Divine Inheritance: Chaos

Tess dove the opposite way of Oryx avoiding the oncoming spikes. “Fool” the mixed voice began “Why woul…” The sentence was cut short as the fiery hammer slammed into Tess creating a fiery explosion which sent her sprawling to the dirt. “Damn it Merrick!” Tess thought “Keep your bloody speeches to yourself and watch my back!” her thoughts seethed. “Apologies” Merrick responded shortly after. The fusion allowed Tess and Merrick to think as one, it was a unique ability but it was difficult to maintain it for long periods of time.

“The human seems to have gained some abilities of his own” Merrick said to Tess. “We should kill him now, before this becomes a real problem” Tess didn’t respond. Instead she picked herself up off the ground and took up the scythe. She reached into her pouch and produced a small bomb. She flicked the fuse with her thumb and it ignited. Throwing the bomb between Kable and Oryx it blew with a loud bang and the area quickly began to fill with smoke. With the distraction set Tess quickly closed the distance between herself and Kable and attacked, with Merrick attacking at any given opportunity.

 

Kable was briefly blinded from the smoke bomb. He couldn't even see Oryx's fire feet from him. But Kable could feel the energy surrounding him. Oryx's energy was a warm feeling that left Kable slightly giddy with anticipation for the fight. Tess and Merricks were like a dark snake that slid through tall grass, hunting for mice. The shadowy feeling swept towards him and he raised his dark iron sword to defend himself.

Oryx had managed to land a lucky hit on the duo, but it did little to affect them it seemed, if anything it gave them more resolve to end this and they moved in quickly towards Kable under the cover of smoke. Oryx should have known that a smoke bomb would appear sooner or later in the fight, assassins could never do without them.

Blades flashed through the smoke, attempting to end his life. The iron sword in his hand flowed in front of him, catching most of the attacks. One attack caught Kable in his arm, sending a jolt of pain through his arm. Kable spun around, lowering himself under Tess' guard. He shouldered into the fused assassins and send her flying back to Oryx.

He could barely see, and he tried using his heat to clear it away from him, he needed to get to Kable quick. Though before he knew it the Assassin being was flying towards him. Oryx sheathed his sword and was quick on his feet to try and clasp the being in his arms in an attempt to crush them in his massive arms.

 

The shoulder had taken Tess by surprise and sent her stumbling backwards, Oryx was closing in arms stretched out in an attempt to catch them in his grip. Merrick stepped out of the armour and took his physical form, stopping Tess moments before she came into his reach. The giant arms closed in around Merrick bringing him towards Oryx as he proceeded to try and squeeze the life out of him. Merrick had managed to get his arms up and was push against Oryx’s breastplate trying to stop the man from crushing him. “I’m…sure…that you….are…a….handsome…..man” Merrick managed as he struggled against him. He suddenly turned to shadow leaving the big man’s arms to clang heavily into his own chest. “But we’ve only just met” Merrick said reappearing behind Tess. He mouthed a few words under his breath and there was a blue flash as his armour appeared.

Tess’s first instinct was to turn and attack the body that had stopped her stumbling. A quick reach with her powers and realised it was Merrick. She had left him to it and moved forward towards Kable at a run. She brought the scythe down in a diagonal arc but let the weapon drop before she’d completed the attack. Instead she moved forward launching herself off of the ground and kicking the mercenary square in the chest with both her feet. When she landed she rolled back stood and collected her weapon. She felt Merrick at her back and the two stood, waiting for their enemies to make a move.

*

The man’s words fell on deaf ears. Loch wouldn’t be reached with words. He continued his advance when suddenly he was taken off his feet. A solider had tackled him and the two now rolled in the mud grabbing and punching and growling at each other. Loch won the tussle and he no sat on the man’s chest punching again and again until the arms held up in a feeble defence went limp and still he continued. A sickening silence fell over the battlefield, any vigour felt by Haldor’s defeat now gone as the imperials witnessed the gruesome act.

Finnan stood his knuckles bloody and raw from the attack. Blood was dripping from his hands, it was indistinguishable if it was his or not. Without a second thought he picked up his blade and continued walking towards the general.

 

Kable nearly cried out in triumph to see Tess and Merrick finally split apart. He wasn't fast enough, however, to block Tess' double footed kick to his chest. If Kable didn't have his demon powers at that moment, her kick would've put him out of the fight for sure. As it was, the kick did send Kable stumbling back and gasping for air. He took a knee and noticed Merrick escape from Oryx's massive bear hug. The two assassins put their backs to one another and faced their opponents.

Oryx squeezed tight Merrick, but the assassin squirmed and disappeared from his grasp with more humorous taunting. It did not surprise him that the man could easily faze out of his cluches, but it had been worth a shot. The two assassins were no longer one however, they were back to back.

We need to separate these two. Kable thought, his mind racing. Lilith and Jaxx were still destroying the ground around them and off in the distance, Kable could now sense Voltair and... Raven? Kable was briefly surprised by this, and decided he would confront Voltair later. For now, he reset his focus on his opponents.

