Divine Inheritance: Chaos

“Bitch” Merrick said recovering from the sudden shock of being pulled from the shadow. Jaxx’s lighting flash was bright enough that Tess’s shadow disappeared long enough to cause Merrick to come back to his physical form. It hurt. Merrick searched the area, it was free of those damned wolves and a freshly burning crater was in its place. “Tess?” Merrick called. It didn’t take long for him to find her. She was laying face down. “Tess!” Merrick cried as he ran over to her. He turned her around and she opened her eyes. “I’ll kill her” she spat. She seemed mostly unharmed as she blinked the light from her eyes. “Not if I get her first” Merrick responded. “Come. Let’s get to her before she does something else stupid. Raven won’t be happy if something happens to her” “Damn Raven to hell!” Tess seethed. “Let’s go end this so we can leave!”

*

Free from further obstruction Tess and Merrick made good time. They stopped short of the group who were facing Jaxx. They decided not to draw attention to themselves as they weighed up the situation. They had another silent discussion between themselves. Tess frowned at Merrick but eventually nodded her head in agreement. Merrick again fused into Tess’s shadow. Not saying a word Tess stepped into the open behind the group. It didn’t matter if they saw her. All she needed to do was connect their shadows.

 

As the group marched forward, Kable took a look back. He was beginning to become concerned with where Voltair was and what was taking him so long to return back to the group. As he turned back, a distant crack resounded through the air. Kable stopped and focused on the direction of the sound, which was about a mile or so back west. What followed was a flash of lightning that flew forward and smacked heavily in front of Lilith. The force of the blow shook Kable to the core and he had to blink a couple times to clear his vision. What he saw was Jaxx, weapon at the ready. She took a quick survey of everyone, then faced Lilith and demanded that she came with her. Kable slowly drew his sword and shield out, focusing his awareness. He heard some rustling behind him, but he blocked it out. Jaxx's fast entrance would leave her alone for a bit, and it was 4 to 1.

_____________

Lucius stood tall as Loch began to approach him. Lucius knew, deep in his gut, that he was tiring out. The fight with Haldor left the Imperial general barely standing, and he wasn't in the right condition to take on another second in command. Even so, Lucius bent down and picked up his sword.

"Your general fought well!" Lucius cried. "Do not make the same mistake as he did by picking a fight you cannot win. Surrender, and I will give you and your men the opportunity to collect your dead and bury them properly."

 

Oryx trusted Voltair could take care of himself, but help always went a long way. Though everyone's attention was drawn when there was a large crack of lightening behind them in the distance. "By Thor's hammer..." Oryx whispered before he had to shield his eyes and brace himself slightly as the lightening struck this time very close to them and Jaxx appeared out of it. "Aye lassie, that's one way to make an entrance!" Oryx exclaimed in peppy tone and a jolly face as he placed his helmet on his head. Kable drew weapons and Oryx did the same, "I think we best be leaving this one to the lovely princess me boy. You haven't forgot the last fiasco ehh? Besides she is not alone, my beard of justice tingles! Others are nearby and employ the dark arts..." He exclaimed as he looked about the area, he could not see nor sense them enough to pinpoint them, but his beard told him others were in their midst.

 

Finally. The first crack in Raven's composure. This was all the confirmation Voltair needed that Raven was trying to keep herself distant from everyone around her. There had to be a connection between the two of them. Perhaps they grew up together, or perhaps Voltair simply interacted with her prior. With this in mind, Voltair considered the possibility that Raven knew his past and she was simply keeping quiet about it for some reason. Or she may be in a similar situation as him and is also suffering from amnesia. "You contradicted yourself." Voltair thought to himself, considering her saying that she first saw the design five years ago and then saying her family is connected to it. That being considered, Voltair got a lead for more information to search for later on.

"Why is there always an interruption when I don't want one?" Voltair thought to himself as Jaxx teleported away from his wolves. "This is rather frustrating. I suppose we should go over there before the children do anything stupid. I'll give you a lift." The last statement was as Raven had already started walking away. Without giving her a moment to stop him Voltair picked Raven up. "Well I managed to sweep her off her feet. At least I think I did." Voltair jumped into the air as he made him and Raven weightless. They quickly soared through the air.

