Moderator: Nighthand
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
There was a palpable tension in the air that Sekai didn't like in the least.
Sensitive as she was to changes in the moods of people around her, the noticeably heavy aura hanging around the room- her own worry over certain individuals around her not exactly helping matters in the long run- only served to increase the amount of stress building up within the girl.
Sure, she was becoming a little better at hiding such matters- after all, she wasn't crying or anxiously pacing back and forth, or actively going out and seeking some form of comfort from an older, much stronger team member- but the way she handled things wasn't quite... healthy.
In short, the girl was figuring out how to bottle such anxieties and worries up so that she didn't have to think about them.
The time to think was soon past, Sheena calling out orders and the small girl managing to scramble to her feet and stick somewhere toward the middle of the group for the time being, unsure of where her 'place' was and deciding to be safe rather than sorry. Kira was nowhere to be seen, riding along within the girl's mind and data as they trudged for the door. A small conversation took place between the two of them- mostly Kira inquiring about when she'd like to spar a little and train herself against mid to front range opponents- as they waited for Demorian to finish heading down the stairs.
“Alright guys, I’ll take the lead.” He spoke to the group. How on earth he'd managed to convince Sheena-san was something that the young teenager could only guess at, maybe she was too preoccupied with Nall-san to really take the lead this time or something like that. “I can take a lot more punishment so I’ll work well on point. Hmm… Takua, Sekai, if you two could join me for support, that’d be great. Nighthand, you hang back with Sheena and Nall, and help protect them. The rest of you spread out between us and keep your eyes open! Who knows what’ll show up.”
Visibly surprised as her name was thrown out there, the snowy haired Archer slipped away from her position and headed to take her place as support and on the way, sneaked a glance over toward Takua to get a quick look at how he might be fairing during this... entire mess.
By the expression on his face... not very well. Drat.
Still blaming yourself? Kira asked as they headed out of the tower... right into a jungle atmosphere. Yuck. It was almost as bad as a Japanese summer, Sekai thought to herself and resigned herself to a long, long journey to... wherever they were going to be going. 'What makes you say that?' She replied to Kira silently, trying her best to project an aloof, watchful aura around her as she followed fairly close behind the man in front of her.
She was support... meaning while he was fighting, she'd be in charge of cover fire and probably healing as well. The healing and revival skills she was pretty confident in, the cover fire... not so much. Sekai winced at the thought. Definitely needed some time to practice and improve her aim. You cringe ever so slightly whenever you see Baron, Takua and Talal. Even more so when Zan crosses your mind or something makes you think of the Juk prison.
Kira responded promptly, watching the girl cringe in exactly the manner she described and catch herself while doing so. The scowl that flickered across her face for a moment amused the icy Long Arm in some odd way. Poor thing needed to learn how to hide things better if she was even going to bother doing so at all. As helpful as this is, they are doing a bit better at coping than you did when you wound up here.
Judging by the look on Sekai's face, that hadn't been entirely helpful, but it seemed to do something for her. '...I suppose that is true.' She agreed after a moment's thought. 'They kind of had a bit more, um, experience in some form than I-' She stopped halfway through and frowned, looking at the trees on one side and looking around. A puzzled expression appeared, furrowing her brow as she bit her lip and tried to figure out what exactly felt... different all of a sudden.
'...perhaps I am imagining things, but... is it getting colder?' She wondered to herself and hurried to close some of the distance between herself and Demorian-san. The further they trekked, the colder it indeed seemed to get... right up until she brushed into one of the spiky pine trees and jumped halfway out of her skin.
Mumbling something under her breath in her native language, Sekai blinked and looked up in surprise at the snow- of all things, really?- falling from the sky. On one hand, it was cold and burned a little against her skin. On the other, the inner child of her heart and mind was delighted that it was snowing and thought it'd make the world pretty again.
Until she was trying to break her way through a foot of the stuff, then it was less pretty and more of a pain in the butt. She'd replaced the sash she'd once worn with a folded up cloak- said sash having been given to Raquar at one point- and took a moment to shoulder her bow and unwrap the cloak from around her waist. Staying dry wasn't too realistic, but keeping her shoulders covered shouldn't be too much of a problem, Sekai thought to herself and fastened the black and white brooch to hold the tawny fabric in place at her collar bone.
And then came the snowmen on... skis.
“Form up, wrap around Nall and Sheena, protect them.” Sekai's bow was off her shoulder and in her hand, arrow notched at the order as the rest clustered around and prepared for battle themselves.
It didn't take her terribly long to learn that the smallest ones- despite only being a foot shorter than herself- would almost explode if she smacked them physically with her bow. Low leveled enemies were indeed low leveled, something that gave her great relief as she went to work at trying to thin out their numbers.
At least, until the sound of an eerily familiar battle cry threw her attention to hell and beyond.
For a moment, her mind and heart fought against one another, fought against and for the hope that the roar had truly been who she believed it was. Honey colored eyes searched the landscape frantically, her body on autopilot as she swatted at any who came near her or within reach of her bow. An explosion of snow behind her gave the girl reason to whirl around and come face to face- his face wasn't injured anymore and he wasn't hiding it- with none other than the missing Heavy Blade she'd been trying desperately to believe was okay and not being tortured in that Juk field.
“Hi.” The sound of his voice only seemed to make that disbelief and joy all the greater... right before he bounded off to go attack the next wave of enemies swarming towards their group.
I'm tempted to make some cutting remark about timing. Kira informed her charge without any sign of rancor, privately relieved that the surly bastard was back so that her little one would have some peace of mind back.
The flashmail gave Kira something to worry about. Apparently Nighthand's worries were definitely founded where this crazy Administrator was involved. And there was that bit about not being sure how long he'd been gone. Little one, let me help.
Happily obliging, a flash of energy and something that might have been the outline of a butterfly showing even through her armor and clothing later, and the amber eyed, silvery-blue haired Long Arm was suddenly breaking through the snow and cleaving enemies away left and right.
Once she'd managed to put a bit of a dent in the rush of four foot high snowmen- and two of the dratted bigger ones- that blocked her path, Sekai practically forgot to put her weapon away before she heard something that was most likely herself yelling Zan's name out loud... and proceeded to semi-tackle the returned Heavyblade's around the waist in a fierce hug. "You're back, you're okay-" were the two words that were even remotely coherant in the semi-incomprehensible babbling that came out of the girl's mouth.
She wasn't going to cry, wasn't going to show how scared she'd been or how worried. He was there and was really and that was all that mattered to her in the long run. He wasn't being tortured or held prisoner or anything like that. Alive. Safe and back. "Sekai. Sekai, hey. It's okay. I'm fine."
Momentarily confused by the conflicting sensation beneath her stomach and the words he'd spoken, the little Archer pulled a way a moment and looked down with a puzzled expression that turned even more so when nothing was there.
Maybe... she'd squished a snowman or something, Sekai reasoned to herself, after all, it wasn't like she'd exactly been paying attention in what might have been in front of her, other than making sure it wasn't an illusion and the flashmail hadn't been a trick. The awkwardly returned hug made it all the more real, confirmed that he was indeed there in front of her, and no longer trapped in the Prison.
She released him after a moment, wiping at her eyes and gave a teary smile full of relief and joy... only to have it switch just as quickly into a look of surprise that lapsed into annoyance at the bruise on his face. "I can't tell you how glad I... am..." Sekai stood on tiptoe, trying to get a better look at the injury and narrowed her eyes, whirling suddenly to fire off a BiVak Rom at a group of oncoming snowmen in annoyance before turning back. "...Dien-san did that, didn't he?"
Her tone was rather... unusually demanding, almost incredulous as something that sounded suspiciously like a hiss slipped out of her mouth. "I can't believe him! I'm going to... to... Argh!" What might have been an impressive stomp on hard ground nearly threw her off balance and on her face into the snow.
"I'll twist his ear and scold him, that's what I'll do! I told him not to do that!" Seemingly done fuming, for the moment anyways, the young girl looked up at Zan... and frowned. There was something off. Definitely off and it wasn't that the scars that wouldn't heal before were healed.
But what was it exactly?
"...something happened, even at the worst in that field and before that, you never had that look in your eyes and- ...did your eyes change color?" Some things never changed it seemed, the girl still had a semi-short attention span or noticed odd details at the weirdest moments.
His eyes had changed color, she realized after a minute. Standing on tiptoe to try and get a better look, her brow furrowed as she realized the normally pale blue- like the eyes of one of the snow dogs they showed around in America and sometimes had in Hokkaido for winter sports- had changed to an equally pale but... somehow more noticeable dull green.
Or... maybe she just was weird about colors. That was probably it, she told herself as she anxiously awaited his response.
"We had a disagreement. I think I deserve this. Don't worry about it, lumen. Just boys being boys." A thin, all too worn out and stretched smile accompanied the explanation. Her eyes narrowed, he'd taken his time answering that one... had he been thinking of trying to cover something up?
The 'boys being boys' comment still seemed to somewhat placate her, for the time being. She still gave a dirty look to the Blademaster's back, one that more than likely meant she was going to make good on her threat to scold him and twist his ear when the time was more appropriate. More importantly though, Sekai thought as she looked back up at the black and green clad Heavy Blade.
Did... that mean something bad had happened when they'd been separated?
Confusion seemed to filter over his expression, replacing the smile. "Field? Which field?"
A mild yelp slipped out as she stumbled at the sudden turn and butchering of a couple snowmen and managed to regain her balance somehow. The words really sank in after a moment. He'd asked what field. Her eyes narrowed slightly, confusion mixed with sudden anxiety filtering over her face as she realized that he was one hundred percent serious.
What happened to him?
"My-...did they? I don't know. What color are they?" So he didn't know his eyes had changed either. Sekai studied Zan for a long moment before addressing the first point- the one about the prison field.
"What field? The Juk Prison, you, Nemera-san, Sidhe-san and Alanna-san..." She trailed off, eyes narrowing again as she studied what she could of his turned face while he attacked the creeping enemies.
"They're green now, very light, kind of dull green." She said quietly after a moment, brow furrowing in concern as her hand moved and caught the bottom of his jacket.
"A very tired green." Another moment, Kira choosing to cleave a medium sized snowman in half and drive off a few that were headed the way of the two with a nod of acknowledgement toward the Heavy Blade, and Sekai gave a slight tug against the handful of fabric she held. "...something happened to you, didn't it." She asked quietly, the expression on her face already expecting the answer to be 'yes'... as well as the assumption that it wasn't anything positive.
"I think tired is a good word for it." He seemed to still remember Kira, she thought to herself as she watched the exchange between the two and caught the former high priestess' eye for a scant moment before turning her attention back to Zan.
"I'll tell you about it when...someplace not here. Let us widdle these stooges down, likely face Tritoch, and then find some place to catch our breath if we're still alive. I don't know everything, but, I can tell you what I do." Sekai started to nod in response, making a face and mumbled something about not liking that Nighthand had been right when it came to Tritoch, turning to strike down a series of small snowmen down with a MeJuk Kruz while she was at it.
"Though I'm still drawing a blank on that Juk Prison place. Who's Nemera, Sidhe, and-" Her eyes were expectant, as if she were waiting for whatever suspicion she had to be confirmed- and widened at the sound of the beginnings of the 'Who' question.
What on earth had happened to make him forget? Her mind was racing, trying to come up with a solution for something that could have happened or had happened- had he flatlined in the real world? No, because she'd done that three times now and she hadn't lost her memory- yet.
"F-Fucking! Fff--...ugh..." Garbled, snarled words and he'd started clawing at his face, at his eyes from her angle as she paled and jumped, stepping forward just in case she needed to become a physical support to keep him from dropping in the snow, one hand reaching up to try and grab his hand away, to keep him from clawing at his face.
