Page 1 of 1

A New Beginning

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:48 am
by Raquar
In the paradoxical venue of the situation, it was the sound of silence that awoke him. He had fallen asleep to the hum of soft chatter and activity, and the meeting room he awoke to lacked all of the aforementioned quality. It was perfectly still, not a sound anywhere. And of course, the sound started then. A soft purring. Warm and comforting it was emanating from somewhere close. It caused him to yawn and stretch languidly before shaking his head and snapping awake. He couldn’t go back to sleep, he would sleep all damn day, and possibly into the next one. And that would make an absolutely great impression. He put his hand down in an attempt to push himself off the ground, but instead of touching the cold stone of the floor, he touched a flickering furriness, something that took him quite aback. His gaze shifted down the curled form of a kitten dozing peacefully in the nook of his lap. The warmth of the scene and the feeling of . . . well, acceptance, made the outlook on the current situation a little less bleak. He scooped the small creature up gently, carefully depositing on one of the unoccupied cushions of a couch. It was with a start that he realized that everything in the room was unoccupied. It was empty. He panicked, the usual “HOSHIT” look adorning his face. Where had everybody gone? A brief recollection of the previous meeting, and he realized that everybody else had departed for whatever field mission they had been talking about, and with an astounding first impression. He had slept through it. Absolutely wonderful.

He cracked his neck and shoulders, dismantling something clothy in the process. Whatever it was slowly fluttered towards the ground, which he allowed for a few moments before hurriedly snatching it out of the air. He stared at it in curiosity wondering exactly what it was and who it came from, before a familiar scent attracted itself to his sniffer. Ah, that’s what it was. A brief smile graced his lips, his form of the appreciation he was sure she knew that he felt. It made him feel better anyway. He slowly wound it around his right arm, starting at the hand and moving down. With her there fighting with him, it was time to go kill shit. He wandered the empty halls, poking around here and there until finally managing to find the exit from this . . . hideout. The area into which he entered was like nothing he had seen before. The screen displayed the Cultural City of Carmina Galedica, but that meant absolutely nothing to him besides the fact that there were no monsters, which usually meant a Root Town of some sort.

It was definitely different from the previous two cities he had been in. Dusk had settled and some sort of inkish twilight had been cast over the city. The lights strung from the roof of the building gave the whole thing an almost surreal twilit feel. It was something that one could easily become lost in if one let themselves aimlessly wander. Which of course, is what he did for the first few moments in this city, simply linger around, slowly moving from building to building losing himself slowly in the feel and view of the city. He would run his hand along the side of the buildings, marveling at the actual feel of the cool chiseled stone. He still hadn’t gotten used to this. The whole being in the game thing. The fact that everything had been more realistic than playing from behind the goggles. It made him wonder, if he could feel the stone, smell the scent of the Cultural City and hear the bustle and not simply what the programmers wanted him to hear, what else would this experience bring? The way to find out, was not to wander aimlessly around the Cultural City.

He found the Chaos Gate in this new town, and wasted no time in “teleporting” back to the familiarity of Mac Anu. As soon as he gated in, he was met with the hustle and bustle that was familiar to the lower level Root Towns. It was somewhat comforting in its own manner. Maybe he could lose himself along the sound and movement of the other players. He wandered along, a specific destination in mind, weaving in and out up and below other players. Bumping shoulders with more than a few, he finally arrived at the alley behind the Magic Shop . . . only to find some sort of inane and mundane celebration of some sort going on. Roughly twenty players were crammed into that alley around a pair of bonfires, booze and health drinks being sloppily sloshed around. They were defiling his spot . . . and if he had any mind about it, he should clean up the entire mess, throwing those into the river that didn’t resist, and killing those who did. But . . . That would likely draw attention, and in his current state, attention was exactly the opposite of what he wanted to attract. Sneering at the unruly sight before him, the boy decided to head back towards the Chaos Gate. Maybe a field would take his mind of things.

After having reached the twirling mirror-like object, he hesitated for a few moments. Which field? Where would he be safe from prying eyes? Where could he sit, and just be for a few moments? There was no way to tell positively, so the most probably way to achieve such a goal, was to be completely random. He closed his eyes after pulling up the Keyword Menu, selecting three completely at random. He opened his eyes again as the three golden rings descended around him.

The first thing he noticed, was that it was dark. The second thing, was the rapid whirring of a just activated Monster portal. So much for peace and quiet. Sighing extremely heavily, the Long Arm unslung his weapon and turned to face the would be adversaries. There were two of them, tagged as a Noisy Wisp and a Menhir. Gripping the wooden shaft, feeling the coarseness of it was somewhat refreshing and he barreled into action, body crouching into a lower position he lunged toward the bigger of the enemies, figuring it was likely to hit harder. The weapon clanged off the side of the beast clanging a few chips of stone off the side of the beast and a few points of its health. But the lunge hadn’t been designed to do major damage, it had been designed to get the boy in close proximity with the two creatures. And now that he was there, it was time to do something that many would consider possibly suicidal and hair brained, even more so in his condition. He loosed a pair of hastily spat words, and the fun began.

The blade of the spear began to glow, the essence of fire focusing itself into the metal. Snarling the boy whipped it around slicing into the Menhir first and the Wisp second. The air around him began to burn, tiny blazes sparking to life as the heated metal cut through stone and congealed air. As the spear began to cool, the two monsters moved out of range, the wisp squealing; it was a horrible ungodly sound, one that grated against the very being of sound itself. The boy clutched at his ear in pain, driven to the ground. This kind of sound wasn’t amplified so when it was just a game. It didn’t cause blood to pour out of his ears, disrupting his core and balance. Well, the sound might not have been that bad, but it was pretty damn close. He shook his head and stood up clutching at his spear, ears ringing vibrantly. He stood up just in time to be thrown into the air, the shockwave from the Menhir’s attack sending him airborne and in the opposite direction.

A check on his health revealed that he was right about the big beast, the bastard did hit hard. But if that was the case, and being the darkness field that it was, he had the perfect counter. Crashing into the ground and rolling back onto his knees, Raquar tucked the spear into the crook of his shoulder, and levied both his hands at the approaching creatures. A pair of spells were spat at them, the swirling vortexes of electricity providing a stark contrast to the inky darkness above. The Menhir crashed to the ground heavily again, the fancy calligraphy displaying that the sparks had drained the last of its health with the Elemental critical. The Wisp on the other hand however, sat in the middle of the vortex and screamed, its health being slowly sapped away. The boy wasted no time, charging toward the monster, spear outstretched, aiming to end the thing’s life and more importantly, to shut it up. As the electricity expired, the boy’s spear slid through the many faces of the beast, turning the hateful scream into a throaty gurgle. It crashed into the ground, slowly vaporizing into the pixels where it belonged.

He squatted down after his first battle in this state. Things . . . things were different. His lungs were on fire and his arm felt like lead. This is what truly being a warrior entailed. He was in no shape to help out the Freedom Fighters. He needed training and endurance. Something that perhaps he could work on here. He grasped his spear and yanked from where it had been stuck in the ground and stood up slowly, when a diabolical and insane cackle broke the stillness of the air and penetrated into his skull. He swirled around spear outstretched to meet the threat of . . . Naiya? A slim female figure stood, wand raised to the heavens and hat cocked askew, a huge grin draped across her face. It wasn’t a monster, it was tagged with a name, which left it only as an NPC. The boy opened his mouth to inquire as to exactly what was going on, but before anything could get out, the witch screamed and began to chatter randomly.

“Yes, yes . . . Haven’t had visitors in so long. Fun, fun . . . Time to play, play . . . Come come, you,” a finger slung in his direction, “You, you, come, come . . . together we play and have fun! Follow me! Heeheehee!” And she was off, with more cackling darting around the field in a seemingly random pattern, making zigs that way and zags that. If the boy was going to find out anything of use, he had no choice but to follow. He hung his head, and started to jog after the woman. Guess it was time to start his endurance training right about now.

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 6:39 am
by Raquar
Why was it that nothing could ever happen in a straight line? Life could never hand you something simply, or say, walk down in a straight line for only a few steps to find what you’re looking for. The . . . whatever she was ran zigzags across the field, almost as if she was the boy’s personal trainer. He pumped his legs as hard as he could at the beginning, yet Naiya always seemed to remain just ahead of him. It was perhaps twenty minutes before he simply collapsed, legs failing and lungs quite literally on fire. It felt as if his entire chest was about to explode, he could hear his heart thumping in his ears and his breaths came quick and ragged and painful. He coughed as his “guide” came sprinting back. “Come, come . . . Can’t be having you tired so . . . More work, more! If you no run . . . then we find others to play with!” She pointed off to her left, and sure enough, the boy’s eyes traced the path straight to a monster portal.

She took a single step forward, and the glyph began to whirr, spitting out a pair of . . . Naiyas? Only this time, they were tagged, correctly, as Dark Witches. So she was one of those friendly monsters he had heard about, and modeled after a Dark Witch to boot. He had just stood up, hand gripping spear for battle when he was unable to move. Orbs of darkness materialized around, swirling maliciously for moments, before crashing into his position with incredible force. He was being suffocated under a shroud of shadows, the darkness pressed inward, crushing into his chest and expelling blood from his mouth. When the light returned to his world, slowly piercing the shadows, he was able to at least gain a visual of both enemies, but any attempt to move or pursue the creatures was driven from the boy’s head as his pitiful breath and ragged endurance forced him back to the ground. He was done. He had nothing left. So much for getting stronger. After mere moments of running, and after being hit with a single magic spell, he was reduced to his knees, a degenerative cripple, one who was no use to either his friends or his allies.

He spat blood, tired of all this . . . well, bullshit. He would become stronger. There was no other option. There was a very high possibility that being trapped in the game that he was, if he died, he would literally, die. The only way to guarantee his survival was to get stronger, and make it so that nothing could kill him. Ever. He growled, his eyes burned, turning completely red as he spat 8 words as fast as he could in quick succession. “RaiRomRaiRomRaiRomRaiRom.” A pair of swirling vortexes were fired at each of the Witches. Being the magic users they were, their health was not nearly as high when compared to that of some other monsters. Hopefully, with the extra elemental damage due to the Rai and Ani opposition, the pair of spells directed at each of the creatures would be enough to end their miserable lives. Sure enough, he had calculated correctly and the pair of lightning spells had been enough to terminate both creatures. He took another long, painful breath now that things had slowed down a bit. He noticed Naiya looking at him with a rather peculiar glance. He had enough time to mutter a Repth to burn through a good chunk of SP when she launched into a mini-tirade.

“WHAT YOU THINKING? THIS ABOUT ANI, ANI ANI ANI!!! YOU NO USE RAI! RAI BAD! YEAAAAA!” In her anger, she leveled her wand at him and screamed something that he could not discern. The meaning of it became clear enough, as the ground below his feet was slowly sapped of its color. A pool of darkness expanded becoming all he could see at his feet. A sudden rumbling caused the earth to tremble, and flattened slabs of darkness erupted forth beneath him rocketing his body into the sky, if he had not taken the opportunity before hand to let loose the healing light that he could know physically feel shift his ribs and sternum back to what would be considered normal healed positions, he would have certainly been dead. As it was, the ferociousness of the spell and the subsequent crash of his body back into the ground left his health at critical and more than a few bones broken. He spat out another Repth amidst some more blood bringing his health up and once again undergoing the very odd sensation of bones shifting and grinding to return back to their normal states.