Kable placed his sword hilt against the ground and mentally pushed some iron into the ground. He felt it race forward and he charged forward. Right when he reached Tess, the iron erupted as a wall between the two assassins. Tess stumbled forward, just enough for Kable to charge into her. He lifted the female assassin off her feet and slammed her into the iron wall.

Kable was quick to fix the delimma of duo being glued together, with a mighty thrust of his blade a wall of iron separated the two siblings. "Perhaps Kable should hold the title of iron lord..." Oryx joked to himself as he slammed two flaming hammers in the ground sending a wave of fire at Merrick. Oryx under the cover of his flaming blast charged forward swinging his hammers violently at Merrick.

 

Once Raven disappeared from his arms, Voltair stopped his descent. A platform formed beneath his feet to stop him and then vanished as he again freed himself from the planet's gravity. He watched the fights that went on beneath him. Kable gained some temporary control over his demon while he and Oryx fought Tess and Merrick. Lilith and Jaxx were closing themselves off to each other more and more as they screamed at each other. Paige was knocked out and not participating. Turning his focus back towards Jaxx and Lilith, Voltair thought back to before the fighting began; when one of his wolves marked Lilith. Listening to the rage in Jaxx's mind, Voltair knew what was going to happen momentarily. Now was as good a chance as any.

Holding a finger up, three small balls of shadow formed and floated at his finger tip. They all shot off towards their targets; Jaxx, Merrick, and Tess. Each ball hit reached their target, momentarily leaving a dark mark before fading away. All three of these shadows could not be felt, thereby preventing their targets from realizing what happened.

Jaxx's and Lilith's powers were boiling from their rage. Something unintentional was going to happen. Jumping off of his platform, Voltair finally reached the ground. He landed near Paige, picked her up, and jumped back into the air, narrowly escaping the blast radius of Jaxx and Lilith.

Voltair looked back at the damage. "Y'know, I could've looked so much cooler shielding her from the blast. But my record of damage has already been marred by Raven. I shouldn't let Jaxx get an ego boost from also marring it." He set Paige down a safe distance from the continuing battle. "How should I wake her? Dive into her mind? Use something simpler? I wonder..." Voltair pondered to himself.

 

Tess and Merrick had been taken by surprise the wall suddenly forming between them. Tess was again surprised as Kable reached her and slammed her into the wall. His powers were impressive. She waited there watching as the mercenary kept her pinned feet dangling in the air. Her armour had stopped any serious damage occurring but the force of Kable’s hit had caused her head to jerk back and smack against the newly formed wall. She waited until the black spots faded from her vision. Had he been able to see her face he would have seen her smiling. She brought her legs up, her knees at her chest, feet on Kable’s.

Merrick frowned at the newly formed iron wall that separated him from Tess. “Bloody mercenary has more tricks that we thought” He wasn’t overly worried about his sister. She was more than capable. Besides, he had an armoured bear to keep him occupied. “Just you and m…” Merrick was cut short by a wave of fire flowing towards him followed by the big man himself. Merrick set his daggers and ran forward to meet his opponent.

Tess pushed with her legs using the iron wall behind her to give her leverage. She shoved hard forcing Kable to release his grip on her. She picked herself up alone with the scythe, ran two steps and jumped throwing herself scythe first at Kable.

Merrick jumped meeting Oryx’s attack with his own laughing maliciously as the two neared each other.

The assassins found themselves been thrown through the air from the force of some explosion. Both landed ungracefully hard and rolled weapons forgotten in the dirt. When Merrick came to a stop he sat up disorientated from the blast. His ears were ringing and his vision blurry. He muttered some foreign words and in a blue flash his armour was gone. He sat with his head between his legs blinking his vision clear. He felt that familiar tingling sensation in the back of his skull and Tess approached him from his right. She muttered some words he didn’t hear and her armour disappeared.

“.err..k, .o. ok?” She was saying something to him. “Merrick, you ok?” he felt her hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, you?” “Fine” She responded sitting down beside him. “The wall took most of the blast” “Lucky you” he smiled at her. “What in the name of the Gods was that Merrick?” He shrugged in response. “Wasn’t us. Jaxx maybe or the giantess”

The dust was settling the two assassins saw the others. “No sign of them” Merrick noted. “Hopefully they’ve killed each other”

The two shared a smile as they sat there waiting. With Jaxx and Lilith gone there was no reason for them to fight. The Emperor wouldn’t be happy. But damn him, the assassins and worked at their contract. Not every job goes smoothly.

“Should we go?” Merrick said to Tess standing up and offering her his hand.

“About bloody time” She said letting him pick her up to her feet. “Let’s go”

 

Kable held Tess high up against the wall, fully set to end this fight right then. The voices in his head had started arguing on how to proceed. Kill the girl, don't kill the girl. Kable could feel the darkness beginning to sprout, the ability to control it fading. He could kill Tess here and now, leaving the two of the to face off against Merrick. Then Jaxx, daughter of the Emperor or not, would be crushed. Then who would be able to stop them?

