World Tree MUSH

    Right, so the whole orcs on the highway business has been going on for too long. The Adventurer's Guild headquartered at Dorn had put up a bounty... Now, while the clearing of the roads is usually left to Steel ranked adventurers, a very special Silver rank quest has been put up: eliminate and bring back proof of death of the leader of the orc warband harassing the roads.
    This is a very public quest that offworlders who feel capable are welcome to try their hand at. And for those who can't read, Mau, who happens to be a Silver ranked adventurer, is more than helpful enough to point out the quest and that she's rounding up a posse to help Deal With It.
    So Mau is on the road to the south of the city, waiting at the entrance to the forest for people to arrive, seated pretty casually on the stump of a felled tree and sharpening her swords.

Itana has never considered if she wants to be a catgirl. She is, however, fine with being herself while helping a catgirl kick orcs off the highway.

She hasn't mentioned not being able to read. She just let Mau read the paperwork and went along as if she knew what was going on. She's picked up the gist of things through context clues and has already found herself a spot on the fallen tree. Perched on the trunk, Itana checks over her bow, ensuring nothing's gone wrong since the last time she's used it.

With a small frown, the archer looks out from the treeline. "The orcs almost certainly know someone will be coming. It is not as though the Adventurer's Guild was subtle with their advertisements."

    Lumina Netherland perches nearby to Itana. The young looking blonde in an impossibly clean white dress is sharpening a sword with a whetstone while preparing to move out.

    Her expression is dour and serious, a 'resting bitch face' of sorts.

    To Itana she says simply. "Then this will be a fair fight. I feel sorry for them."

    Following the call of lively adventure, Marceline decides to tag along! Though her way of getting to the meeting spot is more roundabout than she would've liked. She emerges from the woods near Mau and combs a bundle of leaves from her hair with her fingers. "Guh, dude, we're seriously going back in here? How do those piggy boys get around so good in all that? Hrnf."

    Mau and Itana get a nod of recognition and, suddenly on guard, Marcy shapeshifts her nose to be more flat and batlike. Sniff sniff. Illumiel gets a Look, though that's not who she's sniffing for. Ghost is not sneaking up on her again!

    If not for the bounty Ghost would've suggested getting rid of these orcs himself, round up a militia and get rid of the bastards. But this is good too. Ghost has today brought his handy dandy Chimera carbine in slick dark black, and a tactical sniper rifle for the job. Should be good for covering both distant and close up tangos.

    He approaches Mau, giving her a curt nod. Itana, Illumiel, Marceline, all people he recognizes. A good team so far. "We good to move on the orcs then?" He asks Mau directly.

    For once, Lian Kamoya is not here by sheer happenstance. No, this time, she saw the posted request, and decided to do what Jedi do best - meddle, and/or play the hero. An orc warband's leader, a general of sorts, leading his band of warriors in brigandry along the roads. That's exactly the sort of thing a Jedi is well-suited to intervene in, especially when they're not alone. And if Lian knows the Tree like she thinks she does, she's fairly certain she won't be alone.

    Of the figures walking their way along the road to meet Mau, one turns out to be a woman in a traveller's cloak, tapping her way along the road with a tall, slightly gnarled walking staff. Her clothes are almost bland, a simple adventuring outfit in earthen colors, and some of her long black hair hangs out the front of the hood. Wholly unremarkable in a world like this, she could just be any traveller along the path, trying to find her way to the next destination.

    And yet, she stops. Plants her staff and leans on it just a bit, regarding the gathering group with curiosity. "My. Itana, Illumiel, Marceline, Ghost. A spread of familiar faces. Good to see you all again," Lian greets, smiling warmly.

    "Yeah, totally, dude. We're seriously going back in there." Mau replies to Marceline with a chuckle. "Though this time we're taking the fight to them." She says she she stands from her seat and dusts herself off before stowing her blades for the time being. The party assembled is mostly familiar faces, though Lian is a new sight for Mau, and she gives the Jedi an appraising look. She can respect the humble adventuring look pretty well. "Welcome to the team. Looks like you know everyone here already, huh."
    Then she eyes Illumiel. Normally she'd be welcoming of one of Itana's companions but...
    Something about the blonde sets Mau's teeth on edge.
    "Mnnn... Anyway, the name's Mau." She introduces herself. Not Pathetic Baby-Man. Never Pathetic Baby-Man.
    Never... Pathetic Baby-Man.
    Alright, though it seems like everyone is present and ready so Mau turns towards the trees and kneels down, fingertips brushing over a footprint in the dirt.
    "So the orcs like to think they're pretty well hidden in the woods but I can track them easier than a cat scratches fleas." She says standing back up once she has a trail.
    Leading the way deep into the woods, it's a good hour before the trail seems to go cold."
    "Well, we're here." Mau says as though that's the end of it. There's a beat of silence and a moment's pause before an arrow comes streaking at her from out of nowhere.
    Mau casually draws her short blade and bats it out of the air in a single smooth motion.
    In the next moment her long blade is out and she's swatting several more arrows down, as a storm of crudely crafted bolts and arrows come streaking through the trees at the group from a squad of orcs up in the trees.

