The Challenge ~ (RP)
 

A dark rider mounted atop of a armored warhorse scanned the area with bloodthirsty eyes. "A challenge to all... fight me if you dare" she cried out as her steed reared and stamped it's heavy hooves back upon the ground. "I care not your side both are welcome.. " She spoke not of why she was willing to fight both the Rebels and the Loyalist but she had her reasons as she circled the area at a slow trot.

The area consisted of open fields and some more covered areas, the fighters could choose whatever advantage or disadvantage to their liking. She didn't care of the sides started spilling one another's blood, her role was to cause chaos and to succeed in her leaders mission... To control all and in thus forcing the world to fall into a realm of chaos.

"Come if you dare!" was her final cry out as she finally stood still once more in the middle of the area, her eyes watching.. waiting for anyone who dared crossed steel with her.

Funkduder walked beside the former rose knight. Her horse left behind a trail of dead grass and everyone seemed to busy to fight her. "How cowardly."
"So Rose, I see you are now the famine knight," he said standing beside her. Already he felt the effects of her new power as he grew slightly hungrier than before.

".. this cursed form.. every time there is a mass amount of blood shed upon innocent ground I seem to return to this state" She didn't seem to hold any emotion in her voice as she spoke, the horse seemed more in tune with the riders emotions then anything as it snorted and pawed at the ground being impatient.

"The other riders waste their time, we should just ride together and wipe out any force that stand it's ground against us" she said coldly "The sooner this fighting ceases the sooner I shall return to my normal self" She seemed to force a smile though it was a rather twisted one "the gods must see this as a sick joke.. the normally peaceful dryad being a pawn of war."

"And who is to blame but the people who pill the blood first, then. It's unfortunate that they do not realize the nature of my justice." A Loyalist and Rebel were fighting a few meters away from the two of them. He threw his spear at the two, killing the rebel.

"shame indeed.. there will be much work to be done after the battle ends this one seems to be more bloody then the last even.." she smirked a bit before drawing her bow back and letting the arrow fly through the air as it went straight into the Loyalist's neck. "though the final battle is what I await to see..." she held the same evil smirk on her face as the Loyalist fell over and gasped at the air before bleeding out slowly.

Espy stepped onto the battle just as the Loyalist fell straight into her arms. A needless death...

That woman...she does not care who she kills. And for that...! The assassin vanished for a split second and materialized, still running at full tilt, mere yards away from the axe-wielding lady.

(Oh great. I think I'm about to get mobbed by you two.)

"Well what do you know? It's the infamous assassin. Do you want to take this one, or shall I?" He readied his mace as the assassin got ever closer.

"hrm.. we have a live one finally.. I'll take her" she said with a smirk before be jumped from her mount pulling her poleaxe to her side "Come at me with your all!" she laughed out at the assassin, she seemed to care less what odds this fight had. She only killed the Loyalist due to the fact she believed in neither side, her loyalties were with the knights and for the moment the team was spit in half. The plant life beneath her feet seemed to weather away to nothing as she took few steps forward to lessen the distance on the warrior who had entered the field.

Espy threw herself down into a somersault that sent her careening over the head of the Famine Knight. It wasn't that she wanted to hurt her friends...or, at least, those who had been her friends...She just couldn't let people die needlessly. If the two Knights hadn't interfered, neither soldier would have died then...they would have crawled away from each other with scratches at most.

Most people weren't as brave as they would like to be...

She twisted in mid-air, lashing out at the back of the lady's neck with her right katar.

"Aww, and I wanted to use the flail mode..." He cried a little inside before seeing another rebel. Releasing the flail-mode, he smashed in in the head, crushing the skull in one blow.

(Funk, you do realize you're adding fuel to the fire of Espy's anger? XD)

"See you got to use it anyway" she smirked turning quickly as she raised her weapon to block the dagger strike. "You'll have to do better.. I've killed enough rogues in this war to know how they strike.." Sure Rose was normally a passive knight even being one of the chaos knights group.. but during the wars she seemed to be a alter ego. She saw no friend or foe unless you were the leader of the knights or one of the other four riders.

