“Hurry! They’re near to the city. We’ve got to get out of here.” People pushed and screamed throughout the streets. They cared not for those before them or their neighbors. It was madness and chaos. Alaric’s eyes furrowed as he shoved his way through the crowd. He made his way through the pouring flesh of civilians, fighting through their current path. “Yeesh, this is getting ridiculous.” Alaric was pushed hard on his right. A nasty-looking man sneered at him. [color:b23f=#orange] “Move out of the way you idiot.” Alaric’s expression hardly changed. He was already beyond annoyed. With a simple shove, the man was sent tumbling into those behind him.

“Maybe the streets were not the best course of action to move about.” He pondered. “No shit wolf for brains. Either blow a path before us with the corpses of these peasants or take to the skies.” Pyreaus, the demon he had recently made a contract with felt inclined to inject himself into Alaric’s thoughts. The demon did have a point, up above the crowd he’d be able to move with ease. It was just a matter of stamina. Alaric did not feel the desire to exert himself too much and flying would do just that. Instead, he could rely on his other movement-based abilities.

The commotion of the man tumbling into the crowd had served as a brief reprieve of the crowd around him. A magic circle appeared beneath him and off he went, soaring high into the sky above him. A dramatic ariel flip allowed him to reposition himself before another magic circle would appear thrusting him not only higher into the sky but aimed towards a nearby rooftop. He’d be able to use them to navigate the streets fairly quickly. The city was made of homes carved into the trees themselves. You needed only to rise above the roofs and you could easily make work of the network of branches to move about. It wouldn’t take him long to reach his destination by moving in this manner.

Upon reaching the rooftop, a third movement spell launched him upwards once more to those lower branches. As he landed the panic of the crowd below had dramatically been muffled. He was no more than twelve or so meters high above the crowd but it was enough distance that only the loudest of those below could be heard clearly. “That’s better.” he murmured to himself. Once he was free of the congestion of the ground, Alaric made swift timing. He moved through the branches until he reached the outer walls of the city. There, from this vantage point, he noticed the looming threats. Giants nearly as tall as he was high marched towards the city. “Well shit.” He huffed. It seemed that the night was going to be longer than expected.

While there were some off in the distance, Alaric’s gaze shifted. A few had managed to get ahead of their brothers and sisters. A few were engaged with a group of wizards and swordsmen while others seemed to have slipped past and entered the regions of the city closest to the attack. Alaric’s mind was made up quickly and decisively. ” We’ll start there.” Alaric’s body had already moved about taking the position of an archer. A flame flickered to life at once and drew itself out to form an arrow. He released his stance and the arrow darted off hastily towards the giant wrecking the city. Its impact aimed at the beast’s head; he hoped to gain its attention. As the best did turn towards Alaric he smirked. “Too easy.” He used one last movement spell to blast forward and strike the giant firmly on the head with a kick. A blast of fire erupted and the force propelled the beast and Alaric apart. Expecting the blast, Alaric road the shock and found refuge on a nearby building’s roof. The creature stumbled for a bit while her head was aflame. After a moment it collapsed to the ground, dead.

More had entered the city and started to make their way through the town. There were still the giants heading towards the city too. Alaric did not think he alone could prevent the rampage and the city’s help was already preoccupied and overwhelmed. He prayed there were others nearby to assist or Orchidia might not survive the night.

WC 753

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“MOVE! HURRY! Leave your stuff behind and just GO!” The innkeeper’s words echoed throughout the hall. The blaring sounds of the alarm in the establishment were signaling an emergency evacuation was in effect. Doors were slamming open and closed as people scurried around frantically trying to gather whatever they could before leaving. Zeno awoke from all the commotion outside his room and window, curious as to what was going on, he opened his room door. One of the staff members bumped into him as they were about to open his door at the same time he did.“umph…H-hey man! Come on, come on, we have to evacuate the city! We are in a state of emergency!” The panicked fidgety man watched Zeno for a little longer before racing to the next room. Turning his back to double-check, if Zeno evacuated as told, only to see the room door was closed again. “Ughh, whatever, I warned him at least…” Feeling frustrated, he continued to help evacuate as many people as possible.

“Never a day of peace in the city is there, always so active…Let’s see how bad things are this time” taking a deep breath to gather himself before making his way towards the window. Not wasting any more time, Zeno sprouted his insect wings with an orange and yellow pattern mimicking that of stained glass and flew out the window. Flying above the inn’s roof, he got to see a better view of the city in its current state. The scene he saw was utter chaos. “First things first, I should hit the gates to access the situation first hand” Zeno's wings flapped slowly as he hovered several feet over the inn. Locking his eyes on the direction of the gate, he launched himself forward at full speed.

