#novarin

“Multiple frostwyrms incoming from the west, at least 5 spotted, accompanied by scourge and cultist ground troops - ETA 15 minutes.  Everyone to arms, we’re going to intercept them just outside the Crossroads. Work together, have each other’s backs, and don’t die. Booze is on me afterwards.”

Nova sprang awake from the incoming message, Talon’s voice echoed hard into his ears and in the process of trying to awaken from his groggy sleep, Nova’s white eyes snapped open in the hard realization that not only were they under attack... but Kou was right in the middle of it all and likely making a nuisance of himself. Such thoughts spurred him further into action, pushing himself from place he had come to rest. When Nova snagged his blades, both hissing wildly at him upon reconnecting to their cursed owner.

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck...!” Strapping both to the harness on his back, the Shadowblade leaped forward to sprint towards where he had last left the fox in the midst of the forming chaos. Everywhere and all around, people were getting ready, the call to arms nothing shy of phenomenal. They’d all worked together very well thus far and though Nova kept his distance as a scout, the now underlying problem was that the blind Vulpera was likely going to be a sitting duck in the midst of a heated battle.

“KOU!” Spotting the Vulpera who had indeed just been standing in the middle of everyone running around him, the way the little creature had his head tilted up in the exact direction that Talonoa had called out was something to be marveled. For the briefest moment, Nova almost swore that the whole blindness had been a lie... That was until Kou twitched an ear and glanced over his shoulder to try and hear who was calling for him.

“Nova? You should be resting—” Kou tried to smile, cheerful as ever in such a chaotic situation. The roars echoed through the sky of the approaching madness like thunder crackling and ripping across the sky.

“Kou, listen t’ me, ya need t’ go back t’ camp, alrigh’? I ain’ fuckin’ playin’ this cute lil’ game anymore where ya think ya coul’ be useful in this situation.”

“But... I can be. I can fight.” Kou’s bright smile began to falter into a look of concern, perhaps a bit downtrodden that Nova truly felt so little of him. It even showed when those adorable ears wilted, drooping from the tiniest of pouts.

Before the pair could even remotely finish their argument, the bestial roars were at their doorstep and a wave of ice had been blown right at them. Nova dove forward with every intention of trying to at least block it and protect Kou but before he could even move, his eyes snapped wide, watching the little fox simply raise a paw to the air.

Without even seeing the breath, a wave of warm light caressed over the pair like a shield, deflecting the would be attack and almost instantly melting it away, sparing them from being frozen in place. Others close within the vicinity had been blessed with such but it wasn’t akin to the Holy Light of Azeroth at all, it was simply a mimic of it, an illusion to fit in.

“You—...”

“We can discuss this later, but Mister Talon has said that if we stop the Frostwyrms, we get free alcohol.” That ever peppy tone returned and soon so did the waggle of that fluffed tail at the proposition of free things.

How could Novarin argue with that logic?

“Fine..! But we’re ‘avin’ a serious fuckin’ discussion ‘bout you leavin’ this t’ th’ professionals when we’re done. I won’ force ‘em t’ babysit ya!” Growling in frustration, the Shadowblade withdrew one of his blades to brace himself for the impact that had begun to turn around and come back for them. Already he could see one of the Frostwyrms arch back to fly directly towards the unlikely pair.

“I wish you would relax more, yes yes. Maybe get some therapy for that pent up anger. Are you missing someone, Mister Nova?” Kou questioned, still not even facing the beast that was coming right at them.

“FOCUS YA LIL’ FURBALL! ‘FORE I PUNT YA BACK T’ CAMP!”

Helplessly shrugging, a certain dark aura gathered at the Vulpera’s feet, within moments it quickly took over his entire body. “Just get its attention and bring it down closer, yes yes?” Was the only reply Kou gave as tiny claws raised up to the sky again, allowing a bit of his own power to reach out in a wave of unity, a feeling of Fortitude rushed through the Crossroads, blessing his allies with a sudden sense of adrenaline and power.  The sensation alone was cause for Nova to pause and bring his free hand up to his own chest, surprised at the sensation coursing through his veins.

Perhaps... Just perhaps this little beastie wasn’t as useless as Novarin thought him to be.

Seeing the skeletal dragon finally come close enough, Novarin reached to his hip to grab the small contraption on his belt and aimed it upward to pull the trigger - the grappling hook shot out at blinding speed to latch onto the bones and pull the rogue with it. Scaling up with the retraction of his handy gizmo, the Shadowblade landed as best he could, hanging on for dear life when the wyrm took such as a signal to retract and fly higher into the air.

“No no! I SAID BRING IT DOWN NOT MAKE IT GO UP!! YOU ARE GOING THE WRONG WAY!” Kou yelped, speaking into the comm for Novarin to hear him.

