Bulvi looks at the machine gun considering using it but instead heads off towards the tower soften up by Kalchine. If he stayed here there would be a hail of bullets in a heartbeat or two. "Heading to the smoking tower next." He called out unable to see any enemies within earshot but also unable to see his allies he was trying to stay somewhat co ordinated.
"Be careful! I think I see the headless horseman watching from the forest! He may be setting up an ambush or trap!" Kalchine calls out, indicating approximate direction and distance from the gate after pointlessly pointing in that direction.
From her elevated position, Maka could easily spot the rider. "Yeah I seem him too. Over there!" Maka yelled a reply while motioning towards the rider.
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Hearing her companions calling out over the clamor of gunfire and flame, Quasit pauses in mid-flight and looks around wildly but ineffectually.
"Coward!" she hisses at herself.
"Ignore him! Our work is here! We'll deal with him later!" she yells out, then dives purposively toward her next targets, blades at the ready.
Fin kills one of the soldiers in the tower he's targeting and wounds another. Soldiers, half-dressed and armed with nothing more than their rifles, start pouring out of both ends of the barracks and the barn to the east.
With Quasit's instruction to stay on task, Maka blasted the troop of soldiers coming out of the building near the trench.
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Selena continues to glide forward invisibly across the compound, looking down cooly on the emerging soldiers as they dash panic-stricken and half-dressed into view.
Clutching her fox under one arm, she extends the other arm toward the gate connecting the outer yard with the inner one, and begins to pull her hand slowly upward, as if raising a heavy weight. The familiar leans its soft head in and up toward her ear, whispering strange arcane words in their shared tongue, and she repeats these automatically. Suddenly, ice begins racing up the wires and poles of the fence and gate, rising and rising until they reach up to the levels of the towers, opaque and glistening in the gathering twilight.
The remaining tower gunners, unable to hit Maka and unable to see other targets, fire on the fire elemental instead.
The headless horseman turns and rides back into the woods, out of sight.
One of the machine gun bursts hits, though there is not much to hit and the lead only dissipates a small part of the living flame. Undaunted, it continues to streak down the barracks, lighting as much on fire as it can, as much to make life in this miserably bitter cold bearable for a time as to destroy them.
Kalchine has called upon two of the primary elements - earth and fire - and now it's time to call upon the other two.
His ponderous, stony hand reaches up to the heavens like a primitive altar and a dark cloud starts to rapidly form, soon roiling and crackling with electricity.
Caught off-guard, out of position, and up against enemies they either can't see or can't hit, the soldiers' fear manages to break through the mind control after you've wiped out maybe two thirds of them. The survivors make a run for the gate and, assuming you don't stop them, flee out across the wasteland around the camp and into the woods.
Silence falls over the camp, save for the occasional crackle of supernatural lightning from the corner towers. You see no further sign of the headless horseman, nor other enemies...
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Caught up in the adrenaline of the moment, Quasit is too busy wildly stabbing and slicing her way through the helpless tower guards to notice that the camp has been routed. The creak and grind of the gate opening causes her head to whip around and take notice for the first time.
She's about to start screaming for the panicked soldiers to be stopped and butchered, but the words shrivel and die in her throat. They'd thrown down their weapons, some of them, and a few of them were crying out for their mothers and their wives. It had taken her a lot to come up to the line of launching this butchering; to continue it now would be to cross another far more dangerous line. Even so, invisibly, her dripping blades quiver in her eager hands, still hot for the slaughter.
"Let them go!" she calls out to the compound in Taldane. "Let's meet up in the center of the compound!"
Her gaze turns to the sinister sizzling machine behind her on the guard tower, still vomiting out its arcane lightning. She also thinks she can hear Bulvi breathing near her, which was at once both comforting and disturbing. She flicks the blood from her weapons and kneels to wipe them off on the trouser leg of a corpse, the blood appearing from its unseen source on the fabric in short ragged strips.
"Well. I think we finally have this place to ourselves." she says.
*****
Once down on the ground in the middle of the compound, Quasit allows the veil of invisibility to slip away from her. Droplets of fresh blood spray are still dotted over her skin and armor, and her breath and skin steam lightly in the wintry air. She waits for her companions to assemble and reappear.
"Good job everyone. Kal, have your elemental melt that wall of ice before he leaves so we can get into the main compound."
"As I see it, we have a couple of bits of business before we take a crack at the machine. I think we should hunt down Headless. I don't like the idea of him loose in the wind, and he should be easy enough to track. He seems to have the ability to do dimension door type teleports, which must be how he got out of Saki's pit when we first encountered him. I bet he's gonna lurk around out there, watching us, and plans to come back at the worst possible moment. We can't allow that, at least without a try at catching him."
"And we need to try and find the grave fairy and see if we can talk her into reviving Viktor again, so he can help us with the machine. If not, so be it, I'll just have to do the best I can."
"In the meantime, we stay away from the places we've seen Rasputin -- his 'places of power'. That means his personal quarters and the burned church. Next time we see him, I want this machine off so we can get at him."