He blinked a few times to clear his head when Naiya’s face inserted itself into his vision, strangely framed by the sky above. “You learn lesson. I teach you . . . you no use Rai. You no need to when we done. We make you strong. Very strong! Then WryWry accept you. Yes. Wryneck like you. Like you very much. Now come, come, we run to dungeon. Get you in shape yes, yes. Need you nice and ready!” Without any explanation as to what the hell she was talking about she had taken off again, leaving the bewildered boy no choice but to roll over and shift to his feet painfully. She said something about Wryneck, who if he remembered correctly, was the God of the Ani element. What was she talking about? Prepping him for Wryneck? Now that he was trapped within The World, he could theoretically take on an elemental affinity, especially with this . . . Twilight that Nall had mentioned, but why Ani? And more importantly, who was Naiya, and why did she think she new exactly what was going to happen with his life?

He had quite a bit to think about as he followed the weaving Naiya around the field. He didn’t happen to have any Fairy’s Orbs on him, so he couldn’t tell if they were really heading toward the dungeon or if this was just some Wild Goose Chase that some sadistic player had set him on to see how a “newbie” would react to being set through hoops. He snarled slightly at the mere thought. If it was Garvix behind this . . . The voice inside growled and stirred with what could be nothing more than malcontent. If that fool even thought about us again, I would personally carve out his intestines and fry them and serve them to him in a bun as one of those . . . things you humans eat made of pigs. You mean a Hot Dog bud? The brief exclamation from the older one was one reveling that of an archaeologists “AHA!” after discovering some long buried, previously unfound fossil. All in all it made the boy chortle, and practically run into the guiding persona as she had stopped at the entrance of what appeared to be an enormous skull. A very disconcerting sight in all. The Witch spoke up again, this time without even a hint of the negativity that had occupied only a few moments before.

”Good. We here. Now we go inside. They waiting. Test. Test you go through. And remember, in the end, it’s the darkness inside that keeps you alive.” The boy started back in shock, more in the fact that Naiya had almost spoken in a complete sentence, something that he was starting to think was impossible. That was the only time he had to himself, as the little Witch clutched at his hand and dragged him forward into the mouth of the skull. There was no loading screen this time, no little The World Icon or little progress bar. It was simply dark until he moved into the first room. Instead of a corridor, or hallway as he had expected, the Long Arm had stepped into a giant antechamber. It was a huge cavern, and naturally the first placed he looked was up. Hanging from the celing from a chain as thick around as he was, was a colossal chandelier. It was one of those massively tiered ones who had layers of lights upon lights upon lights. It illuminated the entire chamber completely, revealing the wonders inside.

The antechamber was mostly bare, the only thing worth noticing were the statues. Spaced evenly along the northern half of the cavern were five statues, each placed in front of a door like a guard. Each of the statues were almost identical, their designs were the same, and all of their arms were poised and outstretched, as if they were channeling some unseen energy to the center of the room. The only discrepancy between the statues were the substances they were made from, and therefore their colors. The one on his furthest left was red and made seemingly of sandstone. When he approached it, the air seemed to stifle and as he placed his hand on one of the arms, it was hot to the touch, practically burning the flesh of his hand. Withdrawing it with a hiss he moved onto the next one, working his way right. The next one Seemed to be made regular hewn rock, something that looked like dirt and soil. He touched this one, and it was firm under his grasp. He moved away from the solidness of this one to the statue in the middle. This one was made of gold, and made the hair all over his body stand up as he approached it. It was with a small dose of fear that he touched it, receiving a shock that not only startled him and forced him back, but also zapped a few points of his health away. They really did not like Rai on this field. Eying that statue suspiciously, he moved onto the next one, made of limestone and made the air around it smell like the great outdoors. He touched this one, and was reminding of the moistness on the leaves of the trees after a fresh morning precipitation in the great rainforests of the world. He moved onto the final statue, his breath misting as he approached it. Unsurprisingly, this one was cold to the touch, but strangely comfortable. He found his hand lingering the longest on this one before a touch on his shoulder brought him back to his senses. He followed Naiya’s finger over to the first statue, and the fact that the door behind it was now open. Guess that was it then. He walked over, and cast a wondering glance at Naiya. His question was answered with a nod. He would be on his own for this one. Sighing, he crossed the floor and proceeded through the door, and into the oppressive heat.

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 10:55 am
by Raquar
The hallway he emerged into was sweltering. It seemed like heat was oozing from the walls, making the very air scorched and made the boy have trouble breathing. That was something he was not used to. Breathing had never been a real issue before. But now? He could feel each molecule of air infused with enough flame to make it feel like he was inhaling flames. He coughed, and could’ve sworn that he saw sparks fly out into the air. He shuddered. The heat seemed to be sapping his energy. He could barely lift his spear let alone use it as a crutch. His arms felt like giant wet sloppy noodles. A quick check on his status bar would reveal a Dek Corv, one that would likely last as long as he was in this inhumanly scorching field. He focused on placing one foot in front of the other, slowly making his way down the hall. He was so focused on moving forward that he didn’t notice the Monster Portal until the last possible second before it regurgitated a Sled Dog his direction. The twin heads stared at him for a few seconds, before snapping open their gaping maws, saliva dripping onto the ground before sizzling away into the heat. The beast let out a growl, one that reverberated from both of the things throats, and then it charged.

He stared at it in amazement. He was so heavily weighted down in the heat that he barely had the energy it took to roll to the side and feebly swipe his spear behind him, and yet this thing, charged. His feeble counterattack took only a few measly points of health off the beast, the sapping of his physical strength taking its toll. He turned around to face his adversary when the “sled” part of beast slammed into the boy’s side. He knew he heard a few ribs cracking, but it felt like his entire ribcage had shattered as he was knocked into the air and back into the wall. From the frantic pattern that his breathing suddenly took on and the immense pain and wheezing he had to go through to pump any sort of semblance of oxygen into his body also led him to believe that he likely also punctured lung. Today was turning into one hell of a day. He flipped a hand in the general direction of the creature and wheezed out a spell between the frantic gasps to avoid suffocating. Earthen chunks materialized into the air above the creature, hanging only for a moment before submitting to the will of gravity and crashing down onto the heads of the thing. The dogs let out a strangled yelp, one head being crushed almost completely under the weight of the rocky tomb. The remaining head growled and yelped at the loss of its mate and squiggled its way over to the boy, reclined in what was a very comfortable position against the wall. As the thing neared him, it reared its head, ready to bite the Long Arm in two and possibly enjoy the top half as a snack. The boy however, had other plans. When he got a good enough angle, and the dog’s mouth had opened. He lashed out with this spear, the weapon sliding up through thing’s mouth into where hopefully its brain would be. Even if it wasn’t, the fancily scrawled calligraphy that etched itself into the air was enough to signify the end of the beast’s life. He sighed and quietly muttered a Repth. The healing wave cascaded over his body, his ribs reforming and shifting around as his lung inflated and sealed the holes. He was good to go . . . mostly.

He stood up wearily, the heat still dragging on him, pressing him down into the ground. He struggled up contrary to what his body yearned to do, and pressed forward. He didn’t know how long he stumbled along under the scorching blaze but it seemed like an eternity. The boy had never had a high tolerance for heat to begin with and this; this was just pure misery. He had to continue though, and as of such, he continued to slog forward, on and on, on and on, on and on, on and right into another monster portal. The foul thing that spawned this time was similar to the previous enemy in only that it had canine heads, and more than one. It was tagged a Flame Heads, a name that seemed unsurprisingly unoriginal. This fight however did not look promising. The creature for the moment seemed to be content to simply stare at him for now. Until he moved a single step forward, at which point, all three heads, like a damn Cerberus, swiveled his direction and unleashed a breath of pure unbridled flame in his direction. If he thought he had been hot before? How wrong he was. The sensation of being quite literally on fire, was not pleasant. Flames rolled around him, charring and searing his skin. He felt like pieces of his flesh were melting off the bone, and his very being was being condemned to some sort of purgatorial ritual. When the flames finally died down, his body stood there, sooty and burned, his health nearly dissipated once again. This was evidently an enemy that one did not fool around with.

Muttering a quick Repth and summoning the rest of his energy he half stumbled half ran down the corridor the side of the beast, pausing at a quick point to duck under one of the monster’s snapping heads and bring his spear up in quick retaliation, bringing a nice little gash along the rightmost head. He approached a position to the beast’s six, which hopefully would be the most advantageous position, as the monster was rather large, and would hopefully have some trouble if the boy kept him running in circles. As he approached the rear of the beast, he slashed at the flank causing a low throaty growl of what he hoped was pain to be elicited from the beast. It tried to turn, heads beginning to flail wildly trying to rip this little nuisance into pieces as the boy continued to slash at the beast’s flanks, many nice little gashes appearing on its hide. He had taken a large chunk out of the creature’s HP and was preparing to activate the skill that would end the beast’s life, when its tail whipped around, catching him in the stomach and throwing him into the wall. He slammed into the wall with enough force that at least two of his ribs cracked again as his slid down into a crumpled heap. Even as he hit the ground, the heat began to flare up around him, slowly revolving into a flaming vortex of doom that began to suck the oxygen away from the area within the tornado. Frantically gasping for breath, the boy slaughtered through the rest of his SP with three quick Gan Don’s, one aimed at each head. The rocks slammed into the trio of noggins in unison and drove all three to the ground, where they lay quivering for a few seconds before vaporizing into pixels.


The vortex wore off, and the boy sat there, gasping for air. He had been in The World for less than twenty four hours, and was already not liking it. This was not nearly the same as simply playing the game. He sat there slumped, head against the wall waiting for his SP to reach a slightly less dreggish level where he would regain the ability to heal himself. The aforementioned happens only a few moments later, and he stood up with a quick healing of his previously shattered ribs. There was a price of getting stronger. He slid forward again, fighting the oppressiveness of the heat as he shambled through the rest of the corridor. He had taken a few steps when he saw a door. The sight of the door made him happier than he had been in a while, and a small bounce returned to his step as he approached it. Grinning foolishly, he stepped through the portal and into the next room.

This room was much, much smaller, almost the size of a living chamber. Halfway into the room stood some small steps showing the way to an elevated platform that housed something that looked like an altar. His eyes traveled toward the thing and noticed that there was a figure standing right next to it. She stood roughly half a foot shorter than the boy with waist length orange hair. Her eyes stared directly back at him, one orange, the other blazing red. Upon her left cheek was a glyph or sorts, one that was repeated on the fabric of clothing that covered her breasts as well as on her bared stomach. A pair of shorts extended down from her waists and anklets of gold ringed her ankles. She held no visible weapon as to speak of, and simply stood there, toying with her sleeves as she stared at him. He noticed that feeling of separation this time accompanied with almost an estranged sound. In surprise the boy looked in shock at the now materialized Torvald, who approached the base of the stairs, and kneeled. Raq stared forward in amazement. It was almost as if the man was paying homage to this person . . . but why? With a sharp look behind him, the Blademaster hissed a sharp command to kneel as well. The boy approached his counterpart slowly, and hesitantly took a knee as well, confused as all hell.

She'd had not the slightest that she'd been expecting company, she'd have to murder Ciar for this later on and once the meeting itself had ended. For a moment she'd just stared at the boy who'd stumbled into her private area within the Ani field that served as Ciar's meeting area, fiddling with her sleeves in irritation at having to wait for an untold amount of time before she could get the damn meeting over with and get back to her field and plan. Something flickered on the boy's figure, separating into another form, though transparent in nature as she narrowed her eyes and let her hands drop to her sides, one hand moving to place itself on her hip as she tapped her foot against the ground in irritation. "You are not telling me that you, of all of Vulcan's men, have been reduced to this Torvald."

