Taking a punch to the gut never feels good, but this one seemed to have no more strength behind it than would come from any ordinary man. Dusk stepped back with the blow and danced back towards his enemy, stabbing it straight through the jaw. But his blade encountered nothing despite what his eyes told him.

The chaotic shifting skull seemed to grin.

The scout sidestepped the reverse strike as Dusk brought both blades around and Dusk crouched low, moving swiftly to the side to strike again. This time, however, Dusk put a little more behind the stab with the pale ninjato, his focus shifting to the tip of his sword. As easily as the blade cut through the air, Dusk also forced it through the very fabric of reality, letting the blow land in a duality between the ethereal and the material.

((Ghost Strike (move), Attack vs. Linsemptus Scout (+13, 1d6+2 + 2d6, Ghost Touch)

Probably won't have time to update on the next round so next rounds actions are: Ghost Step, Spot/Listen, Move silently around behind the closest Scout and either pop back and attack or attack from ethereal plane depending on what I see))

Manalagna Hammer was more than a bit annoyed from being rudely awakened by the point of a sword and the spilling of his own blood before being fully awake!

He was even more annoyed that his newly acquired Flaming Scimitar had failed to cut the intrusive foe, so he drew upon his Druidic abilities to unleash a Spell against the agents of the Linsemptus.

Unleashing a Dispel Magic spell the Dwarf Druid intoned:

"Every Trace of Foul Magic Begone!"
For a fleeting moment Manalagna Hammer wishes he were back in the arena facing Xira ... almost ...

As Yin rolled away to safety, Willow smote the Scout through the midsection with her sword. Though her attack was a direct hit, not a mark was left on the Linsemptus' body. The solid steel passed through the Scout like a hot knife through steam. More magic? The momentum of her blade went unresisted and pulled Willow over her balance. An instinctual fear reached down her throat and seized her breath. Would common steel be any use against a ghostly creature? The miniature skeletal ghost turned on her, ignoring its former victim in favour of the next closest at hand.

In her unbalanced state, Willow could only hope to move fast enough to avoid the attack. Her her weakened body wasn't up to the task and the Linsemptus moved faster than she. Despite the casing of mithril armour over her body, the fist took her directly in the ribs.

Willow was no tribe shaman nor mystic, the magical arts were foreign concepts that other people dabbled in. She had witnessed magic in a number of instances, but it always remained as a mysterious world beyond her reach or desire. Though for her peregrine relationship with magic, she carried a number of practical items infused with magic for enhanced effectiveness.

Her swords were both magically enchanted thus. She took a wide step right while simultaneously using that energy to dig at her opponent with her right hand. Her left hand sword followed quickly and she seemed to wrap around to the right, before she reversed her spin and tried to take the Linsemptus into both blades at once. While at this, she stole a glance at Yin. He would be up any second now, and with the enchanted sword he picked up at Wanqir, they would see what it did and what it did not take to kill one of these inhuman invaders.

Willow, not to be dismayed at her previous strangely missed hit, swings her right blade across, and again through the Linsemptus Scout without resistance. Bringing her left blade back, however, Willow catches the Linsemptus Scout off balance, and this time her blade does encounter its intangible body, cutting deep into the gelatinous form (-11 hp Linsemptus Scout). In attempting to bring both blades across at the same time, the Linsemptus Scout ducks underneath one, to be caught in the other's path. Unfortunately, the Linsemptus's immateriality once again comes into play, and the blade passes through without harm.

The Linsemptus Scout in front of Dusk manages to swerve its blow around at a peculiar angle, catching Dusk in the forearm with an off-centre punch. (-2hp Dusk)

"By the Guardinal's light, I defy thee." Deunan says evenly, before bringing her blade to bear. Yet, as she readies her blade to strike, imbued with holy might, she waits for a fraction of a second too long, before the Foot Soldier bashes her blade aside with its shield before she can strike (natural 1). However, she isn't done, and swings the blade around still imbued with holy power, slashing into the Linsemptus Foot Soldier's side. (-15 hp Linsemptus Foot Soldier)

