Necropalypse: The River of Souls

".. For a while there I thought you wouldn't fit in with the rest of ChaoZ, Herst.. But it seems I was wrong."
"It can only be the general. He once was the leader of my father's army but when my father died He took half of what was left of our army and left. He said I was too soft. He wanted to recapture the old glory of our empire by conquering all of Centrea by force. Exactly the kind of attitide that caused our empire to crumble last time.
How many men does he have soldier?"


"I couldn't count but there's at least a thousand of them. If not two thousand."
"How did we not notice that big of an army.. Either way prepare our defenses we can't let them take the castle, especially not now with the undead lurking about." She then turns to the group again." I'm sorry I must ask this of you but If you could lend a hand? We need to defend the castle, if they take this place.. I doubt they'll let you near the orb, if they even know about it. Help us fight them and then I'll show you the orb. Deal?"
"..hmm.."
"Deal!" Doomy exclaimed while summoning his shadow scythe.
"Guess that's a yes."
"Thank you."

The Empress lead the group back out of the castle. Just in time to see the army marching up to the castle. The empress her soldiers lined up to defend the castle. It seemed her forces were vastly outnumbered though. But the castle would provide a good defense and then each ChaoZ member was probably worth a hundred of these soldiers. Hopefully..

Without a warning the heavy armored soldiers charged the castle. This time Doomy didn't protest when Reganya possessed him. "Let's kick some armored butt."
"Defend the Castle! For Valkyria!"
The soldiers shouted along with their empress.

Herst yanks back Doomy/Reganya with a scowl on his fake face.

"Please, can we show a little teamwork so that we spare this from a massacre that will make us look like the monsters and appear to operate as a team? Nothing wrong with letting loose but I doubt you would like your marks being stolen or being nearly killed off by us."

Herst lets go and points to the enemy's left flank.

"I would appreciate you hitting their left flank. Spread confusion on that side to stop the advance. Rol, you do the same on their right. Confusion is the main purpose, breaking their order will do us more good with our numbers. We can leave the defenders here be, they will serve 5 times their worth fighting on the walls they are sworn to protect.


Is there any questions?"

Rol grimaced. Herst offered a strategy, which was likely to be effective and confusion was no doubt a thing Rol enjoyed but it was boorrriiinnnggg.

"UGH. FINE. But wouldn't it be more effective for the plot of confusion for Reathy to attack airborne wise? I mean you can take the left, I'll take the right but Reathy can rain down their love and shit. The guards defending the castle are probably competent enough to to defend from the front so we don't need anyone there really."

Whilst Rol complained he released Cole to engage the charging armored warriors.

Herst gave Rol a cold look. 

"I am going to cleave through their center and assassinate all their commanding officers and disrupt any possible siege equipment, and capture the leader if possible and force them to surrender. I just need 10 - 15 minutes to unsure that enemy numbers aren't out of my level."

"Well if you had said that in the first place.. We still get to rain fire from above right? If by fire you mean ectoplasm, then yes, just only on one side. Got it."
Reathy flew up and hovered above their left flank and started raining down ectoplasm bombs, disrupting that side of the enemy's formation. The enemy was not prepared for this so they got confused easily. Meanwhile The Empress her archers lined up above the wall and dipped their arrows in a jar of wintersmist.
"Draw!"
"Fire!"
Hundreds of arrows flew from the castle down upon the enemy. Whatever the arrows hit froze up immediatly. The ground became slippery, any flesh that was hit got covered in ice and an ice cold mist crept along the battle field and spread the frost more.
But the enemy just kept coming.

Herst pulls out 5 items from his pockets. 

An angry appearing plain white mask

A pair of extremely small Tonfas that look more like toys for children's dolls.

and two vials of some strange liquid.


Herst fluidly, seemingly having done this plenty of times, drained both vials, used on of the small Tonfas that seem to be sharp despite their toy-like appearance to prick his thumb and smeared a pattern onto the mask before smearing more blood onto the blades. 

One can just hear him mumble something before the tonfas suddenly grew to an extremely large size that did not suit being wielded by his body. 

Herst threw on the second mask over the first and grabbed his weapons and seemingly flew down the wall to the ground near the wall, to observe the situation and to wait for Rol to disrupt the other flank of the enemy forces. His calm and collected stance did not waver despite the cries of battle, but a menacing intent to kill can be felt pouring from him. His presence could not be ignored.