Somehow, Itana has attracted a growing flock of angels. Come to think of it, *is* flock the right word for angels? She tilts her head towards Illumiel and nods steadily. "I don't feel sorry for them," she admits.

Itana's expression is more stoic than dour. She doesn't let things show. Ghost and Marceline are recognized with simple nods, and Lian with a cant of her head. "I trust you've been well. There are orcs afoot, as it seems."

The way Mau looks at Illumiel is not missed. Itana gives the catgirl a pensive look, then glances back at the angel and shrugs before sighing and sliding off the branch. Without much fanfare, she gets to it, keeping enough of a pace for Illumiel to match her without much difficulty. By the time they're into the denser woods, she's got an arrow in hand already.

Before she can take up a hiding spot, though, their cover is blown. Arrows come sailing towards the group. One slashes past Itana, nicking her right thigh and leaving a shallow but stingingly bloody slice behind. Wincing, the archer - in mid-lunge to one side - hits the ground and rolls, managing to keep stable despite the pain shooting up her leg.

"Sar!" she snaps, hood blown back by the clap of a sonic boom as she lets her arrow go at absurd speed. It crosses the distance between herself and the orcs shockingly fast, her shot trying to single out the neck of one of the archers.

    Ghost notices Lian in the corner of his eye and nods to the Jedi Master. "Oi, good to see ya again Kamoya." He greets, to the point but familiar enough. "Missed ya before with the zombies. Wanted to see what your laser swords could do." If Ghost was smirking, it's hard to tell with the mask.

    He notices Mau's discomfort and leans in, "Illumiel's alright. I vouch for her." His words are a whisper. He's careful not to put his trust in people willynilly, but Ghost's instincts tell him so far these people are on his side.

    The trek down the woods is lit by night-vision goggles and an IR flashlight attached to Ghost's carbine, the Chimera carefully sweeping the area. Ghost keeps his head on a swivel, and he's rewarded by initiative when the orcs strike. "Contact." Suddenly an arrow bounces off Ghost's plate carrier as the operator takes cover by a tree, then he returns fire with the Chimera.

    Lumina looks bat at Mau, tilting her head a little bit as she stands and adjusts her gear. She's very much not equipped for this, only sporting the sword and a companion scabbard, a pair of fire pokers, and a length of metal pipe... a weird assortment of implements.

    She touches Itana's shoulder wordlessly, attempting to give some comfort like her sister does, but the different aura she has leaves nothing.

    Once the group is through the woods and near the Orc encampment, she pulls one of the fire pokers from her belt and with an intonation, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I shall fear no darkness. For thou art with me. Thy staff and thy rod, they comfort me."

    Divine flames engulf the metal poker, an intricate etchwork of divine symbols array along it as she moves to interpose herself between Itana and the incoming fire. She sways arrows and bolts out of the air much like Mau is, the shafts burning to ash and the arrow tips becoming inert lumps of stone before they hit the ground.

    Oh hey, a mysterious robed figure trekking down the road. A few further sniffs and Marceline grins, revealing all her pointy teeth. She ain't no halfassin vampire. All her teeth are fangs! "Lian, whassup!" A hand comes up in a wave.

    She does let some of that drop, though, when Ghost also just walks up. What, no stealthy juju? Dang. Back to a normal-ish face, sans animal bits for now.

    Mau gets a look at that, an eyeroll and then she simply pulls a hair tie out of her pocket and pulls her mane into a somewhat less-than-ruly bun. "Hmph, word." Followed by a bandana going up, helping keep her hair in place while providing some shade for the skin of her brow, though at least the woods are full of relative dark compared to the road! Anyway, the trek into the woods is dull enough that she chooses to hover at the edge of the group, hands on her pockets, bass slung behind her. She does hum something a bit over the volume where you could honestly say she's humming to herself.

