15[20:10] <@VoxPVoxD> In the light of the red star shining over the heart of Nexus, the mountain comes to them. 15[20:12] <@VoxPVoxD> Nessun Dorma is a giant of a man - well over seven feet tall, broad as two men at the shoulder. He's a gleaming monstrosity of white jade, his armor engraved with signs of valor and worn markers of battles fought and won. In his hands is a great hammer, more modest in appearance but even vaster in size, a maul whose head rivals the overturned cart at the center of the square. 15[20:13] <@VoxPVoxD> He has just charged with a roar into the crime scene, bellowing the name of Xu Sim with inchoate fury. [20:13] 14The dream becomes a man, and he's loud as a mo-un-tain... 15[20:14] <@VoxPVoxD> His spirit bathes him in white light. The cobbles crack and skitter beneath his boots. [20:14] 14From across the cobblestones, loud as a Stranger can: "We can talk about this!" [20:15] 3Mud's gut wobbles perilously as its owner leaps forward to position himself between Xu Sim and the oncoming warrior. He raises his hands defensively. "Please, friend, we can talk this over!" [20:15] 5Xu Sim is transfixed by something in the sky; he studies intently, murmuring ancient names to himself. [20:16] “Balor…” 5his reverie is interrupted by the charge of the man-mountain. He cracks to attention and pivots on position to evaluate his options. [20:17] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's reaction is much more modest, amounting to an alarmed: "Woah, hey, what the fuck!" 12and a panicked glance at the Emissary's body. [20:18] 4Judge isn't really sure if he should jump in, here. Obviously at least one of these guys could be an ally to him, but what a risk... [20:18] 7How's the crowd reacting? 15[20:20] <@VoxPVoxD> At the dragonlord's advance, the crowd surges outward like a bidden tide. From above, the cordon seems to iris open, as the crowds around the sequare back up and the mercenaries holding them at bay move almost instinctively into the conceded ground. Pellicia has her sword, simple and straight, pointed in the air. "THIS IS A CRIME SCENE!" she bellows, though a mortal voice is little against the clamor of battle to be joined. [20:28] 3Mud stomps his sandal-ed feet on the cobblestones and sets them at shoulder width. Breathes in, breathes out, winces. This is going to hurt quite a bit. [20:29] 7More importantly, is the crowd in danger? [20:31] 14That's for whom Stranger is making a beeline. The others can handle the thing they're handling. 15[20:31] <@VoxPVoxD> At the moment, no. But that could change in an instant unless the fight ends or they evacuate. [20:36] 7Then her first priority is making sure this idiot berserker doesn't scythe down a dozen people with a missed blow. It would be foolish to believe every claimed Anathema is necessarily one of her brothers-in-arms, considering old Wu Zheng is numbered among them. [20:37] 7If Xu Sim is a Chosen of the Sun, he'll reveal himself before being killed and Blossom can reassess the situation. If he is some sort of demon-regicide, she can fight alongside Nessun to bring him to justice. If he's just a mortal man, Blossom will have traded one life to save dozens more. Grim, but there we are. 15[20:38] <@VoxPVoxD> Nessun Dorma's hammer comes down, caving the street where Xu Sim stood a moment before. The armored titan roars. His eyes burn white-hot. 15[20:38] <@VoxPVoxD> "KINSLAYER!" [20:39] 5Xu backflips away from the blow, battering it aside as gently as the breeze with a long sweep of his arm. He curls his lip contemptuously. [20:39] “What the hell are you talking about?” [20:39] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar looks at the crater, then glances briefly to the sharp, sturdy, and all-around finely-made steel straight sword in his hand. Well... well, okay, fine, we'll make do, if it comes to it. [20:40] 7Blossom: "Return to your homes! This situation will be handled by the Nexus guard!" 15[20:42] <@VoxPVoxD> The crowds don't respond to Blossom. They must not have heard her. [20:43] 7Infuriating! [20:44] <@Ferrinus> 12As soon as he sees the immediate trajectory of the battle, Keldar's off. He dashes, then slides to a stop before Emissary and cart both, one gauntleted hand held forward cautiously and his blade held loosely back. "That way, fight THAT way!" [20:51] 5Xu adopts a defensive posture, with his bare hands in front of him. He regards the man - surely a Dragonblood, from his finery - and tries to deduce what on earth he is going on about kinslaying for. [20:51] “I haven’t killed anyone! Like I just said, I’m a doctor! A sage! A man of peace and intellect!” 