Raq stared at his AI in amazement as Torv responded without any of his usual boisterousness and confidence. "I do apologize mistress. There was this incident with the rogue Rai, Garvix and-"

Jadin's foot rose and stomped down, sending a shockwave through the area, marble cracking and the room rising in temperature as flames flickered transparently around her form, the red eye glowing brightly, furiously as she threw her hand out to one side and launched one hell of a Vak spell to destroy and blacken the wall to her left. "Still problems with a mere mortal who bends the rules? Did you not follow through with the plan exactly and get him to lower his guard or were we too busy chasing skirts of the other Waves again?" Torvald colored nearly to the extent of the flames that surrounded this . . . Jadin. A harsh mumbling of sounds poured from the man’s lips, the two words discernable being complications and Kira. A rather poor move on her follower's part and her sharp hearing sent the woman into a whirlwind of flaming color and, well, flames. Her fists cracked, knuckles popping and one fist driving into the wall behind her and damn near going through about seven inches of stone in the process. The flames around her were nearly white with rage as she took her anger out on the wall before whirling around and glaring directly at the transparent form in front of her. "You're telling me that you let her foil your plans? Or were you wanting to see if you could add her to your conquests? She's gone missing for over three of the complete season cycles and we've had to throw that little jellyfish in her place. How incompetent have you become since your obvious near complete destruction?"

Torv’s mouth worked furiously, the boy could see the angst and desire to be angry being barely contained by some sort of devotion. He himself had flinched at each of this woman’s actions and words, the room around them slowly being obliterated bit by bit. He shifted his focus back to the Blademaster as he spoke. ”We . . . We teamed up to take on that one. I . . .” His voice took on a note of extreme sadness that the Long Arm had never heard before. ”I was ‘deleted’ protecting Kira from Garvix’s surprise attack. I happened upon the host a while later and forced what remained of my consciousness in with him. I’m sorry mistress. I’ve failed you.”

Jadin stopped pacing and kicking shards of marble to embed them in the wall on the other side of the room at the words 'surprise attack' and 'Kira' with the term 'teamed up'. Realization dawned on her as she stormed down from the place by the altar she'd been standing by, standing right in front of Torvald and kneeling in front of him to look the soldier in the eye. Damage done to him was extensive and she could touch him even in that state; that being the power of one chosen to be a High Priestess who was near one she commanded in her God's name. Orange and red narrowed slightly as she moved his chin up to look her in the eyes directly as sign of forgiveness. "...she never spoke a word to the rest of us about this joining of forces against this Garvix you speak of; we believed her absence was due to that idiot from Krake's side that she tended to be seen with. What of her fate?"

Torvald raised his eyes reluctantly to meet his Priestess's. Silent tears began to stream down his cheeks as he shook and prayed for forgiveness. Taking a deep breath, he responded to her question. "Leif . . . was deleted by this rogue Rai. She was looking for help and I happened to stumble upon her message and figured since her intent coincided with mine, it might be wise to join forces. After taking care of me, he moved on, and the same fate befell her. She has latched onto one of this ones," a nod in Raquar's direction, "close friends. A girl by the name of Sekai and a Krake follower as well. She . . . is less damaged then I. Being a former High Priestess she had more power, and therefore more defensive capability. She is in a state similar to mine, but there is a chance she could return to the flesh at some point." The boy's eyes grew wide as he realized exactly who this woman was. She was Vulcan's High Priestess. He lowered his head even further, almost to the ground, ashamed that he had not shown proper recognition. Something else caught him by surprise as well, Kira had been a high priestess too?

Bi-colored eyes closed at the news of Kira's state as well. Obviously the council had underestimated this particular human's capability and as a result, they had lost one of their own... to an extent and she had taken a personal loss of her favored, though he didn't know that, soldier out of Vulcan's Army. Taima had insisted that her God had nothing to do with the human irritating all of them and not playing by the laws of their world. Both of them had taken hosts, though that impressed her when it came to Torvald; either she'd been underestimating his potential or he'd been hiding his power if he'd been able to take a host. "If this Garvix managed to send her into a similar state as you are, then the situation is more grave than she let on. Do not weep; I was harsh and incorrect of my accusations. I apologize to you." The boy literally started in amazement. A High Priestess apologizing to somebody? This day just kept getting weirder and weirder. He was about to raise his head and introduce himself when Torvald spoke again.

”All has not yet been lost. My host and hers recently ran into Garvix in the Theta Server. A battle ensued and this one lost the use of his left arm saving Kira’s host from being obliterated. The shock of the attack forced me out of his body for a time, so I spent some time scouting around and doing some recon. In the process, I managed to free his mind slave, the one who carried out most of his bidding. I retrieved her member address so if she can point us to his whereabouts, action can be taken.”

Jadin's gaze moved from Torvald to where his host kneeled beside him, reached over and flicked the tip of the boy's nose. Idly listening to the discoveries made and the information she'd be needing to take back to the council. She wanted her soldier to take her to where this host holding Kira was so she could beat the sand out of the crafty and secretive bitch but, as always, duty came before personal vendetta... and she'd be calling on Vulcan to hit Merrows to drag the wench out of hiding somehow. "Indeed all has not been lost, though it gives me a great deal of irritation that Ciar has another one now but, alas, those called are called and there's nothing I or you could do about it. You have done well despite your complications, do not hesitate to contact me again if you are in need of a little extra strength. Oh and do be a dear and introduce your host to me.". Torvald stood and turned, dragging his host to his feet. The poor boy felt like he was towering over the woman as he idly rubbed at his nose. What exactly did she mean that Ciar had another one? Who was Ciar? His brow furrowed as he scratched his nose when Torvald spoke again.

”Mistress, my host, Raquar the Long Arm. Kid, meet my High Priestesses and Vulcan’s favored, Jadin.” The boy inclined his head slightly, intending to show as much respect as he could. Jadin rose to her feet as well, walking a practiced circle as she'd done when she'd met Torvald and raised an eyebrow at the boy's choice of attire, no mistaking his God alright, she'd have to try and poison Ciar's drink that night or something in retaliation. One hand on her hip in an entirely too much like Kira manner, she gave a wry grin to the boy and shook her head.

"I hope you don't plan on making Ciar's job easy boy. You should think of getting something a little more... flattering in the clothing department; that looks like it'd catch fire pretty easily." She gave a toss of her head, tucking her hair behind her ear as she looked over at Torvald. "Despite the fact that he ain't mine and I don't like who he does belong to; I do owe him a boon for agreeing to sustain your life until you can rebuild yourself." Jadin's eyes fell on Raquar again, hands on her hips now as she rolled her eyes towards the ceiling and sighed as if this was entirely too big a pain in the ass for her to be bothering with before speaking. ”Raquar; I owe you a boon for keeping one of most talented soldiers safe and protected. Is there something within my ability I can do to make something easier on you or ease a question you have in mind?"

The boy’s head was swimming as the High Priestess actually addressed him. He found him staring at her, stammering to get the words out unable to speak coherently. “WhereamIandwhatsgoingonI’msoconfusedsomebodyhelpmeplease?” Jadin stared at the boy for a moment, looking down at her attire, to the polished metal she used for a mirror to check herself to make sure she wasn't showing the extra skin and the assets she used in battle by mistake and then back to Raquar and Torvald, looking puzzled as she tried to figure out why the boy was so confused.... and why he was talking faster than she could when she was raving.

"You're in an Ani field, obviously you're supposed to be here for a specific reason and I don't know what you need help with because you're obviously confused and not entirely making too much sense." She frowned for a moment, looking at Torvald. "Translation for the boy if he speaks fast again?"

The Blademaster laughed, something that earned him a glare from the boy that insinuated a later conversation about the matter; it was also something that did not deter the man. "Forgive the boy mistress, he's young, and is not used to some of the more . . . ethereal pleasures. He is rather taken aback by your beauty (hey, a little flattery never hurt right?) and hence the stammering. I suppose you could start by explaining to him exactly what this place is, and why exactly it is that all the High Priestesses are gathered in one spot. Also, he knows none of the High Priestesses aside from Kira and yourself. And it wouldn't surprise me, Ciar being who she is, that this one doesn't know he's been claimed yet."

"Ciar's business is her own and she'll do what she needs to, can't help him on that aspect other than tell him that he's in for a hell of a ride with her. The other priestesses are here as well, you'll both likely run into them; watch him around Taima though, she's in a mood because Kira hasn't been heard from. This is the Ani Priestess' meeting ground; each Priestess has one and is in charge of holding a meeting in their personal domain when the time comes." She raised an eyebrow at Torvald's flattery and gave him her typical 'nice try but none for you' look she typically gave him when he tried the flattery, though a subtle twinkling in her eyes and the slightest curve of her lips said something else all together. "Is there anything else before I send you on your way?"

The boy shook his head and thanked her for the help she had given. The man however, had one final request. “Mistress, may I speak to you in private for a moment. This is something . . . personal.” The Long Arm watched in silence as Torvald drew his Priestess apart for whatever it was that he needed to speak to her about.

Jadin's eyebrows raised a bit at the forward question from her soldier and inclined her head, letting him lead her off to one side and putting a hand on her hip. Earrings and gold accented jewelry flashed in the fire light as she looked at him seriously. What matter is so private and personal?"

Torvald sighed and hung his head. "Returning to the physical . . . may be impossible mistress. I lost various chunks of data during the fight. I could barely take a host. I . . . I . . . Jadin . . ." He said her name almost longingly before trailing off.

"Are you giving up?" Her voice had gone eerily quiet as she asked the question, her eyes dark and questioning as she folded her arms over her chest and regarded him. Torvald hung his head and sighed.

"No mistress. I apologize."

"Torvald; if you are unable to do it yourself and on your own, rest assured that I will find a way to do so." She responded softly, reaching out and playing with a lock of his hair before letting her hand drop back to her side. Damn the man for bringing his host, she'd have liked to do something a little more but, alas, she did have her image to uphold. Although... she'd have to see who went through the door first. Torv glanced quickly toward the boy and jerked his head. Raq got the message, he stood up, and silently walked back through the gateway that had taken him here. Jadin seemed to follow the boy who'd left, settling herself right by the portal and crooked a finger for Torvald to come over to her and returned to her general stance. One hand on the hip and flipping her hair over her shoulders while she waited for him to comply. Torvald marched over solemnly. He couldn't very well refuse his priestess now could he? When he got within reaching distance, and she was pretty sure she'd be hearing from Kira about this later; bitch wouldn't pass up this opportunity if she heard about it, she reached out, grabbed a fistful of his shirt and dragged him forward before pulling him down to her level. To put matters simply; she completely dominated her soldier's mouth for a full ten or so seconds before pulling away and shoving him into the portal his host had gone through with a parting sentence. "Think of that as incentive to work towards getting yourself back together; do not fail me."

He departed the chamber through the door he entered and found himself not back in the heated corridor but back in the original antechamber. The door to the area from which he had just returned from rumbled shut, and the statue in front of it blazed to life. The outstretched hands erupted in flames and dual pillars of flame shot forth from the hands of the statue toward something in the middle of the room. Something that had slipped his eye before. Situated in the exact center of the room, under the chandelier was an orb of some sort, seemingly incased in some sort of stone. Yet it was floating. It was almost as if something had come along and petrified the orb in the air, leaving it entombed in stone but still capable of floating. Another distinct rumbling caught his attention and his gaze was shifted to the farthest door to the right, the one next to the statue carved of marble. It was time to move forward.

