Starflame13
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Part 1: A Challenge Offered
Noise crashed around battlefield as wave after wave of masked-wearing monsters crashed into the heroes of Falconreach. The traditional defense of the Frostvale holiday had taken a drastic turn when the cultists from the previous war had arrived to summon the spooky streets of Croft to the merry town of moglins. Only, it was not so merry today. Here and there dotting the waves of monsters were the cultists, in open sight this war, launching their own powerful attacks at the numerous warmongers fighting desperately to turn the tide of this war. But rumors echoed throughout the field. Groups of five elite cultists, each comprised of a High Cultist, an Undead, an Elf, a Human, and a Brute, were scattered across the battlefield, directing the underlings. Their authority had to be disrupted in order to find victory. And so, a challenge was issued.
Find the elite groups of cultists, five to each group, and destroy them.
Part 2: A Challenge in Progress
A lone warrior was fighting in the midst of the enemy waves. Undead after undead charged him, their attacks bouncing of his black plate mail, the red trim of the Dragonlord armor matching the bright red holly berries that were scattered throughout the town of Frostvale. After dispatching a zombie with a quick strike, he turned, blue-gold eyes scanning the battlefield before immediately engaging a group of deadwoods. From the midst of a group of attacking slimes, a second figure rose up to join him in battle, remaining humanoid for a brief second before losing form and becoming a puddle, expanding to cover the roots of half the deadwoods attacking the Dragonlord. Slime exploded upwards, trapping the trees in a greenish bubble, which immediately started corroding the wood. One by one, the green goo spit the disintegrating deadswoods at other approaching enemies, knocking over a few cultists and squashing a skeleton, before solidifying into human form once again. The two fighters exchanged a quick greeting, then turned to fight the oncoming rush side by side.
A roar from behind them broke their concentration, and they glanced over their shoulders to see one of the elite cultist brutes towering behind them, fists raised to squash them flat. Before either could react, a blur of silver and black dove from the sky above, followed by the singing sound of a blade passing incredibly quickly through the air. The brute fell, causing the ground to tremble slightly, as the newly-appeared fighter slid along the ground, folding her brilliant silver wings behind her until they vanished entirely, then turning to wave at the other heroes.
“Welcome back to the battle field, Starflame! Want a muffin?” called the Dragonlord, pulling said muffin out of the pack swung over his shoulders and tossing it to her. Starflame grinned and caught it, calling back, “Thanks, Starsaber! Good to be back!” A nearby high cultist paused and turned in the confusion at the similar names, a distraction that the slime figure, Melody quickly took advantage of by shooting out a slime tentacle and tripping the cultist, causing him to behead himself with his own scythe.
The three fought for a few more minutes until they had cleared that part of the battlefield free of enemies, then turned to talk and take a quick breather. “Any of you seen Elryn recently?” Starflame asked.
Melody lost her form for a second to stretch upwards and look around, then dropped with a slight squelching sound. “Well, I can’t make out any explosions or enemies running away in mass panic, so I’m going with no.”
Starsaber chuckled. “He mentioned needing to take a quick break to take care of something. Why do you need him?”
“Remember that race he suggested earlier? To be the first to defeat a set of five elite cultists?” Starflame grinned while the other two nodded. “I’ve found four out of five, thanks to that brute. Wanted to see where he was at with his search.”
Melody glanced around again, then shrugged. “Well, either way, this area’s cleared out for now. Let’s head back toward Croft for a bit and see if we can figure out where he went.”
The two warriors resettled their grips on their weapons while Melody shifted into a more cheetah-like form, and the three took off at a hard run for the other side of the battlefield, blasting apart any monsters silly enough to get in their way.
Part 3: A Challenge Intensified
A group of fighters stood in the center of croft, grimly beating back the waves of undead that threatened to overrun the city. Warriors with various armors and weapons slashed and hacked at monsters, easily keeping pace with the swarm. From behind the armored warriors, a tall figure in robes of deep blue, marked with silver patterns, could be seen. Wind seemed to sweep around him like a miniature cyclone as he raised a hand and gestured at a brute that was about to smash one of the fighters. The brute was flung high into the air and away from the center, towards one of the cross streets that now connected to Frostvale, just as the group of three heroes immerged from the street. One of the figures glanced up, then dove sideways, silver wings spreading out to knock the other armored warrior out of the way. The brute flew directly at the third member, landing with a loud KERSPLOOSH as the slime was reduced to a puddle beneath him. For a split second, everyone seemed to freeze and stare in shock at the spot Melody had been standing, then… FWOOOM!
Waves of green slime erupted from the puddle, forming a giant bubble around the brute. A gurgling noise echoed throughout the area, then the bubble morphed and solidified slightly into a humanoid form again, all traces of the brute now gone. Melody rolled her eyes and called to the other fighters, “Couldn’t you think of a slightly better way to say hello?”
