• Open • The Siege of Storm's Edge

[Lynessa]

The Siege of Storm’s Edge
23rd of Cylus, Arc 719

Storm’s Edge calls for aid.

It had been a simple letter delivered letter delivered by a breathless courier to the Lightning Cathedral – another copy already directed to Skyward Keep. The words were written in hurried letters, desperate more than anything. It took them only a few bells to spread the word and the entire order quickly erupted into action. Men and women were gathered, supplies loaded, horses saddled. Still, despite their haste, mobilizing an army would take much longer.

One of the novitiates had pounded on the door of her room, demanded her to join the others in the prayer chamber. Her order was simple: she was to join a group of trained fighters as the first wave of the reinforcements. To stall and provide as much as they could until the main bulk of the army finally arrived. Leth would be with them, perhaps arriving tomorrow at best.

Priestesses, knights, volunteers… They rode hard and fast, barely stopping for a rest even though the harshness of the Stormwastes. Lynessa’s body was starting to ache from it all. Naera still bounded with fervor, pulling them ahead of the group with a few younger knights who were excited at the thought of their first battle. The massive fortress was already so close, it would only take them about half a break before they reached the edge of the battle.

The darkness made it nearly impossible to make out how the battle was going. Torches light up the battlements, hinting at shadowy figures that ran through them in hurry. Underneath them were the flaming creatures, dozens of them – terrifying bright beacons in the night. One of them had even reached the gates, a creature unlike a spider slamming its body against the stone walls.

“Faster, Naera, faster,” the priestess whispered as her hand ran through her soft fur. In answer, the zephyrus’s horn crackled with lightning. The air around them hummed with energy and apprehension. There was fear thundering in her heart as she saw more and more Flameborns heading towards the stronghold.

With each step, Lynessa felt the familiar coolness wash over her like a gentle wave. She already knew what sort of sight the rest of her group will see. Her body would start to light up, an amethyst glow slithering along her veins, growing brighter by every trill as the power of the lake flowed into her. Even her eyes would be taken over by the light. When she looked up, Iselya was already there, a bright emberwing visible only to her.

“Any suggestions?” the young woman asked at the diri.

“You should have learned how to wield that bow better,” Iselya replied blandly. “Your little daggers aren’t enough.”

She rolled her eyes at the obvious judgement from the creature. “I’m good with them.”

Then she saw it, the scattered bodies of those who had died in defense of the fort. Knights with burnt limbs and ashes surrounding them. The priestess forced herself to look away, to lock her gaze on the monster nearest to her. A giant snake wreathed in flames, roaring fire to the group of knights running towards it.

“We’re going for that one.”

[Nir'wei]

Ever since the invasion had begun, Storm's Edge had demanded his attention almost constantly. Between drills, patrols, on-the-fly training and maintenance of the various Justiciar animals held there and nearby in need of constant service, he felt like he was practically living there. The Flameborn had always been this horrible, terrifying mystery... a creature impervious to everything they could throw at it, with powers beyond their reckoning. He'd heard the rumours, the stories told around the barracks after dark... he'd helped a young boy who claimed he could speak to them, though whether they were the babblings of a traumatized young lad or the truth of a mage with more powers than they could comprehend had never been finalised. He'd seen them himself; great giant scorpions with stingers and claws wreathed in their terrible flames.

Their presence, as floating, flickering specks on the horizon, burning bright even in the everlasting twilight, was a constant reminder that they were working on borrowed time. That every mission they flew out on, successful or not, wasn't making a dent in their numbers. Wasn't stopping their progress, their slow, inevitable march towards the first and only true bastion of knightly strength that kept them at bay from seizing the Stormlands and terrorising tens, if not hundreds of thousands of innocent farmers, miners, traders. Men, women, children. This knowledge hardened them, forged them, each death at the hands of the flame-wreathed beasts another strike of the hammer to glowing metal, folding it to a razor edge. Yet it still wasn't enough.

