[M] Battle of Baylet

[Tolvo]

1 AD, July 23rd

Baylet was under siege. The people of the town hid within their homes as death and fires raged outside. A portion of the town had caught fire. In the streets warriors fought and on the outskirts and roads smaller skirmishes had broken out. Flying above the city was the Rage Queen herself surrounded by other Elves atop great flying ravens. But it was below where the battle was being decided. A fight was snowballing out of control outside of a large central church of the Emperor. This was where much of the killing was going on as both sides fought for this heavily entrenched position.

The Empire held it currently while the Elves and Barbarians fought through alleyways and the open roads to get there. If the church was taken the Empire would lose their stranglehold on the town. This was new territory for the Elves, a pitched battle. Boudicca a werekin stood up among her people, a wolf in her own right. She stood among a shield wall of Barbarians and Iskar the One-Eye that were pushing their way towards the church. The werekin let a family flee past her after hesitating to kill them. There were civilian casualties but the Barbarians were doing their best to lessen them.

Aedan was out of his element. Houses were burning from fires started by who knows. Warriors clashed against one another and amidst the battle civilians were fleeing. It was like hell on earth. A quarrel struck an Elf beside him in the chest sending them down to their knees then face first in the dirt. Clouds had gathered above but it merely darkened the day further. Walking among the fight was a great creature, a titan. An Imperial of massive size wearing armor. They fought against a Troll.

[Evening Rain]

Áedán’s eyes flashed from burning buildings to screaming villagers running amok amongst the devastation and butchery. The elf slipped through alleys, clashing with small groups of Imperial soldiers when he met them, but trying to avoid as much conflict as possible. Weaving his way through the streets, trying to imagine them as the woods of his home, the Fadewalker’s eyes settled on an enormous colossus, elsewhere in the town. Such a creature… to topple it would be a symbol, but also a great difficulty. First… he’d like to free up more of his forces. In these narrow choke points, an army could be slowed and delayed for hours. And surely attrition like that would favour the army with the greater numbers.

There. The sound of nearby battle indicated that a larger melee had broken out nearby, probably on a main street. The central church was their objective, but before the forces could get there, they’d need to cut down the admittedly stiff human resistance. Áedán darted toward the thick press of battle, hearing the clamorous shouts of his barbarian allies and imperial foes. Áedán flicked his scimitars and focused his amber eyes intently on the press of melee ahead. For a moment, the world went still, and then Áedán let out a soft exhale.

The bleak grey tones of the material plane gave way to russet and auburn. The world was dyed in vivid autumn shades, and the spectral forms of warriors no longer heeded him as he began to prowl forward, through the ranks of the barbarians and elves… toward the press of Imperial troops. The Fadewalker began to pick up speed, running forward, dashing into the thick mass of enemies, eyes searching, scanning for an opening. He found one. A small gap in the legionnaire ranks. Darting in, Áedán prepared himself for the slaughter to come. Calmly, the Fadewalker let himself slip back through the fabric between worlds. For a second, the world shimmered, as the planar boundaries overlapped. Then…

Grey light. No time to pause. Áedán became a blur of steel, slashing down those directly around him, and as more pressed in, he called forth poisonous brambles from the fae to constrict and restrain his foes. Buying him space. Disrupting the enemy formation. Alone amidst dozens of enemies, Áedán let his primal instincts take over fully, and activated Dance of Death.

[Tolvo]

The slaughter Aedan unleashed did not go unnoticed. Imperials in the back began to thrust their spears over the heads of each other trying to catch him. Brambles sprouted from the ground below his feet and the terrain became difficult for them to even enter, let alone cross. Behind Aedan the shield wall of the Imperials started to get pushed at a focal point near to him. Without the mass of the soldiers he killed the Imperials didn't have the physical presence it needed to hold. A large Barbarian, Iskar, pushed through with a two handed axe. He slammed shoulder first into the shield wall then began a great whirl. They raised their shields but his axe split them and in one blow he decapitated ten of them. "Push on we'll take this street any moment!"

