Rune Seeker 4: Innovation Refined

[Joa-Boo]

“Oh s**t, can you patch me up Whisp…” Jade called out with a bruised face, trying very hard to fight off the pain of his bulleted wound engulfing his lower leg. Whisper was on it in a flash. She had just killed off an advancing line of the Zolt clan and bought them some time. She held both of her hands over the open wound and focused her energy into a white mist that built up off of the top of Jade’s cut. The pain was almost unbearable and he couldn’t help but let out a yelp of pain.

The oh so familiar sound of a sword being gun sheathed was heard coming down the hall. It wasn’t like a mound of dead bodies all wearing the Zolt clan mark wasn’t a dead give away or anything like that. The relieving company spread out to search for their perpetrators making it hard for Whisper and Jade to pick them all off in one easy wave, at least, it made it harder.

“I’m not taking the chance again Whisper. Your plan got me shot. It’s my turn to introduce you the quick way to the door.” Jade said flipping her the finger once she finished healing him. In one swift motion, Jade spun to his feet over a table for cover, twirled his pistols to his hands, and flared a wild amount of pot shots. His efforts, matched with a lifetime of practiced, left all 5 men with some sort of deathly bullet inside their bodies. Knowing that the few would not be the last, the two continued on their way out of the old jail building held up by the Zolt clan. It was only a few weeks ago that Jade had been captured by the clan for not paying tribute and was tossed in jail like a sack of potatoes. Whisper showed up thankfully to free him and now they find themselves in a long struggle to get out. Lucky for them… they didn’t know where the exit was.  

[Joa-Boo]

Tocan first heard the voice at his last sentenced. The words, ‘for your own good,’ played over and over again in his head. He turned around quickly to face the cause of his the disturbance and for a second he thought he saw his farther. Startled, Tocan pulled the trigger of his signature rifle (Ogre) and the loud shriek of his weapon stretched on for miles. The bullet spiraled into the sky leaving the thief unscathed.

“It tells me you have done wrong. It tells me you have much work to do.” Tocan said with a twisted smile as he imagined the man holding a pitch fork and sweating as if he had been building all day long. “Dear sir I have a proposition for you.” Tocan added before coming back to reality and noticing the sword outstretched toward him.  

[Joa-Boo]

Stirring somewhere beneath the surface was a massive force, hanging in distress. Dismay, harvested by the ambition of such force, was exponentially growing out of control. It looked toward the night sky with a heavy heart, cold and beaten as it was; hope came from somewhere deep within. The liquid state of its prison sparkled with the outline of the objects interests. It held out a giant hand as if to grasp the object in the sky but unfortunately came short.

“Moon…” The silence escaped from the prison as it spoke, utterly defeated by the realization of its short comings. One step, then another, and then another.

The Golem moved under the forces of his ocean like hold. From about a mile under the surface of the bordering land, Muez moved toward higher ground in hopes it would help him get closer. He knew he was somewhere in Jercan after traveling for a few months from the edge of Baji where he last saw the surface. At this point he was trying to find the tallest place on Aeonce that he could and there he would stack piles of whatever he could until he reached the moon. He had no idea if it would work or not but to him it was worth a try. As for now he had a mountain under water to climb. Up and up he went until finally crawly over the surface into the cold dry air. Muez shifted his rock hard body toward the ground and feel onto it to rest. He fell to his back to the ground and once again was facing the moon. If a golem could cry he would be bowling right now, but all he could feel was the cold air around him and his dismay, no company but his own heavy heart.

“Moon!”  

[Van Dossel]

Dilmongo cocked a brow at Tocan and squaked, "You have a proposition for me? Hahaa" he laughed as he lowered his sword, "Fine goblin I will hear your pathetic propisiton. Though I doubt it will spare you dieing, but I shall humor you for the moment." He laughed as he walked toward the goblin, though still viligant for any sign of movement.  

[Van Dossel]

A dozen Zolt marksmen ran down the hallway hearing the fight going on over the alarm. The alarm was in the form of red flashing lights every couple of feet and rang like a fire alarm thoughout the building. All the men inside the jail house where mustering, half moving to the exits to set up guard positions while the other half moved through the hallways to search for the escapees.

