RP: 5th Fleet [Chapter Eight] Castles and Catgirls

With an actual weapon in his hand, Werner could actually do something. Within moments of grasping at the primitive weapon, he found joy rapidly stabbing at every green mongrel with the natives behind him, it was too easy. Sometimes, Werner could almost make out that distinct sound of bones cracking under pressure through the constant bashing the enemy was giving his spear. Though it was very enjoyable, something made Werner's instincts finally click, it was the sweet sweet sound of an order.

Werner skipped away from the frontline and forced his way through the ranks with a smile on his face, "Welp boys, looks like this is the part where I leave you! Sorry 'bout that, good soldiers follow orders after all"

In a few moments, Werner found himself before the crumbling door and beside Yuuktio.

"Alright, the plan, what is it?"

A deep current of anger thrummed through Bia's muscles as she snatched her spear from off the ground and stalked after Yuukito and Werner. As the Elysian brushed past the Minkan she stopped and turned her attention towards the younger woman. Glaring at the soldier's mace Bia's face turned into a series of slits - eyes, mouth, wrinkled skin - all angled towards a single distasteful visage.

The Elysian shoved her spear against the brunette's chest and capped a hiss with a glob of spit hitting the dirt. The wing-hidden woman reached out and made a half hearted slap towards Yuukito's mace and then turned her hand so that her finger was pressing against the center of her sternum. "Tha' gob's damn mounts -" Bia spoke up harshly over the snarls and howls across the gate. " 'ere-" Her finger jabbed - once, twice - roughly against the other woman's bone. "- nothin' bu' muscle." The Elysian's hand pulled back and she reached up and let her thumb caress its way from the tip to end of her spear's blade. Rivulets of red skittered down in wake of her finger's passage and when Bia turned her attention toward Yuukito again a smile as sharp as the weapon's head adorned hers. "Blood beloves blood."

The scientist received a curt nod as Bia's face wiped itself clean of emotion and the older woman walked past. The Elysian's sword - double-edged and with a blade nearly two feet in length - was pulled into her left hand while her right unhooked her buckler from her belt. Placing herself in line between the two Minkan, Bia knocked Werner's shield arm with an elbow so his shield shifted to an angle to deflect blows. "Learn y'self." The Elysian grunted out before turning her glare towards the man's stance. "B'nd tha' fron' knee mer'."

All the attention she could spare used up for now Bia turned her attention away from her shoulder fellows. Blood already ran freely down the crook-nosed fighter's hand, but she kept her weapon pointed down for now to let the liquid squirm along the steel of her blade instead of soaking through her grip. A few drops dripped on the ground and the Elysian spat in their direction without moving her eyes off the cracking, crackling gate.

Yuukito let out a squeak of surprise as a spear was shoved into her hands, staring dumbly at Bia as the Elysian lectured her and slapped the mace from her hands. What the hell is she saying? Before Yuukito could ponder it much more, she received a few sharp jabs from Bia's fingers, squeaking girlishly with each poke, before watching with a mix of concern and disgust as Bia cut herself on the spear's tip. She took a moment to shake the spear tip clean of blood; admittedly, it was a better weapon for this situation, and nervously moved to join Bia and Werner by the gate.

Werner awkwardly adjusted himself according to the Elysian's gestures. She had this aura of confidence that made Werner's heart stop, it was too similar to Sif's. If anything, the way she spoke sounded like an entirely new language that no amount of technology or study could ever hope to translate what was said. That made Bia even more frightening in Werner's eyes. The fear was so great that Werner had unconsciously braced himself for the enemy charge, shield tucked in close and holding the blunt end of the spear to the ground for support with knees bent. That's what she wanted right? To have Werner's knee bend?

Flaming Gate of Fire

"Walstra," Sif called Werner by his last name. He suddenly felt the tiniest feet on top of his head. "At least try not to give it all away," she sternly reminded him. Though the jig was up in the Elvish Enclave, they were back out and about in this world. Though a part of her wished they were still fighting the Mishhu so the weak and foolish would be pruned, she sighed. The Mini-Neko tried not to pay attention to how miserable the majority of them were as soldiers. "What you're dealing with is cavalry. So Stay close together and use the spears you picked up so they don't bite your throats out." The wooden gates cracked, grumbled, groaned. "They're coming."

As the wood finally crumbled into ash and collapsed under its own weight, the fires burning away at the hinges, the Star Army soldiers watched as giant wolves laden with leather clad monsters came rushing out of the devil's ass.

"Roger that." Werner whispered back to Sif, and focused his attention back to the gates.

Closing in on Bia's shoulder, Werner gleefully followed his new command. Werner aimed his spear against the wolves chest, and simply waited for the Wolves to run to their deaths if they were that stupid.

