Obtaining the Nethradin Bone

[21:48] {NARRATION} A beam of purple and black energy ripples through the air with intent to cut horizontally across the backs of Yandir and Tobias. As Setuna jumped forward, and the beam had already cut across Yandir's back, the beam collides with her as she raises her palm to deflect and mitigate the damage.

It's clear that the Nethradin intended to jump back into the blizzard, but as Setuna strikes second blood he has nowhere to leave in rapid manner. Now caught by the vision of the entire group now, his eyes narrow and several shields surround his body made of energy, occult, and other elements.

".. You will pay with your lives for this transgression!" He roars now, readying beam after beam of light in the air to slam and burst Setsuna into nothing more than ash. The Nethradin hiding in Baukdengrad's ruins reveals himself!!
[21:54] The energy that is converted does not simply linger, however. Upon the creature's revelation, Setsuna does not relent. Immediately, she raises her golden gauntlet, which now brims and sparkles with blue energy.

Raising it, pointing it towards the Nethradin abomination.

"You will face the judgement of the Emperor, foul beast!"

It had been something she had theorized, yet wasn't able to put into proper practice. Concentrating the absorbed energy, before letting it loose from above. A large, brilliant beam of energy seemingly coming from the sky itself...

Yet it was sloppy, not yet perfected in any fashion. What she intended to be debilitating, was merely a few blasts of normal energy magic.

"Tch."

With a shake of her head, purple orbs materialized and circled her form, as she prepared herself for proper battle.
(Setsuna Ukitake)
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[21:55] Yandir performs a few despondent, curt and frantic flickers of digits as, clad in the holy byproduct of brief murmured incantations, they summon small arrays of earthen plaque to shroud the gashing, burned section that spread along his back.

For the moment? He would be in fighting condition! This, of course, in no way spelt success, as the nethradin set its cruel sights on rebuking Setsuna's stalwart retribution.

The young magi heaves, grits his teeth, and strafes about the battlefield, splitting himself from the rest of the party, in means to sunder their foe's attention.

Additionally, observing its defensive affinity, Yandir would thoroughly scrutinize their opponent's constitutions, although it was not certain he would find cracks in what was likely a nigh unbeatable defense.

For now, he stuck to simple strategies, running and gunning the shieldwight from afar.
(Yandir)
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[21:56] His vision slowly began to return, the blurry image of Yandir becoming a bit more visible. Just in time to see the man he had just defended be blasted by purple and black energy and yelp out in pain. So much for defending him from the debris, right?

By the time he had quickly snapped his head around to face the source of the blast, he was already looking at Setsuna's back. She was forced to make a decision between two friends, and she chose him. His heart sank. His breathing became more labored, and his fists tightened.

Tobias became desperate. And most importantly, he was angry.

Cosmic energy was drawn into his body, returning his stamina in spades. He was able to ignore his injuries, if only for the duration of this fight. But, that wasn't all of the power he was wishing to wield in this moment. He kept going, pulling beyond any reasonable point.

He wanted to make sure that his friends didn't have to get hurt again, whatever it would cost. His body burned. His cosmic magic flared, shooting outwards in each direction. The excess mana overflowed, expanding from his back in the form of two wing-like apparitions.

His wings flapped downward, the immense wind pressure taking him up off of the ground. He floated there, his angelic ascension bringing him up from the snow beneath him and at level with the scheming Nethradin. "To employ such underhanded methods.. I want to see how you fare with nowhere to hide! No more tricks!" he exclaimed.
(Tobias Ulrich)
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[22:01] Setsuna's swift, clever counterattack had openly exposed their aggressor's figure. With it's sudden reveal, Adar's fear had seemed to wholly die down.

The panic had come solely from that which he could not grasp or understand, that which was purely extrinsic.

"A... Nethradin!" Adar chanted out, almost akin to an eureka. Had his job just become all the more easy all of a sudden? The beast's highest leverage had dissolved in thin air!

With two of his comrades significantly wounded, it would've been time for the scholar to put in the fraction of work needed in order to avoid their demise at the hands of the predator. Having become engorged by a blaze of purple, Adar paced forward viciously!

"Tobias, don't push yourself too hard. We can't have you cripple yourself here!"