"Foul creature begone!" Mist shouts in almost a mirroring of Deunan as she brings her bastard sword about in a fierce two-handed blow hitting the Linsemptus Scout across the neckline (natural 20). Mist's blade seems to glow white as it cuts deep into the Linsemptus Scout, causing it to screech in agony, and now its form looks precariously fragile, with wisps of its body seeming to evaporate and reform in an unstable equilibrium. (-20hp Linsemptus Scout) Unfinished, she brings the bastard sword around again, this time impaling the Scout and causing it to dissipate with an unearthly screech. (-15 hp Linsemptus Scout, felled)

Seeing an opening, Farah fires her bow thrice consecutively. The first arrow hits the Linsemptus Scout in front of Manalagna, jarring it in the arm (-5 hp Scout). The second shot veers wide, but doesn't endanger either Manalagna or Sora. The final shot flies straight and true into the Scout's torso, underneath the arm of Sora, who flinches slightly at the close proximity. (-11 hp Scout)

Not to be left out, Sora whirls his two wrist blades about in a four-hit strike. The first two hit the already off-balance Scout, with the second striking into its torso and cutting fairly deep. (-5, -7 hp Scout) The second two, however, are evaded as the Linsemptus Scout ducks and sidesteps.

Forcing his blade to infringe upon the boundary between spacial addresses, Dusk swiftly strikes forward. However, the Linsemptus Scout sees the blade coming, and twists to the side of its trajectory.

Yin walks over toward Dusk, "Need a hand?" he asks, although his stance indicates he'll help regardless.

The Linsemptus Scout in front of Manalagna hesitates for a moment, before suddenly jabbing its fist into Manalagna's torso. Being a sudden movement, the strike has little force behind it (-1 hp Manalagna).

Dev reaches the Linsemptus Foot Soldier, and slashes his katar before the Foot Soldier can turn to acknowledge his presence. The katar in his hand glow with a white aura as he strikes, and the Linsemptus Foot Soldier winces slightly from the attack. (-12 hp Linsemptus Foot Soldier) It seems the many attacks upon the Foot Soldier are finally beginning to wear it down, for its body seems to appear less substantial, although it is still a considerable threat.

"Arcane Missiles of magic force, I summon thee to now fly forth!" Armand calls, and the Linsemptus Foot Soldier turns in time to see the five missiles as they impact it in the torso. A low growl can be heard as the Foot Soldier's glowing red eyes brighten with fury. (-12 hp Linsemptus Foot Soldier)

Manalagna stands his ground, and begins weaving the magics of a spell. It is the perfect opening for the Linsemptus Scout in front of him. Even though Manalagna's reflexes are enough to make him step to the side, the Scout's attack this time is the same blade it used in the beginning, and it slashes across diagonally into Manlagna's form. (-5 hp Manalagna) There is a cracking sound, and the rift opened by the Scout's blade sends an enormous wave of pain into Manalagna's body, too much for even the dwarf to handle, and he wasn't expecting it either. (Natural 1 for the save, paralysed)

[Round 3]

Knowing that its death is near, the Linsemptus Foot Soldier roars, and slams its blade down upon Deunan, mustering more force than even before. Not even Armand's added protection aids her against the power of the attack, and the blade slashes her grievously across the torso (-21 hp Deunan). The Linsemptus Foot Soldier bashes her blade with its shield, knocking it out of the way of its second, powerful blow, this time catching her off guard as it cuts deeply into her arm, to the bone (-23 hp Deunan). Foregoing power for accuracy on its last strike, the Linsemptus Foot Soldier slams its blade forward, impaling Deunan through the heart, despite her blade attempting to block the blow. (Critical hit, -24 hp Deunan... Deunan is dead) Retracting its blade, slick with Deunan's blood, the Linsemptus Foot Soldier turns toward the others in its reach, with Deunan's limp body falling to the ground.

Mitsuru steps to the side so she is adjacent to both Akihiko and Dev. She holds her hands to her heart, as though praying, and around all three of them, a faint white aura appears.