Nir'wei had forgone sleeping in the barracks, as per usual, to stay outside in the company of his wolves, who tended to crowded over him like a single giant fluffy blanket, shielding him from the worst of the Cylus freeze. However, it meant he missed the yells of ambush, the calls to arms, the screams of the dying. By the time he finally woke, the attack was already upon them. From this distance, his only warning that something might be amiss were the thick black tendrils of smoke streaming into the sky from the battlements. Signal pyres. His bow and quiver grabbed in a rush, his sword abandoned, he practically leaped upon Vabina moments before the Zephyrus lurched forward of her own will and broke out into the fastest gallop he'd ever seen her pull, a straight bolt for the gates.

Inside, knights were scrambling everywhere. "BATTLEMENTS!" One yelled, practically dragging the younger shell-shocked soldiers up the stone steps towards long lines arranged neatly at the top, firing barrage after barrage into the creatures below. Yet more tended to the wounded, burned and mutilated bodies scattered across the courtyard with Stewards hurrying back and forth through their ranks with bandages and cold presses. Barely-controlled chaos. Where could he possibly fit in? There truly was no telling, until a senior knight with a bushy mustache grabbed him by the arm roughly and nearly dragged him straight off Vabina's back in an attempt to draw him within earshot of his screaming. "THE HELL YOU DOIN' OUT HERE, SON? GET OUT WITH ZEPHYRUS SQUAD C, GO!" With a sharp shove, he marched straight off again, entirely heedless of Vabina's snarling and the sharp crackles of her horn. Sound advice. But where the hell was Squad C?

He wheeled Vabina towards a series of loud cries and hoped that he'd find out soon enough, charging through the fort towards the sound of yelling, bounding over fallen rock and rubble, up a set of stairs... and nearly straight into the heat of battle. "CRAP!" A snake. A massive, burning snake; jaws impossibly wide, fangs stretching out as long as his longsword. Somewhere in the crowd of knights standing between it and the fort, he swore he saw another Zephyrus... and, assuming as any normal person would that he was in the right place, he pushed forwards, jumping down from the ramparts in a cloud of ash and quickly drawing an arrow. "Spread out!" he yelled to the group as he loosed the first arrow. "Surround it if you can!" The constant waving flames, the bright amber glow, it all made it difficult to pin down exactly where it was, even staring directly at the Flameborn for too long made his eyes water and his head throb with pain. Even from a long distance sweat was building at the back of his neck from the raw heat the creature radiated, burning like the sun itself brought low. How the hell did you fight something you could barely see?

[Hina]

I am quitting standing trials. It is clear that nobody here wants to rp with me nor do I think I will be missed in the slightest.

If you are a newbie, you should know that mods and even other players can ruin your character at any time and for any power trippy reason. In my time here, I have had mods simply not reply to my posts for weeks and weeks at a time, had my character waste half a season because a mod made up a rule to have my character thrown in jail, been made pregnant against my will, and also been assigned penalties against my will just because a non mod thought to give me a hard time. You can do a bit of research and find that only staff members have accomplished anything noteworthy in this game, because they are the only ones immune from random bullshit.

I would not reccomend this game to anyone looking to accomplish anything in a roleplaying game.

[Oracle]

Those with wings felt it’s approach first.

It was like the heat of the sun had been magnified a hundredfold and the light it cast into the darkness lit up the Fortress like dawn was upon them. Wind slammed into the winged defenders, casting them swiftly to the ground as thunderous wing beats sounded overhead. Flame bloomed across the sky as this newest flameborn unfurled its wings.

The flaming owl let loose a hellish screech, stretching it’s mammoth wings wide. The creature’s wingspan had to have be over a eighty yards in length from tip to tip. And it’s body was easily thirty yards long from beak to tail. The creature dwarfed the Storm Rocs that circled overhead with their riders, making them look like mere chicks compared to its enormous size.

