My Cabbages!

    As dawn's glow rises above the Land of Beginnings, alarms go up from scouting posts. A Palace Lands ship is seen sailing away from the coast, already well out of reach of weapons. The question is just what it was doing there, and what it might have done during the night.

    The question is soon answered. Official response is of course varied, with many military targets guarded and reinforced. There are other targets however, targets which by their very nature lack fortifications. Targets such as a supply caravan from a ship recently unloaded in Carmena Gadelica, destined for Alne and Aincrad Tower. A caravan that may well have Adventurer escort, or might get reinforced by those adventurers in the area who are quick to recognize the potential threat or who are already looking about for trouble.

    The caravan is traveling the open plains at the time, of course, so the Palace Lands strike force is spotted in advance. There's nowhere to run and nowhere to hide however. The strike force is far faster than a wagon convoy. All the Landers can do is circle the wagons and prepare to defend. And pray, of course, or hope in the Adventurers to be enough to turn back the attack.

    "Strike hard and fast!" commands the booming voice of Shiyang. "Kill any who resist, and burn the wagons. No prisoners, no supplies. This morning is only our first move of the new front!"

    The command results in a disciplined charge and a shower of fire arrows, aimed at any who stand between the wagons and the invaders.

There is a soft huff from the woman close to Shiyang's side. She would point out that they could take the supplies for themselves, but considering the Salamander's usual demeanor it isn't worth the hassle to fuss over. They're at least moving on a tactically viable target, so she will take it. Beats the random engagements in violence some of their compatriarts seem to prefer.

So instead Daiyu simply closes her parasol and slings it at her side. "Occupy their defenders. I will get in close with the cover." There's a brief ripple in her shape as she shifts to her proper Were Fang form, but the flicking of four foxy tails is the last anyone sees of her as she slips off into the long morning shadows to maneuver in close to the wagons while they're dealing with the rain of arrows.

    War is profitable. It allows for more wares to be sold. More supplies to be shipped. More funds to be made when these things need to keep attackers off of them and while Vafrum is more buisness than mercenary-- sometimes; Just sometimes; You have to get your hands dirty.

In this case, Vafrum was following the carvan, by taking a bit of ride. He might have been snoozing off, when suddenly the assault happened. One eye snapped open, before he suddenly had to make a very quick move to avoid an arrow.

The assault clipped part of the sleeve of his blouse. He looks at the cut, the arrow, then the assaulting enemy landers. His gold eyes narrow sharply, before he huffs a bang from his face. "Do you fools have any idea how much something like this costs!" He then jumps off the wagon and while all the chaos happens, he is very calm. "A good deal and now I have to actually /do/ some hard work in order to /fix/ what you have all damaged!"

"Augh... brutality." He says this as he goes to unbotton his vest, throwing it to the side as it digitally fades away. He rolls up his sleeves. "How dull and unrefined, but--" Then a cruel smile crosses his lips. "It does pay well." His eyes locking onto possibly Shiyang and their group of followers.

Yeowang is not precisely on guard duty, but she's been heading up some of the logistical efforts involved in taking care of the massive influx of refugees, and one of her tasks is seeing to supplies. In this case, though, seeing to will have to involve defending them from Palace Lands raiders. She will take her place with the wagons, then, her back to the wagon as the incoming arrows fly.

Her long hair is coiled in a loose bun atop her head, with the remainder hanging behind her in a pony tail, her dark pants and white shirt complimented by a snug black coat, though it's not buttoned up at the moment, as it's a nice day. She's got a bow in hand, and an arrow nocked, ready to return fire when the incoming arrow shower clears.

"Take the caravan escort quest, they said. It'll be fun, they said," Uta whimpers from inside the circle of wagons, her back pressed against one of them, her head turned up. In a sharp contrast with the usual quests against criminal landers and Monsters, she's shaking.

"I don't want to fight an Adventurer!" Her staff is clutched close to her chest, her eyes are narrowed in terrified reluctance. "I... I..." An incendiary arrow plants itself on the canvas right next to her cheek. She shrieks, leaps sideways, and immediately intones a short chant that blasts a brief burst of water out of the gem in her weapon. The arrow is extinguished, and Uta lets out a sigh of relief. "...I signed up to be a support healer in case a Lander got sick! Not as a fighter!"

Vafrum had hired Tenko as a caravan guard. It was a decent paying job, and it helped Tenko fulfil her wanderlust, which was hard to do in the age of war like this. Everyone was scared, most of the Landers that she talked to didn't understand why they were under siege. To be truthful she didn't either. The attack at the festival had been her first real encounter with them since the war started, and the attitude had totally changed since the time in the Palace Lands.

The masked ronin had been sitting in the back of one of the supply wagons when the attack began, and had sighed heavily. Not unexpected for a supply caravan to be hit, but she was hoping this one wouldn't be a high enough priority. Leaping over the edge, her katana comes to bear as she swats down a pair of arrows, and then shifts to a defensive stance, "Have you fools not caused enough damage?"

There is some good news for Shiyang? Gwen is not in a bikini this time. No she's in full armor today at the very least. She hears the call to attack it's the one she fought at the beach. She would not forget that voice.

"Damn it, here they come!"

She's been drawna way with the otehrs as she makes ready to move to engage the incomming attackers. The towering woman is mocing in and calls out to Tenko.

"They won't be happy till we're all dead or slaves."

    Vafrum cut a glance over to Gwen as she remarks on the 'slaves' part, "Then they will forever be gloomed and doomed, given I imagine the two of us are both out of their price range." He says with a wink and that dangerous grin staying on his face.

One does not merely walk into Alne. Wait. No. One does. Haru was playing it smart by sticking with a large group during expeditions out from the town. He still has ample need to collect raw materials out in the field for his Accessory crafting or some that may be traded once in the town itself. The white haired Artificer has his full of inventory while on the way back, parked on one of the wagons with his menu open and working on the material processing for the more basic components that do not require as much direct work with his tools or hands. Fibers to twine. Rocks to dust. That manner of things. Menu tap. He takes out a small bowl of sap and powder, working on grinding the two together for a form of resin or coat with Alchemy. He has to pause the processing when the strike force is spotted.

