50 The Final Conflic(1/3)
The massive army of undead all continued to rapidly collapse into dust around the remaining forces of the Cult of Ghestro and their allies. The screeches and cries of the corpses cried out, like a vibrant hissing reverberating through the cold wind of the twilight air. There was panic and desolation emerging as they all had realized their chances of survival were exponentially declining. The massive skeleton on the field let out an ear shattering sound as it's massive bones crashed into the ground, as it promptly blew up into ashes.
"Execute the remaining forces! They will not survive much longer without their Queen or undead horde!" Aoba commanded, still within the skies, with his blade in tow.
Fleetingly, the Templar realized the circumstances, charging posthaste for the remaining forces. Many fiends and monsters were quickly targeted, being torn apart without much effort to fight back. At this point all the weaker units and monsters were barely able to stand their crowd against the clashing Templar Legion. There was barely twenty-five able fighters within the combined efforts of Nye and the remainder of their allies, against a throng of six thousand soldiers in the Templar divisions, not counting the small brigade of Generals, as well as their Grand Master. Without Koron and the horde, the odds were decisively against them.
The chaos had resumed, and Jackyn was not able to remain still for long. Still with Nyghtmare in his arms, Jackyn urgently fled for safety as the Templar were nearly upon them. Glancing back to gauge his foes, Jackyn made a swift error in his footing, resulting in both him and his passenger slipping to tumble down a muddy slope. He instinctively shielded her and held Nye close as they rolled down this steep hill, crashing at the bottom, where more Templar were proceeding to engage.
"Dammit!" Jackyn swore, struggling to get his balance back, so he could stand up.
"We have no choice, Jack. We must fight." Nye said, all though scrapped and bruised, pulled herself from his grasp to place her feet upon the ground. An intense gaze was rising from her eyes, and she warily summoned her Wraith-edge.
"I'm not going to argue, so just stay close." He replied, baring his fangs, getting back to back with her as the Templar knights began to converge around them from all directions.
Foot soldiers rushed in with their melee weapons, while mounted foes kept distance as they fired rounds of arrows upon the couple. Nye formed her Wraith-edge slashing back as blades swung in to clash with her. Jackyn kicked back units that got too close, slashing open their throats, but one managed to get near point blank. He quickly caught the attack, with his knife intersecting the axe, retaliating with his other hand to gouge out the man's eyes. Reeling back, the templar gushed out blood as his back crashed into the ground among the others. Jackyn reacted quick, gesturing his hand around to take control of the blood and cast it back at the surrounding forces. Nye hurled her sword around, knocking back several of the converging Templar as she kept close to Jackyn. Taking her left hand from the hilt of her blade, Nye channeled her aura, thrusting out her power as the faces inside the energy screeched and dove into the nearing soldiers, like savage monsters digging into their prey.
However, just as the flood of warriors seemed to decrease, Trigger came into view in what seemed to be a blind rage. Her target was Jackyn, but she let her steam gun do the talking for her. It fired many rounds upon him and Nyghtmare, as she grasped to her sword in her other palm. More templar began to arrive, but just as the dense swarm thickened, a massive claw whirled around, bashing many backwards. Adam had appeared, joining them in combat.
"Adam, your timing is impeccable." Nye said, looking to the green colored fiend briefly, as she kept her weapon at ready.
"Are you both alright?" He asked, his scarf mouth speaking as his claw grasped onto the head of a Templar that was about to strike, crushing his skull in.
"Aye." Nye nodded.
Jackyn nodded as well, but he had nothing to add, before saying, "Keep close to her." Which cued Nye to look to him, fully aware what he was about to do, but not quite in approval of it.
With this opening, Jackyn left Nye with Adam, and charged for the ginger haired woman firing away at him. He blew through incoming forces, as blood circled around him. ichor magic spiraled at his feet shoving him into the air as it cut around the nearby Templar with blades forming from the tornado of it. His descent was aimed for Trigger, as he flipped in the air to speed slash downward. Dust and debris blew up into the air as Jackyn found his daggers locked with Trigger's blade.
"I'm going to make sure you don't leave this battlefield!" Trigger growled, angrily.