"Z-Zan?" Her voice raised ever so slightly in pitch, a light, startled sound escaping from her mouth as something splattered against her face and she reached up to wipe at it, eyes closed just long enough to make sure she'd gotten it with her arm before she looked back up at him.
"Don't rush it if it hurts," Sekai said immediately, brows furrowed in alarm and worry. "If-if you've forgotten for now, there's a reason, don't push it too hard or you'll pass out and really hurt yourself again." She gestured at the smear of blood against her arm and, with her free hand, tried to wipe the rest off with a cold palm damp from the snow.
"We'll still be alive, Demorian-san is going to help us find a safe place since he knows the area well enough." She assured him, looking more than a little determined to make sure the 'still be alive' part was carried through. He was back and not at his best yet, she'd have to make good on her promise to protect him from further harm.
As if reading each other's minds, Kira and Sekai took full advantage of the Heavy Blade's distraction to do as they'd been instructed to by Demorian in the first place; keep an eye out and take the frozen bastards down as quickly as possible in a flurry of swift movements from Kira's spear, feet and the occasional fist, and from several spell and arrow combinations from Sekai herself.
After a silence that felt like eternity, he finally spoke again. "Yeah. Okay. You're probably right." About what though? She wondered and waited patiently in case he had anything else to say. "Demorian? Is he the one I heard shouting about Nall and Sheena before I got here?" Zan looked to the man in question, fighting off in the distance. "Where'd you pick him up, the prison?"
Taking a moment to catch her breath and rub the stitch out of her side, Sekai looked over to where Zan indicated and bit her lip, suddenly looking uncertain... even a little guilty before answering. "Demorian-san is the one with the, um, interesting belt-clothing and the odd sword, yes. He was telling us to guard Nall-san and Sheena-san."
A good enough answer, but still nothing that really explained why the girl looked so uncomfortable and, well, torn at the mentioning of the man's name. Swallowing hard and firing off a series of arrows to knock some more snowmen out of the picture, the young teenager finally seemed to give up the struggle and answered the second question in full. "I let Demorian-san out of the prison when everyone else likely would have left him there." An uncomfortable shift in weight.
"Demorian-san is Marionette's actual name... and what he looks like in all actuality." She seemed ready to get scolded or to have someone freak out on her for the admission, though there was something... oddly defiant in the girl's eyes as she avoided Zan's eyes for the moment. "He kept his word when it came to the deal you made with him, and that I joined in on," She said defensively. "He... I don't know, he never lied or presented himself as anything other than he claimed to be, I... I felt we could trust him."
The newly changed eyes narrowed in a look of caution, but not of judgment- or so she hoped. "Believe it or not, Sekai, I actually think I understand. I trusted him once to protect us, and according to you he kept his word. I think letting him go may be a little risky, but his goal was never really to harm us. That was just an indirect consequence of the way he, you know, tested us."
Why did it feel so awkward all of a sudden? Sekai wondered to herself and frowned, watching Kira take out another mid-sized opponent and head for a bigger one. Why was she going after those huge ones with the big weapons? Honestly, she thought to herself with a mental shake of her head.
"So, why exactly is he helping us now? He's free, isn't he? Why join up with this rag tag group?" By this point, Zan seemed to have shaken off his stupor and leaped back into the fray, his sword eating through a small wave of four snowmen as their weapons and their spells bounced harmlessly off of him.
Sekai leaped right into the fray beside him, backing the Heavy Blade up with a rather expanded spell inventory as she switched freely between a BiVak Rom and a MeJuk Kruz. Kira did her part, remaining as silent as ever- or as unusually silent, depending on one's opinion of her- and kept their backs guarded. "At least someone believes," Came the almost typically exasperated adolescent sounding mutter as she paused to down a Mage's Soul and continued her spell casting.
"He got in trouble with the Elites for helping us, playing a neutral party didn't... exactly benefit him, not really anyways." She continued as she sent off a regular Rai Rom at one of the snowmen trying to get the jump on Kira. "Demorian-san used to be one of the original Freedom Fighters, and Sheena-san wasn't exactly, um, happy when she realized who he was."
There was something about the way her voice changed ever so slightly that said the young girl had some unvoiced opinions of her own on the subject. "He was trying to get the weaknesses, information, anything out of the Elites to send along to the Freedom Fighters to help in their battle... and realized that working solo wasn't, well... doing enough. So he's back now."
Another couple of spells and exploded snowpeople later and the young Archer sent a quick glance over to see how the rest of the party was fairing. "I... I kind of want to interfere," The girl confessed, as if it were something she were ashamed of. "I want Demorian-san and Angel-san to... reconcile, or at least talk to one another again. There are a lot of hurt feelings on Angel-san's side but, I don't think it'll be completely impossible to get things on semi-solid ground again." As if she'd forgotten who she was talking to, Sekai's eyes widened, a hand flying up to clamp over her mouth after what she'd said.
"So all of that, everything he was doing, it wasn't really him testing us?" He spoke on, but the rest of it was more to himself, like he was slowly cracking a code. "And of course the Hubs had to have some sign of disarray if the Elites came knocking. And he had to be cautious in his Flashmails and his other communications, lest any kind of Elite informant or code watcher see he was being less than loyal." Zan nodded. "Alright. I can swing with this, for now."
Zan's eyes narrowed a second time, but this go around it was in bewilderment. Trudging his way through the thick snow, he came up behind her and placed a single strong hand on her shoulder. "Wait, Angel's alive? What the hell happened there? How long have I been gone?"
Something that sounded like adolescent anguish mixed in with a wail of "I didn't mean to say that" slipped out of her mouth as she fought off another round of enemies in a way that seemed almost fierce for the normally gentle girl. "Angel-san has always been alive and you can't tell anyone! It slipped when I was talking to Dien-san and it slipped out, I'm pretty sure Demorian-san's known the entire time."
She stammered out, speaking almost too quickly for her words to be understood. "I... I couldn't just leave her like that, she gave up before the fight was even over, she let us kill her!" It really upset her just remembering the way she looked back then, how she'd just... just given up.
"I just... I had to make a choice right then and there. I just... wanted her to be alive, to find her purpose and have a second chance. Even if it meant the rest of the Freedom Fighters would hate me or think of me as a traitor for helping an enemy."
Releasing his hand from her shoulder, he kept the fiends off of her back as skillfully as she was doing for him. "Well hell, Sekai." She cringed, a miserable expession flashing across her face as she prepared to get scolded or something similar.
"I'm sure my reaction would have been a bit different if Marionette didn't turn out to be the man he is. And she did seem to really love the guy. If he's with us, I don't think she'll pose a threat." Yep. She'd definitely stepped in it by releasing Angel-san and not telling anybody... maybe she shouldn't have said anything anyways. That might have been a good idea.
...though Dien-san- she was still mad at him for hitting Zan though- had seemed to think she'd done something good by doing that, at least, that was the impression she'd gotten from him.
"These things are getting anxious, though. Like I said, I'll talk to you about what happened, what I can remember of it, when all of this insanity calms down a bit. Consider this conversation ended with an ellipse." And he broke off from her, pushing himself into a fray of the bigger snowy badasses.
...what the hell was an ellipse? Sekai found herself thinking, not even realizing she'd thought something rather unladylike as she watched Zan go off to fight some of the bigger enemies. Shaking her head, she trudged through the snow, smacking down a couple more snowmen before getting herself in a position to let off a couple of Ola Repths in the direction of those who needed it.
Why were there so many snow people? She groaned to herself and began looking for a target to fire at that wouldn't waste her SP. Jumping out of her skin at the sound of a screech and watching, in some confusion, as Nighthand... essentially crash-landed into the snow beside Zan.
That screech didn't sound good, and hadn't Zan said something in his flashmail about a screech sounding like a harpie or something like that?
Sekai suddenly felt the desire to say more unladylike things. Could this get anymore difficult? Why not add, oh, Xenobia to the mix or something like that? Then again, maybe she should keep her mouth shut and not tempt the Gods to enact that one law upon the party.
((EDIT: Dammit. Ninja-posted. Dx
Snowmen: 112/300 (20 lightly injured.)
Deluxe: 118/150 (9 lightly injured, 2 moderately injured.)
Supreme: 23/50 (6 lightly injured.)
))
Sensitive as she was to changes in the moods of people around her, the noticeably heavy aura hanging around the room- her own worry over certain individuals around her not exactly helping matters in the long run- only served to increase the amount of stress building up within the girl.
Sure, she was becoming a little better at hiding such matters- after all, she wasn't crying or anxiously pacing back and forth, or actively going out and seeking some form of comfort from an older, much stronger team member- but the way she handled things wasn't quite... healthy.
In short, the girl was figuring out how to bottle such anxieties and worries up so that she didn't have to think about them.
The time to think was soon past, Sheena calling out orders and the small girl managing to scramble to her feet and stick somewhere toward the middle of the group for the time being, unsure of where her 'place' was and deciding to be safe rather than sorry. Kira was nowhere to be seen, riding along within the girl's mind and data as they trudged for the door. A small conversation took place between the two of them- mostly Kira inquiring about when she'd like to spar a little and train herself against mid to front range opponents- as they waited for Demorian to finish heading down the stairs.
“Alright guys, I’ll take the lead.” He spoke to the group. How on earth he'd managed to convince Sheena-san was something that the young teenager could only guess at, maybe she was too preoccupied with Nall-san to really take the lead this time or something like that. “I can take a lot more punishment so I’ll work well on point. Hmm… Takua, Sekai, if you two could join me for support, that’d be great. Nighthand, you hang back with Sheena and Nall, and help protect them. The rest of you spread out between us and keep your eyes open! Who knows what’ll show up.”
Visibly surprised as her name was thrown out there, the snowy haired Archer slipped away from her position and headed to take her place as support and on the way, sneaked a glance over toward Takua to get a quick look at how he might be fairing during this... entire mess.
By the expression on his face... not very well. Drat.
Still blaming yourself? Kira asked as they headed out of the tower... right into a jungle atmosphere. Yuck. It was almost as bad as a Japanese summer, Sekai thought to herself and resigned herself to a long, long journey to... wherever they were going to be going. 'What makes you say that?' She replied to Kira silently, trying her best to project an aloof, watchful aura around her as she followed fairly close behind the man in front of her.
She was support... meaning while he was fighting, she'd be in charge of cover fire and probably healing as well. The healing and revival skills she was pretty confident in, the cover fire... not so much. Sekai winced at the thought. Definitely needed some time to practice and improve her aim. You cringe ever so slightly whenever you see Baron, Takua and Talal. Even more so when Zan crosses your mind or something makes you think of the Juk prison.
Kira responded promptly, watching the girl cringe in exactly the manner she described and catch herself while doing so. The scowl that flickered across her face for a moment amused the icy Long Arm in some odd way. Poor thing needed to learn how to hide things better if she was even going to bother doing so at all. As helpful as this is, they are doing a bit better at coping than you did when you wound up here.
Judging by the look on Sekai's face, that hadn't been entirely helpful, but it seemed to do something for her. '...I suppose that is true.' She agreed after a moment's thought. 'They kind of had a bit more, um, experience in some form than I-' She stopped halfway through and frowned, looking at the trees on one side and looking around. A puzzled expression appeared, furrowing her brow as she bit her lip and tried to figure out what exactly felt... different all of a sudden.
'...perhaps I am imagining things, but... is it getting colder?' She wondered to herself and hurried to close some of the distance between herself and Demorian-san. The further they trekked, the colder it indeed seemed to get... right up until she brushed into one of the spiky pine trees and jumped halfway out of her skin.
