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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 2288562" data-attributes="member: 15043">Storming the Parapets, and the Loss of a Friend, Part OneThree days later, Felonca closed her eyes, and whispered a silent prayer of thanks to the beings that controlled the weather.  Around her drifted slight wisps of fog, their tendrils lit by the bare light of a tiny crescent moon.  The air seemed chilled as well... as if the gods were conserving the heat, preparing its energy for something more important...Around her shuffled soldiers, hundreds of soldiers.  On her instructions, all the sows and pigs that could be found along the march had been gathered and culled, their fat used to grease the links within the soldier’s armor.  While the metal pieces still clinked, the noise was reduced, to something she hoped wouldn’t be heard above the noise of her diversions.She watched as most of the warriors in the army slowly waded across the small creek that now lay between the army and their final destination.  The light but growing fog obscured the palisades of the camp itself from view, even as she craned, looking towards the direction where the camp should have been, her eyes searching for it to seemingly loom in the distance.  It was a blessing; their enemies couldn’t see them.  She recognized, that the reverse was true as well, a fact that could just as easily prove a curse.“Ancestors have blessed us,” Dian said quietly next to his niece.  The huge hengeyokai held his war helm under his arm, and once again was clad in his fearsome black armor.  His eyes flashed with unnatural light, the glint of eagerness that was always in his eyes before swords began their deadly song.  “This fog will cover our movement in, hopefully.  Everything will just depend on your plans coming to fruition, it appears.”“It would appear so,” Felonca said quietly, opening her eyes.  She shifted slightly, feeling the hard packed earth underneath, as the slight noise of running water sloshing came to her ears.  She’d prayed minutes before for the noise to be silent enough, quiet enough...“Shao, you had best move out,” Dian said, his face aflame with the pre-battle grin.  Felonca knew his smile would not end until either death took him, or the last enemy lay subdued beneath his heel.  Felonca gave a quiet salute, and turned to find her small command.Some minutes later, she herself slogged across the small creek, feeling the muddy bottom suck at her boots.  She and Meiji both slipped through the water relatively quietly.  Nayu and Yari Ai tripped about and splashed, provoking a withering stare from Felonca.“Could you be any louder?” she hissed, her eyes seeming to glow blue as they caught the dim moonlight.  She heard a muffled reply from Nayu... and in the gathering mists, she thought she saw Yari Ai’s head merely bow.  The noises quieted down, and soon the small band had crossed the river.Only a few moments later, the foggy air seemed to reverberate, as a rolling series of thick heavy noises, almost like distant thunder, caught Felonca’s ears.“It’s already starting,” she heard Chou whisper.  Felonca herself looked up towards the camp, its palisade walls looming in the fog, like some gigantic apparition.  She expected to hear the roaring shout of frightened men, drums calling for battle order, officers shouting orders.  Aside from the dull whumps of spells landing within the camp, she heard silence.Nothing.Her eyes squinted, scanning in the murk along the palisades.  She could make out no sentries, no torches.Nothing.A rippling chill ran up Felonca’s spine as her eyes spotted only the empty palisade parapet.  She knew that any armed camp would have sentries along its walls, and torches at night to illuminate anyone that was approaching the walls.  Yet there was nothing here...“Either they need no light to see us,” Nayu whispered behind her, “or they know something is up.”  When she turned and caught sight of him, the murk barely hid the scowl on her friend’s face.  “By the silence of the camp at your diversion, I think they suspect something.  They might have already prepared,” he added darkly.“Meiji,” she whispered, tapping her cousin’s shoulder.  “You said that you had magic that could be helpful in concealing us.  Now I think would be a good time to put it to use.”  Part of her mind wanted to add that it was his chance to prove his usefulness... but she relented.  They were before the enemy, and that comment would’ve only provoked a discussion she did not want to rehash.“Fine.  Beforehand, I want you all to put a hand on my shoulders,” he said quietly, till his eyes reached those of Felonca and Yari Ai.  “Ladies may place their hands lower if they wish... though as my cousin, Felonca, you can’t collect on...”“Just hurry it up!” Felonca hissed, her heart racing at the prospect of going ‘over the wall.’  She was in no mood for raucous humor.Her cousin gave a huff of discontent, before his voice rose in a quiet, almost sleep inducing tone, and Felonca felt something about her form change, as the music almost compelled her to close her eyes, her heart to calm, her mind to focus.  