"Emperor, You should refrain from increasing potency of the bloodlines. Calamity comes with the songs of great dragons. I see that he is not the first to use them either." Ibuwere sent a look at Zhan and Khan Ni, he didn't seem to approve. "Emperor, the bloodlines have thinned over the ages and that was a good thing. The offspring of the ancient ones were extreme beings, if not for their disappearance from this world it would have long since been destroyed."
"Calm down. Its Mike. He's the Dragon King, Shouldn't he ya know.. be a Dragon?" Wu Hai stood up, offended.
-{"This old fool still breathes?"} Ferser talked, using Mike as a mouthpiece.
"Devil, hold your tongue" Ibuwere stood up and looked ready to fight.
"SILENCE" Wu Hai flashed over to the light elemental form to grab their attention.
"I understood you the first time, ancient bloodlines were hard to handle because they were uneducated brutes that lusted for power and wealth. Yes. Yes. Yes. Ibuwere, you're overstepping by repeating yourself and Ferser. I've still yet to address you, do not anger me so much as to break your agreement with my brother. I may not know how to remove you at this exact moment but I have a few ideas already. Test my patience at your peril." He stood up. "I brought this meeting to place so we could discuss the upcoming battle plans and reunite with the Prince. The Vampire holding Xue can't be too far, our presence may already be known to them. Zhan and Khan Ni will take the lead, they have been invested in the fight longer. Ibuwere, you're going to back them up. All fliers will be ready, when we're close, i'll teleport back here for our ground troops and then we will all arrive at the battle together."
"That's one hell of a move." Qingchi and Ho stood by the side.
"Its too simple, your plans are way too simple. We can't directly assault them, their numbers are far too many. We'll have to accept huge losses if we're surrounded." Guzhe knew what he was talking about, he started pointing around. "We have a problem. Too many of our forces are ground forces, and vampires can fly."
"Then we change that." Wu Hai slammed the cup down on the table.
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There were monster and beastkin alike, trotting through the roads and paths along the way. Flying high overhead, the Zao Clan's forces steadied themselves. A great procession was arriving at another portal like entrance, disappearing into the landscape.
'Another Portal.' Everyone took notice as they followed Khan Ni and Zhan, The Emperor took up the rear. There was no telling what was to come, but they were actively seeking a very dangerous situation. The game kept changing, kept growing beyond their understandings, this battle would prove to be another game changer. They dove down.
Khan Ni and Zhan led the vanguard, more than a dozen bodies, monsters, vampires and slaves were frozen in an instant. The first objective would be to secure the Portal, they acted at their fastest.
Above the doorway was a sign. It named the Kingdom, their target and objective for the assault.
Zhan rolled and sent out his poison frost barbs then pounced a group of Terraesaur Mounted Undead Guard. Their cores were the targets of the Zao Clan warriors. Undead regenerated, reformed and continued to battle even after dismemberment. Using his tail while he fought, Zhan removed many of the cores and blast his ice across the perimeter.
LuSha followed by the Emperor's side, landing and incinerating the incoming enemies. More of the Clan landed around them, they had strange bodies, wild mixtures from the four form gygax. The real battle was to come and nothing was left to chance. The Clan secured the entrance to the portal and set up a barrier formation. LuSha wrapped the battlegroup with a wall of his flames.
Khan Ni and Zhan stepped through the portal.
On the other side, another long procession, Espers, started pouring through its gate. Snake Scaled Tiger Men, Flying Ratmen, Flying Monkeys, Ghostly Lion Dogs with horns, One of them even resembled a rooster-centuar man-phoenix, he was quick to join LuSha in maintaining the barrier.
The spread out and started to attack everything that moved.
The Zao Clan had invaded the Kingdom of Nir.
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In a palace deep inside the dimensional plane, a throne room wrapped in the flesh of conquered peoples was hosting a party. Guests were arriving with gifts, a banquet was prepared, blood spilled in every corner as sacrifices were constantly being made.
