|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:52:33 GMT -5
It started faintly at first, so faint that Magnus almost didn't hear it. The distant sound of rumbling. "Thunder?" he mused. It would be just cheesy enough for it to start storming on the eve of the coming battle. But no, after a moment Magnus realized that it wasn't thunder that he was hearing.
Quickly he jumped back to his position atop the roof, giving him a view of the land surrounding the town. What captured his attention was the dark line that dominated the horizon, growing ever closer.
Soldiers, he realized. What he was hearing was the sound of thousands of marching soldiers. He felt a cold sensation in his gut as he watched the ever growing mass of soldiers moving towards the town. 'It's finally time, then.'
"They're coming!" he yelled down to their meager army. "Everyone get to the defenses! Anyone with ranged weapons to the rooftops! Take them out before they reach the town!" he ordered, quickly returning his attention back to the approaching army.
Magnus drew upon his magic, shutting his eyes in concentration as he began muttering incantations under his breath. The skies over the town outskirts began to darken as he extended his hands outward. The clouds massed and lighting began to crackle in the sky. With a final push, Magnus finished the spell, and the air came alive with action as the conjured storm began to lash out at the approaching troops. Winds picked up speed and lighting began to strike at the army, vaporizing soldiers as they marched.
Magnus sighed, relaxing slightly. It wasn't much, but it would slow them down a fraction, and hopefully thin a some of their ranks.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:52:45 GMT -5
Fury, whooping and hollering, made his way to the front ranks. It was so simple, really. Heroes' Refuge was a paragon of lawlessness. The only way to fix that was to start over completely, by razing the damn place to the ground.
The buildings were in sight. Arrows, bullets, thrown axes, lightning bolts and large stones came into the ranks from the town, felling numerous soldiers. The scum were making a determined defense from the rooftops. Fury knew that the snipers and house-to-house fighting would take a heavy toll on the King's army.
Unless there were no houses.
Despite being shirtless, Fury produced a quad-barreled rocket launcher from, uh, somewhere, I don't know. I'm sure there's a plausible explanation. He searched for a target. There. The big house with the number of defenders on the roof. He sighted. It was a goodly distance, but he was sure of his marksmanship.
He fired, and the rocket lanced erratically across space, smashed directly through one of the building's window. The entire house exploded in an incredible fireball that was utterly disproportionate to the amount of explosives in use, sending the defenders flying off the roof.
Fury looked up and briefly surveyed his handiwork. "Nah need to explode," he quipped. He looked around expectantly, but he was surrounded by robots, who are not known for their sense of humor. Disappointed, he continued to advance with the army.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:52:50 GMT -5
Perish hadn't really been taken by the whole zeal thing so she was looking rather bored atop a skeletal horse as it carried along with the column.
She was only in the third wave and not that far from Fury's position, so she could still mostly hear and see his ridiculous antics. Yet for all her eye-rolling and blanched expressions, she was having a maddening time getting the image of his oiled abs out of her head.
"What the hell! Seriously? My brain is still wired that way after all these years and regenerations?" Perish said with extreme frustration, banging on her helmet a few times with her gauntleted hands.
For the amount of horrors she'd been subjected to, the amount of things she'd seen over the centuries, all the people and the things she'd done, it seemed remarkably out of place to get hooked on such a thing, especially concerning someone so ridiculous.
Perish just shook her head and nudged her mount through the two waves to the front, hoping to hasten getting hit by something which would most definitely distract her. Though after watching a few of the metal soldiers disappear from a direct hit from a lightning bolt, Perish wasn't so sure that was the kind of thing she wanted to get hit by...
She was fine with getting stabbed and shot and even severed, but obliteration was a little too much...
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:53:04 GMT -5
Hearing and seeing the explosions, Esfir immediately grabbed some of the more heavy-duty weapons she had. Damn, if we had more time, I could have set up some mines... But it was obvious there wasn't any more time. She quickly launched a long-range missile in the general direction of the incoming robot army, hoping that would help get rid of a some of them.
She grabbed a gun, some ammo, grenades, and a grenade launcher and strapped them onto her person for future use. Already there was scrap metal flying. Esfir could imagine all the possible things they could be used for. No, can't focus on that now. There's a battle going on!
She headed straight for the artillery, hoping to knock some more robots out before they got to Heroes' Refuge. What should I use? Cannon? Laser cannon? They're too far away yet for grenades... Will go with cannon. Load. Fire. Load. Fire.