-----

"That was rather unexpected." Shortly after Tess and Merrick continued on towards Lilith, the wolves appeared in a flurry of black petals. They hurried on towards Lilith.

When they arrived to the group, the wolves walked right past every person. All of them were invisible to the group. Getting close to Lilith, one of them rubbed its face on Lilith's leg as it walked by. A dark mark seemingly remained on Lilith's leggings for a moment before vanishing, had anybody noticed. The wolves continued walking before dissolving as they stepped on shadows.

-----

Gerik and Claire heard the clap of thunder when Jaxx teleported. "That... Sounds like stuff is happening."

"Should we hurry Gerik?"

"Possibly. I don't think they have anything to worry about with Raven there. And at the same time I don't think it is a good idea to have you there right now."

"Why not?"

Gerik sighed. "Well there's going to be some fighting. You shouldn't watch this fighting."

"Why is Jaxx going to fight?"

"Well... It's complicated. Jaxx is... Having a disagreement with someone. The two of them can't really come to an agreement and so they fight."

"That's not good."

"No. No it isn't. Let's go. We can continue having you practice my language as we walk."

 

Tess smiled to herself. The group had been so enamoured with Jaxx’s sudden appearance that even when she stood into the open none of them had noticed her. Tess had made her way slowly towards the group; it was easy to stay silent. In a few short steps they would be in range. When she was close enough Tess broke into a run and she launched herself over the group to land next to Jaxx. “Let’s even out the numbers shall we” She said with a dark smile across her face. She looked at the group one by one weighing them. She recognised the mercenaries, the giantess she took for Lilith, but the other armoured giant she had no idea who he was. Tess began to pace in front of the group stopping a moment in front of each of them. She finally stopped in front of Paige. She took a step towards her and looked her in the eye. “Her” She said to seemingly no one.

Merrick passed through Tess’s shadow into the targets. He waited only a moment before appearing behind her weapon drawn ready to go for the killing blow. “Gah!” Merrick exclaimed in surprise. Paige had turned to intercept his attack and followed through with one of her own. Merrick threw himself back a step lucky to have lessened the blow. He pushed forward again bringing out a second blade of his own and the two locked together Merrick snarling in anger. They stood their weapons locked together staring each other down when suddenly Paige seemed to crumple in a heap. Behind her stood Tess a weapon of her own drawn. She had caught her in the temple with the hilt. Not enough to kill her but it would take her out of the fight for now. Merrick and Tess looked at each other for a moment before the two retreated a few steps; Tess moving back beside Jaxx and Merrick behind the group.

He thought about moving back in to finish The Valkyrie off but the others were alert to him now and were preparing for the fight themselves. He took a moment to look down at his fresh wound. She had caught him across the chest. Had he not moved the blow would have killed him instantly. Taking his hand away from the wound it came away wet with his sliver blood. His frown deepened as he looked over the rest of the group. It was foolish to underestimate her. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

(OOC: Oath, let me know if you want to make any changes)

 

Kable cursed himself for not noticing the two assassins that attacked Paige. He was astounded by her prowess to hold her own. Then Tess struck the back of Paige's head and she crumpled to the ground. They both retreated back and faced towards the group, with Tess taking a place beside Jaxx and Merrick settling himself behind the princess. Kable could feel their power emitting a strange aura around them, but he shook it off. Lilith stepped forward and challenged Jaxx to a one-on-one, which left Kable and Oryx to face off against Tess and Merrick. Kable had heard rumors of the twins, but he never realized that he would have to face off against them. The Emperor wasn't pulling any punches for the hunt for Lilith.

Kable took a step over Paige and put himself between her and them. He angled his weapon to point it at them. "You guys made a wrong choice by attacking us. I don't think you understand what you've gotten yourselves into."

 

Paige eyed the assassin woman suspiciously as she stepped forward. She could feel intense murderous intent coming from her, much more intensely than Paige found normal for one person. At first, she didn't understand until Tess opened her mouth to speak.