"Does it please you, my love." Lord Eddingar toasted to his blushing bride, her pale skin reflected an untouched beauty, a flower ready to be picked.
"I think it is fitting, as a Queen, I am pleased." She finished talking, wiped the blood from her lips and tongued the glass to tease her King.
He got up and smiled. "Not yet my dear, we have guests still. After and Forever." Eddingar walked into the crowd and began to mingle. One of his guards alerted him to the situation outside of the Palace, he scoffed. "Take care of it. No more distractions." After they left, he continued to converse with his degenerate subjects.
A loud boom interrupted him before his first sentence could end. He broke the glass in his hand and flickered from the throne room. Pissed, he searched the surroundings from the 5th floor balcony.
It was hard to see, he went to the roof and looked out. Many lights could be seen going off in the distance, a great battle was underway. Hundreds of fights.
"Sound the Alarm. Guards, we're under attack." Lord Eddingar alerted the palace Guard and had the gates shut.
A Shield formed overhead, three people channeled it from the outside. They were heavily guarded.
A few breaths passed and a figure started to come up the road. There were two of them. they moved like serpents in the water and swam on a current of Air. Spikes and Poison followed in their wake, be it ice or wood, both gave off a lethal poison. The entire palace was quickly peppered, the shield they had prepared was torn like tissue paper.
Lord Eddingar pointed his finger, "FIRE!" Volleys started to fall on the pair as they advanced.
A great beast broke from behind the enemy lines and slammed into them both. It sent them back into the battle outside of the palace, the shield was raised again. As they tumbled down the path, gravestones and formation markers were broken. The Shield collapsed and Khan Ni, with the help of Zhan started to battle with the Great Beast. Its talons swiped and nearly caught her neck, the twisting motion from Zhan as they were entangled had spared her from a quick death.
The Great beast roared.
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The Emperor was standing at the edge of the expanse between the palace and the portal, his eyesight was trained on the fight his brother had just started. Lord Eddingar had sent the beast directly. 'Not on my watch' Wu Hai transformed into his Light Elemental form, his darkness abilities were food for the Shadow Monsters. Shades, wraiths and undead swarmed the surroundings of the Castle walls. Each had brought their own sort of misery to the march of the damned.
Channeling his power into a great ring of light, he morphed his hands into hooks and sped into the crowd of undead. The cutting motion from the light disc was enough to tear them in half on contact. As he flew through the mob of undead, he had corpse rings that were quickly being filled. Dead couldn't reanimate when stored away. Another loud rumble came and three lich appeared on the palace walls, staring down they began to cast.
'Channel, accuracy, speed, timing.' The Emperor's teachings, passed down from Master Jiang had been instilled into the troops like a mantra. After clearing the space around the portal, they began moving in unison toward the palace. A great army of Espers approached, once they had regrouped, anything that approached was quickly turned to dust under their combined attacks.
The City Gates were blasted apart, Eddingar stood with his honor guard. The lich that clung to the city walls fired again, some of the espers were hit, those that could started to heal the wounded and those that were not leapt at the walls directly. There was no obstacle they would allow in their way. A slow march up the courtyard marked the end for the advancement, the courtyard was a death trap, the dimensional paths constricted, forcing all traffic into the courtyards bottleneck.
The Onmyoji were already studying it on their arrival, their half spirit bodies allowed them to manipulate the formations and slip their own into place. A purification ritual was set up in a hurry, Wu Hai passed something to Kuzunoha, it was the White Dragon's Claw.
She stabbed it at the formation's center, shattering it.
In that moment, a rush of death came flooding out, poisons and gasses began to corrode everything it touched, except for the dragon's claw. The purification ritual was still underway but it was being bombarded.
The barriers were shattering one by one.
Then, a crash came.
The Great Beast barreled through the courtyard and into the Zao Forces.
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