Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

(What better way to learn how to DG4 than to rub a bunch of rapists against a faerie)


It was a perfect day to rest atop the sun-kissed desert grass.

The sun hung in the air, to the detriment of anyone caught without shade between its scorching rays and themselves. The wind stood still, unwilling to provide the benefit of ushering along any cooling breezes. Not a drop of rain had fallen in the last year. Shadows of carrion birds danced across the surface of the sand, searching for meals provided by the harsh Anudorian environment.

But none of these were of concern to Lyra. To be one of the spring fae was to be as comfortable with heat as a fish with water. And it was no coincidence that she rested in an oasis, in the shade of a peach tree beside a shimmering spring. It was never the faeries who congregated at oases, but rather the opposite. Where there were spring fae, slivers of paradise sprouted in an otherwise cruel desert. Anudor was the spring court's sanctuary, and Lyra was not without her kin.

Swords clashed a few yards away from her. Two gorgeous bronze scimitars cut through the air in deadly arcs, wielded by equally gorgeous young sidhe women, all to the music of a drum and a lute played by satyrs. Each sidhe had skin the color of copper, each was of lithe build with supernatural beauty common of the faeries, and both wore clothing made of silk in jade with gold accents consisting of a bra and long skirt with an equally long slit in the side. Where they differed was that one had pointed ears, long, raven hair which hung freely to her waist, and golden eyes, while the other was possessed of equally long, silvery hair, dark eyes, and otherwise human features.

The bronzed scimitars had no such differences. Instead, it was as if the two weapons were two parts of a pair. Both blades had been polished to gleam brightly in the sun and sharpened to a deadly edge. Both crossguards, made of the same bronze, were engraved with small images of desert flowers. The otherwise flattened pommels had been cast with the faces of a few different legendary sphinxes known for their wisdom. The handles, worked out of olneya wood and finished with oil, were inscribed in various languages with the words for peace.

But they weren't being used in a peaceful manner. Each motion threatened to gut the other faerie. The two moved with all the grace of a falcon diving for its prey. A slash preceded by a spin would've made a deep rend in the white-haired sidhe's chest, except for a graceful crouch and thrust which forced the black-haired one to spin again to remove the center of her body from the path of danger. The drumbeat intensified as the white-haired one did a single-handed cartwheel to retreat out of the way of another cut, and then made a return swing only for the black-haired one to back-flip over it.

They twirled again and again, bronze blades never meeting anything but their metal opposites or the air. With each missed attack the tempo of the music increased, which in turn seemed to increase the frequency and acrobatics of the followups. It went on like that, until each woman swung in unison at the other only to simultaneously knock their opponent's blade out of hand and into the dirt. Unarmed and undaunted, they struck out with their fists. The white-haired one's first punch missed the black-haired one's face by an inch only to end up in her grasp, but when the black-haired one threw her opponent over her hip, the white-haired one stabilized with one palm and both came out upright and facing off against one another.

They swung, they grappled, they flipped some more, and if their antics weren't enough to raise the heart rate of their audience then the drum's assault would pick up the slack. But the incessant pounding would fade into silence as the two grabbed each other and began to fruitlessly struggle for dominance, and the lute would take over as the fight seamlessly transitioned into the two dancing with one another. This too was part of being a spring fae: never choosing to do battle when they could do theater instead.

The youthful sidhe women had created this performance only a few months prior. It was a three part dance performance about two friends who became enemies who became friends anew, consisting of traditional dancing, sword dancing, and more traditional dancing, in that order. Their closeness during parts one and three was more reminiscent of lovers than of friends, but that played even better among the nymphs, satyrs, gruffs, and sidhe who sat sat in a semicircle around the pair. They had improved since their last practice, and earned the applause that erupted as their dance began to wind down.

"Those two have quite a future!" A voice came from Lyra's side. A glance would reveal a faerie woman called Abla gently dropping into a sitting position beside her. Abla's appearance was striking even for a faerie, with mahogany skin, pointed ears, and fiery red hair, all combined with the natural beauty of the faeries. She wore a white silken shirt and pants which put her well-defined midriff on display. The short top also showcased another piece of art: a section of the black Amazonian dragon tattoos which plastered her right side. It was no coincidence that Abla had approached the knight, they had conversed in the past and had some similarities. Where Lyra had chosen to pursue swordsmanship as an art, Abla had chosen to pursue weaponsmithing as an art. The sidhe smith's goal had seemingly been to create weapons so beautiful that nobody would ever want to stain them with blood.

"I think I still prefer your sword dances though, especially when you have one of mine in hand," the faerie blacksmith conspiratorially whispered to the knight, a small smile playing about the edges of her lips. "Although I might like yours even better if you'd wear a little less," she winked.