"Come on you vermin-ridden curs! " Werner growled, lunging his spear against the massive wolves.

The focus was on the wolvesas they were a lot stronger than a single goblin in a fight, and if the beast is brought down then any rider would be exposed for a brief moment. Just long enough to get a clean execution. The key was going to involve on getting one of these damn wolves to attack so that Werner could counter, hold the mouth of the beast open with the parma, and ramming a spear right through the soft pallet.

Yuukito was glancing anxiously to and fro at the others, uncomfortable at how there was just the three of them to stave off the wolves, discounting Sif. "A-are you sure we can handle these things?" she squeaked nervously to the tiny, impassive neko, trying to adjust her stance to match that of the others. The scientist seemed much less steeled for the assault, as when the gates collapsed and the cavalry rushed in, Yuukito let out a girlish cry of fright. She managed to stay in line, albeit only just, impaling a wolf through the heart on her spear before nervously trying to shake it off like a spider on a broom. The minkan wasn't prepared for the rider of the wolf, who clambered over its fallen steed to practically leap onto Yuukito, who staggered away with another girlish squeal, wrestling with the goblin.

Filth caked razor claws dug furrows out of Bia's hip and drug further along the Elysian's thigh as her sword brought the soldier and cavalry in a range equal to the other. The long blade of the xiphos sunk away to nothing as it submerged itself into the wolf's chest and was left to lie after a brutal twist.

Bia was a crimson soaked whip as she shifted around the falling animal and launched herself at its rider. The goblin's jagged blade nearly rasped bone as it chewed through the Elysian's arm. The creature received a sharp, reverberating crack of a headbutt as a reward. Before it could recover the edge of Bia's buckler was slamming over and over into her enemy's throat until the small shield was left embedded stiffly between two puckered ruins of flesh.

Unarmed, with her vision pulsing as red as the split wounds on her body, Bia turned to where Yuukito was wrestling on the ground. The need for the group to get back on their feet and get a spear back in the minkan woman's hand snarled through the old soldier. Her voice caught in her throat and instead of any command a deep, animal growl rolled throughout the Elysian's frame.

Kicking off the corpses she had made the bloodstained fighter tackled herself into Yuukito's opponent in an attempt to separate them.

Tomiko cracked one more goblin skull before obeying the tiny warrior. She turned and ran towards the gate, hooking her mace to her belt. She picked up a spear as she passed by. The gate fell before she could get in position. She charged to defend the fallen Minkan. "Get up, Yuukito!" Tomiko yelled.

The Nekovalkyrja made a frightening sight. She was almost covered head to toe with goblin blood and gore. Her spider silk dress was the only exception. The unique properties seemed to keep the blood from soaking in. She felt a little bad for the wolves. The goblins were evil but the wolves seemed to be nothing more than slaves. It saddened her to have to kill them. I'll only kill the ones I have to, she told herself.

A wolf with a goblin slightly larger and tougher than most riding on its back charged at Tomiko. She dropped to her knees and brought her spear up at the last second. It pierced the wolf's chest and popped out of the back, dropping it instantly. The dead body slammed into her anyway, knocking her flat on her back. Tomiko heaved the wolf off of her and jumped to her feet.

She looked around for the rider, who seemed to have disappeared. A sound to her right drew her attention. She spun and thrust her buckler forward, blocking a surprisingly strong blow from the creature's axe. The medic pulled her mace free with her other hand and swung at the goblin. He dodged and countered, forcing her to take a step back. "I think I need some help here. This one is different." She said telepathically to the others.

Not Dancing With Wolves

"Me? Sure you can handle them? No. Not really," Sif replied, her voice flat.

As Werner shoved his spear down the throat of a wolf and blocked the sword swing of its rider, it was clear that though their thorny defense drew first blood on these wolf riders, their luck wasn't going to hold for long. Circling around them like the hungry pack they were, the wolves lunged and feinted at the spear wielding soldiers while the riders hacked and slashed at them, trying to bat aside their spears. Just one moment of hesitation, just one mistake, was all they needed to break them, and they found it. As Yuukito fell, a crushing bite came down on her ankle as she was dragged away. At the same time, Bia didn't fare much better; the green skinned, foul smelling creature tumbled with the Elysian, but managed to come out on top, straddling her. Though it had lost its blade, the dagger it quickly drew threatened to plunge right into her - wrestling for it, Bia was fighting for her life!

Worse still, Tomiko watched the strange goblin she was fighting off suddenly back away. Though it pressured her hard moments ago, red eyes glowing with evil as it had swing at her, the creature had another idea. Cackling, it reached for its belt - another fire bomb. It lit the crude wick, and with a wicked, twisted smile at the Neko, burst into flames as Sif landed on its wrist and grabbed the lanyard, smashing the clay into its face. The hideous screams made them all pause in horror.

