Battle had ensued, the invaders of this castle, which they had come to learn was named ‘Gindlorion’, facing against the inhabitants. A powerful True Elder Vampire with 4 summons, primordial elementals. Each of the 5 invaders had fought through undead, golems and other strange creatures to reach this area at long last. Neither side wanting defeat.
“Ha! You’re not bad at all, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying myself!” Kurogane said to his opponent, the fire elemental.
It appeared very similar to that of some kind of knight with similar armour and sword to one, it stood its ground, watching Kurogane get pushed back at least a few metres. It’s defence was so expert, so flawless that even the Great Kurogane, the Oni Samurai, was struggling to find a way to smash through it. But for one to believe that discouraged him, they would be dead wrong. Challenges like this was exactly what Kurogane lived for, to push himself to his limits and then smash through like bullet through paper to repeat the cycle is what made ‘Divine Unbreakable’ so fascinating, investable, enjoyable.
“Now…let’s dance, dance until we drop and there is nothing left to dance to!” He said, dashing forward with incredible speed, raising his blade high up into the air with both hands to bring it down with all his might.
The Fire Elemental slashed back to attack too once he got close enough, the two blades hitting one another with enough force to bring down a kingdom, the two blades dancing as they collided again and again. Both opponents pushing against one another as far as they could do before they locked once again, Kurogane looked at the opponent for a few moments, thinking and observing the stance the fire creature had before pushing it back, now he knew what to do. This battle was enjoyable, but now was the time to end it and he knew exactly how, bending down and lifting the sword upwards and turning the hilt so the blade was pointing down towards the floor.
“This scumbag is very good at defence and that blade is ‘Emberstrike’, maybe ‘Scorch Fang’, just as I am good at attacking…so I guess I’ll have to switch roles!” He thought to himself, taking a few steps forward while keeping his guard up.
The Fire Elemental remained still for a few moments, sizing him up before attacking with the same devastating blows as before. This time now, his movements were slower, his stance sloppier, the attacks uncoordinated. Then, seizing the opportunity, he pushed his enemy back during the middle of its attacks, open to a parry attack.
“This is the end, Fire Elemental! Heaven Shattering Eclipse!” He yells, rushing in while lifting the blade hide up while using his strongest attack, one that had a 24-hour cooldown whenever he used it and destroyed the creature, the beasts body erupted and burst into smoke that flew up and out of sight.
On the floor was now just a small peral, it had a fiery red hugh to it and was no bigger than a marble. He walked over to it and picked it up, inspecting it with curiosity before realising it was a summoning item, likely for that same elemental creature, pocketing it with a small smile, he was satisfied with his battle.
Very-Kael was battling tooth and nail against the ice elemental, seemingly putting in all his effort to be made with little results. Each attack seemed to only be met with a powerful defence that seemed practically unbreakable and a counterattack that also worked all too well. If this continued, there was a chance he could end up dying, and for his friends, that was nothing less of a disappointment. Even his calm and outgoing exterior was beginning to show cracks as his patience was pushed to the furthest limits.
“Man, I wasn’t expecting an elemental to be this strong.” He said, trying to think of a way to win this encounter.
However, seeing him weakened, the Ice Elemental dashed to make the final blow, but it suddenly stopped as it was closing in, as if something was holding it back. Looking at it’s arm, it saw strings thin enough to be unseen, strong enough to hold it back and hard enough to slice through metal.
Very-Kael stoop up properly again and sighed, dusting himself down even if he didn’t really need to, as this was just an avatar. “Woooah, I knew my acting skills were improving…truth is, I could’ve won this fight instantly but using this was a lot more fun…every second I was setting this up all while you thought you were harming me when in reality, at no moment was I afraid for myself…anyway, this is the end for you and when you get to whatever afterlife there is for elementals, tell them ‘the Bogeyman’ sent you.”
With that, he pulled the strings tightly, causing the remains of the creature to burst into tiny shining particles, like little stars falling down, among it was a peral and as white as one too that he caught before it hit the ground, another elemental summoning item but for an ice elemental instead, looking over, he saw Morovith was already finished with his opponent.
Zerinia’s fight with Vovea was long and difficult, both enemies pushing to their absolute limits against one another. Despite specialising in burst damage, Vovea was struggling deeply to do any meaningful damage to her enemy.
“You cannot stand against me, imitator! Suffer and perish! Holy Beam!” She cried out, sending a holy beam of light at Zerinia, who somehow stood there unfazed by her attack which shocked the vampire. “What?! That’s impossible! How?!” She demanded.