Haru hops from the wagon and puts his craftery craft crafts away. "But it can /be/ fun," Haru asides to Uta as he steps confidently into the fray. Behind a wagon. And several other people. "Like look, its just new friends that are charging towards us. With bloodthirsty intent in their eyes. Solid roleplayers, them." The words of 'Kill any who resist. Burn the wagons. NO PRISONERS!' from the leader contradicting that. "/Very/ into the role."

    It would certainly be nice to take supplies at this point, but Shiyang has her orders. Do damage, stay mobile. It's faster to destroy than to steal, and besides they need the speed to survive while in this foreign land. They can't possibly take wagons with them.

    "Good hunting." the Salamander warleader says to Daiyu as the fox-woman departs. Then her focus hardens. "You think it is WE who are causing all the damage?" she challenges, seeming to be honestly surprised if not outright shocked. She shakes her head. "FIRE!" she calls, one arm chopping through the air, and mages and spellbows unleash a firestorm in response. She unleashes her own wave of fire, defensively, setting up to protect the raiders from the inevitable retaliation of the Yamatoans. Not that her fire wall should be insurmountable for the battle-hungry adventurers. Far from it.

Daiyu was not one for wanton violence and destruction, so the wily vixen was using the initial grab of attention by Shiyang's raider band to half-circle around the wagons to approach from a different direction. Eyes dart over the collection of people and supply crates, looking for a viable target -- is that.. no, different attire. Ceremonial mask. It's a different kitsune. Hmm. Then she catches sight of the man pulling off his vest and getting ready to fight despite looking like he might be one of the caravan leads... willing to actually fight himself to protect his wares? Interesting. Novel, really.

Let's give them something to deal with then.

Agile paws leap back into motion, charging the circle of wagons from the opposite direction. As she leaps to the back of one wagon, just her presence seems to bring an ominous foreboading with it to herald her entrance into the fray. She makes a quick casting gesture with one hand and throws a distracting burst of light towards the kitsune ronin, before spinning on her heel, and in one sleek motion pulling a poisoned blade from under her arm cover and attempting to stab the professional looking man with it.

When the barrage of arrows has stopped, Yeowang will step out between two wagons and return fire, drawing a bead and loosing, her arrow flying straight and striking true even as she steps back between the wagons to take cover again. She doesn't expect an opprtunity to use a ranged attack again, so she'll stow her bow and prepare to meet the enemy face to face.

Seeing Uta back, shivering among the wagons, she calls out, encouragingly, "Uta, I know for a fact you're the terror of the Duelist League. Why don't you show these backstabbing Palace Landers why?"

    Vafrum was about to charge into the main fray, until he caught something in the corner of his eye. His werefang sense spiked, but it was a bit to late.

The enemy kitsune, Daiyu, dashed in with her poison blade. His hand moved quickly to bring up a magical barrier, but her blade catches the palm of his hand. He grits his teeth, even as a flicker of that barrier flashes over his body. "Well hello there.." He says lowly.

She can see it in his eyes; A dangerous predator lurking in those almost glowing gold eyes. Then the mark on his neck that was almost hidden by his silk shirt's collar.

With her close and before she can break away, he goes to suddenly swing his leg around and goes to slam his foot into her with a whirling kick.

Gwen has always been pressed by Shiyang and today is no exception. Well it's not direct however but they are commanding this.

"Your right we'd likely end up in the courts of one of the rulers."

She notes to Vafrum Then the attacks come she will trigger divine shield but it's not enough to stop the attacks. Gwen is caught in a storm of spell she's burned she's hrut but she's not down for the count. She seem to be even more unhappy as she makes for the enemy ranks she's charging casting an air art as she goes.

"Sonic Lunge!"

She'll try to get into the casters ranks to cause as much havoc as she can.

"Want to see what the other side of the Obsidian Light effect looks like," Haru asks Uta as he summons out his Dark sprite, a cat-like monster named Eve with six legs and little tentacle-like appendages on her shoulder that is dangerously close to copyright infringement. "The moonlight makes it so that friendlies are not affected by the zone affect!" He is quite proud of this fact. It also helps him work on photosensitive materials, such as those found in caves, but with the War going on it is a wonderful debuff for the masses without being 'that guy' that also makes things harder by debuffing friendlies.

The cat monster hops onto Haru's shoulder and reows in a way a cat should not reow. It sounds downright haunting, as befits a summoned monster-sprite. "Tenebris. Cadit. Lunae Lumen. Oriri. Occultare." The orb Haru holds in his hand becomes as dark as a pool of ink. Misty charcoal-like rings form around with each word in the Wave Arte chant. Eve, the summon, flies up into the air and takes the rings with her, looking like a jetstream behind her that crop dusts the battlefield in a hazy black mist. At the top of the zone she sits on an artificial moon, providing a soft obsidian light to blacklight the area. Friendlies can see the enemies just fine in blacklight fashion, but enemies cannot.

Mass debuffs are super effective! Enchanter Liiiifffeee. It makes it much easier for Haru to dodge to the left to the left and to the right to the right as arrows and spells make it to his back row position. Unz unz unz. He has a little rhythm going here. A little murder isnt going to shake his good vibes today.

Sudden movement out of the corner of her eye as Tenko turns and tries to defend against the flash of light that temporarily blinds her. She growls faintly, and then takes a moment for the disorientation to clear, before quickly stepping forward and unleashing a powerful strike with her katana.

From her experience so far these Palace Land adventurers have no intention of talking, so she keeps any banter to herself for the time being, instead opting just to try to strike hard and fast.

Uta gives Haru a look of dread. Mouth open, lower lid of her eyes lifted to follow her raised cheeks, brow knitted. She turns to the words of 'kill any who resist. Burn the wagons. NO PRISONERS!' Then to Haru.

She tries hard to find some way to save the whole discussion and not sound sarcastic. Really hard.

In the end, she manages a, "...Well, I... I suppose we get in the role as well, then? REALLY into it?" She closes her eyes, inhales...

