The "Best" RPG Ever-73

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Nora woke up sometime in the middle of the night and, once she was fully conscious, found Zack gone and the bathroom door closed. She changed back to her base, elf form in an effort not to listen, slowly sitting up on the bed and waiting a few minutes. Eventually he came out.

"Zack?"
"Mngh." His eyes were closed in kind of a groggy, permanent wince.

She stood up. "Um, h-hold still a second." He complied, and she came closer, bringing her hands near his stomach and moving a few things gently around. "...There. It um..i-it wouldn't be a good idea to t-try to stop any of it, b-but it should hurt a bit less now."
He breathed a small sigh of relief. "Thanks. But..."

"I'll leave you alone if you want," she said.
"Yeah." He nodded. "Sorry."
"Th-there's no need to apologize," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder for just a second before ducking out back to her own room.

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It was a little past dawn when Katherine woke up, pulling Aria with her per her request. Some of the others were still asleep, and—she noted—at some point Nora had returned to her own room from Zack's. Hopefully not an argument or anything...

Eventually she decided to just go ahead and make breakfast. There was no need to wake people forcefully, after the early morning they'd had the day before, but the smell would probably bring any of them down who weren't particularly intent on sleeping in. That plan more or less succeeded, although some were slower to come down than others. When Zack was awake and on his way downstairs it was much more obvious what was going on there. Not something she was looking forward to either, although it felt like a very familiar experience now...which it wasn't yet for him. Now was a good time to be particularly nice to him, if possible.

The wolf seemed to have taken notice that something was wrong, too, although possibly he didn't understand exactly what. He sat up next to Zack all throughout breakfast, watching him. It was curious: Usually one might be inclined to think of staying close to someone during a meal as 'begging' behavior, but it seemed perfectly clear to everyone that this was an expression of concern. Fortunately for Zack, the others (apart from Nora, who already knew) had no idea why the wolf seemed particularly concerned. Apart from a somewhat reduced appetite he looked to them just mildly grumpy, which wasn't an abnormal expression from him anyway.

Rayna was the last one down. She was most of the way through her food (everyone else completely done) when Katherine felt a mind diving into their front yard, landing, and starting a short walk toward the door. "Visitor," she said, and stood up from her own empty plate to go see what it was about.

After an insistent knock, the psion opened the door. On the other side was an Avian woman in what seemed like a lighter version of the typical guard armor, with brilliant purple plumage on her wings/arms and the same shade of hair. She had a small but athletic build to her, like a track star or something. "Hey, sorry to bug ya, but better me than what I saw," she said. "Oh, don' worry about the magic circle 'n stuff, I was cleared on that."

"Okay..? What did you see?" Katherine said.

"Well, there's five ogres north of here. Seems like they're bearing this way. Should take 'em 'bout an hour to get here, at the pace I saw. From what I heard, shouldn't be no trouble for you lot, but better you go kill 'em than have 'em wreck your fence or the walls on the way in, right?"
"Sure."

Katherine quickly relayed the message to the others. "I guess we'll get ready to take care of that, then," she said. "Would you like to come inside?"

"I'd like a rest, a little water if you'd let me," she said with a quick nod.

The psion led her into the kitchen, which some of the others were on their way out of. The Avian girl watched them go by with a deeply interested stare, a similar mood behind it to that of someone seeing celebrities up close for their first time. Katherine floated a glass of water to her own hand and held it out to her, and she snapped it up right away, chugging a few large gulps from it before stopping to breathe again.

"I'll point out the direction more specific like for ya, then keep an eye out to see if things go alright," she said. "I got a crossbow for self-defense, but more of a scout than a fighter, y'know. If things look dire I'll get back to town to get reinforcements quick-like."

"We have a door to town," Katherine said, "across from the one you came in through. You could use that to get back faster."
"Well—" she preened her feathers a bit with the opposite hands, and gave a confident, daredevil's grin. "Not faster, mind, but less outta breath for sure. I'll take ya up on that."