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 1:23 am
by Raquar
Raq paused before entering the door, addressing the AI who was once again inside him. So, you take care of what needed to be taken care of? The AI’s deliberate lack of an answer and the sense of giddiness in the back of his mind gave him the only answer he needed as he stepped through the second doorway. He had taken a single step when the chill hit. This wasn’t any normal cold. The boy could handle normal cold. This was cold that would have frozen the bones of any normal human. Luckily for him, he had been raised in a frozen wasteland and born in a blizzard. This cold simply sapped at his limbs, making it hard to raise them in any manner other than straight out. A check to the status bar would reveal a Dek Vorv, much like the Dek Corv that the previous room had presented. He stepped out of the doorway to see what the room would present, and was not happy. Besides for the shelves that were where the entrance and exit the entire field was practically water. There were five square platforms floating in the water in the shape of a cross. In the center one was single revolving monster portal. He hopped onto the southern platform, weapon poised for the activation of the monster portal . . . that did not occur. Apparently the thing wanted him to jump onto the central before it would spawn its creatures, an idea that did not sound appealing at all. Sighing heavily he leaped onto the middle platform setting off the portal in the process.

Instead of spitting the monsters out all onto the center platform, the monsters each spawned onto one of the other four platforms. To his east and west lay Water Witches and to his north lay a Cyclo Shark. Seeing that he was facing Water Witches, he didn’t have the time to think he had to act. He leaped to his east bringing his spear across with him and crossing one of the witches across the chest. He continued to pound on it relentlessly, trying to avoid giving it to an opportunity to cast a spell. But of course, something was there to foil him, for as he attempted to land the killing blow, time froze, and the ground beneath him began to grow cold and icy, spires shooting out of it a few moments later that knocked him into the air. This could be bad, if he allowed the other Witch any rest, he would be spell spammed until his death. In order to combat that, he ripped of his Wyrm’s Hide on the way up, and on the way down, he switched into his Leather Armor and fired off a Vak Kruz at the injured creature, the fiery orbs coalescing into a finale that left the Witch defeated.

After felling one, he managed to make it back to the middle before he was frozen again, this time the ice chunks forming around him and not below him. He took the opportunity to fire off his own spell while he was frozen, and as soon as the spell had crashed into his body, he was off again, leaping toward the last remaining Witch, who by now, was sizzling. Through the jump, the boy had had his spear positioned behind him, something that he brought slamming down into his opponent when he landed on the appropriate arena. The force of it caused the Witch to stagger back which was all the opening he needed. A quick combo the sides of the body from his Berserker Spear were all that this creature could handle as she faded away. Now, all he had to worry about were the freakishly large and oddly shaped sharks that he was sure were out for his blood.

He had to take a moment to think as he landed back on the central platform. There was an enormous monster on the North and platform, and of course, as big as it was, it occupied nearly the entire platform. He couldn’t very well exactly leap to the thing and start flailing away that would likely only serve to get him knocked into the water, at which point he would be completely at the mercy of the beast. So he leaped onto the northern platform, barreling into the beast, slamming his spear into the head of the beast. The force of the collision knocked both the player and the monster into the water; thankfully however, the boy had managed to grab onto the dorsal fin of the creature, and as the beast submerged and began to charge around in the water. This was definitely a new sensation to the boy. The beast was flailing around in the water, submerging the boy for some of the time and dragging him above the surface for the other. The shock of the water was almost enough to make the boy lose his grip. It was cold, cold enough to start the deadening of the nerves in his body. If he stayed in the water for too long, it was highly possible that some of his outer extremities would suffer from frostbite and he would end up losing use of them. He had to kill this thing as quick as possible. The beast broke the surface flailing about just a bit; an opportunity the boy took to remove his spear, and begin to slash at the beast’s skin. He had gotten three attacks in on the creature before it submerged. In the last quest where he had spent any time under water, the circumstances had been completely different and he had not required the use to “breathe.”

Circumstances had changed, quite drastically as a matter of fact. He had not thought to take a breath before the beast dived, so he sunk underwater with a very limited capacity of air. The fact that the Cyclo Shark took that opportunity to raise up and slam him into the base of one of the platforms expelling what little remaining air there was in his lungs didn’t help either. He scrabbled frantically, latching onto the side of the platform and hauling himself over before the beast had slammed into it, causing it to rattle around and shake furiously. That was absolutely wonderful. He had knocked a Rue based monster into the water, and now had to find a way to kill it that wouldn’t take half a millennium. He leaned his head over the side of the platform, hoping to catch a glimpse of the beast so he could mark its position. Of course, he saw nothing, and as to be suspected, an ominous quiet settled over the room. There seemed to be no movement, whatsoever, not any that he could –

An explosion of water erupted around him as the shark launched from the depths below, gnashing jaws aiming directly for the boy’s head. Quite by chance, the surprise from the attack had forced the boy to recoil slightly. The overgrown fish sailed upward, jaws clamping nothing but air. Recovering from the shock had caused, he uttered a Vak Kruz with an outward thrust of his hand. Immediately, orbs of fire began to rotate around the creature, before crashing inward. The smell of sizzling fish filled the room, and the boy couldn’t help but utter a few words as the thing vaporized into pixels. ”Fish sticks anyone?” With the final monster defeated, he was free to turn his attention to the other door in this room, one that he reached with a pair of hops and a few quick steps. He paused, wondering if this would take him to a room similar to the one he had just been in. Shrugging he stepped through the gateway.

The room was almost identical to the previous one. The same steps, the same alter, except this chamber appeared to have been chiseled out of ice, and the figure standing by the altar seemed almost terrified at his entrance. The man separated from his host once again, and slowly the two males approached the altar. A small figure whirled around, unbound navy blue hair whipping back as wide cerulean eyes took notice of the people approaching the altar before her. Pale hands clutched the ornate crystal and sapphire staff in her hands as she backed up and nervously addressed the two before her.

"W-Who d-dares to t-trespass i-i-into this p-place?"

The boy started back mainly out of shock. This character was nothing like Jadin, she seemed so frightful and insecure. Somewhat taken aback the boy spoke out. ”I’m Raquar. This here is-“ The man cut him off and took matters into his own hands.

”Torvald, soldier of Vulcan, and favored of Jadin.”

Her face paled at the mentioning of Jadin, knuckles turning white as the grip on her staff increased in pressure. Looked like she was near to tears as she looked rather helplessly towards the door and back to the two. "W-Why are you here, V-Vulcan's son?"

Seeing how it was Torvald that she addressed, it was he who answered. ”We are not entirely sure. Jadin was able to tell us that Ciar had summoned us here, though for what reason or purpose we do not know. You would be Onida, Kira’s replacement?”

Hope emerged, almost desperate at the familiar name emerging in the conversation. Her staff hovering at her side as her hands clasped in front of her in delight and eyes shone with the possibility that she could go back to being the Healer in Merrows' Halls. "She has been found then? When will she be arriving?"

Torvald cocked an eyebrow at the question. ”She ummm . . . won’t be coming back.”

Her expression crumpled, looking at once devastated and like someone had just killed her puppy right in front of her as she tucked a tendril of hair behind her ear and let her shoulders slump in disappointment. Onida's voice was small as she spoke, disappointment and discouragement in her voice.

"I... I see. Then...y-yes, I am Kirayne's replacement... may I be of some service? And... are you sure she will not return to us?"

This time it was the Long Arm that spoke up, but not before cooking an eyebrow at the name . . . Kirayne? ”Anything you could tell us as to what is going on here, and why we got dragged into would be helpful. And no, I’m afraid that Kira is not coming back, I’m sorry.”

"All I was informed of was that I'm to be initiated today as Lady Kirayne's replacement since... she vanished.. nothing more." She bowed in apology, looking rather terrified and helpless at the notion that she'd be taking over a position that Kira had once held. "Perhaps the next priestess may be of more service to you than I. I'm terribly sorry and... if you see her, if it isn't too much trouble... please ask her to return?"

The boy sighed, a little disappointed but nothing major. ”Thank you for your help, and when I see her again, I will ask.” Turning around, the boy slowly left the room, AI by his side, and returned to the antechamber once again. When he emerged, the statue carved of marble had its hands outstretched, and a stream of water shot forth toward the orb. That was two rooms down, the next door opened was the one behind the statue that seemed to be made of dirt. Into the Gan Room he went.

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 8:46 am
by Raquar
He stepped into a desert. He sunk into sand that raced about his kneecaps, swirling this way and that as some imaginary sun beat down on him. The sand was warm and silky around his legs, but still a pain in the ass to move through. Every step was like slogging around through a swamp with a pair of twenty pound ankle weights on. All in all, not a pleasant experience. But in the essence of the situation, he had no choice but to slog forward, towards the speck that he hoped was something in the distance. He had no idea how the game mechanics worked when it came to deserts, it might’ve been a mirage, it might’ve been real, and there was no way to tell except to walk forward and see. He trudged forward slowly toward the speck in the horizon; it grew slowly until it was definitive that something was there, he just couldn’t tell what it was. It was slowly getting larger when the boy heard a howling in the distance. It wasn’t that of some hideous beast or nasty creature, it was more solemn, less alive. The source was revealed soon enough as the winds ripped through the area, sand kicked this way and that as he was buffeted by the gale of grit. It got everywhere, in his eyes, nose, mouth, it seemed like it was digging itself into his very pores. A glance at the status bar would reveal a Dek Torv, the granules lodging themselves in places that would make things very, very uncomfortable.

The storm lasted only a few moments but the damage was done. His vision was blurred, and his entire body itched, the sand coating it like a thin layer of peeling skin. He trudged onward until he had finally drawn close to what he had seen in the distance. It was if nothing else, starkly contrasted with the bleakness of the desert. Foliage sprawled form the sound in a box with sides measuring ten feet in length. Smack in the middle of the area, was a single cactus. It was tall, not terribly, perhaps five feet, and was just a singular stalk. It was very green, and the boy wondered if perhaps he might be able to procure some water from this plant. Water would be a very welcome bliss to the boy’s parched and cracked lips. However, at his first step toward the member, the sand melted away from his feet and he fell. The sensation of free fall was not long lived, he crashed into the cold stony earth, and of course, right through a monster portal. He rolled over and groaned as he tagged a pair of monster, the first being a Lamia Fighter, the second being a Metal Emperor. He sighed reluctantly before rolling away from a slam from the latter enemy, his spear coming up in a diagonal slash at the former.

As soon as he had sprung back to his feet from the . . . one guessed you could call it a somersault, his body began to feel weary and his eyes drooped. Over in the corner the Lamia Fighter finished its incantation and the player fell dead asleep. In a perfectly executed tandem attack, the Metal Emperor sent one of its heavy appendages into the boy’s side, sending him into the wall and shattering at least one of his ribs yet again. The smaller of the enemies had rushed in and had been carving patterns into him for a good few minute before the Long Arm regained consciousness. He brought the butt of his spear around smashing into the side of the snake’s head. That bought him enough to time to Repth his critical health back up toward full and duck under another attack from the giant metal beast. It was a shame that he hadn’t held onto his Wristbands. A Juk Rom would be very useful right about now. But alas, he had nothing on the sort, and had to content himself with trading blows with the small enemy while avoiding the massive blows of the Emperor. His engagement with the Lamia Fighter seemed to be approaching duel standards; they simply sat there and exchanged blows, each one blocking the attacks of the other, metal ringing on wood and metal ringing on metal. It was when the enemy performed a feint and a quick slash that laced a cut along his left shoulder that the boy found his opening. He murmured the necessary words as his spear heated and began to tear through the small one’s leathery skin. It howled at him as the blaze ended its life, but the celebration was short lived as the fist of the metal beast crashed into the side of his head. He sprawled forward, his ears ringing and head pounding. Something was leaking from his ears, and a quick feel revealed the matted clotting of blood.