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

Lyra's eyes traced every movement of the two fae women as the fight unfolded, silently comparing what she saw to the last time she'd seen them perform. They had improved, she noted with approval. Even so, she couldn't help but pick out the inefficient, showy moves which would be useless if this were a true fight. It wasn't a true fight, of course, it was a performance, and quite an impressive one at that. These two were a lot like Lyra herself in their choice of art to pursue, so she was in a better position to judge the performance than many here. That made it a little harder to simply enjoy the dance, but it was enjoyable all the same.

The sidhe knight applauded along with the rest of the audience as the two finished, though the obvious meaning behind the final transition back to a traditional dance had left her with a somewhat bittersweet reminder. Lyra was different than her kin. While she still had no love of violence or desire to shed blood, she actively sought out conflict. She had taken up learning the sword as an art initially, performing sword dances in much the same way as the two she had just watched, but she had wanted to take it further. She recognized that there was a difference between rehearsed moves and true combat, something that she couldn't attain simply by practising alone no matter how long she tried.

Most of all though, once she attained the skill to fight, she couldn't simply not use it. Most of the Spring court preferred to keep out of the affairs of mortals, but Lyra had chosen to travel, to live among them for a time. They were still puzzling to her, but they did not have the luxury of the isolation her kin enjoyed. Before she knew it she had painted herself as their protector, in the same vein as the knights of the old stories she had been so enamoured with in her youth.

Lyra glanced to her side at the sound of a familiar voice, greeting the speaker with a smile, "Yes, they have improved quite a bit since I last saw them. An impressive performance." The weaponsmith Abla was someone she knew reasonably well, both from her own art and simple casual conversation like this. She even had one of the other faerie's blades, which she had used in her own dances, though it wasn't the one at her side now. To use one of her weapons knowing that it would see conflict and bloodshed had seemed like an insult to the smith's goals. While Lyra might not wish to shed the blood of others, she had long since accepted the necessity of it, and that was what set her apart from others here.

"Oh, I'm flattered." Lyra gave a grin of her own as she replied to the other faerie's rather blatant approach. "I'm sure you would, but I like to keep things... authentic." Most of her kin saw art in the dance itself, the blade merely an accessory, but Lyra had been inspired by the true combat she'd watched many years ago, between knights of the more martial Summer Court. To her the blade wasn't simply a tool that added to the performance, it was the focus. She wished for observers to focus on how she wielded the blade, not on her body, so she often wore significantly more than the two she'd just been watching had, if not the full armour she wore now.

"But I'm sure you didn't come just to compliment me. So, what can I do for you?" Her tone shifted to a more businesslike one, bit a hint of a grin still tugging at the corners of her mouth hinted that she knew full well what Abla was after, and was doing a bit of teasing herself.

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium


"Right to the point!" The faerie woman made her proclamation with no small hint of amusement in her voice. The darker-skinned faerie's hand would plop atop Lyra's head and tousle her hair. "Maybe that's why I like you so much." Abla's fingers would run through the knight's hair and trace pleasantly against the woman's skull before falling back to her side.

"Mm, yes though. I've a quest of terrible importance, you see," the faerie continued wryly. "I'm bored. I need entertainment," she mock-pouted for just a few seconds before her grin reemerged and mischief took root in her eyes. "And so I thought to find the prettiest and most interesting person in the oasis.... But I'm afraid Farah's away right now, so here I am with you instead!" The woman would burst into a small giggling fit. But she would continue speaking through her own laughter; "just kidding, just kidding!"

"As much as I long for some of your personal entertainment, this time I've come because I've created a new sword. I worked glass into a blade and enchanted it such that illusions of fire rage through it as it cuts through the air. I hoped that you might come with me and see, and wield it the next time you danced," she continued more earnestly. The faerie's artistic ego seemed hinged upon Lyra answering yes, as Abla turned her body fully toward the knight and awaited her response with visible uncertainty.

But no matter what manner Lyra employed to respond to Abla's antics, only a few heartbeats later she would feel something tugging at her soul. The threads which connected her to the flow of the world's energies were being pulled by someone far away. Through that connection, the knight could sense a mixture of hope, awe, and concern all waiting for her on the other side. She was being summoned.

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

"Oh?" Lyra laughed as she leaned back into Abla's touch, against the fingers brushing through her hair. She'd always liked that, even if others might see it as a bit of a patronizing gesture. Her expression turned to an exaggerated gesture of mock offence at Abla's comment about Farah, but she couldn't hold a straight face and quickly broke down into laughter herself.

Lyra showed obvious interest as the weaponsmith explained what she'd actually been after. She was only a little disappointed that it was a matter of business and not pleasure, and that quickly faded as Abla described what she'd made. "Oh? I'd love to!" Lyra nodded enthusiastically. She always liked seeing and working with new blades, and Abla's were always beautiful works. She already had a few ideas of what she could do with such a blade, and she hadn't even seen it.