How could those milky eyes see that? How did he know the dragon was going up? Was Kou faking it this entire time?

Turning his attention upwards to watch the rogue’s energy tangle with the Frostwyrm, Kou waited patiently on the ground, knowing full well he could trust his teammates to handle the others that were in mid attack. A hand reached behind him to pull his staff free of it’s strap and with a slow inhale, the serpent’s skull atop it seemed to open when whispered incantations escaped the Vulpera’s tiny muzzle. The eye sockets lit up with a brilliant white glow, clearing the fox’s vision to reveal the luminescent gold hues below. The tiniest little smirk twitched and with a swipe of his hand, a torrent of shadows swirled around him from the skull of his staff, rendering the creation of a fully formed serpent and hovering shark beast to flank either side of him.

It seemed Kou’s outlandish stories may have held some sort of merit.

Novarin noticed the spike of energy below and with a renewed sense of possible hope that the fox was indeed capable of combat, he started the climb, hanging on for dear life when the Frostwyrm he was attached to began to spin and roll to try and shake the rogue free. Much to its dismay, Nova remained tightly latched, faltering only on his foothold for a brief moment.

Once close enough to the bony structure of the dragon’s neck, the cursed blade Nova had been holding onto was slammed in between the bones to help give him a handle to hold onto and brace himself for his next crazy idea. The same grappling hook he had used earlier was aimed and fired, latching the claw of it into the back of the Frostwyrm’s jaw and instead of following it with the retraction, Novarin yanked hard, forcing the beast’s head down and to turn hard right, guiding it back directly towards the little fox and his shadowy figures.

“If you have a fuckin’ plan, I SUGGES’ YA DO IT NOW!” Nova called out through the comm, the wind torrent causing quite a bit of static on his end. They were going to crash at this rate and at such a momentum, Novarin knew he’d be flung off.

“Yes yes, big plan, much surprise, very soon.” Kou teased in reply, chipper through the drastic attacks they were suffering. Once Novarin and the dragon were within casting range, Kou shot out his claws, outstretched towards Nova with all of his might. The serpent shot forward, fangs bared. The biting shadow sank hard into Novarin’s torso, not painfully but the life grip was certainly attached and with minimal effort, Kou yanked the rogue, blade, grappling hook, and some bone back to his side to free the Shadowblade of the crashing dragon. 

It didn’t stop there. 

The Vulpera swung his staff up in an arching motion and soon the shark took its own bite but not into Novarin, into the dragon instead, splattering the darkness onto the bones to create a tether and slow the beast down considerably as it was trying to pull itself back up to avoid crashing. Guiding the dragon as best he could, Kou braced himself for impact, forcing the beast to hit the ground.

The agonizing roar echoed out and as a claw swiped angrily at the two attackers, Kou and Novarin both dodged out of the way - Nova far more out of shock than he should have been. In truth, they needed a better plan, not just the dodge fest that was coming out of the pair trying to keep the wyrm’s attention.

“Get t’ th’ side!” Nova called out but just as he did, a single swat of that tail slammed into Kou, knocking the tiny fox several yards and gashing his soft white fur open from the sharp bones. The loudest, most pitiful yip sounded when he rolled in the dirt, the crimson already began to stain the white fur. Kou curled up a moment to apply a firm amount of pressure to the wound as if it would help stop the pain, the very wind knocked from him.

Novarin narrowed his eyes, reaching back to unsheathe his second blade, letting the whispers of the cursed objects further incite chaos into his ears.  Squeezing the blades tightly, the spikes within the handles ejected, piercing his palms in the now scarred holes, the curse he had tried to avoid using at all costs but now? Now it was personal. No one got to kick the fox but him.

Both swords ignited into a bright glow once fed the droplets of blood, causing a burst of power to course through the Shadowblade. He calmed, eerily so, and with a single kick off the ground, Novarin vanished in thin air. When he returned, he was above the dragon to swipe down with both swords in a devastating blow and just as the blades connected, he vanished again. Novarin was a flurry of blood soaked rage, the disappearing act was a sequence of particularly hard strikes in a killing spree, each time reappearing in a different direction.

This distraction was enough to give the Vulpera time to pull himself up and wheeze, shaking off the glancing blow. His paw reached for the staff not far away and with another soft mutter of words, the serpent and shark made their way back to his side again. It took little convincing to let the specters avenge the wounded Vulpera and with another spike of energy, both rushed towards the flailing dragon, coiling around the beast until they dove into the ground, hiding for a blink of an eye.

With absolutely no warning, dark chains shot up from the ground to attach themselves to the dragon, coiling around the limbs and locking the beast in place, all easily controlled by a single paw in the air and a panting fox who wasn’t wearing his usual smile but instead, a frown of pain. The milky clouds had already begun to return to the glowing gold eyes but he wouldn’t let that deter him from getting the job finished.

