1.17.26
on June 29, 2022
at 3:00 am
I put in all this work to draw proper battle damage on everyone and then the fog effects and magic glow totally wash it out. I really gotta get better at torturing these guys.
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
Uh oh, I guess People (and by people I mean me) were wrong about VD not making an appearance during this fight
Oh… oh… oh no…
Hey, no fair! Thing’s can’t get worse if no-one has said “It couldn’t possibly get worse”! This is breaking all rules of storytelling!
AHAHAHAHAHA
Tynan vs the Void Dragon
I wanna see this 🙂
Hey look, it’s voidy
dragon fight! Dragon Fight!! DRAGON FIGHT!!!
Take a number void dragon, they are a little occupied right now.
Cries Dainix, “What are you doing?! Stay down!”
As he rises on broken limbs,
“ALINUA!” he screams, as from Erin
A cloud of darkness climbs.
Predicting this fight to basically turn into Crocodile Dundee
Erin: “That’s not a dragon.”
*explodes*
VD: “That’s a dragon”
GO WALTER GO WALTER GO GO WALTER
Hooray, fun and exciting new problems!
So I’m unclear on the limitations here – can VD come out any time, or is it just when Erin is incapacitated/unconscious? So far we’ve only seen him make an appearance when Erin was in the storm, and when he was sleeping near the caves.
Based on how the light dragon avatar seems to work and the fight with Jolon I’m assuming Erin can also willingly let him out if needed.
Holy molly …
i wonder if june‘s book will join in the fight too? the more the merrier ig
Shameless double-post, because I’ve been thinking – What’s VD’s motivation here?
He probably couldn’t care less about Tynan, so I’m assuming he’s taking the chance to try and kill Alinua. He seems to know what she is, and was originally afraid/worried about it, so presumably wants her gone before she can figure it out herself.
If that’s the case, then we might see Falst and Dainix get some screentime to keep Alinua safe in the next few pages. I also wonder if any of the Paladins are close enough to feel a disturbance in the force…
Valter: Makes his move.
Alinua: Guess what? Now you get to have bone instead of muscles and skin. Good luck moving like that.
Uh-oh, looks like a bigger badder dragon is coming out to play.
“Okay, it’s happening! It’s happening! Everybody stay calm! STAY F*CKING CALM!”
Uh-oh, looks like a bigger badder dragon’s decided to join the fight.
I’m here, just looking forward to the expression on the Junior Archivist’s face when the Void Dragon shows up.
Tynan and the Void Dragon are about to enter a “dick measuring constest”.
Because they’re both *bad dragons*!
…
…
Oh come on! That was funny!
Is calling someone by their name really the best way to alert them of something happening behind their back?
O_O
that can’t be good.
Dainix is worried, ”Falst, stay down!”
Enter the Dragon, the nightmare is now
By the way, I’m primarily worried about Falst here. ’Cause Alinua, Erin and Dainix all have some sort of entities in them, if Life or Voidy Boi dies a lot of tension goes. And Dainix has an arc about accepting and coming to terms with his Crucible status to resolve. Though I don’t think cat boy dies, he’s already hurt enough and I just now he’ll do something stupid and brave, and maybe not die, but hurt himself really badly.
Not sure, but this looks a bit like VD is draining the healing energy from Ali – consuming it, I guess
See, here was where I was going to put forth a theory that VD comes to try and save Erin based on his “oh no I’m screwed” levels, rather than the objective situation (perhaps he can’t see the situation or just assumed Erin knew his limits), with the theory going “trapped under a bear and can’t use magic = aaaAAAA”, while up until he was literally unconcious, he was still feeling more or less confident about their team combo they had going on there (esp since his sister was there), so he didn’t come out before. But he still seems relatively unconcious rn (at least until the Void explosion started), so I think my theory may have gone out the window?
Anyway, as unfortunate as this is for the greater situation, I’ll admit I’ve been hyped for at least a couple months now for VD to make an appearance.