A few seconds later, his haunting tones ended, and she opened her eyes.Only murk greeted her gaze.“Did the fog suddenly become thicker?” she heard Yari Ai whisper, before a hushed chuckle came from somewhere.  Before she could spin around, she heard Nayu’s voice.“Meiji... you are sly, and slick,” Nayu’s disembodied voice chuckled.  “I never knew you could make people invisible!”“It is an old trick of mine,” Meiji’s voice whispered back.  “It’s very useful, especially when leaving behind adoring ladies and escaping their jealous husbands!”“How did I know you misused this magic?” Yari Ai’s voice hissed in annoyance.  “Connections with planes of magic are gifts from the ancestors, and the gods, not some idle...”She was cut off by another series of distant peals of thunder... a noise shortly followed by a distant, continuous rumble.  For a second, Felonca was confused, till in the distance she could make out very faint, but very panicked moos.  Shortly thereafter, the dense fog finally let loose the distant clangs of weapons, and the far off shouts of men in battle.“Strike two,” she whispered quietly, motioning for the small group to push ahead.  Eagerly she shifted into hybrid, and felt her claws dig into the wood pillars that made up the wall.  Climbing while invisible was something new to her, and it took a few false starts before she was comfortable clambering upwards.“Slow down!” she heard Nayu hiss behind her.  She didn’t bother turning around, there was no way she could see him.“You all hang back,” she whispered back, “I’m going to peek my head over the wall and see what’s there.  Nayu, can you using that mind-talking magic of yours so I won’t have to hiss down to you what’s going on?”“Right.”  Soon she felt different, as if something was askew in her brain.  Moments later, she heard Nayu’s voice within her mind. ”You can hear me fine?” it asked.  At first, she just nodded her head, until she remembered no one could see her head.”Yes.” she replied in her mind.”Be careful up there.  I’m tingling from all the magic that’s somewhere in the camp,” Nayu replied.“Right,” she replied, using Nayu’s seemingly favorite phrase, and slowly, her eyes rose above the wooden walls.The swirling mists hid the vast majority of the camp from her view, but what she could see sent chills down her bones.  Tens, if not hundreds, of spearmen, clad in the clothing of mere peasants, were desperately trying to array themselves in a line, facing away from her and towards the noise of fighting.  This she expected.She did not expect to see their commanders... tall, inhumanly thing shards of what were once men, their skin sallow, clinging tight to their macabre bones.  When they glanced about, she saw their eyes shone faintly yellow, and the stench of undeath filled her nostrils.  Neither did she expect him.She’d heard Hu Lian speak of the second in command of the camp, a tall creature clad entirely in steel.  She hadn’t believed fully what the Princess had said, until her eyes saw the tall horror, his seven foot frame glinting in the diffuse moonlight.  His gaunted claws clutched a massive chain, spikes jutting from its links, and around his form whirled six large longswords, circling, arcing about him in a deadly dance.”Hu Lian didn’t lie!  There is a guy that is encased in steel, and covered with whirling blades!” she cried mentally. “Just lovely.  Does he happen to have a pet white lion?  That’s all we need,” Nayu mentally grumbled back.  ”Do you see anything else?””Not really.  Give me a second...” she replied, her eyes scanning into the darkness as the noise of battle grew louder and louder.  Uncle Dian was pressing, and pressing hard.  Despite her best efforts, she saw nothing, and was about to tell the others to follow her up onto the wall, when she felt the same feeling of being out of place, her mind not quite right. Something tugged inside her, pulling her to look towards the tall, metal apparition still lining up the spearmen below, and then look beyond him, off into the mists.  Her eyes saw nothing...  except a pair of bright spots of blue, glowing brighter than any torch.”Felonca?  What’s going on?” she heard Nayu ask, but his voice seemed distant, faint, weak.  The feeling of someone, or something probing her mind and her body washed over her, and she felt her fear rising.  Desperately her mind screamed to her body to turn away, to avoid the lights, but her body didn’t listen, her eyes focused on the twin beams.The foggy mess lightened for just a moment, and her eyes made out a pallid, thin face of a white tiger wracked with starvation.  His form was tall and exceedingly thin, as if he graced death’s door.  With horror she saw his backward-wristed hands rising, his maw forming words she couldn’t understand.  She felt her claws digging ever so deep into the palisade, as the magic washing over her changed from a trickle into a thunderous sea.  Her eyes went wide, unfocused by the waves of magic ripping through her. “Ah... Wa-Feng Felonca.  