Mumbling something under her breath in her native language, Sekai blinked and looked up in surprise at the snow- of all things, really?- falling from the sky. On one hand, it was cold and burned a little against her skin. On the other, the inner child of her heart and mind was delighted that it was snowing and thought it'd make the world pretty again.
Until she was trying to break her way through a foot of the stuff, then it was less pretty and more of a pain in the butt. She'd replaced the sash she'd once worn with a folded up cloak- said sash having been given to Raquar at one point- and took a moment to shoulder her bow and unwrap the cloak from around her waist. Staying dry wasn't too realistic, but keeping her shoulders covered shouldn't be too much of a problem, Sekai thought to herself and fastened the black and white brooch to hold the tawny fabric in place at her collar bone.
And then came the snowmen on... skis.
“Form up, wrap around Nall and Sheena, protect them.” Sekai's bow was off her shoulder and in her hand, arrow notched at the order as the rest clustered around and prepared for battle themselves.
It didn't take her terribly long to learn that the smallest ones- despite only being a foot shorter than herself- would almost explode if she smacked them physically with her bow. Low leveled enemies were indeed low leveled, something that gave her great relief as she went to work at trying to thin out their numbers.
At least, until the sound of an eerily familiar battle cry threw her attention to hell and beyond.
For a moment, her mind and heart fought against one another, fought against and for the hope that the roar had truly been who she believed it was. Honey colored eyes searched the landscape frantically, her body on autopilot as she swatted at any who came near her or within reach of her bow. An explosion of snow behind her gave the girl reason to whirl around and come face to face- his face wasn't injured anymore and he wasn't hiding it- with none other than the missing Heavy Blade she'd been trying desperately to believe was okay and not being tortured in that Juk field.
“Hi.” The sound of his voice only seemed to make that disbelief and joy all the greater... right before he bounded off to go attack the next wave of enemies swarming towards their group.
I'm tempted to make some cutting remark about timing. Kira informed her charge without any sign of rancor, privately relieved that the surly bastard was back so that her little one would have some peace of mind back.
The flashmail gave Kira something to worry about. Apparently Nighthand's worries were definitely founded where this crazy Administrator was involved. And there was that bit about not being sure how long he'd been gone. Little one, let me help.
Happily obliging, a flash of energy and something that might have been the outline of a butterfly showing even through her armor and clothing later, and the amber eyed, silvery-blue haired Long Arm was suddenly breaking through the snow and cleaving enemies away left and right.
Once she'd managed to put a bit of a dent in the rush of four foot high snowmen- and two of the dratted bigger ones- that blocked her path, Sekai practically forgot to put her weapon away before she heard something that was most likely herself yelling Zan's name out loud... and proceeded to semi-tackle the returned Heavyblade's around the waist in a fierce hug. "You're back, you're okay-" were the two words that were even remotely coherant in the semi-incomprehensible babbling that came out of the girl's mouth.
She wasn't going to cry, wasn't going to show how scared she'd been or how worried. He was there and was really and that was all that mattered to her in the long run. He wasn't being tortured or held prisoner or anything like that. Alive. Safe and back. "Sekai. Sekai, hey. It's okay. I'm fine."
Momentarily confused by the conflicting sensation beneath her stomach and the words he'd spoken, the little Archer pulled a way a moment and looked down with a puzzled expression that turned even more so when nothing was there.
Maybe... she'd squished a snowman or something, Sekai reasoned to herself, after all, it wasn't like she'd exactly been paying attention in what might have been in front of her, other than making sure it wasn't an illusion and the flashmail hadn't been a trick. The awkwardly returned hug made it all the more real, confirmed that he was indeed there in front of her, and no longer trapped in the Prison.
She released him after a moment, wiping at her eyes and gave a teary smile full of relief and joy... only to have it switch just as quickly into a look of surprise that lapsed into annoyance at the bruise on his face. "I can't tell you how glad I... am..." Sekai stood on tiptoe, trying to get a better look at the injury and narrowed her eyes, whirling suddenly to fire off a BiVak Rom at a group of oncoming snowmen in annoyance before turning back. "...Dien-san did that, didn't he?"
Her tone was rather... unusually demanding, almost incredulous as something that sounded suspiciously like a hiss slipped out of her mouth. "I can't believe him! I'm going to... to... Argh!" What might have been an impressive stomp on hard ground nearly threw her off balance and on her face into the snow.
"I'll twist his ear and scold him, that's what I'll do! I told him not to do that!" Seemingly done fuming, for the moment anyways, the young girl looked up at Zan... and frowned. There was something off. Definitely off and it wasn't that the scars that wouldn't heal before were healed.
But what was it exactly?
"...something happened, even at the worst in that field and before that, you never had that look in your eyes and- ...did your eyes change color?" Some things never changed it seemed, the girl still had a semi-short attention span or noticed odd details at the weirdest moments.
His eyes had changed color, she realized after a minute. Standing on tiptoe to try and get a better look, her brow furrowed as she realized the normally pale blue- like the eyes of one of the snow dogs they showed around in America and sometimes had in Hokkaido for winter sports- had changed to an equally pale but... somehow more noticeable dull green.
Or... maybe she just was weird about colors. That was probably it, she told herself as she anxiously awaited his response.
"We had a disagreement. I think I deserve this. Don't worry about it, lumen. Just boys being boys." A thin, all too worn out and stretched smile accompanied the explanation. Her eyes narrowed, he'd taken his time answering that one... had he been thinking of trying to cover something up?
The 'boys being boys' comment still seemed to somewhat placate her, for the time being. She still gave a dirty look to the Blademaster's back, one that more than likely meant she was going to make good on her threat to scold him and twist his ear when the time was more appropriate. More importantly though, Sekai thought as she looked back up at the black and green clad Heavy Blade.
Did... that mean something bad had happened when they'd been separated?
Confusion seemed to filter over his expression, replacing the smile. "Field? Which field?"
A mild yelp slipped out as she stumbled at the sudden turn and butchering of a couple snowmen and managed to regain her balance somehow. The words really sank in after a moment. He'd asked what field. Her eyes narrowed slightly, confusion mixed with sudden anxiety filtering over her face as she realized that he was one hundred percent serious.
What happened to him?
"My-...did they? I don't know. What color are they?" So he didn't know his eyes had changed either. Sekai studied Zan for a long moment before addressing the first point- the one about the prison field.
"What field? The Juk Prison, you, Nemera-san, Sidhe-san and Alanna-san..." She trailed off, eyes narrowing again as she studied what she could of his turned face while he attacked the creeping enemies.
"They're green now, very light, kind of dull green." She said quietly after a moment, brow furrowing in concern as her hand moved and caught the bottom of his jacket.
"A very tired green." Another moment, Kira choosing to cleave a medium sized snowman in half and drive off a few that were headed the way of the two with a nod of acknowledgement toward the Heavy Blade, and Sekai gave a slight tug against the handful of fabric she held. "...something happened to you, didn't it." She asked quietly, the expression on her face already expecting the answer to be 'yes'... as well as the assumption that it wasn't anything positive.
"I think tired is a good word for it." He seemed to still remember Kira, she thought to herself as she watched the exchange between the two and caught the former high priestess' eye for a scant moment before turning her attention back to Zan.
"I'll tell you about it when...someplace not here. Let us widdle these stooges down, likely face Tritoch, and then find some place to catch our breath if we're still alive. I don't know everything, but, I can tell you what I do." Sekai started to nod in response, making a face and mumbled something about not liking that Nighthand had been right when it came to Tritoch, turning to strike down a series of small snowmen down with a MeJuk Kruz while she was at it.
"Though I'm still drawing a blank on that Juk Prison place. Who's Nemera, Sidhe, and-" Her eyes were expectant, as if she were waiting for whatever suspicion she had to be confirmed- and widened at the sound of the beginnings of the 'Who' question.
What on earth had happened to make him forget? Her mind was racing, trying to come up with a solution for something that could have happened or had happened- had he flatlined in the real world? No, because she'd done that three times now and she hadn't lost her memory- yet.
"F-Fucking! Fff--...ugh..." Garbled, snarled words and he'd started clawing at his face, at his eyes from her angle as she paled and jumped, stepping forward just in case she needed to become a physical support to keep him from dropping in the snow, one hand reaching up to try and grab his hand away, to keep him from clawing at his face.
"Z-Zan?" Her voice raised ever so slightly in pitch, a light, startled sound escaping from her mouth as something splattered against her face and she reached up to wipe at it, eyes closed just long enough to make sure she'd gotten it with her arm before she looked back up at him.
"Don't rush it if it hurts," Sekai said immediately, brows furrowed in alarm and worry. "If-if you've forgotten for now, there's a reason, don't push it too hard or you'll pass out and really hurt yourself again." She gestured at the smear of blood against her arm and, with her free hand, tried to wipe the rest off with a cold palm damp from the snow.
"We'll still be alive, Demorian-san is going to help us find a safe place since he knows the area well enough." She assured him, looking more than a little determined to make sure the 'still be alive' part was carried through. He was back and not at his best yet, she'd have to make good on her promise to protect him from further harm.
As if reading each other's minds, Kira and Sekai took full advantage of the Heavy Blade's distraction to do as they'd been instructed to by Demorian in the first place; keep an eye out and take the frozen bastards down as quickly as possible in a flurry of swift movements from Kira's spear, feet and the occasional fist, and from several spell and arrow combinations from Sekai herself.
After a silence that felt like eternity, he finally spoke again. "Yeah. Okay. You're probably right." About what though? She wondered and waited patiently in case he had anything else to say. "Demorian? Is he the one I heard shouting about Nall and Sheena before I got here?" Zan looked to the man in question, fighting off in the distance. "Where'd you pick him up, the prison?"
Taking a moment to catch her breath and rub the stitch out of her side, Sekai looked over to where Zan indicated and bit her lip, suddenly looking uncertain... even a little guilty before answering. "Demorian-san is the one with the, um, interesting belt-clothing and the odd sword, yes. He was telling us to guard Nall-san and Sheena-san."
A good enough answer, but still nothing that really explained why the girl looked so uncomfortable and, well, torn at the mentioning of the man's name. Swallowing hard and firing off a series of arrows to knock some more snowmen out of the picture, the young teenager finally seemed to give up the struggle and answered the second question in full. "I let Demorian-san out of the prison when everyone else likely would have left him there." An uncomfortable shift in weight.
"Demorian-san is Marionette's actual name... and what he looks like in all actuality." She seemed ready to get scolded or to have someone freak out on her for the admission, though there was something... oddly defiant in the girl's eyes as she avoided Zan's eyes for the moment. "He kept his word when it came to the deal you made with him, and that I joined in on," She said defensively. "He... I don't know, he never lied or presented himself as anything other than he claimed to be, I... I felt we could trust him."
The newly changed eyes narrowed in a look of caution, but not of judgment- or so she hoped. "Believe it or not, Sekai, I actually think I understand. I trusted him once to protect us, and according to you he kept his word. I think letting him go may be a little risky, but his goal was never really to harm us. That was just an indirect consequence of the way he, you know, tested us."
Why did it feel so awkward all of a sudden? Sekai wondered to herself and frowned, watching Kira take out another mid-sized opponent and head for a bigger one. Why was she going after those huge ones with the big weapons? Honestly, she thought to herself with a mental shake of her head.
"So, why exactly is he helping us now? He's free, isn't he? Why join up with this rag tag group?" By this point, Zan seemed to have shaken off his stupor and leaped back into the fray, his sword eating through a small wave of four snowmen as their weapons and their spells bounced harmlessly off of him.
