mirius would drop to the ground cringing in pain.

Ammy heard Mirius scream and knew why. Her own body was stinging with pain as if she went sunbathing furless. She hissed at the pain and but focused past it and stood up. "Get those shots in when you can. I'll buy you time love." She clapped her hands together and from nothing brought out a pole axe. She ran for the Knight and at the last moment dodges left and swung the pole axe at full strength, sending energy into the whole weapon trying to make it resilient to that subtractive magical blade the Knight had.

The Knight brought up the Ebony Sword and tried slicing her pole axe to pieces. Sparks flew though as the blade hit the axe. "Oscillating magic?" The Knight said a bit shocked.

"Expect me to be a simple girl? Update your play book Rastul." She darted to the other side, trying to line up another swing, keeping a clear line of fire for Mirius and distracting the Knight.

Mirius was shaking and crying from the pain. It hurt very badly and she was whimpering when she got onto her feet, even more whimpers when she picked up her gun. it all hurt so much and she was crying with tears of pain. With some struggling she would put a clip of Nethicite rounds into her sniper and with a slightly shaky aim she shot at his body. Mirius didn't bother shooting at his head because she knew she was unlikely to hit him there with a shaky aim.

Mirius' shots had a definite impact on the Knight. All 4 rounds punched through his breast plate, the Nethicite chewing through his wards and magic thunking deep into the Knights body.

The Knight grunted and moved a bit slowly, as the rounds missed the heart but hit closer to his shoulders. He was filling the body he used weakening as Nethicite poisoning, the same poisoning used on Art was used on him. Ammy's second strike made it past his slow guard and sliced into his side, the armor starting to disintegrate as the pole axe's head was glowing black. It would seem the White Queen had many tricks and mastered magic use. The Knight roared as he pulled from Ammy's pole axe, his side has a nice axe slash into the side and made wider by the disintegration magic. He raised a gauntlet and released four magic missiles at Mirius, sizzling with chaos energy in each shot. Then he summoned the Ebony Lance and held the Lance in one hand, the Ebony sword in the other hand and moved in on Ammy. He was moving the weapons in combo, stabbing out with the Lance, as it crackled with chaos energy, and swinging the Ebony sword if the lance was parried for any opening he got.

Ammy was at a disadvantage trying to deal with a two pronged attack using a pole axe. She gave him ground, backing up several steps, the wind blowing through her white fur as she avoided the lance thrust and blocked the Ebony blade that came in for her side. The haft of the spear sparked again and as Ammy pulled away the pole axe snapped in half, her oscillating magical energy overcome by the subtractive magic. She tossed the weapon away allowed flaming rapier and a short nodachi sword appear. She went to attack him, matching his tactics, slashing with the nodachi and waiting for him to open up so she could thrust that flaming rapier into weak points.

Mirius saw the missiles moving in her direction and tried to get out of the way, although one hit her in the leg and felt a partial burn and went falling to the ground. The armor absorbed a lot of the damage, but she still felt it. Mirius screamed some more in pain given that she already was in pain as it was, and even started swearing a lot. Her gun had been dropped again and she reached over and as she sat up she aimed at the knight again and fired a few more Nethicite rounds at him.

The Knight gave ground to Ammy and backed up a bit, batting the nodachi aside with his Ebony Blade, making the blade of the nodachi vanish. Then parried the rapier and stabbed the lance forward.

Ammy howled in pain as the Knight impaled her left shoulder, running it through with the Lance. She tried to kick at him, and stab him with the rapier knowing that he'd have to handle her weight on his lance.

The Knight started walking forward, shoving her to the edge of the platform. His blade parrying Ammy's rapier. Mirius' rounds bit into his exposed side and back filling him with more Nethicite. The Ebony Sword was flickering out as the Nethicite in him was creating magic negation from within his body. He was moving slower and stiffer. He snarled at Mirius and moved a few more steps to the edge. Ammy was now standing on her toes, mostly dangling over the edge, impaled on the lance. "Throw down your weapons or I drop her!" He snarled at Mirius.

Mirius froze and stopped shooting and sat there. Her eyes wide and heart skipping a beat. "Ammy? Ammy, what do I do?!" she asked over their mental link. She felt scared and didn't want Ammy to fall and die.

Seeing the Knight distracted was talking to Mirius, she jabbed her flaming rapier straight into his breast plate putting as much Force into her thrust.