They soon came up on the pair and raised their rifles and started to let off pot shots down at the pair. All but one of the dozen where new recurits sent their on their first task, so they where not the best shots or dispilined. Only the commander of the squad had much combat experience and he had one of the Zolt's famous Gunswords. In the rush to get out towards the two he had not had a chance to get ammo into his gunsword so he would be forced to fight with it only in melee.

"Take them dead or alive boys!" the commander yelled as he raised his sword pointnig at the two.  

[Van Dossel]

Selina gasped as the lizardman thrusted his pelvis into his a**, "Oh fiesty arn't we, and rather blunt" She giggled innocently turning her cocked head back at him and winked. She stood up and turned and kissed him deep on his scaley lips, "I love kissing lizardmen, their skin is so ruff and tough. Its so nice on the lips." She giggled and batted her eyes innocently. "Now lets see what we can do about your head shall we?" She said with a devilish grin. She brought her knee up into his groin 5 times hard and fast.

The lizardman keeled over in pain and she jumped changing knees so the other one came straight up into his face. As she landed she spun shooting her leg up and brought it down on the back of the lizardman's head taking him to the ground. "Sorry babe I didn't know which head you where talking about so I just took care of both." she said in a mock naive voice as both her sisters laughed.

Margo looked up and surveyed the crowd that was getting rouwdy now, "ahh does it really have to go down like this Selina? Theres actually a couple of guys in here I wanted to take to the sheets." She whined as Selina walked with a strout back to their table.

Vivian shok her head at her younger sister, "Margo if we let you, you would take all these men to your sheets. What about me?" She giggled.

Selina laughed, "Please like I would let my sisters take any of these loser to the sheets. Those with the name Juna do not bed with dogs, even if they fashion themselfs wolfs."  

[Joa-Boo]

“it tells me boy, that one day you can own riches, that your bloody sword could one day become a trophy instead of a tool. Mistresses from all over the country will know your name and come just to get a look at the famous Vapard.” Tocan said with an interesting smile growing along his face as if he too was just imagining the fantasy for himself. “It tells me that if you help me build this palace, then you will sit as one of her kings.” Tocan added before dropping his jaw with a fuzz of drool filling it slightly. The image was so pleasing he just had to have it.

“Tocan wants be king, pick Tocan.”

“It says stay out of this!”

“Tocan sorry, Vapard can have king.” Tocan said with a feverish red filling his tiny goblin head. He wobbled innocently over to the thief before him with just a few feet between and held out a hand. His smile was reassuring. He was either completely insane and had no idea what was going on, or he was telling the truth and had plans to make his new acquaintance filthy rich along with himself.  

[Joa-Boo]

With quite a long distance to go before getting to the next set of intersecting halls, Whisper and Jade found what small cover they could and braced themselves against it. With not much to hide behind, this ended up being a small doorway that concaved inward from the straight hallway. Without that door way they would surly be facing a gauntlet of bullets. It was all in good time. They new eventually they would make it out of the prison no matter how many grunts they killed, at least as long as all they faced was grunts. Jade guest the one to speak had some higher rank in order to give any such command like he did. Now the games were of morale. Jade let a smirk take over his face as he put a mirror against the edge of the wall and angled it so he could get a good view of their new targets. He could see about 12 of them maybe 13. One of the soldiers had a bit of color to the very boring Zolt standard uniform. He took a look at the shrapnel the gunfire was creating. Jade noticed a very important aspect to the Zolt soldier’s that made his smirk grow ten fold; their firing was very inconsistent with hitting the same spot more then once.

“Look at that,” Jade said, pointing to the places where the soldiers had hit. He looked up at Whisper as if he knew she would understand what he was talking about. Then with no luck his smirk died.

“Yes Jade, very good, they are shooting at us. Those bullets are bad. Don’t let them hit you with one of those.” Whisper said in response with an irritating amount of sarcasm thrown over the top with a very ghetto twist of her hand. The shrill of her voice left Jade with a glare of annoyance.

“Very cute Whisper, haha. This is what I mean stupid.” Jade corrected with the same tone of voice. He very skillfully moved a pistol from his side holster into his hand and took two shoots rapidly one after another. With all the ego of a world ruler he blew away the smoke building over the end of his long barrel as Whisper examined from a distance. Both shots seemed to be identical and cut into the tile in the exact same spot.

“Oh, well you could have just said something.” She said with a smack against the back of his head. She stuck out her tongue to accompany the rolling of his eyes. “Are you suggesting we use an agro combo?” She asked trying to follow through the plan in her head.