"WHAT IS MY ROLE EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE!?" She panics "I WASN'T EVEN PLANNING ON ROLEPLAYING! I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT ELDER TALE ONLINE WAS ALL ABOUT!"

She snaps her staff towards the attackers. "Ok, I suppose I start by wrecking chaos among their numbers, and we discuss the rest later."

Firey death rains from the sky, but Uta is not there to be roasted. She zips from cart to cart, ducks and jumps as a flock of arrows keeps planting into the ground nearby, and while she does so, she sings. She begins to vocalize, slow. Only her crystalline voice, solo, rises like a beacon among the thick of the battle.

https://i.imgur.com/jV2Xv8v.mp4

But then, as she picks up speed, she leaps out, and jumps herself into the fray."Guys, play the soundtrack as I taught you!", she yells at some Landers trained in Song that are cowering behind carts. The Landers snap out of their fear, and whip out their instruments. Being focused on something that is not the fray of war seems to infuse courage. Boost morale. The whole party sets up their instruments and- well, launch into a very Uta arrangement of the Empowering Anthem.

The song becomes bouncier, syncopated, and Uta seems to have too much fun with it. She even jumps up on a cart, outside the circle, running around, and whacking opponents that get too close on their armor, making metallic sounds towards the end of the tune.

https://i.imgur.com/gB6UECt.mp4

The barrier dillutes the force of her strike, but not enough to keep the alchemically poisoned dagger from catching flesh and delivering it's stinging bite. Daiyu pulls back a step, her own eyes narrowing a bit as she looks into her intended target's. She sees that familiar gleam, even though the man chooses to stay in his human form. "Interesting..." Just as nimbly as she lauched her attack she twists away, tails whirling around her to provide some additional buffer against the kick lashed at her.

The same motion turns her around to use her warfan to parry the katana strike. "Of course you'd intervene..." That poisoned dagger is flicked at Tenko as she spins.

Then the second warfan flicks open in her now free hand, igniting in flames. While the other one ripples with sickles of water. Daiyu's spinning motion accelerates, slashing both fans at Vafrum in rapid succession, while the elements spinning around her make her briefly harder to cleanly counterstrike.

    Vafrum watched her closely. His eyes watching her every movement, down to how she was using her fan. When the fire came, he rushed right for her. The flames ripping across his body, tearing away the silk.

With another foot step, she could see him suddenly shifting in that momentary second. The man went from being six foot two, to a sudden seven foot monster letting out a predatory screech. That humanoid dire raptor, pushing off from its clawed feet to avoid her next strike. His glowly reptalian eyes peering at her like an apex predator; Hungry and cold.

Before he fully lands down, he twirls his body around and goes to use his tail like bludgeon weapon to see if he can knock the Kitsune hard into one of the already damaged wagons. "I give you credit for style but you have forced my hand! Now you will suffer in my full savagery!"

The Strike Squad seem prepared for just about anything, fierce and determined as they strike. That is, until they actually face the Yamato Adventurers.

    Darkness falls quickly upon them, thanks to Haru's Eve. The sudden blindness is enough to leave them vulnerable to Gwen's empowered lunge. She tears through the attackers, taking hits as they reflexively strike back, but dishing out the fury of the air in return.

    Yeowang's arrow strikes the force's leader, and Shiyang hisses in pain. Not the hiss of a reptile, but of an adventurer struck by an attack she didn't see coming. As the darkness clears, the Salamander leader tears out the arrow with a curse, a wash of red following the hasty action.

    Back with the caravan, Uta calls on the Landers to perform. Her stirring rendition of a traditional song fills all who hear it with courage. They know, suddenly, that they will not fall this day. That they will show the attackers their true spirits. And the madly bopping and jiving figure of Uta may inspire amusement in some, it nonetheless helps encourage others to similarly move and flow with unpredictable rhythm.

    However, Haru isn't the only one to know how to use mass debuffs to mess with a foe. Among the Palace Landers, Shiyang begins to chant a powerful sorcerous call. "Oh Earth, your defender calls upon you. Take the fire that is my soul within you, that our enemies may flounder helplessly knowing their doom is upon them!"

    The ground before the Palace Landers shudders, breaks, liquifies into a pit of thickened mud. The battle leader roars. "ATTACK!", and the squad charges in to hack and stab at those adventurers who are caught, seeking to strike them down while they struggle to free themselves.

Yeowang grimaces at the wave of attackers coming for the caravan. It's insane, there's no way to make progress against so many without taking hits. She rushes out between the wagons, though, dashing forward into the fray fearlessly. She takes the hits, then, from the wave of attackers, but trades the damage she receives for ground, rushing towards Shiyang, and leaping in to the attack with no pause or hesitation.

It's still a near thing, delivering a fast, straight punch toward the face as she engages the enemy leader directly. She's keeping an eye on the minions, too, but they're not going to give way unless we can find a way to force the leader back.

Tenko manages to deflect the poison dagger but it nicks her shoulder, enough to at least trigger the poison effect. She growls faintly at the Palace Land adventurer, who at least seems willing to talk compared to others, "Tell me something, if you can. Why do you do this? What drives you?" She asks, as she shifts her stance, and her left hand fills with a ball of flames, "Are you doing this of your own free will, or because you are forced into this path? Perhaps it is not too late to change course."

Of course changing course is going to require going through the foxfire that Tenko just unleashed, which swiftly surrounds Daiyu in a gale of flames and wind.

"I should hope so. Or this will be a boring chapter." The hulijing proves to be quite elusive, as she backflips over the swinging tail and lands on the edge railing of the wagon. "And will make the ruin of your holdings all the more satisfy--erk!" She's blindsided by the barrage of wind propelled foxfire, knocking her off her perch. She hits the ground, rolling backwards a few meters before finally landing on her feet and skidding to a stop. Her tails lash behind her, glowing with a supernatural energy to offset a small bit of the damage she just took. "Yes, much better."

Darting back into motion, she charges the one fan to turn it's water enchantment to ice, and with a sweeping motion propels it in the form of several icicle kunai at Vafrum.

