Kin Chronicles Realm: Betrayal of the Guardians

[KittKat chunky~]

Kitts father spun round, an assasin crumpling to the ground, the hilt of Dio sticking out of his forehead.... "didnt hear that one coming... i must be getting old..." he smirked, slicing through another assasin with his shortsword... "but this old felines got some fight in him yet...."

Both Szardas plunged thier swords into another assasin, before pulling out their repeater crossbows... loading a stack of bolts into each they pulled hte heavy weapons up to their shoulders.... pulling the trigger the crossbow jolted in Kitt's paws, spitting a bolt across the distance between him and an assassin, pulling back the reloading mechanism he fired again...

[Chrono Blackwyng]

Talin realized his breath had a draw-back in this location: he could end up burning the entire forest to the ground if the flame spread quickly enough. "We need to push on, this area is going to be burning in a few moments!" A testament to Talin's statement occoured when a tree, its trunk burnt to the point of no strength, began to fall on Elistra. Talin swung his blade into the tree, getting a good 'hook' into it while keeping it held up. Elistra then got between Talin and the tree, losing her artificial humanity long enough to push the tree up and tilting on the otherside, crushing some of the horses the assassins used to get to their location as well as some who were still on their horses.

Elistra collapsed as her body went back to humanoid and Talin hefted her over his shoulder. However, with only one arm avalible and Elistra out of commission for the moment, it was hard to just stay on the defensive, let alone make a counter attack. He ended up backing into Kiana, then lost his balance and spun around to hit the ground hard. He then groggily rose up and got ready to fight again, now that Elistra was at least somewhat safer than with just himself.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana felt no frustration in being bumped into by Talin. It didn't have any effect on her really. The peace she felt after taking out the two assassins in the shrubs had disappeared only a few seconds after she walked back out, the dark look on her face having returned. Talin was now the one in trouble. She knew this because she had seen how he and Elistra moved together, seen how he needed her as part of the strategy and movements.
Raising her hands, palms facing down, her staff being on the ground at her feet, she lifted a thick layer of dirt from the ground. She moved it along and then threw it on the flames that still burned, putting out the fire. She definitely wouldn't have a forest being burned down when she could stop it. She did the same move but with her hands balled into fists, raising rocks out of the ground again. She looked up at the trees, running her eyes along each canopy examining them. She concentrated very hard, zoning in, and punched both of her fists in the air. The rocks flew into the canopies of the trees, not all in a straight line, headed for their targets. Each rock knocked an assassin on a branch off-balance, causing them to fall out of the trees. This time it wasn't as effective as before though; they did not fall to their deaths. They landed as if they had jumped out of the trees of their own accord, all thirty-two of them. Kiana stomped, bringing her staff up and catching it in her right hand, and stood next to Talin, her stance saying she was ready to continue to fight.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Valius jumped to avoid the flying earth and found himself back-to-back with Clare. They looked at each other and they both knew, everyone's getting exhausted, and Kiana's running out of majicka. Clare spoke up, "Well, now Mr. Drunken Pervert. It seems I was right about your daggers there. Those are Dio and Provas, the light daggers. You probably no doubt know mine are Arwyn and Ilyan, the constitution knives. Your daggers become swords of light, mine grant temporary god-speed for 5 seconds before taking up all your body's energy. So, your predecessors tell you about the legend on how these things work as one?" Valius nodded, "Yea, but I heard there's a bad omen to using it." Clare chuckled, "Well, it's time to see if that part is true or not." The two of them crossed their weapons with the other person's instead of their own while standing back-to-back. They both recited the ancient incantations on their weapons and the weapons came aglow. Blades of light extended both their weapons and they moved with great speed as if in a blur. In 5 seconds, the 20 of the pursuers were cut to bits. The light vanished and they stood back the way the were. Valius chuckled, "Well, I don't feel the least bit tired. Maybe that bad omen was just..." He stopped in mid-sentence as he turned and saw Clare limp on the ground. He picked her up after kneeling beside her. She opened her eyes weakly and looked up at him. "Now please tell me you're not going to rape me." she chuckled at bit and start to gasp for air. "I'm sorry, but I lied. The cost is that it drains all the energy from both users, incapacitating them for exactly 1 day. We're not  out of the woods yet, and there might be more of the remnants as we exit. When I recited the incantation and added a little extra to it. Aym het tsoc eb niem. 'May the cost be mine'. It has taken more than just my energy, it's taken my life-energy as well. I have only one regret. Those 20 guilders you dropped after I knocked Darius' bag. Now, leave..." Clare closed her eyes for the last time and breathed her last. The knives glowed and floated from her hands and hovered over her. Slowly, it turned to dust and blew away in the wind. Valius muttered softly, more to himself than the others. "When there is no one deserving of my strength. The power of gods shall be returned hence. Never again will two be one. Lest the line of light be done."