“Exactly,” Jade started up, he noticed that the shooting had ceased. He peered over the corner with his mirror again to see where they had moved to. Not much from what he remembered a few moments ago but they were moving in on them. “Alright, on the count of three; I want you to jump and land against the wall across from us while casting whatever you will. Then as they look to take a shot at you I will gun down the one’s getting closest to aiming. That will bring them back to me giving you a chance to pick off another.

“Are you…”

“One,”

“Sure this…”

“Two”

“will work?”

“Three!” Jade yelled as he pushed whisper out into the oncoming soldiers. They seemed taken back for a second giving Whisper that slight edge, even though she too was quite surprised. From along the edge of her wand, Whisper let a burst of electricity dance down the hall, setting sparks into a few of the men standing by and readying their guns.

As soon as she had finished performing her spell, Jade cut around the corner with both pistols already raised to cross hairs. With lightning reflexes he gunned down the first few ready to shoot at whisper, killing them before they could ever pull the trigger. Then within hesitation Whisper leaped back across the hall back into cover, knocking over Jade in the process. He took another shot, this time missing, and safely scooted back into cover.  

[Joa-Boo]

“The only bed any of you will be enjoying is a cold wooden grave.” Another ork yelled as he grabbed for his weapons. The others rallied with his words and they rushed in after the three girls. Now with understanding of their personal talents, at least their capability of defending themselves, the gang of orks and some other races attacked together as if they where fighting one of their own. They wouldn’t make the mistake of thinking the girls where little innocent toys.

The bar filled with a total 8 men that actually engaged in the fight. Two others blocked each exit, the front and the back. The few in the bar that remained neutral to the situation bought another round of ale and started off in a fighting drunken song. The odds where against the girls, even if they did have a decent amount of fighting skill, the one Selina took down was caught off guard. He had even gotten up now to join the fight. His anger filled every vein of his body. The lizard man meant revenge.

The fist two that were closest both pulled out long swords and together began swinging in all directions. There wasn’t much structure or style to their fighting, mostly just flailing their arms with great power.

The other six held back on the attacking unless there was space and time to get a good hit in. With a lack of sufficient space the rest of the group didn’t want to get in the way and cause some unwanted friendly fire.

“You don’t know who you’re messing with ladies. This is the wrong gang to be fighting. Even if you guys make it out of here alive, the rest of the Wolf Pack will hunt you down and cut you open for dinner.” The Lizard man yelled with a fist pump. His words provoked a powerful howl form the rest of the group. Most of their attacks would now hurt more while they where all fighting together.  

[Van Dossel]

Dilmongo looked at the goblin with suspicous eyes, "You arn't quite right in the head are you goblin? I do don't do crazy sorry there bub. Sorry but I am going to have to decline your offer." Dilmongo laughed quickly, "Though I also don't endorse picking on the mentally unfit so I will let you go unharassed for now my good goblin."

Dilmongo just wanted to get away from this crazy fool before he did anything rash. Dilmongo turned away from Tocan and started to walk away into the foilage. He was weighing wehter or not he should stalk the crazed goblin and ambush him later on though, he was not fond of picking on weaklings like him but he just couldn't help himself sometimes.  

[Van Dossel]

The 11 guards kept firing down the hall as Whisper and Jade braced themselfs against the walls. The commander stayed with his men, knowing that they would need his direction and presence to kill or capture these prisoners. They 11 grunt guards where just firing supressivly down the hallway keeping the two from moving up on them. Even they where smart enough to know to fire at the first thing that came out so the commander left it unaswered.

Suddenly a girl rolled out into the middle of the hallway. All the guards around the commander opend up firing at her, however the fools where unable to hit her before she let out a burst of eletricity down at them. Three of the guards to his left where sent ot the ground spasing out in electricution. "s**t kill her kill her" he cried as he beared his sword pointed at the girl.

Just as he finished the guy, the escapee pulled around the corner with his pistols and unloaded into the distracted grunts. Two more of his men fell to the pistol rounds.

Enraged by the amount of men he was losing to these two the commander growled and took off down the hallway at the two. They where stuck in cover and wouldn't see him coming before they tried another one of their tricks, which his men would fall for again and they knew it.  

