[IC] Swords Beneath the Starlight

Casey's exterior is steely as he watches his allies fling themselves into battle, one after another. This is crazy, he thinks to himself, feeling his hand trembling on the handle of his dagger. Suddenly, Milo rushes onward, calling on Casey by name to take action! He curses under his breath, forcing his feet to carry him forward. He rushes towards the bandit's flank, just as his axe slices into Milo's shoulder!



"Milo!" Casey cries out, eyes widening in horror. He watches blood drip from the axe's blade, all rational thought exiting his mind. He's paralyzed in horror, watching Milo recoil in pain. Casey's used his dagger to threaten countless suckers back in Achaim, but will he really be able to kill someone?

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Spoiler Casey moves 2 spaces North, 2 spaces East, and waits.

Casey moves, frantic and panicked!

Lyander rushed the guy the other people were ganging up on and stabbed him! He'd yell as he did it!

Lyander moves NORTH of the bandit to attack with his WOODEN SWORD!



LYANDER STATS

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Spoiler

18/18HP

WEAPON: Wooden Sword

HIT: 91

DMG: 11

AS: 5

EVA: 12

DODGE: 2

CRIT: 2

DEF: 4

TOTALS

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LYANDER: 9 dmg, 100% hit, 2% crit

BANDIT: 11 dmg, 52% hit, 0% crit

Lyander strikes a blow, taking advantage of his SWORD'S versatility to outmaneuver the brutish AXE. 9 damage! He shouts as the blade makes impact with the bandit's neck!



The bandit falls!!!



EXP: 15/100

Airitech moves one right, three up. Shoots bandit with his Noob Bow.

...He misses his bow from his militia captain days.

Airitech TAKES THE SHOT!

AIRITECH STATS

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HP: 20/20
HIT: 107
DMG: 8
AS: 5
CRIT: 7
EVA: 12
DODGE: 2
DEF: 3

TOTALS

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AIRITECH
4 dmg, 86% hit, 7% crit

Airitech strings an arrow... aims between the trees... lets loose!

THWACK! 4 damage!

BANDIT: 14/22

EXP: 17/100

Okay, actually?

These guys all have axes. That's no good at all. Axes are the natural predator of lances.

Plan B, then! Logan moves in to protect the healer, by flying to the space left of Milo and waiting.

Logan swoops in to help!



The leftmost bandit takes advantage of the archer before him to come out of the woods and take a swing! THWOP!!!

Airitech loses 10 hp!  Airitech is now at 10/20!

The three forest bandits come as far leftward as they can!

The archer sneaks through the woods and takes a shot at Lyander! SWOOP!

It lands! 6 damage! Lyander is now at 12/18!



"OY! You mangy good fer nuthin's! You gonna take yer time on this one?! Get out here!"

Three more bandits emerge from the eastern woods!

Meanwhile, from the east, two mysterious figures appear...





All laguz have maxed out beast gauges.

Barnabas was, concerned. This situation had looked bad as they had ran down through the trees to the town, either to try and help any survivors or do some scavenging from what was left afterwards, depending on how things went. It was a bad time, had to be practical whilst trying to remain good. But, those numbers of bandits had been very worrying, a dangerous number of human armed foes. He squinted as they slowed, trying to look ahead with his good eye and listen out, not wanting to run right into some bandits and peering ahead through the overgrowth. Barnabas could hear fresh sounds of combat and yelling? A scuffle amongst the bandits and some newcomers had broken out. This, could be a chance, even if the newcomers were equally aggressive, to take out some of the initial bandits. Beorcs attacking humans, preying on each other, Barnabas didn't feel particularly fond of humans at the best of times, and their communities, but this violent attack on each other rankled him. Also, deep down, a chance to take out a right bastard of human pleased him right now, to avenge his own people.



"Let's take out some of these human raiders whilst they're distracted." he said darkly to Saya, baring his prominent fang-like teeth with excitement as his tail swished quickly, blood lust obviously rising.

A chance to make the humans fear a scion of nature. To remind them that Progress would not advance unchallenged. A dark urge roused in him as he transformed, and he took this opportunity for some violence in his feral state.

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SpoilerBarnabas will move one square north then two squares west and attack!

BARNABAS STATS

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untransformed/transformed
WEAPON: Claws
Hit: 79/87
AS: 4/6
Evasion: 10/14
CRT: 2/4
Dodge: 2
DMG: 0/13
Def: 1/2

TOTALS

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BARNEY: 9 DMG, 66% HIT, 4% CRIT
BANDIT: 12 DMG, 51% hit, 0% CRIT

Barnabas takes a BESTIAL FORM, TRANSFORMS and LASHES OUT.