Jackyn scoffed, having nothing to say, as he forced her backwards violently, with a kick to her abdomen. She went flying into the ground, picking up dirt into the air as she struck into the soil. Nye and Adam could be vaguely seen fighting back other templar foot soldiers that hurried in, but they were too far off to do anything to get close to Jackyn now. Scrambling, Trigger reached for her gun as Jackyn came zig-zagging her direction. She fired off several shots, narrowly missing her mark as they connected with the ground some distance behind this shadowy blur that charged her way. She would have to predict his movement pattern if she was going to have any luck shooting him. Trigger shifting her aim, firing as the Angel of Death was thinning the gap between them. The bullet went flying his way, rapidly connecting as it blasted through his left leg, but to her shock it seemed to have no effect on his movement speed, nor was there any sign of blood. She hadn't predicted his left leg was prosthetic, and merely assumed he wasn't able to feel any sort of pain.
"What the HECK!?" She frantically gasped, shuffling backwards in panic as he came within range of her. She barely had any time to rise to her feet to urgently place more distance from him. However, a wave of blood suddenly rose from the ground around him, crashing into her as it made it's descent into the ground. "AAaaaaAAaaaahhhhhhH!!!" She cried out, being slammed back into the ground covered in the blood that struck her body.
She was slipping in the puddle of blood, on her hands and knees, but hands of ichor magic began to surface, grabbing to her and forcing her back to the ground. By this point she was looking her fear in the face, but the bravery and the ferocity was no longer there. Instead, her expression was filled with terror, while tears began escaping her eyes. Up until this point she was masking how scared she was, and being caught in this circumstance was bringing it out of her.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" She cried out, lopping the blood hands away with her sword, as she stumbled backwards to her rear, only to have more form to pin her legs down.
Any Templar that attempted to intervene, were rapidly struck back by further blood magic, that only grew with every body that fell. Spikes of blood shot up from the ground, piercing through many of the Templar, creating almost a barrier of corpses around them.
"Are you done playing hunter now!?" Jackyn hissed, grasping to his knives as he roughly stepped his organic foot onto her leg, as a dark aura floated around them, with floating droplets of blood.
There was a soft crunching sound heard in the tense atmosphere, but it was quickly covered up as Trigger cried out loudly.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!! I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANY MORE!!!" She screamed in pain, with her tears flying into the air from her cheeks. "No amount of Zircon is WORTH ANY OF THIS!" She pulled away, as her body trembled violently, as tears continued to stream from her eyes. She hurried to her feet, distancing herself with Jackyn as he stared coldly at her, anticipating her next move. Trigger didn't hesitate, as she quickly drew to her hand rifle. "I hunt down all you WRETCHED THINGS, and yet, I'm STILL living in FEAR ON A DAILY BASIS!? I've already lost EVERYONE I ever cared about to DEMONS LIKE YOU! I DON'T WANT TO BE AFRAID ANYMORE!!!" She screamed, holding her gun at him, it visibly quivering as it aimed at Jackyn.
However, it shifted position, and placed under her chin, angled upward. Still trembling, she placed her finger onto the trigger of her gun, pausing through shallow breath, and squeezed it. Trigger's body collapsed to the ground, with her brains blown out the back of her head. It was startling, even for Jackyn to see someone take their own life this way, but his attention swiftly shifted back to Nye and Adam. He made his way back, leaping over corpses, preparing to join the struggle with them against the engulfing Templar soldiers.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Lyra was engaging Miles and Minerva in combat. Her ice magic was wildly dancing around, freezing the majority of the vicinity around them, into a mini tundra. Miles managed to force Minerva onto Ember, getting the giant bird to fly into the sky, as he rolled out of the incoming blast range of ice shattering a nearby tree. Minerva held on as the Phoenix flew high above them, circling so she could draw to her bow and fire arrows at Lyra and the nearby Templar knights with her. Miles ducked behind a massive bolder, pulling his katana from it's sheath. He managed to grip it fine despite the missing digits of his hand. Ice suddenly towered up from below Lyra, hoisting herself high into the air to get full range of her surroundings. Ice magic blew with the air as she targeted the airborne feline, but Miles was quick to act. He rushed for the ice pillar, scaling up with with help from his claws with get behind the General, kicking her roughly into the back to throw her from the ice pillar. He slipped a bit in the process, standing on the ice, but it became more intense as the ice shattered to bring him down to her level.