'Her.'

Paige suddenly felt a shift in what she originally thought was Tess's rage. There was a third attacker! It took less than a second for Paige to pull out her chakram, whirl around, and bring it in front of her face on time to block Merrick's. She released the latch on her chakram, and the other half of it fell into her free hand. She brought up the blade and slashed it across Merrick's chest while simultaneously thrusting the original half against Merrick's sword forward and to his left to throw him off balance. The newcomer was faster than Paige had anticipated and she found herself once again bringing both half circle blades in front of herself to block yet another counter attack. The two were caught in a deadlock in what appeared to be one single movement from the moment Merrick jumped out of Paige's shadow. Paige, though, had another trick up her sleeve as a projectile poison dart triggered from a device around her wrist. Unfortunately, Paige had no way of defending against Tess's interference. The blow to the back of her head knocked Paige to the side, causing the dart to miss Merrick but only barely. Paige crumpled to the ground, her ears ringing and her vision fading to black.

{Decided to put up Paige's perspective on her fall. Feel free to edit this into Kairu's post and delete if necessary}

 

Merrick’s frown changed to a smile. It wasn’t often that an opponent lived long enough to exchange words with the assassins, but when they did he always enjoyed it. He began walking a few steps this way, a few steps that way, making sure to stay out of range. His smile grew little by little until he appeared to simply be bearing his teeth. “We made the wrong choice? Ha! I think the woman crumpled at your feet shows differently. We know all about you Iron Demon. Oh yes. We know you couldn’t save your mother, we also know you were helpless when your father lost his head.” Merrick paused awhile letting the comments sink in. “We also know that which you possess, the reason you carry that broken blade with you. Oh yes, the Black Guild has great interest in you. However we aren’t here for them, or for you. The only ‘wrong choice’ here would be for you to foolishly try to fight us. So, save your skin and walk away. What loyalties do you owe to this pretender? This fool who thinks she can change the world?

And you!” Merrick said pointing his blade to the behemoth of a man. “Who are you? What business have you in Aezureth? You know what, I don’t care, and you should leave the business of this Empire to itself. Why not go make a nuisance of yourself in your own homeland.”

Tess simply listened as Merrick went on. He was never more talkative than before a fight. She eyed Kable standing in between them. She would have much preferred to simply kill him, it wouldn’t take much. She was tempted to do it, but she knew the humour Merrick would be in if she did. So she let him continue as he moved onto talking to the giant. She eyed him up taking in as much detail as she could. Not much could be gleamed from the man himself as he wore full armour. He was tall, much taller than Tess, but maybe just a foot or so taller than Merrick. In the end it wouldn’t matter. The two had taken down much bigger enemies. Still, that didn’t mean they could be reckless. Tess took a brief look at Lilith. The girl was huge, the only thought Tess had was it would be terrible to be as tall as that. It would make sneaking around near impossible.

“Finish this fast” She said to Jaxx. “When this is done our contract is over” With that she stepped away from Jaxx’s side leaving her to face Lilith alone. “Merrick, enough. Let’s finish this”

 

Oryx was powerless to stop the assassin duo from taking out Paige. Paige gad held her own fairly well, he knew she would, but a 2 on 1 scenario rarely went well. As Kable moved to protect Paige as she crumbled away, the weather began to change, but there was climate change. The air in the area began hot, not unbearable, but very incomfortable for sure. The heat radiated from Oryx as his fists clenched harder and harder. Steaming air escaped Oryx helmet as he huffed and puffed, like an angry bull.

"As a warrior I hate two things, cowards... and assassins... but they are truly one in the same..." Oryx said as he looked at between Tess and Merrick. "I travel where justice is needed... and your Empire worries me not... I have toppled far more ruthless kingdoms." Oryx said in response to the one assassin. He continued to eye both for a minute and turned towards Merrick. "You..." Oryx said playing off of how they picked Paige to attack. Taking a step towards Merrick Oryx cracked his neck, still huffing and puffing steaming air. With his sword in one hand he paused for a moment. Fire began forming in his right hand, firming a large fiery warhammer. It was bright and gave off the heat of a raging furnance. He raised it high and slammed it into the ground quickly with great force. A massive tremor was created and shot off towards Merrick with fire shooting out of its cracks. "FEEL THE FIRES OF THE LORD OF IRON!!!"