But there's only an instant to realize that her main target has changed this time, as she rushes Tenko. "Unrestrained and unremorse, our adventurers were left to their own course. Nearly laid to ruin and would take not blame," The hulijing stalker slashes at her with the flame-imbued fan in an upward arc, "And we will stop you from doing the same!"

Great, now the literary nerd is speaking in rhymes too.

Things get decidedly LESS upbeat when the whole entire zone gets melted with FIRE. No. Things get hot. "Those are some," scorch, "hot beats you got there," burn, "Uta." The Enchanter does what he can with deflecting the wrathful magic but it works as well as throwing rice paper into a fire. Melts with a crisp along with a fair amount of his health. His monocle goes to scout across the battlefield, looking for the source. The one yelling orders. A low whistle from his lips. "Care for an accompaniment?" He begins to tap his foot. Unz unz unz. Need to get that beat back.

The Artificer needs to feel the beat for this one to work right. His chant has a melodic metal thump da thump da thump to it. "Terra. Vocare. Terebro. Numerus. Terebrare. Hostis." The ground itself begins to quake as a drill whirls out of it. An earthen Sprite with two drill-like arms spins them to a sharp, sweet rhythm against the anthem track as it rolls in to support the front lines like a Tank-Summon crashing into the thick of the Palace Landers.

Musical Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIr4C5Ztlcg

EARLIER: Uta takes all the time necessary to admire Haru's technique. The moon. The six-legged, tentacled summon, the moon protecting the allies (and conceivably the caster). The unnerving reow. She even taps her foot at the unz unz unz. Uta, once again, lets her mouth limp in a "oooh" of surprise. A brief oasis of quiet in the thick of battle. "I will have to ask you to teach me this when we both have time."

NOW: "Thanks! Ow! Ow! Ow!", Uta rhythms over Haru's Unz Unz Unz. "I do love some accompainment!" Over the Unz Unz Unz, she intones the usual J-Pop tune, and as such, fire slimes emerge from the magma all around. Probably slimes that were naturally underground, and have fed on the material. She directs them magically towards Shiyang.

    Vafrum growls as his juicy target decides to shift focus, but for good reason, as her ice kunia is about to make things more difficult.

The dire raptor werefang dashes from one, snaps another in half with its sharp teeth as it becomes digital pixels, but another, then another cut across his scaled hide.

He lets out a screech, before leaping into the air. "Where do you think /your/ going little vixen!?" He roars out, before landing down to take a slash at her with one of his massive claw talons, before swinging around to strike at her with his clawed hands.

Though he /did/ hear her words to Tenko, there were something to ponder over when his mind wasn't so-- predatory in feeling. After all, this woman and her group ruined his silk blouse! ... Oh, and the cargo. We can't forget the cargo-- but mostly the shirt!

Things are getting pretty serious with the assualt she's not sure they will be able to save the cargo. That however isn't the imporant thing, no the imporant thing. Even with the power of her custom made shield it's not enough. She's messed up good she's in the red she knows she can't do much more. She needs to disenage but she's got to do it, She will then chante anothe spell using Divine Wind to try and carve her path out of the fight.

"I can't stay I'll try to get some of the Carvanersz out of here.":

The response that Tenko gets is less than satisfying, but it seems that Daiyu at least does know what really happened even if she's not telling the whole story in the middle of a fight. Tenko brings her blade up to fend against the flame infused fan, propelling herself away with earth magic in the process.

While in midair she turns around and plunges towards Daiyu, trying to drive the katana home, "Your people did not give our's a chance, you place blame on us for actions never commited, and give us no chance to police our own. Who are you to come to our lands and demand we fall to your rules?!"

    The strike squad press in hard, showing no mercy as the adventurers flounder in a pit of tarry despair. It even stretches to the caravan line, breaking the axle of one of the wagons which tilts and founders into the mud. A lost cause, perhaps, and the merchants and escorts accompanying the caravan begin to eye escape routes.

    That said, not everything goes their way. There is a cost to such powerful spellcasting, and the battle leader faces it in the form of Yeowang. The shadowfist dances between ranks of the soldiers, who are also split from the pit's opening near them. They were taking advantage of slowed and relatively helpless adventurers, not prepared for the warrior who was still free of it. She lashes out, sending Shiyang staggering backwards from the force of the devastating blow.

    The salamander cries out, muttering something about being targeted directly. Her vision clouds with rage, with the desire to strike back. And then the bloodlust simmers down and fades. She nods, regaining control. Damage is done, however.

    The Palace Lands strike squad, savaged by the small drill-handed earth elemental, look on in startled surprise to see their leader brutalized. Against orders they withdraw from their offensive stance, pulling back to attempt to regroup around and defend Shiyang. The Salamander growls and orders them back into the fray, back on the attack, but the rhythm of the strike is lost. The Palace Landers, knowing they can easily complete their objective, are contemplating losing the actual fight. It all depends on whether the Yamatoans have the will to risk it all to finish the fight, or whether they're more interested in saving lives and withdrawing to fight another day. They are, however, perhaps uniquely vulnerable right at this moment.

The raptor's incoming lunge doesn't go unnoticed, if the way the hulijing's vulpine ears swivel in his direction. The ground itself seems to move beneath her paws as Daiyu jukes to the side to avoid being landed on. Followed by angling her arm to catch Tenko's blade in the notchs of her tessen's edge and snap it shut against the weapon to drive it away from herself. She's an experiened Arena fighter and it clearly shows, she isn't having that much issue dealing with two opponents at once.

"Could only see one recourse," she replies, "to pre-empt the problem at its source."

Ionization crackles around one of her tail tips as she whips it at Tenko to deliver an agonizing shock and drive the kitsune back.

So she can focus on her original target, leaping at Vafrum in a motion both elegant and deadly, ominous winds whispering around her even as she slashes several times in rapid succession with her warfans.

    Vafrum continues to listen to the two, but the privateer werefang has nothing to say to this. After all in the wars of corporations you would do something similar. Buy out a competator before they can come out of reach to be stopped. He can't fault their tactics, but it /was/ a bit bothersome. Interesting-- perhaps even motivating -- but bothersome.

