Combat: They Came From The Mist

[ BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYFU_RiefKk ]

    Strange weather moved over the land. Dark magic some would say, where dark clouds filled the sky, thick, heavy fog hid the distant view. However, there was work to be done. Villages would go hungry if not for the Hunters and Fishermen.

So, these brave souls head into the heavy fog. They head into the threatening chance of rain to catch their catch. To hunt their hunt. However, they are wise in some ways. The two different groups camp together, to see one another's backs.

Yet that evening, no matter how defensive they were, no matter how ready to draw the bow-- The Undead horde came.

    It would be that same evening, heading into morning, that some would make it back to the village calling for help! This, you see, is where you Adventurers come in.

The location would be given and a guide quickly leading you the way, at least-- Until the fog dared to engulf the Lander. It was there he would stop leading and the rest of the way into the fog you would have to go alone.

There was also the gentle droplets of rain, though the deeper in you walk, the rain comes down a little harder. It was there you might find the first Lander; Sadly he is dead by means of claws, arrows, and bite marks... But shouldn't he be a wisp of light?

The next however, nearly runs into the group. He looks scared, panicked and simply goes, "Help me!" Trying to quickly get behind someone. Another Lander shows up as well, then another. All running from something. Something lurking in the darkness and among a few more corpses that rest on the ground.

    Merek has pulled upon his longcoat to his frame, while he wears a dark attire beneath that, belt gently adjusted about it. He seems to be carrying his weapon Shadow Eclipse while he twirls the weapon when the people begin coming from the fog, watching while even the orignal lander leading them to the place makes way. The man looks to the party, "Alright, be prepared for a fight, we might need to clear a little bit of the fog." Then he nods while he takes a stance.

Goldenblade follows along with the small group. She's eager to help out, and maintain the good will of the landers. She relies on them for basic needs, or, rather, she relies on the inn room and basic supplies. But if they wouldn't sell to her, it'd be a problem. So here she is, with a small party of adventurers, off to help out some Landers. Her blades are at her sides at the moment, as she creeps along maintaining as sharp a lookout as she can manage. "Seems like we're close," she murmurs, nodding at what Merek says.

Word of strange fog is likely enough to pique Kita's attention. Though she has no real way of connecting it back to her recent experiences at the castle, it is enough to drag her away from her work in Tolbana to investigate.

The Imp is dressed in her usual gothic flare, dress barely brushing the edge of the grasses as she walks. Dark magic is a kindred spirit to her, but the sight of a Lander corpse is something all but foreign. "This isn't right." She reports, shaking her head, "Lander bodies don't linger after death."

The black mage draws out her spellbook, keeping it defensively close to her chest. "This is a trap." There is no doubt in her mind.

Uta follows, slightly hunched, looking left and right at every step, careful, danger could come from anywhere. Worried eyes dart one way and the other, but in her heart she knows that, if she keeps focused, nothing will escape her martial artist's senses, nothing can take her by surprise, nothing can-

    There is a flash of light, possibly due to the ground suffering an HP drop because of the high-energy impact with Uta's face, but most likely the converse.

    When she gets up and looks at what is going on, the mangled corpse she tripped on faces back at her, the face twisted into a chilling mask of death.

    "...they have weird mushrooms in this area...", she mumbles, as she props herself up with her staff. "Wait a minute, it's a corpse!"

    As the group steps ever forward, Kita has the gist of it! It was in fact a trap! A trap which poor Uta would become very aware of, as the corpses eyes open lifeless and attempts to grab her, trying to take a bite out of whatever it can get ahold of!

Other corpses rise and lunge right for the group, attempting to claw at them, grapple them, or even attempt to take a bite out of them!

As all this happens, the Landers that came to hide behind them try to stay out of the way, but much worse, is something is moving in the fog, among the rain, heading right for them...