Kable was too drawn into his thoughts to notice Tess lift her legs up and violently shove him away. His grip slipped off and Kable tumbled away. He shook his head clear and reformed his sword as Tess picked up her scythe. They both charged each other, their blades eager to continue the bloodshed. And then...

Explosions. Something big blew them all away. Kable felt an aura of white hot fury engulf him and he lost his sword. He smacked hard into the ground a couple times and lay there, stunned by what happened. After a couple minutes, Kable raised himself into a sitting position and took notice of what happened.

There was a crater of dirt where Lilith and Jaxx had been. Kable took note of Tess and Merrick standing off to the side together, their interest in the group already subsided. Good riddance. Kable thought happily, slowly bringing himself to his feet. The battle was, for all intents and purposes, concluded. The only problem now was where the princesses disappeared off to.

"Just what the hell was that?" Kable questioned aloud, picking up his weapon. The iron in the sword had retreated for now, as had the powers the Kable briefly controlled. For the time being, Kable was human. And he was surprised to feel a twing of disappointment. He had taken on two demigods and held his own ground.

Kable sheathed his sword and turned back to the others. "Someone better have a damn good explanation for this."
_____________

Lucius remained quiet as Finnan approached him. They both stood silently facing each other. Finally, it was Lucius that broke the silence. "I can give much respect to a man who is of few words. That will not save you, however." Lucius pulled his head back and violently headbutted Finnan. His vision swam, but he reached forward and managed to grab an arm.

"No one butchers my men like that." Lucius spoke out, swinging Finnan and chucking him straight into the nearest tree. Lucius raised himself up and drew breath in.

"My men will not be intimidated by likes of you bloody barbarians! We would rather die than see your kind running a muck on our land!"

 

Kable huffed at Raven. His anger was slow to die out, the adrenaline in his body slowly feeding it. "We didn't ask for the thunder goddess herself to come crashing down on our parade, did we?"

Kable sighed and plopped himself beside Oryx, who seemed like he was still running on adrenaline himself. The group remained quiet for a minute, then Kable looked up. "Raven, just what is going on here? Whose side are you on? And Voltair," Kable glanced over to the immortal being who never seemed quite there. "How were they even able to get by you? They came from the direction we left you in. I swear, if you had anything to do with Paige getting hurt..."

Kable stopped himself, briefly surprised. Lilith was gone from the group, disappearing with a literal flash and bang, and yet Kable's first concern was the unconscious woman in front of him. Shaking his thoughts off, Kable once again faced to Raven.

"So, both princesses are gone to the east, you say? How would you propose we get them back?"

 

"Somebody's gonna be a martyr... Or at the very least the cause of these barbarians establishing a permanent foothold here and eventually taking control of all of Aezureth." A voice echoed in Jaxx's mind, taunting her. "Unless, of course, you partner up with Lilith. The two of you together may perhaps get you out of the situation you got into. I suppose I could berate you for being such an emotional little girl to wind up here, but that's in the past now. What matters is you two getting to somewhere safe. I suppose I'll have to guide the two of you to freedom when you're both ready."

-----

"Thanks sweetie." Voltair smiled as Raven healed Paige. He got up and listened to Kable fume on in anger. Paige was more of a sensitive topic than Kable would like to admit.

"I was no match for you? Not quite how I remember it. I suppose I'll have to have another round at you to settle this." Voltair replied to Raven, his voice carrying a bit of a flirtatious tone to it at the end.

Hearing Raven ask about how to find the pair of princesses, Voltair pondered on how to let the group know where to go. "Isn't it obvious where they went? Based on the angle of departure from Jaxx's little light show, the direction of the wind, the position of the sun, the current stellar map, and the food Emperor Atticus ate today, Jaxx and Lilith landed some place where they shouldn't be. Either Barisor, Carmila Sar, or somewhere far beyond the ocean." Given Voltair included certain details that he didn't witness, such as the angle from the ground Jaxx's lightning was and whatever food Atticus ate, it was hopefully going to be fun to see the group's reaction to his inane ramblings.

"Well, regardless of where they landed, there is a mountain range to be crossed either way. So all that's left to decide on before going is whether or not you wish to join us Raven. Now, assuming you can't bear to be apart from me for too long or you are oddly addicted to keeping your ward safe, do you wish I go grab those two assassin friends of yours? Also should we wait for your other traveling companions or leave them behind entirely?"

-----

Gerik and Claire both saw the flash from Jaxx's powers. Even a few hills behind the action it was still quite bright. "Huh... That's... Probably not a good sign."

"Do you think Jaxx is okay?"

"I'm... sure she's fine. She's got Raven there with her after all. I'm sure she just... I'm sure she just exerted herself a bit too much accidentally. What about you?"

"What about me?"

"How are you feeling after hearing those loud bursts? I'm certain you don't want to see people fighting."

"I don't like it. But that's why you're here right? To protect me."

"Indeed." Gerik replied with a chuckle. "Well we're almost there. Let's hurry."