    The end of the trail, though, sees her sniffing with that batlike nose again. "Dude-" Then, arrows are in the air. "Ah, gotcha." Arrows poke into her skin and she clicks her tongue. "Come onnnnn." She whips one arm out into the overgrowth, questing with horrible clawed fingers for something other than weeds and dense vegetation. Feel feel. "Check it!" She drags a leg into the clearing. POSSIBLY still attached to the owner.

    "It seems so," the wanderer replies to Mau, reaching up to draw back her hood. "Lian Kamoya, adventurer and seer. I should like to join your efforts, if you'll have me." When Itana speaks, Lian inclines her head to the younger woman, "Well enough, yes. I was hoping to pitch in with the orcs if I can." She gives Ghost a friendly bow of the head as well, adding, "You might yet have your chance at that."

    A long trip doesn't seem to perturb the cloaked woman in the least. She's quite fine with just walking along with everyone, enjoying the forest for what it is. But as the trail finally goes cold and Mau announces the end of their trek, Lian tilts her head slightly; it's as if she hears the arrow coming a full second before it's loosed. And when it arrives, she doesn't even bat an eye.

    "My, that's quite the hostile welcome." Despite the lethal nature of the attacks that follow, she just... keeps walking, without slowing or speeding up. A nice, steady pace, walking staff tapping softly on the forest floor. And it's the most curious thing; none of the arrows ever quite seem to hit her. Some of them come worryingly close, but they never quite land. Did that one just... veer off course? Nah, must be a trick of the light.

    "I don't suppose you'd mind letting me speak with your general, would you?" she calls out to the trees, as if the orcs weren't trying their level best to kill her.

    "I'm sure it's fine, I just..." Mau muttered back to Ghost in that moment before. But now?
    But now, it got really chaotic really fast.
    Arrows come flying with some pretty frightening precision for bandits, but... This *is* a trained orc warband and not just brigands. They've had time and practice at war, and for a moment, Mau is pinned, forced to deflect arrow after arrow.
    Illumiel takes her defensive position in front of Itana and the angel's divine fire of wrath and vengeance sears the arrows out of the air, putting Mau in a hilarious position.
    "... Really? Seriously?" The catgirl huffs, almost petulant for some reason. But beyond this and some minor grumbling she gets into position deflecting arrows with the angel rather than continue to bitch about it.
    Itana's return fire screams through the air, the sonic boom ripping through the trees causing leaves to fall off the branches as her shot hits its mark and punches clear through an orc's neck, the pink-skinned pig-man collapsing from the branch as her arrow CONTINUES through him and into the chest of the orc on another branch, while Ghost's rifle proves to be better at piercing the monster men's crude armor than their arrows do against his plate carrier, dropping several more.
    Marcy grabs an orc by the leg, kicking and screaming. What she does with her new friend is ENTIRELY up to her as... There's a moment of bewilderment.
    The remaining archers continue to shoot their bows and arrows at Lian but they can't seem to hit her for all their worth. And she's a STATIONARY target.
    "The hell..." One snarls before he drops from the tree and moves to close in, drawing a rusted short sword. "No speak. Only kill."
    "Yeah, orcs aren't the friendliest." Mau points out. "They're like bigger, nastier goblins. Creations of Dommon. All they know is evil and murder." She says.
    As a small horde erupts from the trees, weapons drawn, with violent intent in their eyes.

The aura may be different, but the sentiment is felt. Itana, before it all broke down, had glanced back and nodded to Illumiel simply, as if to let her know things are alright.

At this very moment, though, Itana widens her eyes as Illumiel interposes herself between she and the orcs. Her teeth click together. In spite of the heat of the situation, she has to swallow a surge of emotion. Someone is trying to /protect/ her. She didn't even /ask/ for it. She never would. Her pride wouldn't permit it.

For just a moment, Itana wants to find Castiel and hug her and sniffle a bit.

She resist the soft and squishy feelings and maneuvers to one side, making room to get shots off without hitting Illumiel. "Be cautious," she calls to the avenging angel before snapping an arrow into place.

She fires, quite rapidly. Arrows dance past Illumiel, swooping over her and to one side as Itana puts shots into the orc crowd. The horde's charging, and Itana's trying to slow their charge before they end up in stabbing range of the tiny angel.

    Ghost definitely grins a bit when Lian makes an indirect promise. "Holdin' you to that. Next necromancer we gotta kill, you're comin' with us."

    When it's combat time, Ghost makes an effort to take out the closest he can guess is a non-com, the guys leading squads of orcs. Their shit pot metal armor doesn't do well against .300 Blackout, as the orcs find out. An orc gets in close, and Ghost uses the rifle's small length to get up close and knock an axe away with a blocking motion of the gun. Then, Ghost presses the muzzle of his carbine up against the orc's face and he fires point-blank.

