La Salle De Ciel - The Hall of Sky.

Grandma made her way into the cathedral, dressed in an elaborate dress of purple, with a bit of gold trim. It featured voluminous sleeves, although the rest of it was cut in such a way that it wouldn’t impede her walking or moving very much at all. She also still carried her handbag with her, a bit out of place perhaps, but Grandma didn’t care if she broke a few customs. Her cane clicked across the floor as she made her way over to some nobles, complimenting them on their fashion sense.

The twins trailed her quietly, while the maids she brought along stayed outside the building, but still near. As she spoke to various guest, Grandma studied the rooms impressive architecture. She also looked around for the bride to be, but found she was unable to locate her. A different custom than from what she was used to perhaps?

Ukufa pet his hyenas. "Soon my friends, soon it will be time." The creatures were on break-away leashes, only pretending to be restrained. Saliva was dribbling from their massive fangs as they too lusted for combat. Isilungu Idla was ready too, his unholy black whip now saturated with painful, paralyzing neurotoxin. Any guards he didn't kill would most likely kill themselves to escape the burning, hair tearing pain that would befall its victims. His gauntlets had feasted on plenty of blood and were now fully charged as well.

"Major Thom, as soon as you set off the carriage, I will lead the charge against the convoy. Their front-line men will pose little threat to me, but their mages may present a problem. Join with me as soon as you are able. The bride will be ours!"

Aside from his strange pets and equipment, he was disguised as a normal citizen. They would never know what hit them.

The carriage was almost here. Any second now...

"Muhahahaha. BUDAS! REVEAL YOURSELVES!"

The hyenas leaped forwards, snarling and gnashing their teeth. They sped towards the carriage with the speed of a horse. But right before they reached their guards, something happened...

In just a second, almost seemingly in midair, the creatures grew to twice their size. Their great maws would crush the throats of the first guards they met almost instantaneously. Things would only get worse and worse. The creatures would in another second start to stand upright, swinging their massive arms and shattering the pole arms of more opposing guards. Their combat capabilities blended seamlessly with every stage of transformation, every attack taking place without missing a beat. Finally they reached their full potential, large, muscular humanoid beasts, each several times stronger and faster than a normal man.

The worst part was that Ukufa himself hadn't even reached the convoy yet...

As soon as he did things got even worse. Ukufa flung his whip at the closest magically inclined guard he could spot. The guard would scream in intense anguish before being yanked with the strength of a small bull towards him, thrusting them towards the ground and possibly even shattering their spine. If his or her injuries didn't kill them, the poison would paralyze while unceasingly torture the victim.

And to compound the situation reinforcements were just behind the warlord.

The beginning of the surprise attack worked flawlessly the honor guard were soldiers of the House Vios and they were not expecting trouble and the militia tear through their first layer of ranks quickly. However Vios is a large powerful house and their soldiers are well trained and well equipped, far more so then the militia of commoners. If it wasn't for Ukufa and and his Buda's the battle would have ended poorly for the militia, as it stands they are hard pressed to hold their ground for very long.

What the starlight spiders had not counted on though was the contingent of Royal Guards who where shadowing the procession. The starlight spiders attack had been planned in two dimensions they forgot about the third. One Pegasus knight splits from his squad and heads to the Hall of Sky while a second swoops down on top of the over turned carriage to rescue Lady Arianne. The remaining 10 draw their longbows and begin raining death down starting with the reinforcements moving in.

The three mages were focused on the Brudas when Ukufa struck and they release their prepared spells at the were hyenas on unleashes a bolt of lighting the other a lance of fire straight at the beasts. They then turn to Ukufa and begin preparing defenses spells.

After a few moments of watching the fight, it became quite clear to Grandma the problem was Ukufa. The beastly man along with his pets had done considerable damage to Gauldin’s defenders. A very dangerous man indeed, he appeared several notches above the other attackers.

Although not obliged to assist Gauldin, anything she could do to gain favor with the rulers of this place, well, it could come in handy down the road. Moving slightly closer to the fighting, but still on the sidelines, Grandma pulled a rune from her handbag.

Motioning for the twins to stand behind her, she began channeling into the rune. She broke the first level of her disguise to gain access to significantly better mana reserves, although it would possibly cause some to notice her aura. As she channeled, the rune started to glow with a purplish colored light.

The ground in front of her began to crack, the cracks moving towards the attackers and Ukufa. Although the cracks themselves were quite small and would pose no threat in terms of someone falling in them, the ground itself would still shake slightly as they extended out across the road.

Ukufa had underestimated his opponents they were battle mages trained at the royal academy and we'll equipped to deal with such a mundane assault. Both of them took the half formed power of the defensive spells they were shaping and flung it up knocking the knives out of the air. One then begins preparing another defensive spell well the other switches to offense.

With one bruda still up the militia are still pressing their advantage and the honor guard are nearly exhausted. Unfortunately the militia have also taken a heavy toll and with nothing to stop them the Pegasus Knights are slowly widling down the militia.

The female knight who went down to rescue Arianne whirls and draws when her Pegasus snorts in warning. She is prepared and ready to face Ukufa and unlike the honour guard she is in warded plate armor. When Arianne tries to open the door the knight moves backward to stop it from opening saying.

"One moment Lady Vios."

As she says this though the door on the other side begins to open...

Checkmate!

