Seal: The Vampire Castle

With the Palace Landers proving to be a potential future danger, the Ninetails Dominion is finally on the move. For a while now, they've been working with adventurers, keeping their regions safe, while the Tower of Mages has been working on gathering and clasifying magic and Relics that could assist them. Though they cannot maneuver a large scale assault on their own, with their own forces still spread through the lands keeping the undead at bay, a highly skilled squadron has requested the aid of high ranking Adventurers Guild members.

Now, the group arrives by longboard, launching from a series of ships. With the Undead forces being so heavily invested within the mainland of Ninetails, under the expectation that they had not yet been found and tracked to their old base, they are ill-prepared for the sudden assault by night.

The Ninetails personal army, the Mercenary Blades, moves to lead through the night. Their weapons sheathed so that no gleam, no magical wisp would betray them. They're using old maps of the region to deploy around the castle in a large area. The goal is for the Adventurers to split across two main regions while the Landers handle two others. There, they must deploy a Relic, and guard it while it powers up.

The summer air means it is very late. Well past midnight as they deploy, to try and ensure as much darkness being cast by Alba itself. In the lead are the Were Fangs and Cait Sith who maneuver through the land with more ease. Moving past patrols of undead and wooden barricades at the far outset of the castle's control.

Now, moving into position, the two Adventurer teams spot that there are groups of undead right where they need to be. Shambling zombies and skeletons lazily shuffling. And though the Adventurers have the first strike, these undead are incredibly high level - what with being this far away from the Root Town!

For the better part of the last year, Rylen has spent much of his time working in the Ninetails Dominion. He has helped people who have lost their homes to the Undead menace. He has fought with the Merchant Blades in order to push back the enemy. Even now, though, he knows that they cannot fight a war on two fronts. With the looming threat from elsewhere, it is time they find a way to contain the undead, at least for now.

The Pooka is dressed in in light armorments, mostly padded cloth covered in leather that sits tightly against his muscled form. His jacket blows slightly in the wind, long silver hair billowed behind him. "I'm going in." He speaks, the message likely aimed at his chimlink as he seems to steel his resolve.

Cracking his knunckles, the martial artist steps forward, his feet making firm impact on the ground, making tremors where he steps. His connection to the earth is obvious, even at this distance, as he steps into range of the undead, initiating the fight.

"The very earth of this land wants you gone. So be it." He stomps one foot down, causing a grass-covered boulder to emerge, hovering in the air for a moment before he kicks out at it, launching the clod of dirt and stone towards the zombies as he beaks into a run, giving out a rebel yell of defiance.

The thing is, working out the means of recording and tracking the movements of the Undead army is exactly what Shiruba has been doing. For almost longer than their forces first became active, as it had started in trying to locate the area the misty gateway had brought them to contend with the Corrupted King. It expanded into following movements, trying to deduce how to handle their subterrain travel method, and taking advantage of every old map of the Ninetails region she could find.

Now it was time to put some of that effort to work.

Leading one of the Adventurer groups, Shiruba slinked towards their intended position, not really surprised to find a lot of undead milling about this close to one of their operational bases. For the time being her falcon remained perched on her shoulder, as taking flight might give away their approach with the movement. Instead she stayed low to the ground, slinking into position.

A small hunting knife, one she had been using to teach Gabrielle how to properly skin and clean game, is taken out and held closer to her chest for a moment. "This is for you my friend, and so others do not have to suffer as you did," she no more than a whisper beneath her breath.

Then the knife is put away and Shiruba rises to a partial crouch, raising her bow and knocking an arrow in it. An actual arrow, courtesy of her work with Miho, that can charge strongly with elemental magic without the entire bow lighting up to form purely elemental projectile.

It's enough for her to take aim without being noticed, until the arrow is already screaming with the fury of a typhoon into the mass of skeletons intending to send them scattering! "Time for you to die a second time, bastards!"

Yeowang has joined the mission, along with the other adventurers, and in her going-on-adventures mode. This includes a dark overcoat and cloak with a hood, and her long hair secured in a bun under it rather than hanging loose. She is not so much helping the guides manage everyone through the jungle as attempting to practice the outdoorsy thing for her own training and experience, letting them to the actual guiding, but watching what they do and what they're doing. Thus, she is not quite ready for first contact.

Aware that as a scout, she ought to be using her ranged attacks more, she draws her bow, and fires a specially prepared arrow. In accordance with prophecy, and her usual luck with magic, that arrow passes an inch to the left of its target and flies another forty yards before embedding itself, doing negligible damage to a tree stump. Yeowang looks cross for a moment, but stuffs the bow back into her inventory, muttering, "I suppose I'll stay with what I'm good at."

    There are some days where the Right Clothes just can't quite conceal Wake's current... disposition. They wind about her like a second skin, the color an inky midnight blue.

    She's not showing debuffs, thankfully. Someone fed her and dumped water over her at some point. She may even have slept recently.

    Yet all is not well. She's bound by a strange mood, and her eyes have a rather unnerving focus to them. This mission, important as it is, is part of something greater still in her mind. She cannot rally the people if they are pinned down by undead filth.

    She falls upon the skeletons with emotionless, violent, precision. If Wake were more aware of things, she might reflect upon how perfectly her strike shreds through her enemies, or how she moves among her powerful adversaries with effortless grace. There's a beauty in the flow from enemy to enemy, yet in her mind, there is only a path, a blade, and whatever barriers remain in her way.

    Yuuki sneaks along. Sneak. Sneak. Sneak. Yes she can sneak. She's an imp! It comes with the wings and tail and horns. Though is pretty much more useful than all those combined. And Yuuki doesn't even use it much! Though admittedly the horns do sometimes come in handy while headbutting people. Though Yuuki only does that occasionally.

    Though of course, when the group she's sneaking with comes upon the large collection of zombies, Yuuki's eyes light up in excitement. They should be high levelled, given where they are!

    Sneaking time is OVER!

    Yuuki leaps from behind the bush she was using for cover. She runs her way up towards the closest group of zombies, starting to aim sword stabs straight for their heart! That should deal some serious damage.

    Yuuki doesn't stop to consider that the zombies don't actually have working hearts.