"Oh, yeah. Kayriel," she said. "Sorry, guess I shoulda led withat."
"Katherine," the catgirl replied with a slight nod. "Thanks for warning us about the attack."
"Just doin' my job," she said while beaming proudly, directly contradicting the humble statement. "Hey, I'm not keepin' you from gettin' ready am I?"
"No, I'm already prepped," Katherine said, producing a few of her elemental daggers and suspending them above a hand for a moment before dismissing them again. "Armor doesn't exactly suit my fighting style."
"Hah, know the feeling." Kayriel waved to her own light armoring. "Still, a little leather might be good insurance. Little bit a' strength training and it's like it's not even there. I know you're all about usin' your mind but there's no good neglecting the body."
"True enough." The psion crossed her arms. She had a point, certainly. "Anyway, would you mind 'thinking at me' what exactly you saw from up above?"
"Guess not." Katherine received the thought, and got a feel for exactly how things were. That in hand, she started thinking of a plan right away.

The wolf whined at Zack while he was putting on his armor. "What?" He just whined again. "I'll be fine, okay? This is just..normal for this kind of body." The knight reached out a hand and rubbed the top of the wolf's head, which it let him do briefly before backing up out of it. "If I'm not used to it by now, I need to get used to it. No excuses." He resumed getting the armor on. The wolf gave a quiet bark after a moment. "What, am I ever not careful?" It stared him down for a moment. "Fine. I'll, try not to push it, then."

Okay, so there are five ogres: Two on the left, two on the right, one in the middle. From what our guard friend saw, far enough apart to fight separately. Aria says she can handle one of them practically by herself.

Can and did! The shifter thought back proudly. First monster I killed here. The concept of 'killing' didn't carry through Katherine's filter, but it was easy enough to fill in the blank for everyone else's sake.

Right. So...I suggest we do this: Aria, Clera, and Lynn to the right; Mira and Nora in the middle. Take those out as quickly as you can and move toward the left when they're gone. Zack, Rayna and I will be distracting the left two until someone gets there. They are close enough for me to maintain contact with everyone, so I'll be able to keep everyone aware of the situation. Any thoughts?

Yeah, Lynn replied, Why split it up so you three are just a distraction? Or—why lump everyone who can probably kill one of them together instead of putting at least one to a group?

Ogres are big, slow and clumsy, but they hit hard. Right?

Yeah, no kidding, Lynn said back.

So anyone who takes one hit is probably out of commission, except maybe Aria or Clera. Even then, out of the fight for a minute or two and in the former case someone else has to spend time healing her. If that happens, it's better that more of them are already dead to minimize the risks. And our 'real' healers are in the parties that are really fighting them; the three of us should be able to avoid taking a hit for a long while. Just in case though, Zack isn't a 'real' healer but he can at least get someone stable if they take a hit.

You won't take a hit, Zack replied immediately.

Sure. Anyone else?

Do ogres have a particular weakness besides 'demon-blade berserk stabs'? Rayna asked.

Katherine had, fortunately, browsed the book of monsters the night before. They're big mountains of flesh and muscle. The area near one is dangerous. Normal cutting, shooting and stabbing them would work eventually, but big elemental magic at range is probably a better idea.

Before long, everyone assembled out in the front yard, and Kayriel followed them out through a gate and around to the north side of the fence. She ran, jumped and took off into the air, 'thinking' more up-to-date information about where the ogres were to Katherine so everyone could start off on their way and then flew closer to them to keep an eye on the fight. After that, they divided into the proposed groups and started off at a brisk walk.

After walking a short way, Mira took out her broom, shifting to her more 'compact' form at the same time. "We can fly there a little faster than walking, if you don't mind the passenger seat," she said.
"Um. G-good thinking," the elf said with a nod after a second.
"Okay~! Hold on tight."