Sekai leaped right into the fray beside him, backing the Heavy Blade up with a rather expanded spell inventory as she switched freely between a BiVak Rom and a MeJuk Kruz. Kira did her part, remaining as silent as ever- or as unusually silent, depending on one's opinion of her- and kept their backs guarded. "At least someone believes," Came the almost typically exasperated adolescent sounding mutter as she paused to down a Mage's Soul and continued her spell casting.
"He got in trouble with the Elites for helping us, playing a neutral party didn't... exactly benefit him, not really anyways." She continued as she sent off a regular Rai Rom at one of the snowmen trying to get the jump on Kira. "Demorian-san used to be one of the original Freedom Fighters, and Sheena-san wasn't exactly, um, happy when she realized who he was."
There was something about the way her voice changed ever so slightly that said the young girl had some unvoiced opinions of her own on the subject. "He was trying to get the weaknesses, information, anything out of the Elites to send along to the Freedom Fighters to help in their battle... and realized that working solo wasn't, well... doing enough. So he's back now."
Another couple of spells and exploded snowpeople later and the young Archer sent a quick glance over to see how the rest of the party was fairing. "I... I kind of want to interfere," The girl confessed, as if it were something she were ashamed of. "I want Demorian-san and Angel-san to... reconcile, or at least talk to one another again. There are a lot of hurt feelings on Angel-san's side but, I don't think it'll be completely impossible to get things on semi-solid ground again." As if she'd forgotten who she was talking to, Sekai's eyes widened, a hand flying up to clamp over her mouth after what she'd said.
"So all of that, everything he was doing, it wasn't really him testing us?" He spoke on, but the rest of it was more to himself, like he was slowly cracking a code. "And of course the Hubs had to have some sign of disarray if the Elites came knocking. And he had to be cautious in his Flashmails and his other communications, lest any kind of Elite informant or code watcher see he was being less than loyal." Zan nodded. "Alright. I can swing with this, for now."
Zan's eyes narrowed a second time, but this go around it was in bewilderment. Trudging his way through the thick snow, he came up behind her and placed a single strong hand on her shoulder. "Wait, Angel's alive? What the hell happened there? How long have I been gone?"
Something that sounded like adolescent anguish mixed in with a wail of "I didn't mean to say that" slipped out of her mouth as she fought off another round of enemies in a way that seemed almost fierce for the normally gentle girl. "Angel-san has always been alive and you can't tell anyone! It slipped when I was talking to Dien-san and it slipped out, I'm pretty sure Demorian-san's known the entire time."
She stammered out, speaking almost too quickly for her words to be understood. "I... I couldn't just leave her like that, she gave up before the fight was even over, she let us kill her!" It really upset her just remembering the way she looked back then, how she'd just... just given up.
"I just... I had to make a choice right then and there. I just... wanted her to be alive, to find her purpose and have a second chance. Even if it meant the rest of the Freedom Fighters would hate me or think of me as a traitor for helping an enemy."
Releasing his hand from her shoulder, he kept the fiends off of her back as skillfully as she was doing for him. "Well hell, Sekai." She cringed, a miserable expession flashing across her face as she prepared to get scolded or something similar.
"I'm sure my reaction would have been a bit different if Marionette didn't turn out to be the man he is. And she did seem to really love the guy. If he's with us, I don't think she'll pose a threat." Yep. She'd definitely stepped in it by releasing Angel-san and not telling anybody... maybe she shouldn't have said anything anyways. That might have been a good idea.
...though Dien-san- she was still mad at him for hitting Zan though- had seemed to think she'd done something good by doing that, at least, that was the impression she'd gotten from him.
"These things are getting anxious, though. Like I said, I'll talk to you about what happened, what I can remember of it, when all of this insanity calms down a bit. Consider this conversation ended with an ellipse." And he broke off from her, pushing himself into a fray of the bigger snowy badasses.
...what the hell was an ellipse? Sekai found herself thinking, not even realizing she'd thought something rather unladylike as she watched Zan go off to fight some of the bigger enemies. Shaking her head, she trudged through the snow, smacking down a couple more snowmen before getting herself in a position to let off a couple of Ola Repths in the direction of those who needed it.
Why were there so many snow people? She groaned to herself and began looking for a target to fire at that wouldn't waste her SP. Jumping out of her skin at the sound of a screech and watching, in some confusion, as Nighthand... essentially crash-landed into the snow beside Zan.
That screech didn't sound good, and hadn't Zan said something in his flashmail about a screech sounding like a harpie or something like that?
Sekai suddenly felt the desire to say more unladylike things. Could this get anymore difficult? Why not add, oh, Xenobia to the mix or something like that? Then again, maybe she should keep her mouth shut and not tempt the Gods to enact that one law upon the party.
((EDIT: Dammit. Ninja-posted. Dx
Snowmen: 112/300 (20 lightly injured.)
Deluxe: 118/150 (9 lightly injured, 2 moderately injured.)
Supreme: 23/50 (6 lightly injured.)
))
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v220/Naminoyou/sekai49fl.jpg)
Name: Sekai
Level: 54
EXP: 0000/1000
Class: Archer
Clan: Army of Darkness
HP: 835
SP: 347
Currently Equipped:
Einherjar: Kira, December, Zorya
Head: Bat Earrings (Ola Repth 40, Rip Maen 40)
Body: Saint Cross (Rue Zot 10, RaJuk Zot 30)
Arm: Protect Ring (Ap Vorma 15, MeJuk Kruz 20)
Leg: Ninja Anklet (BiVak Rom 20, GiGan Zot 30)
Add-Ons: Forestlore, Wood Magic (permanently raised Wood Offense/Defense by +3 total)
Wishlist: Levels, Summon: Wood, Archer Weapons, Light Armor
- Takua
- Ikkitousen
- Posts: 115
- Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 12:19 am
- Class: Wavemaster
- Location: Walking the line of madness
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
It didn't take long before he was revived, and he gawked openly at the one who had put him back into the place of life. Zan? When the hell had he arrived? Blinking awkwardly, he checked his Flashmail for a moment...and groaned internally. Tritoch was a Chimera of what sounded like beastly power and was distinctly not happy at the moment with all of them. Just what he wanted for Christmas. Maybe next they'd be seeing hacked reindeer and the shadowy figure Zan mentioned was Santa Claus. Of course, at that point he'd be concluding that he was hallucinating badly...but it didn't help either when he turned around and, for a split second, Nighthand was a perfect image of Xenobia. The Wavemaster blinked and backpedaled rapidly, preparing to scream out a warning, right when he reverted back to being who Nighthand really was.
Okay...not happy with that right now. Or with the voices that seemed to float in the storm, surrounding him, whispering things that could be said around him. Worse, he could hear Demorian's voice behind him as the Blademaster ravaged the snowmen, saying things that had to be his imagination. Gritting his teeth, he chugged two Mage's Souls and took out his staff in a hurry. Busy the mind in fighting and ignore what he was seeing and hearing other than the fight itself and hope that what he saw and heard wasn't an illusion as well.
However, before he wanted to get thoroughly involved in fighting, he wanted to find a partner or a group that he could fight closely alongside with. This...slaughter with each person going their own way, loosely clumped around Nall and Sheena, didn't fit his tastes. Sure, he could understand why people might do it, but covering someone else's back just seemed...better. Being taken out from behind wasn't a good thing, and if you had someone else watching it you weren't nearly as likely to be surprised by an enemy. Or if you were simply overwhelmed. A little odd though that the Freedom Fighters would be so individual instead of working closely with each other. Or maybe he was just being ridiculous. After all, he'd only been here for...well, not even a day. What the hell did he know compared to those people who had been here for years or longer?
Still, in this fight where he could easily be overwhelmed or backstabbed by snowmen or his own delusions, he needed someone to group up with. The first person that his gaze fell upon caused him to hesitate, given that he really didn't need to bug them again...but he ended up doing it anyways. Maybe he was just being filled with his usual self-doubt and paranoia.
Of course, there was still the matter of fighting his way through a wall of snowmen in order to get to them. Somewhat annoying, but certainly not impossible. Plus, he was fighting...well, regular monsters. He could have fun fighting regular monsters, unlike when he was killing an actual human being.
The first one to fall inside of his sights was a pristine and untouched Deluxe version who was headed right his way in the first place. Seeing a charging snowman on skis reminded him of just how awesome this really was, fighting for their lives aside. They were in the snow, a perfect place for a snowfight but for the monsters and Tritoch flying around somewhere, and that always put him in a good mood. There was always something about the snow and ice that just made him...happy. Probably why he had chosen Rue as his primary element in The World.
Even though he was currently using Vak in very high quantities...
The RaVak Don took several chunks out of the Deluxe and one of the smaller ones that was too close to the blast radius but left it still alive. The burning rocks were swiftly followed up by a wave of fireballs via a BiVak Kruz that left the Blademaster snowman a oozing puddle on the ground. However, that left another Snowman Supreme in the way, and this wasn't the injured one from before. However, he'd noticed just a bit ago while casting the Vak magic that something was boosting its power, probably the little red orbs that were liberally sprinkled over the battlefield. Come to think of it, hadn't one of the Freedom Fighters done something like that in the prison? Well...maybe that was him then, although he hadn't talked to the man.
Regardless, he was glad for the help, since it made his spells considerably more destructive. Which he would need against the much larger and deadly snowman he was up against now. One who wielded a very impressive Heavy Blade sword that looked more like a pike which had been broadened out and turned into a real blade. It had length that he was not happy facing. However, he had a few tricks up his sleeve, so it was time for some magical fun. His first move was a BiVak Rom, fire encircling the slow moving Supreme. Only problem was, it was a simple level two spell...until he joined it with a MeGan Rom. It didn't take long for the fire to turn the rock into a molten tornado with the poor snowman at the center, spitting out a charred and smoldering monster that was still very pissed and alive.
His eyes widened as a typical avatar of Merrows suddenly rose up in front of him at the same time that a LaRue Zot exploded from underneath his feet. Brutally cold ice shot into his arms and legs as he lunged out of the range of the LaRue Zot, or at least tried to. He was still hit badly in three different places and was in near perfect conditions when a slab of pure ice slammed down on top of him from the Merrows. Wincing and in a lot of pain, he took out two Health Drinks and drained them both, feeling the damage get healed and wincing before the flood of healing energy sealed the wounds closed.
His retaliation was swift and the Vulcan Ch had encased the Snowman Supreme in a fiery holocaust before the monster had a chance to figure out what was heading its way. Switching back to the Firedrake Bone, he let off another RaVak Don and watched the monster burn under the might of three falling magical bombs. However, it came at a heavy cost of SP, and he was out of it almost entirely. On the other hand...the way to Kira was quite clear right now.
He arrived a little out of breath and wished that a Wavemster's body held more stamina in it when fresh from being a regular avatar. Or maybe this was always how it was going to be, simply because he was that little weak wizard. Regardless, he had a little bit of cheer in his face as his adrenaline pumped around and around his body. Probably, now that he thought about it, one of the few moments that they had seen him actually smile, which was a very depressing thought. Getting off of that quickly, he cast a BiVak Rom into the closest Deluxe before addressing them, followed up by another one to finish the job.
“Heyo! Wondering if you would mind if I joined you two for a little group in a group as it were. Solo fighting isn't really my specialty.”
Kira glanced over at the small Archer busily slapping her way through varying snowmen and back to Takua with a raised eyebrow. "What happened to being support for Demorian, eh?"
He gestured out into the swarm of snowmen and Freedom Fighters and to the Rue based Blademaster who was currently blowing through mobs. It was a damn impressive pace and not one that many people would be able to keep up with. "If I could keep up with him, I would, but by the time I could cast a spell I'd be more likely to hit him than I would the monster that I wanted to hit. Whenever Tritoch arrives I'll probably go back to supporting him then, but right now it doesn't exactly look like he wants the help either."