[KittKat chunky~]

Both Kitt and his father had their backs to the pair as they recited the incantations... it was therefore of great surprise to both of them when twenty assassins suddenly fell dead... Kitt's father stood, rather shocked... "uh... i did i do that?"

he turned to see Clare fall limp.... dawning realisation, she had sacrificed herself....

[Chrono Blackwyng]

Talin looked down at Elistra, and with a pang of regret, went back to his Dragoon teachings. The first thing taught to rookies about dragon slaying is that 'In order to slay dragons, one must adopt their strength and powers' Elistra was against this power since it left the user little more than a blood-drunk monster until they forcibly revert to their original state, that and it was a pathetic parody of a real dragon hybrid. "For the sake of the hunt, this one will become what he kills" was the activation word which now that he has spoken, his fur became brighly crimson, and his eyes now burning slits. "Suffer!!" he yelled as he lunged from assassin to assassin, rending them with his volgue or a taloned kick. Luckily, the form is short-term and doesn't leave any permanent damage to the user as Talin burns out his form and then lands next to Kiana. "Don't expect me to do that often..." he said while parrying a sword, disarming the holder, and then decaptiating with a 360 degree swing.

"Dragoon form" kills: 12

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana didn't really notice what Talin did. She slowly turned towards where Valius knelt, the dark look on her face turning to one of sadness and disappointment. Her eyes moved down to Clare in his arms. "She sacrificed herself for people she barely knew..." She thought to herself, looking upon the body. It just didn't seem right. Clare was young, too young to die. Kiana didn't like this one bit, but of course she appreciated the sacrifice of Clare. She was glad that she could continue on with life, but for someone who was fighting on her side to be killed for that to be possible was just not her idea of a good thing.
Kiana felt weak and she raised her left hand to her head. She had never used practically all of her majicka before, never felt what the repercussions were for it. She didn't like this feeling. Her body swayed slightly. She didn't want this to happen. She tried to resist it. She thought she was going to die, having never felt this way before. She collapsed on the ground, her staff still in her right hand but only by her fingertips still being curled a little. Her eyes were closed and she seemed almost completely still, but she was still breathing and her heart was still beating. Unconsciousness flooded her head and everything was black, the blackest it could be.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Valius hoisted Clare's body onto his shoulder after he holstered Dio and Provas and walked over to the unconscious Kiana. He looked over to the Szardas. "Rangers, Clare is right. There will be more on the way. We need to get moving. But Talin needs to carry Elistra and I need to get Kiana and Clare. The two of us are near exhaustion. We're going to be running straight through without stopping. I doubt Talin has the strength to carry Elistra AND swing that volge around. Can you guys back us up with those bows? Just make sure we get a path. Don't turn around unless they catch up to us. Got it? Let's go." Valius heaved Kiana and kicked her staff, it bounced off the tree and into his hand. He began to sprint with everyone.

[KittKat chunky~]

Both Szardas nodded, loading stocks of bolts into their repeater bows and pulled back the loading mechanism, the whole bow creaking menacingly under the high tension.... "we got your back"

With that they sprinted with the others, one Szarda on either side of the group, ears up and searching for any sound of an approaching attacker. Their muted green and grey cloaks rippled as they dodged to either side of trees, keeping the main group in sight, but slightly apart... ready to fire at a moments notice....

