2.3.2
on October 2, 2024
at 3:00 am
paladin champion was being very patient all month and he will not be denied his ass-kicking now
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
paladin champion was being very patient all month and he will not be denied his ass-kicking now
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: do people still say “talk to the hand”? did they ever? anyway
Image source: delay
“Yes, let’s!” Erin yelps. “I suspect there’s been some sort of misunderstanding–”
“Erin, I don’t think that’s helping right now,” Kendal interrupts him, hand still holding the Champion’s wrist.
“That is not your friend anymore,” the Champion tells Kendal. “ I know this will be difficult for you to accept– but my word is the word of my Lady, and there is no doubt. That mage has become the vessel of the dark dragon.”
“Okay, FIRST of all–” Erin starts as Kendal stares at the Champion in concern.
“His poisonous influence corrupts innocents into Cave-Crawlers and sets them ravening against their kin.” As he talks, the others are watching. Tess has lightning crackling around her arm and Alinua is growing a vine in her palm. Falst is staring at the Champion, realizing that the Void Dragon was the cause of his mom being turned into a cave-crawler, the wheel forgotten. Dainix is watching the Champion and Kendal, a worried, anxious expression on his face.
“Countless have suffered and died at his whim,” the Champion continues, “And now all his malice and cunning flows through the one mortal capable of freeing him.”
“I understand, but Erin isn’t–” Kendal starts.
“Forgive me,” the Champion says, eyes narrowing, light coalescing around his other hand. “I can allow no further delays.”
He yanks his arm out of Kendal’s grip, shoving his other hand forward and blasting Kendal backward across the deck with claws made of solid light.
Faces are the bane of my existence D: It took me a while to figure out the right words for Kendal’s face Panel 3 and Falst’s face
Did anyone else notice that “I can allow no further delays” is what V.D. said when he came out after Kendal and Alinua found Erin, and they were next to the Caves, and then V.D. blew up their mini-palace and Alinua? It took me a few minutes to place those words but I knew he’d said it somewhere
Ummm I was gonna say something else… oh yeah Kendal
…This is gonna be very bad for Kendal isn’t it… he’s already hurt in the chest, getting knocked around in the boat did NOT help, and now he just got slammed in the chest by giant solid glowing claws.
I’m thinking he’ll slam into the railing andthere’ll just be a *crack* and then he’ll fall off the side of the boat… hoping I’m not right about this one
Here is the page that they are referring to
https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-7-12/
…The dragons keep paralleling each other….
Red, you sly genius.
Edits:
stares at the Champion, a concerned expression on his face.
Tess, lightning crackling around her arm. Alinua, growing a vine in her palm. Falst, staring at the Champion, realizing that the Void Dragon was the cause of his mom being turned into a cave-crawler. Dainix, watching the Champion and Kendal, a worried, anxious expression on his face, cracks creeping across his skin again.
Tumblr text: whapow!
Twitter Text: diplomacy!
And here. We. Go.
Well, I guess we’re doing “Blasts Kendal off the ship”. Love everyone, especially Tess, getting ready to throw hands as he talks.
Did Falst know beforehand that it’s VD energy that creates cave-crawlers? He looks a little surprised there. It probably won’t happen, but imagine if Falst takes the natural next step and just starts actively trying to kill Erin.
Yeah, he knows from 1.22.45.
I’m not sure how much of that information Falst actually absorbed. He was very weak at the time Erin explained it and he may not have even been listening.
I’m also not sure if he knows what Erin did for him that day, what he prevented Falst from becoming. If he did, I think he would appreciate Erin a lot more than what he’s shown recently.
I don’t think he was really paying attention back then otherwise he would’ve been way more upset about how close he was to turning.Bet its sinking in now though 😬
What? Why would he do that?
That’s not Erins fault. He wasn’t even voids vessel when Falst Mother got turned.
Because we’ve come to know Falst as a deeply rational person who never acts on emotion?
But he’s not insane though
I think you’ve got an exaggerated view of Falst. He’s not 100% rational, but he’s smart enough to recognize Erin had nothing to do with that.