Red: “Why can’t my characters be mangled on a nice, sunny day?”
VOIDY’S HERE!!!!!!
I wonder if this means that Gabriel/the glory paladin guy will make an appearance soon as well ?
*’glowy’, not ‘glory’
Alinua’s hand/arm being grabbed after healing count: 2
more importantly: WALTER!
and we haven’t seen Tess in a bit, so assuming she’s still Tynan’s dearly detested passenger no. 2, boy is she in for a problem
TL;DR: Ah, yes, the perfect time for voidy to show up. When everyone’s battered and the healer is overworked.
There once was a magical kid
In whom the Void Dragon hid.
But not anymore!
Shenanigans galore
Will ensue from its escape-bid.
Final line’s rhythm is a bit off, but I couldn’t find any other rhymes that fit, so this will have to do.
God fight god fight
Hey, I had a thought. I don’t know if anyone said it before, but here it is:
Void Draron’s element does not seem to be actual void, despite the name. Because void is not a corossive (as we’ve seen “Void” is) or in any other way destructive force, it isn’t even an actual element, it’s the lack of such de facto. So, that got me thinkin’, what is Voidy’s element? I’d say what best fits what we’ve seen is some kind of physically manifested entropy, in a fantasyfied manner.
What do you guys think?
Lord Voidemort is here.
Oh F*CK. I had a feeling this would happen. Falst, Dainix, you’re about to meet the reason behind the entire eastward journey. Life, you’d better not say no to this.
If the cloud of void magic gets large enough, The Junior Archivist might be able to see it from the mountain. Since she likely can’t see Erin from that far away, she likely can’t tell other paladins to attack this group specifically; but she can still raise the alarm, compare this sighting with the last one, and extrapolate that The Void Dragon’s avatar is heading east, helping The Champion zero in on Erin. In conclusion: this is bad. Really bad.
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
alt text: oh good, he’s all healed~
Aaaaaaaaaaaack!
What’s bigger than an out of control storm god? Uuuuh… the Primordial responsible for the destruction of six other Primordials? How about two Primordials?
Unless Voidy just uses this opportunity to attack Life, when Alinua is drained and distracted.
Huh. I had this flash of an image of Voidy devouring the energy of Tynan to fight Life. I wonder how Tynan would feel about being upstaged and irrelevant in his own battle? I don’t think either Primordial would spare a thought for him.
What a way for sis to learn about Erin’s “guest.” But at least Dainix has a basis of understanding Erin’s predicament.
Wait. I realize Falst went with Erin to the archive, but has he been clued in to Erin’s “possessed by the Void Dragon” problem? I don’t remember his being told, and he and Erin aren’t close.
Just putting this out there but I like how Red draws the different types of magic
With Alinua’s plant magic its light and swirly
With the Void Dragon’s magic it’s like ink
With the lightning magic it jagged and sharp
And so on and so forth
Could make a bad joke here (well, not so much a bad joke as a really overdone film reference) but I think I’m gonna pass on their. Either way, I knew it. Now we’ll just have to see how strongly VD’s possession is this time around, and how much this compounds the entire situation (because there’s no way that he’s gonna stop with just taking Tynan out, not with how the Floof Squad’s running low on power right now)
To TheUnknownGame:
Ooh, very good points. This could actually set June up for a solid arc of her own as an unintended antagonist, given her utter lack of intended malice (aside from her likely assuming that VD’s champion is actively working with him, which would be understandable all things considering), despite the fact that any action she takes in trying to stop VD is going to provide an obstacle for the Floof Squad…
Question of the Day:
You wake up in an unfamiliar bed, having somehow been transported to Windscrest. Getting the sense that something isn’t quite right (besides the obvious), you seek out the nearest reflective surface. What do you see in the mirror?
so thats what the chapter cover meant…
To Skye:
?
Can you elaborate on the given circumstances? Because right now I’m rather clueless of what the expected answer might be. I assume you are asking whether it would be the hypothetical person’s own face or that of a stranger? In that case, I’d say the most likely answer is that it’s not my own, but a version in which I’m somehow magicaly transported there would open some interesting possibilities.