Xira steps up, around Dev, bringing the Death Scythe from its sling as she does so. The Foot Soldier turns in time to see Xira nearly decapitate it with a swing of her deadly weapon. (-23 hp Linsemptus Foot Soldier) The Foot Soldier lets out a scream of anguish as its form dissipates into nothingness, the noise nearly deafening the people near it. Xira grits her teeth, but she can't truly hide the damage her weapon is inflicting upon her as well as the blood from her hands drips down the scythe's shaft to drip onto the ground.

The remaining Linsemptus Scouts seem slightly shaken by the loss of their squadron leader, but they don't look as though they'll retreat any time soon.

[Status so far]
Xira - Yellow
Yin - Green
Mist - Green
Farah - Green
Sora - Green
Dev - Green
Mitsuru - Green
Akihiko - Green
Willow - 68/72
Dusk - 52/57
Manalagna - 68/78, paralysed
Armand - 72/72
Deunan - dead (past -10)

((Alright... as the subject says, a wave of ill fortune this round... I rolled quite a few ones... In any case, there are two Linsemptus Scouts remaining. One of which is near-dead (the one by Manalagna), and the other looks so-so by Dusk. Your turn... and hopefully the dip in ill fortune means a rise in good fortune sooner rather than later...))

The scouts were definitely more like ghosts than men.

Dusk's reinforced strike missed hitting his foe as the ghost moved to the side of the stab, retaliating with a small punch. Dusk knew that eventually it may work up the energy to cut more than just skin again and what he had felt before was unpleasant to say the least.

Grunts and gasps from the rest of the battle were broken by the wet sound of a blade piercing a body. Dusk didn't turn from his opponent but still caught the sight of someone sliding of the end of the largest Linsemptus' sword. At least it seemed to have been a quick death. That was all Dusk hoped for once his time had finished.

But not before then.

Dusk pushed forward against the scout attacking with both weapons in an attempt to finish what they had started.

((Full attack, +11/+11/+6))

There she was in all her glory, a bastion of light against the encroaching wave of darkness.... but the might of that darkness had been underestimated, and through her defenses of magic and faith it struck, felling Deunan with its cruel blade...

Armand watched Deunan fall, and something inside him lurched as though an iron gauntlet had gripped his heart and started to pull.

In that welling pain deep within his ragged chest, Armand turned the anger and contempt he felt for these extraplaner invaders seep into every pore in his body, course through his blood like liquid fire. As Armand's eyes lifted from Deunan to the nearest enemy his body erupted into a beacon of light as he was enveloped with a holy radiance.

"You hath taketh, and now I shall giveth tenfold for your transgression!"

Armand invokes a Holy Smite upon the nearest Linsemptus Scout.
"I am the fist of the heavens, your existence's blight, you shall fall to the power of the God's holy smite!"

The small Linsemptus fell under Mist’s shimmering blade, shunned from the world by concentrated holy will. In fact, all around the camp similar victories were met, and the sight of rapidly fading Scouts repeated before Willow’s eyes. However by the time Willow could leap into action against a fresh and live foe, a wail broke free of fearless Deunan’s lips, which swiftly died in her throat as did she. In almost the next moment, that cold spectre of a girl, Xira, returned the favour paid by the Foot Soldier with a fell blow from her scythe.

Deunan’s last utterance before death took her was paled before the tremendous screech released by her murderer. The force of the sound caused Willow to recoil with grim satisfaction. Forcing herself not to become any further sickened by seeking out the noble warrior’s body, Willow looked for the remaining challengers. Dusk and one foe were trading blows nearby, but something more dreadful caught her eye. The dwarf from up north had frozen in place before a threatening opponent. His pained expression coupled with the white ripple across his torso meant trouble.

With the surge of force intended to combat the Foot Soldier not moments ago, Willow sped toward the dwarf. She allowed her much trusted instincts to guide her rescue. She sailed over the small campfire that would have otherwise suffered the indignity of being destroyed, and shot for Manalagna like a sprinting deer, albeit an angry and dangerous one. Without heed to the small scout, Willow rammed into the dwarf at a rather severe speed, throwing both of them to the ground.

