Through Darkest Knight

[Masamune 5.0]

A tree, groaning madly, began to topple down onto Mirado. At the last second there was a flash of light and a thunderclap, and Mirado jumped out of the way. Another burst of light and sound found Mirado running alongside Marten. "Do you think that Dracquis or the Knights of Exemplar did this? I wouldn't put it past them."

'It couldn't be the Knights, though. They're too far ahead. If it had been them that drained the life out of these woods, the trees would have all fallen a while ago.'  

[Gredar]

"Dracquis wouldn't do this either. Whatever it was, it just killed the forest and left us alive. These trees were still living when we went to sleep," Marten said, dodging around the shattered roots of an already fallen tree. "Whatever it is, it left us alone specifically."  

[Demonix13]

Alpheus was sprinting alongside the group.
"Maybe it was saving us for dessert?" he offered.
Just then, a massive oak toppled towards Alpheus. The Etzale brought his enchanted greatsword out and swung with all his might. The oak split in half, falling to either side of him.  

[demonofwhite]

Constance had been busy chanting a small enchantment on the piece of wood. She finished the spell and threw it up in the air. It hovered above her as she continued to run and began to morph. It streched out and grew limbs, taking the shape of a large man. As a tree began to fell on top of Constance, the wooden man hit it out of the way with surprising force. It took a relitavely large amount of power, but it was the best she could do. "I don't think it is the Dark One either." Constance offered. "He's after dark energy and, from what I have seen, like to take human lives. Not forest life. From what I know of him, he wouldn't do something like this..." She trailed off. The life size puppet was already begining to take it's tole...  

[Demonix13]

Alpheus looked over at Constance and cocked an "eyebrow".
"Dracquis needs energy, that's all. I don't think he cares where he gets it from." he said, still running for his life from the maze of death that was all around them  

[Gredar]

Marten's staff flashed. Two trees ahead of them stopped falling, their leaves turning partially green. It would hold them, at least until the group was past. "Not very much life energy in plants. Takes about four bushels of corn to get as much life as half an ounce of human blood, less if it's a wizard," he said, recalling his experiments. "My guess is something killed the forest spirit. Though I've never heard of the entire forest dieing because of it."  

[demonofwhite]

Constance snorted. "You haven't. I've seen something like it before. The only diference is, that was a rain forest. The monkey died..." Her brow furrowed. "But maybe...who would do that...?" She was still half talking to herself now. It was to confusing. None of this added up to her, but something would happen to clear things up. She winced as one of her legs began to give out. To much energy was being used with her puppet. Sighing deeply, she let the spell go and watched her gaurdian fall to the ground and turn back into dead wood. She had to save up her energy and she hadn't been doing a good job so far.  

[Gredar]

Marten shrugged, summoning a patch of vines to hold back a tree leaning dangerously across the path. They were nearing the path, but the ground was now shuddering under the impact of falling trees. The last few feet would be crucial, if they could manage that they would be ok. "Whatever it is, it's bad. Really bad."  

[demonofwhite]

Constance rolled her eyes and gave up on gliding. She now ran with the others. "I think we gathered that bit of information." She looked at one of the trees and sniffed the air again. This time, she grimaced. "Something smells weird...can you smell it?" Again, she sniffed the air. "I can't even name it..."  

[Masamune 5.0]

Mirado continuously glanced back and forth. The forest was collapsing at an enormous rate. Even the trees ahead of them were falling. Marten's vines, too, were beginning to fail to the immense weight of the dying trees. Things were definitely looking bad.

'Alright. This shouldn't be too hard. Wind is the easiest of the elements to control. But I still have to concentrate... Shape the air... bend it to my will... have my body flow with it... let there be wind!' Mirado flexed his fingers and swung his arms broadly. The resulting burst of sound drowned out all other noise. His jacket flapped vehemently as the swirling wind pushed outward from Mirado. A tunnel of wind, forcing out the incoming trees, stretched towards a clearing.

"Let's go!" Mirado shouted at Marten, barely audible due to the roaring wind. The wind wouldn't last forever.  

[Demonix13]

Alpheus's eyes narrowed to gleaming slits at the sudden burst of wind, and watered slightly, blurring his vision. Dammit he thought, blinking hard to try and clear his vision. He rushed forward into the brief opening created by the wind and emerged from the dead forest. The sudden sunlight nearly blinded him, and he raised up a hand to shield his eyes from the intense glare.  

[Gredar]

Marten raised his hands, throwing wind of his own directly at the nearby trees. Instead of a tunnel, he focused his in a spiral outwards, forcing the trees to fall away from them. "Come on," he roared, focusing everything he had into it. Even with practice it was still hard to work other's spells without consciously knowing how it worked.

((for those of you who don't know, Marten can mimic any spell used around him, but without that all he can do is summon and heal. Most of the spells he knows he can't use unless someone nearby taps into that school of magic))  

[Masamune 5.0]

Mirado stumbled into the clearing and breathed a sigh of relief. He looked back. Marten and Constance were still making their way towards him.  

[demonofwhite]

Constance pulled a straw hat with a black veil around the rim out of her pocket. She placed it on her head then ran out to the clearing holding it to her head because of the wind. As soon as she had gotten out of the way of the wind and was in the clearing next to Mirado and Alpheus, she let go of the hat but kept it secured on her head. This hat was specially designed to protect vampires from sunlight.