Then, with a leap, he'd begin to hover above ground!
(Adar Gutt)
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[22:02]
{LOAD GAME}

[22:14] {NARRATION} KOs out of 3:
- - - - - - - - -
Adar: 3
Setsuna: 2
Tobias: 1
Yandir: 1
- - - - - - - - -
Please roll a D6! Adar.. Please don't roll low..
[22:19] {NARRATION} The Shield Nethradin is absolutely nothing to scoff at. It very quickly takes to the air and promptly swarms the entire field with beams and impacted Occult force. It's almost like a living, attacking laser field with how many beams of light are being fired across the field all at once. As they close in to attack it, it seemed like thousands of shields came in all at once to guard it's frame.

Several attacks are shrugged off completely, many attacks are not registered. It is a savage fight, but they pull through. In one final combination attack with Tobias and Yandir at the helm - Their energies and magic are pushed to the absolute limit as shield after shield after shield all assemble to guard from the attacks.

But through the fight they had shattered several of the corrupt being's defenses. One by one, little by little, every last shield is broken and shattered as Tobias and Yandir are pushed to their exhausted limits - For now - As the final shields break the beast himself? Well. His fate is in your hands!
- - - - - -
Adar: 12 Day Temp
Tobias: 1 Day + 4 Day from earlier
Yandir: 1 Day + 4 Day from earlier
Setsuna: No injury (i feel nice today)
- - - - - -
Feel free to RP your victory!
[22:20] ** Escaping Light [DM] has inflicted an injury upon Adar Gutt. ("Malicious Burns", "Caught by the onslaught of at least twenty beams, Adar's arms and upper torso have been utterly burned to the bone. Third-degree burns pulsate through his body and wrack him with unhealthy amounts of pain.", "Temporary", "Duration: Long (12 days)") **
[22:25] The battle itself proved to be quite the frenzy. A mixture of holy, energy, and occultic magic scorching the plains of snow. The visibility was greatly reduced, though they could tell the general direction that the Shield Nethradin was in.

Initially, she had been very well in the thick of the fight, using both her blessing and mastery of energy to combat the nethradin. Deflecting blows, while timing precise blasts of concentrated energy to send it flying back.

As the blizzard strengthened, however, so did her vision. Being sent back by one of the beast's own energy blasts, she was effectively out of the fight altogether.

The Qilin could hear the general direction of the fight, to which she quickly made her way over. It would be just in time to see the finishing blow, an attack by both Yandir and Tobias.

With a sigh of relief, she quickly made her way to their side. Before checking them over for injury.

"I hope you are all alright."
(Setsuna Ukitake)
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[22:29] {NARRATION} Everyone.
/vit.
[22:29] {NARRATION} Since this is CoD, sub 100 vitality = death. Reminder!
[22:32] Yandir had seen much, faced quite a few, and found defeat in one bout alone-but the very first nethradin he ever sighted and fought against was an absolute show of terror that made every single prior fight in his book seem like laughingstock.

One by one, they are felled, only to be brought back up on their feet again by one another's curative measures- and this is an arduous task, in every capacity. To repeatedly mend fresh wounds as soon as they opened and in such a rapid, brusque fashion, was an ordeal almost as difficult as breaking through the shielded beast's defenses.

Eventually, however, Yandir's desperate search for a breach among the nethradin's preservative, magical refuges proves fruitful.

A flood of aureate energy engulfs the sarradian, intense, burning, unscrupulous, all too similar to a suit of gilt armor that forced his graver wounds to a momentary close and spurred his muscles to endure the strain and function to their utmost standard.

The virtue of the desperate is, in the end, the will to find strength in their innermost reserves of volition in order to survive.

With a sudden pitch of his form forth, and a firm grip that latched digits to whatever could be conceived as its head, the youth finds proper foothold to put an end to this particular piece of recusancy.

A hand is charged and bathed within an extremely dense, vigorous summit of unstable energy, before it is punched onto the nethradin's abysmally horrendous frontispiece.

The beam that finds release in it is accompanied by hundreds of smaller fragments composed of raw, violent, keen mana. Puissant, they revolve and chain about the burst of power that is let out ahead, contributing to a devastating, combinatory attack.

Bloodied and nearly unconscious from such a costly effort in addition to his injuries, Yandir turns backwise, glaring and shouting at Tobias-

"NOW!"