As he attempted to right himself, the ringing sent him shuddering and sprawling back onto the ground. Something was wrong with his insides; he could barely steady himself, and was seeing double of almost everything, triple of everything else. He managed to crawl over to the wall, using that as a brace to steady himself as he waved his weapon at the frantically approaching enemy. As the thing neared within range he swung the spear in a long downward arc, sending it crashing through nothing but air. The wind rushed out of the player’s lungs as the plated fist of the beast slammed into his stomach. He crumpled beneath the pressure, gasping for breath. This game was becoming much less attractive now that he could actually experience things that were decidedly unpleasant. He gasped repeatedly for breath narrowly rolling past the slamming arm of the Metal Emperor. He needed to kill this thing, and do it fast; it hit hard.

Staggering to his feet, the boy switched back into his Wyrm’s Hide. The extra defense would come in handy more than the Vak Kruz spell would. He’d have to manage. He stared the thing down as it approached him, sliding under its shiny metallic body and raising the spear upward as he passed through. The polearm sailed harmlessly to the right, the sand irritating his eyes enough so that he missed his target entirely. Managing to get the weapon under control and bringing it back down onto where its head should have been, he managed to get in a single attack before jumping away from the vicious swing of the giant slab metal. He circled the beast warily, ducking under thrusts and slashes of the metal, darting in with his spear inflicting damage where he could and when he could. Thankfully he had an upper hand when it came to speed, if not, he would’ve needed much more than a single healing before the thing went down crashing into the dust. He leaned heavily on his spear, using it like a crutch as he panted. Even in the short amount of time he had been in this . . . field had improved his stamina but still. Any amount of physical exertion this strenuous was bound to take its toll on anybody. A loud echoing rumble caused the boy to look up toward the wall of whatever cave he had happened land in, the wall sliding down in layers to reveal a flight of stony steps. Letting his head hang once more, he slowly shuffled over to and up the steps to reemerge back into sunlight.

He emerged back into another box of flora, this time within it were a trio of cacti, one placed at each of the northern, eastern, and western edges. It formed a crude arrow of sorts, and one that hopefully pointed the way out of this sand-blasted hellhole. With nothing else to go off of, the boy started off in that direction, seeing what he hoped was a speck on the horizon. He had taken no more then five steps when the wind kicked up again, another whirling dervish tearing through his position. He ducked his head into the crux of his robes to block out most of the sand. He couldn’t keep all of it out, that was the nature of sand, it got places you didn’t want it no matter how hard you tried. He ignored it for the most part and started up his trek once again. The decision to follow that “arrow” seemed to be the right one, as something began to loom on the horizon, slowly growing bigger and bigger. He had to brave only one more of those mini storms before he reached another ring of plants with the single cactus placed in the center. Sighing he stepped inside. He was prepared this time as the floor gave away, landing on his feet as the monster portal spawned what was tagged as a Killer Snaker.

This reptilian creature was taller then the Long Arm himself, and made sure to show it as it reared up to its full height and spat in his general direction. Cocking his eyebrow, he levied a horizontal slash at the beast, one that with his ill-fated luck missed due to the accuracy decrease. The thing spat at him again before whipping its tail around into his chest sending him careening into the cavern wall; thankfully his ribs were sheltered from the brunt of the impact and therefore, unbroken. That was a relief somewhat into his self. Being trapped in this place, meant that he felt every shard of shattered bone and every wheeze of a pierced lung. The good news was, in light of everything that had happened today, his pain threshold should be much, much higher. Which, in a sense, was a huge bonus. He rolled to his feet, a little shaken but nothing to major and had to immediately launch himself to the left to avoid the cobra’s coiled lunge. He had the opportunity, now that the beast was momentarily embedded into the earthen wall, to wail away on its body, spear flashing as it cleaved up and down, more attacking missing than usual. But the damage had been done. A decent chunk of the thing’s health had been taken down by the time it freed itself. It decided to revert to a more cautious pattern of attack as it spat again, this time with rocks beginning to swirl around the Long Arm.

He couldn’t do much but weather the brunt of the stone tornado, attempting to move through a swirling pile of earthen debris was not among one of the brighter ideas out there, but as soon as the thing expired, he responded with a spell of his own, one that he had previously neglected. It wasn’t an attack spell, but the Ap Corv that his Mountain Boots brought would be helpful . . . when his attacks actually landed. He launched himself forward, spear held out, everything in perfect position as he thrusted the point of the weapon into the lower segment of the beast’s body. Snarling, he loosed his most powerful attack spell, the flames adorning his spear as he attempted to carve the thing inside out. Luck was with him this time as most of his attacks connected and the earth trembled as the massive python shuddered and crashed into the floor. Its demise was followed shortly by that rumbling signifying the arrival of the exit. He once again mounted the stairs that would take him back to the surface.

He emerged into another burst of greenery, this trio of cacti aligning along the northern, southern, and western edges of the area. This seemed to want him to go west, so go west he did. As he stepped out of the area, he was almost immediately buffeted by the sand and wind, and as he began to walk, they seemed to be happening more and more frequently. The journey to the next ring seemed to take longer, whether it was due to the storms or the fact that it might have actually been longer was unknown. All he knew that when he finally did reach the area with the next singular cactus, he had already prepared himself for the fight. He leaped down into the monster portal, landing with a thud when the trio of Goblin Nights sprang forth, and caught him completely off guard. While he was still coping with the aftershock of his jump, all three of the goblins had rushed in, using their swords to impale the boy’s torso in three different places. He roared, more out of frustration then anger, and swung his spear in an outward arc knocking all three creatures back. He roared, ripping the weapons out of his chest one after the other before flinging them away and approaching the nearest goblin struggling on the ground. With a brutality that he had been previously unseen in this field, he rammed the spear through the beast’s head, the Critical Hit there and the following stab through the chest enough to end its life. He whirled again, this time to face the two beasts that had gotten back on their feet and were now approaching cautiously.

This was not the time for caution. Raq flat out charged the closest one, using his height to barrel into the monster completely, knocking it back into the wall. He rushed forward again, impaling it and pinning it against the wall. With somewhat of a bloodthirsty grin, he removed the spear and carved an “x” into its body before impaling it again, three times before it pixelized into data. He had gotten too caught up in his destruction of the previous enemy to notice that the last of the creatures had snuck up behind him, and now vaulted upward to plant its sword in his back. He roared again, but instead of whipping his spear into the thing’s head, he settled for the more visceral pleasure of backhanding it. He couldn’t quite explain the phenomenon of what today’s youth called “bitchslapping” but it made him feel better. Made him feel like a person, alive and strong. It didn’t matter much, the backhand had sent the beast sprawling on the ground, and at that point, it was already dead as the boy’s spear rose and fell to the crescendo of its pointless yells. Nothing would save it now. He didn’t count the number of thrusts it had taken to end the thing, but settled with a sigh of relief when it finally vanished. It seemed he was going a little nuts in this area. The rumbling occurred again as he removed the blade from his back and let it clang to the ground. He noticed idly that the upper part of his robe was pretty much trashed as he mounted another set of stairs. As he passed into the next room, he removed his vest and the tatters of what remained of his robe. It was then that he realized that he wasn’t back in the desert. He was in another chamber with the steps and the altar, this one resembling the caverns he had previously left.

He was in the chamber of a priestess, and he was half-naked to boot.

A young woman with long light brown hair sat atop the altar, white sweater and long skirt swishing gently as she moved one leg idly back and forth. Looking up and smiling politely, she set her book down on the altar's surface and set her hand bag in her lap. "Greetings to you young warrior. Have you had a productive day or, perhaps, Jadin assaulted you?"

Raq nearly choked at the mention of Jadin, almost forcibly expelling Torvald from his body. ”Jadin attacked the one,” the boy muttered, pointing as his counterpart. ”I still have absolutely no idea what the hell I’m doing here.”

She chuckled and slid off the altar, brushing her skirt off and idly playing with the clasp to her hand bag as she looked between the two. "Ahh yes, Torvald wasn't it? Jadin's rather particular about the conditions of sending you into battle. She's rather cute sometimes, isn't she?"

The two males stared at each other. Torvald was the one to reply. ”I don’t know how you know me, and my relation to Jadin . . .” his voice dropped to a low rushed mumble, ”and yes she is.”

"How rude of me not to introduce myself, though I don't believe we've ever met, Favored of Ciar and Jadin's favorite. I am Yarthkins' High Priestess, Cassiel. A pleasure to meet you." She bowed in respect and smiled at the both of them, finding both of them quite entertaining.

There it was again, that whole “Favored of Ciar” thing. ”I’m sorry miss, but I don’t know what you’re talking about with this whole “Favored of Ciar” thing, I’ve never even met her.” It was at this point that he remembered he was gracing her presence shirtless, and colored quite exquisitely as his hands frantically covered his torso.

She chuckled and shook her head in amusement, hands removing themselves from the clasp of her purse as she gave him a bit of a saucy wink. "No need to be so shy, most of the men do run around with no shirts on and unless you're quite the ladies' man, you have nothing to fear from me. You will learn when it is time."

He was still embarrassed, mayhaps slightly less so now. ”Still, for one such as myself to be dressed as such in a presence such as yours for the first time is . . .” He trailed off. What was it?

An impish smile as she tilted her head to one side and offered her own response. "A treat for a bored priestess?"

The Long Arm turned to his partner only to find the Blademaster laughing and urging him forward. On sudden impulse the man spoke up simply, ”Have fun,” before removing himself from the premises. The boy turned back to the now advancing priestess. She really was quite pretty. He opened his mouth but was unable to find words or sounds that meant anything before Cassiel was next to him.

She leaned in close, only coming up to the Long Arm's chin and looked up at him with a cheerful and sunny smile before her image flickered for a moment into that of a rather familiar female form with long white hair and soft gold eyes and then returned back. "I know your secret young one, but rest assured, I'll keep it safe for you. Now, as much as I enjoy irritating Ciar, you should probably be on your way. I may come to pay you a visit soon however."

He stared at her as her visage flickered into that of a very familiar face. He was quite startled, especially at her following comments. His secret? How could she . . . He hadn’t . . . Not quite trusting his mouth, he nodded hesitantly backing away slowly. There shouldn’t have been . . . How did she . . . He thought . . . He stumbled back into the antechamber, a third statue coming to life a stream of sand joining the others meeting the orb in the middle. He walked haphazardly toward the next room, mind still reeling. There shouldn’t have been . . . How could she have . . . His mind shifted to the image that had flickered there. He couldn’t exactly deny it having it been thrust in his face like that but still . . . That was his secret . . . Or so he thought.

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:17 am
by Raquar
He walked into the next room, head still reeling, and almost tripped. The entire room had a very woodsy smell to it and due to that; it wasn’t very surprising to find his feet among clutters of vines and small branches jutting this way and that. He had entered a jungle, the rampant overgrowth cascading abundantly from the walls of the room. In fact, the foliage was so thick and overgrown that he couldn’t actually tell if there was a wall, he was just assuming that the flora was growing from something. He could see splotches of dirt peeking out from holes amongst the vines, and a bit of digging led him to a path. A path was a much more pleasant and appealing option that crashing through dense undergrowth, so it was the path he followed. The going was slow, the vines, twigs, and roots merely compounding on the Dek Do that a glance at his status bar would reveal.

He moved carefully around the left-curving path, picking his way carefully through the vines, ignoring the way the twigs cut and snapped at his ankles. The going was incredibly slow, and the entirety of the situation was beginning to wear quite heavily on his patience when he rounded the corner into a small clearing, and a monster portal. The brush had backed off just a bit to create a small semi-circular clearing, one that was immediately defiled by the presence of two Thousand Trees. The woodland enemies simply sat there and stared at him for a bit before one of them charged at him, and the other retreated off into the jungle somewhere.