A highly skilled Adventurer? No. Capable of helping in a support capacity against a horde of undead? Yes, and every little bit helps in times like this. That is what Haru believes as he arrives via the longboard. The Artificer enjoys the maritime journey during the still summer airs. A bit of breeze against his face. A moment to think that things are not that serious and they are not all about driving into a heart of high level undead.

The time to advance goes with one of the teams. Haru finds the first strike being announced and begins chanting out a Fire spell that has a large blast radius. Something to start off on to avoid friendly fire after the melee engages. "Ignis. Sphera. Immortui." Small rings of red light dance around his focus orb, channeling from one hand to the other to release the volley of thermal death to the undead's mid to back ranks.

    Setsuna had chosen to be one leading the cahrge, he had a vested interest in getting rid of these damn zombies. By the necronomicon he would be the only necromancer in all of Yamato , it's the only way he could guarantee he was the best. So how was he going to prove his awesomeness today, well with him happens to be the skeleton knight that he had stolen from the undead armies almost a year ago to the day and he absolutely was going to rub it in there face. So into the mass he sends his skeleton knight and just as it charges in to strike at one of the zombies, it seems to hesitate for a moment and miss. Was it intentional? Was it just simple change in the wind, who can say, only the knight really knows.

Kaydon has plans. None of his plans involve dying tonight though. So he rushes forward into the fray, his blade coming to bear on the skeleton swarm.

There's way more of them than he had initially anticipated, however, and he finds himself starting to rather rapidly get swarmed by them, doing his best to weave in and out of strikes and strike back when he can, "Gonna need some backup over here!" He calls out to the rest of his team. Hopefully someone can assist.

    Merek walks along and with the group that are trying for the skeletons, taking the time to pull the hood up on his attire, then he's lifting up his potion while he throws that into the creatures. There aren't a lot of words, really what can he say, they won't understand it. He seems to be content to draw both of his twin blades while he nods to the party.

Miho had done what she could to aid the Ninetails against these hordes both personally and bey developing a new way to make better enchanted weapon. he was here with her own ger though those weapons were in the hands of various Knights to better aid the nations own defence. She would keep with Shiruba he Katana lready at the ready.

"This nightmare needs to be ended..."

She narrows her eye with her liminal rings as ever seeming to focus in on something.

With that she'll charge into melee with her Katana

"BEAT CRACK!"

Prophylaxis, too, has a vested interest in wiping these undead from the face of Ninetails. Nevermind that he's going to be playing armchair (and literal) general in the near future, he's also TECHNICALLY a citizen of this kingdom. It'd look bad if he weren't here to stand in its defense, wouldn't it?

Unfortunately, these zombies are... a little more challenging than expected. They're /zombies/, how many levels could they possibly have? Well, it turns out that zombies can be made of all kinds of different parts, some of which might just come from some truly high level enemies indeed.

The doctor clicks his tongue in genuine frustration as his initial barrage of twinned frosty and fiery bolts are summarily ignored by the walking dead. "What the hell is that vampire queen feeding these things? Wheaties? Brain Flakes...?"

    Mizuki's got a lot goin' on, but life -- such as it is when you've been isekai'd into a fantasy world -- continues and makes its demands. Demands like 'Help fight an undead army.' Mizuki sees Prophylaxis as especially reliable, and has fought beside Yuuki, Shiruba, Setsuna, and Yeowang a number of times, so she decides to accompany the group that eventually finds itself facing zombies.

    Zombies which they get one surprise attack on.

    Well, there's really only one obvious choice, right? Mizuki takes a few slow breaths, before finally breathing deep and spitting a fireball into the center of the horde!

    Prophylaxis's commentary gets a curious look. "They had Wheaties in Japan?"

Mia, the leader of the Merchant Blades, is traveling with Rylen and the holder of the orb needed to be deployed against the castle on his side. Approaching the Zombies, she is quiet, letting the Adventurers move first, as she has to protect the Relic. These things may not break easily, but one doesn't go around testing each and every Relic on whether or not they are indestructible.

"Go ahead." She whispers amidst cover of night, and watches as the boulder rises amidst the dark and the faint light cast by the stars, before a Zombie is crushed. There's a loud questioning 'hwuuuuh?' that resounds from the creatures, lifting their heads all towards Rylen's position immediately, having sensed the casting of magic. The sickening sound of flesh and bones being annihilated is soon followed by the SPWUUNG of an arrow being launched, only for the zombie Yeowang was aiming at to sway to the side in a way that looks too intentional to be bad luck on her part.

Yuuki follows up on this arrow's attack, stabbing her blade into one of the Zombie's chests... only for her blade to get STUCK. There's a sudden pull. And she sees as the sickly flesh begins to grow over her blade while the Zombie begins to move its body in these twisting ways. Opening its mouth and extending its next in an unnatural way. Grabbing for her hands to keep her holding onto her blade as it tries to devour her face!

Setsuna's Skeleton Knight moves in and seems to... hesitate. Nearby, Setsuna spots a Zombie wielding a staff, pointing at the Skeleton Knight, trying to steal it for its own purposes! Prophylaxis sends a series of icy and flaming blasts at them, only for the same zombie to move its staff and create a barrier around itself and some of the front line zombies. Red and Blue shields form around them, indicating elemental armors. And the moment Mizuki's elemental blast detonates against their shields, they just barely seem to /flicker/ at the impact of the powerful Fireball, lighting up the area and alerting the Undead of this particular position!

Not a moment later, it raises that same staff into the air, and countless hands suddenly rise from the ground, grabbing at the Adventurers, trying to hold them and pull them into the earth! Biting zombie heads pulling from the ground, trying to devour their legs!

Leading the other group towards the Adventurers, Shiruba is joined by a woman with bunny ears who has been keeping incredibly quiet so far. Nashetania nods her head to the Adventurer; "I've got the orb." She whispers, as she takes out something that looks like a small director's stick or long dagger.

Then suddenly, lightning and wind burst across the mass of Skeletons, shattering three of them in a single shot. Not a second before Nashetania lifts her little 'blade wand' and six blades solidify in the air, which each quickly swing through the air and rush forward amidst silence, stabbing through six Skeleton heads with precision, before quickly dancing back.