Rol sighed. "What a buzzkill." He stuck his tongue out at Herst.

The bounty hunter complained, but did as he was told. He glided down the wall with the use of his shadow, prior to Herst's own descent and slowly approached the right side of the heavy guards (they are who we are flanking right? the one's charging?) a few of whom were trying to deal with Cole. Roltharus made a simple gesture with his hand, taking a closed fist and opening it, a fraction of a second later; Cole expanded immensely in size, knocking the heavy armored soldiers near him down. Though mostly a tactic to attract attention toward Rol, a few soldiers couldn't get up, comically enough. Closing his fist and allowing Cole to return to his original size, he stretched his arms upwards.

"I am not nearly excited as I should be." He sighed, then noticed Herst's presence and tools. Rol may not have liked Stranger Danger very much, but he couldn't deny he was strong.

"Well, kids. Let's try to make this interesting."

The bounty hunter threw a handful of explosives at the guards, creating a smokescreen. He launched himself through the smokescreen by essentially creating a catapult with his shadows and kicked the first soldier he came in contact with foot engulfed by darkness, both for added defensive and offensive capabilities. He released his own Six Shadows, pulled out Pew and Pew (both of which possessed almost no usefulness in the current situation, especially as they were loaded with rubber bullets) and began to cause ChaoZ. 

(oooh, dat clan name placement)

The enemy's formation completely dissolved into ChaoZ. With Reathy and Rol attacking the flanks and the ice arrows flying around. None of the armored soldiers got to set a foot on the bridge. Only the back of the army was still somewhat organized with their leader towering out above them. His armor was rather plain but you could see that he was the one in charge. On his back was a sword as big as an average human. It's wielder didn't look like he'd have any trouble using it though.

He ordered a group of soldiers to move up and attack Rol and Reathy. Five men charged at each of them through the chaos. A spear flew at Reathy but it flew right through them when they became transparent like a ghost.
They then fired a large ectoplasm blast at the five solders but they put up their shields and survived. These guys were tougher than the other mooks.

The five on the other side threw their spears at Rol at the same time.
Meanwhile the leader in the back ordered archers to aim at Herst. Hoping to take him down before he could do anything. They fired, some arrows were stopped by colliding with the ice arrows of the Empress's archers. But most of them went straight towards Herst.

Rol saw the five spears coming at him. He shot one with both Pews which redirected the spear enough that it was not going hit him, dodged two others while a Shadow batted down another and the last spear was as blocked... By Cole's face. "Jeez man." Cole pulled the spear out of his head and dropped it on the ground.

The bounty hunter cracked his neck "Oooh. That ain't falco." he looked towards the organized back line of the army, then he eyed a heavy soldier who was on the ground (from earlier), unable to get up and smiled. Creating a huge hand of sorts from three of his Six Shadows (improving strength and versatility opposed to any old shadows) and picked up the downed soldier, throwing him towards the archers. As the heavy soldier left the fingertips of the shadow hand, It dispersed into the three original Shadows It was comprised of and they attack the five newcomers. They thrashed about and Rol approached the five himself, Pew and Pew still drawn.

(Please assume that Herst avoided all the arrows and literally threw down a gauntlet at the main commander after massacring the lesser leaders. Will edit in a well written fight scene for this later when I have time, but I won't delay the RP due to my own issues.)

Reathy fired more ectoplasm blasts at the five soldiers. But they blocked all of them. One of them pulled out a crossbow and aimed at Reathy.
Before he could fire it he screamed. The Ectoplasm residue was burning through the shields and had made its way to the skin on his hands.
The other four quickly discarded their shields and drew their swords.

A small group of enemy soldiers managed to sneak out of the ChaoZ of the battlefield and reached the bridge. The Empress stepped forward herself and raised a hand.
A large mass of shadows crept out from under the bridge and engulfed the enemy soldiers. When the shadows dispersed there was no trace left of the soldiers.

The heavy soldier that Rol threw crashed into the archers in the back. Six of them were taken out and the remaining four struggled to get back into their position.
Meanwhile the five soldiers on Rol's side held off his shadows with their shields. But they were too busy to notice Rol himself aproaching.

The leader looks down at the glove. His helm makes it impossible to see his initial reaction. However, he shrugs and steps forward, picking up the glove before drawing his giant sword. Dust flies up as the tip of the enormous weapon hits the ground. He quietly waits for Herst to make the first move.
The battle around them continues.

