Dempsey was literally sitting on her behind and watching the grass grow when the quest alert crossed her user screen. She leapt to her feet, andbegan swiping madly at her contacts list. the sudden gesture terrified her poor dove, and the thing burst into the air in a flurry of wings and tail before it vanished completely. Everyone she knew was either already in a group or offline.

This wouldn't do. She could wait a few hours and hope there were still openings left, or try Merkaba. She hadn't spoken to the disturbingly committed role-player in days, but if anything was going to get the odd woman to be at least a little cooperative, it was killing living trees; That was like killing two things at once, since they were already alive, and then became even more alive afterwards. She decided to try her luck

Dempsey Fabijain

"Merkaba! We have to go kill some trees, RIGHT NOW! No time to explain, they will probably try to kill us back though, so... I don't know. Be ready for that I guess. Join my group and I'll set a marker where we can meet up. "

She tapped her feet impatiently until the in-game messenger had signaled that the message was being read, then shot out a group invite. This was going to be awesome, and she hadn't faced a legitimate elemental before, so there was also that to look forward too. Dempsey would begrudgingly admit to herself that she also thought Merkaba was kind of cute in a loli-goth sort of way, and that she didn't mind being 'stuck' with her one bit, save for the excessive role-play.

Invite

Dempsey Fabijain has invited you to their party. Accept?

@Merkaba

 

Merkaba was waiting. Waiting far, far too long. She was wandering around. Purposely rising up her mana energy so that they could sense her. Somewhere out there they were waiting. Possibly even watching her. Was she that far beneath them? Her hand clenched into a fist as it glowed purple. She was growing tired of this treasure hunt. She needed that skull! Then came a strange beeping noise... what was that racket? Merkaba then remembered that this world was still full of technical stupidity that was meant to mimic a video game. This was rare, she usually was not sent emergency alerts. It is not like Merkaba was very helpful to the community or anything.

Annoyed but curious enough to at least stop the infernal beeping. She opened the alert and read. Some kind of attack by spirits of the forest. Treants and such monstrosities. Merkaba would ignore it and close the alert at first. She was not seeking to fight avatars of the woods land right now. Then another message came.... urgh.

Dempsey Fabijain

"Merkaba! We have to go kill some trees, RIGHT NOW! No time to explain, they will probably try to kill us back though, so... I don't know. Be ready for that I guess. Join my group and I'll set a marker where we can meet up. "

Her... again? Honestly it was becoming disturbing. Was there no other fools in this world that had any degree of power? Well, even if there were, they were not easy to get in touch with. Not that Elizabeth wanted to contact anyone other than good followers. Again she was about to close the message when a thought came to her. Maybe unleashing her power would attract them? It was worth a a attempt. There are not many normal beasts worth giving even the slightest bit of effort on around here anymore. These rare ttee dryads will be promising victims for her.

Invite

Dempsey Fabijain has invited you to their party. Accept?

Looking at the message again. Merkaba saw the invite button. Very well then... this hopefully will be done with quickly.

@Dempsey Fabijain

 

Hours later, she arrived at the meeting point brimming with excitement, and cautious of drawing the ire of the Oakhearts. She instead choose to linger back and meditate upon her Mudras for the time being, doing a practice exercise that expended no actual energy, but instead focused on channeling her inner power back and forth to different parts of her body. The exercise was extremely soothing, and it was quite possible that she had dozed off more than once during her exercises.

She was actually more than a little surprised that Merkaba had agreed to join her, and she couldn't help but wonder what was in it for the other woman. Plenty of good and natural things for her to destroy much closer to home, probably. She felt that on some level Merkaba felt a similar drive to her own; to seek out and overcome challenges simply for the purpose of elevating her own power. She doubted they would ever be friends, or even allies except for rare occasions such as this, but she could at least respect that about her.

She refocused on her meditation, and began to activate a detection mudra, slowly repeating the same series of hand formations and chants that would spread a wide but extremely faint field of her own power over the area. the skill was beyond her to use in a real life situation, but given a few moments to prepare and focus, she could sense life forms a good distance away. That is how she discovered the woman approaching. She released the technique, stood and dusted herself off. Her bird instinctively knew that something was about to happen, and the snowy dove perched itself on her shoulder, seeking the safety of it's owners presence from the coming unknown.

