Weeding Out Hamelin

In a secluded corner of the tower, a guild is preparing for it's weekly raid. But it's not really a raid like other groups see. In fact, the spirits seem incredibly low, save for a few that are yaking incessantly among themselves. The officers, no doubt. The rest of the group is a large number of players, a quick INSPECT on any of them show rather low levels compared to the officers. And none of them seem to smile.

Among them, the long haired idol, with cuffs around her wrists. Not even given the chance to hold a weapon, it's pretty clear that she only has one use on that day. Next to her, the man in mage robes with a X-scar over his face seems to taunt her even "Thought you'd be able to run away from us for long?"

Reika looks pretty much like a doll at that, emotionless, simply going through the motions of what would be considered 'alive'. Her clothes are also torn in places, and showing some signs of abuse. She probably got some beating. The other players following are more or less the same, even if they are given more freedom, they have their own invisible cuffs.

Reika had left the details to the Round Table before her capture at least, giving up the position and time of said 'raid', along with the process of it. The short version, using the grunts as fodder to weaken the high leveled monsters, and exploit some pathing issues using their tombstones when defeated, rendering the monsters near harmless. A call to arms was placed by the RTA, with the aim to free up everyone from the guild.

    Yuuki had received word from the other guild leaders of the Olympus Alliance about the actions of Hamelin. Tricking newbies. Psychologically manipulating them. Forcing them to die meaningless deaths over and over. Abusing them. And worst of all, ruining the fun of the game!

    Telling Yuuki might not have been the best move, as the Imp is now on the warpath.

    Yuuki stomps across the tower floor, heading towards the location that had been reported to them by one on the inside. Her usual hyper energetic attitude is no where to be seen, replaced by a seething seriousness that would make even the most hardened veteran players think twice.

    Especially as her hand menacingly grips at the hilt of her sword as she marches.

    Well, it was the kind of day where one needs to be equipped. Merek puts on the black armor of his, with the beltcape, the hood pulled up along his features. Then he checks on his status, maneuvering the screen in front of him, while he checks the crimson-black sword which he wields, sliding that from a sheath, and spinning the weapon around, while he nods to the gathered people.
With that, the Mage Knight begins following along with the party.

Someone who's abusing players? That's not something BlackRose looks kindly upon!

With a scowl on her face and a grip on her sword, she's quick to arrive with a determined look. "All right, where's this Hamelin jerk and what do I have to do to him?" The usual cheerful demeanor is gone, and it's quite justified too given what's been happening. Not to mention this is stirring up quite the memories for BlackRose who had to deal with something similar in the past.

He may try to play off as being a big bad mercenary, but his actions defy what he puts forward, because it seems that Kaydon can never actually stop himself from helping those in need even if there's no money involved.

That's why the were fang is lurking near the spot where the raid was supposed to set off. Already in his gnoll form, he is leaning against a tree on the plains, sword held down by his side for the moment, as he looks at the gathering Hamelin raid group, "Pathetic. Don't have the skills to do it themselves."

It has been a long time since Mikage has been anywhere near the tower, but hearing that Reika was in trouble is enough to draw her from her explorations of the world. Hamelin had seemed suspicious at first glance when she had met them at the recruitment fair, now, they had earned themselves a place among those who would abuse others for their own persnal gain. That didn't sit well.

Among the others who have gathered to move against Hamelin, Mikage is crouched in some of the underbrush, her hood pulled up to allow her to better blend in to her surroundings. "Assholes, even in Elder Tale, are going to be Assholes." She mutters towards Kaydon, hand resting on her sword as she lingers near her guildmate.

    Rumors of /something/ going on have reached many ears, it would seem. She'd seen Reika and Hamelin at the recruitment fair, and the name itself had hinted to her that things were a bit on the skeevy side. Still, she'd not acted, without solid information there was little she could do against an entire Guild.

    That seemed to be changing, now. Rumors spoke of misdeeds and worse... and of someone determined to /do something/ about it.

    Well, when in doubt, that's kind of Miyako's motto: 'If the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing... then why are we standing around? Let's /do something/!'

    And so here she is. She smiles a thin little smile as she watches from the shadow of a tree, a hand on the ground as she pushes magic out into the roots of bush and bramble, waiting for just the right moment...