15[20:51] <@VoxPVoxD> "I have WAITED for this day!" [21:10] 14He strides past the guard captain. He strides past the young woman with the fine musical ear. [21:10] "YOU WILL HEEL!" 14yells Stranger-Visits-Heaven into the crowd, empty eyes meeting confused eyes; angry eyes; hopeful eyes. Words come to him, half-bidden: "Your business is not this business. Your business is Dogma, and adherence to it. Would you approach this Emissary, as he has? Would you challenge Dogma?" [21:10] 14This probably isn't, actually, a challenge to the most sacred and essential laws of the land. But he is loud and confident and his voice has fire, and facts don't contain those things. Those things escape the confines. Those things do as they will. 15[21:13] <@VoxPVoxD> The crowd hears him. [21:13] 3Nessun Dorma may be two men wide at the shoulder, but Mud and Straw is close to three at the midsection. The Grey Levee Foreman cracks his knuckles and trundles forward into battle, spittle flying from his mouth as he charges headfirst into the Jade-clad warrior's back and wraps his flabby arms around his trunk, squeezing the Exalt in an inescapable bearhug. "STOP TRYING TO HURT MY [21:13] FRIENDS!" 3Mud and Straw rolls his knees and feels the world spin under him as he falls back to suplex the massive soldier against the hard cobble beneath him. 15[21:13] <@VoxPVoxD> And Nessun Dorma goes to the ground with this fat man. [21:14] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar blinks. He looks over to Pellicia and then to the crowd, making sure that other people are reacting the same way he is and this isn't some kind of fever dream. "That guy's gonna die." [21:14] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "He's gonna splash." [21:14] 7Are these people insane?! [21:15] 14He'll lean in close towards the guard captain. "They're yours now. I expect they're in good hands." [21:15] 14Then Stranger turns back towards the corpse. 15[21:17] <@VoxPVoxD> Pellicia's already on the move, urging the mercenaries to help the crowds disperse. They are, too, like flowers on the gale. Pellicia herself does not depart, and it's obvious why. This is still a crime scene, and she is still the law. [21:17] 14Good. [21:18] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Seriously we wanna get a, uh, I dunno a tarp or something up here in the next ten seconds or this shit's getting hopelessly stained-" [21:18] 3Mud rolls, taking the surprised Dorma over and then under before squatting atop him. "Stop it! Just stop it!" 3His meaty palms slap the shocked Nessun Dorma's cheeks from the left, then the right. 15[21:19] <@VoxPVoxD> "He - is - mine!" It's hard to maintain your grip on something as big as Nessun Dorma, but Mud and Straw once held a levee at bay with his bare hands by knowing where to stand and how to push. Really this is just another wall coming down. [21:22] 7The breath marks the flow of Essence, in and out as it flows through the world. The wind picks up and Blossom's robe flutters as she steeples her fingers, closes her eyes, and reaches for the fire she remembers. [21:23] Blue flame bursts to life between her hands and snakes outward, fully engulfing her forearms and lighting her face in an actinic glow. "You WILL stand down! You WILL respect the laws of Nexus!" [21:23] 7Blue flame bursts to life between her hands and snakes outward, fully engulfing her forearms and lighting her face in an actinic glow. "You WILL stand down! You WILL respect the laws of Nexus!" [21:24] 7Whether imbecile, dupe, or brave man risking his life to save a friend, Mud's actions have shattered Blossom's cold calculations. She won't allow that act of heroism to go unacknowledged! [21:24] 14Oh my. [21:25] <@Ferrinus> 12Holy shit, a sorcerer. A sorcerer willing to stand up to a crazed Exalt, even! This fucking day. [21:26] 3Why choose just one? At the moment, Mud's trying desperately to hold down the struggling mountain, one palm pushing the man's head sideways against the cobble, squishing his cheek against a particularly large stone. [21:31] 4The Black Judge, still in the form of the curious onlooker from earlier, cautiously steps forward. "Cry out his crimes, blood of the dragon! Tell us of the one who this vicious demon slew, even as you take your vengeance!" 