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Something akin to panic grips Quasit as the physical force of the booming explosion pushes her with a blast of hot air, like the kick of some demonic horse. She had been the target of fireball spells and countless other lethal assaults in her time, but something about the power of these monster explosions practically unstrings her.
Throwing her hands over her miserable little head, she screams witlessly and seems to lose all sense of direction as she darts this way and that, with some sort of preternatural luck using the trees for cover, often bent over nearly double. Her eyes are so wide that the whites can be seen all around, though she blinks down hard every time a shower of dirt flies at her face.
Somehow she resists the urge to throw herself to the ground and curl up into a ball, perhaps impelled on by an almost insane desire to run away as far as she can from these horrific weapons, or perhaps somehow driven on by the example of the giant ape beside her.
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Chest Thumper howls in pain at the noise of the big gun going off then roars in fury at the gunshots coming at him.
Miraculously, he is able to twist away from the explosion with no harm while the smaller projectiles pepper him, leaving several bloody marks. He continues following Quasit, unaware that she doesn't really have a plan.
Kalchine winces as he feels bruises forming under his breast plate. Sometimes, it doesn't seem like a good idea to channel some of Chest Thumper's injuries into his own form.
But for the moment, it's more important to stop more of those injuries from coming. He calls down the fury of nature on the people shooting at them.
"Alright Saki when you have the spell done let me know and we move out." Seeing how the fight was mostly going at range so far Bulvi took out his bow and got ready to move.
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The trees ahead of Sakitu explode. She flinches and crouches down. A moment later she hears popping sounds coming from the troops in the buildings. "This is no good Bulvi. I'm going to do something about it." She puts her right hand on her left arm then slides it down as if she's pushing the blood towards the ends of her fingers. She repeats this a few times then switches to the other arm. All the while she chants what appears to be a nursery rhyme about ice and freezing balls flying through the air. Within seconds the tips of her fingers start to frost over. Then, she throws one of her hands forward in the same motion she would use to throw a stone. A small blue and white swirl of light speeds through the air towards the buildings with troops. As soon as it is right between them, the tiny ball explodes. A blast of cold and icy fragments pummels all the soldiers in the buildings.
As soon as the spell is cast, she starts moving towards Fin and Quasit again.
Selena moved a piece of quartz between the fingers of one hand while the other drew arcane symbols in the air. With a push of energy, Selena conjured a wall of ice in front of the troops. Blocking their line of sight.
With all the walls in the way it's hard to tell how many people Fin kills, but there's a lot of shouting. Likewise for the ice burst.
Maka, however, can tell she just burned two of the soldiers to death. The others keep firing at her.
She nimbly evades most of the shots, deflects one with a precise burst of flame, but gets blindsided by one shot from the soldier in the far part of the wagon.
The big cannon fires on Bulvi.
The shell explodes right at his feet, bits of metal and the shock of the explosion itself battering him like the fury of a dragon.
"Двадцать градусов на запад! Дальность 50 метров!" someone in the upper turret shouts.
A couple of dull thumps sound from behind the wall of ice, followed by more explosions around Bulvi and Saki.
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Sakitu manages to dodge behind the bole of a large tree when the first large explosion happens. This helps her avoid some of the flying bits of metal and wook. But the smaller explosions land all around her and she can't escape them.
As soon as it seems clear, she peers through the bushes to get a line of sight to the troops in the buildings. Again, she flings a magical ball of cold and ice at them.
Maka continued to dance around the metal wagon. The cramped corridors doing little to stop Maka's omnidirectional movement. Hearing, no, feeling another blast from the canon ripple through the area, Maka rushed towards the hatch leading upwards. As she gripped the handle, pain roared into Maka's senses. The air in Maka's lungs rushed out, causing her to cough and splattering the hatch with blood.
Looking down, Maka was surprised to see a hole in her chest. The bits of metal from the tubes doing more damage than she expected. For a moment the soldiers seemed to relax, perhaps expected the monster to be defeated. But only for a moment.