So the plan was simple as far as Gwen was concerned, they had workable one. She didn't care so much about vengeance as she did so much about getting the newbies out of here. She was armed and ready to go as part of the operation with the round table on this. She was not a happy lady for this.

"You should hear some of Uther's stories from his time as an angry space bee bomber pilot."

She notes to Mizuki. She seems to be making ready.

"If it comes to? I'll anchor howl those I can and get them to run. I don't think these guys are going to expect an organized assault."

At a glance, there's about 6 officers, shepherding all of the lower ranked around through the plain. And just to show how wary they are, they have no vigil, not noticing any of the approaching adeventurers. It's like nothing can stop them.

And unfortunately, it might not be that easy to stop them either. Their repeated raids did manage them get several levels, so they could be dangerous to take on directly. But there are many ways to handle it when you are a resourceful adventurer.

Stopping atop of a small hill, they look down at what seems to be their target, a pack of buffalo-like monsters. Massive, and even a few levels above the officers in place. Too far to hear what they say, but it's clear that they are giving out orders and placement to all of the lower ranked 'fodder'.

Two officers are standing in front, directing the newbies, while 3 are standing behind, ready to simply push them down the hill in due time. The last one, Shredder, is the one keeping a watch on the proceedings, while keeping Reika next to him.

Glancing to Mikage, Kaydon grins a little bit, "Welp, what say we teach them about fair play."

He pushes himself off of the tree, hefts his massive two handed blade over his shoulder, and then wanders out towards the group. He's actually making his way towards the base of the hill, the front of where they're organizing the lower level forces. He has no intention of fighting those guys. Just the officers in charge.

"Attention, Hamelin leadership!" He calls out, raising his voice as loud as he can. He knows how to project.

"Send your best warrior to fight me! Give me a real challenge, not one of these low level players you're forcing to do your bidding!" Ah yes, a good old fashioned stand off. No need for stealth or guile when you can just goad them into attacking you.

    Yuuki has been unusually silent on the approach towards the Hamelin group, maintaining a steady, focused pace as she covers the ground. As they come into view, Yuuki pauses for a moment, looking over the party members. It's fairly easy to tell who's in charge. They're the ones who look like they're actually supposed to be out here. With their equipment and confident expressions.

    Yuuki starts moving forward again, heading towards the closest of the officers amongst the group. She walks past Kaydon along the way, paying him no attention as he proclaims his challenge. Her own weapon is still sheathed, hand resting on it.

    But just as Yuuki starts to get close to the first officer, flames burst to life from within the sheathe, spilling out of top through the tight space. Though they don't seem to hurt Yuuki's hand.

    Yuuki suddenly leans forward, quickly dashing across the remaining space to her target as she quickly draws her weapon in a reverse grip. The blade slides free, wreathed in flames. Yuuki quickly steps into a spin as she reaches the officer, launching a reverse slash at him before she quickly swaps her grip and sends a quick stab towards him.

    Merek maneuvers along away from the party, noticing that Kaydon wants to make it a full on challenge. He does not, which means the man will begin sneaking into range upon an officer, while he sheaths his sword. Both hands draw a knife from each hip, the same crimson-black while he sweeps them upon the player, a shimmering red from the data beginning to spin away from that target, while he looks from the hood, "I would suggest you surrender!"

Gwen looks to Kaydon and will follow up flanking up to her full height as she does so as Kaydon makes his call out to them.

"You cand o that or you can do it the hard way."

Gwen notes as she comes out.

She doesn't move to attack just yet as others do she's waiting for when any of the newbies who are still standing if any try to make a run for it, if not she's going to engage those who are going to fight.

"That's the intention." Mikage replies, giving Kaydon a nod.

Of course, his method of dealing with them lacks both stealth and guile, but she has to give it to him, he has style. Mikage, pushes herself to her feet once the others start to move on the group. She isn't usually a front-line fighter, except among her smaller traveling party, so the Ranger draws her weapon, holding it out before her.

"Release Reika. Let the rest go." She demands, without the clever wordplay to back it up. Instead, what she has is magic. Her sword begins to light with pale blue magic channeled through it, shards of ice forming and falling between the various groups, the intention to try and separate them so that the more powerful members of Hamelin can't rally together.

Unfortunately, BlackRose can be a bit confrontational at times, and this is one of those times. She grips her sword tightly as she approaches as well. They may be a higher level than her and the others, but BlackRose doesn't care right now.