4If this is for real, Judge would be happy to see this Dynast get what he wants, enemy or not. If not, at least he might spill something useful. 15[21:34] <@VoxPVoxD> Nessun struggles under Mud and Straw's weight. It's not a question of force so much as leverage. Still, he has strength and breath enough to cry, "I avenge Novak the Shepherd! Soldier! Hero! Brother! King!" 15[21:35] <@VoxPVoxD> "Novak! Who the dragons spurned and fortune loved! Novak! Who turned the Beast of Highland aside!" [21:35] <@Ferrinus> 12Has Keldar heard of this guy? 15[21:38] <@VoxPVoxD> Novak the Shepherd was a famous military leader some years ago; the mortal son of Lookshy heroes, who left the city to make his own way and pulled a kingdom together from warring tribal lands. The kingdom of Liukan stands today, occupying a stretch of fertile land along the Yanaze. At its highest point, the great walls of Lookshy are still visible on the horizon. [21:38] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "That guy killed the Shepherd? Seriously?" [21:40] "Madness!" [21:41] 5Xu rushes to Mud’s side to shout down at the man - in order to be heard, and in order to help his prodigious friend once the dragonblood warrior escapes the hold he’s been placed in. [21:41] 3He turns, eyes watering, to Xu Sim. "He speaks madness, Xu! R-right?" [21:45] “Listen to me, warrior: Novak was a noble man, whose illness I was unable to cure but whose pain at least I eased! In the end I was undone by the treachary of Novak’s own son, Piotr. I had informed the Queen before I was forced to flee for my life into the wilderness. I speak the truth, you must believe me!” 15[21:46] <@VoxPVoxD> "NO! You lie! Demon! Wretch!" 15[21:47] <@VoxPVoxD> Nessun Dorma strains beneath Mud's bulk. He won't be able to hold on forever. 15[21:47] <@VoxPVoxD> "You... Novak..." [21:48] “Day and night at his bedside for months, I cared for him! In the end, his passing was peaceful and I have prayed for his ghost ever since.” 15[21:48] <@VoxPVoxD> "But Piotr..." 15[21:48] <@VoxPVoxD> "What has become of little Piotr?" [21:50] “He is a sorceror now, misguided… he was under the thrall of a demon, I think.” 15[21:50] <@VoxPVoxD> "A demon..." [21:50] 14Stranger walks up to the great, fraught man. "Did he kill him?" he asks, pointing at Xu Sim. "Did he kill Novak? Did he kill the man who fought the Beast of Highland to a standstill? Could he have?" [21:50] 14He doesn't wait for a response. "Because if he didn't kill him, you've done nothing for Novak. Nothing but try and defile the most important corpse in this direction. Nothing but shame yourself chasing a distraction." [21:50] "You think this man killed him. That much is clear. You heard he killed him, maybe. Someone told you he killed him, maybe. But what did you see? What do you know? Because half-measures are shameful. Executions are done at the gallows, not on the cobblestones. [21:50] "And what sort of assassin runs up to a man fallen in the street, and tries to save his life? [21:50] 14Stranger: "You can get free. You will, eventually, if you want to. And you can kill that doctor. You will, eventually, if you want to. But Novak the Shepherd was to great a man to sully on uncertainty. Lose your composure, if you want. Cut down a doctor in the street, if you want. [21:50] "Do so in the Shepherd's name, however -- and do so wrongly -- and the shame doesn't just fall on you. [21:50] "But you haven't shamed him. You haven't shamed yourself. Yet. [21:50] "Get up, and walk away." [21:56] "But don't go far. Because you can learn from this." 15[21:56] <@VoxPVoxD> The mountain beneath the mud shudders. 15[21:56] <@VoxPVoxD> "I..." he draws in a great breath, and Mud almost falls off him. "I have shamed his memory." [21:57] 14Stranger gestures to the large man. He can let the mountain rise, now. [21:57] 3Mud looks with great uncertainty at the stranger, the woman with fire roiling down her forearms... and stands. [21:58] 3He offers him a meaty hand to stand. [21:59] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Well... I mean, no one's really bought it yet 'cept those cobblestones." 15[22:02] <@VoxPVoxD> "Aaaah-" 15[22:02] <@VoxPVoxD> The sob comes from behind the cart. 15[22:02] <@VoxPVoxD> "Aaaaahh--" 15[22:02] <@VoxPVoxD> "Aaaaaaaaaaahhh-" 15[22:03] <@VoxPVoxD> Above, the red star shines briefly blue. [22:03] 14Stranger's empty eyes narrow. [22:03] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's eyes narrow, and he glances around behind himself. 