(Yandir)
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[22:36] Tobias fought with heated emotion, against the one who sought to harm his closest friends. Ignoring the injuries that he had accumulated prior, and pressing on even despite them. He was overflowing with cosmic energy, and the effects that came with it. The most notable of which?

Confidence, and determination. The sheer amount of positive energy that exuded from Tobias Ulrich was staggering, and it offered itself to his holy magic splendidly. They were going to make it out of this in one piece. This much, he was absolutely sure of.

And, determination was needed against these seemingly unbreakable shields.

"I thought that darkness was a purely destructive sect of magic.. I'll have to reevaluate what I once believed!" he exclaimed. The Nethradin protected himself just as potently as any holy mage, a frightening mirror into for Yandir and Tobias. "I'll commend you for this much - you're really hard to put down!" he exclaimed.

The Nethradin clashed with him, colliding with his shoulder. It nearly dislocated his right arm, rattling the bones underneath and forcing him to grit his teeth. The pain hit him in a staggering wave, something that he couldn't just ignored. He grunted.

But, Tobias wasn't easy to put down either.

"Yandir!" he shouted towards his one standing ally. "His shields are too strong.. we're going to have to break them all in one shot!" he exclaimed, his fingers tightening around his staff. A confident nod was given to his ally, naturally synchronizing his movements with Yandir.

His own contribution to the attack was a spiraling blast of holyflames, coalescing with Yandir's own magic. This incredible combination would shatter the dark shields, just showing how destructive holy magic could be. And how it utterly outstripped darkness as a method to protect oneself and what they believed in.

They moved in unison. But, Tobias was the one to name the attack.

"Ultra Spiral Flash Scorch Illuminating.. BEAAAAAM!!"

And the battle was won, light extinguishing the shadow as soon as Tobias shouted that horrible name. As a hero, it would be the first of many. His wings flickered and faded away, as Tobias returned to the ground. Pain hit him in an oppressive wave, forcing him to drink from the potion that was offered to him by Yandir.

"Thanks for the drink, Yandir. It is very.. refreshing." he said, cheesily. As if you couldn't hate him enough for how ridiculous he made their combination attack sound.
(Tobias Ulrich)
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[22:37] As the fight raged on, Adar's efforts seemed to have become less and less effective. His strained, underprepared mana circuitry had been struggling to keep up with the efforts of the better trained magi. By the end of it, exhaustion settled on the navigator's languid, slender figure, making jumping out of the way of incoming bursts of dark energy impossible.

With the rest of the team just catching on with the level of exhaustion, Adar was left alone and defenseless, pushing himself to buy time for long enough to be rescued by whichever holy magi was available.

Eventually, the scholar had found himself cornered by the Nethradin, observing each of the remaining few barriers flicker about as the shield beast loaded up the execution beam.

With the inevitability of his demise just around the corner, Adar found no better option than to taunt it.

"I will… use your bones… as a means to an end."

Right after, an onslaught of occult magic struck the frame of the young magi's frail body, which then was solely protected by a single-layered shield of dark magic, as well as a light set of opaque mythril armor.

Amidst the clashing explosions of purple, his screams of agony could be clearly made out.

For the first time in his life, Adar was truly pushed to the edge of his mortality. Left face down, struggling to cope with the unbearable pain. Adar laid with a mind rotting, full of bleak thoughts, unaware of what would transpire later, barely clinging onto consciousness. Grasping for any sanity.
(Adar Gutt)
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[22:40] As the bout ends, Yandir stumbles to a side, falling over an arm and seeking respite in... well. Laying down, even if for a moment. The ashen snow beneath mixtures with the plood that leaked from his wounds, perhaps proving... anesthetic?

He addresses Setsuna, once she inquires about his well-being, with a simple thumbs-up!, although the gesture in no way reflected his poor, precarious state. He gulps his own elixirs down, not willing to count on luck just yet.
(Yandir)
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[22:46] {NARRATION} The Nethradin himself finds his shields ripped to shreds and with his magic unable to defend himself, the collided beam of magic between both parties turns the Nethradin to bones and ash below. As he starts to fade and crumble, the light in his helmet go dim as his soul was banished back to Hel.

Chains rip up from the floor and grab hold of the Nethradin, tugging whatever spectral force had left the suit of armor into the ground..