 

The edge of Adecus Forest. It was not a direction that Merkaba had ever yet traveled. It was a heavy woodland even this far from the center of the forest. Her figure was like a looming shadow between the trees. The power of darkness would not be something that the dryads would tolerate. They would likely become enraged by her use of forbidden magic that stood for such anti life energy, After a bit more, the dark lady would stop and begin to chant under her breath to herself. Her hand reached up and closed into a fist, then opened to read her pane.

Her map showed that this was the area. That Dempsey woman should be here by now. The animal woman was more adept to the wild than Merkaba, and had seen the alert before her possibly. There was no excuse for the Felis to be late. Merkaba closed the menu and continued to chant slowly. purposely letting her magic grow in the area. The witch wanted to draw out the tree creatures. Her scythe materialized into her right hand. She went to a nearby tree and began to draw a small marking onto it by burning it with black mana into a cursed sign. It would be impossible to set up a huge field here in time before the battle began, but there was no reason not to set up a few markings in the area for the possibilities they offered her.

She chanted and placed her cursed marks on six trees. There was a strange sound in the air. It was not a normal creature. It was like a low moaning. A grumble that shook the tree leaves around her. So... they could tell she was infecting their brethren could they? Good.... they would enjoy the rest even more. Finishing the last mark on the sixth tree. She readied herself, grasping her scythe with both hands horizontally. She began to focus her mana and wait for chant the trigger spell for her magic. All the while the silly cat girl was not here... maybe it really was not that surprising.

@Dempsey Fabijain

 

As Dempsey approached, she could tell that Merkaba hadn't noticed her yet, or simply choose to ignore her presence. The woman was doing something or other to a ring of trees, and she thought it best to remain concealed and well away from whatever spell the other woman was casting. Merkaba struck her as none to concerned with whom or what was caught in her cross fire. She waited for whatever was about to happen to happen, assuming correctly that it would be loud and particularly infuriating to a a pair of rampaging tree spirits.

Now that events had begun to unfold, she knew it was too dangerous trying to use a detection mudra to pinpoint the location of the two sentient trees they'd chosen to track down and destroy, but she could do something even better, and prepare a ranged energy blast. With Merkaba doing everything in her power to make the already angry tree spirits angrier, she figured she'd have all the figurative time in the world to prepare another skill that she hadn't quite gotten down to an art yet.

Agan she began a complex series of hand gestures and chants, drawing energy and storing it. Her current mastery of the skill made this a slow process, and she could do little to prevent herself from being detected while she prepared. She began to feel her hair standing on end as her control slipped a bit, and she redoubled her effort, determined to execute this technique for the first time outside her dimly lit practice chamber deep underneath the city of Stokbon.

@Merkaba

 

​

The trees would bend and sway. Loud cracking sounds were heard as the ground shook underfoot. Merkaba was about to finish her spell. She heard what she thought was someone smaller in the vicinity. Perhaps the cat girl had arrived. Regardless it did not matter now. The battle was about to begin. The creatures of nature were approaching as fast as a large lumbering tree could. Two of them it seemed. From the north and northeast. The time had come to end this chant. Merkaba spun her scythe and the marks on each tree activated. A black fire engulfed each mark. Then a steady stream of energy flowed from each mark towards the dark lady. They connected with her spinning weapon. If one was in the air and looking down. They would see a purple wheel shape int he forest. Merkaba was the center of that wheel.

Raising the scythe up into the air. The trees with the marks became like pillars. The dark energy engulfing them. She began to focus and energy blasted off from the trees. Heading towards the Lumbering Oakhearts. It would stream into two condensed dark beams that crashed into the creatures. The energy burned their bark like flesh and began to soften it as it would rot where the darkness impacted. They roared with their ancient voices. The attack was not enough to stop them however they now knew she was a worthy opponent. They both were slightly unbalanced from the blast but would take appropriate action to ensure she would not get that kind of attack off again.