His strike MISSES. 0 damage!

The bandit, panicked by this mega-wolf attacking him, counter attacks! His axe makes purchase with Barnabas's face! 12 damage!

Barnabas is at 8/20 hp!

EXP: 20/100

Saya sees the bandits and shudders. Are these an advance force for those bastards who attacked the tribes? The reason they were separated from the rest of the Laguz refugees? They gasp as Barnabas charges forward and is hurt.



"Shit! Barnabas!"

Saya glares at the human with bloodlust in their eyes.


"You! You'll pay for that, you human scum!"

They transform into a golden hawk and swoop down to attack the bandit!

((South 2, West 1, attack))

Saya swoops in to land a blow!

SAYA STATS

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HIT: 78
DMG: 11
CRIT: 1
AS: 5
EVA: 12
DODGE: 2
DEF: 1

TOTALS

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SAYA:
7 dmg, 57% hit, 1% crit
BANDIT:
13 damage,  67% hit, 0% crit

Saya swoops.... and strikes! Their talons sink into the bandit, dealing 7 damage!
The bandit counters, swinging his axe! It lands squarely in the young chief-to-be's bird-chest! 13 damage!
Saya strikes once more! They hit! 7 damage more!

BANDIT: 8/22 HP
SAYA: 7/20 HP

EXP: 22/100

...

There's a rumbling through the trees.




"Goddess preserve -- are we too late?"



"The village is destroyed, milady... but it appears there are still stragglers fighting off the remnants. And... Laguz, too...? Unexpected."



"Yes... we cannot dwell on our failures just yet. Not when there are yet more to save. Me and Lys will head toward the Laguz - Taras, you help out the humans."



"Yes, milady."



"If it is your wish, I will see it fulfilled..."

---

The mysterious bowman rushes through the woods at incredible speeds, advancing five spaces and firing at the plains bandit on the same line as Casey!

He hits! 10 damage! He strikes again! 10 more damage!

BANDIT: 2/22 HP!

The mysterious healer approaches Barnabas and raises her staff! He heals to full!

The mysterious sword-maiden approaches the  bandit south-west of Barnabas! She lunges forward, shouting - more to steel herself than to frighten her enemy.

She hits! 7 damage! The bandit counters! He misses! She strikes once more! She hits! 7 damage!

Bandit: 8/22 hp!

[No EXP gained for NPC actions]

Casey gives his head a good shake, trying to make sense of the events rapidly unfolding before him. There's still plenty he doesn't understand here, but one thing is for certain; if he doesn't fight, more of his allies will get hurt. It would only be a matter of time before he'd be alone and defenseless, the time to strike is now! The archer in the woods; the perfect target! Casey charges Northwards beyond the treeline, hoping to catch the enemy off their guard with a close range attack. There's no hesitation this time, in one fluid motion, he draws his dagger and swings it towards the bandit!

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Spoiler Casey moves 3 spaces North and attacks the enemy archer!

"...that went well." Sunny comments, shaking a few motes of darkness off of her glove. The tubes of darkness writhe weakly, still protruding from her tome's pages. She glances to the side as a couple more bandits burst from the woods, and Casey rushes away to meet other enemies. More for her.

Sunny smiles, drifting over to the edge of the woods, and more of those shadowy worms burst from her tome, seeking out one of the recently emerged bandits, the one that looked a little more like a pincushion than his friend.

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SpoilerSunny moves up 1 spaces, right 2 spaces, and attacks the bandit she can reach with Worm

There's so much going on! more and more bodies keep entering the fray! Was that Laguz? Will she have to fight them? Probably, she thinks with a grunt. For right now though, there is still the bandit she has to focus on. He ran past her and attacked another person instead. What a coward. No one runs past her to hit her allies and gets away with it.

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Spoiler Baylee's going to move two east, one  south, and attack. With Big sister mode Active she gets +15 HIT

Casey strikes!

STAT TOTALS

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Casey:
4 DMG, 70% HIT, 10% CRIT

The blade sinks deep into the archer's side. They scoff, glaring all the while. 4 damage!

16/20

Sunny follows suit!

TOTALS

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Sunny
10 DMG, 84% HIT, 7% CRIT

The dark emerges once more, slender tendrils emerging from Sunny's tome! Worm strikes straight through the bandit, killing them quickly - but not too quickly.