The Baroness follows in the wake of those blades retreating, her fist finding her opponents with unnerving accuracy. Crushing one skeleton, before a second tries to grab at her, and is kicked in the head for the attempt of it. Haru's flames light up the night with short bursts of blaze, alerting enemies around them, but also giving their allies a chance to see better. One of the incantations landing in the rear center of the enemy and causing a blast of light to erupt, creating a bright silhouette. Thanks to this light, Kaydon manages to get out of a problematic area just in time and is given a path back towards the main battle lines. And it's not long before another flame is added to the Skeleton region, Merek's alchemist flame burrowing into a Skeleton's head while splashing onto the ground, continuously illuminating the area, drawing more undead towards them!

"Adventurers do love flame." Nashetania remarks as she begins to move towards the position she needs to be in. "Keep them off of me." She remarks, as her blades begin to sail around her in the air in a simple circle formation, as she takes out a large metalic orb from the ground and begins to bury it.

Not a moment later, the Skeletons seem to break out of their slow stupor. As if suddenly given direction, they launch straight towards their opponents. A rear group firing bow arrows in a volley, which explode into bone-spurs after making contact. At the same time, the skeleton front lines wielding rusted but powerful blades charge them, seeking to push them back!

If there is one thing that Rylen has learned from his time fighting the undead, it is that they are not to be underestimated. Many amongst the armies were quite intelligent, a far cry from your common shambling hordes. "They have a necromancer. No wonder they're being more trouble than normal." Rylen reports back, giving a grunt as he shoves past one of the zombies, trying to move into position to defend Mia.

Then, hands start to grasp at his ankles. With a motion of his hand, he quickly lifts the ground beneath him, pulling himself away from those clawing fingers and giving him a better view on the battlefield.

"Need a little help here, my dear. Do you think you might be able to lend a hand?" From beneath him, one of those grasping hands reaches into the earth and pulls free a samurai sword, then starts to slice off the hands, possibly freeing some of the others in close proximity.

Then, slowly, with stuttering movements, an undead samurai emerges from the earth, clods of it still clinging to her form as black hair hangs across her face in a creepy fashion. The undead creature gives one look towards Rylen before turning towards the enemy, setting her blade to the zombies before her. "Thanks, Kyo." Rylen answers.

    Setsuna notices the zombie sorcerer and is about to do something about it before the swarm of skeletons come charging at the necromancer. " Stick and stones may break my bones, fortunately you lot have provided me plenty of others." With a whip of his hand the fallen bones of the defeated skeletons rise up and shield him as he gathers up a ball of fire into his hands and throws it at the zombie sorcerer."Those who steal from others are cursed to burn in the afterlife."

"You've got it," Shiruba replies to Mia with a nod. She might of had more to say, but it's cut off by Windburn making the "Kee-Kee-Kee-Kee!" screech that's her warning cry as she takes off her shoulder. "Shit, archers!"

Though rather than her bow Shiruba pulls her throwing glaive from her belt, and flings it into the air in a curve to intercept several of the arrows mid-air before returning to her like a boomerang. Unfortunately, colliding with the weapon still sets off a few, pelting her in bone splinter shrapnel. But better her, if it gives Mia more oppritunity to avoid the attacks and start setting up their McGuffin.

"You heard the lady, cover her!" Being a ranged combatant as she is Shiruba remains in a defensive position near Mia.

But that doesn't mean she isn't partaking in actions on the offense as well. A few well-trained hand signals is all it takes to call her falcon from the skies in a bid to get those archers off their coverfire game. Windburn, using the impressive diving speed peregrines have, makes a screaming rush through the line of skeleton archers with such an intensity it leaves a disruptive shockwave booming through the air behind her!

Yeowang blinks at hands rising up from the earth trying to grab and restrain her, but she kicks a couple free and leaps away, maintaining a mobile position as she changes from attempting ranged combat to joining the melee, where she feels most capable. Dashing forward in long, ground-eating strides, both for speed and to avoid the grasping hads, she slams into the melee with a brutal kick to one of the zombies, kocking git back several steps.

Once in the thick of things, she is much more comfortable fighting, trading hard kicks, mainly, keeping those grasping hands at bay and skipping aside from the ankle grabbers as well, her mobile defense tactic consisting at this point at merely knocking aside the claws that reach for her and punching the grasper squarely in the chin. It doesn't have the impact that kind of blow has in real life, sadly, though she's never actually punched a zombie in real life, so who can say?

    Wake senses things around her as if she were in a dream; as if she were watching herself. The attack is fiercely directed, but the Baroness slips past arrows and blades, leaving a trail of flames behind her.

    She moves from being on the defensive to into a brutal assault without warning. One moment, she is darting away, the next she plants a foot to change direction and throws herself into a cluster of enemies where she delivers a shattering series of punches and elbow strikes.

With all the fire there is more to see. Haru uses the combat flares to pay attention to the glint and bone of the skeletal advances as his fire attuned attack is pulled defensively away from an attack, leaving a skeleton to shamble into a streak of fire where the Enchanter once stood. It affords the white-haired man a moment away from the melee as the front liners give enough space for his next spell. He begins chanting immediately and switching his focus to bring jagged rock down to blundgeon the fire weakened bones. "Terra. Columna. Immortui." The red rings inside of his orb change out to a sunset brown as the ground rumbles. Stone drawn up to deflect against errant bowfire and they make thier way back down to pelt against the skeletal forces with a natural missile of their own.

Miho does love flame, hey if you woke up one day and could breath fire? Wouldn't you? Thata's what she's going to do as she's caught in the ranks of Skelton she's able to fend them off as she takes a deep breath and then exhales a massiv gout of flame vs her small size. It doesn't go as well as she hoped but hey it should at least keep the attention of the undead.

"WE COME FOR YOUR MASTERS GET OUT OF OUR WAY!"

She'll parry anotehr arrow and look to the lady nodding as she keeps breathing fire to keep the undead away from targeted person.

Thankfully Kaydon manages to get out of there, blocking strikes from skeletons and striking back as best he can. He makes his way out of their formation, regrouping next to some of his own fighters. Once he gets secured, he changes his stance in order to be able to unleash a different arte.

He launches forward, blade burning with flames as he strikes down a pair of skeletons. He spins around creating a miniature fire tornado around himself, blasting them away from him in order to clear some space for his fellow fighters, "Come on, keep pushing! We can take them all down!"