"Kill them? There's only four left now," the Mini-Neko remarked, sounding rather bored.

With shock and awe, the tides were suddenly in their favor.

Doggo, Please

Though her allies had managed to relieve her of the goblin attacking her in close quarters, Yuukito found herself being dragged away from her comrades, screaming in pain from the bite on her ankle. "Aaaaah!" she screamed, hefting her spear and jabbing it at the wolf that had her by the leg, using her other leg to kick at its muzzle. "Get off me!"

I am going to kill you.

Bia didn't require any use of her telepathy to transmit her message - her teeth showed each word quite clearly through the wild smile they had locked themselves into. As the dagger came down Bia's arm came up. Blood pumped freely from the new wound decorating the Elysian, but the enemy's strike had been deflected away from her chest.

The old soldier's eyes would momentarily remind the goblin of one the wolves it had been a rider of before Bia's necked snapped forward in motion - a myriad of points being added to her 'conversation' with the creature as she bit her way into the wrist of the goblin's knife hand. Jerking her head and back towards the ground - ignoring the flare of pain from her wings and the new cut across her face as the dagger chewed into her cheek - Bia wrapped her arms around the greenskinned combatant in a crushing embrace. As it was brought in close the creature joined Bia in having its blood shed by the knife it had been holding - the blade tearing through an ear and grinding to a halt against its head.

Blood dripping from off her lips the Elysian shook her head as her teeth tore back and forth through the vein she had clamped down upon. Not being able to see the goblin - or even hear it as it was being smothered tightly to her chest - the blood-covered warrior just took her time adjusting her grip to her squirming prey as she watched the sky above.

Mioshi glanced at the retreating wolf, with its goblin rider atop it, that had snapped its jaws around Yuukito.

For just the briefest moment, Mioshi got annoyed. What had Yuukito done this entire time but flail ineffectively? Mioshi got back to the business of fighting, reviewing the information contained within her glance as a still within her digital mind. There were four wolves circling, and one wolf pulling the girl away. Why? Had there been anything unique about the rider? No. The wolf would probably be running towards the palisade. This seemed like something that goblins did. Kidnap women, eat them, do whatever they did with them, enough that the darkest mind probably couldn't conjure up the torture voluntarily.

Mioshi and Tomiko had been holding this circle down, and doing simple math, Mioshi couldn't pursue that wolf at the risk of letting more of these Standard Fleet Fighters get dragged down - though she could probably catch it.

So, still fighting, she sent to Yuukito - "Duck!"

She sped up her perception of time.

Slowly came on the circling wolf. Mioshi felt the grain of the wooden stave, twisted it just so, thrust it out. Where could she take her hand off of her weapon? Here. She stepped back into the circle, took another glance. She calculated trajectory. Slowly, it felt, she reached into the hem of her garment, the left bracer, and pulled. The little throwing knife came free into her hand. She felt the balance of it. She felt the path of it.

She threw for the creature's eye.

Tomiko turned towards the sound of Yuukito's scream, leaving herself open to attack from the other wolves. She chased after the wolf dragging her away, not seeing the dagger thrown by Mioshi. "Yuukito, I'm coming!" The medic yelled. Her instincts told her this was a terrible idea. She didn't care, she had to save the girl. If the wolf got away she would be dead or worse.

An idea took hold in her mind. She concentrated on the idea of static building up in the palm of her hand. A glowing, crackling ball of electricity formed in her palm. Somehow it didn't burn her skin. She thrust out her hand with a finger pointed at the wolf, picturing the electricity flying from her finger and towards the wolf like a bolt of lightning. A loud clap of thunder echoed across the battlefield as the bolt flew forth.

(Not) Dancing With Wolves

As Yuukito screamed and fought, the goblin rider swung at the other soldiers with its sword, keeping them back so that its mount could rip and tear into the young woman. Things quickly fell apart as they all became divided. Already, Bia was in a life or death struggle, the goblin's crude blade slicing into her cheek and grating against her teeth. Yet red, crimson blood spurted everywhere as she tore through the ulnar artery, the Elysian's teeth finding their mark as she crushed its throat in hand, tossing the corpse aside. However, the rider's beast was on her next; going straight for her throat, the woman barely blocked its jaws with her wounded arm, just in time.

As Werner fended off the other two wolves and their riders, desperately jabbing out with his spear, Mioshi's staff was sent hurtling through the air. A sharp, sickening crack loudly resounded as the wolf's neck snapped, freeing Yuukito. However, the alabaster Neko wasn't the only one who rushed to her aid. As the wolf fell, a bolt of electric wrath clapped through the air and struck the rider, who suddenly grasped at his chest, its ugly face contorting even further. As the feeling of accomplishment settled onto Tomiko's shoulders, a goblin's blade settled into her left kidney as the jaws of another wolf clamped around her hamstring, bringing her straight down into the ground.