My comment was here… then it disappeared. Weird.
J.A.: Strange, I left my heresy detector at headquarters, but I swear I can hear it from here.
AAAAAHHHHH! V.D. is active, a huge plume of void stuff that people could see is erupting from Erin, Alinua’s hand is clasped by possessed Erin and potentially being eaten as I type! … Oh, and Falst has a broken arm, I guess that’s bad too.
I like how Falst is calling Erin an idiot after he tried to rescue him and got blown up; smack talk takes precedence over his own health it seems. Dainix is having to learn about his stubbornness, as they all did, the hard way.
@OngoingConversationCouplet Yeah I’m worried for Falst too, broken arm or not he’s likely to throw himself at V.D. if it means protecting his friends. Unless Ferin magic resistance also applies to Void magic, he’s going to have a really bad time.
@TheUnknownGame Is that a ReBoot reference I see? Trying to curry favour with Red are we? Anyway I agree about J.A. seeing the Void stuff and making the connection with Erin, what she does after that I’m not sure. Sure she got annoyed with Erin in the past but I don’t think she sees him as a bad person and his actions in abandoning his research to help his friends might give her pause for thought.
@icarusancalion Falst got brought up to speed off-panel, if his reaction to Erin’s plan to go into the paladin archives is any indication:
“You’re the living vessel of their arch-nemesis? They’re not going to tell you ANYTHING, and you’ll be lucky if they don’t start hunting YOU.”
Well, I was wrong. I didn’t think VD would make an entrance because he was afraid of Alinua, or rather, Primordial Life. Seems like he’s going on the offensive, looking to take out Alinua real quick so that he can deal with Dragon Tynan (Dragnan?) without worrying about what Life might want to do to him. I’m definitely down to witness a dragon v. dragon fight, but now I’m curious as to whether Tynan will recognize VD and what their dynamic is going to be like.
First time Falst gets to meet Voidy! How exciting.
oh shoot it actually happened!!!
P.S. I’ve been waiting for this moment since I watched Red’s Trope talk on mind control and she drew Falst trying to beat some sense into possessed Erin. I frigging love their dynamic!
Ready Fight
To Icarusancalion:
Yeah, that happens sometimes. It’ll (probably) be back later.
To CaptainCutlet:
Basically, what I was going for was “if Aurora was a DnD setting and you were playing yourself but as a fantasy character, which race would you pick to be”, but I’m a writer and I wanted to have fun with the setup. Sorry if it was confusing, I probably should have said something along that line, or if I wanted to keep it short, “Aurora, but as an isekai” 😛
That’s not a dragon… THIS is a DRAGON
HE’S BACK!!!
@CapitainCutlet
I think it is void, but it’s that fantasy void is more forceful then a normal void. A normal void would be like a vaccume and it’d end up filling up easily with whatever is around. Void power is whatever can enforce the void, fighting against the natural vaccume it creates. That’s why it’s corrosive, it has to actively keep out the rest of reality to enforce the existence of void.
Dammit Walter, play nice!
Evil Tree:
If there is a ReBoot reference in my comment, then it’s unintentional because I only saw that show once a few years ago.
Skye:
To answer the pagely question, ideally I’d be a dragon (4 legs, 2 wings, long, serpentine form (probably wouldn’t fit in the bedroom unless it’s particularly large and I’m all coiled up)), but if a humanoid-only restriction is in place, then I’d be a snake ferin.
OH FUCK I FORGOT ABOUT THE VOID DRAGON OH GOD OH NO
To TheUnknownGame:
I thought about a restriction, but wanted to leave the options open so I didn’t go through with it. I like your answers, though!