    An arrow manages to land true, piercing into Ghost's shoulder through the fabric of his jacket. "Ghn-!" The 141 Operator grits his teeth while he ducks behind the tree, and rips the arrow out, leaving a nasty bloodspray while he grabs his sidearm and keeps shooting at the archers.

    Marceline found a new friend! Her massive clawed hand has the poor orc gripped firmly below the knee, enough that the flesh blanches slightly. "Dude, you gotta hydrate!" She ducks down near her new 'friend', heedless of the arrows flying, the return fire or literal fire from the dangerously holy-type.

    She doesn't seem overly concerned for anyone else here or anything; they've all demonstrated plenty of ability to handle themselves so she simply crawls over the supine porcine figure, jaws lengthening and forked tongue hanging. "Hey man." Her voice distorts, deepening, "Where's your bossman at? If you don't know..."

    Somehow, her voice booms over even the gunfire. Her jaws open wider. She doesn't even seem to really be using them to talk. Ewww what. Meanwhile, her hair escapes her bun, fanning out into a mass of tentacles that grasp and trip up the onrushing orcs as they break into a charge.

    "I see. Unfortunate," Lian says, almost disappointed at the orc's response.

    When that rusted short sword swings out at her, she remains utterly stationary, completely unperturbed... until the last moment, when there's suddenly a rushing sound and a hum of energy, a sky-blue light whipping up between the woman and her attacker, and the sword strike goes off-course for the simple fact that the hand clutching it is no longer attached to a forearm. Without skipping a beat, Lian Kamoya shoves the orc aside, giving him a brief push with her free hand and the Force; a half-second later, her discarded walking-staff hits the ground, and then a plug suddenly pops right out the top of it. The concealed lightsaber hilt inside the staff leaps from the open compartment right into her hand, and ignites with a hum identical to the lightsaber she already holds.

    And then, with no hesitation, the Battlemaster sallies forth. Her twin lightsaber blades whirl and weave, a dazzling show of sky-blue light that strikes any foe foolhardy enough to strike at her. The arrows continue to veer just barely off course, save for one or two that end up sliced by a lightsaber blade as she moves. Every sword thrust towards her ends up cleaved apart as if the steel were made of paper, and every orc that comes within reach will be fortunate to escape with only a missing hand.

    Illumiel glances at Mau, that's not a normal reaction to her, but then she doesn't have as much experience with mortals as her sister does.

    She also glances back at Itana, and once she's sure that the incoming fire won't threaten the desert archer she moves to intercept the incoming melee fighters. Blazing poker clashes with swords turning some to ash on contact. And, as she gets into the fight, her aura begins to glow and those weak willed orcs and those who lose their weapons to her own. "Come and face me, ye wretched. For He has sent his Avenging Angel upon thee!"

    The orcs are numerous... A pink tide rushes the party with weapons drawn and teeth bared.
    What they slam into is not what they expected. No no, indeed, the pink tide smashes upon a series of rocks, sturdy, strong, and unyielding.
    Even with his sidearm, Ghost's bullets punch through crude orc armor as he takes down several of the higher ranking orcs of the horde while Itana's arrows thin the crowd, each pinpoint unerring shot as deadly as the last in dropping orcs with a precision that would make even the most skilled elven archers scowl in embarrassment.
    Marceline... Does a Marceline. And it is VERY intimidating when the thing Marceline does is open her jaws like that. The horrified orc in her grasp struggles to wriggle free, squealing like a terrified piglet as he points to the trees. Other orcs cautiously approach, but don't dare try to get into Marcy's face when they see this, they consider the options... Do they attack???
    His bossman is coming.
    And then...
    Illumiel, Mau, and Lian Kamoya *fall upon the horde*.
    Those foolhardy enough to rush the diminutive blonde soon find themselves cowering. Their blades quake and their knees buckle as they break, turn, and try to flee, but are too slow and too enfeebled to escape the vengeance of an Angel.
    The Jedi Battlemaster wades into the swarm, deftly cleaving through crude rusted weapons and severing hands from their owners, those that try to fight on even in this state only find themselves at the mercy of one of the most proficient lightsaber wielders of her time. And there is but one question there: How merciful is Lian Kamoya feeling, this day?
    And then there's Mau.
    Long blade dancing, short blade flashing, the catgirl transforms from a lazy bum of an adventurer into a literal living buzz saw on the field of battle.
    "Fifteen- sixteen- seventeen..." She counts orcs that go down to her swords as easily as she breathes. Calm, smooth, flowing. Her style with the sword is probably something the Battlemaster can look upon and appreciate as Mau visibly shifts stances, styles, and strokes to meet the various challengers that face her.
    There's a roar from the trees. The orcs consider breaking, but the war shout of their leader only seems to prevent them from scattering by virtue that they know they'll have to face HIM if they retreat.
    And in the next instant a massive pig-man shoves a tree aside, a giant battle axe clutched in both his hands. He's gotta be like ten feet tall, and his full plate armor is, while still crude, probably a lot more effective than the rest of his horde's.