Boudicca joined with Iskar and got behind the enemy line. She started attacking them from the rear, focusing more so on disrupting the flanks of the shield wall than killing. At the far rear of the Imperials warriors with long pikes began to appear in formation as they marched closer. To the sides arbalists fired upon the Barbarian shield wall making a few casualties more. From around an alley came a war elephant with a tower on its back that housed an arbalist who opened fire from high up. The troll and titan locked arms and began a battle of might between the two. Both had their own armor, the troll's skin in its case. They slammed heads together and continued to push against one another.

A small group of knights appeared wielding ball and chain flails. Their armor covered them entirely while large shields protected them even further. They entered the melee from an alley behind Barbarian lines. Their maces crushed bones and armor alike, they moved with big sweeping motions to their swings. Sylphs flew overhead and sought out isolated targets to kill. Among Iskar Barbarians with sword and shield fought beside Elves with long double bladed swords.

[Evening Rain]

Thirty seconds of predatory perfection. With his supernatural sense combined with speed and reflexes heightened many times beyond the human peak, Áedán wove between strikes and blows with uncanny precision, performing evasive feats that should have been impossible.

Áedán's reverent trance ended with a flourish as two corpses fell to join the pile that lay strewn around him. Glancing about, he saw that others were doing similarly well in breaking the formation. The Fadewalker panted softly, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow as the energy that had pulsed into his veins began to fade. With his endurance, it’d take a few moments to recover… but he wouldn’t want to be pulling a maneuver like that again at least for awhile. Áedán suddenly veered off to the left, where a massive elephant had rounded a corner. With a leap, he bounded onto the upraised shield of a legionnaire who had just used it to block an arrow coming from a sylph up above. From his elevated position, he made a graceful slash, opening the throat of the man beneath him even as he parried a sword strike from below without even looking, vaulting from the shield as the man fell shuddering to his death. Áedán slashed through other enemies, and darted toward the elephant as soldiers made way to avoid being crushed beneath its advance.

Áedán was afraid of no such fate, weaving away from an arbalest arrow, and darting between the creatures legs, slashing at its thick grey skin as he sprinted along beneath it to emerge on the other side.

[Tolvo]

The elephant nearly crushed Aedan during his gambit. Thick legs stomped about him trying to crush the Elf as he ran beneath. His blades tasted blood and soon enough the elephant fell to its knees while the tower atop it topped over onto a few Imperials. There was a huge crash as the troll was knocked over by the titan, sending it through a building which flung about bits of wood that peppered the nearby soldiers. Standing proud over the troll, the Imperial titan lifted their mace overhead to deal a massive crushing blow to the troll. Iskar the One-Eye was focused on pushing the ground troops forwards. When the Barbarians neared him they were filled with a great fervor they seemed to lack before. All around him his warriors pushed forwards further and further breaking the Imperial lines. A group of Elves rushed through a gap and started cutting down the Imperials further weakening them. The knights continued to kill any who approached them.

[Evening Rain]

Áedán relied on his speed and agility to weave between the elephant's legs, avoiding being crushed like an insect by a hair's breadth on more than one occasion. As the elf slid to a halt on the other end of the creature, flicking the blood from his blades, he made a quick symbol in the air. Forgive me, noble beast. Their war was not yours.

His gaze was lifted suddenly to the titanic struggle that raged through the streets. The tide of battle had brought the titan and the troll to him. Nuair atá tú ag troid ina n-aonar, caomhnóir na bhforaoisí ... Beidh mé mar do sciath.

Áedán grit his teeth and sprinted forward. The titan had knocked the troll onto its back, holding its mace ready for a finishing blow. The Fadewalker would not let that happen. Slipping forward, the elf cast Poison Slash and struck in quick succession at the titan's left leg. No sooner had he made this swift assault, then he leaped away, weaving around to the colossus's other leg and slashing where he could - focusing on avoiding the creature's own strikes more than anything else... if he managed to get its attention.

1 mana expended, 19 remaining.