Now that she was between the predator and its prey, Willow rolled onto her back, supporting herself with one hand while threatening the aggressor with the blade in the other. She held the enemy locked in her gaze at her sword point, waiting for it to move. The death of their leader seemed to rattle the morale of the minions. Did they have morale? Whatever affect of loosing their leadership had on the few remaining monsters, it did not deter their resolve to their mission.

The Linsemptus Scout in front of Manalagna raises its right arm, and a sickening sound is heard, as though the plasmoid bone were breaking and reforming, as it morphs into a conical shape with jagged ridges around it. Sora's eyes widen, and he slashes at the Scout, but it ducks underneath the hasty blow, the drill-like appendage whirling rapidly. The Scout lunges forward, its arm impossibly stretching forward to impale Manalagna with its drill, the point breaking through the other side of Manalagna's body while the rest of it tears his heart to pieces. The Scout tears the cone from Manalagna's body, and he slumps to the ground, dead. (Failed the fortitude save)

Willow, who had resolved herself to try to push Manalagna out of the way, instead finds herself running at the Linsemptus Scout that had felled Manalagna. Taking a change in plan, she runs her sword through the torso of the Linsemptus Scout (-11hp Linsemptus Scout). The Scout gives a shrill as it dissipates into nothingness.

Righteous fury burns in the eyes of Armand, and turning to the one remaining enemy, Armand unleashes the spell. Pure white flames erupt around the remaining Scout, and it screeches as it is totally obliterated by the pure holy might. (-27 hp Linsemptus Scout, felled)

Rushing to Deunan's fallen body, Mitsuru reaches into her the pouch at her belt, and pulls out a clear, glittering diamond, far purer than anyone of the group has seen, with a perfect cut.

"Child of light, return from death's domain. Hear my voice, and rise again." Mitsuru intones, the diamond disappearing into an orb of light that infuses with Deunan's body, bathing it with a warm glow.

Repeating the process, Mitsuru does the same for Manalagna, using a similar diamond in order to do so. In the meantime, Xira sets her Death Scythe away, and casts a curative spell upon herself, the faint glow of the spell seemingly very peculiar, coming from the dark priestess.

Yet, as Mitsuru does the second raising, there is a visual distortion above the campfire, with a swirling of colour and light. It fades as quickly as it came, leaving the sylph woman hovering in the air.

"I came back as quickly as I could; I heard a faint scream." She says.

Mitsuru sharply looks over at the sylph, "How far away were you?"

"I was at the base of Mt. Venerro when I heard it." the sylph replies.

"We'd better move." Mitsuru quickly assesses, "If that soldier's scream travelled that far, we can assume that it has given away our position. This wasn't an assault squad; it was a patrol. We have two options: we can try to maintain our distance from Venerro, simply by traveling around the mountain, or we can retreat to Wanqir, re-equip, and set back out. I suggest retreating, for fairly evident reasons."

[Status so far]
Xira - Green
Yin - Green
Mist - Green
Farah - Green
Sora - Green
Dev - Green
Mitsuru - Green
Akihiko - Green
Willow - 68/72
Dusk - 52/57
Manalagna - 9/71
Armand - 72/72
Deunan - 7/67

((Both Deunan and Manalagna have lost one level as a result of their resurrection))

Dusk threw his right arm up over his hooded eyes as a brilliant flash of white fire consumed the enemy he had engaged. The Linsemptus's death scream echoed off the trees and beyond, causing the flutter of activity from night creatures that hadn't already awoken from the sound of battle. For a moment, only the sound of rustled leaves and wings mixed with the faded scream.

Then Mitsuru pulled her head together, moving quickly to the human and dwarf who had perished in the battle. The dwarf had been surprisingly useless from what Dusk could tell. Then again, this one was stranger than any other dwarf he had encountered. Perhaps direct confrontation was not his specialty, but if he could not hold his own in combat, then of what use could he be?

Dusk scowled, moving only to remember the few bruises and the small cut he had received in combat. Looking down he saw the cut was shallow and short, though it still stung in the night air. He would need to visit a tailor to sew the cut in the dark fabric, too. Concentrating, Dusk forced the skin to attach itself once more by focusing his own internal energy to redistribute through his physical body. The swelling at the bruises reduced, too, with the sharp pain replaced by a bit of mental fatigue.

