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*OoC*
Just to warn everybody. . .Everyone, but the mages (and even they will be severly weakened), is going to get hurt. I was told to (and I believe that we need to) make the situation more desparate. I am sorry but that is about the best way. If your character does something that you don't like tell me and I'll edit this. This post will pretty much conclude the story. I expect that there will be other posts but this will basically be it. It has been fun and another TS will be started, so stick around! P.S. Half Truth, it is kind of funny (and ironic) what you said about ending the story with a bang. Read the whole thing and you'll get it.
*BiC*

Suddenly, there was a cry of pain. Everyone looked up just in time to see Vashnij go spinning through the air like a rag doll, a horrible wound in his side. Scryllia roared in fury and lunged at the dragonwraiths responsible, but three others dove at her and she was quickly wounded and pushed back. Three of the other wraiths pursued Vashnij while the rest dove at the platform. As the wraiths were almost to the platform, there was a storm of arrows that forced them to turn noncorporeal. They pulled up and, hissing with fury, dove at the warriors. Two dove straight at Saria. Savara blocked one but was bitten badly; the other would have killed Saria, but she ducked at the last moment, almost avoiding the paw that struck at her. She was sent flying with several broken bones. Medoc and Avatara faced another wraith. By constant attacking, they kept it from being corporeal long enough to hit them, but, suddenly, it drew back and struck the ground, knocking them off of their feet. They both struggled to get up but were nearly flattened by a tail slamming into them. Draconis, Juro, and Katerei were fighting off three wraiths, when another dove into their midst from above, scattering them. Katerei was thrown into several rocks; Juro had nearly avoided the worst of it when claws raked across his back; and Draconis was left facing two wraiths. He was soon wounded and forced out of his dragon form. Talos and Dusk were left to hold them off alone. They did farely well until a blast of cold nearly froze (and thus nearly killed) Dusk. Talos was bitten twice and forced down. The people on the platform (Selax, Theo, Wizard, the moogle, Tej, and Moonshadow) watched helpless and horribly weakened by the unnatural energies; some perhaps scarred forever by the power. With all of the warriors and both dragons down and badly hurt, the dragonwraiths were free to turn their attention to the mages and the battle looked lost.


Then, the glow stopped increasing and held steady. Selax stood up and opened his eyes. He was glowing so much that he was scarcely visible. The dragonwraiths turned and dove at him with fury.
"No," he said in a thunderous voice. The platform had enabled him to harness the land's power, which could only be done every 10,000 years. He held out his hands and a yellow glow surrounded the wraiths. They screamed and attempted to break free, without success. The glow suffused them and they began to scream and then to shrivel. In matter of seconds, the wraiths faded away to nothing. Selax wished that he could heal the others, but he'd need all of the power to do what he must do.
Elementals of Cythera. The time has come to join and fight alongside each other as you once did. There can be no delay! We must act now!


Back in Mayer, the elementals watched, knowing that they had to act now. After a few moments of communing with his king, the undine nodded. All of the elementals put their hands on the table. The elementals had taken another risk, revealing themselves to Alaric, so that he and Magpie were there as well.
Selax. We hear and agree. Our power is at your disposal through the platform. Use it well.


Selax knew what the elementals wanted and what he had to do. So channeling all of the power in one tremendous surge, he threw it at the Death King.


The Death King watched it coming and debated. This had been one of the possibilities that he had considered. Weakened as he still was, the elementals were weakened as well; therefore, he might be able to overcome this. But he would be left in a bad position when the Cytherans recovered or the elementals came after him, so he'd take a different tack. He let the energy slam into him, but, instead of trying to fight it, he amplified it with his own energy. The power was very unstable and would soon be let loose all at once in a much different way than Selax had planned, but the Death King knew that he would survive. So he laughed. Then his body was destroyed in a terrible explosion that would blow the mountain (and everything on it) to smithereens. . .

This post has been edited by Selax: 10 November 2004 - 09:22 PM

Nothing...
Blackness...

The Wizard suddenly awoke.

What happened? he questioned himself, trying to recall what had taken place just moments before. Ahh, yes. Now I remember. Selax channeled the shrine's power with the aid of the other elementals. He sent the power at the Death King. Then, the spell went awry. Somehow the Death King had used, manipulated it. "He blew up half of the mountain, destroying his own body," Wizard broke his inner discussion. Since he hadn't meant to speak out-loud, he returned to his mental state. Selax used the last of the power of the shrine to fling us onto the dragons., to relative safety. We have survived, but what has become of him?