Baylee charges in a rage! She tosses her axe as she passes!

TOTALS

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Baylee
7 DMG, 94% HIT, 6% CRIT

Baylee's axe twirls and sings... CRITICAL HIT!!!

Her axe sinks square between her opponent's eyes! He falls dead in an instant!

EXP: 38/100!

Another healer? Very strange. Almost as strange as the appearance of four more, apparently present to help? Interesting, overwhelming, and confusing. Was this a gift from the goddess? Or...perhaps just a union of folks who cared for others. That's the best Mazelina can hope for.

Mazelina will move two spaces to the left, below Airitech, and raise her staff to heal him!

"Great job, everyone!" she insists, doing her best to loudly project her voice to all around her, "Don't panic! We've got this!"

Mazelina heals Airitech to full HP!

Lucky!!! Weaponsaver activates! Save a use of Heal!

40/100 EXP

Milo, still reeling from the whiplash of going halfway towards death and immediately back to health - he didn't know if he'd ever get used to that - barely recognizes the arrival of new allies until Sunny runs off.  Thankfully, with the help of the mysterious archer she takes a bandit down, but another is still standing - and with the rest of his erstwhile allies focused on the archer still firing on them in the forest, nobody to back her up.  He goes to charge in and attack the remaining bandit, only stopping when he remembers how badly injured he only just was.  Instead, he runs straight up to Sunny, ignoring the weird feeling in his gut as he watches a bandit's corpse slowly be destroyed by dark magic.


"Gods, you can't go running off like that, you want to get killed like the Captain?"

He then turns and continues towards the remaining bandit, bracing his spear for a potential charge.

"You want to try picking on someone your own size?"

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SpoilerMilo moves 3 spaces right.

Sunny takes just a second to observe the effects of her dark magic slithering over the body of her fallen foe, stopping to grin at Milo as he approaches.



"How could I, with allies as stalwart as yourself?" Sunny askes Milo, winking at him. "Besides, I have no fear in this encounter. The flow of Progress would not allow us to die, not yet..." She trails off, voice pensive, before her grin returns full force and she faces the enemy once again, dark magics at the ready.

Lyander, his sword bloody, charged at the bandit to his southeast. Had he just committed his first murder on the field of battle? Yes.

Yes he had.

Was he thinking about that right now? NOPE! Disassociation time!

He'd stab the bandit to his southeast!

"Ach! I owe ye one, lass."

Airitech moves one up and three right. He looses another arrow at the archer hidden in the woods.

Lyander surges to bludgeon another man to death with a toy!

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LYANDER: 9 dmg, 100% hit, 2% crit
BANDIT: 11 dmg, 52% hit, 0% crit

Lyander swings and hits! 9 damage!
Bandit counters! Hit!!!

Lyander: 7/18 HP
Bandit: 13/22 HP

Airitech moves in to take a shot at the archer!

TOTALS

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Airitech
4 DMG, 80% HIT, 5% CRIT

Archer
7 DMG, 86% HIT, 1% CRIT

Airitech takes the shot! His arrow strikes true! 4 damage!

The archer counters! His shot arcs wide! It misses!!!

ARCHER: 12/20 HP

44/100 EXP

Logan! Is! Too far away from anything to do much.

Logan flies over to the left of Sunny. That's a good place to start.

The axeman engaged with Lyander dashes down to punch a weaker target! He swings at Sunny!

He strikes!!! 13 damage to Sunny!
She counters! 10 damage to the bandit! 

Sunny: 5/18 HP
Bandit: 3/22 HP

+2 EXP!

The bandit standing beside Barnabas takes another swing at Saya, having written off the wolf as all bark and no bite!

The bandit strikes!! Saya goes down, falling out of beastmode and turning once more into a Golden Twink!

+1 EXP!

The bandit beside the fencer advances toward Barnabas and takes a swing at him!

He misses!!! Barnabas counters!!!

Barnabas also misses!!!

+1 EXP


"..."

The axeman to the south attempts to hit the mysterious allied bowman! He misses!

The remaining axemen continue their march.

The archer darts out of the trees, ready to take a moment of glory and be known to all as a Wyrmslayer!

He takes aim and fires at Logan! 18 damage!!! Logan cannot counter attack, on account of not having noodly arms that reach across twenty yards. They are alive, though, much to the archer's chagrin!!

+1 EXP!

49/100 EXP