He rolled off the right side of charging tree and brought his weapon up, a few chunks of bark splitting off into the air. He sprang up, and dove forward hopefully attempting to get a few more attacks on the creature before it recovered. He had just drawn near enough and activated his attack spell when the debris began to swirl around him. He brought his flaming spear down onto the first creature even as the branches and leaves began to tear at his skin. One would have figured that the fire element would be extremely detrimental to the well-being of a woodland monster. Alas, that was not the case as the flames of his spear cascaded upon the tree yielded no Elemental Critical, only charred pieces of bark chipping into the air as the remnants of the natural debris swirled around him. He ignored the small gashes and cuts the leaves and twigs had commanded upon his body and continued his assault upon the enemy he could see. He swept his spear around again cleaving an ice chunk of wood from the base of the beast before its clawed hand sent him sprawling.

Even as he attempted to struggle up from the dirt, another dervish of nature swirled around him, the unseen nemesis making quite the nuisance of itself. He scrambled up and through the tornado of foliage roughly half his health remaining as he charged the visible tree yet again. His spear entered the bark between the things eyes, sinking a couple feet in before sticking quite audibly. The beast grinned as it raked its claws across his chest bringing more of a stinging sensation then physical pain. However, it was the boy who ended up grinning as he switched back into his Wyrm’s Hide and levied a Gan Don at his foe. The rock smashed into the thing destroying its last remnants of life, and at least in the immediate area it was quiet. However, there had been two enemies that had come from the portal, and now that one was felled, the other was nowhere in site. Right on cue the Juk Rom swirled around him again chipping again at his health. The boy growled in frustration; this was really starting to get annoying, that spell didn’t give away his opponents position, and so far it seemed, that it was content to sit back and spam him with spells. It was time to change that.

The boy rose his hands and began to spin like a top. Once he began to get into the revolutions he burned the remainder of his SP on Gan Don’s in a circular pattern around him. One had to crash the foliage somewhere and – there. The fancy calligraphy displaying an Elemental Critical was exactly what he needed to garner dibs on his enemy. And there it was. He rushed through the foliage rolling under a particularly low branch and as chance would have it, the claws of the second Thousand Trees as well. He brought his weapon up from the crouched position before bringing it back down again across the body of the beast. He sprung to the side as the other claw of the beast came down, not doing it quite quick enough as the sharp branched dug into the side of his leg as he pierced the creature from its back. At this point he had just another SP for one last Gan Don, which he frantically burned. It spelled doom for the tree. The boulders crashing into it crushed the beast, reducing it to dust and pixels.

He managed to follow the crumpled plants back to the circular clearing where he promptly fell on his ass and sat there, waiting for his SP to slug back up into normal levels again. When it was all finally recharged, he slashed ten of it for a quick Repth before he bounced back to his feet and was once again treading the ever so slightly leftward curving path. It had been an unknown number of feet before he reached the next clearing with the next portal. He gripped the shaft of his weapon as the portal revolved to yield . . . a treasure chest? This one was not the typical brown of wood, instead it was painted almost a midnight blue color, one that signified something dangerous lurking under the surface. He rifled quickly through his inventory, noting with some small amount of distaste that he had left his Fortune Wires elsewhere. He had none with him. He sighed as his feet carried him away, down the leftward path once more. He emerged into a third and final clearing, the only thing blocking him from a cavernous entrance of some sort was another pesky monster portal.

This one spit out a single monster, a Wood Harpy by name. It took a singular glance at him, and charged. The thing bowled him over with a complete lack of effort, sending him tumbling backwards as it shrieked at him. He ended up sprawled backwards, face first in the dirt. He raised his head to see the thing dive-bombing him; he only just rolled out of the way in time. It swooped around, low this time, which brought it within the range of the boy’s spear. He thrust outward, catching the tip of a wing which caused the creature to spiral out of control momentarily and into the ground. Sensing a perfect opportunity he leveled a Gan Don at the thing. The boulders crashed down on it right as it had begun to rise sending it back into the earth. It sprung upward, snarling at him before attempting to bowl him over again.

This time, more prepared than he was the last go round, he caught the things talons and rolled backward with it sending it to the ground with it. He positioned himself, shifting his weight on top of the thing before pinning to the ground through the chest with his spear. As the thing struggled to free itself, the boy fired off Gan Don after Gan Don until finally the creature was still before disappearing. He retrieved his stick from the ground, and walked through the door. He had entered another chamber, this one the same with the altar and the steps, but the very room seemed to be alive. The branches and vines alive and moving. He stepped in, rather disheveled after that last battle and looked up toward whomever this priestess happened to be.

A voice, calm, pleasant but with a firm warning in the undertone spoke out from somewhere in the room when the Long Arm stumbled into the room. Foliage and the humid air closing in behind the boy to block the entrance as birds chirped and odd animals roared and snarled amongst themselves in the distance. "You are bold indeed to come into a priestess' chambers uninvited young one; state your intentions or things could get rather complicated."

The boy stammered a bit, unprepared for something that direct. "I . . . I ummm. I don't know. I'm just here. Following something. Do something. I've visited three priestess already and am -" he was cut off by the feeling of something on his weapon-wielding arm. There was something there, radiating from it. He ripped his sleeve back to reveal . . . the sash? It was responding to the room it seemed, it was almost coming alive on his arm.

”You have something from one under Krake's protection? Do not move from that place young one, I will come to you.” Leaves rustled amongst themselves as a vine hit the ground before them with a thud, a woman lowered down and holding the vine with one hand as her unbound smoke blue hair fell into place around her waist and intelligent grey-green eyes looked into the eyes of the Long Arm as the tall priestess tilted her head to one side slightly, dressed in a garment of cream and scarlet with ornate gold jewelry and exotic flowers in her hair. "You are a friend of one of Krake's I take it then....?" She hesitated, waiting patiently for the boy to introduce himself so that she could proceed.

Raq stepped backward, completely shocked at the entrance of the priestess. "Friend of one of Krake's? If you mean Sekai," he stammered even more so now. "She's the one I got this from. I'm Raquar, and terribly confused about why I'm here to begin with."

She stepped smoothly in his direction, reaching for the garment he wore and touched it with slender fingers for a moment before raising an eyebrow at his words. ”I am not acquainted with this... Sekai girl. Though it should not be hard to track her thanks to your cooperation in providing her name for me. You seem to belong to another, not to myself or Krake. Likely the reason you are here is to see her."

He sighed at the priestess's words. "Let me guess, 'Favored of Ciar' or something along those lines no?" That's what it had to be. As to the other? He wrapped the sash more tightly around his arm. "I'm sure she'll be . . . more than happy to make your acquaintance."

"I care not who you belong to in the grand scheme of things; Krake does not allow his subjects or myself to be entered into ridiculous little games made by the others to pass the time." The woman gave a bit of a shrug, expression bored as she brushed past the newcomer and frowned upon closer inspection of one of the flowers identical to the ones she wore in her hair. "As for the girl, you will give her a message stating that I shall be coming to collect her soon enough and test her. A good lad such as yourself should be able to remember that message."

The message was easy enough, but as to why? He decided to not voice that question and simply nodded. "Thank you for your assistance, I apologize for intruding upon your quarters unannounced."

"As you should be young one, as you should be.” Distractedly, off-handedly spoken as if he were just there and she were tolerating his presence for a little while longer, the woman turned her head a little to study the boy in black with a bit of a frown before nodding and raising a hand to her right and speaking. "MeJuk Kruz.” Thorns snapped viciously at a thick maelstrom of vines the width of the woman's neck, cutting it away to reveal the entry way to the next area he needed to go before she looked back and raised an eyebrow. "There is your exit young one, do make haste before the vines grow back. I do not care to waste my energy more than I must."

He jumped, startled, his first thought assuming the spell was at him. When he wasn't skewered on the vines, he took the woman's command to heart, and strode quickly out of the room, and back into the main antechamber. When he emerged the limestone statue had joined its companions with a steady flow of something green directed toward the orb. That left one last door. Gritting his teeth, he stepped past the sandstone statue and into the room of Rai.

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 1:23 pm
by Raquar
There was a certain hesitation to his step as he crossed over the threshold into this final room. Based on Naiya’s reaction when he had used a simple Rai Rom spell, he shuddered to think at what an entire room filled with the stuff would do. Especially with the fact that each of the previous rooms had forced an incurable status condition upon him while he was in the room. He stopped a moment before entering the room completely. Come to think of it, where was Naiya anyway? Ha hadn’t seen her after his jaunt into the Vak Room, she seemed to have seemingly disappeared. Who knew? the boy shrugged, since she had vanished after the first room, perhaps it was reasonable to think that she might show up after he completed this last room. Anyway, the only way to find out was to move onward.

He stepped from the pedestal of the portal into the room and was immediately beset by lightning. It leaped from the floors and the walls, racing to his body and shocking a few hit points away every few seconds. Just his luck. He would have to get through this room with his health constantly deteriorating. Oh how fun. He sighed and walked forward, gazing at the room as he did so. It was essentially a plain and unfashioned corridor. Where normal corridors would have paint and sheetrock, this room existed simply of lightning, the raw energy coursing through the walls. The ceiling was of the same countenance, but the floor however, the floor was an entirely different matter. A few feet in front of him the electrified platform he was standing on simply dropped off into a giant chasm. This emptiness stretched as far as he could see. All in all, he simply wondered how the fuck he was going to get out of here. He took a few cautious steps toward the edge of the chasm before a series of playing lights caused him to halt. Before his very eyes the swirling lights condensed into a circular shape that was apparently solid.

He almost broke down in laughter. Whoever it was in control here expected him to float down an enormous chasm on a floating piece of light? Some bales of laughter escaped him and it wasn’t long before he was doubled over clutching at the stitch in his side due to the girth that he was literally shaking from. He had completely lost it, almost barreling off the side of the platform with the laughter that was erupting from his person. To the casual observer it would’ve seemed something that would exemplify the very being of chronic insanity, and yet, after the laughter had all escaped from his system he was the very picture of poise and composure stepping onto the electrically charged platform.

Once both of his feet were firmly planted on the platform it lurched forward over the chasm and off into the great beyond. The passage it took was long and boring but otherwise uneventful, which gave him the time to watch in a sort of bored awe the walls and ceiling that passed him by. The entire thing was brimming with electricity, sparks jumping here and there mingling with the ones all around them. He looked down at his feet to study the platform. It was a simple elliptical shape; it seemed solid and didn’t seem to be infused with the lightning. Instead it seemed to encase it, all turbulence happening on the inside rather than on the surface. Alas, it didn’t do anything for his health which was still steadily dropping, and that he took a moment to restore with a Repth. The ride was long enough that he had to repeat that cycle three times over before finally landing at the opposite edge of the chasm. He stepped onto an immensely large platform, covered with the same flickering lightning with the only other adornment being a doorway situated right in the center of the platform. No, wait, he had missed it due to its color, the stark yellow of the portal had blended in with the electricity of the platform but revolving right next to the door, was a Monster Portal. He stepped forward; almost eagerly anticipating what he assumed would be his last battle in this dungeon. He was anticipating it only up to the moment that the portal spawned the beast that was inside.