A spinning wave of ice appears, slashing around Miles as he's tossed into the air. Lyra follows up with another spell, smashing around the feline as she was juggling him with her ice mana. Minerva notices this as she's in the sky, quickly drawing to her bow to fire an endless barrage of arrows to Lyra. Lyra grins, tapping into strange elemental energy of her ice magic that began to engulf around her. The arrows began to freeze midair, blasting to the ground like hail. Miles had already been knocked back to the ground, pulling himself up and grabbing his sword.
"Crap." He muttered, squinting briefly as his attention returned to his opponent, who was casting ice spells into the air, nearly hitting Ember and Minerva now. Miles went to rush Lyra, but was swiftly thrown back, as her ice shards barraged into him briskly.
As Miles tumbled, rolling momentarily in the dirt he noticed from his sideways gaze, hooves charging their way. As his attention shifted a bit, he realized that that Calvary had arrived, jousting through the dense crowd of Templar.
"HARK! I AM SALLY NIGHT! GALLANT WARRIOR OF THE FREY AND DEFENDER OF MINE ALLIES! HAVE AT THEE 'PIOUS' SWINE! THOU ART VILLAINS!" Sally exclaimed, knocking back Templar that obstructed her path with great ease of her mighty lance. "THOU SHALL NAY IMPEDE DOUTH MARE, I DARESAY!"
"You bludgers makes this too easy! Take a squizz at this, mate!" Max shouted, galloping through them, with his spade swinging the dismounting the Templar on horseback with powerful gusto.
As the wall of soldiers was cast away, the centaur duo immediately noticed Miles and Minerva's situation. "What ho?" Sally muttered.
"Well, I'll be gobsmacked. Those two cats sure stand out like dog's balls against that tall poppy." Max added as he trotted over, tapping his shovel to his shoulder. "With them bogged up, someone ought to make her come a guster." Max kicked up some dirt with his front right hoof, before charging into combat.
"A feasible notion indeed, mine love! HUZAH!" Sally rallied, following suit.
Max's shovel flies Lyra's direction, with Lyra elegantly avoiding it, letting the shovel smash into the ground. As it struck, the spade created a shock wave, kicking up dirt and debris, drawing Lyra's attention more.
"About time someone showed up." Miles mentioned, in a wincing tone.
Minerva took notice of the allied forces coming to their aid, letting off some shots of her bow, which fly, hitting Lyra in his shoulder; however, some of the others froze over like before the animosity of the tundra caused them to crystallize and shatter on impact. Lyra grunted in annoyance, as she noticed Max circling around to grab his spade, before charging in her direction once again. She then forms a whip of ice, swinging it across the ground with haste. As Max comes into range, it thrashes at him, wrapping around his hooves, and tripping him into the ground. Max quickly pushes himself up, he grips more tightly to his shovel, to swing it at Lyra, as Sally charges their direction posthaste. She rams her lance into Lyra, who then is hit into Miles's sword, as he sprung up from his hiding spot. Max hurried up, smashes Lyra in the back with his shovel. There was no opening for the ice mage to react, and is shot through by couple of spare arrows from Minerva.
The ice magic was began to whirlwind out of control, freezing over the environment, and turning the plants and nature into crystallized ice formations. Lyra didn't seem to be able to control how dense this power was becoming, with the ice fragments crystallizing expeditiously around her. The energy was becoming so unstable and intense, that the actual objects frozen in ice began to be pulled to Lyra like a magnet, impaling through her. Max urgently pulled Sally out of the line of fire as an entire tree that was frozen into ice was violently pulled from the ground and casted into Lyra. The Viceroy was screaming as the power continued to become intensely more uncontrollable, and more massive icicles came thrusting her way. Miles quickly leapt from the range, but a tree came whirling his way uncontrollably. Flames erupted in front of him as he ducked, melting the ice as Minerva swooped in on Ember to pull the other feline onto the bird's back.
"Miles, are you hurt?" Minerva asked, placing the smaller feline in front of her, as she guided the phoenix.
"I've handled worse. Let's lend some support to those two." He jested, hanging on as Ember circled around in the sky.
"Right, take control of your bird, I'll handle the long range attacks." Minerva smirked, holding to her bow.