"How dare you act in such a manner!" She yells as she hefts her sword with both hands, showing that it may be big, but she's stronger than she looks. "Release Reika now... or else!" She swings her sword rather hard with those last words.

    Miyako remains hidden in the shadows, one finger tracing runes in the dirt as she continues to infuse magic into the roots of the plants about her. "Now then... let's see how you like this, you syphilitic sons of..." She trails off into muttered imprecations, not having raised her voice at all... but as she completes her spell, the undergrowth stirs to life, roots pushing up through the soil to lash out at the feet and legs of Hamelin's "officers" to pin them in place.

As Kaydon steps up to the plate, the officers look surprised. Shredder glances at Reika even. The rat must have done something, this seems too convenient. But the officers chuckle a bit nonetheless, and a tall axe-wielder steps down the hill ahead of everyone else.

"You talk big for a little man." He's looking very confident, as he taps the handle of the axe into his open hand, making a light clapping noise with each step. When he gets in range, he doesn't even hesitate to bring the axe down on Kaydon powerfully.

Two officers then turned their head toward Gwen, also diverting attention. The closest one, a short and creepy looking spriggan scoffs toward her "You and what army?" They walk toward her, taking out their weapons. The Spriggan is holding a staff, while the Imp next to him is wielding a spear.

But the Imp doesn't get to act much as he's suddenly wrapped into vines, Miyako managing to trap him by surprise before he can do anything else. It allows the bewieldered newbies to run away, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire as things progress.

Yuuki's attack comes down on the trapped Imp. He goes wide-eyed and screeches as the flame sword hits not only him, but also makes the vines catch fire, rapidly burning him. He gets freed up... but only allowing him to run in circles yelping. If the cuts weren't enough, the poor Imp is on fire.

While the attentions are in front of Kaydon and Gwen, Merek is able to sneak in easily, and the officer finds himself held up at sword point. The officer, a robed Salamander, stops moving in reaction "What the..." The salamander doesn't seem ready to take it quietly though, and he slashes out with an open hand. He has a sort of glove, but the danger is from wires that stretch away of his fingers, lashing out like whips.

BlackRose ends up facing a human-looking Blademaster from the looks of it, the oficer taken by surprise as there's far more people showing up and surrounding them suddenly. BlackRose strikes him clearly, but he's still standing, they do have some high levels. He draws his katana to face her "What's with all these rats showing up suddenly?"

Mikage's contribution manages to split up the officers for now, not willingly walking straight into the ice rain, obviously very painful looking.

Shredder reaches down to tug on Reika's cuffs roughly "You want to waste your lives over this piece of crap? She's a lying and conniving wench, all she got is a pretty face, why would you care." Reika just gets tugged around, losing her balance for a moment, so just hanging limply. She is looking toward the rescuers though. At least the information was used well.

The battles start up rapidly, with the rescued adventurers fleeing.

    Yuuki steps through the lingering flames with a menacing calm as she follows after the flaming officer. As the Imp runs around and flails, Yuuki deftly steps out of the path of one of his panicked swings. She ducks under another and then spins to avoid a third.

    As she avoids that last attack, Yuuki raises her sword up in preparation of a strike. And as she comes out of the spin, she lances the point of her blade towards the on-fire officer, trying to pierce him with a powerful blow.

"She's my friend." Mikage replies to the questioning. Regardless of what these scumbags believe, sometimes you are willing to put yourself in harm's way for those you care about. "And the newbies don't deserve your bullshit either." The Were Fang certainly has colorful language when it comes to people like this.

However, in her momentary bravado, she doesn't quite expect the attack that comes her way from one of the officers. Raising her weapon to block, she reads the situation wrong. It was a feint! She only manages to turn at the last moment, the blade slicing into part of her upper thigh, leaving a line of glowing pixels behind, her health bar dipping slightly as she hisses pain between clenched teeth.

Her eyes flash as her hand grips on her sword, the temptation to shift strong enough that she growls in order to resist the urge. Instead, lightning begins to crackle at her fingertips, and she gives in to that, aiming her sword at the officer who had attacked her, sending a bolt of lightning from the tip of the sword towards him. It crackles in the air, causing static electricity around her, causing her hair to stand up in places.