Aria watched them take off. "Hey, why don't you ever fly any of us around?" she asked Clera.

The winged girl replied with a long look, and then: "Disregarding the obvious arguments from propriety, you are all far too heavy for me to carry, because my mode of flight obeys basic physics."
"Yeah, that's fair..."

It would be difficult to speak over the noise of the air going past them, so Mira checked whether they were still in range of the psion's powers, and received a quick reply that of course they were. You know, I said to hold on tight, but...maybe not that tight.

Sorry! Nora loosened her grip just slightly. I seem to be more afraid of heights than expected. Or at least flying at high speeds on something that feels this precarious!

Trust me, it's perfectly safe! the witch assured her. Judging by the continued white-knuckle grip on her waist, that wasn't really much reassurance. Well, I'll land and let you off once the monster comes in view so you can get stable on your feet before we need to start fighting it.

Thank you.

Mira's thoughts came in again a little later. Hey, are they supposed to have big robes and a cowl on? It came with a mental image of what she was seeing: An ogre wearing just that, holding a giant piece of crudely carved wood with some kind of white crystal socketed into the top.

The one we fought wasn't wearing much of anything, Lynn thought back. And that weapon...

It's probably best to assume 'ogre mage' isn't out of the question, Rayna said. Be careful with him.

Yep!

She landed (still a ways off, as promised), and Nora got off, shaky for just a moment before taking a deep breath and drawing herself up again. "Good?" the witch asked.
"I should be all right." She shifted to the wolfish form for its slight boost to durability.
"Great! I'll get his attention pointed this way, so don't wear yourself out running." Mira shifted to her more 'mature' form again, and flew forward toward the monster's position. The weaver followed her at a pace that felt just below what would leave her out of breath.

As soon as she had a clear shot, Mira drew her arm around, forming a magic circle to fire a brief volley of ice spikes in the direction of the ogre's head. The first one hit, burying a short way into its forehead, and the monster roared in pain and rage, raising its 'staff' and producing a blazing aura around it that melted the rest of the shots on their way in.

"Oh, do you like fire?" the witch smirked, raising her hand and lobbing a demonic fireball at him. This caught him in the shoulder, and he faltered, dropping the aura. This time he noticed her and charged at her, making one violent swing of the staff that fired a bolt of lightning through the air. It barely missed her as she jerked her flight instinctively to one side with the swing, and the thunder from it at that distance was deafening. "Whooaa there!"

By now Nora was close enough to collapse some of the earth under the monster's feet, throwing it off balance and making it stumble for a second or two. Mira capitalized on this to throw more fire at him with one hand and draw another ice-spike circle with the other, then quickly circle around toward his back as he swatted more lightning toward her in response.

Aria pulled out her sword as their targets came into sight, with a hungry, slightly crazed grin that might have looked outright evil if it was directed toward people instead of monsters. "Hey," Lynn put a hand on her shoulder, making her pause for a second. "Be a little careful, okay? Trust me, you don't want to be a golfball for these guys."

"Heheh, 'course. I've learned a few tricks since then," Aria said, unleashing the weapon on the word 'tricks'. It turned into the harpoon-and-chain form she'd first tried out on the ice dog demon. "I'll take 'em out from a niiice distance." Then she broke into a full-tilt run toward the monsters. After sharing a quick look, Lynn and Clera took off after her, the latter taking off into the air after building enough speed.

Aria had a good idea of her range, and stopped well short of the monsters, throwing all of her momentum and strength behind the harpoon. It sailed through the air and punctured one ogre's stomach, making him flinch backward for a second. He reacted quickly, pulling it out and tossing it back, but the delay had been long enough to drain quite a bit of blood, and while Aria held up the handle of her weapon and let it retract back into sword form seamlessly the monster she'd hit staggered woozily from the sudden loss.