She pushed the dagger's blade back as she held her weapon up watching the girl. "wish to try again?" she laughed as she stood there unphased by the strike, she seemed to enjoy her pray putting a fight up even.

((edit: I can count? xD))

((Yes I do, and I intend for you to attack me for a fight of epicness))

(Yeah, you're adding to it too XD)

The assassin growled and slammed her palm onto the ground. The Rose Knight sank down slightly as the dirt under her feet swept to the side and formed a tight cocoon around her. She pointed her free right hand in the direction of the Wrath Knight sending thin tendrils of fire running towards him.

(Er...I should've used fire on Rose instead...and earth on Funk. Whoops. Espy's got two elements that could beat you, and she just HAD to mess them up, huh.)

"ahh~ You wish to fight us both, assassin? Alright then," he said, taking out a prototype interdiction badge. It extended into a normal-ish shield with a faint glow. "COME ON!" He said, charging towards the fire, shield first.

((haha xD))

The earth around her seemed to glow suddenly before it melted back down to he ground "Just because I have switched forms does not mean the earth disobeys my orders.. " she said in a unamused tone as she seemed to sit back to watch what the Wrath knight would do. Her abilities were more passive then anything in her current form. though she was far from useless in combat when it came to her weapon skills.

Something in the back of her mind seemed to hold her back from fully lashing out at this assassin.. she couldn't put her finger on what it was.

(FUNK! Not fair! I can't morph into a Dante here.)

"Che!" Espy spat, this time leaving the Wrath Knight charging. He would get here in a few seconds, which was more than enough time to transmute...

She hit the ground with both her hands this time, feeling the fire that lay for below the surface...This would eat her energy but she didn't care. Arching her back, she focused...

The ground in a twenty-foot radius erupted into a mess of rocks and fire that shoved its way out of fissures in the earth. Espy's katars grew red hot, but she didn't worry about them; they had been forged out of adamantite, and her relatively weak fire couldn't make then soften.

(By now you should be able to tell what two elements she's got some control over.)

"Holy-" Fwoosh! Funkduder was sent flying in the air, about 30 feet above the battle field. "This better work..." He pointed the shield downwards and tried to land on Espy, falling at incredible speed.
((What the flip? I just fought my own mule. XD))
((EDIT: Wait, did you just lock me in? I'll edit if you did. XP))

((Sorry if my replies are slow; I'm trying to write my paper at the same time here. And no, I didn't, Funk.))

What seemed like miniature volcanoes now slowly ceased their activity. Espy had only supplied so much raw energy at the beginning to crack the earth and bring up the fire...and something was about to flatten her.

The assassin kicked off and rolled quickly to one side as the Wrath Knight's invisible shield gouged out a great chunk of earth.


((Okay, for the record: As I see it, mages and alchemists have a few differences. I think that, to sustain a spell, like Espy's earthen wall, a mage would have to continuously pour mana/energy into it. An alchy only needs a one-time energy fee: when she first creates that wall. There are a few more thing that I'll explain if I need to, later.))

Getting up, funkduder checked himself and found himself relatively unharmed, but the shield broke from the pressure.
"damn," he muttered before pulling out the flail and extending it's reach to maximum. Whipping it with intense strength, a ball of spikey steel flew towards espy.

Pulling herself into a crouch, Espy threw forward part of the dirt that had been displaced by the Knight's shield, in the form of a solid and packed sphere. It was no match for the spiked steel mace, which blasted it to bits and caught Espy on what would have been he shoulder if her reflexes had been a few milliseconds slower. Instead of a chunk out of said right shoulder, it bit into her lower arm.

Shit. Wonder if I'm going to be able to use that now...Playing the medic takes too long... she thought as she diverted her attention away from the medkit at her side.

Espy kicked dirt into the Knight's eyes and vaulted over him, landing some fifteen feet away and whipping a sleek throwing dagger towards him.

