Young Writers Society

Group A

The Xivilai's muscles weren't just for show it seemed, as the entire weight of Edgar's body couldn't bring it down. He dug his fangs deeper into the demon's shoulder, and from the position he was if he could see Adam fighting.

He seemed to dance around one of the Spider Demons, taunting it. But the demon managed to get in a lucky shot and threw him to the ground. But just as it was about to strike, a flash of light erupted from where Enya and the others stood. A concentrated beam of bright light fired like a cannon at the monster. The blast rocketed the spider demon into the side of a nearby rock. Its skin began to bubble like it had been showered in acid. The demon cried out with a mixture of horror and pain as its entire body lit up in flames. When the fire dissipated, all that remained was ash.

The event had distracted Edgar. The Xivilai took this opportunity to bash his head with its fist, then pry the werewolf off its back. The demon slammed Edgar into the ground. Just as it began to raise its hammer to strike the dazed wolf, a blast of ice struck the demon in the chest and knocked him back.

Ilum came to Edgar's side and helped him up. "Distraction can get you killed in battle," he told him.

(Just so you guys know, when a demon that summoned something is killed, the summoned creature disappears.)

Group A

Enya watched, dismayed. She felt like a sitting duck, useless, helpless...she had been hiding in the shelter of her shield the whole time while everyone else, Edgar and Adam, Father and the others...they risked their lives.

She felt a tear run down her cheek. She wished mother were here, to comfort her. Plus her injuried hurt. At least the blood was dry, and they hadn't bled too much.

But still...was this really her destiny? To sit by and watch, and be protected?

She shook her head. No...Mama would yell at me if she heard me thinking that... I can be helpful someway...healing, I guess...until I learn more...

Cathy

It had been a powerful attack, taking out that creature with one blow but Cathy could feel her head spinning and didn't think she had the energy to direct another. As the pulse of light cleared and she caught her breath, Cathy noted with satisfaction that the smaller spider demon had vanished. That was good news. Edgar and Ilum seemed to have the Xivilai covered and those other two were dealing with the Clannfear and the other Spiderling well enough to keep it distracted. The last Spider Demon turned its attention to them.

It had been watching from the sidelines, investigating what the three weaker looking humans were about. Had Cathy known that was how it considered them, she would not have been quite so worried as it advanced but instead furious. As it was, she didn't know if they could take it.

Suddenly Adam was between them, crouched, ready for a face off. And then he straightened. What was that idiot doing! He sheathed his dagger and smiled up at the Spider Demon.

"What a beautiful creature you are," Adam was saying, his voice only half carrying to them. "I'm enchanted to meet you, they call me the Thief but you just stole my heart away." Cathy blinked. She'd never seen anyone try to flirt with a demon before but it actually seemed to be working. The creature had at least paused to consider this phenomenon.

Balaes

The fighting intensified around the main group, pinning them on the landing below where the Dremora had originally emerged. The two Xivilai and one of the Clannfears struck at Ivellios, Kai and Menien, but the fighters held their ground. Meanwhile, the other Clannfear leapt from the walkway onto the landing, hitting the ground just behind Balaes with a rattling hiss.

Balaes spun away from it, forced to stop the sleepness spell over the Dremora. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw it recovering a little. It surged on after Adrian as he limped towards the Sigil Stone, but it was still managing little more than its previous sluggish pace. Maybe it won't reach him in time.

Balaes held his dagger carefully in front of him, not wanting to get anywhere near the demon's savage-looking claws. It came on anyway. The dark mage's other hand snapped outwards, flicking the wand at it. A bolt of dark energy lashed out, but the Clannfear ducked it, then pounced forward.

He took a step backwards, raising his knife in an attempt to defend himself. But his foot met only with air, and Balaes realised in a horrible instant that he'd misjudged the distance between himself and the edge. He fell, releasing his knife to grasp the edge one handed, barely able to hold himself there.

The reptilian head of the Clannfear appeared at the edge, beak chattering a little, its eyes glowing with the thrill of victory as it opened its mouth to bite his fingers off, sure to send him plummeting to his death. And on the walkway above him, he could see Adrian scant feet away from the Sigil Stone - but the Dremora was closing fast, having shaken off Balaes' spell. We're all going to die here...