I’d probably go with something winged, preferably feathered. Which means I’d probably end up a cloudchild, but I don’t think we’ve seen any avian ferin yet (if there are any), so I’m gonna leave that one open–I know there’s the bat ferin in the sketches. If there were, I think depending on the execution I might go shifter, with an owl or hawk basis–maybe a raven, I don’t know. Or maybe an elven magus of some kind– this world is huge, it makes it hard to pick when there’s still so much of it to see! (Something water-adapted could be fun, too)
Or, hey, if there’s such a thing as a feathered (and/or fuzzy) fairy dragon, maybe that?
DRAGON FIGHT! DRAGON FIGHT!
Tynan, meet one of the big reasons why this crew isn’t too scared of you to fight back. They’ve seen worse, and now Mr. Worse is here to play. Clear sign that things can ALWAYS get worse.
This was in fact the exact way I saw this situation possibly getting worse. Oof.
To Skye:
I’d probably be a wind elf with life magic, or a bird shifter ferin of some kind. Maybe a kestrel or raven?
Oh crap the Paladins are gonna see that, aren’t they?
Skye:
Probably a totally normal human, with, say, water magic, except that when I look around, I find an impressive collection of daggers, both on me and sitting on the side table. One knife is covered up to its hilt in blood, and I have no idea who I killed or why.
AHAHAHAHHHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHH!!!! I BLOODY CALLED IT!!!!
Shadow dragon let’s gooooooo!
Honestly I thought that Void Dragon wouldn’t make an appearance as there even if everyone else was saying otherwise. Welp I guess I was wrong!
Skye:
That I forgot to shave again. I never remember to do it and it and in a early morning haze that would most likely to notice.
I want to know what VD’s motivations are in this fight. I think it’s either to kill Life while Allinua is tired or to save Erin from being killed. If his motivation is to kill Life, we’re probably gonna see the two Primordials fight, which would be sick. I feel like, however, that it would be more interesting if VDs motivation is to save Erin. That means that it feels like Erin is gonna die unless he intervenes, and who knows what that would look like. Maybe VD would just physically drag Erin away from the fight, which would lead to the gang (and probably the Paladins as well) to go look for him, or maybe he will try to kill everyone involved in the fight.
(On that note, because Alinua and Erin are vessels for their respective Primordials, they kinda have get out of death free cards: their Primordial will come out and save them because it needs them to survive. I feel like, at least on Alinuas part, that could lead to some very interesting fight tactics.)
Skye: A DRAGON!
But, like, a small dragon that wouldn’t have to eat too much every day to survive.
Bluefire:
Considering that the scenario involves waking up in Windscrest, i.e. the town that Alinua supplied with a supertree, I don’t think getting enough to eat would be particularly difficult. Individuals would just need to supplement the fruits with other foods to avoid nutritional deficits, and larger individuals would need to eat more than one fruit a day. (Also, I find it kind of funny and also heartwarming that this comment section has attracted so many dragon enthusiasts. Then again, considering the story’s logo, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.)
Rhu-rho Rhaggy, VD’s got Aliuna
I’ve seen several people refer to the Void Dragon as VD, which, given how it works and how it acts, yeah that’s an accurate name
Skye: Thank, it did reappear.
What would I see in the mirror? Yellow eyes….
@GoodbyeBallad I’m not so sure about that rhyme.
VoidDragon is back!!
Skye:
No problem, it’s a cool idea (with the self insert/isekai thing). Since we don’t have dwarves in Aurora, I think a metalcaste or one of those rock people that we’ve seen in the sketches and races extra lore page. Maybe a Ferin, because I adore cats (and felinoids in general).
ULTRA:
Yeah, I get it. ‘Twas just a thought that I had.
AHHHHH. omg omg this is gonna be exciting. anticipation is killing me.
I know it’s not gonna happen, but I really want to see Tess just totally own Walter
Hohoho, the Void Dragon has GREAT sense of timing. Having all the problems show up at the same time is peak D&D, to be perfectly honest. I love it!
(spoilers through the rest of Arc 1)
I find it very interesting that it focuses on Falst’s eye when he realizes that VD is taking over; 1.22.37 reminded me of this