Laughter echoed from the fighters as the two groups greeted each other, then merged together to finish off the remaining monsters in the clearing. Using the brief respite, Starflame turned to the hooded figure, and called out, “By the way, Elryn, I found another elite cultist!”
The WarMage chuckled. “Impressive, Star. How many do you have left to find now?”
“Just one. The human. I believe most of the elite humans are female, so probably that as well. Where are you at?”
Scratching his chin in thought, Elryn replied, “Hmm… so we are both one down, now. I simply have to take out an elite undead.”
Starflame grinned, the challenge causing her eyes to glow brightly. “So, the real race begins now?”
“That it does,” Elryn affirmed, grinning in response.
A few of the other heroes in the group looked between the two nervously. One of the fighters, Kalanna Dae, began to back away slowly, saying, “Yeah, I’m not going to get into the middle of that,” then heading off to down another street leading towards more enemies in Frostvale.
Starflame rolled her eyes and called after her, “Kalanna, we’re not that dangerous!” She paused for a second, then grinned to herself and murmured, “What am I saying… we probably are.”
A man dressed in heavy gold and black armor shook his head slightly. “Yeah, I’m not being near this. Come on, Melody, let’s head over to the other side of the battlefield for a bit.” Melody nodded and sloshed over to join Deathlord, beckoning Starsaber to follow them as they headed off in a different direction.
“Danger? What danger?” Elryn asked, waving his hand to the departing fighters. A group skeletons rounded the corner of the street, spotted the WarMage, and immediately turned around and fled. Elryn frowned and gave chase, calling, “Come back here, you cowards!”
Starflame shook her head, then raced after Elryn, easily keeping pace with the taller man as the two headed around the corner. They stopped at the intersection of the crossstreet and turned, seeing two separate companies of undead heading at them from opposite directions. The fighters exchanged a quick grin, then turned to stand back to back to face the oncoming waves of enemies. An aura of magic power emanated from them as they prepared for battle. Starflame glanced briefly over her shoulder at Elryn, “Looks like our search is being interrupted for a minute, unless we’re lucky enough that our targets came to us for once. Shall we fight?”
Elryn grinned at the Gryffin Warrior’s words, wind swirling around his cloak as the approaching armies came to a halt, the leaders obviously wondering just how insane these Falconreach were as Elryn replied, “Aye. You handle those; I’ll take care of these. War Well!”
Part 4: A Challenge Continued
For one split second, no motion was seen in that part of the battlefield. Zombies and Skeletons moaned, and the wind whistled through the branches of the deadwoods. A high cultist stood at the head of the two separate battalions, scythes at the ready as they stared down at the two lone heroes. The wind around the WarMage ruffled the feathers of the Gryffin Warrior’s bright silver wings, both of them waiting to see who made the first move.
With a mighty roar, both armies launched themselves towards the fighters, intending to surround and destroy the two. Both acted at once, almost with ease. Elryn dropped to one knee, the wind around him stilling as he placed a hand on the ground as the edges of his cloak solidified slightly, seeming to merge with the stones that covered the ground beneath him. He looked up at the nearing monsters, grinning dangerously as his eyes glowed under his hood. He spoke slowly, deeply, his voice measured and calm, yet resounding with the echos of what seemed to be the Earth itself. "Primal Earth...."
“Forest of A Thousand Needles!”
Stone spikes erupted from the ground, encircling the approaching army before any had time to react. As the high cultist raised his staff to attempt to counterattack, spikes shot and blossomed from the previous ones, branching out with frightening speed and forming a sort of stone cage around the mob. Within an instant, even more spikes exploded inwards, both from the cage above and the ground below. With a great shattering sound, the spikes exploded outward in small, deadly points, taking out any monster trapped in their path. Skeletons were reduced to dust and deadwoods into kindling. The high cultist let out a single shriek of mixed rage and fear before vanishing into smoke, stone needles pummeling the air around him and reducing what had just before been a powerful company to bits.
As Elryn had knelt to the ground, Starflame had unsheathed her dual swords and crossed them before her, the moonlight of Croft gleaming off the silver of her wings as she spread them to their full extent. Silver fire rippled across the blades and leaped to spread around her, encasing her in a fiery type of silver armor. As the lead cultist of the group facing her raised his scythe and charged, Star began a chant in a strange, ancient language. The silver fire around her swirled, then shifted to form an immense silver gryffin standing over her, wings outspread in a similar manner. As Starflame finished chanting, she and the gryffin together raised their heads and let loose the cold, piercing scream of a hunting eagle. Mirroring each other, they folded their wings in front of them, then in a single jerking motion slashed them outwards. The gryffin dissolved as the feathers, formed out of silver energy, shot outwards toward the approaching undead. For one second, the path was obscured by the dancing bolts of silver energy, before the light leaped and returned to Starflame, who had fallen to her knees, gasping for air. About a third of the undead had survived at the back of the charge, backing away from the women slowly. Just as it looked like they were either going to attack again, or turn and flee, a violent blast of wind magic shot at them and sent them flying into the nearby walls, breaking several. Elryn had finished with his half and turned to make sure that Starflame was all right.