His eyes were blinded by Espy as she jumped overhead. "Damn, how could she still move so fast?" He stumbled forward and caught a knife in his left hand. The blade struck straight threw it and got lodged into the wrist. "Shit, there's no more time to mess around, now." He pulled out a pistol from his inside pocket, pointing it straight at Espy. As he did, only one thought went threw his head... "please don't miss"
The gun fired.

((What happened to the "only kill a person in RP if you've got their permission OOC" rule? XD))

A...gun...? She didn't see many of those around, besides Taiye and Lucid's gunblades from way back when. Not waiting for Espy to dodge, the bullet shattered her collarbone just slightly above her heart. She swore again, both out of pain and the startling realization that her left arm was, for the most part, quite immobile.

Taking a few steps back, she reached down to her pouch and pulled out a small vial -- healing reagent. Normally not meant to be used in it's pure form. Screw that... was her last thought before she emptied half of it into the wound and immediately caught of whiff of a burning odor. It was a good thing she couldn't see the broken collarbone from that angle, or the sight might have made her queasy.

Espy growled at the Knight. Close combat it was, then. She charged while sheathing her left katar. Disemboweling herself by accident would be fatal, but as long as she still had her right hand in decent shape...

((It's called, you could have had the bullet miss, espy. Or even better, you could have already been there to swipe the gun away XD))
It was one shot and had one hell of a kick, but somehow, the bullet dabbed a pretty good hit. He checked his left hand, still bleeding with a knife in it, and he checked his right arm, which felt dislocated. "It might as well be broken with all I can do to it. This battle won't be going in my favor if I keep this up..." Suddenly, espy came towards him, although sheathing the blade on her wounded side. "I won't last in close combat."
He jumped back, his arms dangling forward and loosening the knife, which sent a jolt of pain down his left arm... "This might be my last shot at victory..." He knelt down on his left knee and used his mouth to grab the blade. He pulled it out, freeing the blood stream, opening the wound, and gaining two weapons and about a minute before running out of blood.
"This will end this bout, assassin," he said raising himself to a battle stance. Who knew that looking cool would hurt so damn much... "Have at you!" he cried threw the knife he had. Holding ground, he awaited the beginning of the end.

She continued watching this bout go back and forth, she had a odd sensation of wanting to save this assassin.. but it quickly passed. The steed seemed to know more of what was going on then the rider did. Though if it was like the last war it's rider would forget any blood she had spilled and return to her duties of tending to the corpse riddled lands making sure the plant and animal life would return to them once more.

Though the longer she watched she seemed to repeat something to herself a chant of sorts in her native tongue.

The assassin caught the knife singlehandedly. Easily. Then as fast as it had come towards her, she whipped it back towards the Knight. Even then, almost unconsciously, she was reaching towards the medkit, ready to prepare a salve for her "friend".

((no it wouldn't because I didn't say that it had one bullet until it hit. You could've blocked the bullets or weaved threw them just as you caught the knife. Speaking of which, I meant 'through' instead of 'threw', but that was my mistake. I'll give you the bout.))
There was no time to spare after she threw the knife back at him...so he took the knife. It landed on the same shoulder as his bloody hand, which he intended to use to blind her at close combat... but it was too late for that plan. His vision was getting more blurry. "Damn," he said smiling. "I should of known better than to play your own game and expect to win." He fell to his knees. He had not enough anger or hate to truly unleash his wrath onto his old friend. "I guess that why you were...the grand master." And he blacked out.

((How can you black out just from that?!))

Espy had stooped to grab the man's collar, but stopped...Casting a backwards glance the other Knight, she knelt quietly and mixes an herb salve with her one good hand. It wasn't much, but it would staunch the flow of blood, at least for now.

She rubbed in the mixture and dripped what what left of the reagent into the paste, then tossed aside the empty vial. Looping the man's arm around her shoulder, she half limped, half crawled into the outskirts of the field and set him down against a charred tree.

And suddenly, she was gone.

((I guess there was more blood lost than I thought? ^^'))

After the assassin had left she walked over to the Wrath knight as she laughed slightly "under estimated your foe did you?" She figured the knight would be ok the wounds he had suffered weren't fetal. But until he re-awoke she'd stick around to make sure no one decided to finish the job.