"You got it." Miles replied, in a playful tone, as he guided Ember's flight path.
As both parties observed at a distance, Lyra began becoming so concealed in ice that she was unable to be seen. Soon the remainder of the surrounding frost and ice formations were sucked in, causing the entirety of the tundra to shatter into fragments of hail and snow. Left in it's wake, was the corpse of Lyra, with several icy impaled portions of her body, that rested in her own frozen blood, with frost coating the thin layer of skin that was barely visible now. There was no time to waste however, as more Templar knights and soldiers began to converge of their location. Ember swooped in, as Minerva blasted out more arrows to support the centaur duo and they were quickly becoming surrounded.
At another point of the conflict, Phish was evading strikes from Eclipse, in a distressed manner. She could barely pry her wary eyes away from Dimitri's smoldering remains. She realized the situation was far to traumatic for her to handle, and she was clearly outmatched as she took notice of Ashewyn proceeding to join Eclipse against Phish. Ashewyn's sword came for Phish, forcing her to tuck and roll to evade the slash of the blade. Coming from the other side, Eclipse jabbed her electrically charged waveblades for the Lupis. Phish hastily slashes them back, frantically, before knocking Eclipse backwards and proceeding to flee from the conflict. She picked up speed, as she ran like a feral animal through the clusters of Knights quickly taking her place against the duo.
However, the path she had chosen was quickly leading into more foes. Not far ahead of her was the Naga, Kobra, with the Lugooz amazon warriors not far off from him. Morrigan, her sister Seiko and for the leashed, Ronan, who were working together to fight back mounted Templar and foot soldiers engaging them. As she was coming into rage of the naga, she quickly took notice of a dirt covered child naga, that couldn't be older than three, coiled close by the adult's tail. Kobra seemed to have taken a lot of damage already from the arduous conflict, clearly protecting the child.
"Daddy..." The child whimpered, holding close to his tail as Kobra protected him. "I'm scared..." the child went on.
"I got you, Yvenne." Kobra said, "Just hang on, we'll get through this." He tried to tell the child, as he remained on the defensive, rather than fighting back.
It may have not been clear to the Lupis, but the child had to have been within the city below and managed to survive the cave in, which caused his father to take that blow earlier from the engaging Templar forces.
"I want mommy..." The child, named Yvenne, sniffled.
Kobra hesitated his response, as he evaded an incoming sword. "Your mommy... She... You were the only one who made it out of Wynorex after the cave in... I don't know if she or your siblings are alive." Kobra struggled to say, knowing the kid was going to cry, but he was too preoccupied with the Templar to make up a proper excuse to hold the boy over.
Something about seeing this child with the Naga made Phish's blood boil, she would never be able to have that now, with the man she loved now dead. Her traumatized gaze shifted into almost a sadistic expression of contemplated revenge. She held no hesitation in this choice, the Lupis sped forward with the young snake in her sight. Her claws outstretched as to leapt into the air, pouncing for the tail of the adult Naga, where the child was held. Kobra noticed the movement from the corner of his eye, swiftly placing the child behind him, as he rose his torso up into the air, in attempt to intimidate Phish and the surrounding enemies.
Many Templar fell backwards, fearfully expecting the snake to strike. Phish however, was not even startled, as she dove at him. Slashing savagely with her claws, she managed to lacerate one of Kobra's ears from his head, before gravity brought her pawed feet back to the ground to kick back the now bleeding Naga. "You BITCH!" Kobra snapped, as he held the side of his head where his ear was removed.
The child was terrified, hanging on as his father fall collided into a row of Templar with their shields up. The impact caused the child to fly from his father's tail, crashing into the ground with no shelter or protection. Now crying, Yvenne was vulnerable to the incoming Lupis. Kobra spat out venom at her, hitting Phish's tail, as he whiled his body around to knock back the templar around him.
"ARRGH!" Phish hissed, as her tail sizzled from the burning venom. "That tears it...!" She growled angrily, as bone began to become exposed from under the burning flesh of her furry tail.