    Miyako smirks across the way at the Hamelin jerks, roots slithering up from the earth to trip and trap anyone who tries to get close enough to attack her. "Don't be rude, you idiots. Just go back to whatever trash-heap spawned you." She reaches out with her free hand to form a sphere of whirling shadows, tossing it out at the closest one, but with one hand (and most of her concentration) on keeping the roots going, her aim isn't all that great. The spell goes wild, detonating in a surge of anti-noise that leaves a large, glass-smooth divot in the ground.

"How dare you call me a rat?!" BlackRose yells, now clearly very angry. "I'll teach you how I deal with jerks like you!" She hefts her sword again and this time attempts to drive it directly at the Blademaster, intent on teaching him a lesson in how to be more respectful.

Unfortunately, her aim is just a little off and she just BARELY misses on that one. She mutters a curse word and attempts to face the Blademaster again, knowing he's going to strike again.

Kaydon looks up at the big guy who is coming right for him. The axe is pretty damn huge. And Kaydon is not able to dodge it effectively. It strikes him, and he watchies his health bar drop, "You're a big one." He says, with a faint smirk, "And strong. I'll give you that."

He plants his back foot, and then launches forward, his blade coating with wind as he moves forward. He launches the attack in an upward swing, bringing the blade upwards to try to bypass the defenses of the axe wielder and strike home. He's not aiming to kill the guy, yet.

    Merek would lift up a hand to draw a divine shield upon him, while the assault from the player would simply be deflected from it. He nods a bit, sliding away both the weapons while he begins to switch to magic. He does not speak, instead he takes a moment to weave the Wave Art, looking from beneath the hood, before he takes a powerful firebolt which he swings at the salamander. It's clear he's pretty skilled.

At the comment you and what army.

"Only need my friend to deal with people like you."

She notices them readying their weapon and she's going to focus her view on the Spriggan she's pvped and damn well knows you kill the casters first.

She knew if casters if left alone in a fight? They would make a mess of things.

She'll know its just about time to get active and she readies her gear.

"If that's how you want it to be?"

She looks to Kaydon once then nods.

She'll then break into a dash that you'd not expect out of someone as large as she, she'll attempt to pounce the caster and starter hacking into them. She's mechanical about just trying to take them down as fast as she can.

The imp tries to attack back with his spear, but being on fire isn't helping with his accuracy! Yuuki gets some easy hits, chipping away at his HP, that is dropping down rapidly "Ahhh! That wasn't part of the plan, boss!" A few more and he'll be the first tombstone today, not usually how it goes. He's still trying to hit Yuuki back with his spear, swinging widly at her and Miyako. He's getting flanked easily in this situation.

Mikage's opponent seems to be Shredder, as she went for Reika directly, and seemingly is thinking too highly of himself. He's pleased with his strike, he has a blade along his arms, his punch finding skin. But he didn't expect the counter attack though, and gets zapped through the slice "GAH! You little, you're 10 years too early to take me on!" He charges at Mikage, tossing Reika aside.

The caster is charging up his spell when Gwen charges in, getting sliced deeply, but it doesn't interrupt his casting, aiming a fireball right at Gwen as retaliation "It'll be however we want it to be, what are you, trying to play police in a game!?"

The Blademaster dodges easily, keeping his sword pointed between BlackRose's eyes as defense, but retaliates with rapid sword strikes in her direction "What, you rather I pick some different animal? How about a chipmunk?"

The Axe warrior trades blows with Kaydon, but he seems like he has stamina... oddly enough his attack power isn't that high tough, maybe he build himself as a tank to soak up attacks. The axe is still strong and heavy though. "We SHALL FIGHT LIKE MEN!" Why does he seem to enjoy this so much?

The Salamander tsks as his wired fingers don't find a mark, and gacks as he gets attacked in return, a slash across the chest "Those adventurers are indebted to us, who are you to interfere?"

    Merek would look to the Salamander while he takes a moment to unsheath his sword again. With that, he then takes a full stance, bringing a full shield upon him again. It doesn't do great against the wires this time, while he begins to swing the weapon to that man.

"Maybe." The Were Fang replies, a grin on her features, "But at least I don't look like I ran my face through a cheese grater. Seriously, what were you thinking?" At the very least, she's acting as enough of a distraction that the the guy isn't focusing on Reika, and that's enough for her.

The arm-blade lashes out, this time catching her right across the stomach. The pain is enough to have her free hand grip around her abdomen, HP dropping again to the midway point. "I would say you've got skill, but you don't. Doesn't exactly take skill to milk newbies for experience." She shows fanged teeth.