"That sounds li—" Lyra cut off mid-sentence, looking like she was staring at something just out of sight, and then she simply sighed. She knew what she'd been signing up for when she performed the ritual to allow herself to be summoned as a knight, but the timing never seemed to be good. "Of all the times... I'm sorry Abla, I'll have to see it another time. I'm being summoned." Based on the emotions she was feeling through the link it wasn't urgent enough that she couldn't take a few moments to say goodbye, at least, and she felt bad about having to decline Abla's request now.

"Hm. How about this? You had some comments about my attire in my last performance, I'll let you pick what I'll wear next time, when I perform with your new blade. I'll see you as soon as I return." She gave another smile before letting the summoning spell take hold, unless Abla said something to cause her to hesitate—though she didn't have much time to wait. She hoped that would be enough of an apology, though she was silently dreading what the weaponsmith was going to pick out for her.

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium


Lyra's acceptance earned an eager grin and the tanned fae's hands on her arm ready to pull her along to the woman's workshop. Abla would, unsurprisingly, take less pleasure in the knight's followup, and her hands fell away as she frowned at the news. The other faerie was no stranger to summonings though, and she would understand once she got over her initial disappointment -- which, as it turned out, took approximately the same number of seconds it took for Lyra to make her promise.

"I'm holding you to that!" Abla replied, suddenly bouncing with energy again. "One second though, before you go." The sidhe smith hopped up to her feet and proceeded to put her hands on Lyra. First, they were on the woman's shoulders, then her waist, then her hips, then each thigh, then her breasts, and finally on her butt. "Measuring complete! I'll get started right away. Good luck and be safe." The fae woman seemed completely undaunted by the fact that the lighter sidhe had been wearing her armor.

With that, Lyra would be free to accept the summon. The act of being summoned was a unique feeling, not likely to ever be experienced outside of long range teleportation. First, her body simply ceased to exist, her physical presence vanishing from the world. Then came a period of sudden, rapid motion. What remained of her felt like it was being shot across the world in a tube which was half her size. Finally, her body popped back into existence, reassembled at her destination.

She had been pulled out of Anudor and onto a hill somewhere. Grass crunched under her armored foot as she took control of her reformed vessel. A breeze fierce enough for the sidhe to feel it through her faeriegold battle garb carried leaves with it. Birds chirped and fluttered across the sky. She had been carried north, though not so far north that snow was present yet.

To her north was a small house on a taller hill, to her east was a lake feeding a river which wound south and directly through the center of a small human village. To her west stood a forest consisting of an impenetrable wall of trees which seemed to scrape the clouds.

In front of her was her summoner. He was a boy who might not have been old enough to possess any hairs beyond the black ones atop his head. His clothing consisted of a dirty sackcloth tunic and pants, loose enough that if it weren't for the twine tied around his waist he'd likely lose the latter. As for his face, to call him scruffy would've been generous. Yet, only a split second after Lyra had come into focus, he had prostrated himself before her.

"O' great faerie knight!" He cried, his voice trembling with fear. "The old woman taught me how to call you. I know it's wrong. Mom and dad say you eat boys and girls," he blubbered. "But someone had to do something! You can eat me, but please get rid of the demons up the hill! They took Rob's and Ed's moms, and my sister! So please stop them!"

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

Lyra endured Abla's brief "measurements", quickly finding herself wondering if she'd gone a bit too far in not providing any restrictions or guidelines. There was no more time for her to waste though, and the moment the other faerie's hands withdrew her body faded into nothingness. Fortunately, she tended to wear her armour and carry her weapon and shield wherever she went, never knowing when she might need to answer an emergency summons, so she was already equipped to deal with whatever she might find on the other end.

The sensation of being summoned was a unique experience, had been quite unsettling the first time, but she'd done this at least a few times before. There was a brief sense of vertigo as her senses had to adapt to the sudden change in environment, from a desert oasis to a grassy hill... somewhere to the north. She wasn't entirely certain where it was she'd ended up, but she had that vague sense of direction at least. She could worry about that once her task was complete, however.

She looked down at her summoner, the boy seeming somewhere between awed and terrified of her. She'd seen such reactions in mortals before, though never quite to this extreme, or from her summoner. She was impressed he'd managed to perform the summoning properly, considering he was clearly no practised mage.

"Do not worry, I won't be eating anyone," She replied with a kind smile, somewhat amused with the stories that seemed to be told about her kind. Her amusement faded quickly though, as the boy told her why he had summoned her. Demons. She had relatively little experience in dealing with demons, but what she had seen was enough to make her wary. She'd been given a task though, and it was one she was happy to complete. Such a menace could not be allowed to continue terrorizing these people.