"Thoughts?"
"You couldn’t have run before?" Maka shouted in Russian at the fleeing soldiers, her voice ringing with exasperation and battle-born adrenaline. Without missing a beat, she descended with fiery grace, her movements as fluid as the flames she commanded.
Touching down near the group, Maka wasted no time. She pulled Bulvi into a passionate kiss, a toothy grin spread across her face as she pulled away. The fire monk clearly still running hot from the battle.
"Good job, everyone!" Maka’s voice carried warmth as she checked on her companions, ensuring each of them was unscathed. Giving each of them a quick, tight hug.
After Quasit laid out the next steps, Maka nodded. "I’ll keep circling the camp from the air and keep an eye out. I can rejoin y'all easily and if you see me stop flying, or start blasting, you’ll know something’s up."
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Fin flies down after the troops run off…but he’s visibly disappointed that the Horseman is nowhere to be seen…
Hearing Quasit, he shrugs. ”Don’t think we’ll find him, Q…not unless he has more friends to lead…he’s not stupid, that’s for sure. Him getting outta that pit probably had more to do with that stallion from Hell. It’s a pity he fell in that pit in the first place; I had him stuck like a pincushion when he fell, another round of arrows and I think I could’ve put him down permanently…”
The Elf sighs loudly. ”Perhaps we should look for that Anastasia girl we heard tell of…if she’s under guard perhaps we’ll run into the undead bastard after all…”
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”Don’t think we’ll find him, Q…not unless he has more friends to lead…he’s not stupid, that’s for sure…”
”I’m not so sure. He’s undead — I don’t think he’s operating from self interest. He’s compelled to serve Rasputin. I’m sure he’ll be back somehow. Sure, he won’t charge the gate alone and try to match us single-handed. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we finally engaged Rasputin, only to have him pop in behind us. Don’t you think?”
”Perhaps we should look for that Anastasia girl we heard tell of…if she’s under guard perhaps we’ll run into the undead bastard after all…”
Quasit thinks briefly. ”Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about her. The poor ghost queen.”. She scratches the side of her head then shrugs. ”I suppose we can do both. The sun is about to set anyway. I think we should set up our camp in that building where we found the vampire-drained soldiers, then we can spend some time looking for the grave fairy and searching the other buildings to make sure there are no more surprises. And tomorrow morning we go hunting for Headless. I’m pretty sure you can track him. But if we can’t find him, then so be it. Fair enough?”
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After Quasit laid out the next steps, Maka nodded. "I’ll keep circling the camp from the air and keep an eye out. I can rejoin y'all easily and if you see me stop flying, or start blasting, you’ll know something’s up."
”I don’t know if constant patrolling will really be necessary. I don’t expect a new battalion to show up, and the hundred or so who fled aren’t coming back. But I would like to make sure this camp is really empty. Search all the guard towers and make sure they’re empty. We’ll give safe conduct outta here to any soldiers still hiding. Then come back so we can begin checking the other buildings. And if you see any remnants of the smoke monster and his merry zombies, feel free to light them up.”
After Quasit laid out the next steps, Maka nodded. "I’ll keep circling the camp from the air and keep an eye out. I can rejoin y'all easily and if you see me stop flying, or start blasting, you’ll know something’s up."”I don’t know if constant patrolling will really be necessary. I don’t expect a new battalion to show up, and the hundred or so who fled aren’t coming back. But I would like to make sure this camp is really empty. Search all the guard towers and make sure they’re empty. We’ll give safe conduct outta here to any soldiers still hiding. Then come back so we can begin checking the other buildings. And if you see any remnants of the smoke monster and his merry zombies, feel free to light them up.”
"Oh right, the smoke monster. Yeah let me go check on that." Maka said with a quick nod, flames swirling at her feet as she propelled herself skyward once more.
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”Aye,” Fin nods, ”fair enough, Q…but if it snows overnight, tracks might be gone…I’ve got darkvision, I can try tracking him tonight, if you wish…”
"If it starts snowing tonight, we're going to lose his trail whether we go after him tonight or tomorrow, right? I'd like us all to go after him together, in the morning, when we can all see. I think he's gonna hang around in the area and keep an eye on things here, so even if it snows overnight, there should be fresh tracks out there somewhere -- it just might take us a little longer to find them."
"If you disagree and think it's better to go now, then that's what we'll do. You're the ranger, and I trust your judgement. But what I definitely don't want is you out there alone tracking him. We don't really know what other abilities he might have, and I don't want to take any chances."
"I agree that we should secure the camp first," Kalchine says, his voice changing from a rumbling vibration to his normal tone even as his shape transforms from a huge rock ape to his regular shape.
The fire elemental finishes setting the barracks alight before Kalchine turns its attention to the ice wall.
"I don't think we should make a point of hunting down the horseman. I think we should move as quickly as we can now that we have hold of the camp. In the unlikely event that he's given up, so much the better and we're not wasting time and resources going after him. If he's set to guard the machine then we can force his hand on our time table and make him come to us once you and Viktor get started. The rest of us can handle him, if necessary," he adds his tactical view.