A flash of light appeared in a swirling of colours above their position and disappeared in an instant, leaving the sylph Scout in its place.

"I came back as quickly as I could; I heard a faint scream." She says.

Mitsuru sharply looks over at the sylph, "How far away were you?"

"I was at the base of Mt. Venerro when I heard it." the sylph replies.

"We'd better move." Mitsuru quickly assesses, "If that soldier's scream travelled that far, we can assume that it has given away our position. This wasn't an assault squad; it was a patrol. We have two options: we can try to maintain our distance from Venerro, simply by traveling around the mountain, or we can retreat to Wanqir, re-equip, and set back out. I suggest retreating, for fairly evident reasons."

"Retreat? Very well," Dusk said. Without another word, he gathered his simple roll and placed it into the extra dimensional bag that had been set on his horse. He pulled out his white shirt and breeches that he had worn on the road during the day, replacing the dark cloth that he had worn during the night.

((1 Ki Power to heal 7 (10 total) damage. Dusk gathers his things and prepares to leave. As soon as the others are ready, he will depart with them.))

As the scout dissipated into the night air, Willow looked down on Manalagna. She knew she shouldn’t have. The Dwarf’s blood was quickly escaping through the hole in his back. His clothing covered the wound but was completely soaked in a gruesome splotch of blood. Dwarves have a lot of blood. The thought came unbidden and filled her mind before she could reject it.

Willow clamped her eyes shut and jerked her head to the side. When she opened them, she was reminded of the last monster. The creature went up in a conflagration of holy flames, leaving behind not a trace, as they were wont to do.

The lieutenant organized and shut off her mind beyond the few ingrained instincts and customs that she would need to carry on. With a quick sweep she found that her team was mostly unharmed and entirely alive. Only two deaths, it seemed.

Despite her service to the Aquinarran guard and the years before during the times of troubles, the sight of a dead body was still one that chilled her to the bone. It would not matter how many times she witnessed it, the cold, immobile visage that death granted to its victims would remain a horror for her. Thus was her living irony, skilled in evoking death as she was. Thankfully, she had not yet had to disobey an order to kill any living person. The majority of the blood seen by her swords was only that of beasts and other wild creatures that sought to endanger lives under her protection.

Mitsuru stepped over to where Manalagna’s body lay presumably to gather his remains. Willow wanted to be useful, but she couldn’t possibly make herself assist. Instead she cast a long, hard gaze into the fire. The air above the fire twisted and distorted in the waves of heat rising from it. But no, there was much more distortion than could be accounted for by heat. Her senses leapt for a second, and then the sylph reappeared amongst them.

"I came back as quickly as I could; I heard a faint scream," she says.

Mitsuru sharply looks over at the sylph, "How far away were you?"

"I was at the base of Mt. Venerro when I heard it," the sylph replies.
Willow was already reaching the same conclusion as Mitsuru, even in her inhibited state, and uttered a quick command to her team. “Saddle up, we have to get moving - now.” She moved quickly to her horse, but stopped to do a double take. Having avoided looking in the direction of either Armand or Deunan, Willow saw for the first time that Deunan was alive, if a bit staggered and confused. She gazed in awe, wondering if her senses had lied to her when the woman was felled by the Foot Soldier. One thought followed another and she turned to see the surely dead Manalagna sitting up, propped on one arm with Mitsuru kneeling beside him. That woman has magic at her command, powerful magic. Who else, she wondered, could use magic like that in the group? Armand also, at least, had proven that he was gifted with magical art.

But she wasted no more time on pursuing such thoughts. Willow quickly saddled her horse and soon sat at the head of her team next to Yin. She rubbed the scant two hours’ sleep out of her eyes with the back of her hand and took Mitsuru’s lead. It promised to be a long night.

In the paralyzed condition that had enveloped Manalagana Hammer, the Dwarf Druid was somewhat detached from the piercing of his body and bursting of his heart as the Scout finished its dirty work.