    Merek sweeps along and into the battlefield while he takes the time to lift that divine shield to protect him, then he's swinging about while he sheaths the two twin blades, before he takes a hand and brings about a flame into it, then he begins to light the skeletons while he sweeps along with kicks as well. "Ragnarok's Wisdom!"

Is that-- is that a /zombie wizard!?/ Prophylaxis stanres agog at the staff-wielding, spell-slinging corpse. "How...?" He asks the world and life in general, "Don't... Zombies aren't supposed to have brains! How does this even work!?"

They're zombies

They don't have int scores!

Said zombies swarm inexorably towards him-- which thankfully isn't actually all that quickly. Zombies are still zombies, after all. Prophylaxis frowns and erects a wall of force between himself and the swarm, before giving them a firm shove back several meters... Which is when he's grabbed by the /ankles/ too! Cursing, he swings his staff down, smashing that conjured shield into the earth below and crushing the undead swarming up from underneath him. "This whole damn place is a landmine of the living dead," he mutters, conjuring a mote of orange flame over his finger. With a flick, he sends it hurtling toward the aforementioned band of shamblers, setting them all ablaze with a mighty fireball!

"I had American roommates once," he says to Mizuki with a shrug.

    Yuuki blinks in surprise as she suddenly finds it difficult to pull her sword out again. This is not how swords are supposed to work! Tug. Tug tug. TUGTUGTUG. Oh god, it's trying to eat her face!

    "FINE!"

    It's a bit difficult in the situation she's in, but Yuuki manages to activate one of her sword artes, the sword bursting into flames as a result, burning away part of the zombie up and freeing Yuuki.

    Yuuki steps back, a little less panicked now. Of course, just as she does so, a zombie hand bursts out of the ground and grabs at her foot, "AHHH! Mole people!" Not quite, but oh well. Yuuki hacks at the ground hand with her sword for a bit, before starting to run, stepping around the rising zombies, chopping at others in order to keep them from grabbing her, "There's too many of them!"

    Mizuki looks at Prophylaxis. "But they used to be people, right? Undead knights can still use their swords, so why can't undead wizards still use their magic?" She spits more flame at the advancing horde, but wasn't expecting to get GRABBED from below! She shrieks in alarm, trying to pull her legs free, briefly considering physically attacking then deciding that'll get her hands grabbed too, then trying to work out which kind of magic-- okay, yeah, Prophy's got a good idea! Fire burns! Her fur seems to move like a flame or as if seen through the shimmer of heat, and she spews more flame at the ground -- burning her feet has got to be less damage than the zombies would do if allowed, right??

Undead to fight Undead. It is a strange approach to this matter. But it seems Setsuna and Rylen are almost of like mind on the matter. Using their own connections with their brand of magic, they avoid their control being taken from them, and bring that power to bear against them. The heavy blade of the samurai undead that aids Rylen sweeps her blade in a silent swing that seems almost perfectly horizontal. And not seconds later, five zombies before her all fall, cleaved in half.

More fire gets added to the battle. Each brightening ripple draws more undead to their position. This luckily means those undead are not going to the two Lander fields. But it does mean that Setsuna's area is getting swarmed with more and more Zombies - as the first blast hits the Zombie Sorcerer he spotted in the face. Only for it to shake it off! The anti-flame barrier still quite functional. Luckily, Setsuna's raised undead are having more luck, cutting down the Zombies around them! This gives Yeowang the access she needs.

Blows and kicks flying towards the Zombies' heads this time, she is having more luck than last. Though their sickly wet slimy flesh still makes each strike weaker than she'd like, she can feel those skulls cracking beneath her fists not moments later!

Another burst of light illuminates the region, as Prophylaxis' fireball eradicates a sea of zombies, only for a good half of them to remain up thanks to the earlier Zombie having casted those fire and ice wards! Mizuki tries to make up for this by sheer quantity of 'adding more fire to the solution', but those wards are remaining up. More of them fall, the damage eventually leaking through, but this is an uphill battle!

Mia, having reached the point, has begun to set the sphere, but calls out; "There's some kind of... interference. It's got a red ring around it." She notes. "I think I must be off by a few meters. Something is out of sync!" Yuuki is forced to step in to protect Mia with her blade, having gotten free from the previous Zombie and managed to free herself...

But now all of those zombies are climbing out of the ground and rising up, /swarming/ them with sheer numbers. Sheer numbers that are filled with HP. Unlike Skeletons, which tend to be a bit more skilled, zombies are giant balls of HP. Which is making the entire field hard to maneuver within! And all of them are focusing their march towards Nia, having spotted her dealing with the strange orb. Clawing. Biting. Grabbing at people. Trying to drag the Adventurers to the ground!

On the south side of the castle -- a shockwave blasts some of the Skeleton backlines apart, as the peregrine falcon, Windburn, divebombs the rear regions, giving the reprieve her team needs to go back on the offensive and take the momentum! Wake zips in between the melee forces at the front. Ducking below a sword, kicking the legs out from underneath a Skeleton in the most literal sense, before crushing another one's ribcage, tearing out a piece of bone, and stabbing it into another Skeleton's skull before the piece of bone's integrity falls enough for it to be useless.

All around her, stone rises and falls, protecting against further arrow shots as Haru directs the stone into unique arcs that block, then crush opponents. From their vantage point, Haru can tell that it's taking significant effort and amounts of Sword and Wave Artes to take down each Skeleton on their side. No doubt, if this becomes a battle of attrition, they would lose.

And the true generals of the undead army have not even shown up yet.

More flame is sent into the battle as Miho supports the front lines of the group, stepping in with Baroness Wake and breathing flame to illuminate her blazing path! Kaydon joins in and together with Miho, they both wind up a larger flame tornado that begins to suck up some of the skeletons, torching them, before throwing them outwards from their location, causing disruptions in their lines.

"Just keep holding on... I'm trying to get it activated. But it looks like something is happening to the north side with your other allies - because it's not connecting!" Nashetania calls out.

Followed by the heated gulf of light that follows, as Merek's Ragnarok Wisdom cuts a clear path through the enemy forces, a single punch creating a straight line where the Skeletons are eradicated, halting their previous assault on the girl for just a moment. Only for some of the bones to start reforming, combining and growing a /larger skeleton/ as the Skeleton Mage forces the undead to rise once again! What's worse, some of the bones it's drawing up are forming 'prisons' around some of their members, followed by spikes forming from within those 'bone prisons'!