[Tolvo]

The titan was completely oblivious to Aedan. They followed through on their attack but midway they howled in pain. Ths howl was muffled by the heavy helmet of the titan which moved with their entire body. The first leg buckled followed by the second. Without the incredible armor of the titan, they were just soft targets. When Aedan's blades pulled back the armor reformed around the wounds he left behind, his magical blades making a great difference. Seeing this opportunity the troll rose up and grabbed the weapon arm of the titan. Both fought over it while the titan tried to rise from their knees, which was a futile effort. The troll stole away the mace then proceeded to use it to continuously bash the head of the titan until they fell over with a great thud, unconscious.

More of the Imperial lines started to fall apart. Iskar led yet another charge and ended up using his soldiers' shield wall for cover as quarrels hit them in a barrage. Before they closed the distance the arbalsts fell back and were replaced by armored pike wielding Imperials. These soldiers seemed much more trained and used their long weapons in a brace to dissuade another charge from happening. Over down an alleyway a group of conscripts and an Imperial captain were wielding torches and had a leshen surrounded. The mighty Fae was terrified of the flames as the Imperials slowly came closer and closer to it.

[Evening Rain]

Áedán slashed across the titan's body as it lay prone on the ground during the troll's furious assault. Once on the ground, the creature was nothing more than an easy target - and the Fadewalker evicerated its head and neck - feeling a slight twinge of regret for the great fallen warrior.

Still, the elf gave a quick nod to the troll. "Well fought, guardian of the fae. Your strength and resilience may turn the tides on the frontlines! Look, the barbarian king fights on. Fourfold blessings, caomhnóir."

Áedán's gaze had turned to a surrounded fae spirit, a powerful Leshen surrounded by smoking torches. As he dashed toward them, swords at the ready, several of them broke their circle to face him. Swiftly moving, he bent back out of the way of a spear thrust, and kicked the haft of the weapon away, pirouetting on one foot and bringing his sword deftly to decapitate an Imperial swordsman who approached him. The enemies he faced were scarcely trained, and he effortlessly dispatched those around him - before leveling one of his swords at the Imperial captain, muttering an oath of enmity in the fae tongue, and dashing forward, adjusting his grip on the scimitars as he charged into melee with the leader, scarcely pausing to slash apart those who got directly in his way.

[Tolvo]

The Wild Troll slammed a fist against its breasts and then lumbered near Iskar and began to pound Imperials into the ground.

More and more of the conscripts rushed from the circle to face Aeden. They formed a swarm that along with the captain kept him on the defense. But due to their ill training they couldn't capitalize on it. The captain continued to use his fellow soldiers for cover and eventually they dropped their torches. As Aedan was killing the last of them the leshen approached the captain. He spun around to face it and was met with the Fae. It grabbed him by the head and pushed roots deeply through his eye sockets with its hands. He screamed as the roots came out through his mouth. Then the leshen pried them apart splitting open his head. Blood and brains were visible as the screams faded. Next it bit into his chest and ripped out his heart holding it in its stag skull jaws before swallowing it hole. The body dropped limply, the remaining conscripts began to vomit and run, they just ran. This terror was too much for them.

Iskar and his warriors left the enemy knights to those behind them while they continued their push through to the armored Imperials with pikes. It was a difficult exchange since the shield wall protected them but they could not easily push through the pikes. Among the Imperials were two that began to push back with the pike wielding soldiers. One looked like a champion, they had a sword and shield with heavy armor and started to rally those behind them. The other was a woman wearing mismatched pieces of armor. She had a collar around her throat and irons on her wrists. The woman fought with great skill in the melee, eviscerating those near to her with a trident and buckler on her arm.

[Evening Rain]

Áedán watched the leshen's bloody work sternly, without satisfaction or pleasure. The Fadewalker looked away, turning grimly and giving a slight nod to the fae spirit. He noticed that the formations were meeting heavily in the streets, and dashed through alleyways to reach the side of the enemy forces. Darting out suddenly into the side of the formation nearest to the gladiator and champion, Áedán called forth brambles from the fade to entangle and mutilate his foes as he carved a path toward the trident-wielder.

2 mana expended, 17 remaining.