The phoenix owl raced from the sky, appearing like a fiery shooting star before lancing downwards straight toward Storm’s Edge. The snake that the defenders had been combating snarled and spat funnels of flame at it’s attackers before suddenly the new foe slammed into the serpent , crushing it beneath it’s astounding weight.

Hina was thrown tumbling toward the ground, her feathers singed from the intense heat surrounding the phoenix. She would have a hard time flying to-trial after her wingtips were blackened, but she could still fly.

Naera snarled, her horn crackling as she took in the sight of her newest enemy. The feline bristled in anticipation, she remembered the Flameborn from before. Lynessa’s diri began to radiate a brighter indigo hue and the Priestess would feel a wave of coolness wash over her, renewing her strength for the coming battle. Nir’wei found that Vabina was tense, but ever at the ready. The feline was ready for a fight. She remembered the fire and flames that had heralded Karliah’s death in Azurewind Market. Fire brought death, and she would work with her new rider to snuff this flame out.

The phoenix screeched before taking off again, the Flameborn snake it had landed on lay dead and devoid of it’s inner fire, but now the defenders had a new enemy on their hands...and it could fly.

The fire kissed bird wheeled around in the distance before shooting toward the fortress, it’s obsidian flame wreathed talons brandished as it swept against one of the outer walls. There was an earth shattering tremor as it’s claws slammed into the wall, tearing away a massive chunk in the south western wall. It then became clear why the phoenix Flameborn was here.
It was there to finish breaking down their defenses, and finally expose Storm’s Edge to the full brunt of the Flameborn force. The keep was the last defense for Rharne. If it was destroyed….hundreds of thousands would die; without question.

“Get to the ballistas, bring that thing down! Those with mounts and wings, keep this thing in one place!” A commander shouted at the top of his lungs from the summit of the exterior wall. There were a few steel ballistas positioned there, each had a lance loaded and knights were attaching chains to them to use for grounding the Flameborn. There were also heavy steel bows being passed out to archers that had iron arrows attached to delicate chains, meant for piercing Flameborn hide and bringing them to the ground. Suddenly the phoenix reappeared from the sky, and flew over the wall where the siege was being prepared. Claws were splayed open and the flaming avian tore at least a dozen men and women into the sky with one fell swoop, their bodies cascading to the ground. There was no one to man the ballistas and that thing had to be brought down.

!

Message from: Oracle

This is a one off modbomb my lovelies! You have a new foe to face. It's massive, can spit fire and fly of course! Do you best to survive. Feel free to self mod the phoenix from here on out. Its going to be a toughie to bring down, so play within your skill set. I'll grade this thread when it's done, so please let me know when it's finished either on discord or in pm. You may continue in your original posting order, or wait for others to join.

[Faith Augustin]

There were so many injured, so many deaths.

The Siege of Storm's Edge had seen the Order of the Adunih move out, to assist the Knights and Priestesses. The Alliance between the Order, the Cathedral, the Merchant's Guild and Isonomia had cemented relationships, certainly, but the Adunih would have been here either way. Because here was where there were people dying. Too many of them for Faith's liking and the young woman, head of the Order of the Adunih, was in charge of making sure that the treatment got to where it was needed. Because it was very needed.

No matter how many she was on, and she'd been at a number, Faith would never grow used to battlefields. As she worked, apparently calmly sewing the gaping leg wound of the young man who was laying on the ground here in the courtyard, she thought back to the first battlefield she had ever seen. An attack by zombies on a caravan; she was the slave of Tristan Venora then who had been given to Elyna Burhan in order to help Lady Elyna escape from Marcus Krome. Faith, not being allowed a weapon as a slave, had beaten back zombies with a frypan and, afterwards, in the death and debris, she'd been sick; a violent reaction to the death around her. She'd asked Lady Elyna then, if it was possible to get used to fights and the Skyrider had simply shaken her head at the slave. No.

Turned out, Faith thought with a wry smile, she was right.