​

Merkaba having finished her spell thought quickly. She would have a very short time to cast another spell but after that the monsters would be back on the attack. She chanted the spell from her encounter so long ago with the wolves. Her power was so much less back then. This version of the spell would be much more effective.

"Edidere saltantium umbra umbra umbra ,. Noctu volare. Unbrightly semper ardebit quasi chorum saltare Umbrarum Vel! Utere me ut tuo virga..."

A ring of dark spheres appeared around her. More than before and larger. Now was the time to take the fight to the dryads...

@Dempsey Fabijain

​

 

Dempsey took this opportunity to reveal her presence, stepping out of the shadows of the dark forest and forming the hand seal that would complete here technique. the bolt of energy that issued forth was not on par with Merkabas, but it was enough to do considerable damage to the Oakheart nearest the other woman. Coupled with the preexisting damage from Merkabas attack, the results were considerable. Already deteriorated and corrupted, parts of the animated tree simply crumbled to dust under the bright flash of energy.

Dempsey knew the thing would be far from finished though, even if their combined attacks had grievously wounded and staggered the thing that was so natural as to have gone full circle and become unnatural. She paused only for the briefest of seconds. The technique was draining in ways that would be hard for other to understand, but the effect was immediate and noticeable. she was not sweaty nor was she winded, but simply felt drained as if she'd completed A long days worth of manual labor and had just now set down her tools and declared herself done for the day.

In this case however, her own body was the tool in question, and the work day was just getting started. She knew that given a moment or two, the worst of the intense sensation of exhaustion would pass as her body would both absorb chakra from the surrounding environment, and redouble it's own efforts to replenish and restore the natural balance that existed in all living things. She took her position a handful of feet to the left of Merkkaba and remarked "I was wondering when you were going to get here. Sorry I was late to the party, but I didn't think you'd start without me. I was... preparing."

She turned to their opponents and made a remark that was both observation and suggestion;
"I cant quite explode a hundred year old oak with a single punch quite yet, and I think my Katar would only annoy them. If you can keep softening them up with your Male-whater-mancy, I can do the rest though. Unless you had a different plan in mind?"

@Merkaba

((I dig the new portrait btw))

 

The Felis had shown up after all. It was both a good and bad thing. The question of whether the dark lady could reap these two dryads alone now could never be answered. However now she had a human shield and could be done with this sooner. Dempsey brought herself dangerously close to Merkaba. As if the energy orbs around her gave the idiot cat no concern. Brave or utterly reckless. Well, let it be. Merkaba had a objective and it was time to go about it. The Felis made some comments. Merkaba refused to show too much camaraderie with the girl. This was just a passing moment that they would work together. She barely needed the cat if at all.

"Malefimancy. Go do whatever it is you do."

The witch would say nothing else. Moving quickly, she headed for the further Oakheart. Stopping abruptly just outside of it's massive swing that sent down the trees around it. The large trunk of a fist would bust through several of her frontal orbiting orbs. Causing them to burst with dark energy. The fist stub would burn and melt from the rotting effects of her magic. Raising it's fist up in pain and rage. Merkaba would take this chance to chant a few words as she rushed in to slice with her scythe. The blade radiated purple as it cut into the bark like skin. Again eroding and rotting the creature where it was struck. Right as her blade struck the remaining orbs were circling around. Smashing into the creatures side one after the other.The witch would let the damage pile up and quickly move to the dryads left as it would raise up and bring down it's undamaged arm to try and crush her.

Merkaba was now out of orbs and her magic energy was starting to drop. However the damage to this creature was substantial. It was smoking and in pain.The creature had made a almost fatal mistake in underestimating the human but it was not stupid. It knew that she was faster and that it's flesh was weak against her rotting magic. The ancient tree monster would ensure that it's fist slam, even though it would miss, would cause as much of a tremor as possible. Causing the witch's small frame to become unbalanced. It would then swipe it's arm to the left to try and knock her away from it.

@Dempsey Fabijain

 

She Mindful of her own limitations, she would clap her hands together and invoke one of the few basic mudra she could muster at a moments notice. Inhuman strength surged through her ample frame and she exploded from her stance, launching herself at her chosen target. She let out a strained grunt as she absorbed a blow from the thing and was driven back several inches. These oakhearts were freakishly powerful and she felt herself almost overwhelmed by the force of the blow. She made a mental note that even with her briefly heightened strength, it would be in her best interest to dodge instead of trying to guard directly against their attacks.