Zerinia only smirked, replying coldly. “You made a lot of mistakes, too many for me to count and quite frankly, I find it hilarious how you haven’t figured it out yet. But here’s a clue, this ring isn’t just for decoration!”
Confused, the vampire used ‘Appraise’, seeing said ring is a holy item, granting protection from holy magic under tier 7, then something hit her, she kept checking her enemies magic energy but never once his health.
“Reveal Magic…” She muttered, a light only she could see forming around Zerinia, a purple and blue light that wasn’t very large, quite small actually. “Reveal Health…” She said, as a new light enveloped it, this time green and yellow. Not only that, but it was also barely down at all.
Pulling out from his inventory his strongest weapon; Duskblood Blade, before raising it up. “I may be practically out of magic, but that doesn’t mean I can’t beat you to dust!” He yelled before attacking the enemy, striking again and again with little to no resistance from the much-weakened opponent.
As Vovea begins to fall back, unable to continue to defend herself as Zerinia moves in for the final attack. “Finish! Crimson Death!” She brought the sword down, a crimson liquid flowing out the blade while remaining razor thin, enough to rip through flesh, and it did against the enemy of Zerinia.
The body Vovea stopped, eyes wide at Zerinia before speaking. “Our kind are in good hands…” She say, falling down as her body was split in half from the chest to the waist.
In the remains of the boss, ‘Vovea’, soon turned to ashes that disappeared, leaving behind a large staff. It was gold with red and black outlines and along the top, 8 skeleton hands making a holding gesture, like there was supposed to be a small ball in each one. Soon taking all 8 elemental summoning stones they had gathered around the castle, those being fire, lightning, water, ice, earth, air, earth and spirit, the last which was gathered by the final boss, Zerinia placed them all into the sockets one by one.
Once all were finally done, a small notice appeared in front of him, the text said, ‘Enter Guild Name Here:’, and underneath was a small text bar, in it said ’50-character Max. Limit’. Zerinia stared down at the notice, trying to think of what to put down.
“Oh! Guild Name! What to choose?! I think ‘Midnight Reapers’ sounds perfect!” Arawn asked, believing the name to nothing short of absolute perfection.
“Makes us sound…gimmicky, what about ‘Monarch Undeath’?” Kurogane suggested, indicating towards the fact that most of them were, in fact, undead.
“Not all of us are undead.” Replied Very-Kael, as he after all wasn’t an undead like everyone else in the group.
“Perhaps our guild leader should choose the name of the guild.” Morovith suggested, even though it was closer to an undebatable fact that he was putting onto them before looking at Zerinia.
Zerinia looked down in silence, thinking to himself for what felt like eternity. Finally, he lifted his finger and began typing, not that any of the others could see what it was in particular was being typed out. Finally, he stopped and above the throne, the clans new guild banner appeared. A template that said ‘Ravenscroft’ on the front, right above was a skull with a raven holding its wings outwards, on the sides were scythes and in the back a crescent blue moon.
Zerinia took a few steps forward and spoke to them all, all four that is, lifting the staff upwards. “It is done my friends, this day shall be a holiday of our own we shall all indulge on this date for every year to come, it shall be known as the founding day of the ‘Ravenscroft’ guild, of Zerinia Valenhart!”
The others began clapping and cheering, it was the beginning of something wonderful, soon they all gathered and took a picture of themselves to be displayed and accessible for all of them for ages to come. Zerinia stood in the middle of the group with the other 4 at his sides, a special moment that he shared with his friends and a tradition that would be repeated as the years went by, the guild grew and new people joined them.
Zerinia now sat on the throne once again, looking down at the photo album on her lap with a small smile on her face, looking between the photos back and forth before finally reaching the first one, the first five members all that time ago.
“Happy Anniversary, Ravenscroft.” Her voice was quiet but warm, seeing the smiles of her friends, a group that only grew from the first 5 in the very first year, to exactly 38 members in total. Monsters from Demons, to Undead, to Slimes and all kinds of other creatures, a family that felt more like a family than she ever felt she had.
Abruptly, the door opened and Lenore herself walked through, eyes fixed on Zerinia. “Lady Zerinia, we have potential invaders to the castle.” Her voice almost frantic, she was clearly trying her best to hide her panic from Zerinia, someone she looked up to, someone she trusted so deeply.