"Why back us up and not some of the others?"
There was a rather badly timed twitch that came when Sheila decided to be merciless, and he wanted to strangle her for that as well as a few other things. God only knew what Kira was going to make of that, probably conclude he was lying or something. Regardless, his answer was true as far as he knew, he was just leaving out something he wasn't going to talk about here. That was something for later, in private. "Other than Talal, I've worked with you two the most and am more comfortable fighting with people I've worked with before."
"...suit yourself then. Don't forget that your first priority is to keep an eye on Demorian and be his back up."
Not even bothering to nod to the woman who had just charged back in, he set about buffing those that needed it. Demorian again, Sekai and Kira, himself, Zan and Dien (he did owe the Blademaster something for hitting him with a Vulcan Ch after all) were all enhanced with an Ap Do to give them an extra boost in speed. Consuming yet another Mage's Soul and wishing that he could cast Rig Geam, he found his target in another Deluxe that looked like it was just about ripe. Noting that it looked like a Heavy Axe, he blasted it with a single RaVak Don and watched it die under the weight of a barrage of heat. After that, he moved in to cover the two women and anyone else that he saw. With any luck, he'd save their backs just as often as they might save his.
((OOC:
Snowmen: 105/300 (20 lightly injured.)
Deluxe: 115/150 (9 lightly injured, 2 moderately injured.)
Supreme: 22/50 (6 lightly injured.)))
Okay...not happy with that right now. Or with the voices that seemed to float in the storm, surrounding him, whispering things that could be said around him. Worse, he could hear Demorian's voice behind him as the Blademaster ravaged the snowmen, saying things that had to be his imagination. Gritting his teeth, he chugged two Mage's Souls and took out his staff in a hurry. Busy the mind in fighting and ignore what he was seeing and hearing other than the fight itself and hope that what he saw and heard wasn't an illusion as well.
However, before he wanted to get thoroughly involved in fighting, he wanted to find a partner or a group that he could fight closely alongside with. This...slaughter with each person going their own way, loosely clumped around Nall and Sheena, didn't fit his tastes. Sure, he could understand why people might do it, but covering someone else's back just seemed...better. Being taken out from behind wasn't a good thing, and if you had someone else watching it you weren't nearly as likely to be surprised by an enemy. Or if you were simply overwhelmed. A little odd though that the Freedom Fighters would be so individual instead of working closely with each other. Or maybe he was just being ridiculous. After all, he'd only been here for...well, not even a day. What the hell did he know compared to those people who had been here for years or longer?
Still, in this fight where he could easily be overwhelmed or backstabbed by snowmen or his own delusions, he needed someone to group up with. The first person that his gaze fell upon caused him to hesitate, given that he really didn't need to bug them again...but he ended up doing it anyways. Maybe he was just being filled with his usual self-doubt and paranoia.
Of course, there was still the matter of fighting his way through a wall of snowmen in order to get to them. Somewhat annoying, but certainly not impossible. Plus, he was fighting...well, regular monsters. He could have fun fighting regular monsters, unlike when he was killing an actual human being.
The first one to fall inside of his sights was a pristine and untouched Deluxe version who was headed right his way in the first place. Seeing a charging snowman on skis reminded him of just how awesome this really was, fighting for their lives aside. They were in the snow, a perfect place for a snowfight but for the monsters and Tritoch flying around somewhere, and that always put him in a good mood. There was always something about the snow and ice that just made him...happy. Probably why he had chosen Rue as his primary element in The World.
Even though he was currently using Vak in very high quantities...
The RaVak Don took several chunks out of the Deluxe and one of the smaller ones that was too close to the blast radius but left it still alive. The burning rocks were swiftly followed up by a wave of fireballs via a BiVak Kruz that left the Blademaster snowman a oozing puddle on the ground. However, that left another Snowman Supreme in the way, and this wasn't the injured one from before. However, he'd noticed just a bit ago while casting the Vak magic that something was boosting its power, probably the little red orbs that were liberally sprinkled over the battlefield. Come to think of it, hadn't one of the Freedom Fighters done something like that in the prison? Well...maybe that was him then, although he hadn't talked to the man.
Regardless, he was glad for the help, since it made his spells considerably more destructive. Which he would need against the much larger and deadly snowman he was up against now. One who wielded a very impressive Heavy Blade sword that looked more like a pike which had been broadened out and turned into a real blade. It had length that he was not happy facing. However, he had a few tricks up his sleeve, so it was time for some magical fun. His first move was a BiVak Rom, fire encircling the slow moving Supreme. Only problem was, it was a simple level two spell...until he joined it with a MeGan Rom. It didn't take long for the fire to turn the rock into a molten tornado with the poor snowman at the center, spitting out a charred and smoldering monster that was still very pissed and alive.
His eyes widened as a typical avatar of Merrows suddenly rose up in front of him at the same time that a LaRue Zot exploded from underneath his feet. Brutally cold ice shot into his arms and legs as he lunged out of the range of the LaRue Zot, or at least tried to. He was still hit badly in three different places and was in near perfect conditions when a slab of pure ice slammed down on top of him from the Merrows. Wincing and in a lot of pain, he took out two Health Drinks and drained them both, feeling the damage get healed and wincing before the flood of healing energy sealed the wounds closed.
His retaliation was swift and the Vulcan Ch had encased the Snowman Supreme in a fiery holocaust before the monster had a chance to figure out what was heading its way. Switching back to the Firedrake Bone, he let off another RaVak Don and watched the monster burn under the might of three falling magical bombs. However, it came at a heavy cost of SP, and he was out of it almost entirely. On the other hand...the way to Kira was quite clear right now.
He arrived a little out of breath and wished that a Wavemster's body held more stamina in it when fresh from being a regular avatar. Or maybe this was always how it was going to be, simply because he was that little weak wizard. Regardless, he had a little bit of cheer in his face as his adrenaline pumped around and around his body. Probably, now that he thought about it, one of the few moments that they had seen him actually smile, which was a very depressing thought. Getting off of that quickly, he cast a BiVak Rom into the closest Deluxe before addressing them, followed up by another one to finish the job.
“Heyo! Wondering if you would mind if I joined you two for a little group in a group as it were. Solo fighting isn't really my specialty.”
Kira glanced over at the small Archer busily slapping her way through varying snowmen and back to Takua with a raised eyebrow. "What happened to being support for Demorian, eh?"
He gestured out into the swarm of snowmen and Freedom Fighters and to the Rue based Blademaster who was currently blowing through mobs. It was a damn impressive pace and not one that many people would be able to keep up with. "If I could keep up with him, I would, but by the time I could cast a spell I'd be more likely to hit him than I would the monster that I wanted to hit. Whenever Tritoch arrives I'll probably go back to supporting him then, but right now it doesn't exactly look like he wants the help either."
"Why back us up and not some of the others?"
There was a rather badly timed twitch that came when Sheila decided to be merciless, and he wanted to strangle her for that as well as a few other things. God only knew what Kira was going to make of that, probably conclude he was lying or something. Regardless, his answer was true as far as he knew, he was just leaving out something he wasn't going to talk about here. That was something for later, in private. "Other than Talal, I've worked with you two the most and am more comfortable fighting with people I've worked with before."
"...suit yourself then. Don't forget that your first priority is to keep an eye on Demorian and be his back up."
Not even bothering to nod to the woman who had just charged back in, he set about buffing those that needed it. Demorian again, Sekai and Kira, himself, Zan and Dien (he did owe the Blademaster something for hitting him with a Vulcan Ch after all) were all enhanced with an Ap Do to give them an extra boost in speed. Consuming yet another Mage's Soul and wishing that he could cast Rig Geam, he found his target in another Deluxe that looked like it was just about ripe. Noting that it looked like a Heavy Axe, he blasted it with a single RaVak Don and watched it die under the weight of a barrage of heat. After that, he moved in to cover the two women and anyone else that he saw. With any luck, he'd save their backs just as often as they might save his.
((OOC:
Snowmen: 105/300 (20 lightly injured.)
Deluxe: 115/150 (9 lightly injured, 2 moderately injured.)
Supreme: 22/50 (6 lightly injured.)))
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
Wiping away the snowy insides of the Snowman Supreme along his dark pants, Zan surveyed the battleground. Most of the snowmen were still there, in terms of physical existence, but their lack of ski-tastic movements put close to half of them in the dead column. Well, he had to give it to the Freedom Fighters. They were really getting used to taking on the Elite swarms. This certainly wasn’t the first time they had been surrounded by hundreds of bombarding enemies looking to stop them from some form of progress or another. Sure - if he understood the rules of the current local properly - they weren’t actually working for the big bads, more randomly spawned brawn than anything else, but just the same. With his breather now officially over, the player’s body tensed in preparation for more violence, but paused when something hot bounced off his back and exploded harmlessly in the snow next to him. Blinking, he knelt next to the miniature crater and swept a finger along the charred remains. Right then, another fell next to him. And then another. And another. And another. Another. Leaping back up, he watched as a rain of tiny meteors ripped into a legion of snowmen amidst a blanket of bright red lights. Lighteria? Damn, Zan had forgotten about that guy, but man was he grateful for his power now. He didn’t know he could go all fire rain mode too, but more power to him. When it ended, he was greeted with a thud not two feet from him. Great, what now?
Zan whipped around at the sound of Nighthand's landing, Corona Blade held at the ready, but the tension was gone almost as soon as it had arrived. “Oh. It's you.” Dull green eyes swept the Wasteland. “What can I do you for?”
“Oh, I dunno. Kill more snowmen?” He laughed, looking almost like he was having fun. “I see you're my level now. Grats.”
The Heavy Blade laughed, but it lacked a sizable chunk of enthusiasm. He still didn't know why. “Workin' on it, I promise.” The mention of his level made a curious Zan pull up his status screen. Huh. “Well damn, I guess I am. I couldn't really tell you when that happened.” A duo of tiny snowthings attempting a rear attack were downed with a kick set of snapped kicks to their annoyingly configured coal-and-carrot faces. “Did you hear that noise a second ago? If you got my Flashmail, I think that's him. I'm not so sure we have a lot of time left.”
Nighthand nodded. “Definitely him. I dunno what happened to him, but he's royally fucked up inside. I'm pretty damn thankful he didn't see me flying around up there. I'd probably not have made it back down.” He spun and slashed through one of the tiny snowmen, letting its bottom half ski on while the top fell in the dust. “Sounds like you've had a hell of a time. Then again, so have we. Went to prison, found a new ally, stuck in Yamiyo...you know, the usual.”
Zan laughed again, and this time it was a little more genuine. “Yeah. Business as usual. But if I have been through a hell of a time, I couldn't tell you what it was. That whole central tower nonsense is a blur. I woke up first in this place, but I don't remember how I got here. It's a puzzle I'm not really attempting to crack until we're in the relative clear.”
“Well, I can try to fill you in on our end at least.” He stretched, leaving himself open to a snowman, but fell to the ground at the last instant to avoid a slash. “We got our asses handed to us by a couple of the elites, when we went to rescue Nall. When we woke up, it was in the prison here. One of our fellow prisoners was Kelvin, and another was Demorian. I dunno if anyone let you know, but Demorian is Marionette.” He paused to let that sink in, then continued. “Turns out he was one of Nall's original Freedom Fighters.”
Zan seemed unfazed by the news. “Yeah, actually. Sekai gave me the heads up when I first got back. Although that Freedom Fighter news is, well, news.” Zan shrugged and swatted away an approaching little leaguer like it was a fly. “Doesn't surprise me a whole lot. It would explain a lot of the guy's motives back when he couldn't construct a proper Flashmail. And hey, wasn't Kelvin that Administrator? He want to kill us as bad as Tritoch?”