The winds come and the dire raptor, back flicks kicking up stones in his wake to act as shields, cracking away each that are impacted, but one does get by. The howling wind blade cuts across the side of his face, just under his eye. He screeches in pain, before he lets out a low growl.

His eyes look at her with all the venom he can menicae. His teeth bare with a snarl as a low rumbling growl escapes his throat. With a roar and a full display if those sharp teeth, he races at Daiyu once more.

This time he leaps, twirls his body and with both hands clasped he goes to slam down his full dire raptor strength down on her; If not shatter the ground where she once stood.

"You are doing good, Terra," Haru shouts out to his Earth Sprite with drill arms, destruction, and sick beats in their soul. "Have some friends to help out." As if to the rhythm, the Artificer summons of smaller versions of Terra out from the ground. Now there is a squad of them, dubbed the Terra squad, inciting Terra in the region as they advance melodically. Apply the pressure, earth marines! "They grow up so quickly," he replies. Perhaps it is the wax nostalgia of his empowered Summons with enchantments that makes his footwork lacking. It could very well just be bad timing and a poor armor crating as well. "Oh the sting of pride," he says, putting a hand to his fresh damage lines. Ones that become less with an Uta support!

Yeowang breathes a sigh of relief as the attacks let up for a moment while the attackers regroup. Letting up being a relative thing. On the other hand, they're regrouping /at her/, so it's not a huge amount of respite. On the other hand, Shiyang's now dividing her attention between directing the troops and fighting her, and it looks like the troops are suffering for the lack of attention. This is a good thing, it will allow more defenders to escape, as much as they are able.

She circles around a moment, it'd be even better if she can turn Shiyang to face awat from the fight, that'd prevent her from meaningfully directing the fight, or else force her to divide her attention further. She launches a flat sweeping kick out at Shiyang, intended to knock someone down or at least make it hard for her to move easily, the benefit of the low kick is it's hard to counter with your attention divided.

Things are not going well for Gwen, sure the party is putting up a good fight. It's not enough though she does not have enough in her today the assaults are too much she is going to have to make a call. For all the fear and anger she's been feeling lately? She knows what she has to do she's going to pull back and start hearding the Lander Caravaners the heck away from here.

"We have to go now, I will protect you as best I can but we must depart with haste."

"Go Gwen! Save yourself!", Uta yells, peeking her head out for the shortest moment before she pulls it back in, and she keeps low, crouched with her back pressed against the back of a cart.

When she notices that Haru has taken damage, once again, she zigzags across the battlefield, avoiding all incoming attacks with dodges, leaps, ducks, cartwheels, somersaults, and the occasional dance move.

After the last backflip, she lands right next to Haru. "Stop getting Hurt! We have to keep you in one place for Fuka. I doubt she'd appreciate having to wait one day before seeing you, and when doing so, you showing up having lost parts of yourself." She flicks her menu and materializes some salve and bandages, which she begins to apply to the Artificier's wounds.

Things are getting out of hand, and Tenko is getting no information from them other than they feel they're in the right with their invasion. But don't most invaders?

"Enough!" The kitsune takes a step back, her blade engulfing itself in flames, before she lunges forward. The strike designed to leave a burn on it's target, and putting enough force behind it to create a fire tornado to engulf Daiyu. She has been unable to see how the rest of the defenders are doing, she hopes it's well enough to drive the Palace Land attackers back soon, she's not sure how much longer she can hold out.

    The pitched battle loses cohesion, plans falling apart at first contact with the enemy. Both sides do well, but there are conflicting intentions at work making things messy.

    The merchants and escorts are led away, protected by a badly-wounded Gwen who sees the defense of people as her primary duty here. Palace Landers, their blood up from the fighting and the frustration, eye the retreating potential victims but are growled back into their places by Shiyang.

    The strike squad are savaged once again by little elemental summonses; Haru's minions mighty not in individual power but in numbers. Their little drill arms are a serious menace however, especially to armoured soldiers, though some of the Palace Landers have the presence of mind to either shatter elementals with a weapon or a kick. More keep coming though, and the fighting force of soldiers lose yet more of their will to fight this increasingly-unsettling battle.

    Yeowang separates herself further from her co-defenders, continuing to press the attack on Shiyang directly. The Salamander spits fire at Yeowang to no avail and takes another hit, losing her balance and going down but quickly springing back up. The soldiers, still on the defensive, manage very little in retaliation against anything other than Haru's summonses, nothing the Adventurers can't handle as somehow they seem to be turning the very tide of battle.

Daiyu is still processing some aspects of this encounter in her mind. She had deduced that Vafrum was a Were Fang by the predatory look.. but she had not expected the species that he turned loose in the fight. No one expects the dinosaur inquisition. It's not a dragon but it's dang well close enough with how fiercely he's fighting.

Plush he has the kitsune ronin assisting him. Sure, hiring adventurers as bodyguards was nothing unusual. But while not as powerful as herself (in her eyes) her constant haggaring was focusing her to divert part of her efforts to keeping a defense against both. Not originally part of her plans.

Just means she's going to need to step up her strategy a few paces. Sacrifice a piece here to move one into striking position there, and wait for the oppritunity.

Unfortunately things are not entirely lining up at the moment. She snaps both tessen shut and holds them up crossed to catch Tenko's katana.. but the flames leaping off the weapon to engulf her still get the job done with their fiery tounges. The twister of flame is just enough to give Vafrum an opening to slam into her, hammering the mystical fox to the ground.

Teeth clench, eyes narrow.
She's toyed with them longer than necessary.

Her tails curl above her, channeling her magic through them to release a series of disorienting flashes from the tips. Giving her just enough time to wiggle free of the raptor's deadly grip and back up. She's hurt, but not enough to keep her from... huh, the fans have been stowed away. Instead she reachs for her parasol, grabbing the end of the shaft to pull free her own sword from within the shaft in a vibrate display of rearming herself.

... Which in itself is misleading, as instead of striking with the weapon she uses the drawing motion to plant her feet, and unleash a deafening shriek instead!