There are those moments in life, where you fully expect things to turn sideways, and just as you thought, they do... spectacularly. She just so happens to be leaning towards one of the bodies to investigate when it starts to move, "Oh fuck no." The Imp curses, then attempts to back away, only to have a pair of very pale arms wrap around her from behind.

Needless to say, Kita lets out a scream that is ear-piercing. "Getoff-getoff-getoff-getoff!" She shouts in quick succession, trying to defend herself by expending an aura of flame. Unfortunately, the creature that has hold of her doesn't seem to care that it is now on fire. Instead, it grips tighter, the claws digging into her skin.

Struggling, Kita shouts as she manages to get one hand free. It's just enough that she can reach up, summon a ball of fire magic, and shove it back into the zombie's face. "I SAID LET ME GO!"

Goldenblade pulls out all the stops as she leaps clear of the suddenly rising undead horde, backing clear of all the monsters. That way, when she closes, she's fighting at the edge rather than being surrounded. Once clear, she'll choose her positioning as carefully as she can. Not too crowded, she needs a bit of space. And if she screw up, she doesn't want to be surrounded.

So she finds a spot with a few of the zombies and dashes over. Two blades, no waiting; she draws both long blades and twirls, slashing targets all around her, intent on dismembering as many of them as quickly as she can. Well, that's how she'd deal with zombies if she were to face them in the real world. Here, it's just a HP bar that will go down if she strikes true.

    The gnarled hand which darts to grab Uta's leg is one hair's breadth before it can close around the musical kung-fu nurse's ankle, with a well-placed-

    ...golf swing?

    The head of Uta's staff impacts against the grabby hand with a *whack*, and sends it flying away into the distance. Uta observes it, frozen in a golfer's pose, then relaxes, leaves her staff to rest on one shoulder, shields her eyes with the opposite hand (despite there being no sun), and, completely ignoring the rest of the undead closing in on her, she waits until the hand is engulfed away into the fog.

    Luckily that lasts only the briefest of instants, and when she turns again, she yells, "Oh, snap, I forgot, zombies!"

    A battle cry, and she leaps at them, staff ready to deliver a xylophonic concerto for skulls and stick.

    Merek looks to the corpses that come at the group, while he nods a bit, then he shifts the weapon in a hand while he begins to swing his blade into a few of them, trying to sweep along into the enemies, "Come on, we'll save the people!" he calls to the party, while he's raked into with the many claws of the zombies.

    Poor Kita has a zombie around her, and no matter how much fire she uses-- undead fiend won't let go!

Holding her and trying to claw into her flesh. The imp mage attempts to create a fireball, but the zombie just moves ever so slightly that the fire spell skims by, scorching some of its hair.

It looks ready to do more than just claw, as it tries to drop its teeth down on her shoulder!

    Thankfully Goldenblade manages to behead the zombie getting ready to take a chomp out of Kita, which it at last falls the ground becoming wisps of light as it does. Then she claims another with her swords as it shambles her way!

Uta is being a bad-ass karate Spriggan, as she doesn't let any of the zombies get close and puts it to them kung-fu staff style. As for Merek, the zombies claw into his flesh as he manages to de-head a few that don't come in the right angle.

Yet the zombies continue to come in, now from the fog, racing right for them and lunging once more at the party!

To Avoid: +roll <evasion/shield>[with card] vs 10

    "I'm coming," Merek states, calling to Kita when he notices the woman was fighting through and being swiped into. He doesn't manage to arrive to her, and he's swept into the fight. "We need to make sure that as many of them will escape as possible. We're not looking to win the whole fight," then he's clawed up, red shimmers lighting the fog with each strike, his HP bar moving steady away. It's not easy to fight a whole group with only the people they keep with.