"Show me where they come from." She had fallen fully into her "knightly" persona, scanning the surroundings for this "hill" the bow spoke of, though she suspected it would be bigger than the one she'd been summoned on. "You don't need to take me to them, you should remain here where it's safe. Just direct me to where they are, and I will deal with them. They will trouble your people no longer."

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium


"Really?!" The boy jumped to his feet and threw his arms around the faerie in a hug which continued well past the point of awkwardness before the human recognized as much and bashfully pulled away. "Th-they live in that house, milady," he remarked, apparently trying to treat her with the courtesy that a human knight would expect, as he pointed to northern hill and the shack atop it.

It wasn't more than a few hundred feet away, and at that distance the building wasn't very impressive. It was a small thing made out of scrap planks and a thatch roof with its windows boarded up. A shoddy closed door was all that might keep her from bursting into the place and finding the demons. Smoke rose from a long black pipe sticking through the thatch. There was no road to her apparent target. A small dip between the two hills meant that Lyra would have a bad height disadvantage as she covered the distance, but it wasn't so great that it would be difficult to travel for a nimble faerie or enough to hide the target from her at any point during her walk.

She could also choose take a sneakier route around the back of the building, which would consist of trekking down her current hill walking a long distance to the other side of the other hill, and then going up that way. Or she could approach from any other angle, if she saw some tactical advantage in it. The method was entirely up to Lyra.

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

"Ah, yes... Well, I will be on my way then. Don't get too close, I wouldn't want you to get hurt in the fighting." She gave her somewhat awkward reply, giving the boy a quick nod and placing a hand on his head briefly when he told her where to go. "Don't worry, I'll get them back." She'd seen the house, but she'd initially thought it was his, not that he would have come so close to the demons' home to summon her. Now that she took a close look, it was a fairly ramshackle affair. It looked almost like it had been made out of scrap.

She frowned, looking at the route she'd have to take to reach the place. There was relatively little cover, and she'd need to walk uphill to reach it. There didn't seem to be anyone on watch—maybe they were relying on the locals' fear of them—but if they saw her coming she'd be in a disadvantageous position to fight them. There was no way to avoid that though, and she didn't think she could sneak up on them if she tried. No, better to just meet this problem head on.

She started on her way, eyes never leaving the house for longer than it took to double-check her surroundings for signs of an ambush. She tried not to make too much noise, but she didn't slow her pace to do so, hoping to simply be on them before they could prepare a defence even if they saw her coming. As she approached she gathered power around her, magic drawing the winds into a barrier around herself to ward off any projectiles that might be fired. If she managed to make it all the way to the door unopposed, she planned to simply kick it in, sword and shield at the ready to face whatever was inside.

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium


Rolls

"Yes ma'am," he would reply, and with her summoner remaining well out of harm's way the faerie was left to take the short route to her destination. It was a trip which would prove uneventful. She trekked the miniature valley in short time and stopped squarely in front of the door. There was never any indication that anybody inside knew she existed. A few of the reasons why became readily apparent as she came into close proximity with the building. In addition to the windows being boarded, cries and groans filled the air with enough frequency to make it impossible to hear her approach, and the stench of sex seemed to permeate every inch of the hill.

Lyra would be free to concentrate and wrap wind magic around herself. Even in her heavy armor, it took only one attempt to get the energies to function as she desired. Encased in her windy shell and with her opponents none the wiser, she was free to take a solid stance in front of the door. It only took one kick for the board to give away and fly inward hard enough to hit the wall to which it was hinged. But before she could even take in the scene inside, Lyra's ears alerted her to something above her, and she barely managed to raise her kite shield in time to bat away a bucket full of a suspicious golden powder.

With the crude trap defeated, she could quickly assess the situation. She had kicked her way into a small, occupied room which, despite its snugness, probably made up about half of the shoddy building. The far corner on her right hand side had a bookcase filled with covered clay pots, the far corner on her left side had a stove with a frying pan, the contents of which were a few pieces of sliced bread slathered in butter and cheese. In the middle of the room was a table, cards and denarii scattered across it and a dagger stuck in it, with four chairs, one at each side of it. Across from her, on the other side of the table, was a closed door.

The occupants consisted of three goblins and a human woman. The goblins fit most every stereotype about them. They were short, green-skinned, and pot-bellied with curved noses and wicked grins. One of the goblins, who was wearing nothing but a tattered pair of pants, stood at the stove minding the pan full of food. The other two goblins sat at the table with cards in their hands. They were apparently the first goblin's opposites, wearing shirts but no pants and allowing their obscenely erect cocks to show underneath the table. The human woman wore the least clothing of all, showing off a thin body marked with red handprints and dried cum, much of which had also been directed into her matted blonde hair. She wore nothing but a collar and a leash tied to the table's legs, and she was found servicing one of the two card players, at least until they noticed Lyra.