I think it’s possible that, with fuel from his childhood trauma, he might at least suggest that it could be better for everyone if Erin’s soul link to the crawlerization energy wasn’t removed in however many years it could take them to find a solution that actually works, and was instead removed right now. Like, in some heated emotional moment.
Of course he won’t kill Erin in cold blood, but he might suggest it in very hot blood.
But Falst knows that Cave Crawlers existed before Erin became possessed, and will probably continue to exist even if Erin dies. The Void Dragon is still leaking Void energy from the centre of the planet, and he’s not going to disappear just because his vessel is destroyed. Even if Falst doesn’t figure all that out, he’s smart enough to question the assumption that killing Erin will solve everything.
Of course he knows that. What Erin being dead would solve is the “if Erin is unsupervised for a single second, the planet might explode” Problem. Which every single person currently on this boat is very interested in solving, because it’s in desperate need of solving.
What he might also do (which would be irrational but understandable given his backstory) is slowly convince himself that Erin’s dragon tatoo is slowly leaking void energy right into their faces. It would just make him even more antagonistic towards Erin and cause more tension in the group. I don’t really think he’d go straight to (or maybe ever go to) “let’s kill Erin” unless it’s a truly very heated moment with lots of other problems going on. It’s not outside the realm of possibility, but that doesn’t mean it’s that likely.
The point I’m trying to make is that, if Depleted’s comment up there is correct, Falst and Erin’s relationship is going to get much worse after this. It’s been well established that Falst acts irrationally whenever it comes to cave crawlers.
Falst would sooner kill himself than kill Erin
That would be… rather inconvenient.
You know, just trying to eat the sun over here, why’s everyone so mad about it.
Dainix is cracking againg I’m very scared
Omg I didn’t even notice that!
“That is not your friend anymore”, says Mike
Heedless of explanations sends out his white spike
“I know this will be difficult for you to accept –
But my word is the word if my Lady,
And there is no doubt,” the stranger says,
And with regret in his eyes, “Forgive me.”
Erin and Kendal both protest, but he says,
“I can allow no further delays.”
A clawed white hand leaps from his palm,
Shining with radiant rays.
With Kendal’s head between it’s knuckles,
It grabs around his chest.
Beaming from the stranger I throws Kendal back,
From the palm by the Lady blessed.
Holy heck, paladin got no chill
Not having any chill is a class requirement to BE a Paladin.
No sense of humor is a common trope?
Nice to see Red producing again, welcome back
Kaiba: Now stay back or I’ll be forced to slash you with my dragon claws.
Kendal: Eh, been there, done that.
Erin, listen to Kendal; your attempts at diplomacy with Paladins already has a bad track record and I doubt it’s going to improve anytime soon. Not that Kendal is doing much better.
The problem is the Champion does not want to do this, he doesn’t want to kill Erin or endanger the innocents on this ship, but he knows the danger of the dark dragon and is fully dedicated to the Paladin mission and ethos. Any doubts the gang could raise he’s likely already asked to him, and have been dashed away by his resolve to prevent worse from happening.
I’m interested the gang’s reactions in panels 5-8.
Looks like Alinua and Tess are getting ready to help, though Tess’s expression is hard to read. Is she angry at the Champion’s slander towards her brother? Is she still reeling from Erin’s rant? Is she regretful about having to throw hands with a Paladin? I bet she’s encountered them at least once in her travels and may even respect them as monster slayers protecting innocents.
Dainix is still recovering from his flare-up, so no assistance is likely at the moment, but seems intently interested. That may be because this Paladin information, and their antagonism towards Erin, is new to him, or he may be seeing the Champion’s white light powers and it may remind him of a certain white flash that saved him in the dungeon.
Falst, however, I’m actually kind of scared about. He might just look that way and not act because he’s shocked/scared at this powerful newcomer and needed at the helm. But I wonder if his previous beef with Erin last chapter, combined with the Champion’s speech about Cave Crawlers, and his existing trauma with his mother, might be making him question Erin.
He wasn’t present when Erin was willing to die to stop V.D. in Arc 1, Chapter 7, he may only have a fuzzy recollection of Erin saving him from cave corruption, and Erin keeps leading the gang into danger for his own mission. Some of the Paladin’s words might bear more weight on him than on other gang members. I’m kind of scared.