Laying dead so far from home Manalagna wondered with his last fleeting thoughts whether or not those who knew him in the Land of Alastari would be aware of his passing?

What hurt most in his paralyzed state was that whatever mission Hammer had dispatched him to this far away dimensional realm to fulfill had resulted in seemingly total failure!

As the last droplets of conscious thought bled away from his mind in unison with the red blood soaking his garments and the cold ground beneath him ... a faint glow of warm light began filtering through his broken body and psyche!

Mere moments later, Manalagna Hammer found himself sitting up with his compassionate benefactor steadying him as he got reorinted to his surroundings.

He wondered how he had been able to defeat Xira in the arena?
He also realized that he seemed to be of little use to the company he was now keeping!

Had his former arena manager Hammer made a mistake in sending him here?

"I don't think we have as much time as we thought." The Scout murmurs softly, fading into invisibility, "Ride, quickly!"

There is no hesitation, for in a war, hesitation often leads to death, and two of the party have already encountered it. The camp is abandoned, the fire still burning, with everyone taking mount and moving out, following the road back to Wanqir. The Scout, although invisible, flies alongside Manalagna and bestows a brief light of healing upon him, to further his recovery. (+17 hp Manalagna) Likewise, she does so with Deunan, for although they are beyond the swing of the Reaper, they are far from completely healed (+19 hp Deunan). Not a moment too soon, either.

"They're coming!" The Scout shouts, "Don't look back! Focus on what's in front!"

For a dreadful moment, there is only silence outside of the sound of hooves hitting the ground, for these creatures do not make sound. Then a strange noise is heard, coming from one source sources. The sound is akin to a clap of thunder accompanying lightning, but whatever it is, it is not lightning. It is like a ray of vivid light, striking through the dark of night, but with a dark purpose. It strikes the ground just to the side of Mitsuru's horse for a split second, upturning the ground where it hits.

"Spread out!" Mitsuru calls, "They won't be able to hit everyone that way!"

Silence returns, and everyone spreads out a bit more to prevent collisions. Everyone is evenly spread out, with the Aqinarr soldiers spaced in between the others. Then, another beam of energy strikes down, this time just barely to the right of Willow. Only the prickling sensation of someone watching gave Willow the instinct to direct her horse left a bit to avoid the blast. The Scout, having fallen silent, no longer seems to be in view, however, at the edge of everyone's vision, there seems to be a hazy blue aura around the party.

Perhaps it would seem that there's only one thing chasing the party, but that is not the case. This time, a pair of beams shoots down, at Deunan and Armand, however, the faith held by Armand forms its own shield about the two, staving the blasts to the side. Sora, riding on the far right, is far less fortunate. A third beam fires down, and impales the torso of his horse at an angle, sending both the horse and him cartwheeling through the air and be lost from view as the party rides on.

There is a lull, and no more beams rain down. Those that dare to take a glance back, and upwards, sees a peculiar Linsemptus form. Not humanoid, this Linsemptus doesn't even look like an animal, taking the form of an iridescent, pale white eye, with a chaotic iris of swirling colour, a pitch black pupil, and jagged crack-like shapes appearing like eyelashes around it. It simply hovers in the air, by means unexplainable, simply staring unnervingly. Despite the speed of the horses, it seems like the eye doesn't move relative to the party. The blue aura that could be faintly seen before is now visible, obscuring the form of the Linsemptus and the sky behind it. In the distance, there can be seen five other eyes, hovering closer. Two in particular seem a bit too close.

"Don't look at it!" The Scout shouts, "Pay attention to the road!"

Even if there is a lull, pursuit still continues. No later than after the shout, three beams rain down at Dusk, Akihiko and Xira. Thankfully, none of the three hit, merely striking the ground beside them in a cacophonous roar. Then one falls, hitting the side of Yin's horse. It whinnies in pain, but continues going running, now spurred on by fear. A fifth beam sails down, missing Farah and her horse. However, the sixth beam strikes true, striking Dev's horse and nearly unsaddling him, leaving a considerably weakened mount to carry him.