She saw many of the robots being hit by her the other defenders' attacks. But just how large was the Mechanist King's army? She had no idea. Shit. This could be worse than I expected...
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:53:17 GMT -5
Chase made his way through the advancing forces. He hadn't forgot the strange cast of characters he met the first time he came here, they were the main priority/main threat. He'd have to get into the town to find them.
Charging his cannon as he dodged the incoming artillery fire, Chase advanced towards the shoddily made barricade. Dodging a thrown pitch fork, Chase turned and fired.
BLAM-O
The blast created an opening in the barricade, vaporizing a few townsfolk in the process. Chase moved forward, leading the charge (and the robot forces) into the town.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:53:59 GMT -5
Samson was left standing alone as the others charged off into battle. He stood there, weighing up the pros and cons of interfering. With an angry sigh, he turned on his heels and jogged towards the approaching army as they spilled through a hole in the barricade. They were lead by a smaller robot, much more adorable than the others. But no time for adorableness now, Samson reminded himself.
The hulking lumberjack charged forwards, roaring like a wild bear, his trusty axe gripped in his massive fist. He barreled headfirst through the robot forces, like a bowling ball hitting a strike. He pinned a downed robot to the ground with his heavy boot, before swinging his axe over his head, and chopping cleanly through the neck in one strong swing.
"Damn robots. Always tryin' to destroy humanity some way or another." he spat.
He whirled his axe around again, liberating another robot's head from its shoulders.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:54:08 GMT -5
Fury gaped as the giant of a man hurled himself into the ranks of the army, smashing aside robots as though they were nothing. He had heard stories about the miscreant Samson Mortlock before, but hadn't believed any of them to be true. But here was the legend himself. "Mahrtloooooooock!" he yelled. The robots between Fury and Mortlock parted like the Red Sea, making a wide lane.
Fury raised his rocket launcher, sighted directly on Mortlock's chest. He wasn't sure it would work on such a mighty man, but it was worth a shot. Fury fired his rocket, watched it arc across. Not even bothering to watch it make contact, he turned and handed the weapon to a nearby robotic footsoldier, then charged towards Mortlock with his machete raised, screaming a fearsome warcry.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:54:14 GMT -5
Magnus had had the sense to dive off of the roof before the missile hit, saving him from the ensuing explosion. He landed in the street, grimacing. He'd hoped that the barricade would hold out for a bit longer. Looked like they'd be fighting in the streets a bit sooner than expected.
With that in mind, Magnus activated the wards he'd placed around the buildings that lined the main street. Most of the defenders had fallen back a fair ways, so thankfully he wouldn't hit any of their small force with this...
The street glowed for a moment as the wards went off, releasing the charged energy that Magnus had placed inside. The blast shook the street, covering the the battlefield in a haze of smoke. Magnus took that chance to charge in, looking for the robot who'd led the charge, the one who blasted the barricade.
Ah, there he was. Wasting no time, Magnus launched a barrage of arcane missiles at the mechanical man.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:54:28 GMT -5
As the missile screamed towards Samson, he managed to draw his attention away from smashing up technology to notice the flying projectile. He raised his axe like a tennis racket, and batted the fiery missile into the horde of robotic minions. The explosion blared throughout Samson's sensitive hearing, causing him to cover his ears until the high pitched screeching faded. He growled, enraged at his noisy attacker.
"You've been blastin' our eardrums with that damned shootin' for too long!" he roared as he pointed threateningly across to the lawman.
Samson began to run towards the gunman, his speed climbing higher and higher until he was in a full bull-like dash at his opponent. Samson swung his axe at the machete, and the otherworldly clash of metal versus metal was heard across the battlefield. The two brutes pushed their weapons against one another, strength versus strength, the scraping and grinding of metal ringing through their ears.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:55:01 GMT -5
Fury grunted as the two men struggled, weapons locked and trying to push their weapons into one another. He considered pulling his sidearm and firing into Mortlock at point-blank range, but knew that the moment he didn't have both hands on the haft of the machete he'd have an axe through his skull.
Instead, Fury did the only thing he could think of. He leaned in as close as possible and bit Mortlock's ear as hard as he could, tasting blood. "Can ya hurr me now?" he yelled between chews.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:55:34 GMT -5
"Ahh!" Samson bellowed. "You dirty fightin' son of a-!"