"Get up - it's just a flesh wound!" Sif shouted in frustration, landing in front of the fallen Neko's face. They had two wolf and rider pairs left, but it was getting messy.

Werner Scrunched up his face in disbelief. Either he expected the goblins to put up a better fight, or the entire group was just too strong for them, oh well.

With only two wolves remaining at the rest of the group slowly surrounding them, there was nothing to lose. Werner changed tactics. With a breath He heaved his spear and launched it forward. It was an easy feat to impale one of the wolves, though when the spear met it's intended target, it didn't go as far as Werner wished. Instead only the spearhead was able to pierce through and the wolf still stood, albeit in pain. This was his window to do something flashy, and something that didn't involve becoming a brutal savage.

Suddenly, he sprinted towards the wolf he had injured and leapt towards it's rider. Using his parma, Werner smashed the goblin's head, causing the disgusting little creature to fly off his mount with a small cracking sound.

Unlike the others, he kinda wanted to keep one alive...

With her foot now wolf-free, Yuukito brainlessly squirmed away from it, blinking at the fallen canine in shock before scrambling to her feet. Where the hell did she leave her spear...? She jumped and squeaked as the goblin rider rose from his fallen mount, only to be promptly fibrillated by Tomiko's magic. Turning to spot the source of the electric blast, she watched in horror as another wolf attacked Tomiko, searching the ground frantically for her spear. Spotting it, she scooped it up and ran to her ally's aid. "Tomi!" she cried out, striking the wolf with her spear mid-sprint and practically impaling it, before springing awkwardly back as the force of her charge travelled back up her spear shaft, sending her sprawling onto her bottom.

Tomiko knew her mistake immediately. Knowing what you did wrong doesn't help when you're surrounded by things that want to kill you, unfortunately. She cried out in pain, dropping her mace as the goblin blade pierced her kidney with a squelch. To add insult to injury, jagged teeth clamped down on her hamstring and jerked her legs out from under her. She rolled over onto her back and struggled to get back to her feet.

Crimson hemosynth leaked from the wound in the medic's kidney. She managed to use gravity manipulation to get herself to her feet. Her mace had been thrown several feet. Pulling the staff off her back, she cracked the wolf over the head with it and then took aim at the goblin that stabbed her. "You bastards, why are you doing this!?" Tomiko hissed at the goblins. Using her staff as a focus, she directed a burst of light into the goblin's face. The intended effect had been more heat than light, but this was better than nothing.

The heavy pressure of a giant fanged jaw pressed down on Bia's arm, but didn't pierce as she had managed to wrap her limb in an armour of sorts - the corpse of the goblin she had just finished making her own meal of. Her free hand pulled her former opponent's bloodied blade up and sliced expertly through the tendons supported the leg of the beast that was closest available to lash out. The blade having been ripped out and swept through flesh in an underhanded grip was flipped deftly as it continued on a course up the wolf's body.

The blade plunged deeply as it reached its terminus and sunk into the thick of the neck of the animal. Blood spurted down as Bia began to jerk and shove the blade further cross and beneath her trapped arm - the goal of coming clear out the other side of the beast's body.

Grinning at the wolf as she began her work the Elysian warrior spat a warm glob of red straight into her prey's eyes.

Grappling, slicing, stabbing with her foe, Bia fought the wolf with all the ferociousness, rage and bitterness of the Elysian Wars. Far wilder than the wolf, she maimed it with ease, ignoring her own wounds, and blinded it with blood as she spat. The enemy set, she finished the match with a swift, stab. At the same time, the wolf Yuukito ran through with her spear let out a pathetic yelp. Drawing forth her staff instead, Tomiko swung at its rider with inhuman strength, pulverizing its head like a watermelon. As bits of gore were sent in every direction, Werner sprinted forth to tackle the rider off its mount. A pain at his loins immediately told him he made a fatal mistake. One that his unborn children would soon regret as the wolf he only wounded bit down. One wet crunch, then another another however, and his bloodline was saved - Mioshi swiftly caved in the heads of both rider and mount the moment she retrieved her staff.

Off in the distance, the villagers cheered as the goblins besieging the breach were driven off. As Titus made his way back to the group of Star Army soldiers, covered in blood, they too were caught up in the weary celebrations.

"Well, I guess that went about just as expected," Sif remarked from her spot on the ground. "Who's wounded and where? Account for all of them before we start plying Adelaide for her aid," she instructed them.