There is another lull, as the eyes fall behind. Yet, with a persistence and will that cannot be known, they return within seconds, and fire a final volley simultaneously. Three of these blasts hit the ground, failing to strike anyone. However, the final three bring with them death, and so three others fall. One rips the muscle the leg off of Yin's already hurt horse, and he tumbles to the ground. Another one strikes Dev's horse, the angle just enough to pierce the horse's neck, and so he too falls. Finally, the last one blasts through Farah's arm at an angle, striking the horse in the head. Both fall, and are lost.

Yet again, the eyes fall behind, but just when it seems they would come within range of the party again, they stop, and simply hover, at a standstill, as everyone's horses gallop away.

"Alright, I think we can go at a slower pace now," The Scout says, "I don't think the horses will last much longer at a full-out run anyway."

Indeed, in truth to her words, the party's horses feel a little weaker from the run, quivering slightly with the effort to push their body to its limit.

((The time that has elapsed is 15 rounds; light warhorses have a Con of 17, which is effectively their running limit unless you push them. For NPCs, four of them have been lost: Dev, Farah, Yin and Sora. Please post regarding how hard you wish to push your horses, or offer suggestions as to how you wish to proceed, or even if you wish to stop temporarily to converse at greater detail.))

Dusk was not a rider. He much preferred to trust his own feet rather than those of a beast despite the amount of time he often took to travel between places.

As it was, self-preservation was a stronger motivator. Against these unknown creatures, Dusk found the quickest escape better than the stealthiest, as the Scout suggested.

The elf gripped the reins and stood in the stirrups to avoid the bouncing of the saddle as his horse took off in fear from the advancing creatures. As the first beam fell among them, striking the earth, Dusk's eyes widened and he slapped the reins, urging his horse to its limits. Pushed by fear, Dusk barely heard the call to spread out, doing so mostly by sensing the others' movements. It still took most of his concentration to not fall out of the saddle.

The next few minutes became a blur as the horses ran for their lives and those of their riders. Dusk's ears picked up the screams of the dying, but he did not look back to see who had fallen or when. Only fifteen minutes after the chase began, Dusk felt his horse begin to lose speed and risked a glance to see others keeping pace with him. Considerably less others, though.

"Alright, I think we can go at a slower pace now," The Scout said. "I don't think the horses will last much longer at a full-out run anyway."

Dusk, too, felt sore from the ride and felt for the beast. The quivering, damp flesh beneath him said that the miles they had put behind them just now were close to as far as these beasts could go.

"We have lost four and have few if any way of attacking these creatures without being slaughtered where we stand," Dusk said. "Why do they not come to finish their task? I am no horsemaster, but we should probably dismount before we kill these beasts ourselves."

The instinct of survival overrode Willow; her body functioned on reflex, every impulse and reaction was processed without detouring through the brain first. Their approach was deathly silent- so quiet in fact, that Willow hadn’t possibly expected them to be so close. When the lightning-that-wasn’t missed Mitsuru’s horse, Willow’s horse had to veer wildly to avoid careening through the debris.

In the seconds after the explosion, Willow regained the power of conscious thought. Save for the thunder of hooves, the night was still and silent as a tomb, not that the cacophony of their flight was easily overlooked. If it weren’t for the faint magical light emanating from the party, the pitch of night would have made the road all but impossible to follow. No other life exists on this entire plain. Willow’s guess was that the wildlife had fled at the coming of such abominations as the ones above. Nature had a way of sensing these things.

Before further cognition could occur, Willow experienced a sudden and disturbing sensation nagging at the nape of her neck. One could say that the feeling that someone was watching you while you were running for your life was an inconsequential detail, but Willow’s instincts knew better than that. With one hand she tugged on the reins and with the other she resorted to more primitive means, by slapping the horse on the side of the neck. Whichever method was more effective at translating the message, the animal dodged left of the next bolt, which ripped into the road instead of flesh.