Damn foxes and their vocabulary of peculiar sounds.

    Vafrum watches as the Kitsune enemy gets away. His eyes still following her, even as he rises to his feet. He goes to chase after, even as she moves for her blade. Yet its the 'bark' that causes him halt.

He wrecks his ears for a moment, before he returns her cry with a loud screech of his own. It is followed by a vocal, "SILENCE!" He snaps his teeth closed hard with a snarl on his maul.

"You come to these lands to 'stop' us," He air quotes as he walks toward her. Walks toward her very camly. "From doing something your people did so /foolishly/." He then raises up his head gently. "You are trying to poison pill a mega corporation in essence... a mega corporation that your little players barely have the resources to handle."

Vafrum comes to a stop. His tail swishes back and forth for a moment, as he lets out a huff. His tired breath can almost be seen. Those feathers on his head rise a bit before settling a little. "If you are going to play with the big boys," He then chuckles. "... bring bigger budgets."

Vafrum then charges at Daiyu, he goes to slam his hand toward her stomach, trying to drag it across, before spinning around. "Or be devoured by the red tape." He says with a gentle hiss.

Great wisdom! Haru looks to Uta and nods his head once. "It is officially on the top of my list of things to do: not get hurt. I promise there isn't a higher priority than reducing the incoming amount of damage to my person so that you do not have to deliver a disembodied arm over to Fuka. Imagine the mileage she would get out of those jokes. 'Need a hand?' 'How disarming!'" Really he thinks back to the time (or times) Uta lost an arm shielding. Good times.

No sooner than this does Haru turn to the battlefield and get absolutely pelted by offensive weaponry. Magic, arrows, there is even a rogue rock that goes his way. Et tu, Terra? Et tu? It all shreds what little damage shield his Energy Coat was providing and interupt his spell before the Wave Arte gets past the first section of the chants. "Ok, NOW it is on the top of my list, the whole quest was still loading when these attacks came in," the Artificer says with a touch of ache in his voice.

Yeowang has done well enough in getting Shiyang's attention, it seems, though perhaps a bit too well. Between the Palace Landers mooks and Shiyang, Yeowang's defenses are not skillful enough to avoid taking a dangerous amount of damage. As her HP bar falls, though, she grits her teeth and fights her way back from Shiyang. This seems to suit the attackers well enough, but then she surrounds herself with a whirlwind which forces a bit of clear space around her.

She takes a running charge at Shiyang suddenly, and leaps into the air, clearing the distance easily, delivering a flying roundhouse kick to the head that would make Chuck Norris proud. Her landing leaves something to be desired, the blow forcing her back into a few of the Palace Landers that weren't expecting her to land on them. She elbows them hard to back them up, taking stock of the deteriorating situation. It doesn't look good, but we haven't lost yet.

This fight is getting down and dirty, and Tenko can tell she's going to have to back off soon. She doesn't want to leave Vafrum hanging, however. That wouldn't be right, especially when he brought her on to this job in the first place.

She raises her arm to bring a wall of flames between herself and the sonic blast, and it helps, though not as much as she would like it to. After all fire doesn't really stop soundwaves. Tenko then draws upon her smaller tanto blade, throwing it through the wall of flames towards the Palace Land attacker, trying to drive her back. This battle doesn't appear to be swinging their way, and they may need to sacrifice these supplies in order to stay alive. Fighting to the death in a situation like this would be unwise.

Uta finishes her wound dressing by casting some healing light on Haru. There. She lets Haru speak, the quips enough to restore a smile to her face. Humour. Breaking the spirit of Yamato is one of the primary objectives they're after, no doubt. And this counters-

A downpour of objects pelts the area. Uta attempts to dodge, but the projectiles are too many, too fast, too dense. She gets knocked over to the ground, and tenderized, and skewered.

By the time the storm of violence has subsided, she lies there, a polkadot of glowing red damage marks, arrows sticking out from her back, stippled blood replacement, glowing red, marking her wounds. Her eyes stare ahead, frozen, bulging, her voice a barely audible rasp, her HP bar in the single digits.

One finger twitches. Two. The other hand.

Trembling hands are retracted, and push against the ground. Shivering, she pushes herself to stand, propping herself up with her staff. Using it as an improvised crutch, she limps towards an opening between the carts.

"Okay, folks, one last performance!", she exclaims, exhilarated by what must be a sudden adrenalin rush. Either that, or she's gone insane. She motions one hand, and the landers from earlier pick up their instruments, some of which with daggers or arrows stuck into them.

She intones the same hymn from before, but this time slower, more solemn. Establish that the moment is poignant. Rally the energy. "If we have to go, we'll go with so much STYLE they'll feel they've LOST no matter what happens."

She inhales, and begins to lay the main melody on the majestic backing music with a powerful, operatic voice.

The intensity rises, rises, rises, and in the end, she unleashes a final high C powerful the sonic blast causes a shockwave which ripples towards the attacking party.

    The salamander warleader casts a wary eye at the caravan, seeing some damage. A wagon broken, fires started. Even if the Palace Landers abandon the fight now the Yamatoans will suffer from the loss of supplies. The mission is accomplished, even in the face of the damnable persistence of the adventurers, not to mention their ability to show up in the oddest places, almost as if they were being informed of where the Palace Landers were preparing to strike. Impossible, of course. It would mean traitors, and that would be unthinkable. Almost unthinkable, considering Shiyang is well aware of SOME traitors at least.

    It's obvious she's speaking, sending a communication to her allies. The words are impossible to overhear in the heat and fire of battle. But the soldiers form up once again, showing intent and purpose, moving as one. The warleader opens her helmet face, drawing a flask from her belt, and taking in a massive gulp of the contents. Then she spews liquid fire, searing and clinging to all in her path.

    The fire leaves Shiyang's mouth and she wipes the last burning drop away with a scaled wrist. As the wrist flicks away she's abruptly surprised by Yeowang, flames still clinging to her, bursting through and delivering a massive kick straight to her unguarded face. The salamander is knocked down, possibly for the count, by the overwhelming kick.