The lumberjack jerked his head back, before throwing it forward, cracking a headbutt off the lawman's nose. Samson took the moment to shove Fury back with the butt of his axe. With a distance now put between the two, a stray robot tried to pile on the woodsman. Samson swatted it away, his cold eyes remaining locked on Fury. Slowly, he raised his free hand to his ear, wiped the blood onto his palm, and cleaned the crimson stain onto his dark beard. He snarled and breathed heavily, like an enraged grizzly bear.
"Nobody makes me bleed my own blood!" he roared.
He charged wildly forwards again, tackling into Fury, sending both men smashing through robots and townspeople alike as they bludgeoned through the crowd.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:55:42 GMT -5
Jeff ran into the fray as well, avoiding the other player characters, choosing to go for the relatively mindless robot mooks instead. Despite his nonskill, he was able to take a handful of them down with only a few rough slashes.
"Not so bad," he panted. "Gonna exhaust myself quickly, but I should do some good before I pass out." Another robot picked his way over the mangled remains of his comrades. This one was armed with a longsword. "Perfect," Jeff swore.
He dodged a stroke and retaliated, but was easily parried, staggering him. The robot slashed again; Jeff dodged, but missed his step and fell on top of one the destroyed robots. He felt a sharp piece of metal slice across his leg. The robot returned, unrelenting. Jeff wouldn't be able to get to his feet in time, so he grabbed the nearest robot hunk and chucked it. It banged against the robot's head, which dazed it for long enoughfor Jeff to roll away. One sharp slash severed the legs at the knee, bringing the robot crashing down.
Finally on his feet, Jeff decapitated it with a savage swing.
Then he looked out over the rest of the battlefield that had once been Heroes' Refuge.
"This may take a while..."
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:55:52 GMT -5
Fury and the monstrous lumberjack wrestled with one another, smashing aside other fighters as they grappled. Fury hated to admit it, but Mortlock clearly had the advantage in strength. If they kept up like this, Fury was going to lose, and badly.
He felt a wall give way behind him as the two grappling men smashed through into what appeared to be the tavern. It was relatively quiet in here, most of the fighting happening out in the streets.
Fury mule-kicked the man's enormous bulk off him as they grappled on the floor, then ran backwards, jumping over the bar. At least Fury had that solid obstacle between himself and the giant. He looked around desperately, lit on the shotgun hidden under the bar. By himself, of course- there always seemed to be a fight in here.
Fury popped back up, shotgun in hand. "Time ta get da drop on ya!" he yelled as he discharged the weapon directly upwards, neatly severing the chain that was holding up the chandelier directly over Mortlock's head. It fell.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:56:15 GMT -5
Again, with war raging around her, all kinds of projectiles filling the air and casualties quickly following, Perish looked remarkably casual as she dismounted and started attempting to draw up a ritual.
She got about two seconds into it before she heard a thunderous clash even amongst the racket, and quick scan revealed it was only two monstrous men fighting like titans amongst mortals. Part of her wanted to go watch when their fight was taken elsewhere, but she figured she should fire off at least one ritual before doing anything frivolous.
On the upside she didn't have to worry so much about friendly fire in an army of robots, so maybe she'd try something silly that she couldn't control.
Taking a deep breath not to calm her nerves, but instead fill her lungs so she could start her chanting, as she didn't actually need to breathe.
Perish spoke in a strange broken language all the while performing smooth gestures, and as she did so, ribbons of dark energy littered with strange symbols whipped up around her, and an inky substance drew out in several lines from her feet, curving and twisting and forming into magical circles around Perish.
Power and darkness gathered around Perish like she was a vacuum for it, and there were faint tremors in the ground as though something big, or positively thousands of something small was moving about.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:56:32 GMT -5
As the chandelier came crashing down, Samson hunched his back and took the brunt of the force. He grunted as the impact staggered his footing. It smashed off his back and landed on the wooden floor behind him. Still on his feet, Samson rolled his arms around his shoulders, his teeth gritted as he shrugged off the pain. He started menacingly towards Fury.
A creaking was heard from the wooden flooring. And again, louder. Samson stopped advancing, and the creaking beneath him silenced. He stood there, motionless. Raising his foot for another step, the floor splintered and gave way, and Samson toppled straight through below the floorboards, into the dark basement of the tavern. Down the hole was pitch black, and only wood chippings and dust rose out of the drop in a thick smoke.
There was silence in the tavern. A barely audible muttering could be heard from down the pitch black hole.
"Stupid immature puns. Won't be laughin' after I-...."
The voice faded off into the basement below Fury's feet.