"When it's small enough, use the Raft, Nessa." She didn't seem to be looking, but she was. Faith's words were quiet, but they spoke directly to the Green Cloak nearby. ""We don't have time to stitch if we don't need to." The young woman Faith was speaking to was a good medic, but she had something of a tendency to ignore protocol in favour of what she thought was the best thing to do.

"But what if we run out? I thought it better to save the Raft and then, later...."

"If I can't trust you to follow our processes, I can't have you on the field. It's not your call to make, it's mine. Do it, or leave." Faith didn't raise her voice, but her tone changed. Medics nearby glanced up, a few of them gave slight, grim smiles. Faith was a calm and hard to rattle person, but since she'd joined the Order of the Adunih in Rharne, she'd shown herself to have quite the backbone.

Nessa didn't say anything, and then Faith did raise her head. Her silver eyes were unwavering. "Your choice. Choose quickly, people are dying while you argue with me."

The green cloak nodded her head and Faith took that to mean that she would shut up and get on with it.

The injury she was treating was no longer life threatening and so, Faith stood and moved to the next person. That was all they could do right now, keep people alive. It would mean that some people lost limbs they didn't need to lose, but given the choice between one person alive and with both arms but another person dead, Faith would always choose to have both alive. Always. It was how she had worked in Ne'haer, during the Shadow Beasts, it was how she had worked in Scalvoris, when the docks collapsed and it was how she worked now. And now, it was how the people she was responsible for worked. Standing, Faith was heading to the next person, washing her hands with the solution of water she kept on her, when all hell broke loose.

Literally.

There was screeching from above and she looked up to see the absolute carnage which was suddenly happening. The walls themselves shook and Faith saw the creature attacking. Her eyes widened as she did so and her mind reeled. What in the name of all the Immortals was that? Whatever it was, there was no doubting it, if it got to the point of breaking through, then it was more than the people here who would be injured or killed. It was Rharne itself. Faith watched, observing with the eyes of someone who had seen far too many battlefields for her own liking.

They needed those ballistas working, and they needed them manned.

So, that was where Faith ran. Up to where the ballistas were, and she knelt over the corpse of one of the Knights who manned them. She spared herself nothing more than a quick glance and then, she chose one. A man, young and fit and healthy before he had been torn up. Kneeling next to him, Faith put her hand on him and she brought him back to life. It was an exhausting ability, but that was not the point right now. Right now, they had one more person who could man the ballistas than before. "Get up!! Get up and show me how too!"

He looked at her blearily with confused green eyes. Faith resisted the urge to shake him, and instead spoke again, her voice urgent. "Now!"

The pair of them rushed to the ballistas, and there he began to talk her through. Faith shook her head. "I can share the muscle memory with you. Please, may I?" Frowning, he looked confused but nodded and Faith put her hand on his arm. As she did, she used the "Muscle Memory" ability granted to her by Vri and then, she had his skill, willingly shared with her.

So, two of the ballistas began to fire, Faith at one, the unknown man she'd just resurrected at the other.

!

Message from: Oracle

The ballistas fire, the massive spears sail through the air with chains trailing behind them. The first clips the wing of the Flameborn,sheering off a few ember flecked feathers and the second, Faiths manages to hit the thigh of the left leg. The Flameborn falters, as the spear clangs against it's impossibly rock hard hide and shears away a chunk. The creature is weakened and unable to strike with one leg but it is heading back in to attack the wall with the ballistas with a blast of flame. You have three minutes to escape in your next post. You can try and shoot again and risk injury, or escape.

[Nir'wei]

So many things seemed to happen at once. Surely, such a beast as a fire-formed snake should have been the worst of their worries. All around, the cries, the screams and the endless crackling of wood burning and stone melting blurred together into a deafening roar. The heat and the sheer light of the snake felt like
a sun in its own right, washing clear the eternal twilight of Cylus. Yet if he thought this was the end, he was clearly lacking in imagination. The wave of raw heat slammed into him first, but it wasn't until the ground quaked with the force of the phoenix owl's entrance that he even became aware of a second Flameborn on the field, and then, as he turned to stare in awe at the beast, it seemed like all the distractions ebbed into nothingness around him. The world shrank. The only thing left was fire... and sulfur.