The one she hadn't hit roared and charged, club held high—at least until a massive fireball that had started out as a burning arrow went through the wooden weapon, cutting through the portion just past the monster's hand like it was butter. The ogre ran straight into the disconnected piece of blazing wood, and recoiled with a more pained cry. "Great shot!" Aria yelled, making a single flying leap to capitalize on the advantage. Her sword slimmed and lengthened along the way, until it was the sort of thing a JRPG antagonist would envy, and with a two-handed swing she made it slice right through the ogre's neck, cleaving its head clean off. The blade drew back to her hands and broke into several knives attached to the handle by chains, all of which were thrown at the monster's corpse in swift order to more efficiently drain out the blood while it was still fresh.

A brief mental conversation agreed Aria was probably going to be too busy 'eating' to finish off the other ogre, so Clera flew toward it, chanting a somewhat stronger fire spell than the moderate amplification one she'd used a moment ago. He was staggering in Aria's direction to try a last-ditch attack, but Lynn fired a bolt arrow straight into his eye, not only stunning him from the pain of that but sending a shock through his body, leaving him a massive convulsing target for Clera's spell. A small, white fireball fell from her to its body, and exploded like a high-yield bomb on contact, incinerating most of the monster and some of the grass and dirt he'd been standing on in the process.

Aria turned toward the noise of the explosion and pouted a little bit. Hey, I wasn't finished with that!

Clera landed next to her, and Lynn walking up. Can't have you getting stuffed yet, the archer thought, pointing in the direction of the middle ogre, and particularly the lightning going unnaturally up into the sky from him.

Okay, that's fair. Aria retracted her weapon back to its native form, and held it up. "Let's gooo!" she shouted, charging toward their next target.

Aim some fire at the grass, please.

Uh, okay? Mira followed instructions, sending a demonic fireball toward the section of grass just ahead of Nora. The heat lit natural flames, which the weaver picked up, amplified, and threw at the ogre before he could send another lightning bolt the witch's way. The blaze destroyed much of his robe and burned his body too, drawing another roar from him and his ire in the elf's direction. He responded predictably, throwing lightning at her. Rather than trying to dodge, she stood her ground, grabbing the lightning as it came close and turning it around, straight toward his center of mass. The hulking monster couldn't react anywhere near quick enough to dodge or block that, and shuddered as the electricity coursed through his nervous system. Mira gave him some more ice spikes while he was staggered, but he shook it off quickly, and threw lightning her way again.

Nora tilted the ground under the ogre, but he slammed the staff onto the ground in response this time, forcing the earth level under him again. She drew a small bit of electricity from her own nerves and rapidly amplified it, throwing the result at him; it wasn't as strong as the reflected shot had been, but he was stunned long enough for Mira to fly around behind him and try to catch her breath for a second.

This guy's giving us a lot of trouble, the witch said.

On your way! Clera was actually visible in the sky by now.

Careful, he likes to throw lightning around! Hey, how're you guys holding up? she asked Katherine. Obviously well enough, since mental communication was still working, but...

Don't worry about us, the catgirl replied. Rayna has these guys on a string. The ogres were ineffectually swatting at nothing for the moment.

We could use some of that with mister happy strikes over here, you know!

Katherine looked toward Zack and the wolf, who were both taking a short breather. "Zack?"
He nodded. "We can handle it."

Rayna turned her head back to them for a second. If you're sure. I'll turn 'em away from us and make a break for it.

The knight just gave her another determined nod. An illusory crowd of people ran away from the ogres in the direction opposite the four of them, sending the monsters on a wild chase in that direction for a bit before dissipating and leaving them briefly confused. Then the fox-girl ran toward the ogre-mage's position.

Zack took several steps forward, raising his shield, and when the ogres turned around they both started in his direction. The wolf ran toward the one on the left, loudly barking as he came just inside its range, baiting it to swing before leaping away. The ogre gave chase while its companion came to Zack and swung its club at him, meeting much the same response. When the giant monster's stride nearly caught up to him, Katherine drew its attention to her instead, making it turn around and move her way. The wolf was faster than either of them, enough to keep well ahead of the ogre chasing it, and he made sure the psion knew about his confidence in that.