Balaes' survivalist instincts kicked in at this point, and he lashed upward with his free hand, catching the dinosaur-like creature a blow right in the mouth. He was no warrior, but the mindless monster reeled back a little in surprise and hurt. Then Balaes spun himself a little in place, the same arm shifting in a wide arc to send a burst of darkness directly into the Dremora, which had been reaching out for Adrian.

Seeing the shot coming, it dodged backwards, and only caught a glancing blow across its front, not even enough to damage it. But it was enough for Adrian, however, and he gripped the Sigil Stone in both hands and yanked back, tearing it free from its pedestal.

Group B

The Dremora seemed to stop in his tracks, staring at Adrian who was holding the Sigil Stone in his hands. Adrian couldn't see its face, but he guessed its expression was probably that of fear or horror.

The tower began to shake as the fiery beam that had once been fed into the Sigil Stone became unstable. It shot straight up to the ceiling, blasting a hole through it. The spot where the beam had hit started to catch on fire as the shaking intensified.

The flames began to jump all over the the place until the entire room was engulphed. The light from the flames intensified to the point where it was almost blinding. The demons began to scream in horror as the flames grew and grew. But as for the group, the world disappeared an a searing flash of bright yellow...


Group A

Everyone was fighting with everything they had, but after fighting so many waves of demons their strength was running out. None of them knew if they would be able to survive for much longer. But then the ground began to shake.

The demons seemed to stop and turn to look at the Oblivion gate. Everyone else did as well to see the portal acting strangely. The fiery energies holding it together seemed to fluctuate uncontrolably. The center of the gate began to glow with a very bright yellow light.

The fiery energies of the portal suddenly shot up into the sky, breaking the stone ark of the gate into pieces in the process. The demons cried out in horror in their demonic tongues as their bodies went up in flames. With one final tremor, the energies from the portal disappeared. When the dust settled all that was left of the demonic gate was a heep of rubble. Laying among the rubble were the unconcious members of Group B. Sitting in Adrian's arms was a strange, spherical object.



Side-Quest Completed!!
--Close the Oblivion Gate--

Reward: 250 exp.

Kai advances to Level 7!!
Kai advances to Level 8!!
Enya advances to Level 8!!
Reon advances to Level 8!!
Adam advances to Level 6!!
Adam advances to Level 7!!
Balaes advances to Level 7!!
Balaes advances to Level 8!!
Edgar advances to Level 7!!
Edgar advances to Level 8!!
Adrian advances to Level 7!!
Adrian advances to Level 8!!
Ivellios advances to Level 7!!
Ivellios advances to Level 8!!
Cathy advances to Level 7!!
Cathy advances to Level 8!!


(I've decided to add something else called quests. Instead of only giving experience out for killing enemies, I'm also going to do it for quests. I didn't specify the beginning of any quests because I didn't think of it back when they started, but the search for Martin is our characters' main quest and closing the gate was a side-quest. Naturally, side-quests give out less experience than the main quest.)

***I'll post in a minute. Let me take my next final exam first.***

Enya gasped when the dust settled; there, lying motionless on the ground, were all the members of the second team. Including Kai.

"Kai!" she rushed forward, ingoring her own pain just long enough to reach her brother's side. He didn't respond; he just maintained a firm grip around his sword's hilt. "Kai?"

At least he wasn't hurt. At least, to her knowledge. She lightly began to cry, rolling her brother onto his back so she could check him over. Ilum also approached, moving from person to person.

"They're alive. Thank God," Ilum noted. "But Balaes is bleeding; his arm was mauled. Adrian probably sprained his ankle; it's a little swollen..." He looked up, where Enya had Kai laid out. "How is he?"

She wiped tears from her eyes. "He's fine. Just out cold."

Her father nodded. "Good. I'll tend to him; you need to heal these others." Even as he said it, he stood and approached his children, beckoning for his youngest to rise. She reluctantly obeyed and went to the others, ready to use her Healing magic as best as she could.