Itana's eyes dart to Illumiel for a moment. Whatever's passing between her and Mau escapes her. "It's alright," she manages to get out before snapping another arrow off.

They're converging on the horde, and Itana does her best to support, snapping off a few more shots - at least, until the roar from the trees rings out. Itana looks over for just a moment - and a few more orcs take the opportunity to pile on. One of them, an arrow sticking out of his shoulder, attempts to just flatten her with a massive warhammer.

With a breath, Itana rolls off to one side, and the hammer shatters the earth where she'd been standing. Clods of turf pelt her as she shoulders her bow in a hurry and comes up on one knee, knife in hand. Another orc sweeps in with a two-handed battleaxe, swinging violently, and she darts under it before slashing out, knife biting into the huge creature's side. The hammer orc takes another swing, a third orc coming around behind with a huge chain mace, and Itana clicks her teeth, not really thinking about her responses so much as just doing: She lunges over the chain of the morningstar, the hammer missing her by inches as she comes down and jams her knife towards the maceman's neck joint. There's a spray of blood before she whips away and lands adeptly, pivoting.

Which is about when the hammer orc wheels around and clobbers her with the weapon. She begins to zip away, but not fast enough. Even the glancing blow she takes is enough to send Itana flying across the open space in the woods to slam back-first into a tree trunk, then slump to the ground with a groan.

    Illumiel is a force of (super)nature. Her weapon, however, is not. The firepoker begins to dent and buckle, until it finally snaps from impacting and crumbling an orcs scimitar. The sound resonates across the battlefield, and may give the flagging Orcs some kind of rally.

    That is, until pure white wings flare out.

    Her voice echos as she calls upon her Authority, lifting from the ground as her armour forms into place, and a halo circles into place above her head. "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

    In her hands, two swords emerge in Blessed Flame. One gleaming white and gold. The other ebon dark and silver. They flare briliantly as she drops back down to cleave a path through the Orcs toward their Boss, meeting his bulk with her Divine fury.

    If she can make an opening for someone to get into one of his vulnerable spots, all the better. "FACE ME HEATHEN! FACE THY DOOM AT MY HANDS!"

>> GAME >> Illumiel spends an Edge for: Dawn and Dusk, the Righteous Blades and Angelic Authority.

    It's that easy! Marceline may think nothing of croaking monsters and such but these piggy dudes are hilarious when they're scared. So no, the tattle tale earns himself a reprieve. Her voice incongruously returns to normal and she almost chirps, "Thanks man!" She's careful to stand up slowly, patting the orc on the side of the face with her claw-fingered mitt gently. She smiles at his buds, aiming to simply shoulder through their line toward the roar in the distance. "Hey, dudes. If you can, run home. Your boy ain't makin it so you'll be good. Tell everyone you found a gateway to another dimension full of demons!" She cackles, hops, then streaks in to slam the elbow of her monstrous overlarge arm into the fingers of the giant pigman leader's bottom hand. You know, the one that'll give him better leverage with the giant axe.

    She has to abort her push when Illumiel goes off like that, whirling away as she opts to grow into her monstrous batlike form.

    You know, the one with the huge, bitey mouth. "On second thought, how bout a kiss?"

    Once the way is clear and she isn't conflicting with holy fire, hypersonic arrows, laser swords, bullets or dual wield karate, she'll lunge for the big pigman's FACE! With a horrifying high-pitched bat screech because why wouldn't she be awful like that?

    As it turns out, the extent of Lian Kamoya's mercy is 'a second chance'. Any orcs that are smart enough to retreat after losing a hand, Lian doesn't spare them a second thought. But any of the orcs foolhardy enough to rush those blades of light a second time after losing a blade or an extremity, they're not going to survive long enough to try it a third.

    But the instant Itana takes a painful blow, the elder Jedi whips around, feeling the flare of pain. In the next half-a-heartbeat, she's running, leaping, bouncing off one trunk to rebound off another, until her boots come down just feet away from the archer.