She takes a step back, raising that hand from her belly. There, it forms into a bow made of light energy. Miki reaches back, drawing an invisible arrow, and then nocks it into place, firing off a quick shot right towards the Shredder's knee. Everyone knows that an arrow to the knee is an Adventurer's weak point, right?

    Yuuki frowns, "Wasn't part of the plan?"

    She jumps to the side, avoiding a jab from the spear Imp, "So abusing the newbies was part of the plan."

    She spins, raising her sword up to parry a swipe from the spear Imp, "Forcing them to die, essentially killing them yourself was part of the plan."

    Another jab, which Yuuki dives forward into a roll to avoid. She comes up on one knee, sword at the ready, "But getting found out and opposed was not?" Yuuki snorts, "What a crappy plan."

    A swirling wind picks up around Yuuki's sword as she quickly rises up right into the spear Imp's space. What follows is a very quick three-hit combo, that not only strikes with added damage from the cutting wind... It also fans the flames that still light the officer Imp up.

    The winding roots continue to bar the path to the spriggan in the shadows, Miyako's mocking laughter answering any attempts to close on her. "Come and play, little girls, or are you too scared?" she calls out. "I'm getting bored over here."

    She takes to scribing runes in the dirt again, drawing up a different spell, something new to play with. To drive her enemies before her and hear the lamentations of their ... wait, no, never mind, wrong movie.

    "Lemme give you some motivation, then!" she yells out. "Chill out! ICE RAIN!" And hundreds of needles of ice come slashing down from empty sky towards the Hamelin idiots....

"No I want you to-- OW!" BlackRose finds herself on the receiving end of an attack from the Blademaster which she tried to deflect away, but she wasn't fast enough. Knocked back a little and grunting, BlackRose finds herself a bit angrier than she was before. "OK, now you've asked for it!"

This time, BlackRose attempts to strike the Blademaster with a bit more force as she lets out a yell while swinging her sword.

This big guy likes to fight. Good. At least he'll make it interesting. Kaydon manages to block the blade of that axe with his own sword, using it to throw the big guy off balance as he pushes him away. The gnoll were fang may not be the biggest, but he's stronger than he looks.

Spinning around to get behind the guy, he twists the blade in his hand and brings it in a diagonal slashing motion, dragging a nasty red line across the larger opponent's back, "Don't make me kill you, dude. You can surrender!"

There is a side to Gwen that most haven't really seen not like this as she's rushing in she brings up her shield and powers through the fireball and keeps going for the caster.

"A game? Do you think this world is just a game? What is reality but the feedback your senses give you mind? So what is Yamato but reality? The people you are using are real!"

Gwen will keep up their attack with a savage series of blows.

"I don't give a /shit/ your little operation is done."

She'll swing around and add even a punch to that combo of attacks.

The Salamander's wires are dangerous indeed, and hard to predict, but Merek's agility seems to be high enough to avoid them. Or the Salamnder is not very good with them. They have been mostly attacking monsters that aren't striking back after all.

Shredder's bladed arms slash widely at Mikage in return, and as he seems to gain confidence that he's stronger than the Were Fang, he lowers his guard just enough for Mikage to sneak her luminescent arrow right into the leader's knee. He GAHS in pain, good thing it's dulled otherwise he wouldn't be able to move. But he's seriously hampered now. The game still has some rules on certain body parts getting hit.

The Imp might not be on fire anymore, but he's also running out of HP rapidly, he's under two different attackers after all. Yuuki's flurry of attacks leaves colored gashes over his limbs, and then he's covered in spikes of ice. And that's all he wrote, while trapped in the ice shards, he explodes into colored triangles, leaving a tombstone behind under the ice. A trip to the church for the Imp.

Against BlackRose, it seems the Blademaster manages to make an even match, evenif he has higher levels, he seemingly doesn't have much experience with his fighting abilities, and it's weighing against him. Even if he's trading blows, he should have the advantage. He tries to parry the blow with the flat of his sword, but it goes through his defense, slamming into his shoulder. "Nice moves gerbil, but I'm not done yet!"

The tall Human does seem to like fighting, although this stats don't seem to favor him here. He can take more hits, but if he can't strike back, it's not useful. He guffaws "You think we care about killing all of you?" They are oveconfident in their levels as well. "You'll be the one going to the church first, respawn and come back stronger!"