Now on the offensive, she darted and dodged around the lumbering thing, delivering shattering blows when and where she could, focusing on the areas already weakened by Merkabas corruption when she could. It wouldn't be long till she'd have to retreat and simply stall for time until her chakra had replenished enough to engage the thing once again but for now, she took full advantage, using her natural agility to bounce and vault up the dryads wooden frame until she was high off the ground and perched on the things shoulders.

She kept her stance low in order to maintain her balance, well aware of her precarious position and the dire consequences of a fall from this height to the feet of her enraged quarry. Before the thing could move to throw her off. She focused all of her remaining power into a devastating flurry, landing a series of vicious right hook punches that sent bark and wood splinters flying in all directions. This would likely be the best opportunity she'd have to finish the thing, and she didn't want to squander it.

She never actually saw the damage done until she'd vaulted up and away and landed with backwards tumble. The thing was badly damaged now from the culmination of corruption and sheer brute force. It let lose with an unnatural wail that sounded like a thousand trees groaning under gale force winds and dropped to a knee. Both combatants simply stared at one another, both stalling for time as they waited for the other to move. At her normal strength, she would lose a battle of attrition with an opponent this formidable every time, and her reserves of chakra were all but depleted. The Oakheart, on the other hand had been damaged considerably, and needed to recover and harvest the energy from it's surroundings.

the temporary stalemate was punctuated by the sounds of Merkaba engaged in her own struggle nearby.

@Merkaba

 

The battle between Dempsey and the other Oakheart continued in the distance. The two 'partners' had successfully kept the dryads apart even if it was not immediately intended. The two females were among the strongest of those sent on this mission and it was showing. In that even these, the heavy hitters of the tree monster army, were not finding this battle easy. Far from it. Merkaba's Oakheart had swung at her while she was left unbalanced from the tremor. This was a slight bit of poor judgement on the witch's part. Her attempt to attack again had to be canceled into a block. The fist hit her hard with mighty back swing. Her body was blown back a good deal. The push back was stopped by a nearby tree however.

A sharp pain shot through Merkaba's body as the impact shook her elegantly delicate frame. Her scythe did not break from the attack amazingly. Still standing up even and withstanding the shock, the dark witch was far from impressed. This creature could fight back. Very nice, unfortunately it was too late for the literal beast of nature. It's body was already heavily decayed. Merkaba would bring about it's death shortly. The monster turned and reached for a nearby tree with it's only good arm, it's left one. Merkaba found that amusing. It would try to use one of it's own kind against her as a weapon? So much for these things protecting nature...

She chanted another spell as quickly as possible. She had to beat the creature to it or it would cause problems. Luckily all of these spells she had used before and they did not require the same medium to high end preparation as her first attack or a soul drain ritual would.

"A procella caedis in abyssum irent. Veni in manus tua, et non faciunt. Hoc iter orbis terrarum, et conteret inimicis meis inanis. Daemonium in ungue!"

Her hand shot to the ground and a ripple of shadow spread outwards before vanishing. The dryad had pulled a large tree out of the earth, roots and all. It roared a deep murmur as it tilted back, it's body somewhat unable to carry the weight on it's rotting body. It went for the throw! Merkaba stood up with her eyes on it. She suddenly stopped paying attention to the creature and generated a energy potion. Taking a drink casually. The dryad became more furious! The pompous human would die here!

*CLASP*

A dark claw of pure purplish mana came straight out of the ground where the creature was standing. It closed it's shadowy fingers into the beasts torso. Tearing into the rotted bark and causing even more decay. The Oakheart dropped it's tree projectile and felt the claws melting right into the bark. It howled deeply as the monster's body crumpled into large fragments of rotten wood. The claw then vanished into the ether from whence it was formed. Merkaba walked over, looking upon her handiwork as she tossed the empty potion bottle into the rotted mass.

"My... such a mess. I suppose it will not hurt to add more trash to your heap now would it?"