It was the first time he'd ever seen, or heard, of Flameborn killing each-other. In fact, it flew in the face of all the preconceptions he'd had of the hell-beasts. For a moment he sat stunned in silence as the phoenix rose, its wingspan utterly dwarfing not just the Storm Rocs in the air, but any creature he'd ever seen before in his life, easily twice that of Traveller... and the powerful gust of wind that came after it beat its mighty wings and rose into the sky squeezed him back into his saddle, briefly almost crushed under its raw power, forcing Vabina to crouch and bow her head. This... this was too much. Their best chance was to fall back and begin the evacuation, bring everyone back towards Rharne behind city walls instead of huddled in poorly-protected villages. Though furious cries rose around him as the beast begun to tear chunks from the stone wall with claws longer than Nir'wei stood tall, defiant to the end, his heart sank as he accepted the inevitable truth. They'd already lost.

"Bullshit," came the voice next to him. "You've barely even started. Just gonna have to pucker up and knuckle down, aren't you?" This wasn't the time for joking now, especially not from the acid-tongued squirrel. "Oh, I ain't joking." He didn't look, but he could feel the vibrant eyes, swirling pools of various shades of grey staring hard directly into his mind. "You don't get to say when the battle's over. You keep fighting until the battle decides it for you. If you don't, you'll be letting down everyone and everything you've ever stood for. If you don't, every person that dies here today is your responsibility." Those eyes grew brighter, yet somehow heavier. "This isn't about whether you think you can win, this is about fighting until you drop dead where you stand. Persevering until you've given everything you have to give." It was a horrible reality to face, knowing that he was throwing himself into the fireplace in the hopes that he could endure the flames long enough to keep the fire at bay. Yet oddly, Archailist's voice softened briefly. "You've always had a survivalist streak in you," it said. "But winning the battle isn't always about surviving it." Another horrible truth. The squirrel seemed to be filled with them. Yet, it was enough.

Vabina rose from her crouch, growling, covered with the ash scattered from the dead snake's corpse, her horn crackling with hidden energy. He pressed a hand to the base of her skull, thinking to comfort her, but instead their emotional bond shocked him. Rage. Pure and uncut, roaring through her in that moment. No fear, no doubt, no worry. None for herself, anyway. There was a faint tinge of concern for her rider, but that was easy enough to wash away. The rest, he let flow through the bond, bleeding into himself, helping to ease his own cowardice. Feeding from her strength until his pulse quickened and an indescribable, unfocused anger pooled in the back of his skull. He needed to hit something. Hell, he needed to rip it apart with his own teeth. Fuck. Fuck, he needed to kill something.

Greyhide formed at his side, spirit-bound but grounded, eyes narrowed and fixed firm on the flame-kissed owl as it begun a slow arc back towards the fortress. "Concentrate on feeling cold." He couldn't. The smoke, the heat, the indiscriminate anger boiled in his veins. "Hey! Listen to me!" Huh? "Concentrate. The sensation of cold." There seemed no reason to it, but doing it... made him feel cooler, for some reason. "Concentrate harder," the wolf urged him, and the intense heat of the firestorm oddly became more bearable the more he did. It came back when he stopped focusing on it, but... he felt oddly better. Why? Oh. Regulate Temperature. Of course. Focusing on his core temperature helped ease some of the roaring anger being siphoned from Vabina too, bringing it to a more manageable level. Thank Karem. "Don't thank her yet. The ballistae." Oh right. His arrows likely wouldn't do much good against such an immense beast. One pat to Vabina's neck and a tug in the right direction and the beast spun on the spot, heading instead for the platform where the unmanned siege engines sat dormant.