Goldenblade is a whirlwind of blades today, bringing up her steel to block and parry the zombies' attacks whenever they come close enough to strike at her. She's back and forth with them, boots planting in the turf and pushing back as they come at her. When she gets a moment, she slashes with either hand, striking back as she calls out, "Watch yourselves, stay heads-up. Don't panic, we've got this if we keep it together and cover each other." Easier said than done, but it's a plan, and she's fending off the zombies well enough for the moment. She will try to advance toward the others, to clear them a path back out, hacking at the foes relentlessly.

    Attacks rain in from all directions, but Uta's acrobatics always leave thin air for the sluggish attackers to punch into. She's at least a couple of notes ahead in her song, and the first wave of ghoul is made short work of.

    A last spin, a stable stance, the look of warrior who has just dealt with an attacking wave and is focusing on the next, inevitable.

    Until her nonexistent training as a nurse (well, okay, technically she isn't even a real nurse, she just plays one on the internet) makes her aware of Kita's desperate status, in the form of an HP bar dropping close, far too close to exhaustion.

    "...oh no," Uta exclaims. "Kita, I thought we had a battle plan. We go in. We fight. We win. We stay alive throughout. Part four comes last, but is the MOST important of the bunch!" She sighs. "Really, /I/ am supposed to be the one who doesn't pay attention to this kind of important details, and /everyone else/ is supposed to be the one to pull me out of the messes I get myself in. It is important that each of us sticks to their own role and we don't step one ach other's toes, you know?" There might be a bit of mirth in her words. Trying to build up morale in the darkest of times.

    She closes her eyes, and an uplifting, yet powerful melody leaves her mouth, fills the air, and as if they were carrying each other, wisps of light emanate from her staff, trickling towards Kita, interwined with the music.

It is only by the sheer grace of another Adventurer's blade that Kita manages to escape the hold of the zombie, just a moment before the teeth move to clamp down on her shoulder.

However, that doesn't mean that the black mage is out of the woods yet. Another of the zombies closes in on her, and in that instant, a familiar look of panic enters her eyes. "No. Please stop!" She raises her arms to defend herself, to no avail.

The creature leans down and claws against her arm. The scream that follows is blood-curdling. The game has pain dampeners, so it shouldn't hurt that much, right? Kita's health hits the red, and she just stares at the wounds, her arm limp before her.

Her eyes start to dart around, clutching her wounded arm to her chest, scrambling backwards away from the looming zombie. Even Uta's commentary isn't able to break whereever it is that her mind has gone. "Jurou... where are you?" She almost sobs the words.

The healing magic tries to take effect, but the zombie attacking Kita just turns towards Uta and roars, sending fetid spittle towards the Spriggan. It's dark aura disrupting the spell.

Normally, before the Apocalypse, an Adventurer would just recall out of such a situation, but Kita... she just scrambles to her feet. Then, in likely the worst move imaginable, she runs away... into the mist.

    The zombies continue to come, but as the adventurers continue to stand their ground, a few more surviving fishermen and hunters manage to escape, as holes of opening are given for them to bolt through.

Merek continues his assault, even with his HP bar draining dangerously low, as the zombies continue to claw and try to gnaw on him. Goldenblade continues to make quick work as the zombies try to get on her. Cutting and slashing away at them.
    The horde is slowly thinning out, but they continue to come from so many directions in the fog. Lightning flashes across the sky, lighting up the muddy ground and for a moment giving clarity in the fog that they are far from done.

However, as Kita bolts, a few zombies try to go after her, but she runs fast and runs faster than the zombies can keep up with. Into the fog she goes, where she ends up, no one knows!

The Zombie who stopped Uta from casting her healing spells leaps directly for her, along with a few others. More come, these looking like they been dead longer. More bone, than flesh, but still ghouls they were. All trying to claw and bite their way to undead victory.

To Avoid: +roll <evasion/shield>[with card] vs 8

    Merek swings with the Shadow Eclipse into the zombies, then he swivels upon the hip while he draws a light shield up to take the strikes from the claws. There are deflections while he twirls the weapon, then he calls a summon of light while an arrow begins to shimmer, shining through fog while it strikes along into the enemies. The man nods a bit to the party, "Focus on fighting!"
    The Magic Knight begins to intercept a few strikes which were aimed to Landers. "Retreat Landers!"