Flashing the soldiers a bloody grin, Maka couldn't help but be excited. She didn't find fights to the death fun in the way she found other fights, but a primal part of her still enjoyed them. "It's too bad we don't have time for some real fun!" Maka shouted pointlessly before blue flames engulfed her. Their weapons might be able to do a lot of damage, but so could she. Spinning the handle of the hatch, Maka threw it open before exploding into the soldiers manning the canon.
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Worried about Maka, Fin quickly looks over the gun-wagon and the ground between it and him…
…gauging the distance, still hasted, he throws caution to the wind and makes a mad dash towards the cannon and leaps…
…and upon landing, moves to the hatch, trying to avoid LOS of any mounted guns or gun slits…
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Though the explosions are no longer as close to her, Quasit races south toward the fractured building she'd set as a goal still bent over and with her hands over her head, then throws herself to the ground inside it, gasping for breath in the cold air.
She peeks up past a burned and splintered board toward the bonfire in the middle of town, wide eyes looking for Rasputin to see what he might be doing. She was certain he'd be looking right at her, reciting out some devilish spell. She goes to pull out her waterskin to slake her panic-parched mouth, but her hands shake so much that she can't get the damn thing open and she ends up dropping it in her lap.
"There must be hundreds of them! There were too many shots for just a couple dozen guns! Where is everyone--am I the only one who made it?" she babbles to herself as she hunkers low in the filthy corner of the broken hovel.
Bulvi's head rung like a troll had tried to use it as a drum. Saki was still moving, still alright... well still moving. "Saki you stay hidden in those trees, I'm going to stay as a more obvious target but stay away. Let me take the hits, we keep moving. I see a lot of light in that cannon wagon, Maka is taking care of it."
A few more hits and Saki would be in a bad way. Time to be stupid. Bulvi broke the treeline and loosed an arrow at the group of soldiers. He doubted they saw a man in full plate take some cannon shots and return fire with a bow very often. He bellowed out loudly trying to sound fearsome and draw as much fire from his allies as possible.
Chest Thumper pounds after Quasit, still unsure of where he's going but trusting that she knows what she's doing.
Kalchine moves to the east, trying to get a better angle on the soldiers in their huts.
Selena's tiny form moved with all the speed magic could provide. Stepping into the place between places, she appeared next to the quivering Quasit. Placing a hand over her mouth, Selena pretended to attempt to stifle a laugh. "Well, it's no wonder things are a disaster with our glorious leader in such a state. Let's see if some intelligence can salvage things."
Performing a few arcane gestures, Selena's eyes took on a blue glow as she finished the spell. The world took on a new hue as her magic allowed her to easily view magical auras. Quickly sweeping the battlefield, the witch tried to identify anything that might be Rasputin or his workings.
Maka kills the three soldiers in the turret.
Selena and Quasit can see that Rasputin... seems to just be standing there, observing what's going on. Selena can tell he's emanating magic, as is the pyre nearby him.
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Sakitu manages to dodge behind the bole of a large tree when the first large explosion happens. This helps her avoid some of the flying bits of metal and wook. But the smaller explosions land all around her and she can't escape them.
As soon as it seems clear, she peers through the bushes to get a line of sight to the troops in the buildings. But there's a wall of ice in the way! Selena! Why did she do that??? Well. There are other options.
Sakitu spends a moment to cast a spell and she fades from view. Then she starts moving back towards where she came from.
The remaining soldiers in the metal wagon shut the hatch behind Maka, trapping her in the turret. The one in the belly turret finally gets over his shock and fires on Chest Thumper.
You see and hear no sign of the soldiers behind the ice wall.
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At Selena's voice, Quasit looks around to see the halfling, and her panic deepens and chills. She looks back the way she had come, and sees only Chest Thumper getting cut up by bullets.
Why wasn't he with Kalchine?
"Where's everyone else?" she croaks out of her dry throat, grabbing Selena roughly by the tunic. "Are they all dead? Is everyone dead?" she yells.
She looks around again at Rasputin, at a loss for what to do.
After all this time?... Was it over?... Was that why the firing was letting up?
"He's not doing anything." she says in incredulous confusion. "He's just baiting us to come to him for some reason.... maybe..."