"Oi! Don'tcha know how to knock?!" The one with his cock in the human's mouth demanded from his card table. He shooed his service-er away as he glanced at Lyra, and the human woman didn't hesitate at the opportunity to cower under the table.
"I think she ain't one of the sacrifices," the other one at the card table replied.
"I know that ya git! It was metaphorical!"
"Metaphysical or whatever, what should we do?" The one tending the fried concoction asked. "Should we get the boss?"
"Nah, boss is busy," the first dismissied him. Another cry from behind the door as if to punctuate the assessment. He dropped his cards and pulled the dagger from the table and stood up to face Lyra, manhood and all. His eyes gleamed with wicked intent. "'Sides, if we take her down the boss'll surely give us dibs, yeah? Armor or not, it's three on one."
"Ah, yeah, you've always got the best plans," the other one at the table agreed, dropping his own cards, standing up, and edging his way toward the bookshelf.
"We're going to have a new cocksucker tonight," the one at the stove added. He picked up the frying pan as if it was a club, allowing the bread, cheese, and butter alike to slide onto the floor, and turned toward the knight. It seemed Lyra was in for a fight.

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

The house was just as unimpressive up close as it had been from afar, and as she neared it quickly became apparent why nobody had noticed her approach. She'd had a suspicion of what these demons were up to when the boy had only mentioned mothers and sisters being taken, but the scents and sounds that were noticeable even outside the house were a clear confirmation. Slamming one armoured boot into the shoddy door, Lyra quickly stepped through into the interior, trying to capitalize on the element of surprise, only for a sound above her head to catch her attention at the last moment.

Raising her shield to bat away the falling bucket, Lyra simply stared at it a moment once it had fit the floor, amazed that such an obvious trap had come so close to working. She'd need to remember this for next time she intended to barge into someone's house, but for now her attention was focused on the room's occupants. Goblins, she easily recognized, and the state of the human woman tied to the table by a leash was all the confirmation she needed that she was in the right here.

"Enough!" She interjected into the goblins' bickering, glaring down at the creatures as she raised her sword, wind seeming to coil around the blade just as it already was around her entire body. "I am going to put an end to this!"

And with that she charged for the nearest one, sword set low to impale him straight through the chest. This was no time for mercy, and perhaps this was where Lyra's beliefs diverged from those of most of her kin in the Spring Court. She didn't kill without reason, but she could not stand by an allow demons like these who had done such terrible things to the mortals here. If she let them go, they would simply do it again somewhere else.

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium


Rolls

Her charge had the initial looks of a success. The frying pan-wielding goblin couldn't reorient his unwieldy cast-iron weapon quickly enough to stop her from impaling a vulnerable body part, and the point of her sword was perfectly leveled to pierce his heart or lung and take him out of the fight right away.

Unfortunately for any desire Lyra might've had to finish the fight quickly, his desire to live outweighed his fear of losing his arm. He put his forearm in the path of the bronze sword. The faerie knight pierced the limb with her lunge and drew a yowl from the goblin, but the bloodied tip of her blade stopped just short of his torso. The wound was still a terrible one, with her weapon wedged inside it, but the goblin was still upright and each of her opponents was ready to take vengeance on her.

A clay pot from the bookcase soared at the side of Lyra's head, but she easily ducked it. It proved to be a stroke of luck that she hadn't tried to block it with her shield. The shattered pot released liquid in every direction which bubbled and hissed and ate away at everything it touched. That was the extent of her fortune in the first few seconds of the combat, however, as the apparent brains of the three goblins took the opportunity offered by her hasty duck and the way her blade was lodged in her first opponent to sneak his dagger through a gap in her plate and puncture her side. It might've been a crippling blow except the knife was shaped for cutting dinner rather than fighting and left only a shallow wound.

But though the initial fighting hadn't gone as well as it could've, the faerie knight was anything but defeated. The goblin wielding the frying pan made a mad attack at her with his unwieldy weapon and in doing so gave her the perfect opening to drive her kite shield into his shoulder, both blocking his attack in the process and pinning his only free arm. Her new position on him allowed her to finish the job she'd started. A push with her entire body put his back to the searing stove, causing him to howl anew in agony, and another push of her right arm allowed her to slide the weapon into his neck, quickly ending his struggles with a pathetic gurgling.

The second goblin attempted to capitalize on the death of his ally by putting his knife into the faerie's back but missed his mark. His weapon uselessly glided along the faeriegold armor, unable to find purchase. Lyra's counter came as she turned to face him. First her shield whirled toward him, threatening to knock the sense out of him. The crafty goblin was quick enough to step back and avoid the battering, but proved too impatient for his own good. He stepped back in to try to find another opening in the faerie's armor only to forget about her blade. The spinning swing with her sword cut through his throat and left his head barely attached as he toppled to the floor.