.. To a special place where Nethradin aren't meant to escape. Now the blizzard, at its height, doesn't seem quite so bad. Their magic shines through and illuminates just fine. Perhaps the dark influence from the Nethradin had forced their vision to be poor earlier?

Nevertheless, the group quickly navigates through Baukdengrad's ruins - Seeing multiple statues and ruined fountains. The dangerous feeling in the air had only very slightly faded, but after being attacked and almost killed in a game of cat and mouse - It would be hard to NOT be on edge.

The group stands outside of Baukdegrad's ruins, now.. Two paths ahead of the. A right path that leads down a valley and up a hill. The left path leads up a mountain's ridge and likely to some kind of summit.
[22:50] Now feeling refreshed, Tobias stepped up to the scattered arcanium rocks. His eyes squinted, appraising the minerals.. before widening once he realized what they are. "As long as you all don't mind.." he trailed off, pointing towards the scattered ores.

"I think I'll be able to find some use out of these. Call it a special sort of payment for going on this bizarre trip with you all." he said, grinning. If that was fine, he'd pick them up and stash them away for later. Then, he looked towards the navigator.

"Hey, Adar. Are you doing alright? I can offer you a healing potion if it starts to get especially bad." he offered. With a long path ahead of them, however.. it got his mind thinking of what they could do to prevent another ambush like last time.

"Do you think we could attempt what we were speaking of at the Gehenna fields? With your sextant, and my star.. perhaps we could map out this area and findany impending danger before it finds us." he suggested.
(Tobias Ulrich)
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[22:52] {Item} You picked up Nethradin Bone. Dropped by Setsuna Ukitake.
[22:54] Mostly healed and relieved of his physical grievances, Yandir finally finds strength to go on! He in no means lacked determination or strength of will, but in the end, he was no true hero or virtuous defender, and rather...

A simple survivor. Getting by as best as he could manage, while guaranteeing the welfare of whoever he held dear and close to his heart in whatever ways were feasible.

The crossways before them, however, were yet another layer of complexity to an already difficult journey. Could they make this decision with a lax mind and criterion?

Squinting eyes gaze at the pathways ahead, before their impressions are let out:

"The right path is likely easier to trek through. Smoother, specially in this climate... but I fear it is longer."

"The ridge, however, seems to elevate into a peak. It will prove far harder to climb, I'd wager."
(Yandir)
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[22:55] Luckily they had been prepared, the injuries of both Tobias and Yandir being mostly healed. Light blues flickered from each party member, before she released a sigh of relief.

The Qilin focused primarily on the two paths before them. It would prove to be difficult, no matter which they chose. Upon hearing mention of Tobias and Adar working together, she tilted her head in mild curiosity.

"Yandir is right, of course. But I am willing to wait and see what you two have prepared. Anything to help us get to our destination safely."

If the ridge was truly the quickest route, she was more than willing to brave the dangers that lay within. Considering the state of the others, though, perhaps it wasn't the smartest option.

"Star and a sextant. I'm curious."
(Setsuna Ukitake)
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[22:57] Yandir says, "It completely went over my head. Apologies."
[23:07] Eventually coming to, Adar's blurred gaze managed to discern the feigned figure of the Nethradin few feet away from his battered comrades. Eventually, the unearthly, cursed pain would slowly gripe into his skin, effectively settling in. After a quick auxiliary tending-to routine, the navigator retrieved his cloak and threw it atop his shoulders once more.

The disgusting feeling of dread that the felled Nethradin emanated would resonate with each and every one of Adar's burns, making his skin sting fiercely. Despite this, the scholar brought himself to reach out and make part of it's remains his booty. The quest had already paid off.

His lost, ghostly gaze then trailed to his left, addressing Tobias' idea.

"Now you mention it, this might be the perfect time to try this out." Adar spoke, sluggishly articulating his thoughts, in an attempt to acommodate the flurry of bleak stimuli that the chaotic creature had subjected him to. "Being so far up, and considering that the visibility has improved, if we reach out to your star… I might be able to figure out where these roads would take us."

Retrieving the rusty spyglass-like object from the floor nearby, Adar kneeled down at a short distance in front of Tobias, looking through the optic hole.

"I need you to reach out to your star, then channel it's energy on my sextant… I'll handle the rest."

If this were the idealized tool that Iosefka would soon craft, then perhaps all of this wouldn't be necessary. But until then, their method should suffice!
(Adar Gutt)