Endless cries and screams of terror filled the streets as the ground rumbled. People of Orchida frantically fled for their lives. The city streets were more congested than during peak hours. Guards stationed around intersections guided the waves of people far away from the gates, leading them further into the city where it was more secure. Some civilians were too scared of the monsters on the street level to leave, so they took refuge on the rooftops of buildings. As Zeno grew closer to the gates he noticed mages and swordsmen battling these titanic monsters bursting through the gate. “What in the world are these creatures!? Definitely cannot let these things live” Feeling excited, getting his hands busy and intrigued by what he had just seen, Zeno dashed over to the mages and swordsmen showering them with mana sprinkling out from his wings to empower them. Changing his position to stand behind them as they launched an onslaught of attacks on the titans that breached the gates. A slew of elemental projectiles engulfed several of them, but they seemed to only barely slow down. The swordsmen attacked the legs of the damaged titans bringing them down to their knees before getting their faces and necks impaled, leaving them lifeless. “Good, they can be killed. We need to reinforce the gate with our magic while the others are still far back! Hurry!” Zeno ordered the surrounding mages and followed after them, clapping his hands together, gathering mana between the palms of his hands to create a magic circle on the inner wall of the gate sprouting layers of thick medium-sized tree roots forming a blockade where the gate was breached. Flapping his wings to fly on top of the gate, he took a moment to take a much-needed deep breath while looking around for any other allies.

WC 613

Spells/Transformation used:

"OI YOU LOT! GET YOUR ARSES IN GEAR! THE CITY IS BURNING! GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN!"

The party outside couldn't compare to the party happening within. As one of the local taverns was more than buzzing to the brim with laughter and merriment when the absolute chaos broke out on the street of Orchidia. At first all had been as it should have been. Talented bards playing an upbeat arrangement while pretty young things sang songs of days long past. The very literal sea of people who crammed the tavern's lodgings from one floor to the next either dancing, singing, or waving their cups along with the music. While others catered to their satisfactions in other means such as gambling away their last few jewels or curling up by the fireplace in the comfort of each other's wandering hands. Whatever your poison there was something for everyone to indulge that night of all nights. The heart of celebration was strong for them all and nothing would see it end until the very last drop of night faded into morning.

At least that had been the hopes of every soul within those walls, until it was all brought crashing down. Drowned out at first by the music and banter, a few frantic folks hopped up on the bar counter. Their frenzied shouting growing more unhinged by the minute. "THIS IS ISN'T A JOKE! THERE'S GIANT MONSTERS OUTSIDE ATTACKING THE CITY! GRAB YOUR LOVED ONES AND RUN!" Most were hesitant at first thinking that a few drunkards had made it to the bottom of one too many barrels. That said, with the urgency of their pleas getting more intense with each attempt it was clear to tell looking out across the room that some were becoming unnerved enough to believe that something was indeed was going on. A few even sheepishly shuffling through the pool of people to escape the uncomfortable setting as quickly as they could.

It was at that moment that the final nail in the coffin of doubt would strike. As no sooner did a few patrons attempt to step out the front door did an all powerful vortex of wind spiral through the doorway. A massive foot following in it's destructive wake as the tavern was split down the middle. Staff, patrons, and everything inside being blasted away by the sheer momentum of the giant that was using it as a stomping ground. If not for the building itself being one of the larger scale taverns in Orchidia there would have been almost no trace of it left aside from scattered pieces of building and crimson skid marks on the stonework hiding underneath it all.

By some deranged miracle there were a few survivors buried alive among the rubble and remnants that remained. Of their numbers most were wounded in some horrendous fashion with the frightening exception of two very specific men. If you could even call them that. The more beastly of the two clawed his way through the wreckage in a vicious display of outrage. His physical form almost as terrifying as the giant's own as he partly shattered a stone slab that was impeding his ability to get up and onto his feet. As he rose to his full stance his skin melded bit by bit into a metallic layer of plating. His eyes, wide with wrathful energy, glowered with a vibrant red shine.

As soon as he was mobile enough Goji dashed headlong towards the titan as it kneeled down to grab at one of the injured people below. Taking this as a perfect opportunity to act while it was distracted he reeled back one of his hands into a tightly bound fist. Arm completely drawn out to put some extra power on the thrust as the moment the titan's face was close enough to the ground he would take a leaping dive at it's head. Letting loose the pent up fury in one firmly planted punch that struck across it's temple with no restraint to speak of. The discomfort that followed causing the titan to stumble back only now with it's attention solely focused on him. "That's right you son of bitch! Look at me!"

[ WC - 703/2000 ] @Altuo Dorian

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