Nighthand nodded. “Yeah, he was. Turns out seeing Yamiyo and being tortured first-hand changed his mind a little. As much as it turned Tritoch against us, it turned him towards us. He took off to work on the Admin side of things, see if he can't give us a hand now and then.”
The Heavy Blade puffed out his bottom lip a tad, impressed. “Not bad. God knows that'll come in handy.” His Corona Blade fell another of the kamikaze midgets. “There anything else I should know before I go back into the Winter Wonderland-like chaos?”
“Not really. Other than Nall's really hurt, and we're gonna have to carry him out of here before too long. But you probably knew that.”
Zan nodded. “I pieced it together with Demorian's shouts and the girls' defensive grid around the guy. How did he get that fucked up?”
“Not sure, exactly, but he was being tortured in a lab. They were trying to extract the Twilight Items from him...they actually managed to rip off the armor and cape. I imagine they had trouble with the pendant.”
Zan huffed. “Well that's just fuckin' fantastic. Alright, well, with Tritoch that close, I think we have to rush this along. I'll catch you when the snowy peons are gone.” And, without waiting for a response, he waded amongst the icy throng once more.
Instead of simply slicing away the new tiny obstacles between him and another set of the more-to-his-level Supremes, Zan reduced them to little more than clustered puddles with a BiVak Rom. Amongst the monotonous snowy environment, the swirling red glow was something close to beautiful. The Heavy Blade stomped through the sludgy remains of the six minimen and met their unsuspecting giant cousin with a few crazed stabs to the sides of its melon. Halfway through the quick massacre the monster had started to turn, likely to bombard him with some ridiculously high leveled spell for a common monster, but it never got the chance to go through with its malicious little plan. Another one down. However, almost like he had suddenly split into ten different pieces, Zan was suddenly surrounded by a small army of the weakest ice creatures. Caught at the epicenter of half a dozen spells, most of them doing little to nothing thanks to Lighteria, his own Ap spell, and his forty levels on them, he dug himself in and prepared his retaliation. He’d let them think they had some kind of hold over him. It’d make the proceeding slaughter all the sweeter.
A second BiVak Rom cleared away the magic around him and took two of the snowmen out in the process. Whatever makeshift plan they had concocted seemed blown to hell with even a small loss in their numbers. Without trying to go at him again with their magic, they simply turned tail to find weaker prey. Zan, however, wasn’t so keen on that idea. A third casting of what was becoming a favorite in the current zone of the Wasteland took down half of them while another two fell to his Corona Blade and the others - damn their skis - succeeded in their cowardly tactics. Deciding to take their lead and not make himself look like a scrambling moron by giving chase, the Freedom Fighter set his eyes on simpler (albeit stronger) kills. Three of the Deluxe had set themselves in a triangular push, back-to-back, with one another. It’d make any kind of flank or back attack impossible, but they still weren’t likely to pose much of a threat. To prove his point, Zan simple barreled himself right down their middle, swinging and slashing away like an epileptic. The rather erratic style seemed to throw them off enough that, whatever damage came his way, the Heavy Blade hardly noticed amidst their quick, decisive butchering. It wasn’t over, not even close, but Zan was really starting to catch his rhythm. Good for him.
Bad for them.
((OOC:
Level 10: 87/300 (20 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 112/150 (9 Lightly Injured, 2 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 20/50 (6 Lightly Injured)
Aps: None
Other: Other
Note: I apologize for the lackluster post, but I’m going on vacation for the next week in Minnesota and just wanted to have something up to further the monster count/get something in this round.
:OOC))
Zan whipped around at the sound of Nighthand's landing, Corona Blade held at the ready, but the tension was gone almost as soon as it had arrived. “Oh. It's you.” Dull green eyes swept the Wasteland. “What can I do you for?”
“Oh, I dunno. Kill more snowmen?” He laughed, looking almost like he was having fun. “I see you're my level now. Grats.”
The Heavy Blade laughed, but it lacked a sizable chunk of enthusiasm. He still didn't know why. “Workin' on it, I promise.” The mention of his level made a curious Zan pull up his status screen. Huh. “Well damn, I guess I am. I couldn't really tell you when that happened.” A duo of tiny snowthings attempting a rear attack were downed with a kick set of snapped kicks to their annoyingly configured coal-and-carrot faces. “Did you hear that noise a second ago? If you got my Flashmail, I think that's him. I'm not so sure we have a lot of time left.”
Nighthand nodded. “Definitely him. I dunno what happened to him, but he's royally fucked up inside. I'm pretty damn thankful he didn't see me flying around up there. I'd probably not have made it back down.” He spun and slashed through one of the tiny snowmen, letting its bottom half ski on while the top fell in the dust. “Sounds like you've had a hell of a time. Then again, so have we. Went to prison, found a new ally, stuck in Yamiyo...you know, the usual.”
Zan laughed again, and this time it was a little more genuine. “Yeah. Business as usual. But if I have been through a hell of a time, I couldn't tell you what it was. That whole central tower nonsense is a blur. I woke up first in this place, but I don't remember how I got here. It's a puzzle I'm not really attempting to crack until we're in the relative clear.”
“Well, I can try to fill you in on our end at least.” He stretched, leaving himself open to a snowman, but fell to the ground at the last instant to avoid a slash. “We got our asses handed to us by a couple of the elites, when we went to rescue Nall. When we woke up, it was in the prison here. One of our fellow prisoners was Kelvin, and another was Demorian. I dunno if anyone let you know, but Demorian is Marionette.” He paused to let that sink in, then continued. “Turns out he was one of Nall's original Freedom Fighters.”
Zan seemed unfazed by the news. “Yeah, actually. Sekai gave me the heads up when I first got back. Although that Freedom Fighter news is, well, news.” Zan shrugged and swatted away an approaching little leaguer like it was a fly. “Doesn't surprise me a whole lot. It would explain a lot of the guy's motives back when he couldn't construct a proper Flashmail. And hey, wasn't Kelvin that Administrator? He want to kill us as bad as Tritoch?”
Nighthand nodded. “Yeah, he was. Turns out seeing Yamiyo and being tortured first-hand changed his mind a little. As much as it turned Tritoch against us, it turned him towards us. He took off to work on the Admin side of things, see if he can't give us a hand now and then.”
The Heavy Blade puffed out his bottom lip a tad, impressed. “Not bad. God knows that'll come in handy.” His Corona Blade fell another of the kamikaze midgets. “There anything else I should know before I go back into the Winter Wonderland-like chaos?”
“Not really. Other than Nall's really hurt, and we're gonna have to carry him out of here before too long. But you probably knew that.”
Zan nodded. “I pieced it together with Demorian's shouts and the girls' defensive grid around the guy. How did he get that fucked up?”
“Not sure, exactly, but he was being tortured in a lab. They were trying to extract the Twilight Items from him...they actually managed to rip off the armor and cape. I imagine they had trouble with the pendant.”
Zan huffed. “Well that's just fuckin' fantastic. Alright, well, with Tritoch that close, I think we have to rush this along. I'll catch you when the snowy peons are gone.” And, without waiting for a response, he waded amongst the icy throng once more.
Instead of simply slicing away the new tiny obstacles between him and another set of the more-to-his-level Supremes, Zan reduced them to little more than clustered puddles with a BiVak Rom. Amongst the monotonous snowy environment, the swirling red glow was something close to beautiful. The Heavy Blade stomped through the sludgy remains of the six minimen and met their unsuspecting giant cousin with a few crazed stabs to the sides of its melon. Halfway through the quick massacre the monster had started to turn, likely to bombard him with some ridiculously high leveled spell for a common monster, but it never got the chance to go through with its malicious little plan. Another one down. However, almost like he had suddenly split into ten different pieces, Zan was suddenly surrounded by a small army of the weakest ice creatures. Caught at the epicenter of half a dozen spells, most of them doing little to nothing thanks to Lighteria, his own Ap spell, and his forty levels on them, he dug himself in and prepared his retaliation. He’d let them think they had some kind of hold over him. It’d make the proceeding slaughter all the sweeter.
A second BiVak Rom cleared away the magic around him and took two of the snowmen out in the process. Whatever makeshift plan they had concocted seemed blown to hell with even a small loss in their numbers. Without trying to go at him again with their magic, they simply turned tail to find weaker prey. Zan, however, wasn’t so keen on that idea. A third casting of what was becoming a favorite in the current zone of the Wasteland took down half of them while another two fell to his Corona Blade and the others - damn their skis - succeeded in their cowardly tactics. Deciding to take their lead and not make himself look like a scrambling moron by giving chase, the Freedom Fighter set his eyes on simpler (albeit stronger) kills. Three of the Deluxe had set themselves in a triangular push, back-to-back, with one another. It’d make any kind of flank or back attack impossible, but they still weren’t likely to pose much of a threat. To prove his point, Zan simple barreled himself right down their middle, swinging and slashing away like an epileptic. The rather erratic style seemed to throw them off enough that, whatever damage came his way, the Heavy Blade hardly noticed amidst their quick, decisive butchering. It wasn’t over, not even close, but Zan was really starting to catch his rhythm. Good for him.
Bad for them.
((OOC:
Level 10: 87/300 (20 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 112/150 (9 Lightly Injured, 2 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 20/50 (6 Lightly Injured)
Aps: None
Other: Other
Note: I apologize for the lackluster post, but I’m going on vacation for the next week in Minnesota and just wanted to have something up to further the monster count/get something in this round.
:OOC))
Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
Wishlist
Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).
Wishlist
Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
The Resurrect came faster than Baron had expected, a glow infusing his body with new vitality and bringing him back to his feet. Granted, the Twin Blade had none of his SP left, but that would regenerate over time. For now he was left with his health at full, so he could begin his retaliation. Of course, he knew better than to engage the largest of the snowmen by now; he had learned the hard way just how powerful they were. Between the level three Rue spell and the massive level difference, Baron knew that he’d simply be annihilated if he tried again, unless he was particularly careful. After all, though the pain from being sliced in two had been brief, the sickening feeling of death afterwards was just as bad, if not worse. That empty, floating feeling… it was enough to cause shivers to run up the Twin Blade’s spine. At least he wouldn’t be repeating his mistakes again, if he had his way.
One of the smaller snowmen came up to Baron, holding a pair of jagged icicles that slashed his way as it skied by. Dodging easily, the Twin Blade realized that he was facing a frozen mock-up of his own class and almost laughed to himself. He wasn’t sure what exactly about it was funny, but it was nonetheless. The laughter was good for him too; all of the sickening feelings of worry, doubt, and fear had begun leeching away the boy’s morale. Libra’s absence, as well as that of the Gemini’s, had only made the feeling worse. But now, laughing softly for no particular reason at a poorly-constructed snowman, Baron felt his heart lift just a little bit. And, for the first time since arriving at the Yamiyo server, he felt hope. Maybe things would turn out right- they just had to believe.
The conviction in itself lent strength to Baron as he ran forward, quickly decapitating the snowman with a slash from his blades. The silver-black edges of his Akatsuki tore through the snow with ease, not even meeting resistance once as he left the head to melt on the ground, the body fuzzing out before just vanishing. A raise of his hand used up the little bit of SP that the Twin Blade had recovered, sending a scorching Vak Rom to surround another one of the snowmen. This one was another Wavemaster, and it counted with a Rue Kruz that send shards of ice stabbing into Baron’s hastily-raised arms. The blows stung, and a few jagged pieces of ice cut his skin to leave tiny trails of blood. Oddly enough though, the boy didn’t seem to notice as he threw one of his weapons, the blade burying itself deep in the snowman’s face, stopping at the hilt. Running forward and leaping, the Twin Blade grabbed his weapon as he sailed over his opponent, pulling it along the length of the snowball that made up the monster’s head. As he landed, he turned and brought both of his weapons around in a cross-sweep, the snowman losing its head. The two halves landed on opposite sides of the collapsing body.