The women got to her feet, wincing slightly. “Forgot how much energy it took to use that spell. Thanks.” Elryn grinned and nodded, then surveyed the damage, counting the number of monsters that had been slain. Starflame spread her wings and took to the air again, soaring over the battle site. “Well… we took out quite a few skeletons. And deadwoods. Lots of zombies. And slayed enough slimes to make Melody seriously unhappy with us. But other than that… no cultists taken out beyond the leading two.
Elryn glummed, the silver patterns on his cloak appearing to dance in the wind as Starflame landed gently beside him. “’Tis to be expected. Knowing my luck, we’ll probably finish this war before I find that elite undead cultist.
Starflame nodded in understanding. “Guess the search continues, then.” She pointed down one of the streets, where battle noise could be heard once again. “Onward?”
Elryn nodded. “Onward. Let’s join with the others again and see if they’ve had better luck.” Starflame leaped into the air and glided after Elryn as he headed down the street towards more enemies, a look of grim determination on both their faces.
With thanks to Elryn for helping me properly write how his spell was supposed to act!
Part 5: A Challenge Won:
Small flurries of snow from Frostvale drifted across the divide between the cities into Croft, but the heat of battle warmed the fighters bodies just as the constant cries of encouragement warmed their hearts. Despite the even greater numbers of enemy waves now swooping into the town, the heroes fought on, stronger and braver than ever, as warmonger after warmonger joined into the fight. An explosion of cookies heralded the arrival of Azan, tossing nourishment to his fellow fighters while holding his nuclear cookie jar aloft, threatening to blow the entire army to bits. Another fighter, Miran swooped low on her airfoil, grabbing the jar of cookies in one hand while skewering a cultist with the Naginata gripped in the other. Deathlord was swiping his scythe to slice down countless deadwoods, while a Rukaji kept based beside him, moving easily to dispatch a few zombies despite his heavy plate mail. Barely a few yards away, a purple armadillo was bouncing around the enemies, knocking them over as if it was playing some life-sized version of pinball. Melody once again was facing off against yet another Brute, who was obviously confused on why the Slime refused to stay as a squashed pancake. Before she could attack, the brute was knocked over by an enormous, dark-furred wolf, Gingkage easily keeping her balance on his back as they plunged further into the enemy waves. Countless voices of heroes could be heard as they struggled to turn the tide against these enemies, yet against all odds, not a single frown could be seen nor a single unhappy voice be heard. Cupcakes, muffins, cookies, pies, and cakes flew across the battlefield as heroes greeted one other, offering shouts of encouragement. A few voices could be heard singing Frostval carols could be heard, with words changed here and there to fit the present mood of battle. As some fighters were forced to leave and seek a respite from constant battles, others surged forward to take their place, vowing to fight on even harder in their stead.
Such was the battle situation as Elryn and Starflame reached the edge of the magic and mayhem, the area that had now become the main battlefield. Starflame landed for a brief second and looked on in awe at the hope and determination of each and every fighter, saying, “I will never cease to be surprised at the spirit of the heroes of Falconreach.”
Elryn nodded. “It is an honor to fight beside each one of them.”
Without any further hesitation, the two plunged into the fight, each determined to keep up with the other and finish the challenge. Monster after monster fell, this one to a spell, this next one to a sword. For a brief instance, the tide of onrushing monsters separated them. Starflame turned, both blades singing in her hands. Was that the purple of a cultists robe’s, hidden in the group of deadwoods? She leaped into the air, launching herself over the trees before folding her wings and diving at the hint of her quarry. Elryn heard a high shriek, obviously a female, and turned to catch a glimpse of blurred silver and purple caught up in a fast, furious fight. He raised his hand, smoke trailing from the ends of his deep blue cloak as flames leaped from his palm and engulfed the deadwoods, turning them to ash just as Starflame slammed the flat of her right blade into the head of an elite female cultist, who dropped, unconscious at her feet.
Starflame turned, caught sight of Elryn, and grinned triumphantly. “Guess who just won the race?” She nudged the unconscious cultist with one of her boots. “Here’s one we can take back to the base camp for questioning. I believe Kyle wants to have a few words with an elite cultist. Something about figuring out if and when they’re planning a second summoning.”
Elryn chuckled in response. “Well done, Star. That was a fun race.” He knocked a few skeletons over, flailed Starflame in a bearhug, then launched her far into the war waves again, ignoring her loud, “Hey!”
“Don’t worry about the cultist,” he called after her. “I’ll make sure she reaches Kyle. Now, get back to fighting! We have a war to win!”
And, the war has been won! Great job fighting, everyone!
< Message edited by Starflame13 -- 12/21/2013 23:00:32 >
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