15[22:03] <@VoxPVoxD> All at once, the sky fills with noise again. 15[22:04] <@VoxPVoxD> Hear the loud alarum bells. Brazen bells! [22:04] 14Hhhh-- [22:05] “The star was the color of Balor’s baleful stare… but it reminded me of something else, something worse. Treason, murder, and woe. But now..." 15[22:05] <@VoxPVoxD> The sound of tramping feet soon rumbles beneath the bells. 15[22:05] <@VoxPVoxD> Nessun Dorma brings himself to his feet. [22:05] 7What fresh hell is this? [22:06] 3Mud: "No hard feelings, friend?" [22:07] 4What now? Judge is eyeballing the color-changing star. [22:07] "You're not past forgiveness, and you're not past redeeming shame." 14Stranger steps past Dorma, up the street. "No one is." 15[22:07] <@VoxPVoxD> Two men walk into the quarter, up the hill from down Firewander way, wreathed in diaphonous blue robes. One wields a simple straight sword - Keldar has seen Anilom's face in dreams. The other is garbed as a pauper might be, with a simple homestrung bow in his hands. Poco... 15[22:08] <@VoxPVoxD> Nightmares ride behind them. [22:08] "P-Poco!" [22:08] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar whirls, cobblestones scraping under his greaves and sword catching the blue-white glare above. "The fuck is this," 12he growls. [22:09] <@Ferrinus> 12He's stalking forward immediately, tracing a circle around the corpse and cabbage cart both and making to intercept the walkers directly. "Take that face off before I do it for you." [22:09] 14Stranger looks for the young woman with the fire. He looks for the blonde man that's more than he seems. [22:10] "This.. this isn't real! You're not him!" [22:11] “They aren’t real, they’re Fair Folk. They must have come up from the Firewander. That star foretold their coming.” [22:12] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "They're gonna be half as real in a minute-" 15[22:13] <@VoxPVoxD> Behind them, Keldar sees the faces of his men, but the vastness of the army behind them is simple workers, carpenters, bricklayers. Honest men. Artisans. The drowned dead. [22:14] 14Stranger looks over at the guard captain. Hopefully she's got men to marshall to match. 15[22:16] <@VoxPVoxD> Xu Sim sees the man behind the cart crumpled to the ground, trying to hide beneath it, clutching his face. Red light spills from between his fingertips. [22:19] 3Mud trundles over to Keldar's side and puts a palm on his shoulder, then takes a long swig from his flask. He offers what remains to the mercenary. [22:19] 14To Nessun Dorma: "You weren't wrong. You were just misguided. And nothing has ever been as simple as you hoped it would be, when you charged in to fight a doctor those long moments ago." 14His mouth hardens. "Fight with us or help those who can't get away; that's your choice. But never forget: we, all of us, can be saved. We, all of us, can be forgiven." [22:19] 14He turns towards the faerie. "Now go! Make your time!" [22:22] 3The emptied flask is discarded over the fat man's shoulder. He centers himself, and lowers onto his haunches in a martial pose. [22:24] “You there, cabbage monger - what on earth is the matter with you?” 5Xu Sim’s attention focuses on the man with the intensity of a sunbeam as the Faerie monstrosities approach, trying to see through any illusion or warping, twisting magick he could be affected by. 15[22:25] <@VoxPVoxD> "Haaa AAAAAahh-" 15[22:26] <@VoxPVoxD> Whatever's happening to this man, it's not the Wyld doing it. Though it's unmistakably the Wyld that's answered. 15[22:27] <@VoxPVoxD> Nessun Dorma raises his hammer and hunkers down. "You will not fall before I do, strangers." [22:27] 7Blossom: "Fair Folk! Creatures of the Wyld, enemies of Creation, I'll punish you!" [22:27] 14To the encroaching Faerie: "There's a line. You're on the wrong side of it. You won't get told again." [22:27] 4The unassuming young blonde man takes up a fighting stance. "We can't let you go any further." 