The battle wasn't over yet though. The last remaining goblin flung a second pot at Lyra. Even the nimble faerie couldn't avoid it in time while reorienting from her struggles with the first two, and it shattered squarely against her. The liquids inside burned at all of her protective layers, melting away most of the faeriegold armor and cloth on the side of her sword arm, leaving the irritated flesh of that arm and several parts of her side totally exposed. But damaging her armor and likely putting her into more debt with Abla was his only success, as a second lunge later Lyra had impaled his heart with her sword, leaving him to groan in agony as he died.

And yet, there was no rest. Lyra would have only enough time to withdraw her blade from the last goblin and straighten before she heard applause behind her and the scent of fucking and debauchery hit her nostrils at full force. When and if she looked at the source, she would find a woman standing in the doorway of the boss's room, bringing palm against wrist to slowly clap for the faerie.

She was stark naked with skin the color of stone. Her wavy, waist-length hair was blacker than the void, and around her golden pupils the outer layer of her eyes matched it. Something resembling a third such eye rested in the middle of her forehead, though it didn't move naturally. In her right hand she wielded a longsword made of blackened steel. Cruel ivory horns poked out from between stray bangs, the demonic-looking appendages easily a foot in length and likely capable of impaling even steel. In form, she shared hers with some of the most beautiful, athletic sculptures that the fae artisans of Lyra's court had crafted. But the final two features of her body might prove the most difficult to miss. A grey tail with a lewd tip waved behind her, but it was nowhere near as lewd as the thick, erect cock which jutted from her loins, and her tail, cock, and crotch alike were drenched with juices.

"Oh dear," she complained with no apparent concern in her tone that a fae knight had come to kill her and her goblins. Her voice was equal parts sinister and sex. It was a promise of both pain and pleasure. It demanded obedience and warned against what would happen if it wasn't offered. She crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway. "The ending was a fine show, but wherever will I get more servants around here? I suspect you're not looking to apply, are you? I would treat you well~"

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

The first strike of the fight didn't go as well as Lyra had envisioned, the goblin managing to interpose his arm just fast enough to avoid a mortal wound—though the one she did give him was serious enough—and the other two were quicker to act than she'd anticipated. She managed to duck under a thrown pot, glad that she had when she saw what it did to the wall. She took a step back, pulling her blade free, but in doing so failed to bring her shield around in time to block the third goblin's knife. She was fortunate that it wasn't a proper weapon, and the blade couldn't penetrate far enough to do any real harm.

It hurt though, and was enough for her to shift into a more defensive stance, countering the attackers as they came at her. The one she'd already wounded was an easy target, his movements far too slow and obvious with the unwieldy pan he was trying to use to strike her. She forced him back onto the stove he'd been cooking on only moments before, the pain of the fire enough to let her go in for the kill with her blade.

The knife-wielder tried again, going for her back but this time she was ready for him. She spun to face him, his blade glancing uselessly off of her armour, swinging her shield to batter him. He avoided that strike, but it wasn't enough for him to avoid the blade that followed, all but decapitating him in a single stroke. Unfortunately, in her focus on the two in close quarters with her Lyra had taken her eyes off the third goblin for a moment too long, staggering as a clay pot shattered against her shoulder, covering her right side in the corrosive liquid.

It burned against her flesh, but more worrying was the damage it had done to her armour, leaving her right arm almost entirely bare and the cloth and armour down her side in tatters. Despite the pain and the goblin still preparing to throw another, Lyra's first thought was that this kind of damage was going to be awkward to explain when she got back home. And probably going to cost her another few favours to fix. She didn't waste any time closing the distance to the final goblin though, having no desire to let him throw another of those urns at her. This time her strike was clean, impaling the goblin straight through the heart.

With the immediate threats neutralized, Lyra had been about to check on the woman by the table, but the sound of applause and a sudden increase in the scent of sex had her turning to face the door to the back room, shield already raised in a guard position. What she saw surprised her, though she knew that it really shouldn't have. The woman was clearly a demon, presumably the boss the goblins had been speaking of, but she'd expected it to just be another goblin. That made her wary, as she had no means to judge this woman's strength. She didn't look too imposing beyond her demonic features, but neither did Lyra herself, and she knew better to take physical appearance too seriously when dealing with unnatural creatures like this.

"Keep your offers, you won't tempt me with such talk." Lyra brandished her blade in the demon's direction in an obvious challenge. The skin of her arm still felt raw, but the damage only seemed to be skin-deep, her muscles still working just fine. "I was brought here to end your torment of these people, and I intend to do just that!"

And with that Lyra charged at the demonic woman, heedless of her unspoken threat. She wasn't afraid, but she was still wary. Her shield swept out first, trying to force the demon to react to it first, and to block her sword arm from sight as she suddenly threw her weight behind her sword arm instead, sweeping up in a diagonal slash across her opponent's chest.