Then, concluding what had happened, Wizard began to look around for the others. He was very tempted to use a great deal of magic and use telekinesis to move himself around, but he had virtually no mana at this point. He was exhausted.

Directly off hand, he could see that several others were on the dragon that he was. He looked over Vashnij's side and saw Scryllia lying on the ground not far below.

Wizard sensed that not only had each dragon taken their share of damage in combat with the dragonwraiths but also that they had been dealt a good deal of injuries from huge flying rocks that probably were everywhere when the mountain first blew up.

Vashnij had landed on a slight rise, but Scryllia was very near. He could easily see that just about everyone on both dragons had waken up. The two dragons themselves were nearing consciousness after the great beating they had taken.

Where was Selax? Wizard sincerely hoped that his best friend had not come to any harm. Had he any magic, he would search with his spirit, but he was too drained. He must rest, now.

Formless...Floating...Sky...
Must get back!his mind shouted at him and, suddenly, he remembered. He had had just enough time to fling the others away, but he had had no time to get away himself. He had jumped one inch off of the platform before it blew up. (A sad loss, he knew.) However, being made of air, he had survived the explosion, but he had been thrown. Thrown where? With that, Selax reformed and took on shape again. He found himself tumbling through the sky and managed to stop himself. He estimated that he had several wounds left from the explosion and realized that he was to weak to help himself very much. Selax looked below and spotted a small town, which he recognized as Kosha. It occurred to him that the judge must have some healing potions, and he began to drift downwards towards the city.


Itanos sat at his desk and pondered the news that he had just heard. A new house was ready to rise in place of house Comana. This had been expected for some time, but he still felt a little fearful. He didn't know why and this irritated him.
Suddenly, the door to his house burst open and man cloaked in black staggered into the room, nearly falling.
"Itanos! I. . .need your. . .help."
"Who are you? How do I know that I can trust you?" Itanos demanded, somewhat startled.
"Cast. . .Ascertainment. Then, you'll be. . .able to tell."
Itanos cast the spell and then sat back to listen.
The man said,"There. . .is no time. . .to explain. I am a friend of. . .Alaric, and my friends and I. . .need healing potions."
Satisified that the man told the truth, Itanos stood, went to a drawer. and pulled out four healing potions.
"They won't be enough to heal your group completely, but they should help," he said.
The man nodded his thanks and drank a little of one of the potions. He straightened, his wounds healing, but, although it clearly helped him, he still seemed weak.
"Thank you, I must go. Goodbye," he said
He turned and ran outside. Itanos shook his head and sat back down.


Once, out of town, Selax took to the air again. He had no magic for Directed Nexus at the moment, and he had to hurry. He flew as fast as he was able, knowing that he had to hurry because with the others as hurt as they had been. . .
Anything could happen.

Saria was firing arrow after arrow, doing nothing but wasting her arrows, one after one. She looked to the ground and saw DF lying there, apparently doing better since she had fed him that potion. He was starting to stirr actually, and would awaken soon.

---

DF awoke with a strange premonition, but he said nothing of it, instead looking up at Saria and thanking her.
"The battle is off away from here some" she told him, knowing he could see it, though needing to hear it from herself to believe it
"Its why ranged attack gets a bit dull at times, things dont always swing at ya, sometimes they swing away" DF said
"Well, should we pursue?" Saria asked, leaning towards the fight
"We could, but I dont think we would be too effective, by the time we got anywhere near, the battle would be over as it was" DF told her, a bit dejected that he was KOed before the end was near
"Well, first things first, lets get off this hill" Saria smiled

---

After about 20 mins of walking, running, and falling their way down the mountain, DF and Saria got down the mountain laughing and carrying on. Their spirits, though down from missing out, were bouyed by the joyous adrenaline rush that came from falling down heights and keeping alive.

As they reached the bottom, DF sensed something dark again, but he couldnt quite place it. He faced the forest at the bottom, and Saria stopped when she saw he wasnt moving...

---

Closer...closer Icel prompted them just a little bit more and you will be mine

---
"Something is off" DF said "The forest looks more forboding than before"
"Well, we wont get anywhere without trying" Saria offered "Besides, we cant help them anymore, we should return to a town to see if any of them return. If they dont succeed, we might be able to find out where they left off"
"A plan, at least" DF answered

---

Good, they are entering, my trap is almost complete Icel thought now time to set up....