The Knight yelled in pain, his heart pierced and he jerked.

Ammy held onto the lance and her rapier, breathing hard as the chaos magic was burning and shocking her. "Shoot his knees!" she cried out to Mirius.

The Knight, in fiery pain getting weaker, raised his Ebony Sword at tried to cut through the rapier, the rapier wouldn't be destroyed as the swords magic completely failed. Ammy was holding that flaming sword in his chest. The Knight brought the sword straight up and sliced right through Ammy's right armpit, cleaving her arm straight off. Her arm fell below, the rapier still in the Knights chest. Ammy screamed in pain and shock.

Mirius screamed when she saw Ammy have her arm cut off. With not being on her feet and being in some less pain, she aimed at the knight, but the sniper rifle just clicked. She reloaded another clip of Nethicite rounds and started trapping the trigger repeatedly at the knight's knees, trying to unload all 15 shots into his knees to make sure they were torn up.

The Knight's knees were hit several times as Mirius fired; he stepped back and crashed to one bloodied and shredded knee. That motion bring the lance back and over, swinging Ammy to the platform floor and dislodging her from the lance to roll across the black stone floor leaving a heavy blood trail. She came to a stop by Mirius, bloody and bleeding badly. She was crying and screaming pain. In a few seconds though, her bleeding would stop as the link with Aribius through Amaretto sealed her wounds, but she was very weak now.

The Knight was wobbling, so much Nethicite in him and the well of souls powering him was fading. He couldn't be defeated. Not again. He will win this. He roared, going berserk, ignoring pain and forced the mangled body stand. He locked his red eyes onto Mirius and charged for her, the Ebony Sword swing back and forth.

Mirius crawled towards Ammy and held her close, giving Ammy gentle nuzzles and kisses. "I love you, Ammy," she said softly before looking up. Mirius saw the knight going nuts and charging for her now. She was in pain herself, but the fact that her mate was hurt so badly had her enraged now.

The chimera pistol was put by Ammy's left paw and a couple remaining clips for it. She stood up and in front of Ammy wanting to protect her from harm. "You've hurt my mate for the last time!" Using her soul energy she summoned a shield in her right arm, sword with her left hand. She'd try to use her shield hoping to parry his attack while her sword went to try and make a slash at his waist.

The Knight brought the Ebony Sword down, full might on Mirius' soul shield. Her sword sunk into his waist burning him and eating into Chaos' control now that the well was going into overload.

Ammy felt being held, heard Mirius' words and was laid down again and watched Mirius fight to save Ammy's life. Her golden, green ringed eyes watched them fight. How many more were going to step in if I let myself lay here and give in to pain and trauma? How many? God Damnit! Pull yourself up. Humara trained you better! Ammy slowly flexed her fingers on her left hand trying to get feeling into them. She was pulling on the last bit of the Force and what magic she had left. She was so exhausted but she kept pulling on magic, trying to gain strength to move her arm, maybe even sit up.

It was hard for Mirius to keep doing the soul-shot magic for long, so she knew she was going to have to be quick on it all. Knowing his legs were weak from the times she shot him and after blocking that first attack, Mirius tried to slash her sword at his knees. She was in a lot of pain moving around from all the burns, but she was using that pain to fuel her to push herself further.

Ferunoth snarled as Chaos vanished and now the souls going everywhere. He'd let out grunts of pain as they started attacking him and knew it was time to leave the area. Feeling Ammy in lots of pain Ferunoth would soon teleport himself to the top of the tower, sitting next to Ammy and watched Mirius fighting the Knight. "Chaos is taken care of. This is your chance against the knight." he said to Ammy

The Knight blocked the slash to his leg with his sword and went to backhand Mirius with his gauntlet of heavy metal. It was no longer glowing as his magic was about gone. Chaos was getting frantic feeling the knight's body shutting down more.

Ammy heard Ferunoth and urged herself to get pull more magic. Ferunoth would feel what she was doing. She was pulling magic out of the black stones, out of the knights tower itself, and the wildly acting Well of Souls deep bellow. She was starting to glow, her white fur shimmering. She sat up, slowly then with a lot of hissing and a few cries from pain she was on her feet. She felt dizzy, faint and staggered back some, felt Ferunoth behind her. She tried to get her pain hazed eyes to focus, to work and see the knight attacking her mate. It was like watching a repeat of the beach on vacation. Ammy in all of her power useless as her mate and family rushed in to fight and fell. Never again.