    The soldiers meanwhile are staggered and shaken, first by the darkness of Haru's nightmare sphere but then by the shattering screech of Uta's desperate battlecry. The true nightmare is the dulcet tones however, causing weapons to drop and several of the soldiers to clap their hands to their helmets in agony.

    The shriek ends however, and so does the guttering remains of Shiyang's burning brew. Leaving the soldiers and the adventurers staring at each other. Knowing they might all die in the next moment. Prepared for it, if it should come to that... but none of them *forced* to die here today, not if there is a chance to step away and fight again another time...

The flames also obscure Tenko's throwing action from immeadiate view. Daiyu barely has a chance to shift her body so the blade slices across her shoulder instead of directly impaling her. She growls all the same. Though it's Vafrum and his elaborate business lingo laced insults that get her to glare back in his direction, eyes narrowing to faintly glowing slits behind her glasses. Something in what he said, or the way he said it, causes a noticable aggitation as her tails and the back of her ears bristle. She uses the parasol scabbard in one hand to intercept Vafrum's claws from ripping into her gut, skidding backwards with the force of the blow. Then snorts, returning the parasol to herside

A flashy flick of her her fingers and she draws what appears to be some manner of card between them. Some good old fashioned stage slight-of-hand. The card, on the other hand, is sharped to a deadly edge and inscripted with one of her stronger debiliting enchantments, which she flings at Tenko with one smooth motion.

Then turns her attention back to Vafrum, gripping her dueling sword in both hands, it's blade gleaming with a supernatural sheen... and then she... teleport is not the right word. It's moving with such vicious speed that she's all but a shadowy blurr, then lunging at Vafrum with a savage thrust and upward slash, then bringing the sword slicing back down afterwards, movements so quick and precise it's difficult to even see the blade coming to strike.

Yeowang, having knocked down Shiyang, sees she's not getting back up. At least not immediately, and Yeowang's low enough on HP that she's not going to sweat details. "Palace Landers!" she shouts to be heard over the noise of fighting. "Your leader is down. Carry her back now! Yamato, we back down!" The authority in her voice isn't supernatural, but it's a voice /accustomed/ to being obeyed, and that /expects/ to be obeyed now. Refusing seems pointless, the commands seem reasonable in this situation.

    Daiyu is quick and at first the raptor can't track her. The blade cuts down his backside and he lets out a scream. Then across his chest, with another hissing screech. But the next move, as her sword comes down masterfully. She suddenly find it caught in his hand.

The data damage can be seen as he holds the blade. His eyes look directly at her as he holds the blade. "Now... be a good little pup..." Vafrum says lowly as his claws dig more and more into the sword. "And go run away..." Then the sword cracks as he applies more pressure to the blade, pulling her in. His maw, his teeth, inches from her. "... before I show you how much of a monster I can /really/ be..." Then the sword breaks.

Vafrum then leaps up and kicks that massive raptor foot to slam into Daiyu to shove her back. "Now go back to your masters! Your whip lashers! Go lick their boots and shine their heels! For you are a dog to their whims! A servant in a battle with /no/ means of winning!"

Vafrum looks over to Tenko, "Tenko! Finish her and I'll pay you double--" Then Vafrum hears the group in the distance before his eyes narrow. "... Hrm.. typical..." Seems the battle is almost over afterall.

A stalemate.

Two armies teetering on the brink of annihilation, possibly mutual.

A situation where a wrong move could precipitate events into a stippled bloodbath.

Care, tact, insight. Diplomacy is crucial to handle this mess. It's like defusing a bomb but first having to untangle a ball of yarn of multicolor wires with a pair of greased tweezers.

At that point, the last thing you want to do is to send in an unaccounted for variable.

"Adventurers of the Palace Lands!", Uta the unaccounted for variable speaks, backed by the hymn that's still playing in the background. "You have heard it. Your leader is down. We back down, but we expect you to do likewise. I think it is obvious to us all that neither of us has anything to gain by pushing further into this battle." Her musically trained voice projects loud and clear over the battlefield.

She emerges from the circle of wagons, and limps towards the Palace Landers, resolutely, propped up by her staff used as a makeshift crutch while her HP bar is sputtering barely above zero.

"Find the Wisdom within yourself. The right course of action for everyone is to step back. Retreat to fight another day. If you are so foolish to pursue us, we, me first among them, will make sure that you will regret this." She teeters to stand on her own, and raises her staff. "You have clearly underestimated who you were up against. We either both retreat, or -you- are certainly going to be wiped. I have kicked Sheriff Shirin's butt once. I am ready to do it again!" She raises and waves her staff, as an intent to deliver some Clue by Four action if needed, before lowering it again, to signigy that she is, however, being fair and respectful of the rules in negotiation.

Money is not Tenko's motivation. However that kind of offer isn't one that she's going to pass up either. The ronin shifts her footing and uses her katana to slide along the attack from Daiyu, letting the blade collect the heat from the impact and then triggering another sword arte.

Tenko's buring blade twists as she changes stances again, and unleashes a powerful whirlwind slash at the huiljing were fang, "Be gone! Return to your masters and tell them Yamato is not their's for the taking! To the last man, to our last breath, we will fight!"

The artificer doesn't need to add into the direct dialog. A concise arguement is more powerful than a dilluted one. Haru listens to Yeowang first, and then to Uta. When she goes out, he does too. If things go south, they go south as a team. He considers in a thought bubble. It is not just the Adventurers in the hurt locker right nowhe considerse after the recent onslaught. Both sides of this conflict have their trump cards. They have thier offensive spikes and defensive counters. Everyone and everything looks weathered.

This is what war does, he thinks, not in a 'all is lost, let us despair' tone but one that is thoughtful and hopeful that it does not always need to be this way. It makes you forget what is important to you, as a person. Winning becomes all consuming, even if you lose more than you gain. No one really wins like that and it becomes so hard to ground yourself in your values before they get overwritten. It is a different kind of memory loss. A memory rewrite. Still. He made a promise not to go and get himself killed yet here he is next to Uta as a unified front. The Artificer remains composed, despite the contradiction present in what is a bigger loss? Logistics resources or his memories? Gwen had the right of it early on. Keeping lives alive was the important thing.