    Merek looks to the skeleton mage even after he takes the time to look at the path he made by taking care of the ones that he was fighting. Then he's shifting the hood of his while he begins to walk to it, "Wake, I am going to seal it. If you can keep me protected for a moment?" Then he offers a grin to her, while he takes a moment to lift up his hand. A static begins to build along his wrist while rings begin to form.
    The man takes a stance while he begins to bring all his power and will into it, then he holds up his palm while it begins to create a beam. Green light lances along from the hand of his while it strikes the Skeleton Mage, and it begins to... It looks like the man is sealing the magic. Amid all of the resurrections, the magic just does not take. They don't come alive for a time, giving the party a little benefit. The beam pulls the data from the skeleton along the wave line beam and to him. Before he lowers the hand.

It isn't long before Rylen has lost sight of the undead samurai within the fray of bodies. "Good luck." He offers in a quiet voice before dropping down, trying to help support Mia as she works to set up the relic. The report that it seems to be in the wrong place is met with a quick glance back, "I'm not sure I can be of much help ther--"

That is when he spots one of the zombies just about to grab hold of Mia. Shifting into action, he charges at the zombie, flattening it to the ground, but the clawed fingers dig into his arm, leaving gashes in his leather jacket that go all the way to red lines beneath. He hisses at the pain of it.

"We need to hurry this up. I'll see if I can thin their numbers out a bit." Despite the pain in his arm, Rylen focuses on pulling up rocks from the ground below, hefting them up into the sky.

They hover there for a moment before bursting into flame, the effort of focus showing on the man's gritted teeth as he hurls them down onto the zombies below. Where they impact, they explode into shattered clumps of earth and splashes of fire which are aimed at taking out a number of the zombies and helping to clear the path for Mia.

    Yuuki joins up with Mia, slashing at swords while she tries to get the device into position. But apparently it's not working. As Yuuki chops a zombie head off, she asks, "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" Not helpful! But thankfully Yeowang is able to find a solution.

    Yuuki goes back to chopping up zombies, her movements speeding up as one of her sword artes activates its buff. She zips from one zombie to the next, slashing and stabbing. "Is it just me or are they focusing in on this location that we just happen to be trying to protect? Cause the numbers are increasing and it's getting harder to fight them back!"

    "No one will harm you while I live."

    Wake settles in at Merek's side, her voice and eyes every bit as cold as the undead she destroys. It's been some time before she lost herself utterly in battle like this, and the focus shows.

    Whether the skeletons be raised as cages or continue to attack, the response is the same, an array of strikes that shiver undead femurs or turn skulls to a powder. All the while, Wake slides out of the range of the enemy attack, her awareness extended such that every monster that draws near Merek finds itself suddenly blocked and driven back or destroyed as her wrath falls upon it.

Yeowang grimaces as zombies rise up out of the ground, and pulls out all the stops in avoiding them, though the claws and teeth come perilously close several times. She only moves the minimum amount to avoid the incoming attacks, and it would look like a game if this weren't so deadly serious. She spots Mia preparing to plant the relic, but not where she remembers from the original plan. It's quite close, but she must have gotten turned around in the chaos.

Driving through the melee, hard punches and ferocious kicks pushing zombies back, she draws up even with Mia and shouts amid the chaos, "Not here! It was there," she points. "The spot that was briefed..." It'll take another surge, led by Yeowang's MMA-driven beatings that often knock zombies back, and aided by Yuuki and the others, to create a small area where Mia can do the thing.

    Clawing, biting, grabbing... No matter how many Mizuki kills, there are more! She tries to get defensive buffs up, but she can't even stand still long enough to trigger the artes! She starts fighting her way back, trying to get clear to SOMEWHERE where maybe she can get a moment with a healer and get buffs up... but the horde seems endless! Eventually, the sight of her HP bar dropping this quickly starts triggering survival instincts. She snarls and bites and burns off zombie hands grabbing her, and her hands and feet and claws find purchase as she scampers over zombies and allies, guessing at what can be used as momentary footing, biting and using short plumes of flame breath to put zombies on the defensive just enough to land on their shoulders and leap to the next.

    Somehow, she escapes with but a sliver of HP. A second or two more and she'd have died; Mizuki shudders at the thought of how close she came, remembering her first death in the watery depths.

    But she can't really rest, can she? Deep in enemy territory, no doubt with wandering undead all over... She's escaped the wave battle only to get herself into a survival horror minigame.

    She hates survival horror...

"I mean, that is definitively what they're doing," Prophylaxis answers his favorite little swordslady. "They probably figure we're up to no good, so they're aiming at taking us out before we can cause any further trouble." One group of zombies nearly breaks through, shambling towards the magus in a crush of bodies. The doctor clicks his tongue and sweeps his arm in a wide arc. At his command, a bulwark of ice rises to hold at least some of the dead at bay... But it won't last long.

"And with those damn elemental shields, our best options for crowd control are being suppressed. Yuuki, I don't suppose you could safely assassinate that mage?" The zombies have showcased shields against both hot and cold, but Prophylaxis has an abundance of elemental options at his disposal. He raises his rod high, the dark of night concealing the stormclouds rolling overhead... Until a massive cascade of lightning slams into the head of the mage's staff. With a roar, he swings it down like a judge's gavel, directing the coruscating current through the undead ranks!

Hopefully it'll do the trick-- unless they're shielded against /lightning/ too!

    Setsuna let himself get boxed in, even to the point that when he tries to disappear and leave behind an illusion himself he just runs into more zombies and feels them bite into his arm. There is annoyance as he shakes the bite off and throws the zombie away from. " Damn zombies. " His eyes track to the sorcerer when eh thinks, " Due I'm an idiot the elemental shield isn't going to stop brute force." So the necromancer raises up more zombies to fight the zombies. One giant zombie mosh pit coming up.

Windburn does as she's instructed and makes a hasty withdrawl to not get caught up in the enemy lines as the rest of the time brings down judicious fury upon the skeletons. A fairly wide turn brings her back to Shiruba's position, just as the bone spikes are erupting out of the ground to form a jagged cage around the wolfgirl.