 

Kable listened, rage building inside him as Merrick went on with his monologue. He knew his secret wasn't unknown to the more shadowy groups of the kingdom, but it shocked Kable that Merrick knew much more than the rumors that persisted. Images of his parents laying dead in front of him flashed past Kable's eyes, and his rage deepened. The demon began purring at the prospect of his host slowly losing control.

The weather began to warm up as Oryx went into his own rage. Kable looked over to his comrade and saw literal flames begin to surround the behemonth in armor. He began to move forward, aiming himself to Merrick. "You." His voice growled, a new voice that Kable had never heard.

And then his attack literally shattered the earth.

"FEEL THE FIRES OF THE LORD OF IRON!" Oryx bellowed. Kable wasted no time and charged forward as well. He dashed to the side of Oryx and rushed Tess. Let Oryx deal with the wise cracking Merrick. Kable would deal with the real threat from the duo. He came up to Tess and pivoted to the side, striking to her left.

 

Tess blocked the incoming blow with relative ease. She herself moved forward making a small attempt to attack him. She stood crouched for a moment and watched him. “Don’t play with me mercenary. You want to win this fight you need to stop testing the waters and truly try to kill me. Because otherwise I’m going to kill you” She said grinning at him, her yellow eyes lighting up.

Merrick smiled as the steaming man came forward. He jumped and rolled to the side to avoid the fiery tremor. When he came to his feet he ran towards him jumping and slashing at him aiming for the neck trying to find a weak spot in the armour. Once he landed he continued running. Tess was now crouched in front of him facing the mercenary. Merrick launched himself off of Tess’s shoulder and aimed a kick for Kable’s chest. Landing he rolled backwards so he was now a few feet from Tess. Tess turned around so the two were now back to back with Tess facing Oryx and Merrick facing Kable.

“What?” Merrick said smiling. “Did you think this fight was one on one?” He laughed to himself. “As your oafish friend put so well, we are assassins. If you thought we care for your code of conduct or what you may call honour, you are sorely mistaken. I hope that the two of you fight well together, because I will warn you. Tess and I have been together since before birth. There are no two greater at fighting together than us. And you think we made the mistake!” Merrick almost shouted the last bit. “Oh Kable, by the end of this you will wish that you had died with your parents”

 

(OOC: Colab between Caboose and I.)

Kable was unprepared for Tess dodging his attack. She lashed out at him, which he was barely able to block. Tess flashed him an evil smile and taunted him into fighting harder. Kable was just about to retort when Merrick launched himself over his sister and kicked Kable in the chest. He cried out and went flying back, rolling a few feet away and jumping to back to his feet. Merrick and Tess stood between himself and Oryx, weapons ready.

Oryx shifted his flaming hammer into a shield and raised it, effectively blocking Merrick's attack. He stood up and his shield changed back into a hammer. This was definitely going to be a problem, Oryx rarely fought organized combat with a partner, especially one that he didn't know their fighting styles.

Merrick continued taunting him, even going as far as to say that he would wish he would have died with his parents. Kable snarled, his anger threatening to break free. "You don't think I wish that, assassin? Maybe this is why I joined Lilith's mad quest to free the kingdom. So that I can finally die." Kable shot a quick glance at Oryx and nodded his head. "I will tell you, I'll be damned before I get offed by you and your sister."

The two assassins taunted the two warriors about their fighting prowess, and some more gibberish he cared little for. Kable gave him a small nod. Oryx crouched a bit as if he was getting ready to sprint at the two, but then whispered to himself... "I go high..." using his superior strength he launched himself high into the air and with a massive swing threw his flaming hammer straight at the two, where it landed and created a massive fireblast that engulfed the two assassins.