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Quasit purses her lips and considers.
”I don’t know… I think he’s protecting Rasputin more than the machine. And I really don’t think he’s gone for good. But it’s very possible we could spend days tramping through the snow after him if he chose to distract us, especially with his ability to teleport short distances.”
She crosses her arms and looks around and thinks a bit more.
”Well, like you say, securing the camp is the first priority. Let’s close and lock the outer gate and see what Maka finds. Then we’ll go building to building. Once we know the camp is clear, we can rest and recover spells and choose our next move tomorrow morning. For the moment I’m just glad things mostly worked out and we’re all ok.”
Looking down from the air, Maka doesn't see anything moving in the camp at present.
From her vantage point above the camp, Maka scanned the area with practiced precision. The guard towers stood silent and the buildings below showed no signs of movement.
Not seeing anything, Maka circled back to rejoin the others. Descending in a graceful arc, she landed lightly, the flames at her feet dissipating as she touched the ground. "I'm not seeing the smoke monster or anything else, Quasit. The place looks clear."
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"I'm not seeing the smoke monster or anything else, Quasit. The place looks clear."
"Well I'll be darned. We did it." says Quasit, sounding half-surprised at her own words. She basks in this realization for a moment, letting it sink in to herself, then gestures to the east.
"Well, we may as well start with those small buildings over there before we go into the main compound."
"It just took time and patience," Kalchine says, his ears flicking lightly with his smile. "And some clever strategy, a bunch of fire and a lot of arrows."
He puts action to Quasits words and starts heading for the buildings in question.
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From her position aloft, Sakitu watches the remaining soldiers break and run out of the compound. A sense of relief washes over her. That part of the fight is over and now she just needs to find her friends. She can see Maka flying around and Kalchine's immense elemental form but everyone else is invisible. Maka lands in the open space before the main gate so Sakitu directs her flight there. As she approaches she hears several voices speaking in the air and then Quasit appears. She lands and lets go of her own invisibility as Fin and Bulvi also reappear. Kalchine morphs back into his humanoid form and approaches the group as well. A moment later a visible Selena walks up.
As always, Quasit has a great plan and is outlining it. Sakitu moves right next to Fin and puts her arm around him, just listening as he argues for chasing after the headless guy. She doesn't care either way at this point. Both sides of the argument make sense to her.
Well, like you say, securing the camp is the first priority. Let’s close and lock the outer gate and see what Maka finds. Then we’ll go building to building. Once we know the camp is clear, we can rest and recover spells and choose our next move tomorrow morning. For the moment I’m just glad things mostly worked out and we’re all ok.
Sakitu nods and squeezes Fin again. "I like that plan. I finally feel like we're making progress here. I mean, I know that facing that Rasputin guy is going to be a challenge. And turning off that machine thingy. And probably other stuff too. But getting rid of all those soldiers just feels like a relief."
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"It just took time and patience," Kalchine says, his ears flicking lightly with his smile. "And some clever strategy, a bunch of fire and a lot of arrows."
Embarrassed but clearly relishing the compliment, Quasit looks at her feet and smiles broadly then shrugs. "Mostly the fire, I think. And catching them by surprise this time. It obviously freaked them out."
"I like that plan. I finally feel like we're making progress here. I mean, I know that facing that Rasputin guy is going to be a challenge. And turning off that machine thingy. And probably other stuff too. But getting rid of all those soldiers just feels like a relief."
Quasit exhales heavily in a relieved manner and nods. "Yeah, honestly I'm kinda glad they all ran off. I was prepared to have to kill them all, but I certainly didn't relish it."
"Sadly I don't think being invisible and flying is going to help us too much when we face Rasputin. But maybe he'll at least spare us any more of his condescension and gloating. I wouldn't want to be him right now, no matter how powerful he is."
Suddenly grinning energetically, she throws an arm around the necks of both Kalchine and Sakitu in an embrace of solidarity. "You guys did great. We couldn't have done it without you."
All three of these buildings are currently empty. The largest one seems to have been hastily converted into a rough barracks area, with scattered equipment belonging to some of the soldiers mixed in with blankets and improvised beds. The other two seem to have been storage sheds, with little left in them but a few shovels and empty crates.
"You got it, Quasit!" Maka replied cheerfully, her voice bright despite the lingering tension in the air. Flames flickered faintly at her heels as she followed after Fin, her golden eyes scanning the shadows with sharp focus.
Selena creates more animated snowballs and sends them out, about half patrolling the camp outside, a few with each companion, and the rest scouting the building in front of the group clearing the building, then she takes up a position to shoot with rifle or spell to cover the others, with the last snowball on her shoulder.
Selena's snowballs don't notice anything right now, but Fin, peeking through the windows of the long building, sees something horrific through a seem between heavy curtains: flayed bodies, some of them twitching slightly, chained to the walls within. A humanoid shape seems to be moving around inside, too, though with the narrow view he has he can't make much of it out.