The dark witch would turn and see what the punching cat was doing. Hopefully not falling on her face. Nah, that was a Alphabet exclusive trait....


@Dempsey Fabijain

 

Dempsey had to finish this soon, and waiting for her chakra to replenish was simply out of the question. She could dance around the animated tree for several moments, or simply flee for the time being, but she was willing to do anything at this point to avoid being upstaged by Merkaba. Her magical skills were impressive, but Dempsey needed to make an impression that she was her equal, or even more dangerous than the magician. She resorted to her ace in the hole, a heavy glass flask of highly flammable and equally volatile liquid. It seemed like a bit of a primitive tactic, but she felt the need to do something that would look visually impressive, and also buy her a little more time.

With a slight boost to her speed with what chakra she could afford, she quickly closed the distance between her and her battered opponent. She deftly dodged a downward foot stomp from the thing and rolled between it's legs. Immediately after, she scampered up the things rough back, leaping and swinging from one handhold to the next with agility that was nothing short of impressive. As the thing reached behind to swat at her, she swung up onto it's shoulder and returned to her perch next to the creatures head and produced a melon sized ceramic jug which she hastily crushed over the things head, spilling a thick and vaporous liquid down it's head and torso. She dodged a few more awkward but still dangerous attacks until she had time to fetch her Pyromancy shard. A touch of chakra funneled into the stone would create a small flame still large enough to ignite the now obviously flammable liquid she had doused the living tree with.

The effect was marvelous; Once again Dempsey leapt to safety as the creatures head and torso were immediately engulfed in intense blue flame. It bellowed and screeched in anger and agony, clawing off wide swaths of it's own barky flesh in a pitiful attempt to snuff the flames that were already spreading out of control. She simply stood, posed and preparing her final mudra as the thing fought a terrible and one sided battle with the flames that blinded and consumed it's wooden flesh, until finally it collapsed. Dempsey approached it with steel eyes and a somber chant that would become the creatures funeral dirge. After a brief pause to examine what she had done, she released the technique, and let lose with a feral cry and a powerful foot stomp that would completely crush the creatures head. It's body slowly convulsed once with a soft wooden groan, then went limp.

She was so lost in the intense moment that she almost forgot about her reluctant partner Merkaba. Dempsey turned to see how she was faring, but was spent to the point where Ms. Hoopskirt and scythe would likely be on her own for the duration, though Dempsey admitted that she would relish a chance to rescue a damsel in distress, if only for the knowledge that such an event would irk her for months to come.

@Merkaba

 

Merkaba would see a ruined and burnt corpse by Dempsey's figure. Well now, perhaps the cat was not completely incompetent. The witch could smell the burnt tree bark. It was odd but Merkaba was somewhat pleased with this. She moved to the corpse ignoring the Felis for a moment. Then she looked to Dempsey and gestured to the dryad's corpse, or what was left of it. Her voice was not praising however it was not demeaning either.

"Well it is certainly dead. Good."

Jerking her scythe she unequipped it. Her energy was restoring due to the potion but her physical body was becoming tired. She was still sore in the back from the slamming into a tree earlier. This was not something Merkaba made apparent of course. None could ever see weakness from her. It would cause problems in the future if she appeared too normal. Intimidation was how she got by sometimes. The witch opened her menu and kept her information to her self. The battle with the forest dryad army was still occurring in other areas. Whatever. She had her exercise and increased her fame some. The view that she was a dark mage was one thing, but her worse acts were left to secrecy and seclusion. She still had to infiltrate that Asian mage group as well. The Brotherhood or some such thing. That would be a entertaining pass time.

Closing her pane she gave one last look at the cat. Her eyes evaluating her.

"I've done as much as I want to here. You may go fight more if you'd like. It was... not completely unpleasant working with you this time."

Merkaba turned away and began to make her leave. It would be amusing to see how the king's guards would react when she brings the proof of a dead Oakheart, a piece of it's actual face, to them. She had never met the king. She wondered if their may be a audience made for the 'heroes' in the future? Oh the possibilities that could make.

@Dempsey Fabijain

[COMPLETE?]