It was massive, its flesh the same off-yellow color that the electricity commanded on the bottom of the floor. Instead of hands, this monstrosity had giant wrecking balls as appendages. It was tagged as Ironball, a fitting name as he imagined that those gigantic devices were probably made out of cast iron. Fitting of course, that those were metal, and the thing was a thunder elementally inclined, which of course meant, that if those gigantic balls hit the ground, they would likely become statically charged. And because it was a Rai monster, it would be immune to any damage that my cause it. So in a nutshell, the thing could electrify its weapons with no extra cost to its life or anything else. Fucking lovely. As he stood there gawking at the crazy beast it turned toward him, and gave some sort of visceral bellow as it took one monster stomp in his direction. The very ground shook as it began to run forward. For the first time in a long while in this game, he felt a sense of fear. This was incredibly dangerous due to his new situation, and with each step closer that the thing drew, the fear in his body intensified, leaving him next to paralyzed. Something deep within the bowels of his mind rose to the surface. He was alone in a field, where something with the capability to fucking obliterate him was now striding closer. He shuddered as the realization that he could die, completely, utterly and totally be devoid of life.

His body quivered, only managing to finally rid himself of the spell when the thing held its giant destroyer above his head poised to smash him into a tiny little pulp. He watched as the giant ball descended in almost painstakingly slow motion. His mind took over and forced his body to the right. His body also seemed to be caught in this slow time paradox as the inches he dove traveled away in hours not in the seconds it should have taken. This was not a blessing however, as he was forced to watch in excruciatingly slow motion as the ball dropped, right onto his left ankle, completely crushing his left foot under the ball. His leg roared in agony as the ball was lifted. The boy had to move or risk having his life ended here. He barely dodged the next slam, rolling out of the way just in time to avoid it. He muttered a Repth and attempted to get to his feet even as the bones and muscle and skin expanded outward growing strong and allowing him to put some weight back on the thing. It still twanged a little, but at least he could move.

He hobbled back out of the way a little bit, mind racing frantically. He needed a plan and he needed one fast. He watched the thing lumber towards him and came up with something that might work. The monstrosity didn’t have huge legs. In fact, the gap between them rose just high enough that if he could get between, he could likely remain at least relatively safe from harm, and still able to inflict some damage. As thing got closer it wasted no time in attempting to clobber him between both of its cast iron appendages; an attack that the boy barely dodged with his roll forward. However, he did dodge the attack, and more importantly, that very same roll positioned him almost perfectly. He sprung back up to his feet, screaming out a Vak Repulse at nearly the same instant. His spear twirled around, the fire infusing it creating almost a sphere of burning glory, one that enveloped the space between the beast’s legs as his spear roared around, slashing into the meaty flesh of the beast. The fire was an added benefit, but the spell itself didn’t do nearly the damage it would have due to the giant level and therefore power differential.

He continued to slash away at beast’s legs causing it flail around. In the process of its thrashings, it must have decided its nuts itched or something as that was the only way that the boy could explain the sudden plated ball that came crashing through the beast’s legs and slammed into the boy. He felt his ribs break yet again. This time, in addition to the cracked ribs, he flew backward across the platform landing roughly into a crumpled heap. He coughed and spat blood grimacing as each breath and expulsion of blood caused his ribs to grate against every seeming ounce of skin on the side of his body staggering his body with immense amounts of pain. He quickly healed himself the blue light washed over his body, ribs splinting together. He shuddered, getting back onto his feet shakily, breath ragged. Now, he was pissed. This bitch had decided to play funny and crack his fucking ribs again. His ribs had been cracked too many times before and this had pushed it just one too far.

He glowered, sprinting back toward the Ironball, neatly spinning around the fist it threw down in his direction. He had spun his way back below its legs and activated another Vak Repulse. He pumped all his fury into his spear twirling it away blazing a path through the air. The Ironball screamed again, this time in pain as the boy finished his spell off with an upward thrust, his fiery spear being driven into what was hopefully the most sensitive area of the Titan. He spun out from under the legs, watching as his SP topped off to 15 once again. Just enough for one last Vak Repulse. Backing up to create some room the boy activated the skill and launched his spear. He watched as it went ablaze sailing through the air, almost like a comet of his own. His little meteorite sailed through the air in a beautiful arc that even Olympic javelin throwers would be envious of, and right into the neck of the Ironball. It gurgled and lurched, crashing to its knees before giving him one last hateful glare and pixelizing away.

He propped his spear down and hung off of it for a while, catching his breath while the slow sapped away continually at his health. He had reached nearly half health when he his breathing regulated and he began to feel some semblance of normalcy. Cherishing the feeling he stepped through the doorway into what was hopefully this last room.

"Ewwww! For Lanceor's Sake; why do I have to deal with another of Ciar's Chosen?! Geez, you'd think that someone would be coming to see me because Lanceor called them!" Unlike the others the Long Arm had run into, this one's voice was... quite a bit younger, more impatient and definitely whiny sounding. Lightning crackled all around the room in place of lights or torches and the distinct sound of distant thunder echoed through the room as the sounds of rummaging around was heard from somewhere to the left.

The boy was immediately bombarded with the high pitched voice as soon as he enetered the room. It grated on his ears, making him shudder at the end of the sentence. He looked around, noting the crackling electricity to see if he could spot whoever it was that was talking.

"Prepare yourself vile spawn of Wryne-oof!" Several racing footsteps followed by the occasional sound of something heavy screeching against the marble floor announced the sudden appearance of a... little girl with her long blonde hair pulled into pigtails with black ribbons. Wearing a black and red cape with a black leotard and a white frilly skirt around the hips and her little black boots, the girl tripped over her own two feet and skidded with a rather wonderful display of natural grace to introduce her face to the floor below her. Her hair splayed about and the absurdly gigantic blade crackling with lightning clattering to the floor behind her, the young child remained on the floor for a moment before pushing herself up to her knees and bursting into loud wails as she held her injured nose.

The boy stood back, stunned. He had never encountered anything as . . . well . . . strange as this. He didn’t know what to make of the sprawling priestess due to the fact that she was indeed, a priestess. He bit back a laugh fearing it would be considered dreadfully impolite. He approached the girl with a soft voice. ”Errm . . . Are you okay?” He offered a hand out toward her in case she needed assistance.

She sniffled, looking up at him with crimson eyes that still watered from her embarrassing and totally un-cool fall in front of one of that stupid Ciar's minions and scowled a bit through her tears and wiped her eyes off on the cape before jutting her chin out stubbornly at him. "Well? Don't you know how to treat a lady? Sheesh, offer your hand to help me up!"

He cocked an eyebrow at the priestess momentarily before grasping her hand and hoisting her to her feet. He spoke softly. ”Right, I don’t suppose you could tell me what I’m doing here either?”

"Obviously you're here because of Ciar; hmph, she hasn't lost a war since Jadin lost her pet boy thing and then Kirayne disappeared." She dusted herself off and sulked, blade still crackling on the marble as she put her hands on her hips and scowled up at the bigger boy. "Hmmm, are you sure you won't join Lanceor's side? We'd have a lot of fun and you're just tall enough to play the fun games too. Plus, you're someone I've never seen before."

The offer took him aback. She was the first one to have actually asked him anything, and while he still didn’t quite know what was going on, it made him feel respected and that was always nice. He had opened his mouth to respond however, when it became clear that somebody else had other ideas. Torvald ripped himself free, infuriated at a past comment. The Blademaster roared at the younger priestess. ”PET BOY?!?”

The younger girl blinked at the arrival of the odd transparent man in front of the Long Arm and sighed impatiently, tapping a small booted foot against the marble as she addressed the irritated dork that Jadin always seemed to go on and on and on and on about... and wouldn't do anything about it either. Stupid Jadin. "Yeah, pet boy. Y'know, she always calls you like we would one of the summons in a fight, dunno why though but, maybe she just really, really likes you or something. I don't know why, you're not very nice or respectful in addressing a lady like me." She sniffed and turned her head to properly snub the Blademaster, losing interest in him and going back around, being careful not to bump into the ghostly form, to look back up at the Long Arm. "You never answered me and it's not polite to keep a lady waiting."

He shot the snarling man a warning look, hoping that he would catch the message. He assumed something went along those lines as Torvald didn’t immediately respond, simply sat there and snarled. He shook his head, not really understanding what to do. ”I . . . I don’t know really . . . What do you mean by join his side?”

"Join Lanceor's side, you know, join his army instead of the one Ciar's raising." She seemed to pause for a moment, a hopeful look brightening the scarlet eyes as she put on the best puppy expression she could and clasped her hands in front of her in the classic pleading pose. "Taima will be nice to you and will let you even lead a couple of the squads into battle. What do you say, will you join?"

Any stiff resolutions he may have had melted when she played her pleading card. She was kind of cute, in a little sister sort of way. And she at least, seemed to think him worthy enough to know. He had opened his mouth to agree to the proposition when he was stopped by Torvald’s voice softly behind him.

”Are you mad? I go through the trouble of getting you through all this and you decide to throw it all away boy for some pleading little brat who tries desperately to follow in Jadin’s and Kira’s footsteps. Not only that, but have you forgotten what the Rai did to you?” The Long Arm was taken aback and that gave the older one enough time to garner control of his body and speak the words from his lips, a little colder than intended. ”I refuse.”

The little girl scowled at the Blademaster, hands on her tiny hips as she tossed her ponytails and responded with a scathing retort that, as fitting of her appearance, was rather childish in nature. ”You're just mad 'cause you're a jerkface and no one 'cept for Jadin likes you. Geez, and Jadin and Kira are much cooler than Ciar ever will be. At least they didn't get fooled by a hacker's charms like you did!" Clearly upset and on the edge of throwing a colossal temper tantrum, the little girl stomped her foot, opening the hidden doorway that crackled dangerously with lightning on all sides and pointed at it. "Taima doesn't wanna play with you anymore; go away and if you come back with the jerkface, she'll sic Lanceor on you!"

The boy was somewhat crestfallen as he tried to regain control, but was unable to due to the quivering unbridled anger that Torvald was literally seething with. He began to walk toward the door stopping for a moment when he neared the whiney little brat. His voice was cold, piercing. ”I’d be careful what you say little girl, or it’ll be Kira who comes to pay you a visit, as she’s stuck in the same position I am.”

"At least Kira would give me the time of day you reject bastard of Vulcan's army!" Taima shot back, determined to have the last word in the conversation and was clearly upset at the news that one of her idols was, well, not as she used to be. Seemed like no one told her anything about Kira's condition.

Torv stiffened and remained silent, something odd for his usually brash nature. The boy’s body, still not under his own control, began to move until it stood just in front of the doorway. There it stopped, as the Blademaster refused to let this little girl have the last word. ”Only because you offer to lick her boots clean.” He spoke almost sadly as he walked back through the door.

Her voice followed him out, along with something that sounded suspiciously like a high leveled Rai spell hitting the door as it closed behind him, filled with tears and not just a little temper. "You're nothing but a lowly soldier, I don't even know why Kira bothered to save your stupid ass; she probably did it as a favor for Jadin 'cause it'd make her cry if you were too stupid to survive!"

If Torvald heard what the girl said, he didn’t let it on, simply walking into the original room before relinquishing control, and burying himself deeply within the boy’s mind. He didn’t respond to the boy’s mental probing, so the Long Arm decided it might be best to just leave him alone for now.
To: Taima
From: Torvald
Subject: Correct Information
Message: I saved her, not the other way around.
Back in the antechamber, the fifth and final statue had now come alive, the stream of electricity meeting the stream of fire, water, earth, and nature at the center of the room. The orb was no longer the petrified stone it used to be, it glowed a deep black color, one significant of the Ani element. A voice broke behind him.

”Good, good. Now, now you be ready! OrMeAni Don!”
To: Torvald
From: Taima
Subject: RE: Correct Information
Message: That's not what Jadin just told me; shut up and go away, you're irritating a High Priestess and I can hurt you if you overstep your bounds. Your Long Arm friend is nice though. Tell him Taima wishes him good luck.
”The little girl wishes you luck.”