Wait a minute, I just noticed something.
Does anyone else find it strange that these panels aren’t showing Alinua’s eyes? Are just the irises glowing green as she uses her magic, or are they glowing green in their entirety?
Is that Alinua alone growing that vine, or is Life joining in with her?
Pretty sure that’s just the framing of the panel since the focuis is supposed to be on her hands. No real reason for life to just pop up out of nowhere, especially for this. Life has made it very clear she does not want to realy take control at all
Erin’s not taking so well to not being able to help in this situation, but he’s the least likely to be charitably listened to by the Champion right now, unfortunately for him.
Aurora Question #2: Who do you believe has the floofiest hair so far?
It’s still Alinua.
The obvious answer is Tynan, but as Red herself has pointed out, having a cloud for hair is probably cheating.
There are a lot of impressive contenders, but I think it’s still Alinua.
Alinua has the advantage because her hair is curly and so naturally floofier, but I think if Kendal curled his hair he might surpass even the gods themselves in sheer power
Primordial Life
We haven’t seen much of her, but what we saw looked very floofy
In the past, Life. Seriously, arc 1, chapter 20 shows she wins by sheer volume.
But since she’s no longer got her old body, the title of floofiest one of all fittingly goes to her chosen, Alinua.
I don’t know Micheal’s hair is looking very floofy to me….
Based on the characters page I’d say Lady Illia has the floofiest hair.
Zuurith has some serious floof going on.
Self-justifying goodguy who won’t look past his own presumptions? CHECK!
The lighting effects are gorgeous though.
To be fair it isn’t just *his* presumptions, he’s going off what a creator deity is telling him and his own knowledge of how draconic possession works (assuming his bond with her is akin to Erin and VD’s). And Erin’s only interaction with the paladins so far was deceitful, so it’d be natural for them to expect more of that.
The only reason he *isn’t* right is because Erin got extremely lucky and ran into the few non-paladins capable of taking possessed him down.
What Alinua doing?
preparing a plant from seeds to use in the coming conflict I believe. it is likely going to be quite tough for her to maneuver though- no dirt on a boat.
…this does make me wonder if algae would be significant in this setting for a life mage.
NOOO KENDALLLLL
DOOM MUSIC KICKS IN
Dear goodness, I am dearly hoping Alinua and her unique situation becomes apparent and clarifying- it is fear of her and how Life flows through her that most keeps the dragon at bay after all. absence of that, I dearly hope Erin needs not hold this much longer. I also hope that even if our angel of light here doesn’t leave our protagonists to fend for themselves in the storm or at least provides some exposition on if soul-shaping would be actually effective. Nonetheless, the prospect of Fridays comic excites me.
Hopefully the champion only needs to take one good look at her in his possessed state like VD did to see she is life’s vessels
A part of me isn’t certain he can; there’s a good chance the Champion’s talents are min-maxed towards monster hunting rather than information gathering.
However, I do see Theia being able to observe Life-Alinua. She’s been explicitly stated to have L.D.’s eyes, so if anyone aside from V.D. can see Alinua’s state as Life’s chosen, it’s her.
So, will the blow incapacitate Kendal or will he get back up like nothing happened? If it’s the second one I think the Champion will be confused that he wasn’t knocked out.
I was hoping Kendal could talk him down, even though we knew from the chapter art it wasn’t going to happen. Maybe Erin will get knocked out, but the others will convince the Champion not to kill him. Am I being overly optimistic here? I f he does get talked down, I think he’ll go with the gang to keep VD in check.
It’s finally here
The ultimate Paladin-off
Also I know Michael is jumping the gun but that Yeeting Claw Of Pure Radiance is so cool I’m having a hard time being angry about it
which Epic: the musical song does this scene give? I’m thinking mutiny but that might be slightly off
I’m thinking Just A Man (from Micheal’s perspective). He probably doesn’t want to kill Erin, but he will because he must.
Was Kendall just Worfed out of the ship?