The amazonian felines had seen what just went down, with the blue haired female, Seiko, making her way over with graceful, yet urgent leaps. Kobra slithered from the fallen Templar infantry soldiers, lashing his tail into a mounted knight to unhorse the man. He rose up again, coming for Phish, who swiftly back-flipped away as his tail came hammering down where she previously stood. Quickly, he swept around to keep his eyes on the circling Lupis, however before he could make his next move, a large sword hurled into the air before vertically chopping down into his tail, severing off more than half of his coil. The sobbing child watched as his father crashed into the ground with his snake-like innards escaping the fresh opening where his tail end used to be. Both halves of Kobra's body continued to violently wriggle around, but didn't seem to cease despite the naga not seeming to have consciousness with his open eyes that trailed with blood.
"MAKE IT STOP!" A disturbed Templar shouted, finally getting another to impail the Naga's head with a sword, to put a stop to the thrusting movement entirety.
"Pfft, amateurs." Phish boredly scoffed at them as she pushed through the ones that got in her way. Creeping up to the child, she wrapped her three digited paw around his throat. Phish whisked him into the air, peering at him more face to face, with a disgruntled expression. "Life's just not fair kid... now we've both lost someone we love. Thing is, I'm not through with you yet." She clenched tighter.
Rapid footsteps approached, bounding into the air as Seiko tackled Phish backwards as she snatched the child from the Lupis. The two of them fell to the ground, but the little Naga was protected in the arms of the amazonian feline.
"Are you alright?" She mewed softly.
"Uh... Uh-huh..." The child sheepishly nodded with tear filled eyes.
"The HELL is your PROBLEM, leashed!?" Phish flipped upwards to her feet, to leer at the Lagooz.
Seiko rose to her feet, holding the child, as her expression sharpened. "I think you have the wrong idea, I have no master. How dare you attack this innocent child!" She said, in what seemed to be a protective motherly tone.
"Seiko." Ronan came running up behind her, clasping to his blade.
"Sis!" Morrigan called out as well, not far behind Ronan as she struck back an approaching Templar with her sword.
"Feral leashed, eh? You're all gonna pay!!!" Phish hissed, charging them to slash at Seiko.
Ronan quickly obstructed her path, counter-attacking with his dagger. "Get the kid out of her Seiko! Morrigan, go with her! Protect them!" She instructed.
"Tsk! Fine! Come on sis, let's retreat." Morrigan nodded.
"Be safe, Ronan." Seiko said, before she begrudgingly followed her sister, with the snake child in her arms as they fled.
Ronan focused of Phish, who came barreling his way, violently thrashing her claws his direction, to tear through his clothes. His arms and torso were quickly being covered in bleeding scars and forcefully flung back into the dirt, letting the debris pick up around as many of the nearby Templar had stepped out of Phish's way, while others pursued the fleeing lady-cats.
Ronan warily attempted to get up, but a pawed foot slammed down hard, to pin his hand that held the dagger to the ground. "Not today." She said, coldly.
"Well, what do we have ourselves here?" A cocky, yet posh toned fiend appeared, stepping over piles of dead Templar, with a massive chain changing around his shoulder, and loosely held in his gloved hands. He had freckled green hued skin, with four eyes, along with large horns and a thick reptilian like tail, that spiked at the end. His attire was mostly black, with darker hues and bandages visibly exposed from under his jacket. His blond hair was slicked back in almost a greaser type fashion, with pointed ears and shark-like fangs. His red eyes narrowed, with a grin as he lightly cracked his neck to the side, in what seemed to be a smug manner. "So. Which one of you kitties are with Ghestro?"
"What do you know, a fiend shows up too... I'm REALLY growing tired of this." Phish said in a sarcastic tone, as she growled.
"Lovely answer, pussy-cat." The fiend raised his head up as he chuckled, clasping to his chain upwards while tugging it with both hands in a threatening manner. "Here's the deal. Take your paws off the cat-boy, and maybe I'll only mess you up a little bit."
"Screw you, YOU FOUR EYED FREAK!" Phish hissed, kicking Ronan to the side as she spun up into the air, and came thrashing down at this fiend.
"I got a name, ya'know. It's Iiblis!" The fiend exposed his sharp jaws, as he thrusted the chain whip around, to bash right into Phish, causing her to be thrusted out of the air, and crash vigorously into the surrounding Templar forces. Holding the end of the chain in one hand, he raised his free hand, with a finger-gun type manner to aim at Phish. Black and glowing purple aura emanated from the tip, spiraling back around his arm, and down his wrist to his elbow with ferocity. "Can't say I didn't warn you!" He exclaimed, firing off the energy shot that blasting through phish's gut.