[Van Dossel]

The girls smiled wickedly at each other while the eight men drawed their weapons. "Oh quite the gentlemen arn't we? Attacking unarmed ladies?" Vivian said as she dodged left around the long sword swing of one of two orcs that went at them. She countered with a punch to the throat and rolled around to his back grabbing a dagger from his waist. As she finished her roll around to his back she stabbed backwards with her newly captured dagger towards his spinal cord.

Margo smiled at the men who where singing for the fight, "You guys sing nice when you are drunk." She batted her eye lashes at the groups drinking their pints, "Wouldn't any of you big strong men come help us poor little ladies? Surely big tough men like you all could help us whip these dogs?" She smiled her perfect white teeth seductivily and spoke next with an equally seductive voice, "We would be really apprective to anyone who helped us" with a certain empahsis on apprective.

Selina dropped down as the closest orc swung horizontally above her. She swung one leg out between his and sweep his left leg out from under him. As he fell she vaulted over him and came down on top of a human, taking him to the ground as well. She punched him twice in the face hard as she got up and dropped into a defensive stance challenging any to come at her.  

[Van Dossel]

Vicktor walked through the secret tunnels under Castle Kremely, he was cloaked in a black cloak and had his two daggers resting on the front of his armor. He smiled to himself as he heard the people above him enjoying a victory feast, the men had just killed the last remaining known rebels that remained loyal to Vicktor. Though saddened by the news of Gerolds death, the lost of an a ally and friend, he was glad at the same time.

Now he had the oppertunity to kill the upsurers while they where drunk, while they where off guard. He would enjoy slaughtering them, any he captured would dye slowly. Slow enough to extract revenege for his fall, for the death of his friends. He would slaughter them for forcing him to become a lich. For enduring the constent pain and agony of this form. For causing him to be plagued with nightmares of demons and other ghastly creatures every time he closed his eyes. For stealing his humanity with his castle.

Vicktor was close now, very close to his grand entrance. He would slaughter these filthy traitors by the dozen. With his phylacteries hidden deep within his secret cave none in the feast hall would be able to kill him. Even if he failed in this and they cut off his head or tore him to pieces he would simply be resurcted days later in the cave. That was the one good thing that came out of becoming a lich, nothing could kill him now. Atleast not while his phylacteries was still intact.

He turned around to see his small band of zombies slwoly lurking behind him. They numbered between two and three dozen, all armored but not armed. They where bands of soldiers returning home that Vicktor had ambushed and slaughtered with his daggers, gifts from the hermit.

These daggers where special, They where called Tryca and Hultu, ancient daggers created around a thousand years ago, long before the empire of Kine even rose. The special power these daggers where embued with caused any living creature slain by them to resurct as a zombie controled only by the one weilding the daggers.

Suddenly he was upon the door that lead to the feast hall. It was hidden in the wall, a special switch casted aside part of the stone wall revealing the passage way. Luckily it was a two way door and would allow for his surprise attack to work. Vicktor pressed the button on the side wall and the stones began to break away from the wall and slide down. Screams and shouting echoed in as soon the wall started moving down. It didn't take long for the party to notice.

Vicktor started laughing as he moved through the door, still cloaked so the men would not see his new form, not yet atleast. "OH you fools, you blazen fools you have betrayaled your lord, and now death awaits all of you. As Vicktor Kremely, Duke of Vince, I condemn you all to death!" He belowed. His zombies awaited inside the darkness of the tunnel awaiting his orders to attack.  

[Van Dossel]

Suddenly Specter heard a loud crash from the hallway outside the room. A voice rang out, "You stupid idoit, don't knock stuff over. Things in here are worth more than your life!"

A second voice responded after the first finished, "Sorry sir but I thought I heard someone."

The first voice spoke again in response, "There is no one, we are the only ones in this part of the building. Now get together and come on we got to get to the meeting before it starts."

"Yes sir" the second voice said and then Specter could hear the faint sound of steps going away down the hallway.  

[Joa-Boo]

“You get back hear you wet fishy. It says it has a job for you and you’re going to take damn it.” Tocan shrieked as he threw Ogre from his shoulder strap into his hands. The small goblin began a wave of gun shots all around the retreating Vapard. All of them missed but none of them where far off, any hit would be enough to finish the thief off. Once Tocan ran out of a magazine in the sniper he tossed a grenade in front of his new friend and demanded louder that he come back.