15[22:28] <@VoxPVoxD> The one Keldar knows to look like Anilom simply draws his sword. "We are here on a greater authority. And we are but the first." [22:28] 14Stranger: "You are what you are. And you were warned." [22:29] "Well I'm here on the Grey River Authority and I know you aren't Poco! So knock it off!" [22:29] 3He jabs a finger accusingly toward the one wearing his dead friend's face. [22:31] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar stares in shock at first, wondering if this is somehow the actual Anilom, if the ancestor cult all along was - ...no, wait, the girl's obviously right. The hell was he- this just makes him madder. [22:31] 3Mud raises his arms before him, hands balled into fists. 15[22:33] <@VoxPVoxD> Pellicia moves purposefully out of the fight, with the air of someone who'll soon be back. [22:39] 7Blossom moves smoothly into an onslaught kata, clenching her fists and menacing the false ghosts with coruscating flames. "Five dragons uphold the earth!" [22:42] 7She crouches, and springs high into the air, landing atop the cabbage merchant's cart. "Kiiiiiiii-ya! Air Dragon guards the horizon! Precision of the Striking Raptor!" With three swift jabs, she sends orbs of blue flame hurtling toward the Fae that the fat man called "Poco"! [22:42] 7She crouches, and springs high into the air, landing atop the cabbage merchant's cart. "Kiiiiiiii-ya! Air Dragon guards the horizon! Precision of the Striking Raptor!" 7With three swift jabs, she sends orbs of blue flame hurtling toward the Fae that the fat man called "Poco"! [22:51] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's in a sprint, but while his battle cry also starts with a hard K it's just one long scream of rage. He rushes forward, zagging left, and as the false Anilom reacts with a predictable too-wide parry the mercenary is seen, for just a moment, to flash an unusually brittle-looking wicked grin. [22:52] 14Stranger blinks as the young lady hurtles into action. He knew there was something special about her, but... 15[22:54] <@VoxPVoxD> The Poco-Fae swirls gracefully among the blue flames, stepping back and away from them as he knocks an arrow. Poco-Anilom is cloven nearly in twain, sapphire blood spilling down Keldar's blade. But he stands, he stands! [22:54] “Quite a collection of heroes all of a sudden,” 5Xu notes to himself in some bemusement. He turns his attentions to the cabbage-monger and the energies coruscating from him. This is not proper for a human body! What on earth is happening here? “Please, be calm despite the battle that’s suddenly erupted after this accident. I require you to cooperate, for your own good.” [22:54] <@Ferrinus> 12He spins immediately, drawing a steel-grey arc through the air that smashes into not-Anilom's undefended other side - and then there's a perfect moment. The world stills as Keldar espies an opening and the rest of his audience espies that opening with him. Breath's drawn and held as, with little grace but incredible vim, the mercenary, performs a brutally-fast sideways somersault [22:54] <@Ferrinus> 12thing that brings his sword in a wide arc that goes up from the ground, over where Keldar's head used to be, and straight through the faerie's face. The blade bites straight in, shearing through tooth and eye socket and skull, and then keeps going to draw a not-jagged-at-all line down the monster's entire body and only leave down through the groin. Anilom's not cut in half - he's just [22:54] <@Ferrinus> 12gutted like a fish. [22:55] <@Ferrinus> 12Unlike a fish, he remains standing, bleeding sublimated mercury or multicolored flower petals or whatever these bastard are made of. For his part, Keldar winds up standing a few feet off the creature's side, panting and glaring. [22:56] 5Xu crouches next to the man, mindful of the deadly possibilities of conducting battlefield medicine against an enemy to whom honor is at best an alien amusement. He reaches out, gingerly, for the man’s hands, covering his face, to get a closer look at what could be the matter. While doing so, he attempts to note the man’s pulse, temperature, and moisturation of his skin. [22:56] 4As soon as Keldar spins and begins his slash, a flitting black shadow hurtles upward and over the fey creature, driving a foot into where its human form's shoulder is, forcing it staggering forward as he lands gently behind it. "Well struck, mercenary. Let's finish this one quickly." 15[22:58] <@VoxPVoxD> Xu Sim studies the downed man. He's clearly in great pain, feverish. But he suffers from no disease or affliction of the body the alchemist's expertise avails him of. He's forced to conclude the man isn't ill at all, and his suffering is the burgeoning of some metaphysical interaction provoked by the death of the Emissary and the red star above. 