Goldenblade continues to avoid the zombies. She's not tough like some of the tanks, but she's fast. Faster than zombies anyhow, dodging away from their claws and leaving a slash where she'd been for them to share and enjoy. She hammers them with one blade, then another, repeating heavy strokes as she fights off the hordes even as Kita breaks and runs. "If we can cut these down, we'll be able to run after her," she says hopefully, though it's more plan than prediction. Her thin steel blades leap and dance, and she does, too, the name Bladedancer being an accurate name for what she does, twirling and pirouetting, blades hacking at her targets as each comes close enough to strike.

    Dark, low notes are growled, and Uta's whole self is soon coated in a layer of dark magic. An pitch dark figure, a living shadow, dark, winged.

    Angry.

    Like the dark fairy of legends.

    Close combat is close. Close as in, both opponents look evenly matched, Uta with her superior agility and technique, but the undead can count on brute force, numbers, stench, and an utter inability to be reasoned with.

    That is a formidable battle asset for an opponent to have.

    The dark coat of magic isn't an impenetrable armor, but one would not be able to tell merely by looking -- Uta dodges most of the incoming blows with leaps and twirls, but the few that do manage to hit... well, she does not even seem to notice them. In fact, as the attacking arms are pushed away with a rotation of the forearm, the previously impacting knuckles of the undead leave a asmall trail of wisps of dark magic.

    blocking the incoming blow and, most important of all, make Uta look scary. The effect is compounded by her staying silent (just an Uta-ism would be enough to ruin everything).

    Once done parrying the attacks, uh, well, there's a confusing spectacle.

    The dark fairy sings a Song of Light, clear, celestial. So out of place, coming from such a dark creature. The staff, once again, lights up, and song and wisps of light intertwine towards Merek...

    Merek releases arrows of light that breaks through the zombie line. Goldenblade makes quick work of more zombies. The numbers are becoming fewer and fewer. Uta takes this time as the battle starts to die down to give Merek back some of his health.

Yet the zombies don't give up. They continue to come, but given how there is no more movement in the fog. This might be the last of them!

    Meanwhile....
As poor Kita runs through the fog, she might see a green light, closer in, she will see a figure of a horse in the fog. Green flames for its mane, along with around its hooves. The armor was bitch black and the rider, had a human figure in the fog with armor as well.

The details would be hard to make out, but as a hand extends, Kita would see the fog clear in a direction. An open clearing in the field where the rain has come to a stop and the sunlight of the morning could be seen. The question is, in her panick state-- would she take the invitation given to her.

To Avoid: +roll <evasion/shield>[with card] vs 9

    Merek sweeps along beneath the enemies while the claws come his way, then he feels the healing light from Uta. "Thank you!" he calls to the Spriggan. Then he nods to Goldenblade while the two of them fight with the creatures. There's a lift of his weapon while he shifts Shadow Eclipse into a position to prepare, "Twin Dragons!" Then he wreathes the weapon in flame while he draws a shield of the same to deflect.

Goldenblade's luck has run thin after all this fighting, she's unable to fend off the waves of zombies as effectively as she had been, and the pressure is growing for her even as her health bar falls. She peers at Merek, fighting on relentlessly as the zombies that are left surround us. She swings her swords in a swirling arc as she lashes out with pounding hammerblows, driving them off as hard as she can, putting forth her maximum effort to hopefully finish this fight befre she's overwhelmed.

There is a certain state of mind where the world around you just doesn't quite fully process. A state of such full-blown panic that forms in the mist become phantoms. Tree branches become claws swiping from the darkness and every rock becomes fingers snatching at your feet.