Only for it to shatter moments later as Shiruba unleashes a storm's fury from within to break free.

Merek jams the Skeleton Mage, preventing it from raising more skeletons back into the fight after the conglomeration already returned to the field. Shiruba grimaces, expression a fine line of focus as she sizes the monster up, and decides on the course of action. "No numbers to great, no foe to large." She digs a heel into the ground to brace herself as she draws an arrow with an almost curved looking head from her quiver and draws it back in her bow, Thundersnow Howl filling it with cyclonic energies.

"You may of forced your minions into one body..." Shiruba takes aim at the giant skelemerger's face with a decisively glint in her eyes "But it is us who truly stand united as a whole!" With what is hopefully a leadership worthy quip made she fires. The arrow is supercharged with such aero energies that it spins in flight, the near sonic speed turning it into a sort of defense piercing drill!

That's one hell of a headshot.

The shift to earth magic gives Haru the sort of kinetic energy to push back and away from the next wave of skeletons before one of his larger magical stone drops on one with a crackling thud. He can feel his heart beating out of his chest. It is always a lot different when you are in the thick of it. Blue eyes are a bit wider than usual. Hands are a bit more shakey than before as a rush of panic comes over him. He isn't sure if it is a fear type spell of not. The chims are going off and he is fortunately not part of the spear of the skeletan party or he would have found it to be white noise right now.

"Tenebris. Flumen. Omnis." Haru chants as his orb becomes a black pearl in his hands. Misty tar forms at his fingertips as he condenses them into bolts of arcane power to hit at the center of the skeletons and draw them in like little gravity wells before detonating. It is a chaotic skirmish and the Artificer has begun to lose tempo of what is going on around him.

If things aren't going well for the other team, Kaydon thinks they may have to hurry up and finish this off so that they can assist the other team, "Come on, lock it down!" He calls out, as he slams his left fist into a skeleton and deploys the hidden blade, shattering it. He quickly goes to town on several skeletons in close quarters. His strikes are precise, this is one of the things he's been practicing with the hidden blade, how to stick it in weak points and bring down monsters with perfect blows.

"We've got to go help out the other team! We need this operation to succeed, so lets push through these guys and then go finish this!"

the fire tornado was cool and she'd have to think on that, yet the battle is not yet over there are many undead left to slay she looks to Kayron for a momen before she'll draw her bow once more. She start raining shows into the enemy rnak then comes the bone pirsons. She's quick enough to avoid getting caught but it's a near thing. It does slow down her rate of fire for a moment.

"Aye we need to mop these ones up and go aid our friends with the rest!"

"I bet someone is listening through the undead, and have been hearing us talk while we've been fighting." Mia answers Yuuki. "Whomever is in control of these undead. They're a lot smarter than you're giving them credit for." She points out. As if the last year of fighting these undead had not shown just perfectly enough that these things should not be underestimated. They kept coming up with new tactics.

Her gaze then snaps towards the zombies. But instead of defending herself, she waits. Almost as if she is expecting for Rylen to step in the way of it all. The moment he moves there, she does jerk back a bit though, as if she was snapped out of a momentary trance, before nodding her head; "Thank you, mister Rylen." The furred one remarks, as Yeowang guides her further to the west. Moving between Zombies as they try to grab at her. With Yuuki following along to protect her.

Yeowang pushes away zombies, knocking in their skulls and crushing a few to the ground, giving the woman the chance she needs to get to her new position, and then notes as the metalic sphere glows! "Okay... I think this is it. Ahem..." She touches her throat for a moment, and then declares; "Einweg."

The sphere spins open, forming fans along its center, and glows blue in a ring at its center. It then floats downwards... not so much 'burrowing' as 'phasing' into the ground. Radial blue lights glowing out from it for a moment. A moment later, a green ring glows at the top of it that is still sticking out!

More of the zombies move, crowding around. Mizuki manages to get away with her life, and a healer moves with them, casting a few chants on her and drawing her to a safer spot on the landscape while they wait for the others to be done. And luckily, Prophylaxis is aiding in their retreat. The sudden bursts of roaring lightning that comes down shattering Zombies, boiling them alive from within! It turns out, an ice and fire ward does not protect against lightning! Tearing them down at much larger numbers! He's hitting some of Setsuna's zombies at this point, as they rise to hold back the hordes that keep forming. But at this rate, Prophylaxis and Setsuna are buying precious time.

"Now get outside of the forming dome's radius! Everyone behind me!" Mia calls out!

On the side of the Skeletons, Nashetania is repeating much the same as what is happening on the zombie side. As Merek uses his Data Drain to rip the powers out of the skeleton mage - which gets him a momentary odd look from Nashetania - and Baroness Wake and Kaydon team up to turn skeletons to powder, she touches over the orb. "Einweg." It begins to float beneath her hand, and then lowers into the ground. Phasing into the dirt, revealing a blue pattern in a ring at the top of it, and radial lights that flow outwards through the earth, until it's burrowed in properly. Before a green ring starts buzzing alive at the top half.

ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzIP! The cyclonic burst of Shiruba's assault shatters the Skeleton mage's head. Without its power, it cannot lift a proper shield to protect itself. And without its magics, much of its ability to attack and protect is gone. Even if it's just for a few moments, Merek's data drain helps Shiruba get that clincher of an attack!

Though there's more Skeleton Mages approaching, what with the fire attacks that have been getting used. They're just not quite here yet...

Some of the skeletons are rushing Nashetania's position, but each time they get just close enough, Haru's gravimetric powers grip hold of them, collapse into an implosion, before launching them like ragdolls every which way. Some of them which end up flying towards the Hero of Blades end up getting quickly cut up by Nashetania's floating swords, as she begins to summon more and more of them, now that she needn't hold that orb anymore.

"Now, quickly, get out of the activation's range!" Nashetania calls out, and motions her hand. "Behind me!" With Miho literally blazing some of the trail towards the rear of it as the orb begins to activate. A blue light beginning to spin above it... and the ground begins to shake subtly.

When the Heroine with the Magical Artifact says to get out of it's range, you -get out of it's range-.