Once the creature was dead, Baron immediately downed a Mage’s Soul, setting his SP just short of full. Following it was a Speed Charm as the Twin Blade glanced over the battlefield, getting an idea of how the others were faring. Piles of snow that had once been the swarm of monsters coming their way were all over the place, indicating that the rest of the Freedom Fighters had been pulling their weight through the battle. Baron almost felt weak, looking at the list of casualties compared to his own. Of course, the others had their Twilight abilities, their “hacks,” but it still gave the Twin Blade an annoying twinge of inferiority. It was time for him to make his own move and prove that he was a valuable part of the group before his own abilities ever manifested.
Time to kick it up a notch.
A pair of spells washed over him as Baron quickly swapped out his foot armor twice, the boosts from the Ap Corv and Ap Corma making him suddenly more formidable. Any attack from him, be it his physical strikes or a powerful spell, would all be amplified to do much more damage, even to the giant snowmen that had crushed him before. Swapping his Vak set back on, Baron grinned and looked to find his next targets. He was in luck as a small battalion of a half-dozen small snowmen were charging, led by one of the slightly larger ones. A pair of Rue Rom spells heralded their attack, the icy tornadoes slicing small cuts across the Twin Blade’s body. However, he didn’t flinch under the assault but instead smiled even wider, raising his hand with a burning Vak spell rising to mind. Before releasing the power of a Vulcan spell upon the mob, a Dek Vakz made them all the weaker. The summon was released a moment later, pure elemental Vak energy slamming into the crew and melting them all to slush in an instant.
Baron blinked in surprise, unaware that his spell would be so powerful. He had expected the lesser snowmen to die from the assault from the level difference and the increased damage from the buff/debuff combo, but their impromptu “leader” shouldn’t have been eliminated. Something else had enhanced his Vulcan spell, and the Twin Blade whispered a prayer of thanks. Maybe the gods of The World really were watching over them.
Yeah right…
Shaking his head and laughing again to himself, Baron glanced over the battlefield. For a moment it seemed he had a breather, as there weren’t any snowmen in his immediate vicinity. Of course, he didn’t plan on staying in place and leaving the others to fight. He looked for any points of particularly fierce fighting, surprised he wasn’t more worried about the pain, the injury, or even potential death. Oddly enough, it felt as if that part of him was detached and inconsequential.
Baron’s glance fell upon a Heavy Blade fighting against some of the larger snowmen, and with a widening of his eyes the Twin Blade recognized him. It was Zan, the Heavy Blade from the Eventide Crescendo! The man whose Twilight enabled him to turn into a wolf of sorts, from what Baron had seen. He had experienced the strength of that feral beast before, back in the fight against the Falls Golem, where a light backhand had sent him flying several feet backwards into a tree. But at the end of the prison, when the group had been forced to suddenly retreat, Zan had simply vanished to who-knew-where. Baron had almost forgotten him for a bit, more caught up in everything that had happened, but here the Heavy Blade was, seemingly whole and well! Well, whole anyway. There was something different to the man’s stance and appearance, something that the Twin Blade couldn’t quite place, but it was there. Ignoring the thought for a moment, he ran up to the man quickly, his Ap Do from the Speed Charm giving him a bit of extra speed.
“Zan? Is that you? What happened after the Juk Prison, where’d you vanish to? We were all worried.”
Baron was surprised as Zan laughed at the question. It wasn’t a laugh to suggest something was funny, merely an empty sound. "Man, I couldn't even begin to say. I don't even remember bits and pieces of that place, let alone when or how we stopped being there. The last thing I recall is heading down towards the second basement level, and then...nothing. I woke up in this insane place, which is apparently Yamiyo, and was found by this troupe of players looking to climb the central tower. My memory gets fuzzy again up until that whole thing with Tritoch."
A batch of snowmen were quickly torched by a Vak spell from the Heavy Blade as he answered. Baron nodded quickly, only understanding bits and pieces of what Zan was talking about, especially since he had only glanced at the flashmail that mentioned this Tritoch person, whoever he was. Regardless though, he knew that the man must have been through a lot. "I see. Did something happen to you? You seem... different. It's hard to explain but there's just something subtle that's nagging at me."
The same laugh came again. "You and me both, kid. Other than the fact that my wolf died and there's...well, it doesn't matter. But suffice to say, yeah, what made me me is gone. I also can't seem to be genuinely happy, even after being back with my friends. It's like I'm mourning, but I don't know why. It's more than the identity crisis bullshit."That was an interesting turn of phrase… had something happened to Zan’s Twilight abilities? "Have you been in contact with Gyl? I think maybe he's the one that got you guys out."
Baron started to answer, but paused a moment to throw one of his weapons directly at Zan… and past the man’s shoulder. A smaller snowman, surely no threat to the Heavy Blade, had started to sneak up behind him. The thrown blade caught it directly in the face and sent the head smashing against the ground, quickly dissolving into powder. Retrieving his weapon, Baron looked over his shoulder at Zan. “No, I haven’t heard a word from him, not since that Flashmail that took us to the field where Xenobia comatosed the whole lot of us. I figure that it was probably forged and sent to us as a trap, so that means our last guaranteed contact was sometime during the end of the Juk Prison, when we were suddenly pulled out. I’m not sure exactly what happened, it was all so fast.”
Zan groaned. "Great. Just another thing to worry about. That kid was in enough trouble before all of this went down. How about Nemera? Sidhe? Even Alanna?"
"Absolutely nothing. It's like the entire spine of the Eventide Crescendo just vanished, leaving the few of us still remaining without a clue as to what to do. Of course, we didn't have to wait long for a purpose- we ended up here less than a day after our 'escape.'"
"This is going to eat at me. I don't know. I felt like these guys could handle themselves, but that the Eventide Crescendo really needed my help, you know? And now I failed the whole thing, and we don't even know what's happened."
Another pause went by as a pair of snowmen fell under a powerful Vulcan spell, melted to slush in an instant. "Well, Nemera was sick, possibly dying, Alana was missing an arm, and Sidhe was exhausted beyond measure. They normally can handle themselves, but they were weakened enough... Assuming the worst, they're dead, and all we can do is move forward, try to do what we can and finish what they started. Best case, if they're alive, we'll find them somewhere. I'd personally like to believe the latter, but... I don't know."
Zan broke from the conversation quickly. "Well, I wish I was as talented at brushing the whole thing off as you, Baron. Anyway, we can talk later, there are some snowmen that need some killing."
Such a true statement, but Baron paused to reflect on Zan’s words. “I wish I was as talented as brushing the whole thing off as you.” Thinking about it, the Twin Blade winced and wondered how he had done so. It wasn’t that he wasn’t concerned for the fate of the Eventide leaders, especially in the state they had been in, but he was helpless to do anything about it now. He was- well, the word was resigned, he supposed- resigned to the fact that Nemera and Sidhe could be dead. It was like a dull knife twisting in his chest, just thinking up the words again, but there was no help for it. At a time where The World was just as physical as the real world, just as authentic, there was no sense in ignoring a possibility, grim as it was. Baron whispered a soft prayer for the two leaders, as well as Alana, before he threw himself back into the fray.
Not that The World has any gods to hear it…
((OOC:
Level 10: 78/300 (15 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 110/150 (8 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 20/50 (6 Lightly Injured)
))
One of the smaller snowmen came up to Baron, holding a pair of jagged icicles that slashed his way as it skied by. Dodging easily, the Twin Blade realized that he was facing a frozen mock-up of his own class and almost laughed to himself. He wasn’t sure what exactly about it was funny, but it was nonetheless. The laughter was good for him too; all of the sickening feelings of worry, doubt, and fear had begun leeching away the boy’s morale. Libra’s absence, as well as that of the Gemini’s, had only made the feeling worse. But now, laughing softly for no particular reason at a poorly-constructed snowman, Baron felt his heart lift just a little bit. And, for the first time since arriving at the Yamiyo server, he felt hope. Maybe things would turn out right- they just had to believe.
The conviction in itself lent strength to Baron as he ran forward, quickly decapitating the snowman with a slash from his blades. The silver-black edges of his Akatsuki tore through the snow with ease, not even meeting resistance once as he left the head to melt on the ground, the body fuzzing out before just vanishing. A raise of his hand used up the little bit of SP that the Twin Blade had recovered, sending a scorching Vak Rom to surround another one of the snowmen. This one was another Wavemaster, and it counted with a Rue Kruz that send shards of ice stabbing into Baron’s hastily-raised arms. The blows stung, and a few jagged pieces of ice cut his skin to leave tiny trails of blood. Oddly enough though, the boy didn’t seem to notice as he threw one of his weapons, the blade burying itself deep in the snowman’s face, stopping at the hilt. Running forward and leaping, the Twin Blade grabbed his weapon as he sailed over his opponent, pulling it along the length of the snowball that made up the monster’s head. As he landed, he turned and brought both of his weapons around in a cross-sweep, the snowman losing its head. The two halves landed on opposite sides of the collapsing body.
Once the creature was dead, Baron immediately downed a Mage’s Soul, setting his SP just short of full. Following it was a Speed Charm as the Twin Blade glanced over the battlefield, getting an idea of how the others were faring. Piles of snow that had once been the swarm of monsters coming their way were all over the place, indicating that the rest of the Freedom Fighters had been pulling their weight through the battle. Baron almost felt weak, looking at the list of casualties compared to his own. Of course, the others had their Twilight abilities, their “hacks,” but it still gave the Twin Blade an annoying twinge of inferiority. It was time for him to make his own move and prove that he was a valuable part of the group before his own abilities ever manifested.
Time to kick it up a notch.
A pair of spells washed over him as Baron quickly swapped out his foot armor twice, the boosts from the Ap Corv and Ap Corma making him suddenly more formidable. Any attack from him, be it his physical strikes or a powerful spell, would all be amplified to do much more damage, even to the giant snowmen that had crushed him before. Swapping his Vak set back on, Baron grinned and looked to find his next targets. He was in luck as a small battalion of a half-dozen small snowmen were charging, led by one of the slightly larger ones. A pair of Rue Rom spells heralded their attack, the icy tornadoes slicing small cuts across the Twin Blade’s body. However, he didn’t flinch under the assault but instead smiled even wider, raising his hand with a burning Vak spell rising to mind. Before releasing the power of a Vulcan spell upon the mob, a Dek Vakz made them all the weaker. The summon was released a moment later, pure elemental Vak energy slamming into the crew and melting them all to slush in an instant.
Baron blinked in surprise, unaware that his spell would be so powerful. He had expected the lesser snowmen to die from the assault from the level difference and the increased damage from the buff/debuff combo, but their impromptu “leader” shouldn’t have been eliminated. Something else had enhanced his Vulcan spell, and the Twin Blade whispered a prayer of thanks. Maybe the gods of The World really were watching over them.
Yeah right…
Shaking his head and laughing again to himself, Baron glanced over the battlefield. For a moment it seemed he had a breather, as there weren’t any snowmen in his immediate vicinity. Of course, he didn’t plan on staying in place and leaving the others to fight. He looked for any points of particularly fierce fighting, surprised he wasn’t more worried about the pain, the injury, or even potential death. Oddly enough, it felt as if that part of him was detached and inconsequential.