    In one smooth motion, her left-hand saber is shut off and clipped to her belt, and then both hands are on a single saber, leveled at the hammer-wielding orc. "If you're smart, you'll leave this one alone."

    Ghost can feel blood spilling down his arm as he tries to patch the hole with gauze. He takes note of the big boss hog when he hears it, and Ghost motions to Itana. "Someone get to her!" He barks, before stowing his Glock in favor of grabbing the sniper rifle on his back. This was gonna fuck up his shoulder for real, but the presence of magic healers meant Ghost was confident he could make the risk.

    Popping the caps off his rifle's scope, Ghost flicks the safety off the rifle and takes aim. He sights down the orc warlord's head, and after taking in a breath, Ghost exhales and squeezes off a thunderous shot. Armor piercing .300 Win Mag does a lot of damage, especially if it'll knock the orc's helmet loose for someone to take his head off. He also feels pain lance up his shoulder at the kick, even with the rifle's padded stock it had a pretty mean recoil.

    "Twenty eight... Twenty nine... Thirty..." Mau is still counting orcs as she wades and whirls through the warband. But then something bad happens.
    Itana is struck. Though she fights valiantly, when the desert archer hits the tree, Mau spits a hideous curse. Now... One might think this world has some colorful curses to say but in the case of the catgirl, it's a surprisingly simple, albeit vehement spitting of "--Motherfucker.", as Mau shifts her course to start veering her violence in Itana's direction.
    But it's Lian who makes it there first, interposing herself between the hammer wielding pigman and the fallen nomad.
    But the hammer wielding orc smiles with malicious intent, choking his grip on his weapon as he continues his approach, now intent to strike Lian and Itana down in one swoop.
    That will likely not end well for him.
    The warband leader though has a problem of his own.
    Another roar and he starts charging. He's met by a small herald of the Lord. And with her heavenly blades in hand she cleaves away the heavy armor plating from the orc's hide, shearing the metal off his body as easily as shears clip wool from a sheep. This leaves him exposed and a little bewildered as to what just happened. Before a shot rings out. The shot heard 'round the entire forest. Ghost's rifle barks, louder than thunder, and the warband leader's head jerks from the impact as his helmet shatters.
    That's when Marceline swoops in for a kiss.
    It's not a pleasant kiss. It's not a pleasant kiss in the least.
    The horde pauses. They watch in fascinated horror as the demon-vampire hybrid uh.
    Does what she does to their war king.
    And it's WHILE they watch in silent, horrified confusion that uh...
    Mau continues to mow them down like fucking grass.

Clenching her jaw, Itana braces her aching shoulders and back and tries her best to ignore how badly her body wants to fold up and stop working. She staggers and manages to reverse her knife in her hand, taking on an unsteady defensive stance.

Until Lian interposes himself and Ghost shouts at someone to get her. Her cheeks flare with a surge of runaway embarrassment.

They all think she's weak. They think she's helpless. They're running to help her because she appears incapable. Nothing could be more humiliating.

Itana tenses her shoulder.

There is a sudden sound of steel whistling through air. Something zips over Lian's shoulder.

It's Itana's knife. She threw it as hard as she could. It is liable to end up blade-first in the hammer orc's chest, armour or not, considering that Itana put a great deal of frustration behind it in the hopes of proving that she is not, in fact, helpless.

    The sniper round does its job as the warlord's helmet is shattered into pieces. Ghost must've hit a weak space, poor metallurgy has a habit of leaving those. It's when Marceline does her thing that Ghost takes advantage of the orc's confusion to start nailing more of the orcs with his rifle. He braces the gun against a tree and begins to count. "Seventeen, eighteen...nineteen..." until the mag runs dry. Then he swaps to his Chimera again, holding it with his uninjured arm and taking more shots.

    He spies Itana nail an orc with her thrown knife, impressed. "Nice throw." He calls out dryly.

    The hammer-swinging orc makes his intent clear. And the only way to describe Lian's expression is 'grim, determined disapproval'. As if sensing something to come, she shifts her lightsaber into a right-handed grip, freeing her left hand just as the orc comes in with that massive lump of metal on a stick. In somehow-perfect coordination with Itana's throw, the Jedi Battlemaster lifts her left hand and makes a swatting gesture, as if she could swat aside that tremendous warhammer... and swat it aside she does. Deflecting the blow straight into the ground, a whiff that will absolutely cost the massive wall of monster a good few seconds. Might even break his arm, hard to say.