The strangest appearance was yet to come though. At first he thought, against all logic, it had begun to rain. Yet the raindrops pooling into existence before his face surely shouldn't be flowing up... and definitely shouldn't be staring at him with wide, expressive eyes. "And here I thought you were going to struggle," the odd little spirit said with its head canted. "Seems those things have some use, after all." Grey gave a fierce growl, but now definitely wasn't the time for an argument. "Here, though." Cyshe leaned closer, deep blue eyes wide and still. "Next time, you should call me." With his body already adjusted, the added burst of unexpected cooling felt like he'd been doused with freezing lake water, nearly sending him tumbling backwards in the middle of a predatory leap as Vabina jumped aboard the wooden ballistae platform. However, it certainly was an eye-opener. Like he'd just downed three cups of coffee in a single sitting. "Just don't forget your friend, by the way."

Nir'wei didn't know what Cyshe was talking about, until he jumped down from Vabina and caught Faith already working one... or, well. Two ballistae at once. No time for introductions, and besides, she looked to be doing just fine. He wasn't a great shot either, but he'd picked up some things. From another dimension. Somehow he'd known this would have come in handy one trial! "Aim for the wings! KEEP FIRING!" For his own part, he followed Faith and the other soldier's motions as he launched his own barrage against the creature, all the while Vabina growled from behind, watching with increasingly nervous eyes. They could make it, just needed a few more ticks...

[Hina]

I am quitting standing trials. It is clear that nobody here wants to rp with me nor do I think I will be missed in the slightest.

If you are a newbie, you should know that mods and even other players can ruin your character at any time and for any power trippy reason. In my time here, I have had mods simply not reply to my posts for weeks and weeks at a time, had my character waste half a season because a mod made up a rule to have my character thrown in jail, been made pregnant against my will, and also been assigned penalties against my will just because a non mod thought to give me a hard time. You can do a bit of research and find that only staff members have accomplished anything noteworthy in this game, because they are the only ones immune from random bullshit.

I would not reccomend this game to anyone looking to accomplish anything in a roleplaying game.

[Lynessa]

Lynessa had learned a while ago that the universe seemed determined to ruin most of her plans. For the briefest moment, the priestess felt the mark on her wrist warming up. It was unlike the time that Faldrun came to her, that she knew for sure that he was looking at her. But something else entirely – almost like a silent warning.

Just as she focused her attention to the serpentine creature, the priestess felt the massive wind blowing towards them. She tightened her grip on Naera and turned back, only to be greeted by the sight of a monstrous owl wreathed in flames. “Oh fu–” She didn’t have the chance to finish her curse before it crushed the fiery snake.

People screamed as they were blasted with heat, but Iselya’s power enveloped her and keeping her safe. Lynessa still felt the warmth, but it was dull considering that she was a stone’s throw away from a burning pyre of a bird. Naera reared back and snarled, retreating back a few steps to avoid the sweltering heat.

A woman with dark hair… Not a knight or a priestess. She shot at the bird, chipping at its wing. The massive bolt flew through the air but it was nowhere near enough. And then there were the archers shooting arrows at it. The flameborn screeched once more, distracted for a few more trills from its original intent.

Naera, as brash and spontaneous as always, decided to bring them closer. Close enough that Lynessa could spot the weak spot in its wing, The crumbling stone, hidden by the flickering flames, where Faith’s ballista had slammed against it.

In the sky, she spotted knights with their storm rocs, the flaps of their wings blowing the smoke away. With them she also saw a winged figure with brown hair, resembling an avriel. Together, their efforts up high offered her and the others on the ground some visibility. Along the realization that the fiery owl would slam into the walls of the fortress once more.

Her warden gift glowed even brighter, a noticeably different light from the flames surrounding them. Lynessa felt electricity running through the mark on her chest as her hand aimed for the weakness in the flameborn’s wing. She leaned down to her zephyrus, “Help me shoot it down.” Her eyes scanned her surroundings for a moment, spotting the other zephyrus riders hoping they would follow her lead.