Am I going crazy or does Michael have tiny fangs? (Panel 1 and 4)
Oh. Oh no. Dainix we just dealt with that do not make the paladin dump you in the ocean to try and put you out. Instead use your flash bombs and annoy the crap out of him. And Erin really just needs to shush because he’s not helping.
It’s too bad Erin will likely never learn when to shut up. Especially when he’s already highly stressed and needs to prove himself capable.
I’m impressed at the amount of distraction the boy can manage and still focus on his spell, if nothing else.
When Red says that Mike “will not be denied his ass-kicking now” does she mean the ass-kicking he will *give* or the ass-kicking he will *receive*? Cuz the Floof Squad has a lot of go juice to throw hands with, but Mr. Chosen-of-the-Lady has to establish himself as a threat before he can lose a fight, so its hard to say.
Also can’t wait for the moment Pally has his “How the Dragon are you so strong?” moment.
With Kendal? Yeah that’ll be funny
The more I think about it, the more a fight would have been inevitable. Michael would have probably just attributed Erin’s apparent self-control to VD’s cunning manipulations or something.
Time to see how this all goes down…it’s six vs. one, but something tells me that might not be much of a help…
Even if he did know Erin was in control, he might still decide Erin was too much of a risk to be left alive considering his continued existence endangers everything on the planet.
I am loving the facial expressions on this page. More thinking will occur later for now my brain’s just repeating “uh oh John” in Brian David Gilbert’s voice for some strange and peculiar reason.
It was a good try, Kendal.
Oh boy, here we go! I am enjoying this confrontation very much and anticipating this situation (potentially) going up in flames.
“Okay, FIRST of all, I am no VESSEL! I am simply…giving him a lift! Against my will. And sometimes when one of my friends isn’t looking he steals the keys and hops in the driver’s seat after he locks me in the trunk. Other than that, I am in COMPLETE control!”
“Locks me in the trunk”, that’s amazing XD
The car analogy is actually what a lot of people with Dissociative Identity Disorder use to explain their situation.
i don’t like this guy
tess and ali are so ready to throw hands with the champion, and im absolutely here for it, lol.
Wonder if the dragon will get a good name some time soon
Okay, kill him. Brutally, if possible.
It’s funny how not a word of what he’s said is news, and considering Erin’s state when Kendal and Alinua first found him, I don’t think Asshole McLightshow over here knows as much as he thinks he does.
He just pushed Kendal
idk that thing looks grabby to me. Also I was already not a fan of this guy last page.
Erin probably should let his friends do the talking right now, though? He’s uh. He’s kind of in a horribly disadvantaged position for de-escalating this. highly likely the opposing party would simply assume he’s lying about everything.
The point is he meant no serious harm
Joke’s on Michael, Erin was already possessed before he became their friend. The Void Dragon is surprisingly good at facilitating social occasions. Just think how many new people Erin has met since then! Perhaps Walter’s just lonely /kidding
I do love that everyone appears ready to throw hands when it becomes pretty obvious the Paladin is there for one reason and one reason only. I don’t think Erin told anyone the true repercussions of their visit to Zuurith for him…or he may have downplayed it.
Is Falst’s expression because he’s finally made the connection between the VD and what happened to his mom? Is he realizing what Erin saved him from? Or is his intense expression ‘This is about to go south FAST’?
In any case, talk time is over. Ass-kicking is now.
I don’t think the light dragon is as old or as real as the void dragon. If she was around before the void dragon was trapped, surely, she would have helped the primordials.
My theory is he accidently gave birth to the paladin dragon because he felt so inspired about his Elder Race idea. I thought of it based on how stars reproduce and how the dark dragon is at least part star
I really like a theory someone said a while ago that the Light Dragon is the sun, which does kinda make sense, and I think that’s why the Primordials tried to stop the Void Dragon b/c they didn’t want the Light Dragon(Sun) to be destroyed.
But there weren’t any people at the time, so she didn’t have enough power to manifest. Or something.