    But as Itana's dagger flies over her shoulder, Lian follows through on her sweeping movement, spinning and dropping down to a crouch in a way that brings her left hand up again. And as it comes around, she thrusts her palm forward; and if that dagger is already in the orc's chest, it's going to receive a second push, a powerful shove in the Force intended to make sure it buries up to the hilt.

    Yup. Everything worked out perfectly. Really, Marceline probably would have tried to bite through the armor regardless. It would've sucked tremendously. Between Ghost and Itana, though... Her handspan fangs find meat.

    She lets her mass bear down upon the orc lord as her jaws clamp down, filling the forest with a sound not unlike someone loudly chewing a mouthfull of celery and ice cubes. Look away, ye of brittle constitution!

    Or anyone who wants to pad the damage meters.

    Rather bestial in behaviour, the Vampire Queen shakes her head and twists her body until she suddenly jerks away. There's a momentary pause and the monstrous bat-thing spits out metal fragments and a blood clot that was probably a head at one point. "Guh! These dudes are way-"

    Marceline shrinks back to her normal form, looking back at the relative calm of the uh. The fight. Sort-of fight at this point. So many orcs just staring.

    "What? You think I'm gonna be your new boss or something!?"

    Illumiel alights on the forest floor. Her feet barely disturbing the dirt as she turns. Suddenly she realizes something amiss. She can't hear Itana's bowstring singing its melody of battle.

    Blue eyes scan, and spot the fallen archer.

    <"I can't protect you, but I certainly will Avenge you.">

    Her own words echo in her mind, as she turns on the presumably fleeing Orcs. She gathers her legs, and pushes off the air itself, flying like a bullet in pursuit, hacking down as many as possible before they can escape. "Vengeance is Mine! I shall repay."

    The chaos dies down. If only because the warboss dies so horribly.
    Itana's knife flies... And strikes true- because the hammer wielding orc grunts as his arm is snapped like a twig by the power of the Force- and then the knife punches into his chest- the stab further deepened thanks to Lian's Force pushing the blade in to the hilt. The orc wobbles where he stands... Before slumping over dead.
    Marceline spits what used to be the warband king's head and the orcs watch raptly for a moment. This gives Illumiel, Mau, and Ghost perfect opportunity to kill a *load* more of them before the realization sinks in.
    The orcs have lost their leader.
    They break, scrambling, fleeing, and panicking into the woods, dropping weapons, tearing off armor so they can run faster, they completely lose cohesion and vanish into the forest, never to be seen again. At least until another bigger, nastier, orc comes along to rally them.
    Mau huffs and stabs her sword into the ground point first.
    "Everyone alive?" She asks, "How's Itana doing?" Called out after.
    Mau, herself is barely winded, though her armor sports a few new nicks and dents, and there's gash on her leg as she makes her way to Ghost.
    "That's a nasty arrow hit you took." She says, drawing a clean and unused dagger. "This is gonna hurt like fuck, soldier man."
    What's going to hurt like fuck?
    See, the thing is... Mau doesn't know any healing or support based magic. Just offensive magic...
    "Flamestrike." Mau declares, causing the dagger to erupt in fire. Which she then presses to Ghost's injury to sear off the blood flow until he can see a proper healer back at Dorn.

    'How's Itana doing?'

"She is fine," Itana grumbles as she sinks to one knee. Her body wants to wince and recoil. She braces herself and resists the impulse with every bit of will she can muster. Even after all that, they still think she's weak.

With a purse of her lips, Itana fumbles in her hip pouch for something. It's hard considering that her fingers are shaking. She nearly drops the rough-looking potion she comes up with, but knocks it back nevertheless. A trickle of green fluid beads down her chin; she wipes it away and drops the bottle, exhaling hard.

It seems to help. Whipping her hair back, Itana pushes herself back to her feet, still unsteady but able to hold herself up now.

    Illumiel comes swooping back down after she's chased off the Orcs to her satisfaction. Her wings fold down, her armour disperses in motes of golden light, and her swords return to their place. She runs the last few paces to drop in a convincing baseball slide to Itana's side, straightening when she does and holding onto her side, blue eyes looking up worriedly.

    The instant the hammer-swinging orc drops, Lian Kamoya whirls around to tend to Itana. There's open concern on her face, at least until she catches a hint of the emotional turmoil under the surface; once she does, the old Master forces herself to relax in turn, letting some of that concern slip away.

    She does stay ready to catch that potion in case it falls, but it never does.

    Instead, she carefully keeps her distance, only offering a hand to help Itana to her feet. "You're rather tough, you know," she observes. "Had I taken that hit, I'm not certain I'd still be conscious."