She was on an alien world, pinned down by these hideous soldiers, with no way to get home and her hope ebbing away.
"I'm gonna kill that bastard. Then they can shoot me too." she says in a voice of black despair. She draws out her sword, grabs a handful of snow and smears it over her sweaty brow, then scuttles off toward Rasputin.
"Get ahold of yourself! They're in cover! Now shut up and do your part! I'm going to try talking to him. See what I can find out. Not like I'll be permanently dead or anything."
Selena lets Winter out to find cover and remain hidden till the battle is over, just in case. Then Selena will fly and then turn into snow. Aiming to be seen as a puppet sent to parley.
She'll carefully peek over the roof and wave a "flag" and see if she can approach without being shot at, whether by Rasputin's command, or just by keeping low and staying out of sight of the troops.
With the hatch being slammed shut and locked, Maka opted to stay mobile rather than attempt to break through. While her combat rings might allow her to, that was still a bunch of metal she'd rather not bust her knuckles against.
Concentrating on turning her form into flame, Maka shot herself through one of the arrow slits. Exploding into the air next to the metal wagon and throwing up in her mouth a bit. "Hey Fin!" Maka said with a wave after spitting out the bile. "There's still some people in there."
Letting herself fall close to the ground, Maka interrupted her decent with an explosion that sent her rocketing towards the belly turret. Landing with a graceful flip, she peered through the arrow slit. "Stop shooting Thumper!" She shouted at the gunner. Evidently having forgotten that her foes couldn't understand her.
"Ok Saki- Saki?" Bulvi looked around but the slippery fox lady was nowhere to be seen. "Alright so..."1 Sighing he spotted Kal and redeployed. The enemy didn't seem bothered with trying to close given their impressive ordnance so he headed for the far side of the wall, if those soldiers wanted to level their guns at Kalchine they were going to get a belly full of Gollarion steel!
Kalchine winces as more bruises form on him. They came far too close to the chattering roar of one of those big metal tubes to be anything but the results of it on Chest Thumper.
If he needed any more evidence of what happened, he can hear the howls and roars of his brother.
He can only hope Chest Thumper is out of the line of fire as he rushes to get their opponents in the line of his own fire.
Sakitu sees that the soldiers have cautiously made their way to the east end of the wall. It does seem like there are a lot less of them. Bulvi also sees them, as they peek around the corner of the wall and fire on him.
Fin finds that the hatch is locked.
The soldier in the belly turret panics and tries to shoot Maka.
The soldiers don't seem to notice Selena, nor does Rasputin react to her, nor to Quasit.
Maka took off in a jet of flame as the soldier turned the turret upon her. Maka couldn't help but be impressed by the sheer volume of bits of metal the weapon could unleash. But sheer volume only goes so far, and she was used to dodging Fin's attacks, who could hit the eye on a fly. A rapid series of small explosions sent Maka back and forth through the air at speeds the turret simply couldn't keep up with. Circling to the back of the turret, Maka's form turned to flame once more as she went hurtling through the arrow slit and into the turret itself.
Kalchine moves to a proper angle to see the pack of soldiers, getting just past the angle of the wall of ice.
The electricity in the sky has been lingering on the edge of his consciousness and with a focus of his eyes he summons a part of it down on his enemies.
Bulvi is pin cushioned by the bullets roaring from the guns. Bulvi kept advancing but an inhuman hail of arrows landed around the soldiers he began seeking a new quarry. Leaving a red trail of blood in the snow and mud he circled one of the buildings until Quasit and a rather ominous looking individual came into view.
Spellcraft to identify whatever magic is going on with Rasputin as she approaches and calls out to him "So what's all this about cousin?!"
Fin rains arrows down on the remaining soldiers behind the wall, killing several of them. The remaining handful break and run.
Maka kills the soldier in the belly turret with her fiery explosion. There's no movement detectable from the remaining soldiers in the metal wagon.
Quasit finds her blade turned aside at the last moment by some magical protections.