The battlefield is a stretch of shattered bones and scorched earth, but Shiruba is able to quickly pick a path through it and stay clear of the few scraggling attackers that manage to shamble their way and gather up near their safe point, Windburn landing near her. So far so good, but Shiruba keeps her weapon in hand just in case. "Be ready to move as soon as we know it worked or not..." She's still a little concerned about none of the Generals showing up, but maybe for once they're luck played out good.

    "I dunno, Prophy. Probably could! But I don't think we have the time!"

    Indeed, Mia is calling for the group to make the escape. Quickly too would be preferable it seems. So Yuuki sweeps her blade out to the side, darkness quickly forming around it and growing, increasing the weapons side. Yuuki then points towards some random direction, "Let's gooooo!" She starts running.

    Zombies start trying to clamber in in front of Yuuki. But she has none of it! As flailing arms of the minions are joined by spells slung by the mages, Yuuki jumps, leaps, zigs, spins, rolls, twists, turns and flips her way around them. All the while her enlarged blade slashing out to cut through multiple zombies at a time as she tries to help create an opening through the mass for the assault team to escape!

Yeowang fights on franticly as Mia calls out to get behind her. Her routing thus constrained, her ability to evade is less than she had been demonstrating. She moves like quicksilver on a cold surface, but there's not enough places to move -to- that don't contain clawing, grasping zombies. That costs her a large chunk of HP, but it's a gambler's share. You can't get in the mix without wagering some HP, and you can't win them all.

Or, rather, it's not a zero-sum game, because Yeowang always plays the long game. And in this case, the set up is that she's lined up several of the low-HP enemies in a circle, and one spinning back-kick blasts three of them into pixels, and two more are knocked well back, and with just the tiniest slivers of HP, themselves.

With the relics in place, Rylen doesn't really have much of a chance to catch his breath as he turns to look at the zombies that are still swarmed around them. "Looks like we may have to fight our way out." He remains in position, keeping one eye on Mia in the process. "Stay with me, lass. This is going to get a bit rough, I think." Having worked along side the Merchant Blades for months, he takes her protection seriously. Afterall, he wouldn't be much of a hero if he let her come to harm.

"Let's get out of here!" He calls to the others, motioning them forward while he leaps, stomping both feet on the ground. A moment later, the very earth beneath them starts to crack open, fissuring to separate the land of the castle away from the rest of Ninetails.

Zombies fall into the unknown depths below, some even giving a 'Wilhelm scream' in the process. In the end, the fissure neatly wraps around the outer edge of the castle and the barrier being formed. It stands as a secondary defense should the barrier falter.

Exhausted and utilizing the last of his health and mana in the effort, he's forced to depend on the others in order to fight off the zombies as he acts as a shield for Mia, the pair making their way through the chaos towards safety.

    Setsuna sees their goal going into place and he prepares to get himself out of this mess , blinking from one group of zombies ...straight into another his leg is clawed by a zombie missing its lower half. Taking out his dagger though he throws it forward into the crowd horizontally watching it cut several zombies. Quickly he runs behind it shoving his way through the extra slowed zombies as his skeleton knight fights it's way to meet up withhim. Together they would cut their escape route.

    Wake withdraws, but evenly, taking a rearguard position. Not at all her normal, but she means to put herself in harm's way if needed. Or perhaps the fey mood of a successful battle has left her feeling invincible. Regardless, she need be only as slow as the slowest of her peers, which is still going to carry her out of harm's way.

    Once they are clear of the immediate danger, she simply waits and watches. She's as tightly wound as ever, ready to spring into violent action at the first opportunity.

The intensity of bones splattering all over the place like a calcium shrapnel bomb has Haru taking a protective spell over him. His skin takes on a marble-like luster as the Artificer begins to fall back with the rest of the Adventuring group. Already being towards the rear as a caster, it is not a difficult task for him to pull away while slinging spells into the horde for the retreat. Heavy breath begins to subside to the good cardio of a tactical retreat, having managed to get through the skirmish unscathed being widely a testament to the front liners keeping squishy caster types like him away from all the skele agro. Skagro, if you will.

Miho is sitll shooting and hacking her way through the horde well he wa. There's still a lot to do or so she think. She will tke this brief brether and looks to Shiruba for a moment.

"Aye we best be ready for what might befall us here or thine allie."

She seems to be ready with her bow though for more trouble.

"We best make our preperations."

Haha! Lightning works! Lightning works /excellently./ Prophylaxis can't help but grin as the devastating skyfire rips through the ranks of the dead. That stops /very/ quick once the stench of burning zombie reaches his nose. "Are we good?" He calls back to Mia as the artifact activates. With a grimace, he terminates his spell and begins to cut and run...

But there are zombies. So many zombies. They press forward like an inexorable tide of rotting flesh and corpsely strength... Only to find their progress stymied by the appearance of a hemispherical wall of pure, white, crystalline flame. The doctor surges past, darting out around the inexplicable wall. He drags his staff across the ground, digging a narrow trough... which soon erupts into overgrowing brambles. "Looks like the land's looking to reclaim the corpses that have slipped its grasp," Prophylaxis says as the vines twine around the dead to pull them all back into the depths of the earth. "Come on, while I've got them bound, let's go!"

    Merek looks along and will begin to retreat with people a bit away. He does take the time to nod to Wake, "It will take a bit, though he will regain his power."

"Move move move!" Kaydon yells as they get the direction to get out of dodge. He's not going to stick around when things are going to go to hell fast. He doesn't have much to add to running away, because really running away doesn't require a lot of extra input!

As Shiruba begins to retreat with the Skeleton team, they are having a much easier time than the Zombie team. Returning from the south side of the castle, moving eastwards to get back to the boats. So far, no generals. It's good to be concerned, as this either means they are still at the castle... or beyond this dome.

Over on the zombie side, Yuuki swings her blade. The gleam of metal carving through the air, catching the light of the stars and the roiling red of flames as she carves a path through the zombies, refusing to give up. Moving to the side of the glowing orbs she needs to be on...

As on all fours, the orbs sudden pop out! Radial light flaring out from them, shining a strange blue-green light that speaks rather similarly to that which halted their ability to proceed at the tenth floor. Except, this light doesn't look... random. This is no noise. This is a well projected and calculated light that begins to form forwards...