[Chrono Blackwyng]

Talin could swing the volge around, but it would probably leave his hand and hit one of his 'allies' at terminal velocity. So, he just stuck to keeping pace with Valius, cradling Elistra in his arms, hoping she wouldn't wake up during the chase. It was hard enough to carry someone without them trying to strangle you out of anger. "How much longer 'til we leave the woods Valius?" he asked, still oblivious to the other body Valius was carrying.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana didn't hear what was going on nor did she feel herself jostling about on Valius's shoulder. If she had been awake to see her staff get kicked and bounced off of a tree, she would have been pretty close to furious. Of course, Valius couldn't just bend down and pick it up with two people over his shoulders so it only made sense that he did what he did. It was better than leaving her staff behind after all.
While unconscious, she dreamed. Basically it was a dream of running. Running fast, but not away from anything. Running just to run, to be free. This dream would be caused by her being tired of running from being killed, of course. It had no other purpose but to let her feel freedom for a while. It might have been a long run, she didn't know. Time was not a factor in this. But then, the dream faded away.
She could still feel some movement of running but her legs weren't moving now, that she knew of. Actually, during that whole time she had been repeatedly kneeing Valius as she brought her leg up for a stride in the dream before pushing that leg out and kneeing him with the other as she alternated. Now she just felt pressure against her stomach and maybe around her legs. That and a slight bouncing motion. The blackness was too heavy, she couldn't see anything. She could hear though. Four pairs of feet hitting the ground at an all out run, four mouths breathing with the stress, one other breathing like her. She felt at ease being able to hear this, knowing she wasn't captured, that this was her party. But who was carrying her? She wondered about that. Then, her whole body tensed up, her arm having swung slightly and brushed against something that was too limp to be just unconscious. It came back to her then and she realized what her arm had just touched. "Clare..." She thought to herself, making sure her arms would not swing that way again. "Someone carrying two people by themselves? Must be Valius..." This disgruntled her a bit but there wasn't anything she could do about it, not being able to see through the blackness yet or move a muscle. Plus, she'd rather have to be carried by him than be left behind. Now all she could do was wait a little bit more for her sight and strength to come back.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Valius sighed disgruntly as Kiana kicked him repeatedly as he ran. He grabbed over behind the knees so she would stop or at least restrain her. He leaned forward more to compensate for the point of contact and weight shift. He growled as he saw pursuers showing up ahead of them. "Rangers! We have company. Watch out for their arrows!" He grunted angrily as he began dodging arrows coming in from the side. "Concentrate on creating a path!"

[KittKat chunky~]

Kitt and his father kept running, dodging arrows and trees, before every now and then launching a bolt into a pursuer, the head burrowing deep through cloth and armour to nestle between ribs or in eyes... An arrow, dark fetching still quivering lodged itself in the tree beside Kitt's head with a sharp ~ftwang~ he ducked under it and kept running, a low dark figure between the trees...

[Chrono Blackwyng]

While Talin was fleeing with Valius, he started to notice a rather strong looking wolf not that different looking from himself, but garbed in pure black and having a hood over his head. The figure looked back and Talin caught a red glow where the left eye would be, then the figure turned forward, and lept to the left and gave off a briliant flash, exposing a hooded figure with a crossbow, aimed right at Talin. He ducked under the arrow and then looked back, no longer seeing the wolf. He didn't stop moving, but he wasn't entirely focused on where he was going with Valius. That couldn't be... could it? he thought as his memories trailed back to images of his ancestor whom he owed his current lifestyle to: Chronin Lazarus, the first high mage of his family tree.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana heard the pursuers and the whizzing of arrows in the air. She blinked her eyes and finally she could actually see. She tried to ball her hands into fists and it worked. She had the capability to move but she still stayed limp over Valius's shoulder. Struggling and making him pause to put her down would not be a good idea right now. She had an idea of what she would do to get down without making him stop but she did not trust her legs to have the strength to let her run at a full sprint when she got down. So now she just stayed where she was, feeling totally useless but knowing there was still nothing she could do.