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

Rolls

However confident she may have sounded moments prior, the demon snapped into a stance as quickly as any warrior Lyra had ever seen. Her blade came up to eye level, held in both hands with the tip pointed at the knight. It was a stance that the faerie knew was called the window guard in local human schools of swordsmanship. Her eyes, all three of them, darted across the charging faerie, searching for something and narrowing as they eventually settling on her sword. She counter-thrust at the fae woman.

But Lyra was faster, her shield intercepted the darksteel blade and forced it aside, giving her a free swing at the demon's vulnerable midsection. Her bronze weapon easily cut deep into her target's flesh with the initial swing, and rent the demon even deeper as Lyra withdrew it. The stony woman would stagger backward, freeing herself from the close quarters with and bringing her sword up between herself and the sidhe into another guard with a pained gasp.

"Wait, wait," she pleaded through gritted teeth. "You're a knight, are you not? Would it not be more honorable to allow me to fetch some of my armor, for a fair fight? I will let you recover from your skirmish with the goblins. It will be a proper duel."

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

"After what you've done to these people? I think not." Lyra shot the demon's suggestion down immediately. While normally she'd be all for a proper, honourable duel, this was neither the time nor the place. She had no assurances the demon would even stick to the terms—quite the opposite based on what she'd seen so far—and she wasn't going to gamble the fate of the captive women on her own desires. "You have no grounds to speak to me of honour."

With that said she pressed forward, leading with her shield again, winds whipping up across its surface as well as she moved. This time there was no intention to feint though, striking with the hard surface to bash the demon before twisting around to bring her sword to bear in a slash that mirrored her first, only striking from above rather than below.

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

Rolls

"Bitch," the demon spat, and the melee was on again. Lyra stepped forward with her shield bash, forcing the demon to retreat even further back to avoid the attack. The demon would thrust toward Lyra's head, trying to angle it around the shield in the hopes of finding some gap in the sidhe's defenses, but she could find no easy opening in the tight quarters and Lyra was able to get a quick cut against her opponent's shoulder before the demon sought to put distance between them again. Her injured enemy would quickly back away another few steps, her retreat finally putting her firmly in the bedroom she had emerged from.

The knight would find some support for her decision if she paid any attention to her surroundings. The bedroom their fight had tumbled into was as sparsely furnished as the first room, with a single nightstand with a darksteel dagger and a golden pendant upon it, an armor stand to the side with an incomplete set of darksteel armor on display, and a bed on the center wall opposite the door. The bed was occupied by three unconscious human women and one male, the obvious targets of the demon's attentions before she had arrived. And it seemed like she might be able to avenge their abuses in just a few more seconds, as her demonic enemy appeared to be on her last legs. The fight wouldn't be finished until it was finished though, and that might become apparent as her opponent shifted the way she was holding her darksteel sword. The sidhe's enemy would flip the blade around, placing both hands on the sharpened length in order to wield it as a hammer in the murder stroke grip.

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

Lyra didn't respond to the demon's insult, her face merely set in a look of concentration. She pushed forward, but the demon was ready for her this time, managing to avoid the bash with her shield, if not the slash that followed. Lyra was successful at deflecting the demon's own attack aside as well, keeping the woman pressured and constantly moving back, into the room she'd emerged from.

What Lyra saw there only confirmed what she already knew, what the demon had wanted these people for. She knew that many demons could feed upon the souls of others, and the unconscious state of all three of the figures in the bed led the faerie knight to believe that was exactly what she had done—among other things, as the scent and visible signs of sex were unmistakable. She needed to end this though, she couldn't let her concentration slip, not until her opponent was down. The demon seemed to be changing her strategy now, adopting a tactic to counter armoured foes.

Lyra simply continued to lead with her shield, always keeping it between herself and the demonic woman, seeking to deny any line of attack at her body itself. She took a few slow steps forward, trying to gauge her opponent's reactions, before lunging forward again, shield sweeping out in front of her as if she was going to strike with it again, before thrusting with her sword, the blade sliding against the side of the shield as she used it to conceal her blade until the last moment.

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

Rolls

The tense moments before the final clash played out in front of the two warriors' unconscious audience. As the sidhe tested her opponent, so did the demon. The stone-colored woman shifted her weight from one foot to the other, sword held in the hammer grip. Her weapon went high, then to the middle, then pommel almost touching the ground, and high again. The silence as the two fighters felt each other out was almost deafening.