Two lightning bolts cut through the sky with a thunderous roar and connected to its target. Another screeched as it turned its attention to her.

By some miracle, Lynessa swore that the flap of its wings began to falter and its body lowering.

[Faith Augustin]

"Oh... crap." Faith had stood and argued with an Immortal or two in her time - she had charged at Lisirra with the full aim of killing her armed with precisely nothing at all. But just for a tiny split second, in that moment Faith froze. The ballistas fired and Faith watched what happened in almost slow-motion. The shot she fired, worked, and she tore through the thigh, but the damned thing didn't die. No. Instead, it turned around and started flying towards them. She was tired, more than that ~ resurrecting another being was exhausting. She was terrified and she was using someone else's skill with a weapon she'd never actually used before.

Fighting a big, fugly beast which refused to die.

Just another trial, really, Faith thought with a slight and ironic upturn of her lips. The creature screamed and then it turned towards where they were, heading straight for the wall. It was a new way to stare death in the face, Faith thought, but it wasn't the first time she'd done so, nor was it likely to be the last. So, there was nothing to be done for it except her best. Nir'wei was yelling to aim for the wings and keep firing and if it had been Padraig shouting that, Faith would have yelled back to him, but that was because it was a moment of stress unlike most.

And in that moment, she needed to make a decision. There was no doubt what the decision would be, of course, but Faith was calm and logical -always. So, she looked at the creature and she accepted that this was a choice. Stay and continue to fight, or save herself. She had no intention of leaving, so she was fighting. Nir'wei gave her a target, and she took it. The time she had before the creature crashed into the wall was vital, and Faith knew that she had to use it well. So, the young priestess of Famula simply did the very best that she could do. She got herself ready and aimed as best she could, using her keen sense of vision, her honed skills of detection and she prayed. If she had run, then, she might have got away, but she knew that she had a duty to the people here, to the people of Rharne.

So, she stood and she fired. As much as she could, as often as she could. "GET DOWN!" Faith yelled to the man who was next to her. "I didn't resurrect you to have you die again! Get safe!" He looked at the creature descending on them and he stood, as determinedly as her, and the pair of them fired. And then, the creature flew into them.

Faith wasn't sure, in truth, whether it was dead already - she thought so - and momentum was just propelling it forward. But either way, they had done what they needed to do and, as the creature smashed into them and Faith felt everything go black, she recognised that there was an enormous pain which hit (and at about the same time as the creature did) and then, for Faith, there was blackness. As it careered into the wall and landed, the creature was dead.

However, she was a little bit under it.

[Nir'wei]

His arms and back throbbed with an ache he'd never felt before, straining against the tension of the ballista just to crank it back one more notch before the next volley. Compared to Faith across from him his movements were sluggish and less coordinated, but then again he only had the vague imprints of a dead soldier to work with, instead of a live one to guide her hand. "Pull with your knees!" came squeaky cries inches from his ear. "C'mon, work those hips!" God damn it, now really wasn't the time to crack a smile. What would Faith think if she looked over and saw him like this?

"I'm sure it's far from the strangest thing she's seen, dear," Grey muttered with a chuckle in his voice, staring at the screaming horror looming closer, despite another ballista bolt longer and thicker than a full-sized spear slicin straight through one wing and earning another screech, a horrid mix of pain and rage, like the raking of nails down a chalkboard. How wasn't it dead yet? Did Flameborn actually die to mundane weapons?

Cyshe bobbled in the air, collapsing on herself and then reforming again rapidly in an uneasy gesture. "It's too big. You should probably just get to safety." Yeah, that was obvious. Except if the ballistae fell, he doubted he had enough arrows to pierce its hide... and it'd run rampant over Storm's End in the meantime. No. Running and hiding really wasn't an option here. Faith had seen it too, and the soldier at her side. If they could perhaps just get one more volley out, they could push it backwards...