Hmmmmm maybe because she’s such a big entity it’s hard for her to manifest? Like it takes preparation? Ah and that’s also why she possessed the dragon and made it fly over instead of manifesting at the Paladin Stronghold
And for the argument that V.D. is also a big entity so he couldn’t have manifested: Yeah but he had preparation time to manifest so he could eat the sun, then he approached the sun and the Primordials came out 😀
Oh! and because they’re such big entities, when they manifest, their incarnations are like REALLY BIG, like how the primordials were also really big! So that’s why L.D. hasn’t manifested
There is my newly-created theory idk lol
I don’t understand what you’re saying and how you came to these conclusions
I think she came into being from big chunks of transmuted Void left over from Walter and the Six’s battle.
Okay I’ve been waiting for the right time to say a theory I have about the Light dragon and now seems a good as time as any.
So we know that the Void dragon was flying through space trying to eat the sun when the primordial elements stopped him and imprisoned him in the planet dying in the process, and the Void dragon says that the Light dragon is as old and powerful as him so that means that the Light dragon is older than the planet, so I speculate that the Light dragon is in fact the sun and possibly every star in the sky.
It says in the extra lore of the calendar that the sun doesn’t have a specific deity that has been proven to exist just a hypothetical entity called Yanna the golden who would appear in some stories but not show up in reality, but we also know that gods can be created by simply believing the god already exists, but despite the fact people believe there is one none have appeared, so I posit the reason is there already was a sun god in the form of the Light dragon and so none could be created to take that place.
I thought of this idea thinking what the equal and opposite of void would be. Assuming void is outer-space as it has been described as such on tumblr which is essentially a lack of matter an opposite would be the most common form of matter which in real life is plasma the stuff that makes-up the sun, also lightning but I can’t tell if that has any to do with it.
It would make sense to me that if the void had a personification than the sun and stars would have one to and I don’t think a god of the stars has ever been mentioned so I think my idea has merit.
The dragon eats stars because he likes how they taste
Oh and the Voidthing never said the lightthing was as old as them, he only called her his “other” and mentioned her giving people sentience
Personally, I believe the Light Dragon is Soul to Dark Dragons Void. She’s the one who gave sentience to the elder races in the prologue, and soul energy (which I believe is what palladin magic is) is the only element that doesn’t seem to have a defined primordial at this point.
Well, it does appear someone is refusing to listen to Kendal.
I believe the last time that happened, he struck off on his own to get rid of the lacrima before anyone could fight. That eventually led to him no longer pulling his punches, and straight-up manhandling Fast like a toy.
Assuming this attack doesn’t fling Kendal into the sea, I hope we see that side of Kendal once more.
It’s almost frustrating, however: there’s just enough room for doubt over Kendal going sploosh, and the Chekhov’s Gun over him not drowning finally being fired. Because this claw-like construct seems to be actively grabbing Kendal about the torso. So it could be a fakeout.
what do you mean by “chekhov’s gun over him not drowning finally being fired”? was that brought up before? I don’t remember and would like to know where this was so I can reread it and perhaps appreciate this more.
Basically, Dainix mentioned how Kendal only breathes when talking or fighting. Tess immediately wanted to try and see how long he can stay underwater. This was in 2.1.23
Thank you! 🙂
Could someone explain what does “published on date at 3am” means? It’s not my 3am, it’s not GMT 3am, and I really hope it’s not Red’s 3am. Do we all even see the same number?
The publishing is autoset at 3 A.M. in Red’s time zone (9 A.M. UK time). She isn’t losing sleep because of this.
I dunno Micheal/Champ’s hair is looking quite floofy today to me…
AHHHH the parallels! Both dragons have now said “I can allow no further delays” before attacking the party and doing something rash that (I hope) ends up backfiring!
I *love* grabby claws made of energy.
My main thought after the Monday comic was “God dammit, Paladins”.
And now this one is just making me say “GOD DAMMIT, PALADINS!”
And I say this as someone who enjoys playing Paladins. But the self righteous Lawful Stupid element is always aggravating (in the best way for a story!)
The best part, for me, is that as Lawful Stupid as his actions may seem from our perspective, from his perspective they’re…actually pretty justified?? Like, Erin IS the Void Dragon’s Vessel, he IS incredibly dangerous, and V.D. absolutely IS 100% capable of just lying through his (or rather Erin’s) teeth about all that.