 

"No promises." Voltair grinned as he replied to Raven's command to not jump into the air with her again, feeling quite content with her reactions. He looked over to where the storm clouds were that Jaxx formed. "I suppose we should hurry. Though I'm not too worried about Lilith at the moment. Since you guys ran ahead of Gerik earlier, Jaxx and your assassins are outnumbered. That being said, I suppose it would be best if we were to hurry. I expect Jaxx to have a few things she has been wanting to try out on Lilith."

While Voltair had spoke, the pair had moved higher in the air as they moved forward, Voltair's gravity manipulation freeing them from the world's gravity. Voltair turned his body as he conjured up some shadows in front of him. He used them to brace himself and prevent either him or Raven from continuing their motion away from the ground. He then kicked off of them as though they were a wall, propelling Raven and himself towards where everybody else was. "In case you're thinking that this weightless feeling you have will prevent us from reaching them as soon as possible, don't be. I doubt many are aware, but I've observed a curious trend with falling objects. As it turns out, all objects fall downwards at the same speed. Drop a rock and a boulder from the same height and they should touch the ground at the same time. The only difference is how hard they hit the ground. So consider your weightless feeling as a safety measure to ensure you don't get hurt when we reach the ground."

-----
"Ha 'ant dha. Yrja 'iibta' hatta 'atamakkan min alllihaq bialrrakb." A voice quietly echoed along the breeze that passed by Gerik and Claire. Gerik paused as he heard it, almost unsure if he actually heard words being spoken to him or not.

Claire had continued walking, initially not noticing that Gerik had stopped and was looking around for something. "Gerik, what's wrong?" She asked him.

"Sorry Claire. I thought I heard something. Gimme a moment. Min 'anta? madha taridan?" He spoke out, speaking as if someone was actually talking to him.

"Laqad 'arsalni waldduk. Hnak 'umur yjb munaqashataha." The voice once again carried along the breeze.

Gerik sighed when he heard the voice again, confirming that someone was trying to communicate with him. "Mahma kan hadha, fa'innah sawf tadtir 'iilaa alaintizar."

"Jayid jiddaan al'amir. Sa'antazir wusulukum 'iilaa almadinat alttaliat."

"Good." He muttered under his breath before continuing walking.

"What was that about? What were you saying?"

"Oh? You didn't understand that?" Gerik asked with a smile.

"You were too fast. I couldn't keep up with what you said." Claire replied as she hit Gerik's knee.

"Sorry about that. I just thought I heard someone from back home trying to talk to me. But if you didn't hear anything then I guess I'm just hearing things now."

"Gerik you can't be going crazy now." She spoke, almost sounding worried.

Gerik laughed at Claire's comment. "Don't worry. I'm still mostly sane. You help keep me that way."

Claire smiled for a moment as she thought about what Gerik said. It slowly dawned upon her the double meaning of that statement. "Hey!" She raised her voice as she hit his knee again. "Are you saying that I'm causing you to not be completely sane?"

Gerik laughed again. "Who knows? I suppose we'll find out some day."

 

There was a blue flash just before the fire blast landed. The flames rose high and burned hot. When the fire abated there was one figure standing there amid the scorched and smoking earth. The figure laughed a long laugh. “Well done!” Tess’s voice could be heard but it sounded off. “We hadn’t expected to use armour at all for this battle. But don’t think this is over” Tess held out her hand and in a blue flash a scythe appeared, an ugly but deadly weapon. “Your fire will have to burn hotter to damage me boy. This armour was forged in the fires of the underworld. Your flame is nothing.” Tess laughed again the strange echo becoming more prominent.

Tess walked towards Oryx. “This scythe” Tess said raising it slightly. “It’s not ours, but well, it listens to us. And we like it” With that Tess brought the scythe down to attack him.

 

(OOC: Caboose and I are colabing for the fight.)

Oryx landed back down, but he had no expression of shock that his attack was defeated. The two seemed to have merge with some type of sorcery. They once again taunted Oryx, boasting about their powers. "You make me laugh lassie! The fire of the underworld compares to nothing when going against the fire of sol! Though I wish you luck in piercing my armor, forged by the Iron Drarves of Old in the furnances of the Mountain King. Dwarf armor is not known for breaking..."

