Bloodline

Defense - part 23

As they threw themselves at the mage, they only swept them away with powerful gusts of wind, each giving an ear-piercing boom as they fly towards the nearest wall of the fort. "You choose to resist despite the lack of power you all have against me." The mage says as he continues throwing people and tents with whatever was in them everywhere. Zircon backs away as some things start flying his direction, and he then gets to a safe spot where Lutol and Tesath have also reached. "That man's power is unlike anything, no mage we fought before had powers as intense as this!" Zircon says as he looks around the corner to watch the mage. "It would seem like every time anyone gets close, he just throws them back and if they were a stone. What if we try to surround him?" Lutol asks, the man then grabbing a sword after throwing its weilder away, and starts to kill anyone nearby while using his power to throw everyone else aside. "It wouldn't work, he's definitely keeping an eye out everywhere, but maybe if our archers were positioned around him and fired arrows at random, maybe they would hit..." Zircon says as Damian comes around to that area. "Well hello guys, I'm sure you can tell what's going on and I can tell you, most of our archers are either being thrown like ragdolls right now or not having their weapons on them." He says as he stares in disbelief, panting as he kneels. "Well you sure do look like you got tossed around, have you found any sort of weakness to him?" Zircon asks, turning to Damian. "Not at all, he kills any who gets close and moves any around him, but maybe if we can blind him somehow..." Zircon then grabs a smoke bomb from his kit, and looks at the group. "I've got an idea but we really have to be fast on this, you guys ready to charge at him?" Confused, they look at him and see the smoke bomb, nodding as they stand, weapons at the ready.

As they move to the mage, Zircon throws it at their feet, it going off on them. They cough up a bit of smoke as Damian and Lutol swing their weapons at them. They try to dodge their attacks as they keep coughing, clapping their hands together as wind blows everyone and the smoke away. As they look around, Zircon comes in from behind and stabs them in their side, getting hit with their elbow as they try to get him off. "You foolish assassin, you really think you could sneak on me like that?" The gust of wind that threw Zircon threw him so hard, he nearly flew over the fort walls. He gasps as some of his bones crack over the force he was thrown, and stands shakily, the pain from the internal bleeding being intense. "Hah! What can you do now? I may as well break your entire back with my powers while you only watch until you inevitably die." Zircon laughs a bit as he coughs up blood, looking through his pack. "You really know how to work with wind huh...okay, but how about this?" He throws a random assortment of knives, which the mage smugly whisks away. "Child, you'll have to do better than that!" The mage looks at him after blowing away the last knife to see Zircon stabbing the vial into himself, the gray liquid seeping into his bloodstream.

Zircon stares into the mages eyes as he does this, them turning from a light green color into a grayish color through his mask. "So you took one of the vials from one of our own, okay, but I've had enough time to practice my power, and you've only just gotten yours!" "Then I guess I'll have to adapt myself to use it, as I've always done so far..." Zircon says, charging at the mage with his broken blade. They send another gust of wind at him, but all of a sudden, a large cloud of smoke flows out of Zircon, leaving an almost shadowed man charging them, his eyes glowing with a determination to kill him. "So you can use smoke eh? Well it's a good thing I can just blow you away!" They say as they send volleys of wind at him, the shadowed version of Zircon becoming lighter and lighter. As Zircon realizes this, he sets off another smoke bomb, and seemingly absorbs the smoke into him, and becoming a part of him. "Keep talking and I'll come up with more ideas on how to kill you!" Zircon says, the mask almost falling off due to the smoke not having much grip on anything on him. As they attack, the other soldiers watch in awe as the battle goes on, Damian, Lutol and Tesath keep watching until then charging at the man as Zircon has their attention. Other soldiers see this and also go in to attack, the mage trying to blow them away as Zircon continues to unleash constant attacks, each getting closer to them. In a fit of desperation, they then blast air into the ground, launching themselves high up until they then begin to hover. "You really are annoying me  with this power of yours! Too bad it wont get you up here you creep!" The mage laughs, everyone looking up at him. Damian looks at the shadowed figure that is Zircon, him looking back for a second when he then rushes under the mage and throws one last smoke bomb. The mage looks at this, confused, when suddenly it starts forming together in a sort of tornado. Before they could think of getting away, they are pulled into it, trying to claw their way out. As they begin coughing due to the smoke, a pair of glowing eyes stare at them from the center of the tornado, until a blade then stabs through their neck, killing them.

Damian and the others gasp as the mages corpse is thrown from out of the tornado towards the enemy fort. It begins to die down, and soon, the smokey shadow stands still, the smoke from around them being absorbed until it then changes into Zircon again, his mask falling onto the floor. "Zircon...w-what the hell...was that?" Damian says, looking at him as he picks up his mask. He looks at him for a second, and puts the mask on, "Its time we fight them now, we've held off for far too long." Zircon wipes the blood off his broken blade, his gray eyes shining through the mask. Everyone stares at him as he faces the fort in the mountains, he starts walking in that direction, the ground being covered in a smokey black dust as he takes each step towards it. Some soldiers get their weapons around or with them, marching towards the fort behind him, while others including Damian and the others stay in the destroyed fort in shock. "What has Zircon become...?" Tesath asks aloud as she helps a few soldiers who fell during the fight. "I dont know, but if anything, hes straying more and more away from us. Whether with us or against us, hes going to fulfill what his gem meant, and I see this now." Damian says as he picks up his sword, grabbing a shield in the process. "The Colonel is nowhere to be found, but gather any troops who can still fight, we'll be the backup they'll need." He walks towards the fort, Maralyne arriving with a squad of archers. "What happened here? I heard booms and saw the fort and that gray tornado and...What happened to the fort!?" She asks, Lutol putting a hand on her shoulder and sighing. "Its a long story, and frankly, I dont think we have the time to tell you it now."