The knives were still bouncing off the counter-magic in midair when Ukufa swung out his whip, which whirred through the air with a whistling noise towards the mage who would barely be starting to cast an offensive spell. The whip would wrap around the mage's neck and micro-needles along its surface would inject the toxin into their blood-stream, quickly paralyzing them. Again, he'd pull with enough force to send the hapless spellcaster flinging to the ground, snapping their neck. Two down. Just one more! He would say to himself.

Isilungu Idla would hiss and snarl with delight as it would uncoil itself from the dead mage's neck.

The two injured budas struggled to get back up. The third would notice the carriage was being flanked by a formidable looking Pegasus knight and... someone else. His hearing and sense of smell clued him into the presence of someone on the other side.

The clever werehyena knew he might be in trouble against the knight and even then couldn't stop the second person, but that didn't mean he couldn't attack the carriage itself!

The massive creature charged with ungodly speed towards the Pegasus knight, expecting a counter-attack. But at the last moment he'd feint sideways and, with a leap, slam his massive frame into the top of the carriage, causing it to tumble on its side, trapping Queen Arianne from one end. Ideally King Renaux of Travére , who was about to get her out, would also be trapped by luck.

"What?! Garrrr!"

There was nothing he could do to save his fallen budas, but the third budas would leap on top of the fallen carriage to try to escape the tentacles.

He'd have to use his last resorts, and in an unusual manner as well.

The blood gauntlets would activate. He raised his left arm up towards the mage, releasing a terrifying blinding light. In the split second the last mage lost his concentration, Isilungu Idla would strike yet again. The evil weapon would reveal itself to be alive, and grasp the neck of the third mage. His master would be too distracted to grip and pull during this time, so the whip, while making impish gurgling noises, would inject the mage with every last bit of poison it had left.

Ukufa's second gauntlet wined and shrieked. A crimson aura of electric-looking energy erupted around him. The aura consisted of evil psionic energy and could protect Ukufa only for a few seconds before it needed time to recharge. And Ukufa knew this...

As he regained focus, he snarled and struggled against the dark tentacles until he reached the body of the closest mage...

"I'm... NOT... DONE... YEEEEEET!"

With an almighty thrust, he plunged his stiff right hand into the mage's neck. His strike was so powerful it plunged deep into the flesh and ripped through her jugular. He wrenched and twisted his hand until he had a grip around the mage's spine. Still warm blood sprayed out onto his sneering face, but more importantly it coated his hand.

He picked the body up with his one hand and raised it towards where he sensed the magic was coming from, like a macabre shield. The blood ran freely down his arm and dribbled out of the mage's mouth. His gauntlet's red inset gem began to glow with a fiery magenta. If one looked closely one could see the blood seemed magnetically drawn towards it. "I'm not done yet." Ukufa sneered in the direction of where he thought Grandma was. "I'M NOT DONE YET!"

As more and more blood was sucked into the gauntlet, the evil psionic power remained. It didn't dissipate like it should have and beat back against the tentacles. The body was slowly starting to look thinner and emaciated as it gently swayed back and forth with each step.

Step by step, inch by inch, occasionally stumbling, Ukufa relentlessly stomped his way towards Grandma, Demigrem's evil six-pointed seal shining brightly on his forehead, his eyes a crimson red.

He seemed like he was in a very, very good mood. "... not... yet..."

The dark pressure in his mind would have almost no effect as Demigrem's horrific soul surgery had twisted Ukufa's mind into something barely human, but still lucid and formidable.

Instead it was Grandma who would receive a series of telepathic reverberations. "You will die. You will die. Your soul will serve the dark lord Demigrem and your body will gnash and cry for all eternity in the deepest pits of hell. The dark one will be exceedingly glad and merry..." Grandma would also struggle with horrific thoughts of terrible things happening to her, things too unspeakable to ever be discussed out-loud.

“You’re a tenacious fellow aren’t you… Although I do applaud your spirit, I think you should have left when you had the chance. No matter though.” Grandma muttered this to herself as Ukufa struggled through the numerous black tentacles and made his way toward her.

Still, he was a very distasteful man, using another mage in such a way. No respect for the dead it appeared, although she had to admit, she would have done the same in his place. He appeared to be killing himself for such power, an unfortunate side effect of the magic he utilized.

She studied the sigil above his head, it appeared he was utilizing power that was not his own. Could the person who had given him such power be responsible for this attack? However, if that was the case, it was odd none of the other attackers had such powers.

Grandma wasn’t particularly surprised by the fact her attack against his mind didn’t have any effect. After all, he appeared to be a broken man already, at least his actions pointed her to assuming this. Then his telepathic attack would enter her mind.

Grandma couldn’t help but let out a laugh at the absurdity of it, at least in her eyes. Ukufa would find the terrible thoughts he was relaying to her accepted readily, sucked into her mind without resistance.

Grandma spoke directly to Ukufa’s mind, although this time it wasn’t an attempt at an attack.

“It appears you have mistaken me for something I am not, but I thank you for your interesting thoughts… As for this master you speak of, well, there’s always room for one more inside me,” Grandma chuckled to herself as she said this.

The tentacles continuing to hinder Ukufa’s progress, Grandma pulled a jet black rune from her bag. It glowed with an unnatural light as she channeled into it, eagerly consuming what she put into it. Although she could put more mana into it, she dared not work too fast or else she might break the rune.

As she channeled into it, the air above her head began to warp unnaturally. Orbs of nothingness began being outlined, causing the air to crackle with their unnatural formation. Despite nature's attempt to stop their foreign formation, Grandma continued to channel, a twisted smile appearing on her face.