Kable had to shield his eyes as Oryx's attack consumed his sight. As he lowered his arm, he was surprised to see only one of them standing there. "No," Kable whispered to himself. "They fused together." He had heard of this strange ability the assassins possessed, but didn't believe it until now. Never the less, the attention was taken away from Kable, so he took a quick second to glance around. Paige still lay crumpled on the ground, while Lilith was still engaged in battle with Jaxx. Kable briefly wondered where Voltair was, but disregarded it for now and turned back to his fight.

Oryx formed his shield out of fire once more and raised it blocking the scythe from coming down on him, it harder than he expected, but he wasn't fighting one person, but a fusion of two. With his strength he threw their scythe off his shield and away and made for a diagonal slash with his sword.

Kable rushed forward as Oryx was blocking an attack from the weirdest scythe he had ever seen. Oryx pushed the scythe away and slashed diagonally as Kable swung his sword low, aiming for their legs.

 

The scythe intercepted the sword as quickly as it had been thrown away. Tess and Oryx stood, weapons locked straining against each other.

Kable’s blade aimed true but suddenly stopped before hitting its target. Slowly a shadowy arm became visible with the blade that had intercepted Kable’s sword. The arm pushed the blade away and moments later a shadowy torso seemed to appear out of the back of Tess’s armour. “So much for your honour” The figure laughed in Merrick’s voice. “You’ll have to try harder than that” he said as the figure retreated back into the armour.

Tess shoved at Oryx’s sword releasing the two from their standoff. She turned with a jump landing behind Kable and attacked with her scythe. He was fast for a human and turned to intercept her. She kept pressing her attack, two shadowy arms attacking from different positions searching for an opening.

 

Damnit! Kable thought as he spun to intercept Tess. He didn't know how long he could hold out against the two of them together. They had to find a way to separate the assassins from one another. Blades whirled around as Kable did everything in his power to hold back his attackers, but it proved to not be enough. Tess twirled her scythe and knocked his shield away as one of Merricks shadow arms grabbed his leg. Kable barely had time to cry out before he was swung away from the battle. His sword tumbled out of his hands and he rolled to a stop in front of a giant oak tree.

Their enemy was sure tough, this was not going to be an easy battle, not that he would want it to be. Their connection to the realm of the dead was very obvious from their powers, weapons, and banter. In Oryx's mind they were evil and needed to be vanquished, and them going for a cheap on Paige would not be forgiven.

Kable's world spun. He lifted himself onto his knees and looked back to see Tess re-engaging Oryx. He was no help to Oryx in his current state, and Kable knew it. So did the demon, as it rose up from the inner depths and began seeping into his conscious. Kable's vision began to darken, his control slowly slipping away. The broken sword hilt trembled on his belt, eager to taste blood again. The demon was preparing for its assault.

The light! A voice cried out. Use the light!

Kable blinked in surprise and quickly looked around. He felt a twitch in his shirt and he looked down to find the pendant glowing. Suddenly, he could see a giant ball of light in his minds eye. He reached out for it and pressed his hand against it. Instantly, a wave of relief washed over him. The demon cried out and retreated back, but something was different. Kable felt more powerful than ever before.

The light will allow you to temporarily control the demons power. The pendant seemed to speak. Be watchful though, as it can still take you over.

"This will give me more than enough time." Kable spoke outloud as he stood back up. He gripped the broken sword hilt and and began advancing back to the fight. "Oryx!" He cried out. "Dodge!" Kable jammed the sword into the ground and sent spikes through the dirt. They erupted straight put of the ground and rushed towards Tess.

With Kable knocked out of the game they focused on Oryx again. He knew he could hold his own for now, but the two assassins had already made it clear they had no honor and had no plan in fighting fairly. Kable was quick to rejoin the fight, and he had decided to up the game as well. He cried out for Oryx to dodge. Oryx slammed his shield into the ground creating a wall of extreme heat to put a barrier between him and the fused assassins and quickly dove sideways to his left going into a roll. Once back on his feet he summoned another hammer and threw it at the Assassins.