It is in this state of mind that Kita stumbles upon a figure in the fog. She skids to a stop, eyes wide, staring at the horse and rider. Is this another figment of her imagination? Another monster dug out of her subconscious like a nightmare?

Her eyes follow the movement of that armored hand, blinking as the mist clears. It isn't logical thought that drives her, but raw fear. The opening in the mist is offered up, and she takes it, fleeing towards the light and safety it might offer. Where it will lead her? Who knows.

It seems that in a place filled with nightmares, Kita is far more afraid of the ones in her own head, than those that present themselves before her.

    "You are welcome," replies Uta, still coated in a protective layer of darkness. The magic did not exhaust as quickly as with other artes, it would seem, and the effect lingers. No time is wasted. She stares. "This," she growls, her voice still... hers, but with a lower, more ominous edge to it. It is unclear if the dark magic is affecting Uta at a deeper level than just a mere flashy show and stat adjustment, or simply the player behind the adventurer being furious. "This is for Kita, you rotten lot!", she exclaims, and runs into the thick of the horde of undead, silent, mostly, but letting out a single, poweful yell every time she passes by a zombie, and delivers a single blow of unprecedented violence to each target.

    Kita will find herself in a clearing, near the ocean waters. The rain is slowly coming to a stop and the thunder is in the distance. The morning sunlight dances through the rolling clouds as the storm passes.

There is no ghouls here. There is no shadows. Just the sound of the ocean, crashing waves, and sounds of a few insects.

    Inside the fog, back to where the battle is, the zombies are being cut down and as each one is cut down, the fog lightens more and more. The rain is slowly down. It is when the last zombie is killed and explodes into wisps.

Though as the fog lifts, the rain still gives some obscurity. This is when the party will see him. A dark armored rider, on a skeleton horse covered in armor with a mane of green flame. The hooves spark flames of green as well with each step.

The riders peers at the group, looking at them as the horse clip-clops along. There was a 'click' sound from the Rider, with a heel tap, before the horse goes from its slow pace to more quick trot. The rider moving back into the remains of the fog.

    Though as that fog clears, so too does the rider seem to vanish. It won't be long till the Lander who helped guide them to this location runs up, "Praise be the gods! You are all safe!" He then gives them a deep bow. "You have our village's thanks, my friends and you will be forever welcomed there!"

    Merek watches as that rider would appear from the mist, then he watches while the fog would lift. When that Lander comes back to speak with them, he nods a bit, sheathing the weapon while he takes a moment to begin healing himself, "Thank you," he offers to the man, and looks to the party. "Alright, we should probably look into the landers, to see if they are all alright."

Goldenblade peers at the fog beginning to lift, and she pants softly for breath as she checks over the bodies, stabbing any that haven't despawned. She's figuring this game out bit by bit. As the villagers return, she smiles and says, "We're glad to be able to help you all." Forever welcomed is nice, but the victory feast, she'll take a pass on. So much work to do, of course. And no mentioning that what's the point of a victort feast that tastes like blah.

    "It's okay, we don't want to be a burden right now", Uta replies to the landers, as the coat of darkness progressively dissolves around her, in patches, each bit of darkness blown away by the breeze, revealing her normal self underneath. She does not say it out loud, but she wouldn't mind a lander-prepared banquet. She's missing the taste of soggy crackers...

    The villager gives a nod to each of them. "Yes. Thank you. We will be sure to send you what we can as a reward for your assistance. Though it may not be anything grand or glorious."

As the group decides to check on the Landers, they will find just want to go home and don't feel like being inspected. Hunters and Fishermen alike are just tired. They are tired of running and just want their warm beds; Possibly their mead as well.

Thus poor Uta and Goldenblade can't find much of anything on the few folks who are willing to be checked over. Merek seems to have gone into a deeper inspection, perhaps not wanting to let folks walk off so easily.

At least the threat is over. For now.
    But who was that mysterious rider?
        And would it be the last time they see them?