WE know the truth, which is that Erin has managed to bully Walter into voluntarily relinquishing control over and over again, using a variety of different outside-the-box methods, and that all of these chumps are all perfectly aware of his situation and chose to travel with him anyway. But the thing about that truth is that…well…it’s COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS. Even if they actually had time to explain it to him, simply believing it would require Mikey to also believe in SO MANY unheard-of miracles and feats of cosmic power happening in quick succession, and while it mostly makes sense when you’ve actually been in the thick of it, from the outside…well…it’d be a pretty tough sell, to say the least.
TLDR: Michael is definitely being a stereotypical Paladin here by not giving the Floof Gang a chance to explain, but given the situation, it’s kinda hard to blame him!
Agreed with everything Mturtle7 pointed out. To add my two cents: I think that it would still fit a ruthless kind of ends-justifies-the-means logic if, even after finding out that the Floof Squad is trying to help Erin, Michael still believes killing off Erin is for the best. Keeping the Void Dragon contained hinges on Kendal and Alinua continuing to help and guard Erin. If they fail to do so at any point, the results could be catastrophic. If Erin died, it would remove that risk–it would remove the Void Dragon’s carefully planned escape route and keep him trapped for (hopefully) far longer. It would cost one life, but it would protect the masses.
I don’t know for sure if Michael ascribes to that kind of life-for-lives calculus or if he would, in fact, reevaluate killing off Erin. But his motivations and urgency here absolutely make sense.
That being said, I’m cheering on the Floof Squad and 100% want them to win.
It’s interesting how he thinks the dragon crawlerizes things on purpose
Welp, that’s torn it
TL;DR: You will not change my mind, loser.
Well, at least he’s polite before he blows you across the deck.
What element or energy is that, anyways? Soul energy?
Called it. I’ll be taking my $25 dollars now Melvin.
I have a question;
Why doesn’t anyone calls Kendal ‘floofyboi’ anymore. Like why
You ever see a nature documentary where the herd of herbivores are calmly eating while the lions are hanging around just out of sprinting range? They seem to be very relaxed, even though the lions are close by. Turns out, the lions they can see and know the location of don’t worry them; it’s the lions they can’t see that are a problem. I’m not sure what the paladin expects he can do against an invisible, body swapping, primordial being that probably can’t be killed. At best he would make the Dark Dragon invisible and unconfined, at worst he would become the next host.
That’s not how this works, reread Nightmare
Yeah, I think it was said in that chapter that Voidy can only possess Erin because he has V.D.’s Great Rune tattoo. No one else has that, so V.D. can’t possess anyone else. V.D. also can’t manifest cause he’s y’know trapped in the middle of the planet. So he’s confined to working his Void PowersTM through Erin, which he prooobably doesn’t want to do now cause… Super-Paladin.
Wait wait wait… why is it only occurring to me now that Falst might’ve been drawing on Light Dragon power on 1.22.37? What implications could that have?
Something about his father, msybe
Kendal: Yes yes, the evil dragon possessing our friend, we’ve all seen it.
The Paladins thinking that VD has been impersonating a human this whole time is hilarious, because
1. VD would never stoop so low as to imitate such a /lesser/ life form, and
2. If he did, he would be laughably bad at it, due to having “All the subtlety of a rock to the face”
Someone please just pin this guy and scream, “WE KNOW” in his face. He clearly doesn’t want to fight, but he’s going to kill Erin, and is very focused on that! Maybe that will get his attention.
Spews 16 lines of text and cuts in with another 3 lines when someone tries to shortly respond? Ah, there’s nothing as self-righteous as a paladin on mission 😀
To be fair to the Paladin, unless he’s centuries old, I doubt he’s encountered another direct human vessel of the Dragon. Sure, *we* know that Voidy is not subtle, but he doesn’t. And, if Voidy *was* in charge of Erin right now, he’d definitely be throwing down with all the power the Elemental Magus has plus all the Void energy he could send up to Erin, so you kinda want to meet that with all the power you possess.