    "I'm going to say some things." Ghost promises as he lets the Chimera hang off his sling. Watching Mau summon fire is enough to make him think twice about getting any treatment from Mau. But, he doesn't exactly have options. His medkit isn't enough to clean out the wound.

    "Just get it over with." Once Mau puts her hand to his wounded shoulder, he suddenly blurts out "GAAH! BLOW ME, YOU FUCKIN' CHEAP TART! FUCK!"

    He takes a breath to compose himself before he glances at Mau sheepishly. "Sorry 'bout that. Didn't mean it." Ghost says, patting her on the shoulder. "Thanks."

    "Muh. I think dude had more funk on him than Z-Man." She plops down on one of the fallen orc carcasses, resting her elbows on her knees while just eyeballing the rest of the group. Not much she can do about anyone else's injuries and her own just kind of sort themselves out with enough, uh. Intake. "So, nice. Um. Sorry about that? Haha. Got a little carried away, maybe." She slaps the leg of the orc she's using as a bench, then humphs softly.

    "Wait, didn't they say they wanted proof...?" She side-eyes the mess she made, quietly worried. Then Ghost blurts that mess out and she snorts, belly laughing at Mau's expense. And Ghost's, sort of. "Holy butts, dude, language! Hahaha!"

    'She is fine'.
    "Good." Mau says matter of factly. "I'm gonna need her to kill a Demon Lord, so."
    So moving on.
    Ghost says some things alright. Mau doesn't even bat an eye as she pats him back on his good shoulder.
    "Nah I'm good, fam. You're not my type."
    Then Marcy makes a good point. They uh. They need proof.
    "... Ah crap." Mau mutters. "Anyone got a cellphone or anything we can use to get a picture?"
    How the hell would she know what a phone is???
    Well the ears should hopefully be intact still, so those can be used for proof, assuming no one has a smartphone on hand.

Itana has never seen an angel baseball-slide. She blinks at Illumiel, then reaches out and lays a hand on her shoulder. Outwardly she looks a lot more steady than she did before.

Illumiel alone can feel there's not a lot of pressure behind the touch. Itana's hurting and can't get a lot of force into her grip just yet, but she's holding a lot of it back out of sheer refusal to show weakness. The appearance of helplessness hurts just as much to her as the injury.

"Thank you. I will be fine." That's for Lian; the remark seems to soften her tension ever so slightly, something Lian may notice more through the advantages of the Force.

At least Mau's not making a fuss. For just a moment, Itana debates whether she, too, wants to be a catgirl when she fights the 100th demon lord.

    Ghost produces his phone. It's just a crappy smartphone with GPS and other things, "Got it covered." He goes to make sure to get a bunch of pictures of the orc leader's remains, kicking over the body to get a better look. Judging by how casual he is with it, Ghost has done this before a lot of times.

    He makes a note to never let Marceline get within kissing range. Just as a rule.

    For all her lacking empathy, compared to Castiel. Illumiel can tell that Itana's not feeling good, and calling attention to it would make things worse. She does gently grasp Itana's arm, holding it tenderly as she makes to lead her away... "Lets go find my sister." she says, looking clearly worried about something.

    Whether it's the fact Itana's hurt, or the chewing out she'll get from Castiel when they return... it's hard to tell.

    Marceline gets a vibe off of Ghost while he collects the evidence. She's not sure what it is but she can't resist the urge to blow a kiss at the masked operator. "Muwah!" At least she wiped the gore off her face first.

    Mau plucks her sword back up from where she left it and wipes the blade on an orc's corpse.
    "Anyway that should reduce the orc problem for a while. They'll find another warboss eventually while the Demon Lord's still kicking but we've earned a reprieve for now."
    That's when she looks to Itana and Illumiel.
    "I'd be careful if I were you though. The divine... Can't be trusted."
    It is after she says this that she mutters something about 'stupid basic Galatea' while leading the way back to the road.

    Ghost stares at Marceline and raises two fingers, a reversed-V. The message is clear; "Get fucked."

    Then he leaves without a word with Mau.

    'The divine can't be trusted.'

Itana leans into Illumiel just a little, but at Mau's commentary, the archer tenses slightly before sliding an arm around the angel's shoulders.

"Illumiel and her sister have more than earned my trust," she says a bit stiffly. "That is all I care about."

She'll hang back when Mau leads them off, lowering her voice to talk to Illumiel quietly. "Yes... let's go find her."

    Marceline just doubles over laughing. It can't be helped. She knows how horrible she can be. "Dang. Still got no game." She floats up, considers. "Nah, not my type. I think? Hey, do you wear eyeliner under that thing?"