15[22:58] <@VoxPVoxD> The cabbage merchant's hand falls from his face briefly, and Xu Sim can see for the barest instant, a red eye burning in the center of his forehead, painful to look at. [22:59] 5Like an eye ball? Or more like, the sign of a stylized eye? 15[23:00] <@VoxPVoxD> the former 15[23:00] <@VoxPVoxD> The former. [23:17] 14Stranger-Visits-Heaven shakes his sleeve, and a dauntless servant of Heaven falls out. Ra hits the ground running, all gold eyes and half-brown, half-white fur, pudgy and stalwart, heading for the idiot that decided to look like someone named "Anilom." [23:17] 14He darts in; he darts out; he avoids feet and he squeaks and he wish he'd brought some kind of really pointy and wicked sewing needle to just sink into this interloper's ankle. But one goes to war with the rodent one is, not the rodent one wishes to be. 15[23:19] <@VoxPVoxD> The earth trembles. Nessun Dorma's great maul cuts an arc through the air above him as he switches grips, crouching low. "You will not fall before I do," he repeats, almost to himself. "And so you will not fall!" The Dragon-Blooded anima coalesces into a towering edifice, spreading behind him like brickwork wings. The great walls of Lookshy. He surges forward. 15[23:19] <@VoxPVoxD> "AND I-" 15[23:20] <@VoxPVoxD> The hammer falls once, drawing a furrow in the earth that sends the fictive Poco staggering back. 15[23:20] <@VoxPVoxD> "AM-" [23:20] 14He's a good mouse. "Anilom" sees nothing else. 15[23:20] <@VoxPVoxD> The hammer rises just as face, nearly catching the faerie on the chin, causing him to fall back to the ground. 15[23:21] <@VoxPVoxD> "INDOMITABLE-" 15[23:21] <@VoxPVoxD> The hammer falls once more. The earth splits open. Windows shatter up and down Sentinel Hill. The thing wearing Poco's face rises to the heavens in a geyser of blue stars and gutters out, gone forever. [23:22] 14Stranger walks by the mauling. A good man. He knew he was. Directed properly, most men are. [23:22] 14There's an army wants to talk terms. 15[23:22] <@VoxPVoxD> The dragonlord's roar of triumph echoes from end to end of the hilltop, and well into the city beyond. [23:22] "Fine. Fine. You don't want to talk." 14Stranger walks forward towards the mass of 'Fair Folk,' drawing the sword from its cane, tossing the wooden walking sheath aside. "I understand how that is. Don't worry." 14He holds the bare sword in one hand, bouncing the dull back edge of it off his shoulder rhythmically as he wades in. He smiles. It's an unpretty thing. "I've got words for [23:22] you in a language you've always understood." [23:22] 14Something also grinning moves towards Stranger and suddenly he's negotiating the first and foremost way. The way that always that resolves the problem. [23:23] 3Mud's voice joins in, pistoning his fists skyward in triumph. [23:23] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's hair is flattened back against his head by the force of the earth-aspects assault. He doesn't have much time to be alternately intimidated or venomously envious, though - his own foe still stands, and the phantom troops are drawing closer. [23:23] 4Judge's false persona cheers wildly at the Dynast's onslaught, even as he continues to size up his own foe. [23:24] 5Xu spares a backwards glance just before the shockwave hits. He grimaces in a sort of nervous relief. [23:28] 14And Stranger-Visits-Heaven cuts them in half. [23:28] 14Literally. 15[23:30] <@VoxPVoxD> He moves among the nightmares like a dream. They scatter into specks of pollen before their broken bodies hit the ground. [23:31] 14Behind him, the littered dead. On his shoudler, a bouncing blade. In his eyes, nothing. "This is me using my words." 14On his lips, a sneer. [23:31] 14In front of him, half the army there used to be. [23:34] 4The impressed youth's shouts of jubilant celebration end faster than they began, as a rock cast off from the Earth Dragon's assault whistles towards him much faster than he could logically avoid. So instead of avoiding it, the Judge spins in a whirl of black to strike it with his foot and send it punching through his foe's simulated face. [23:43] 3Mud throws himself into the brawl without reservation! 