She heard a sound and realized it was herself, growling, deep, low and strong in her chest. Her ears were flattened and every hair on her was raised and bristling. Power kept building in her, like a massive core of energy.

Mirius was backhanded and she was sent to the ground with ease from the knight. She had shouted in pain and the sword and shield had dissipated. The use of all her soul-shot energy had her feeling weak and exhausted again, but she couldn't give up. Mirius held her hand in the knight's direction, summoned a pistol from her soul-shot magic and started shooting electrical charges at the knight hoping to shock him.

Ferunoth was sitting there watching Mirius and Ammy. He could jump in, but this wasn't necessarily his fight. Instead, he'd only jump in if Ammy or Mirius asked.

The Knight staggered back, being hit by the soul shots, the electrical jolts numbing the failing body.

Ammy watched Mirius fall, heard her scream and doing what she could to keep the Knight away. She raised her left hand, opened it. The chimera pistol flew to her palm. She was no longer thinking. She hummed with magic, she felt Ammy Phoenix step in where Ammy Spiritor was failing and growing weaker, bolstering the Spiritor. Her thumb flicked the chimera into a mode she never showed Mirius. The clip fell out of it and the gun glowed red, the philosopher stone disk in it aligning with the magical energy burning and building in her.

She moved for the Knight, one small step at a time and stopped right by Mirius. She raised the gun at the Knight.

"By the powers of the four." Her voice was Humaran, crisp and clear. "Water to bind thee." she fired a shot of pure elemental water and hit the Knight in the belly.

The Knight staggered as magic blossomed into his belly but not of any kind any mortal new. Ancient magic. Powerful forces of creation. Water flowed from his belly wound, rapidly trapping the knight in a large sphere of water.

"Fire brings purity to thee." She fired a the Knight again. A flaming shot of pure elemental fire that hit his right shoulder. The water boiled around him in unholy heat. The Knight began to scream.

"Air forsakes thy breath." She fired again, hitting his left shoulder and lung with a lance of pure elemental air. The Knight felt all the air pulled out of the body and his screaming ended.

"Earth claims you for what you've done." She fired again into his head an arrow of stone and mud. Seen among the boiling water around the Knight, plants and flowers sprouted out of him. The whole sphere was shimmering bright white.

"By the power of the four, you are hereby banished from this realm, never to walk this plane until it is deemed time for Ragnarok and to end the realm. Lilum de wuth Solte recum." She leveled the gun, it glowed white hot and she fired right at the Knight's heart.

A shot of pure white light, creation energy, speared the Knights crystal heart and the shimmering globe of water around him exploded outwards, throwing water everywhere that was warm to the touch, smelled of smoke and a freshly dug grave. As the knight stood there, black, pulsing energy flowed from the Knight's heart to Ammy, and around her neck formed a pendant that was black crystal, radiating a soft white light around it. The knight crumpled to the ground then fell, dead.

Mirius watched Ammy doing all kinds of magic and shooting the Knight until he fell dead. Her soul-shot pistol disappeared and she fell limply onto the ground. Little energy left to stay sitting up as she panted softly and laid there.

Ammy dropped the gun, the energy in her almost spent. She walked painfully and slowly to the Knight. She picked up the Ebony Sword near him, the magic in it now dormant and sealed. She raised her left arm and parted the Knight's head from the body, sending it rolling to stop by Mirius. Ammy collapsed to the ground, panting hard. The whole tower was starting to shake as the well of souls emptied and the magic keeping the tower up was coming undone.

"F...F....F....Ferunoth! Teleport... us all out... including the Knight, and his gear..." Ammy passed out.

"As if we haven't seen enough of him as it is." Ferunoth groaned. "As you wish." The ancient black dragon would wiggle his claws an in seconds they'd teleport right outside of the beach house, on the soft sand near the steps of the home. Including the knight and his decapitated body.

By the time they had teleported, Mirius was passed out as well. She had used up far too much of her energy and was too weak to stay awake. Her body was even thinner from all the magic use. Soul-shot wasn't something she was efficient in using yet, so it took much out of her.

As they vanished, the tower crumbled and collapsed taking the dark mist from covering the city. Mist Noire was now wide open to all sensors and a large smoke signal from the burning Arena complex. It was only a matter of time before Ammy's allies would find this out and strike to finish off the city and all the fiends within.