As Rol approached, he noticed the Empress herself clash with the enemy forces that sneaked through ChaoZ' assault. Well, if absolutely devastating them can be considered clashing. 

"Holy. Wow. That was pretty cool, think she'd teach me? Or maybe it's more like a death ray thingy than a shadows of awesome thingy?" The bounty hunter asked, drawing the soldiers attention towards the spot he was. But were they to look, they would not find him there. Instead the bounty hunter used his quickness(with the help of shadows) and managed to get himself behind one of the soldiers. 

"Now, were I to drop this little number on your armor.. Would you die?" He asked, holding an explosive in his hand. He eyed the armor of the soldier, it was lighter than the heavy soldiers.

"Hmm, you actually might." So instead Rol placed the explosive on the soldiers shield and jumped back while detonating it. 

"Entertain me guys, you just might learn something." Rol holstered Pew and Pew.

(Again, busy so a TL;DR post until I can edit in the good stuff.

But Herst cheats wasn't going to play with honor on the battlefield and drops vials of perfume that that render the body's nerves immobile. Because he is cheating wearing two masks that filter the air. Also, uses shadows from all the enemy soldiers to redirect all their attacks to kill each other, while also redirecting the attacks of his allies to find marks. Any blade, spear, arrow and other attack that enters a shadow, seemingly enters a portal connected to other shadows and hit with their own comrades or mark in case of friendly fire. All of the enemy save the paralysed captain, died.

They began to sink into the shadows as the shadows reach out to Herst, but the mask he wears darkens and seemly drinks in natural shadows.

(shadows reflected by a light source and not made by magic. Herst is a manipulator of elements, so naturally occurring phenomena like lighting in a storm, he can control. Causing lighting with a source is impossible for him unless he has the time to accelerate evaporation in an area to form clouds and then affect their pressure to cause a naturally if not accelerated storm.) 

The mask, having no real face depicted on it before hand, now has a black cheshire smile seemingly made up of shadows. Herst is now wrestling with the mask to remove it forcibly. (Possesed Masks are a female dog, yeah know?))

Reathy swings their scythe and the slash sends a wave of ectoplasm at the soldiers. Knocking them all down. Meanwhile Rol's explosive knocks down his opponents too.
Just in time for Hersts shadows to take care of them along with the other soldiers.

The leader stands still, paralyzed. He growls. The Empress her soldiers stand down.

"Wow, Herst can shadow too? Damn this power is getting hella popular." Rol gathered his opponents shadows into one and spread it out like a blanket over them, but as it fell on the dazed soldiers, it changed form from blanket to net and trapped the five underneath. 

"HEY EMPRESS LADY, Uh. VILK.. VAEL.. VAL? RIGHT? IS THAT PARALYZED DUDE THE GENERAL, OR WAS HE SMART ENOUGH NOT TO COME HIMSELF? AND SEND A SHITTY PAWN IN HIS PLACE?"

Rol yelled, using his shadows to create an acoustic horn of sorts in order to amplify his voice.

"Only one way to find out, remove his helmet." The empress said, suddenly standing in the middle of the battlefield. It wasn't clear wether her voice came before or after she appeared.

One of her soldiers stepped forward and struggled to remove the leaders helm. When it came off the leader grunted again.
"I see, he sends his brother to lead the attack. Perhaps he's lost his courage or.."
She turns to a soldier beside her. "Find out what he's up to."
"Yes, Ma'am."

"Hey, so dos that mean Mister General still has even more of an army?"

The bounty hunter asked the Empress before looking over to Herst who was struggling with removing a mask.

"Hey, buddy" Rol called over. "Are you okay? Do you take a large mask, but decided 'nah a small, I'm a small' and now it's biting you in the bu... Face?"


Rol walked closer to Herst to see what the issue was.

Herst had the mask off before he replied, panting.

"Had I kept it on, the personality trapped in it would greedily seek more death, not caring what dies by it's wearers hand. It was hard enough to keep the magic from taking allies but if I had forgone it, something worse dormant from my sheer will would have taken the chance to act."


Herst than pulls out another vial of unknown potion and down it, seemingly to restore his energy as he stands and his breathing silently disappears. His prior fight with the mask seemingly never happened as he stows it away.

He then directs to the Empress, head bowed in recognition of her station above him, advice.