Selena detects strong illusion magic on Rasputin, but can't identify the exact spell. He gazes at her for a long moment, completely ignoring Quasit. Finally he sniffs derisively.
"Do not call me cousin, child," he commands in his heavily accented Taldane. "And why should I explain to you? I know you have come for my mother, her last gasp of resistance. But you will fail, and her Thrice-Tenth Kingdom shall be mine. See, even her little hut knows it has lost its master."
He gestures at the hill, and indeed, the Hut is standing up, and begins pacing back and forth anxiously.
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Seeing the troops break up and retreat, and thinking Maka must’ve surely neutralized the gun/wagon, Fin looks to Rasputin; seeing Quasit fighting him, he takes off…
Moving down the southern slope of the wagon, he jumps and hits the ground running…nearing Rasputin, he stops and fires an arrow…
…not sure how he missed, he does a double take and looks to make sure…
He arches both eyebrows in surprise, then shakes his head. ”Don’t waste your time attacking, Q, he’s an illusion…but be wary as he was able to cast a spell against me earlier…”
Turning to the illusion, he continues. ”Rasputin, I presume? Tell us where you are and we can end this, one way or the other…”
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”Don’t waste your time attacking, Q, he’s an illusion…but be wary as he was able to cast a spell against me earlier…”
Quasit looks around at the elf's voice.
"Fin! You're not dead!" she shouts wildly. She looks back and forth between Rasputin and Findurel as she registers what her companion is saying.
"An illusion? Are you sure? He smells like onions! An illusion that casts spells? That's not fair!"
She turns back to Rasputin. "That's not fair! That's not how any of this is supposed to work!" she scolds.
"Look, we'll make a deal with you. Hand over Baba Yaga and we'll trade you Selena."
Bulvi heeded Fin's warning and restrained himself from charging in. He circled around a bit more, after seeing the exotic cannon in action being clustered up seemed unwise. "Well if we can't fight him here lets hope Selena can talk him down." He added doubtfully.
He adopted a defensive stance as he held his bow at the ready. He was casting spells but was he fully here or just testing them, Baba Yaga's reluctant champions, scouting out their abilities for a more prepared confrontation later?
As if summoned by Fin, a fiery Maka landed in the snow. Not bothering to stop her momentum, Maka continued to slide for several dozen feet and leaving a trail of melted snow behind her. With a wide spin of her leg, Maka slowed to a stop in front of the pyre. Taking a defensive stance, she was ready to spring to action.
"What's going on with Cluckers?" She asked the others after noticing the hut's odd behavior.
"Well uncle, I don't really know much about grandmother and what she's done, but my concern is not about her, it's about my homeland and my people. That's what I care about. If I can save my homeland without grandmother, I'm willing to do that. However, at the moment, grandmother seems the best chance at saving Irrisen and honestly, I wouldn't mind finding out more about what she has been doing along the way if I can. If you've got other options for me to save my people, because however much you have a problem with her, destroying a nation is never about just one person, I am open to listening."
"What's going on with Cluckers?""Mr. Villain here says it's agitated because it can't sense Baba Yaga. He's being super helpful." she adds with a touch of sarcasm. She turns to look at Maka. "I'm glad you're alive. How'd it go inside the cannon?"
"I'm glad you're alive too!" Maka replied with a toothy grin, not really realizing that meant Quasit had thought she was dead. "The cannon was fine, I took out most of the people inside and the rest ran. Sorry that took so long!"
"Well uncle, I don't really know much about grandmother and what she's done, but my concern is not about her, it's about my homeland and my people. That's what I care about. If I can save my homeland without grandmother, I'm willing to do that. However, at the moment, grandmother seems the best chance at saving Irrisen and honestly, I wouldn't mind finding out more about what she has been doing along the way if I can. If you've got other options for me to save my people, because however much you have a problem with her, destroying a nation is never about just one person, I am open to listening."
"Yeah, give us some other options if you don't want to be cooked!" Maka said with a snarl.
Kalchine brings down a lightning bolt just to encourage the soldiers to continue to flee in case they were contemplating a different path.
He then hustles over to join the rest of the group while Chest Thumper comes from the other side.