“Anytime, Mister Nova!” Kou called out as he held the vice grip on the beast with all of his might. He was struggling to contain a dragon that could have had him as a snack but for his new friends? He used all of his might to restrain the Frostwyrm.

Upon command, Novarin reappeared from the shadows, diving down into a full evisceration with both blades crossed to snap through the Frostwyrm’s neck like a pair of scissors. With ferocious velocity, the Rogue went straight through, decapitating the beast and severing the Lich ties that brought it to life. He landed in the pile of the skeleton that began to collapse, struggling as the last of the Lichfire faded from the heart chamber of the fallen creature.

Once slain, Kou exhaled the breath he had been holding and stumbled back to collapse in a sitting position and press his palm to his side. Ears folded back a moment, frustrated at himself for getting hurt. The shadows recoiled back into him and faded away, leaving the tiny fox alone.

In realization that the Vulpera had collapsed, Novarin pushed himself up from the rubble to sprint over. He knelt down, intent to search and see just how badly it was. “Hey, ya alrigh’?”

The clouded vision raised towards Novarin’s voice but the roars of more dragons were deafening to those overly large audits. “I will be.. But the others need our help! No time to sit, yes yes!” Giving the best smile he could muster, Kou pushed himself to stand, shaking off the small gash in his side in favour of finding the others to assist.

“Mm...” Nodding, Nova offered two quick pats to Kou’s head and stood up, turning to face the others that were in their own battles. “Shall we?”

“For Azeroth!” Kou chirped, running as best he could with the tiniest of limps, ready to jump right in.

“F’er Azeroth.”

> @koukikai <

The camp that had originally been in the Crossroads had been torn down and relocated to help assist the building threat in Orgrimmar but that didn’t stop the crew from working overtime. The battle was becoming that much harder and the members, no matter how well they worked as individual units or of the same team, were starting to feel the strain.

Novarin had been sitting beside the sleeping fox, the nasty gash on the mend thanks to the quick work of the healers but it had done quite a number on the tiny Vulpera. Between possible infection and stitches to close the wound before they could start healing it had taken some definite skill and it wore the fox out completely to be subject to such. Of course, Novarin silently blamed himself for not only doubting the critter but not sending him back to camp where he would have been safe.

Those thoughts were pulled away from him when he heard his name on the comm. It wasn’t Talon, he thought to himself. Ah— he knew that tired voice anywhere, no matter how rough Jack sounded.

“Chaoti, abou’ time.” Nova quipped in reply, glancing over to check the breathing status via Kou’s movements. “Though’ f’er sure ya’d up n’ jus’ left us t’ do y’er dirty work, aye?”

“I apologize about that, things haven’t been going well in Icecrown—”

“—Can’t be as bad as Orgrimmar righ’ now, buddy,” the answer cut Jack off briefly as Nova reached for a cigarette, the itching habit of needing one overtaking his senses not to smoke in the enclosed space where the Vulpera slept.

“They’re... Bringing dead folk back to life, Frostwyrms everywhere, the sky is shattered.” Jack offered to explain, eyes closing to relax as they spoke.

“Orgrimmar is flooded wit’ scourge, aye? N’Sin n’ I were issued orders t’ come assist wit’ th’ shite in Icecrown, I can’t cover f’er ya much longer.” Nova huffed, clicking open his fetched lighter to ignite the cigarette now resting between his lips. “Kou’s ‘urt, healers worked on ‘im f’er quite a while las’ nigh’.” The Shadowblade paused briefly, frowning to himself. “Did ya find who you were lookin’ for, at least?”

Judging by Jack’s silence at first, the answer was obvious and another swelling pain rushed through the Mage’s chest and into his throat. Lips parted to answer but they were dry and his voice failed him. The noise that escaped was a pained sigh, what should have been his answer was nothing more than a dull huff of air.

“I see... Keep y’er ‘ead up, alrigh’? Ya got good people ‘ere on this team, they coul’ use ya ‘ere t’ help defend th’ city.”

“Y-Yeah... I’ll, ah...” Swallowing hard, Jack silently scowled at himself, angry he couldn’t pull it together for anyone. “I’ll be there soon and trade you places, but... Will you look for him if you’re in Icecrown? For me?”

“Tch...” Nova exhaled the smoke in irritation but he knew the feeling of missing a lover, his own hadn’t even left a trace of evidence behind for him to follow. “Yeh, promise I will. Jus’ get here soon.”

When the comm clicked off, Jackary raised his blurred vision up to the ceiling of the tent, blinking slowly when he realized the heated tears were steadily cutting down his cheeks.

Somewhere across the world, Nova moved a free hand to soothingly pet over the top of Kou’s head, rubbing down one of those overly large ears. A sigh escaped. 

“Hang in there, Creampuff. It’ll all be o’er soon...”