This post has been edited by Desert Fox: 13 November 2004 - 08:46 PM

Avatara moaned and slowly opened his eyes. He was lying facedown in a pile of dirt and rock, the air full of settling dust and debris. The morning sunlight was filtering down through trees above, giving a mystical feeling that somehow life had survived, the world would go on.

Ignoring the aching pain from his back and shoulders, Avatara managed to push himself up into a sitting position. His vision blurred as he tried to make sense of what was going on around him. From what he could tell, the explosion scattered them about the lower slope of the mountain, the still rising plume of smoke far above a testament to the shattered summit and the events of the night before.

Off to the side a familiar voice was talking far too cheerfully; Katerei was running around, poking at the group members slow to rise. Savara lay on her back, staring up at the blue sky visible through the sparse foliage. dusk was tending to a nasty scrape Talos suffered. Moonshadow was helping Wizard to his feet, both seemed very weary. Fox and Saria were nowhere to be found, not surprising, Desert Fox also shared the habit of disappearing without preamble. The dragons were flying above, thoughts and emotions swirling in a whirlwind of images and feelings on a level beyond what any of them could hope to begin to describe.

An hour later, they gathered together in a grassy meadow away from the mountain, the dragons gliding to a rest in front of them. Silver streaks stood out plainly against the obsidian-black scales of Vashnij, a testament to the previous night. Yet, the scars seemed to only enhance his majestic sight as he stood before them, the sun glistening off his scales and the blue-silver of Scyrillia.

From just standing near them, Avatara could sense they were excited and eager to be off. The enthusiasm was contagious, the group all felt it in some way, with the sole exception of Selax, who refused to show anything of what he felt.

Scyrillia took a step forward, and after a brief moment of hesitation, bowed her head in respect. Thank you mortals, you have honored your promise. Because of your help I now have a future.

We will remember your help, and perhaps one day we can be truly freed from our pasts. All of us. Vashnij looked at several members of the group. Avatara met the dragon's gaze for a moment, before turning away and staring at the grass. Katerei jabbed him in the ribs.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her blue hair dangling in the warm breeze.

"Its nothing," he looked back up. The rest of the group exchanged goodbyes, some rather awkwardly, with the dragons towering over them.

"Where will you go now?" Wizard asked, the last to step forward.

We'll find someplace, it doesn't matter where, only a place where we can be at peace. Scyrillia replied.

"This place might be dangerous, something tells me others may not find your presence welcome," he warned them with a farewell nod before stepping back.

"Vashnij," Avatara said softly, the black dragon turned to look at him. "We might be only human, but we too can feel pain, betrayal, helplessness. I think I finally understand now and well...I mean...I'm sorry." Vashnij locked gazes with Avatara for a minute before smiling, in the way only a dragon could. He turned back and launched himself in the air, soaring upwards with his mate. The two dragons, bound together circled overhead before flying upward until they were no longer visible, lost among the sparse white clouds and the shining sun.

"They're gone." dusk said after a moment, breaking the silence as he limped a few steps forward, favoring his injured knee.

"Somehow, I have a feeling we'll see them again, someday," Medoc replied. The moogle nodded its agreement.

"I guess....we should head back to the tavern then," Talos said, somewhat uncertainly.

"Maybe not just yet," Katerei lay down and stretched out on the grass, gazing upward. "Its a nice day, why not enjoy it a little more?"

"You're just lazy, some of us have things we could be doing!" someone complained, Avatara tuned them out, he noticed Joru and Draconis talking gloomily off to the side.

"What's wrong?" Avatara leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree. Joru looked at him, but said nothing.

"He's worried about Talryn, something happened to him, he's not acting like himself," Draconis spoke for him. "Talryn is with the Death King now, I fear for what he has become."

Avatara looked downward, "I'm sorry about that, but who knows? It may yet turn out well." After all, the dragons had suffered greatly for years, and yet they managed to find some shard of hope to cling onto for the future. What had happened before was in the past, it was up to them to live in the present and create their own futures.

He walked back to join the rest of the group as clouds slowly gathered above, threatening to cover the glade in shadows. Something at the back of his mind nagged at him with a growing feeling of worry, as if to indicate there were more trials to come. But, those could wait for another day.

For now, all that mattered is that they were alive.

This story continues in the next installment, Shadow Games.