It seemed that if they could only keep running, they might survive being shot at with unnatural lightning. But that hope was dashed as the bolts rained down two at a time, with a third immediately after. At first Willow couldn’t tell who had been hit, just that whoever it was had been dismounted with a cry. A second utterance as the poor soul hit the ground testified that it was Sora who had fallen - and that he was not yet killed. Willow yanked on the reins to stop her horse, but by this point in time it was not susceptible to any handler’s command. Stupid beast, Willow raged at the animal who was too terrified to listen.

Between the jerking gait of her horse and her grip on the reins, Willow managed to steal a glance over her shoulder, at the monsters attacking them. At first, she couldn’t tell what she was looking at, but then one of them launched another bolt which lit up the air in a quick flash. They were like eyes, giant floating eyes. The sight was that of a nightmare.

"Don't look at it!" The Scout shouted, "Pay attention to the road!"
Willow focused her attention back to the few score feet of visible road, now convinced that they would likely all die here. Then, after mere moments more of earth shattering blasts, the hostilities cease e, after mere moments more of earth shattering blasts, the hostilities cease entirely. It seemed like only another lull, but when no more thunder poured down on them, the horses could not help but slow their pace, out of exhaustion if not the sense of danger passed.

Willow immediately leapt off her horse and regretted it. In two minutes of terrorized flight they might have been sore from hours in the saddle. She ignored the stiffness and ran back down the road for a few seconds. There in the air remained the disembodied eyeball spectres, still watching them. Though it killed her to do so, she stopped. Only two kept their attention on the escaped prey, while the others moved back. Why would they possibly have stopped? Willow met their unwavering gazes for several moments, unable to turn away. The very sight of them sickened her, but still they held her captive, like a cat’s hypnotism. She finally managed to force her body to obey her mind, and finally turned away from them. The superior predator has won, and now guards the spoils of victory. Very well, so has it been for many centuries, so may it be still. I will not forget this.
Mist approached Willow, uncertainty and concern written blatantly on her fair face. The woman was one of constantly fearless demeanour, but even she was not looking so brave now. “When we get to Wanqir, I want you to return to Aquinarr and oversee the funerals. You are to remain there. I promise this, Mist, if there still remains a body among them, I will bring it back to be buried.” Willow cut off any objection from the older soldier by walking away. She knew that such an order was highly irregular and probably went against protocol, but then, only on the best of days did Willow strictly follow the rules.

She took her horse by the reins, the poor beast, and led it away. She said nothing and really didn't care to hear anything. Her gaze was permanently fixed on the ground at her feet.

"We may have lost four, but we can only go forward." Mitsuru says, reassuringly, "Their loss was not in vain; there are some things that we have learned, but I will not speak of it here. For now, let's just return to the capital. However, know this: we seem to have more time than we thought."

With that, Mitsuru and Akihiko also dismounted, to make their way on foot.

Eventually, it's decided that the party would rest until morning, no longer being in direct danger. Strangely, Mitsuru even forgoes the thought of a person to keep watch beyond the Scout, saying that if the Linsemptus were going to come, the eyes would've already finished them. Later that day, as the sun dips into the horizon, the party makes it back to Wanqir, immediately heading toward the citadel. Inside, Mitsuru, Akihiko, and the Scout leave to converse with the Council in an emergency meeting, discussing the events that transpired over the previous day.

At the citadel too, there is another there who seems to have just been late in answering the summons. He has a short unkempt beard, with brown medium length hear that is always swept back. He wears his breastplate wherever he goes, typically unbuckled as a result of being too lazy to put it away. He has black boots and gloves, which have wrinkles of lighter brown from their frequent use, and they are tattered at the ends of his gloves which he picks at when bored. Around his waist is a leather belt with two pouches; only one is attached to it, the other pouch is tied around the belt as a simple brown bag.

"I will do as you have instructed, Lt." Mist says with a bow, leaving the party to head to Aqinarr.

(Alrighty, part 1 of the update... I apologize for it being so late... in any case, Okron, please introduce your character, and converse with the others as desired; as for equipment exchange, I'll cover that in the second part, so you don't need to do it in a game post. In general, I am going to assume everyone acquires Ghost Touch variations of their equipment if possible; if you desire something else, let me know via the Q&A. I think that's about it to say... Note to self: this is during day 4... ^^)