I have heard much of you,” a thin, reedy voice hissed in her mind. The creature's blue eyes seemed to glow even brighter.“No!” she shouted aloud, the darkness in her mind growing faster and faster.  “You cannot take me!”  Even as she struggled, she could feel her mind begin to shut down, her willpower breaking apart.  Her voice dropped to a mere whisper.  “No...you...won’t... take...”As a torch stranded in a mighty gale, the last free part of Felonca’s mind winked out.“What the?” Nayu looked up at his friend.  That in and of itself was a problem... she should have been invisible, hidden by Meiji’s magic.  Nayu knew he was still invisible, a were the others.  On top of this, she didn’t respond to his calls using his magic... instead she stared over the wall, rooted in place as if she were a statue. “What’s that enthralling?” he whispered in half annoyance, half alarm, scrambling towards the top himself.  No sooner had he drawn alongside, than he saw her eyes... wide, vacant, as if her body was there but the mind, the will, the soul behind it was somehow driven away.  Her body trembled slightly, as if there was a mass of energy that was only barely being bottled, needing immediate, powerful release...“Domination,” he hissed to no one in particular.  The idea of the spell, described to him by Yu Enlai and Zhen Ren long before the battle at Ii-suken, had enthralled him.  The ability to grab someone’s mind, and force them to do your bidding... now Nayu saw its hallmarks, and recognized its magical stench.“Nayu!  Look out!” he heard Yari Ai’s voice call, and the sorcerer’s eyes flashed towards the inside of the camp below.  Vaguely receding into the mist he could see a line of spearmen marching away... but rushing towards the parapet were five tall, thin creatures that looked to once be men, followed by a monstrosity clad in steel, blades whirling about its form.Behind them, just deep enough into the fogbank, Nayu saw those same blue eyes, staring at him, into him, past him, peering deep into his mind.  He felt a presence, probing, pushing, trying to force its way in.  He closed his eyes, marshalling the magic within his blood, pushing back, shoving hard, until he felt the presence retreat.  As the magic continued to swell, Nayu opened his eyes, his fingers lashing towards the distant spellcaster he now knew held his friend in mental slavery.  As the magical force lapped to his fingers, the blue eyes suddenly vanished... as did the magical presence Nayu had felt.More alarmingly, Nayu looked at his arm, its outstretched form slowly revealing itself, his arcane energy overwhelming the delicate spell Meiji had put into place.“Dammit!” he growled, as the thin ghouls clambered onto the parapet, charging towards the small group.  Just behind them, the massive metallic beast thundered onto the parapet as well, and charged directly towards Nayu.  Desperately, the sorcerer raised his hands, the budding magical energy now finding release as the air between him and the massive walking steel figure began to shimmer, a wall of magic.  For a second Nayu thought the beast would be held at bay, until it simply thundered through the barrier, its massive chains whipping through the air.  Its right hand raised as it charged, and Nayu felt an oppressive, frightening amount of heat, as a searing wall, seemingly made entire of fire, leapt into being in the midst of the group, cutting off Meiji, Zhen Ren, the stunned Felonca, and Nayu from Chou, Liu and Yari Ai.  From the other side of the crackling came the noises of battle, as Meiji and Zhen Ren dropped their invisibility, prepared for battle.Nayu looked first to the wall of fire, then towards the oncoming steel juggernaught, and cursed.“Ancestral Piss!  This is not good,” he snapped.  “Meiji, Zhen Ren!  Let’s...”His voice was cut off as a high-pitched scream shattered the air.  In a flash the statuesque, immobile form that was Felonca was a blur of movement, a black slash that tore through the air faster than the eye could see.  A split second later, Zhen Ren screamed, blood and gore flying from his already falling form.  Nayu followed his spellcaster’s tumble to the ground fifteen feet below.  The richly clad man landed with a dull thump, and it seemed than immediately a pool of blood formed around his limp body, gurgling from his shattered throat, stomach and face.Nayu’s panicked eyes then looked back up, to who else was on the parapet with him.  Flames crackled high into the sky from the steel creature’s magic, as Felonca straighted her crouched form, the flames making her black skin look crimson.  Her warfans rose into what Nayu recognized as one of her attack postures, blood dripping from their steel forms.“Stand still like a good little magician,” her voice said, the same sarcastic smirk on her face that he’d seen so many times before.  Her eyes looked fierce, their sky blue seeming to glow in the darkness.  “Struggling will only make your death more painful, Nayu!”======================================================== <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /></blockquote>

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