15[23:44] <@VoxPVoxD> Mud charges through the army, wreathed in flames. None of it amounts to much but it looks quite impressive. [23:52] 14Stranger steps back as the big man and his favorite doctor go to work. "Leave one alive, if you please," 14he says, sword still on his shoulder. "I'd like a word." [23:55] 5Xu pivots on his heel and rushes through towards the battle. His soft shoes felt each cobblestone as he headed straight for Mud and Bricks, who seemed to have embedded himself in the midst of a pack of enemies. With a deft move, Xu leapt into the air, somersaulting lightly across Mud’s back and landing behind him - unleashing at that moment a flurry of punches, kicks, and excellently timed joint locks against the wyld-spawned [23:55] horde. [23:55] “I never got a chance to thank you - for earlier!” 5He catches one of the fae with a rabbit-punch to the nose, shattering it in a burst of pollen. “You didn’t owe me that.” [23:57] 14They advance. "Hit me!" 14Stranger grins, words of mind becoming words of mouth. "Hit me!" 14Sword's still out, but not ready to parry. "I don't think you can." [23:59] 3Mud raises his fists, which flower into a clawed posture. "I'm over here." [00:02] 14They do. "That's it?" [00:03] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar grits his teeth, forced farther and farther back by the onslaught of dream-soldiers that Stranger-Visits-Heaven hadn't quite cleaned up completely. He's soon against a partially-shattered wall, swinging blade and fist in equal measure as he sweeps aside the greater whole of the assault and simply takes the remainder on his finely-wrought but decidedly normal armor. [00:05] 7The Fae army is marching up the hill, and Blossom's attacks haven't slowed them down. She hurriedly backflips off the cart and tries to regain a defensive posture. 15[00:11] <@VoxPVoxD> The invading army, cut half to ribbons, still does fearful work, trampling up the square. There's a clamor on the far side of the hill; the mercenaries will be back soon. But they aren't back yet, and the Chosen all find their own ways to bear the coming tide. [00:11] 14Ra squeaks and sprints forward. A crate! A wagon! A signpost! A Fair Folk's neck. Ra tries his best to clean the things judged unclean by his master, the sun. [00:12] 4The Black Judge does an impossibly fast scramble behind a kicked-up pile of rubble that Nessun thoughtfully provided, but doesn't emerge immediately. 15[00:12] <@VoxPVoxD> The cabbage man screams, but nothing else happens. The army seems to be charging... around him. [00:13] 14But he's just a mouse. [00:15] 3Mud and Straw can take a punch. He's got the face for it, and all the cushioning he needs. [00:16] <@Ferrinus> "Raagh!" 12and similar sounds issue as Keldar strikes back, felling bricklayer after bricklayer while decapitating or running through the occasional mercenary in their midst. He's clearly outclassing his opposition, but, crucially, not outnumbering it. [00:18] 14They left him. They walked by him. The last of the vanguard thrusts out at him; Stranger shrugs around it, knees him in the midsection, and brings the pommel of the cane sword down on his head. "Stay here." 14He strides towards the backside of the army that passed him by. "I'll be back for you." [00:20] 14He'll be back for him. But he doesn't do anything that'll get him back there soon. 15[00:23] <@VoxPVoxD> Amid the fae army, Nessun Dorma moves like a journeyman rather than a warrior. The great white maul rises and falls in steady rhythm. Keldar sees the headsman's chop. Blossom sees the smith at the forge. Mud and Straw sees the mason's hard labor. 15[00:23] <@VoxPVoxD> They splinter. They scatter. They fall. [00:24] 14Stranger-Visits-Heaven sees the well-won fruits of having a conversation. [00:24] 4The Black Judge sees the measured fall of the gavel. Perhaps this Dragon-Blood is worth real respect, rather than feigned. 15[00:24] <@VoxPVoxD> The ones that don't fall to pollen beneath the hammer blow apart on the wind itself. 15[00:27] <@VoxPVoxD> For the barest moment, the streets of Nexus are quiet. Lookshy's champion looks out on Sentinel Hill and back at the others in the square. They have only minutes before the square is filled with tramping boots again. 15[00:27] <@VoxPVoxD> "Now the real work begins." [00:27] 14Stranger collects the mouse, who coos and darts up to his shoulder, and the cane sheath, which has nothing to say. And he's proud, in no small way, about what happened here today. He's proud of Nessun Dorma, Hero of Nexus. 15[00:27] <@VoxPVoxD> NEXT TIME: Anatomy of an Emissary