And then the demon lashed out. She went high with her strike, trying to hook the crossguard over the shield and hammer it into Lyra's head but coming just short of its target as the faerie compensated for the extra reach and raised her shield a bit higher to stop it. To the demonic woman's credit, she was expecting the faerie's own counterattack. She pulled her weapon back from the sidhe's shield as quickly as she could manage, and even managed to put it into the path of the knight's thrust. Sparks flew from the darksteel blade as Lyra's bronze blade scraped alongside it with the ultimate goal of piercing her enemy's stomach. But she hadn't been swift enough, and in the end all she managed was to push the tip of Lyra's sword a few inches to the right of one vital organ and into another instead.

The demon looked down in disbelief at her own lifeblood pouring from the wound, then back to Lyra. The strength left her hands and her sword fell free of them to clatter to the ground, followed by her body when the knight saw fit to withdraw her weapon. She wasn't quite dead, but even demonic resilience wouldn't keep her away from the afterlife for longer than a few more tens of seconds given the wounds she'd suffered, with or without any additional help from Lyra. Once she had done as she pleased there, the faerie was free to do whatever else she'd liked in the building, as it was empty now except for her and the humans.

Gain 4 exp.

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

When the clash finally happened, it was Lyra who cam out on top. The demon nearly managed to stop her, interposing her blade into the path of Lyra's own just in time, but it was only enough to push her aim off to the side a few inches. It was still a fatal wound regardless. Breathing a sigh of relief, Lyra let her shoulders slump a little, trying to release the tension from her body. After a moment she flicked her blade, trying to clear as much of the blood from the blade as she could—though she knew she'd have to clean it properly once she had time—and returned it to its sheath, shifting her shield so that it was strapped to her forearm rather that gripped in her hand. The winds that had been surrounding her and her weapons died down moments later.

She briefly considered trying to take the demon alive, doing something before she bled out... but what would she do? She didn't have the means to properly restrain her, especially if she had any of the powers over the mind some demons were said to have, and nowhere to take her to. She would only be a danger to everyone around her. Sighing softly and leaving the demon behind, Lyra returned first to the front room, intent on checking on the girl who was still conscious. She hadn't had a chance to see how she was doing.

"Are you alright?" She asked as she approached, doing her best to keep her voice soft and kind, though she mentally kicked herself as soon as the words had left her mouth. Of course the girl wasn't alright, that much was clear from the state of her body and the situation she'd been in when Lyra had entered. Kneeling, she tried to remove the collar—or if the girl recoiled from her touch or the collar had some kind of lock, merely the leash connected to it. "Don't worry, I've dealt with all of them, you're safe. I can bring you all back to your homes now."

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium


The woman would be right where she had been left, cowering beneath the table. She whimpered at the sound of Lyra's voice and would scurry away from her in fear. Undoing the leash just caused her to scamper all the way into the furthest corner from the knight, at least until she spoke again. At the news that her tormentors had been slain, the blonde human's eyes welled up with hope and tears. "Truly?" She managed to ask, even as she began to sob. "You vanquished the foul witch? It's truly over?"

The human would really begin to wail then, crying her lungs out in corner she'd scurried into. It took several long minutes for her to calm down enough to speak again. "I wasn't afraid for myself. I knew I would endure. I had to endure for my son." Even with all she'd been through, the woman looked to barely be in her early twenties, despite her motherhood. "They said they would take our loved ones if we didn't cooperate. That's why I held on. And now I'm free.... Thank you," she said, wiping tears from her eyes only for them to quickly be replaced by more. "The first time I've seen a woman knight and you saved my life. Are you from the north? What knightly order are you from, milady, that you would help a poor village likes ours?"

Re: Thou Art a Knight (Astarte) GM'd by Hafnium

"Yes, I have." Lyra replied calmly, simply waiting for the woman to calm down. As she spoke though, Lyra's lips curled into a slight frown. So the demons had been threatening their families, that was how they kept them under control. It was despicable, but she'd known that from the moment she'd stepped through the door. She could only hope that the others had held up as well, that they all had something to hold onto.

The woman's next line of questioning caught Lyra off guard, almost having forgotten that people might not immediately recognize what she was. Compared to some of her kin, Lyra tended to pass for human quite easily. She could change that, of course, but she'd never had any particular desire to do so. She hesitated momentarily before answering, the words of the boy who had summoned her coming to mind again. She didn't want to scare the woman any further, but she didn't think lying was the answer either.

Taking a step back and standing up straight again, Lyra gave a soft smile again before she spoke. "Please do not be afraid, I mean no harm to you or any of your people, but I am what you would call one of the fae." Lyra continued to watch the woman, hoping she wouldn't react too badly, but gave a slight bow as she finished introducing herself, "Lyra, Knight of the Court of Spring. I have made it a personal mission of mine to stop those who would take advantage of the people like this, that is all the reason I needed to help." She didn't mention the boy who had summoned her yet, though none of what she had said was a lie either. He'd said he wasn't supposed to do what he did, so she'd try to keep him out of trouble if he didn't bring it up himself.