***It's been two days. Someone needs to post.***

(I was thinking of posting, but I wanted to wait and see if anyone else wanted to add something first. I'll post later.)

I'll probably post tomorrow, just got quite a lot to do at the moment.

Adrian could hear voices as he slowly came to his senses. He opened his eyes to find himself looking at the night sky. There was no longer any red in the sky, just its normal midnight black. Did we make it? he thought. Did we close the gate?

Adrian began to sit up. As soon as he moved he heard Enya's voice shout, "Adrian's awake!" Everyone rushed to his side to see if he was okay.

"I'm fine, everyone," he said. "How are the others?"

"They'll be fine," Ilum said. "More importantly, what is that thing you're holding?"

Adrian looked at the Sigil Stone in his arms. He explained how he took it from its spot in the Sigil Keep in order to close the gate. Then he told them everything that happened, starting from when they first entered the gate.

Adam

As the others started to wake up and Adrian told their tale, Adam listened half heartedly, more interested in what was to come than what had been. When the boy was done, a semi silence fell on the group.

"We've had some trouble ourselves," Edgar said at which Adam snorted and waved his injured arm a little, wincing at the pain.

"Big trouble," Adam said. His comment was ignored though and Edgar began to give a brief account of how they had passed the time, glossing over much of the fighting and making it sound more like a walk on the beach in Adam's opinion. It had been an awful lot harder and scarier than that!

"Where's Cathy now then?" Baleas asked when the tale was told. Adam looked around in surprise, only just realising that she wasn't with them.

"Sitting over there," Edgar said, indicating a tree on a small rise not far from their position. Following the direction, Adam stared. He could only just make out the figure (very nice it was too) of a woman in the branches of a tree.

"Does she never rest?" he scoffed in annoyance. She was making this fighting business look like child's play and Adam didn't appreciate being out-fought by a woman. He'd put his whole into those battles, just made it out alive and was looking for a piece of the glory only to find that it was being horded by people who thought themselves better than him.

Kai fianlly woke, and his head ached. He felt stiff, as well, but it was tolerable. He flexed his fingers, feeling the joints crackle as he moved. What had happened?

That's when he noticed. Adrian was awake, the other group sitting around him in a circle. There, in his lap, was the Sigil Stone. Which meant... Kai looked out toward the village; that hellish gate was gone. They had done it. They had succeeded.

Now to find Marcus and his mother. Mother...please be alive. If she had been killed during all this... He shook his head. Don't think about it. She's strong. She'll be okay.

He began to sit up, moving slowly just in case something was hurt. He didn't feel injured...

That's when he saw it. Enya was clinging to Adrian's side, never leaving him. She watched him more attentively than any others did, sat closer than them. Her eyes even seemed brighter, more focused. Kai's brow furrowed as he studied his younger sister. Edgar pointed toward Cathy, saying something, but Enya didn't even glance. While everyone else's attention was drawn elsewhere, whether it was Cathy or not, Enya hugged Adrian. Kai read her lips: I'm glad you're okay.

He smiled at her, even though it was faint. Such a lover. You would think the whole world was hers to care for. It's adorable that she's so caring, but... He shook his head. Oh, stop it. It's probably nothing.

(Took a while, but we're finally out of Oblivion. Next time our characters split up into two groups I'll lower the amount of encounters so the storybook doesn't feel like endless fighting.)

"Does she never rest?" Adam scoffed in annoyance. Again, his comment was ignored.

Captain Matius came up to Adrian and said, "I can't believe it. Not only did you manage to close the gate, but you saved Menien as well! Now that the gate is down we can launch our counter-attack and take back Kvatch!"

"You think we could take a moment to rest first?" Balaes asked. He didn't think it was too much to ask, considering they went through Hell and back, literally.

"Very well, but we can't wait for long," Salvian said. "The longer we wait, the smaller our window of opportunity. Our first priority is to get to the chapel and rescue any survivors. Once everyone has caught their breath we'll go."

(Can someone post please? And don't forget, everyone still has skill points to spend.)