In a way that some of those present may recall. Even if ever so vaguely. A flicker of this light, that moved that massive destructive orb in that vision they saw far, far on that mountain. That vision of what 'would be', according to that telescope. [ https://i.imgur.com/QOyClsh.png | https://i.imgur.com/MgNUdm1.png ]

Quickly, the radial light begins to grow as the devices burrow back into the ground, and the light turns, growing, reaching out across the sky. Growing rapidly across the ground. Tearing through the ground in a manner not dissimilar to the very dome that halts that 'mess' from proceeding out of Ezzo! A white light that burrows, and begins to tear through the land. Eradicating earth! The ground trembles and quakes beneath their very feet!

Yeowang manages to tear away some of the zombies. Rylen has to step in amidst the quake, protecting her. An enormous fissure forming, not just from the orb this time, but from Rylen showing off his geomancy skills. Using his magics to rip apart the ground, forcing zombies to fall to their doom down a deeper pit at the northside point! The fissure grows and interlaces, his magic joining that of the dome being formed, widening it along that side of the dome that forms - making it neigh impossible to reach the Northern Orb. With wild thorns growing against the walls, as Prophylaxis adds his own touch - with vines pulling some of the following zombies down where the fisure was missing them.

The cleaving light continues out. The clouds above art forced open, eradicated and turned to momentary mist. Superheated rain suddenly falls down upon the dome's side and towards the retreating Adventurers and Landers, forcing them to defend themselves. Setsuna gets his dagger into a zombie just in time before he'd get locked in place by it. The sudden rush of rain pouring down just inches from where he was standing seconds ago, scalding the zombie and shattering it!

The south side troops are able to stand there, watching as the same superheated rain coming from the clouds evaporates after hitting the ground, scarring the ground and browing the grass. Baroness Wake, Merek, Kaydon, Miho and Haru next to one-another as they carve apart a few last skeletons, before the light of the stars seems to get brighter - with much of the overcast clouds having been eradicated by the raised dome.

And those remaining outside of the dome suddenly get this confused look to them. As if some kind of invisible connection is broken... Some of them starting to attack eachother! And this fighting quickly grows more and more undirected. Magic and larger undead troops beginning to turn on eachother and the land around them! Making it an even more dangerous region to be in right now!

There is a certain amount of relief that comes with the relics having been deployed around the castle. It may not eliminate the undead threat completely, but it is one step forward.

Trying to catch his breath, he keeps moving with the group until they are out of immediate danger. "They're cut off from the undead leaders in the castle, at least for the time being. Not a final solution, but..." He lifts his shoulders, unable to keep a partial grin off of his features. "Any step forward is a good step."

He looks to Mia, "You alright, lass?" The Pooka makes sure she is okay, "Not that I needed to worry, but your people wouldn't have been pleased with me if you came back harmed." He looks to the others, offering thanks to those who have both been here for the long haul, and those new to the fight.

"The undead will still be a danger here, but this should keep them from adding any to their numbers, and we should be able to thin them out for a while." His eyes look towards the castle with some wariness. "I imagine they'll find a way to break through, eventually, but let's hope it holds long enough."

Long enough for them to come up with a better plan to deal with the undead... and long enough for them to deal with the other threats looming on the horizon.

Yeowang nods a thanks to Rylen, who takes out a couple zombies before they can overwhelm her. When she has a moment to pause, she'll look aronud to take in the situation. It looks like ... "Have we won?" she asks. It /looks/ like we've won, but MMOs always have more beneath the surface than is clear to rank noobs. She will continue to glance around warily, juuuust in case.

Mia offers Rylen a weak smile. "I'm fine. But you were right to step in. I didn't have time to grab my blade from its sheath with the throngs of Zombies around us." She answers him, before quieting down again, her expression growing firm as they continue to retreat. "This is a temporary measure. Let's hope it lasts long enough to deal with the Palace Land mess."

That process looks... familiar. In an almost unsettling way, even as it proves to be very effective in what it does. Shiruba is not entirely sure how she feels about this.

So she just settles on regarding the moment for it's historical signifigance -- Adventurers and Landers, all three Alliances, uniting to take care of a greater shared threat despite their many different views. They may have greater challenges ahead from the Palace Lands, but this is a bit of reassurance that they can pull together to find a way through it.

"There is going to need to be regular monitoring, so we can detect if the seal starts to weaken," she comments to Nashetania, though she expects that need has already been considered. "So if they do break free eventually they don't take us by surprise a second time."

    Yuuki leans forward, breathing a little fast after that little jaunt through a zombie army. She's about to start hacking away at some of the undead still around, but pauses as she notices they're starting to attack each other! Oh hey. There's a light show going on over by the castle, "I guess that means were did it?" Pause. "Wait, what did we do?"

    Well, regardless, it seems like the one they were escorting is happy. Which probably means, "Quest complete, then!" Yuuki proceeds to sheathe her blade, even as the remains of the undead army continue to beat each other up. Yuuki would normally hunt down all the undead just for completeness. But this is more amusing.

    Setsuna was almost sealed in with the enemy he had been fighting for the last year fortunately he got away by the skin of his teeth. Letting a heavy sigh out he looks around to see his skeleton knight made it to. Standing up he gets a grin on his face as he sees the crazy mass of zombies and skeletons fighting and reaches out as if he is about to take them all. Then he puts his arm down, " These guys are to low level to worry about, we should clean up the beach instead. These low level things aren't worth capturing. " Yep they are definately the low level ones here, not Setsuna himself, nope nope .

    Having seen the battle is-for the day-won, Baroness Wake turns to her companions. She hesitates for a moment, then glides into a curtsey. Yes, admist this chaos, decorum must be maintained.

    "It was an honor to work along such noble adventurers and serve our friends in The Ninetails Dominion." She lingers a moment in that pose, head bowed, before rising once more. "I must continue my quest."

    Without explanation or hesitation, she races off into the darkness.

That light... The light that shines over the battlefield, that casts that globe down over the undead domain...

It's... "The Mage Tower has been holding onto things like this...? For how long now?" Prophylaxis murmurs in quiet awe as the zombies all around begin to turn on their former skeletal companions. "Are those... reusable, or something? Alvish weapons...?"

Whatever they are, they've probably set the vampire queen's plans back substantially. At least, long enough for them all to deal with the Palace Lands.

...Hopefully.