With a sudden mighty leap, Samson punched up with both fists through the flooring beneath Fury, sending the gunman and chunks of floor flying off in all directions. Shame to have to wreck such beautiful beech-wood flooring. Jumping high out of the dark chasm, Samson landed on both feet, before charging at Fury, and tackling him through the large front window of the tavern.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:56:41 GMT -5
Fury felt himself being carried along helplessly by the unstoppable charge, his feet not even touching the ground. The force of Mortlock's charge obliterated a fruit cart someone had left out for some reason, sending oranges flying in all direction. The mighty lumberjack didn't even slow down.
They smashed through the doors of the building across the street, falling and rolling, finally disentangled from one another. Fury stood, shook his head, looked around to get his bearings. He knew this place. The one industrial building in Heroes' Refuge, the factory for making sparks. Funny how every long fight seemed to end up in here. Why was this place even still open? With it's numerous catwalks, dangling chains, clouds of steam, uncovered vats of acid, and frequent bursts of sparks this place was incredibly unsafe.
The two men stood, warily circling one another on the production floor like big cats.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:56:53 GMT -5
Chase was having no problem dodging the endless volley of...energy blasts. Zigzagging, Chase made his way towards the mysterious person, preparing to fire back when a stray blast exploded inches in front of him, throwing him back a few feet.
Aside from nearly vaporizing him and throwing up a hefty amount of dirt, Chase's ear's were now ringing. At least he could use the dust cloud to his advantage. Standing up and regaining his bearings, Chase charged his energy cannon and fired.
"EAT LEMON, SCUMBAG!"
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:57:19 GMT -5
Samson looked around his surroundings in disgust. He had the expression of a wild animal that had been dragged into captivity. The factory was a grinding and gnashing hellhole of technology and the destruction of nature. Samson could feel his anger rising, his blood boiling. The logs of wood here were being thrashed through a whirring buzzsaw, a sickening sight for the old-fashioned lumberjack to see.
Samson came to a stop as the two titans circled one another. The woodsman bent at the knees, tightened his grip on his trusty axe, and tapped a fist on the ground, signifying to Fury that he was ready. Samson Mortlock was no dirty fighter.
"Round 2, hotshot." he growled.
Bringing his arm back, he hurled his axe towards Fury. The blade skimmed over the gunman's head, and whirled past him. It returned on an arc, snapping the support chains of the catwalk above Fury. The metal structure toppled downwards, and Samson chuckled to himself.
"Just thought I'd return the favor."
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:57:31 GMT -5
This situation was rather curious, as the army of robots was easily buying Perish time to power her ritual, but the thing she was conjuring probably wasn't the wisest idea as it'd probably cause a lot of friendly fire. Of course they were just robots so it didn't matter, but it'd be kind of embarrassing if Perish was the reason this invasion failed...
Then again... did Perish honestly care...?
No. No she didn't.
So! Perish just continued reciting all those words she'd burned to memory, making more smooth flamboyant gestures as though sort of tracing something, and more symbols and ribbons of runes appeared around her, and the trembling in the ground gained a new depth to it, like it wasn't stronger there was just simply more of it.
She could still sort of see what the others were doing, as the titans were still clashing like they were the only ones in respective armies, though she kept losing track of the little blue robot due to his size.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mizagium on May 18, 2013 16:57:51 GMT -5
The woodsman and some strange man were brawling, robots were attacking, metal scraps were flying, and there were explosions everywhere. What do I do?!
It was then that Esfir decided that she would leave the artillery to the others and head straight into battle. She explained how to work things to some of the citizens that were just wandering aimlessly, then took off in the direction of the Mechanist King's army.
When she got close enough, she threw a couple of grenades and hid behind a pile of rubble. The explosions destroyed the closest robots and knocked the others back a few feet. Esfir then jumped out from behind her shelter and shot the robots near her.
Of course, one did slip past and managed to latch onto her. She was punched in the face, making her fall and hit her head. She fumbled in getting her gun, so the robot was able to kick it away. She glared at the robot. Nobody treats MY weapons that way!
She stood up, pulled out her wrench and, with a cry of fury, hit the robot as hard as she could. Its head went flying off. She hit the thing a few more times shouting "No one mess with Esfir Ivanovna Vladimira! Especially not pile of scrap metal!" Picking her gun up off the ground, she inspected it for any damage. Seeing none, she shot the robot again, just to make sure.
"This is going to be long war..."
|
|