The Spriggan is sent bowling back under the rush of punches. Their numbers and HP are dwindling, but it doesn't look like they are giving up on their stance. The last one standing is the rule after all, right? The caster change tactics, and pointing his staff toward Gwen after sitting up, he sends a spray of ice crystals, aiming mostly toward Gwen's legs to slow her down.

    Merek keeps matching with the wires the Salamander would use for weapons, taking his time to swing his blade about to catch each assault next. Then he steps up into the space, and lifts his weapon with a growl, before it comes around to slash twice into them. "You should've surrendered," he states beneath the hood while he watches the man.

This time, BlackRose's sword comes up quickly and deflects away the attack that's incoming. "You made a foolish mistake, now you're gonna pay the proper price!" She stops to catch her breath quickly, then glares at her target. "I think it's high time we finish this!" With that, BlackRose smashes her sword into the ground, causing it to shake all around the Blademaster, with it cracking underneath him as well.

    Miyako grins to herself as her first target goes away, sealed in ice and sent off to respawn. "Who's next?" she calls out, sending a wave of roots down toward Blackrose's opponent to make things more difficult for him. "I thought you guys were supposed to be good at this."

"Did that hurt?" Mikage taunts, her breathing a little heavier due to the damage she's sustained thus-far. Luckily, it seems to slow Shredder down, alowing her to get out of his way without too much of a problem as he swings wildly in her direction.

"Your men are losing." She states, a dark edge to her voice. The bow vanishes as she sweeps her hand back, pulling free her sword. "And so are you." With a snarl that sounds distinctly inhuman, Mikage charges forward, sweeping her blade out in a series of fast blows, aiming at Shredder's midsection.

With each blow, she snarls, "Don't. Come. After. Reika. Again."

    The Imp shatters into light, being sent back to the root town of whichever kingdom he belonged to. It's a shame that it's so easy. These guys probably deserved worse.

    Yuuki looks around for a new targets, at which point she spots Mikage fighting against what Yuuki recalls to be one of the leaders of the Hamelin guild. If she's remembering correctly.

    Yuuki starts running, moving swiftly as she dashes across the battlefield towards Shredder. Just as she's about to reach him, she drops down to the ground. She slides under the arm blades, her own sword rising to cuts towards the officer's gut to join Mikage's strikes.

    Yuuki comes out of her slide on her feet once more, turning to face Shredder, reinforcing Mikage's threat with her own, "In fact, if I ever see you or your cronies in this region again, you can bet I'll send you to the church. Go find some nice hole in the middle of nowhere to hide. We don't want you here."

Kaydon never backs down from a challenge unless it becomes something far too overwhelming. But this guy is far from that. The were fang moves around, shifting his weight here and there in order to evade or block strikes from the axe, "Come on man."

Kaydon grabs the flat side of his blade and blocks the axe upwards, and then once he has knocked it up, shifts his weapon around and moves to stay the axe wielder with the blade, to run him all the way through in one swift motion. He didn't want to kill this guy, but he's not being left with much choice in the matter.

Gwen is up in the caster's face and she seems not to be stopping either.

"Think what you will, I don't give a damn."

Gwen is now finding an ice crystal coming at her and now is the time to do it she'll just shift her shield blocking the ice and shattering it as she comes barreling at the caster and intent to slam him in the face with the shield.

The Salamander probably should have surrendered, but it's not like they weren't given the chance to. They wouldn't take it, too confident in their levels, not enough in their abilities, or the stubborness of adventurers on a mission. He's getting visibly winded against Merek, his wires cutting more air than anything else, and more gashses appearing on his body. They never planned on a lack of healers for these raids. "This isn't good!" His final option... run away! He turns around and tries to spring off before he loses his last Health Point. Can one strike at a man's back?

BlackRose's opponent is also losing strenght rapidly, but whether they are worth mercy is up for debate. Not like they had any on the newbies. The BladeMaster loses footing, and as he's about to get back up, Miyako's spray sends him rolling sideways with a sputter. He's in no position to strike back now, at the mercy of his opponents if they choose to strike the final blow.