The surrounding Templar began to frightfully back up, as Iiblis hopped off the mound of bodies, and casually made his way through the terror stricken eyes over to where Phish laid, spinning his chain around to his side like a lasso. As he did this, Iiblis whistled a subtle, but menacing tune. Coming up to where Phish laid, he could hear her shallow breaths as she struggled to not choke on her own blood. Gingerly stepping around her, Iiblis forced her to stand, with a hand under her arm.
"Fury knows no wrath, like that of a scorned woman." Iiblis said, with her back forced against his abdomen, as the fiend reached his hand into her open wound, to pull out her large intestine. She screeched, trying to break free as he held her tighter. "Whatever trouble has befallen you to act so ferociously, let it go." He said, before tightly wrapping the intestines around her neck, and strangulating her with her own internal organs. She struggled, coughing up more blood before her wind pipe collapsed, followed by her flailing body falling motionless.
In the distance, Zyron was fighting along side Nikolai, and his pregnant girlfriend, Solitaire. The templar among them was so dense they were practically wrapped in a circle defending one another. There was another one of Koron's people working with them, but before too much combat occurred, the man was quickly impaled by a lance and hoisted into the air before being flung from them to decompose somewhere out of reach, within the swarming cluster of knights. They weren't about to give up, continuing this battle as carefully as they could.
In another part of the ever constant conflict of the waging war zone, the towering nightmare fuel combined form of the twin fiends was within hot pursuit of mounted Templar General, Siegfried. His armored stallion galloped urgently through the battalion of Templar infantry men, as the General urged them to move. "Break formation, Soldiers! Make haste!" He shouted, as his steed charged through in panic as the massive fusion beast stampeded not too far in the distance behind him. "Prepare the ballista!!" Siegfried commanded, as he reached the Templar manning the massive siege weapon, before reaching the catapult. "Load the catapult!" He ordered, as he circled around to the various medieval styled mortars stationed as protection to the larger siege weapons. "Prepare to fire!!"
Igniting the mortars, bombs were thrusted through the air to crash into the fusion fiend. It let out a blood curdling screech, as eyes on it's body began to bleed. However, it wasn't ready to go down, and took the heavy influx of bombs detonating as they struck the top of the beast. Roaring, the nightmare fuel monster increased it's speed, to narrowly avoid a boulder that came flying at it from the catapult. The ballista loaded it's arrows, firing massive amount of shots into the fiend, but despite how sixty percent hit target, the thing was still rapidly crawling their way, through gargling roars and screeches escaping it's tentacle covered mouth. The hybrid fiend was savagely ramming it's way through the Templar forces, grabbing and ripping many apart, while several heads were eaten in the process by the beast. Siegfried was rallying the Templar forces, but quickly realized the siege weapons were not working as he had planned they would.
"The ballista is not even slowing it down?" Siegfried muttered, before flicking the reigns of his mount with a swift "Yah!" As he decided to take the beast head on, as his duty to the crown.
Charging in bound, he pulls to his broad sword, swinging it as he drew close. The sharp blade sliced off one of the extra arms with ease, just as Siegfried nearly got taken out by the spiked tail hammering down in his path. Siegfried continued to have his stallion gallop around the massive fiend, preparing to close in on it once again. However, in the process his mount was rammed into by the beast, and took heavy damage. As the horse is knocked back violently, it's rider, Siegfried, is flung off and thrown to the ground. This drew in the hybrid monster, but before the allied Templar could reach him, Siegfried was swallowed whole by the beast. Moments passed as the infantry are in panic and but a Lupis Templar appeared from the war zone to lead the others, who were now preparing to engage.
Suddenly, the top of the beast is torn through by the blade of a sword, followed by a slime covered Siegfried tearing his way out. The hybrid fiend released a blood curdling screech, as it flailed from the sudden exposure to it's internal organs. Siegfried seemed disgruntled by this, panting as he took in air. Seconds passed, as the surrounding Templar prepared to mount another assault, when the General took his sword, and thrusted it into the skull of the beast, to turn it to dust. In the faint shifting of the ashes peeling from it's corpse, their was a moment when the twins-->>