The final volley hit, and Nir had just a few moments to brace before the creature slammed into the wall, sending dust and mortar scattering through the air in a dense cloud. In that moment Vabina leaned over, gripped the back of his shirt in her fangs, lifted him and physically tossed him aside like a freshly-caught fish. From the ease, and the fact that he landed not too far away on a level surface, she'd been thinking about this for a while. Greyhide jumped over him, Cyshe and Arch both filled the air with utterly incomprehensible babble, and the whole world rocked like a spinning plate on a tall pole as the bricks of the wall cracked and crumbled, slanting outwards and breaking apart in heavy chunks. The whole world spun. And all around him, garbled voices faded in and out of hearing, muttering overhead.

"Is he okay?"

"Does he LOOK okay?!"

"That's an unfair question. He's never looked okay."

"Shut up, you walking sack of nuts."

"One of these days, I'm gonna slap the fur off you."

"You, shut up and check on the lady. You, shut up and make sure he's breathing. Either of you start arguing again and I'll slap you so hard the other one will be collecting your ephemera up with a spoon." How was it possible for three spirits to be so bloody loud? As something cold pushed against his face insistently he raised a clumsy hand to push it away, and his palm met the warm fuzz of a familiar wolf's muzzle nudging over and over. Yes, yes, he was alive. Apparently. A fall like that wasn't taken lightly and the side of his head that had cracked against the stone floor on impact felt wet and spongy when his fingers hesitantly touched it.

"F--ackh!" he hacked, spitting dust-filled phlegm until it dribbled from his chin. "Faith." Where all three ballistae had once stood now sprawled the corpse of the gigantic Flameborn, its wings spread wide and covering most of the battlements in smoldering feathers. Mangled legs thrown backwards and head resting over the other side of the wall, flopping limp and with glassy eyes, it was definitely dead, without even a twitch left... but something of that size and weight couldn't be stopped, even in death, and it'd rammed straight through all three of the ballistae, rendering them useless... and burying anyone still manning them. "Vab!" The giant cat was nowhere to be seen either; had she gone down too? "FAITH!"

Arch reappeared at his side in a puff of pale smoke. "Can't see her anywhere nearby." Crap. Crap, crap, crap. "It's too heavy to lift, even a little." Cutting through it... what was a Flameborn even made of, if not internal organs? For a moment he imagined slicing a hole in its body and unleashing tongues of raging internal fire, even more powerful than the ones it had thrown at them from up above. Yeah, better to not risk it.

"Underneath," he muttered suddenly, rising unsteadily to his feet. "Under, start digging, pull out the stones. UNDER, NOW!" He must have looked like a madman, covered in dust and scrambling in the remains to pull stone brick after stone brick from the wreckage in the hopes of reaching his friend. "Come on, come on. Hey! Faith, c'mon, speak up and say something! You better be listening because this is a once-in-a-lifetime moment right now, I need you to SPEAK UP and say something! Anything! Insult my hair if you gotta, just say SOMETHING!"

The Flameborn twitched. For a brief, horrifying moment he worried that it might still be alive, if horribly crippled. Its giant broken wing twitched again, then shuffled, sliding back an inch at a time, and Nir'wei scrambled backwards from where he'd been kneeling until his eyes caught the faintest outline of indigo fur peeking out from somewhere deep inside. And between what looked like paws, Faith's raven-black hair. Vabina had jumped across Faith's body to shield it with her own to stop her from being crushed under its weight. In moments he was there again, grabbing the edge of the wing and lifting it with all his meagre weight had to offer, and Greyhide too, while the Zephyrus laboriously shuffled back out from under the dead owl-beast, slowly dragging Faith with her by her top. Out cold... but breathing. It was the best they could possibly ask for, given the circumstances. "Vabina, c'mere you."

The Zephyrus panted heavily as she laid Faith down and fell beside her, clearly exhausted and covered with more than a few bruises and bleeding cuts. He had to be gentle as he wrapped both hands around her neck and squeezed in a tender hug. "Thank you."