The Artificer assesses the field through his monocle. Apt words. What does Haru offer out there if not words? A simple. Polished. Smile. A sharp glint against that purple monocle.

To be fair, the sword was crafted for swift slicing strikes like Daiyu was. It's not meant to be driven into a direct power blow, but that's the sort of pressure Vafrum forces it into when he grabs the blade and digs into it with his claws. Even with the enchantments it's not made for that kind of stress and cracks, then shatters with the final wrenching blow, forcing Daiyu to turn her head to not get any of the resulting fragments in her face. But that's an oppritunity for Tenko to once again strike with her ignited blade.

Forced to adjust her own tactics to the tide of battle shifting Daiyu draws upon the element of water, sheathing her tails in the flow as she whirls away from her opponents, water splashing from the kick and sizzling into steam against the fiery strike. The broken remains of the sword are tossed away, useless.

"You may of survived this fight with your..." a side glance towards the wagons "... with some of your good intact. But the greater conflict is far from over. Only time will tell which way the winds of fate truly decide to blow. Until then, go ahead, fight until your ends. Throw your lives away." Her somber mood darkens, scowling. "Seems to be one thing Adventurers are good for, regardless of origins."

Her tails spread behind her at four angles, shimmering and shaking as they are wreathed in darkness. Then Daiyu wraps them around herself... and in some combination of illusion and super fast movement, makes it appear to entirely wrap in on herself until disappearing, as she slips away and out of sight.

    Shiyang may have been downed but, noteworthily, she doesn't vanish in a spray of glittering energy. Among the Palace Landers the come to her aid is one with healing magic. Not mighty healing, but enough to see to the warleader's survival and consciousness.

    After the devastation of both forces' final attacks there is a lull, and it is those from Yamato who speak first. The Palace Landers seem confused or at least disorganized, some thinking they make good sense, some offended they would even suggest such a thing, and eager to throw their lives into the fight once more, to kill and to die so it can't be said that they failed.

    Ultimately it is the salamander warleader that answers for the Palace Land. Her face is a mask of red from that last hit she took, and her speech is a little stilted, but still understandable. "You direly mistake us if you think we fear to die." she says ponderously. "Your words are logical, they are passionate, but in the end, words are as dust. Deeds count more than words."

    She pushes against the arms that hold her, struggling to stand on her own... and succeeding. Then, no doubt to considerable relief and perhaps surprise on both sides, she sheathes the duelling blade she still holds bare but never used.

    "You have fought well. You have saved lives in your care, and even some property. We have done damage, and need do no more this day." she says gravely. "I do not understand the paradox you seem to represent, but we shall fight another time. For now, take what you have saved with your deeds, and depart. You have other companions in the field this day, and they still yet chase the vixen. Should you hurry, you may find they yet live."

    So saying, she turns. Soldiers form up around her, not quite blocking her from sight given her size, but mostly shielding her. They take a more cautious retreat, but Shiyang moves as if there are no further enemies of concern anywhere around. Slowly and with pain to be sure, but confidently, without furtiveness or defensiveness.

    Vafrum inhales deeply through his mouth, before slowly exhaling from his nose. "... Interesting..." Is all he rumbles. Was he taking in her scent? Is that something he can do??

The dire raptor rumbles gently as his glowing gold eyes look to the distance where the others are having their 'peace' talk. "Good job Tenko..." Then he places his clawed hand against the cut on his face, before he then at last transforms back to his 'human' form, still holding that mark on his face. Ignoring the cut on his chest and back. "... Let the others finish their.. Negotations. I think we are done here, don't you agree?"

He looks over, before placing out his hand to call his vest, before placing it on as he walks, not even looking at buttoning it up. "Now to go get me another damn shirt and figure out some logistics when we explain this to the lander to /still/ get some coin out of this---" He motions to the wagons, where the others were, but whatever else he wanted to say, he doens't.

It probably wasn't very useful or kind.

Tenko sheathes her katana and then turns to face Vafrum, giving him a bow in response, "You should ensure you get your wounds treated.." Not that she's any better off. But she'll do the same too in time, "I will accompany you to negotiate with the Landers and explain the situation. Since we are at war I am sure they will understand we did the best that we could...Better than lesser security that would have run away at the first sign of attack."

Uta collapses to the ground with a twist of her body.

She breathes

"...So, uh... after my fight with Sheriff Shirin and this one, I think I'm starting to see a pattern here...", she rambles, sprawled on the ground, as her eyes lose focus. Good thing she removed those arrows from her body already.

"The Palace Landers seem to have a specific modus operandi. Find a cart full of stuff. Drag people to being close to death. Devastate cart and contents. Go away. It's a pretty... uh..." She grimaces, and coughs up some glowing red light. "...confusing...plan...", she says, as her eyelids lower, and her HP bar flashes close to 0.

Is she dead?

The slightest, slowest uptick in HP says 'no' -- she's just crashed asleep, and she's already starting to recover tiny bits of health that way. Not enough to drag her out of danger, yet, but as long as she doesn't suffer another hit of damage and there's someone with Pharmacy, Light, or a spare health potion around here, she'll live.

Haru kneels next to a collapsed Uta. "What?" he asks, trying to hear the mumblings of a Spriggan on the ground. Hand to ear in L fashion (Deathnote) to get some of the last of it. "Could just be that people with different values find each other confusing, Uta," he offers, making sure she isn't dead. "Alright, up we go," the Artificer says. Arm around the shoulder, heave, ho! "Lets get you to a place that isn't dirt to consider the MO of people that seem intent on reinacting Trogdor on the countryside." Drag drag. Noodle arms, it could take a while.

Yeowang looks down at Uta, touches her shoulder, inspects. "Well, she's not dead," she declares, but seems confounded on what to do about it. She will help Haru pull her up and get his shoulder under her. She's certainly strong enough if he isn't, but the leverage is good the wat he's doing it, and she'll help, too, getting everyone out of here, with the last of the trade goods. Uta may have to ride in a wagon.