Shredder has been hit hard, and without mobility, he's pretty much flailing uselessly at this point. He AUGHS loudly as his stomach gets sliced open, staggering back... just as Yuuki slides in for the finishing blow, his stomach lined with very nasty wounds even if they are all colorized like in a game. "C-curse you!" His last words as he explodes as well, another Tombstone appearing on the empty field.

The Axed Human is sitll standing, perhaps last one at this rate as most of his companions are taken down one way or another. Out of the group, he seems the least wounded at least. Even getting pierced seems to do little to slow him down. While Kaydon's sword is wedged in his shoulder, he brings the axe crashing down mightily toward his head.

Gwen's opponent, the sole caster, isn't faring any better right now, and waves his hands as he gets knocked down on his butt "Haha, hey, it was all a joke, we were just pushing the newbs around to teach them about the game, really!" That doesn't seem very convincing though. He doesn't seem ready to keep going at least.

    Merek only has the moment to think about what the next move would be. Does he become them, turning the tides? Back in real life, it was always said if one pays one in vengeance, then it leads to a path that will turn into a cycle. He will break it, he lifts up a hand to call a bow, shooting an arrow in front of the salamander, "Don't flee while I talk."
    The man turns to those still fighting, in an attempt to bring that to a finish, "Hold, we have did what we came here for. Do you not realize we're all in this together? What you did was... Not kind, but remember, each of us is a real person beyond our world. You should seek atonement. If you keep fighting, we will win. We still don't know what killing another costs us, and already one of yours fell. I would ask of you to surrender, to offer an apology to those you brought in, and to make amends." From the hood, golden eyes watch the people.

There is a feeling akin to joy at the fact that she is able to keep the Hamelin guild leader on the ropes. One that shifts slightly into relief when Yuuki comes in to help finish the job. She offers the other woman a nod and an almost feral grin. "Thanks for the backup."

At that point, with Hamelin's forces seeming to be in retreat, Mikage focuses her attention on Reika instead. Crouching down, the Were Fang starts first by taking out her water skin, offering it out before starting to work on Reika's bonds. "Let me get these off of you." She keeps a wary eye on the remaining officers, but the others seem to have that well in hand.

Surprisingly, BlackRose does not finish off the Blademaster. She lowers her sword but still scowls at her opponent. "I'm going to let you live this time. Let this be a lesson to you never to mess with Reika again!" She narrows her eyes. "And don't even THINK of trying anything funny or my mercy will be forfeited!"

    Miyako nods briefly as she sees Blackrose lower her sword. She has her vines give the blademaster's legs one last squeeze, to emphasize the Imp's words, then releases him. "She means it, you know. She can be ... fun, that way."

    Yuuki watches with little compassion as Shredder vanishes into motes of light. Yuuki visibly relaxes a little, giving Mikage a nod at the thanks, "Didn't look like you needed it. But I'm glad to get a hit on him anyway. I hope this teaches him to not mess with people's lives like this anymore."

    Looking around, it seems like the rest of the officers are either dead, defeated, or soon will be. With most of her anger satiated by some strong physical therapy, Yuuki sighs quietly and sheathes her weapon, "Hopefully the alliances are handling the rest of Hamelin."

Kaydon seems to be the only one who is fighting still, but it also seems to be the only one fighting solo. Still, he's not exactly going to stop now. Things are almost done now. Though this guy isn't showing it.

Kaydon jumps backwards as the axe swings towards him, leaving his sword embedded in the guy's shoulder in order to hopefully continue to do damage to him. As he jumps back, he pulls three knives off of his belt, hand made throwing knives, which he launches in a verticle arc towards the man. He intends to stick them in him, and with luck, put the guy down for good. Or at least as good as 24 hours.

Gwen looks at the Spiggan and says

"Drop the weapon, I know you might try something and go hahah you are so stupid. Or something like that."

She doesn't put her weapon away and she keeps it trained on him, it would be an easy thing to coup de grace if it came to it.

She's going to banish her shield and will get some rope ending to hogtie the guy.

"You know I was born in Texas."

The Salamander stops when the arrow is shot in front of hsi feet. He sweats a bit as he turns around slowly, mostly looking over his shoulder in case another shot comes through. The speech seems to have some effect at least. The Salamander is apparently still ready to book it though, and even after being told to stop, as soon as Merek is done talking he's running again. Someone has to tell the boss about this after all!

The Blademaster seems to take the hint as well, from both BlackRose and the Merek, and leaving his sword on the ground he scrambles off, as if he had something more pressing waiting. Some people are not ready to test out the church respawn it seems.