"You may or may not be aware, as I am not sure if you have had to lead man to battle or how you have been made to study as a child, but an army can not move without hanger ons. Cooks, blacksmiths, attendants, wenches among others. Best to send men to seize them and process them all, as the one you seek may be amongst them.

"I doubt he would leave himself unprotected so yes, he still has an army." She replied to Rol.


"Oh. That's rare.. It's been a while since somebody not in my service bowed to me. I quite like it." She smiled.
"And yes, you're right. This army has an entourage and the general might be there. But if he is then he's certainly not alone. I'll send out scouts to search for him. The rest of us can return to the castle. I must keep my promise and show you the source of the soul of rivers. We can do that while we wait for my scouts to report."

Reathy landed next to the others and Reganya jumped back out. "I don't know, If that general decides to attack again while we're down there.."
"Hmm, true. Guess I'll have to ask you to help me out a little while longer."
"I don't think anyone here minds. It wouldn't be smart to not be ready if the general attacks again."
Doomy nods.


"Thank you. Again." She then turns to a few of her men and tells them to get the scouts. And some others to take the generals brother to the prison cells in the dungeon.

"Any idea what the number for that rest of an army would be..?"

The bounty hunter asked, but his voice faded and he switched his attention to Herst's bowing. 

"Man he gets all honourable and shit constantly, weird."

Rol yawned and followed the rest of the guild's agreement with continuing their service for entrance to the death flow thingymajiggy. Noticing the brother of the general being taken away, Rol's interest piqued. 

"Are they gonna hella interrogate him? Can I watch?" Who was he asking? Anyone who would say yes really.

"Depends, if he planned to sit back while his brother took the castle for him then he should only have a few hundred men guarding him. Which could be the case since he didn't know we would be here. Without us this battle might have not turned out the way it did." Reganya turns her head and looks at the Empress behind them.
"However, the Empress knows the man better than we do and she seems to suspect he's up to something. No idea what though, we won't know for sure until the scouts return."


When the Empress was done giving orders to her men she returned to talk to the group. (I still have trouble naming the characters in group. I mean I can't say ChaoZ because Herst isn't in it officially and there's only a few members there.
Normally I'd say "the party" but then I would keep imagining you guys with party hats on.)
Just in time to answer Rol's question. "No. The general's brother is known for never giving in to interogations. Getting anything out of him would take longer than we have the time for. If The general has something planned we have to find him before he can go through with it. Whatever his plan is it can't be good."

"Have you tried tickling him? People fucking break when you relentlessly tickle them. Especially if they're used to the rough and tough way of information gathering. It's hilarious really."

The bounty hunter looked up, clearly in thought although considering who he was that was weird.

"I mean, the guy probably has some inside information on the ongoings of here" Rol said. "I mean he was a general they tend to be intelligent, exception I, but that's more an honorary role anyway or something. But whatever it means I can sit at the big kid table. Anyways, general guy probably has spies. So traps, possible?"

"Tickling? If torture doesn't do anything then how the hel would tickling-"
"Hmm, that might work." The empress interupted Doomy. "Not many people have had training to resist tickling."
"Wait what?.."
"But some people are immune to it anyway.. But it's worth a shot. You're an interesting bunch. Then again I should have expected that. Your guild isn't exactly known for being normal."

She gestured for one of her soldiers and gave him the tickle torture order. The look on his face was priceless, trust me.
"Traps? Probably. But my men know how to deal with those."
"Well this is gonna be an interesting day.."

"For you lot. I myself am bored by this part of after battle clean up. Anyway, I need to go do something. Wanderer business. Anyway, I'll find you guys at the 11th hour again, so don't worry where abouts you may be."

Herst then fades away from perception, as if his presence with the group were an illusion.

(Gonna be busy for a bit as I settle into another Trimester in Uni and I am kinda busy for the next few days, so I'll take my leave for a bit. I WILL edit the fight posts over the weekend if wrap up my other work in time, but yeah, don't want to let you lot wait on me.)

"Well, no, obviously scouts are equipped to handle traps. But I mean..." Rol faded off, thinking was getting boring. 

"Ah, I'm sure it doesn't matter anyways." The bounty hunter heard Herst say his temporary farewell and turned to see him essentially disappear. "Wow, he does that a lot."


Turning back towards the others, Rol yawned. "I'm gonna go have a nap. Deathy, it is your responsibility to properly introduce your lover to your sister. See ya." He headed off to locate  an area to sleep, albeit slowly.