Since throwing him off balance wasn't working very well, Nora fired another taser's worth of electricity at the ogre. While he was stunned a volley of smaller fireballs came from Clera's direction, and was then met with more lightning. She was already making evasive maneuvers, a complicated diving and swerving pattern of flight that seemed well-practiced and designed to avoid just this kind of thing, so there wasn't much reason to worry about her.

Aria charged in at this point, throwing her weapon in harpoon form at the ogre. He caught it with his free hand, and pulled. "Not this time!" The shifter stood her ground, holding the handle on the other end of the chains with both hands while the harpoon turned rapidly into a condensed ball of spikes, piercing the ogre's hand and forcing him to let go. She used the momentum to swing it around as it converted into a shorter-range ball-and-chain, and then threw it at him again, sending the spiked ball straight through the fireball he'd aimed at her as a retort. It slammed into his side, drawing more blood until he used his injured, free hand to yank it out and throw it back at her again. Then he tried a lightning strike.

Nora had run up next to Aria while this was happening, and grabbed the electricity into another rebound strike, stunning him. Thanks! The shifter charged, throwing a thicker harpoon from shorter range into the ogre's body. By now Lynn was close enough to start shooting a volley of arrows at him; Mira also had a number of ice spike circles set up, and she activated all of them at once with a snap of her fingers. The monster roared, pulling the harpoon out with one hand and raising its staff with the other to produce the flame aura again. Clera dispelled the aura, allowing more of the spikes and arrows through, and then the ogre began flailing his staff around wildly, sending lightning in every direction he could.

Get down! The elf was barely able to deflect the rapid-fire of lightning away from herself and Aria. Lynn followed her advice, as did Clera after a swift, somewhat rough landing. Mira was a little too high up, and flew up and away from him instead, making herself a far less likely target for the wild strikes. After a moment the ogre stopped, panting heavily and looking around. He didn't see anyone, because Rayna had finally arrived and made them invisible. She gave him a reasonable fascimile of Mira in the opposite direction of the real one to start shooting at, and nodded to Aria, who gave her most vicious grin yet in response before taking a brisk walk toward the monster. In a moment her sword cleaved through the arm holding the staff and then struck into his body with the same motion. He roared, but the staff had clearly been the sole source of his magic. He could only flail his other arm somewhat ineffectually until he lost consciousness from the rapid loss of blood.

Zack doubled over, out of breath and not feeling well. Katherine drew both of the ogres to herself, knowing from sensory information that the wolf needed a breather too—despite his mental insistence that he could keep going. They both ran to her, weapons raised. After dancing through a few swings Katherine was turned the wrong way and could only dodge by reading their intent and listening to the weapons moving through the air. She was surprised when first one, then the other of the clubs failed to move in the predicted direction, or seemingly at all, and made an awkard turn-around to try and see what was happening.

Both the monsters' wooden clubs had spontaneously grown massive vines which were now tightly wound around their wielders' limbs. Panting softly, the catgirl looked around for a moment, trying to figure out how or why this had happened, until she looked up to see Rose diving straight at them. She crashed into the neck of one monster feet first, planting her claws firmly through it, and then made a quick front-flip to the other one, tearing his throat out with one clean slash of her hands. There was a terrifying, sudden animal-like ferocity to her movements; the ogres were dead in a matter of seconds and then she just hopped gently down to the ground.

"Hey!" She waved, then looked around to wave at Zack and the wolf too. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, we're...fine," Katherine managed to get out, still catching her breath. Aria had just finished off the ogre mage, so all of the monsters were now dead. "Thanks...for the assist."
"No problem~!" Rose beamed from the gratitude, her hands and feet still dripping with monster blood but otherwise looking every bit as friendly and harmless as always.