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 1:43 am
by Raquar
He whirled around to see the familiar sight of Naiya behind him. He didn’t know where exactly she had run off too, but it seemed that his hunch had been more or less on the mark. Once he had cleared all of those rooms out, she resurfaced in order to move him along. Or so he hoped. Thankfully the Darkness didn’t begin to darken over his head, but rather, directly over the orb instead. It formed in the air, darkness drawing inward, congealing into a thick sloppy mess; but it was a huge thick sloppy mess. It simply hovered in the air for a moment, before crashing down, directly onto the orb and its altar.

When the Darkness Spell connected, it didn’t shatter the orb like he had originally thought it would. Instead, it was almost as if the thing absorbed the spell and now it almost burned. The sphere, if such a thing was possible, blazed a brighter black, the air around it humming with some sort of excitement. It was shaking now, shaking with apparently uncontrollable energy as a single beam of darkness erupted upward, tracing a thin path directly to the center of the chandelier above. As soon as the darkness struck the fixture, it began, slowly spreading outward beginning to encompass the entire object. It reached outward, slowly creeping closer and closer toward the lights on the structure. There was a point, when everything but the little points of light had been covered in darkness when the shadows hesitating, before they converged on the little beacons, shockwaves of Ani rippling outward from wherever contact was made. The light was immediately snuffed, the shadows growing longer and larger, darkness beginning to blanket the chamber.

Something about this darkness did not seem friendly. The boy began backing into a corner as the shadows emerged around him, everything being sucked slowly into the void of darkness until all that was left was the light that surrounded him. The darkness moved forward, almost seeming to compress him together, to mold him into a more compact shape. He opened his mouth, breathing becoming frantic and rushed. It was an opportunity not put to waste. The darkness sped forward, entering his mouth and nose, forcing themselves in through his eyes and ears, before shooting through every pore in his body. It was inside him, he felt it broiling around, literally shaking with the pressure of it all. Something, exploded.

It was dark. He could make out a very small sight in the distance, and when he focused on it, it zoomed closer to his sight. It was a young man, wearing a black robe overlaid with a red vest, a spear slung through the – Wait just a fucking second. He was staring at himself? How in the hell was that possible? He more felt then heard the deeply resonant voice that seemed to be a part of his being. ”You’re seeing through my eyes now boy. I’ve been temporarily forced out of your body, but in the process grabbed a hold of part of your conscience. You’re still there in front of me, but now you have the ability to see what’s happening to yourself from an outside perspective.”

”Sooooo . . . You’re saying that I’m still in my body, but am simply looking at it through your eyes?”

”Well, sort of. It’s more like one of those, whaddyacallits, umm . . . OBE’s! Yeah, its more like an out of body experience of sorts. I-.” The man’s voice simply cut off. Apparently he still heard from his “body” and whoever it was that had done this, evidently wanted Raquar by himself. That explained why the Blademaster’s voiced sounded so weird however. He heard, and probably smelt, spoke and touched from his own body, yet simply saw from his AI’s. And in a sudden moment, even that was gone. It was almost with a lurch that his presence was ripped out from the elder’s and forced back into his own body, blackness surrounding everything once again.

He spoke out, nervousness and a tiny amount of fear tingeing his voice. ”He-Hello?”

A throaty chuckle echoed across the room as faint lights, dark violet to magenta spheres appeared randomly to serve as some sort of eerie lighting around the area. Shadows twisted and converged around the light as the voice came again, low, alluring and filled with the secretive sound of a woman who knew something no one else did. "So you withstood the trials of the dungeon and the temptation offered by the other priestesses; I am indeed impressed."

He spun around frantically, looking for the source of the voice in the new rather spookily illuminated area. He couldn’t see anybody. And the voice wasn’t ringing any bells. ”Wh-Who’s there?”

"You don't know me by this point?" The voice asked rather incredulously, an undertone of false hurt taunting him as there was a whisper of something that could have been fabric somewhere from behind and to his right. "My, my, what a way to put a damper on what I believed was a cause to celebrate your arrival and success."

He spun around, facing to where he thought the voice was coming from. He figured there was only one person left that this could be, every priestess he had talked to before had mentioned the name, and now here she was. ”Ciar.” It wasn’t a question so much as a statement. But he was finally faced to face with the one that had supposedly “called” him here.

Something spun him around by the shoulder, hands that felt too much like light weight silk that released him as soon as they'd caught a hold of him in the first place, in front of him, something violet illuminated a slender palm as the light coiled around Raquar, then dashing off to wind around the figure of someone smaller by about five inches than he was. ”Oh good, a run in with little Taima didn't throw you off." The lights in the room exploded into action, a slender, tall woman clad in a tank top and long skirt, plain but somehow elegant and befitting, with long unbound black hair reaching to the small of her back stood there with violet light winding around her arm... much like a whip. "I am Wryneck's High Priestess; you are my Chosen, I greet you."

He was at a loss for words. The explosion of light had temporarily blinded him, but when his vision returned, he seemed to be standing before a queen. She seemed to be exuding some sort regality or nobility, and as of such, his first instinct was to drop to a knee, and incline his head hopefully showing the respect that such a commanding presence deserved.

She laughed, a musical sound that filled the room as she knelt in front of him and reached out, hand gently cupping his cheek as she lifted his chin so that he could be the dark black-violet of her eyes. The woman seemed delighted to see him inside the room and tapped his forehead smartly. ”You have been the first in two seasons that passed my test. Speak, though I know your name, and give me your identity."

He looked up, watching her as he spoke. His voice had taken on a new quality, it wasn’t quite a tone of submissiveness, but more, a tone of willingness to serve. ”Raquar, a Long Arm.”

"Welcome, my dear Long Arm, Wryneck has been awaiting your arrival, as have I. We have been watching over you since the beginning and we know almost everything there is to know of your ability and your potential."

The boy started. His potential? His main focus recently had been surviving. He hadn’t even thought about getting good at this. Although, now that he thought about it, the two did go hand in hand. He thought back onto her words. Wryneck would be the God of Ani if he wasn’t mistaken and if he and his priestess had been watching him this entire time, then this really wasn’t random was it? Apparently somebody had decided to meddle in his affairs a bit. He could only be thankful that they weren’t trying to kill him in the process. “What . . . What purpose could I serve to the two of you? Why me?”

The smile on her lips grew little by little with every word spoken and every question. Her fingers tapped against his cheek as she responded. "You will discover that purpose on your own, we cannot tell you everything after all. But you were born into this world under Wryneck's guidance, and in return, mine as well."

He started at the last part of what she spoke. ”So, you’re telling me that the two of you helped trapped me in this damn game? Why would anyone in their right mind do that?”

Ciar raised a delicately arched eyebrow, hand dropping from his cheek to rest against the floor as her expression turned mildly amused. "Trap you? Why on ea-" She paused in mid-sentence, eyes narrowing slightly as the whip uncoiled and wrapped around the boy's neck, light flickered back and forth from between the weapon and the two. "I see. No wonder you were unusual in our eyes."

Her weapon coiled around his neck and he froze, breathing lightly. It wasn’t to the point of constricting, and he didn’t think she was going to strangle him, but his past response might have seemed a little rude, and if so? The he guess he deserved it. When he didn’t stop breathing and the whip uncoiled from his neck, he listened to her words and stopped. If she hadn’t known that he was trapped then . . . He sighed. ”I apologize for my earlier hastiness. What did you mean I was born into the world under your guidance?”

"It appears I was mistaken concerning your origins within this world; though that does not remove our interest from you and of your potential. You were born into this world under Wryneck's eyes; I serve Him as one who gathers soldiers and followers to lead into battle and worship of the Ani God and His Element."

That made sense to the boy. That was pretty much what Torvald was to Jadin according to the Blademaster, just under a different god. But still there was a question needing answers. ”I understand what you’re saying, but what now?”

She raised an eyebrow, as if the next step was perfectly obvious and reached up with one hand to tap the boy's forehead, the smile returning to her face as she responded. "Use that delightful gift of yours and think about what we need to do next." The smile turned coy and suggestive as her fingertips tapped his cheek once before dropping back down to her side, turning her back to look at him over her shoulder before she spoke again. "Unless, of course, you have something...
else in mind that is."

The boy stammered, her look bringing a flush to his cheeks. He took a step closer to her. ”I obey your commands . . . Mistress.” The word was new to him, it felt strange on his tongue, yet at the same time, it made him feel alive and with purpose. It seemed like a good thing.

She laughed at the reaction, it would likely take some time to train this one, as naive as he seemed to be at the moment, but it was a process that she was looking forward to. "We are a harsh taskmaster and demand perfection from those we call, though you may call me Ciar while we get to know each other. Now, let us get you acquainted with your God and the one I serve."

Her words struck him close to home. If he could give perfection . . . then maybe this would be the strength the needed. Maybe he could overcome, and be successful, not only in The World, but in the Real World as well if he managed to find a way out. Maybe, just maybe. ”Yes . . . Ciar.”

She strode purposefully towards the elaborate onyx altar set up in the center of the room, ascending the steps and halting, turning around to face Raquar with a smile on her face. "Let me introduce you now, young Raquar." Her head tilted back, arms reaching above her head as the darkness in the room began to swirl around her, gathering in alternate patterns of black and violet light as she spoke one word that resonated through out the entire room and amplified in volume. ”Wryneck!”

The darkness compounded inward at first before gradually growing larger and taking shape. The darkness blossomed out expanding exponentially until the God of Darkness had risen to its full size, taking up every inch behind Ciar and the alter. Spheres of off-black and narrow slits of dark purple turned to regard the boy that had been brought before them. Yes, this was the one. He had been watching the young Long Arm for some time, ever since the disturbance in that one corrupted field long ago that had put him on the trail to be in the position he was in. Yes, he would do very well indeed. The God stretched out a limb, and to Raquar, the world went black again.


He came too quite suddenly, shaking his head to clear his slightly blurred vision. He looked up to see a swirling unrippled surface of blue, the Chaos Gate. Around him stood the twilight, and rough cobblestone streets of Carmina Galedica. He stood up and looked around, the streets quiet and seemingly empty. It was different though. Before, the city had seemed strange and unyielding, now, it was almost as if it was inviting him in with welcome arms. The shadows that played across the streets seemed to smile and beckon at him, no longer scary or dark, but beautiful and artistic, a masterpiece of nature. He stood up and began to walk, no particular destination in mind, he simply moved from shadow to shadow basking it their respective glories. It was almost as if they spoke to him, heralded him as one of their own. After minutes of wandering, soaking up what beauty the twilight could give, he found himself back at the entrance of the hideout used by the ones that called themselves Freedom Fighters. He idly wondered if they were back, and if so, when their next adventure would be. He would come along this time, attempting to prove that he could hold his own in this game that had quite suddenly become his life. He would become successful, and gain the power to be strong. And he would eventually find a way to get himself out of this condition, as well as the one that he had doomed to it as well. Not only that, but he would return to the Eventide Crescendo at some point, and he would find a way to break the man that he could call one of his best friends from the prison that the boy had doomed him to. No more excuse making or depression, no more blame or self-pity. The time for that was over. There was a new dawn ahead. But, as all dawns begin, first, there is twilight.

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:15 am
by Nighthand
Raquar -> + 5 Levels, + Tranquil Lance, + Wyrm Scale, + 1 Nightfear, + 2 Dark Traitor, + 4 Nightblight, + 4 Cooked Bile

Nice job, I enjoyed reading it. One note on a more ooc level, your wishlist is a little difficult, as the first Ani armors are about twice your level, and there is no non-rare Ani weapon for your class... so I made do with what you could use. Enjoy!