The Axe warrior is definitely not standing up to Kaydon very well, a bad match up perhaps, but since he has HP to spare, he's still holding up. Even with knives get stuck in his chest... Athough at that point Merek speaks up, pausing the fighting. He rips the sword out of his shoulder and looks at it, before tossing it on the ground "I give." He plucks out the knives also "Two or three more of theses and I had a free trip to town." He puffs his chest "I just like fighting and these guys told me I could level up quickly with them. I'm satisfied." He seems oddly... zen somehow, once he's out of the battle.

The Spriggan... complies. He prefers that to a trip to the death room, really. He sighs and tosses the staff aside "Fine." He looks up though "What does that have to do with anything?" He'll probably know soon enough.

Reika smiles weakly at Mikage, she's mostly tired and hungry it seems. She has bruises from apparent punishments, but nothing major at least. The good part of a game is it probably won't leave any marks on the idol "Thanks... I'm glad that the info I sent out was useful." There's still the newbies to cater to, but the first step was getting out of Hamelin's grip.

Yuuki is correct as well, whether it's now or soon, there is another half of Hamelin still standing, the crafting side that stayed at their Headquarters, as the second part of the plan the Alliance worked on.

    Merek twirls about the blade of his, with a shift to sheath that into his back scabbard. With a nod, he looks to everyone, including the ones still fighting, then even that begins to calm. "Right. We should tend to our newbies."

Kaydon waits until the man concedes, and then moves up and picks up his equipment, sheathing them back where they belong, "So you're not in their guild?" He asks, as he tilts his head a bit, looking over the human with the axe again. He shakes his head a bit, "If you like fighting, fine. I can respect that. But pick your friends better." He heads for the others in the assault group, to check on the rescued newbies.

"Some food, rest, and healing will do you good." Mikage isn't a healer, but she can at least offer out some meat jerkey, which someone must have handicrafted at some point since it doesn't taste like crackers. She gives a small sound of affirmation, "There's plenty enough decent guilds represented here, hopefully some of the newbies will join up with them, instead. If we spread enough word, it should discourage people from making the same mistake."

Then, Miki stands, wincing slightly at the still glowing outline across her stomach. "Going to have to answer some questions about this PK flag at some point, I'm sure. But it's worth it to make sure you and the rest of them are safe."

Putting her sword away, BlackRose folds her arms. "Well, that went rather well if I say so myself." She runs a hand through her hair before adding, "At least Reika's safe again." She smiles a little. "That's the most important thing."

    Miyako stands, nodding, and walks up next to Blackrose. "And the kids. Which way did they run off? Anybody make sure they made it back to town OK?"

Gwen says "Can't have you running off now can I?"

Gwen grins and if she can hogtie him she'll sling him over her shoulder.

"Well I'm certain a few people might want to have a conversation with you and if not I have some things to model and you are the perfect build for it!"

The Warrior laughs "Oh no, totally part of Hamelin, but it seems they valued me as a tank, so I went along with it." He seems a little on the dumb side, not realizing that it was pretty much torturing the newbies. Perhaps just thinking it's part of the game, like many of the newbies. He fingerguns at Kaydon though "You're pretty good! Wanna spar again later?"

The Spriggan gacks as he's picked up hogtied, kicking legs a bit. He's suddenly not sure that death wouldn't be a better option anymore.

Reika looks over to Mikage, taking the food gratefully "I heard that the PK flag disappears after a while, but we'll be vouching for you. I'm sure that the story of Hamelin is going to make the rounds for quite a while after all..." Speaking of guilds, she looks at her own status, with the "Hamelin" guild still there "... I'll keep it a little longer just in case... there's still those at the Headquarters to take care of after all." Although she might be on limited time after this, whether it's Shredder or any of the runaway officers that remove her access.

The low ranked Hamelin members were intercepted a bit further into the tower, close to the exit, and are getting tended to. It will take a bit of work, but they are out of Hamelin's clutches at least. The rest depends on their mental to get over it, if they wish to remain as adventurers, not to mention they are several levels behind the rest of the playerbase now, so there will be some catching up and training to do.

    Merek nods a bit to folk, then with all of that settled, like he was when he came to assist, he is on his way back to what he was doing before, into the night with little noticable. The hood up while he begins stalking in the night to find a way.