Baron’s glance fell upon a Heavy Blade fighting against some of the larger snowmen, and with a widening of his eyes the Twin Blade recognized him. It was Zan, the Heavy Blade from the Eventide Crescendo! The man whose Twilight enabled him to turn into a wolf of sorts, from what Baron had seen. He had experienced the strength of that feral beast before, back in the fight against the Falls Golem, where a light backhand had sent him flying several feet backwards into a tree. But at the end of the prison, when the group had been forced to suddenly retreat, Zan had simply vanished to who-knew-where. Baron had almost forgotten him for a bit, more caught up in everything that had happened, but here the Heavy Blade was, seemingly whole and well! Well, whole anyway. There was something different to the man’s stance and appearance, something that the Twin Blade couldn’t quite place, but it was there. Ignoring the thought for a moment, he ran up to the man quickly, his Ap Do from the Speed Charm giving him a bit of extra speed.
“Zan? Is that you? What happened after the Juk Prison, where’d you vanish to? We were all worried.”
Baron was surprised as Zan laughed at the question. It wasn’t a laugh to suggest something was funny, merely an empty sound. "Man, I couldn't even begin to say. I don't even remember bits and pieces of that place, let alone when or how we stopped being there. The last thing I recall is heading down towards the second basement level, and then...nothing. I woke up in this insane place, which is apparently Yamiyo, and was found by this troupe of players looking to climb the central tower. My memory gets fuzzy again up until that whole thing with Tritoch."
A batch of snowmen were quickly torched by a Vak spell from the Heavy Blade as he answered. Baron nodded quickly, only understanding bits and pieces of what Zan was talking about, especially since he had only glanced at the flashmail that mentioned this Tritoch person, whoever he was. Regardless though, he knew that the man must have been through a lot. "I see. Did something happen to you? You seem... different. It's hard to explain but there's just something subtle that's nagging at me."
The same laugh came again. "You and me both, kid. Other than the fact that my wolf died and there's...well, it doesn't matter. But suffice to say, yeah, what made me me is gone. I also can't seem to be genuinely happy, even after being back with my friends. It's like I'm mourning, but I don't know why. It's more than the identity crisis bullshit."That was an interesting turn of phrase… had something happened to Zan’s Twilight abilities? "Have you been in contact with Gyl? I think maybe he's the one that got you guys out."
Baron started to answer, but paused a moment to throw one of his weapons directly at Zan… and past the man’s shoulder. A smaller snowman, surely no threat to the Heavy Blade, had started to sneak up behind him. The thrown blade caught it directly in the face and sent the head smashing against the ground, quickly dissolving into powder. Retrieving his weapon, Baron looked over his shoulder at Zan. “No, I haven’t heard a word from him, not since that Flashmail that took us to the field where Xenobia comatosed the whole lot of us. I figure that it was probably forged and sent to us as a trap, so that means our last guaranteed contact was sometime during the end of the Juk Prison, when we were suddenly pulled out. I’m not sure exactly what happened, it was all so fast.”
Zan groaned. "Great. Just another thing to worry about. That kid was in enough trouble before all of this went down. How about Nemera? Sidhe? Even Alanna?"
"Absolutely nothing. It's like the entire spine of the Eventide Crescendo just vanished, leaving the few of us still remaining without a clue as to what to do. Of course, we didn't have to wait long for a purpose- we ended up here less than a day after our 'escape.'"
"This is going to eat at me. I don't know. I felt like these guys could handle themselves, but that the Eventide Crescendo really needed my help, you know? And now I failed the whole thing, and we don't even know what's happened."
Another pause went by as a pair of snowmen fell under a powerful Vulcan spell, melted to slush in an instant. "Well, Nemera was sick, possibly dying, Alana was missing an arm, and Sidhe was exhausted beyond measure. They normally can handle themselves, but they were weakened enough... Assuming the worst, they're dead, and all we can do is move forward, try to do what we can and finish what they started. Best case, if they're alive, we'll find them somewhere. I'd personally like to believe the latter, but... I don't know."
Zan broke from the conversation quickly. "Well, I wish I was as talented at brushing the whole thing off as you, Baron. Anyway, we can talk later, there are some snowmen that need some killing."
Such a true statement, but Baron paused to reflect on Zan’s words. “I wish I was as talented as brushing the whole thing off as you.” Thinking about it, the Twin Blade winced and wondered how he had done so. It wasn’t that he wasn’t concerned for the fate of the Eventide leaders, especially in the state they had been in, but he was helpless to do anything about it now. He was- well, the word was resigned, he supposed- resigned to the fact that Nemera and Sidhe could be dead. It was like a dull knife twisting in his chest, just thinking up the words again, but there was no help for it. At a time where The World was just as physical as the real world, just as authentic, there was no sense in ignoring a possibility, grim as it was. Baron whispered a soft prayer for the two leaders, as well as Alana, before he threw himself back into the fray.
Not that The World has any gods to hear it…
((OOC:
Level 10: 78/300 (15 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 110/150 (8 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 20/50 (6 Lightly Injured)
))
Character Information
Baron | Level 47 Twin Blade [100/1000 EXP] | 891 HP / 265 SP
Weapon: Fishskin
Armor: Emperor's Crown/Bone Armor/Thunder Gloves/Ninja Anklet
Accessories/Books: Ethereal Angel Wings, Silver Grunty
Skills: Thunder Coil, Gale of Swords
Spells: Merrows, GiRai Don, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot, Rai Don, Ani Don, Duk Lei
GP: 750 (As of 8/2/15)
Wishlist: Nny Scales, Lucky Shoes, Saint Cross, Greave Sticker, Pet EX-Levels/Spheres(!)
Baron | Level 47 Twin Blade [100/1000 EXP] | 891 HP / 265 SP
Weapon: Fishskin
Armor: Emperor's Crown/Bone Armor/Thunder Gloves/Ninja Anklet
Accessories/Books: Ethereal Angel Wings, Silver Grunty
Skills: Thunder Coil, Gale of Swords
Spells: Merrows, GiRai Don, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot, Rai Don, Ani Don, Duk Lei
GP: 750 (As of 8/2/15)
Wishlist: Nny Scales, Lucky Shoes, Saint Cross, Greave Sticker, Pet EX-Levels/Spheres(!)
- Dien
- Exalted Player
- Posts: 226
- Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 1:59 am
- Class: Blademaster
- Location: The "Who's Online List," Stalking People...
Part 10
It didn’t take long for one of his teammates to revive him from death, though part of him really wished it had taken longer. He’d had the chance to look at Zan’s flashmail a bit closer. If the central tower referred to was the same one they were making haste away from, then they’d need to squeeze every drop of information out of the not-a-wolfman that they could when they got a chance. Of course that would come later: there were snowmen to worry about first, and then a giant elemental chimera of impending doom. Perhaps Zan and Tritoch had met the Master? That would be something.
But back to the matters at hand, the blademaster was remembering a spell he’d seen Demorian cast: Ranki Lei had been used on one of the Rogues to make it attack its ally. While neither that nor Miu Lei were in Dien’s repertoire, the concept was still one worthy of notice. Take two of the big snowmen and get them to attack one another, and they’d probably have one another dead faster than the blademaster would alone. That would actually work beautifully. If he got one of the giant heavyblades to fight one of the giant heavy axeman by agro-ing them both on himself as he sat in very close quarters between them by repeated area skills and spells, then their strikes would very likely only land on one another as they tried to hit him.
Life was restored, and he smirked. “Thanks Senna!” he shouted, turning to track down the candidates for his dastardly plan. Spotting the big ones through the turbid atmosphere that was being thrown into chaos amidst the constant battles between the heat and cold was no simple task. There was a lot of snow, and after a certain point the trees seemed to obscure everything around. “Come on!” he urged, eyes peering into the blight in search of the large, heavy-class snowmen. The speedier, smaller species were available in vast array, but they weren’t much of a challenge against him—so long as they weren’t casting any summon spells.
However, as he prepared to issue his challenge in the form of a Vak Kruz spell, it appeared that someone else had already decided upon a fiery doom for most of their opponents. Between the orange haze that covered the field and the fire and brimstone that was raining down from the sky, the scene was turning very quickly into something of a snowman apocalypse. While his plan was good in theory, it would probably be better to wait until the barrage had ended so as to avoid friendly fire. Sticking his sword out clotheslined another of the fastest ones who was trying to avoid the melting plague from the sky. It rolled on the ground in two pieces, slowly trying to pull itself together as Dien delivered a stab to the thing’s head, letting the rest of it shatter into a million tiny snowflakes. A muffled screech from above drew his attention, and through the light of the clouds he thought he could make out the falling form of their fearless leader. Okay, so maybe not so much falling as speeding through a controlled descent. He landed in front of Zan, and after a few short words, the blademaster noticed something: the barrage was over.
“Oh because that makes so much sense,” he said aloud, trying to locate the ideal pair of snowmen for his plan of sabotage. Rue Rom formed around him, and he sidestepped, activating a fire scroll in the appropriate direction of response to decimate the foolish monster who’d thought it proper to unleash a spell on him. Not that it mattered: the damage was minimal, and would be healed by Rig Saem before he’d be able to attack the two snow-giants. As for the snowman, its death hadn’t quite been secured by the fire spell, so Dien turned and threw his sword at it, the blade spinning end over end before chopping straight through and letting the thing fall to the earth. Changing swords for Fire & Sky called Jinsaran back to his inventory, and the blademaster pulled out a fire scroll to replenish the one he’d used.
Spotting one of the most abominable snowmen around, the blademaster let the spell fly, stopping the thing in its tracks and hastily making his way towards it. He’d need to be particularly clever to pull this one off. He paused right in front of the thing, letting the blaze about it cease before brandishing his weapon and beginning to backpedal. As he’d planned, the wrath of the snowman had been incited. But the thing was a bit faster than he’d anticipated, and as his eyes widened as he realized it was gaining on him quickly in his backpedal through the snow. Cursing inwardly, he spun around and used his last Speed Charm to aide his steps. He shouldn’t have been surprised when he didn’t move as fast as he’d hoped—but he was. Adrenaline filled his veins as he darted to one side, narrowly avoiding a hefty Rue Don spell from the thing behind him. This was going to be a bit trickier than he’d thought. He needed to find a second target quickly.
To your right, Danielle noted, and the blademaster turned his head. There, amidst the trees was exactly the mark he’d been looking for. Thanks, he thought, and pulled a hard turn, rolling once or twice in the snow before starting off in the direction of his new target. Chunks of earth and ice shot from behind him, and a quick check over his shoulder revealed that the massive ice axe of the behemoth he’d agro’d was being pulled out of the earth as it turned to follow him. Or rather, it wasn’t being pulled out of the earth, it was being pulled through the earth, the monster evidently having no reason to try and pull it out again before moving on. Note to self: don’t get hit by the giant ice-axe. He looked ahead, noting a similar weapon on the other snowman he was heading towards. Noted.
He was still a good ten yards off when the runes for another Rue spell began to light his path, and he quickly dove left, sliding in the snow as his feet took the damage from a level 2 Rom. The blademaster cursed, pushing off the ground and trying to ignore the pain as the wounds closed themselves. One more fire scroll would be needed, and fortunately that was just one reach into his bag awa—wait, where was his bag? Panic washed over him once again as he stopped mid-step to try and locate the crucial bulge that had gone missing from his thigh. And just as he spotted it, the bumbling behemoth ball of slush slid right on top of it. The blademaster let out an audible whimper, torn between trying to push the thing off and returning to his pursuit of the other snowman. Logic dictated that he should try for the second target, but the longer his bag was under the ice-skis of that enemy, the lower his chances of ever seeing it again.
Really, Dien? Just hit the second mark… The disappointment and frustration in her voice was unexpected, though it made sense given the situation. But I like my bag! he retorted, expecting the girl to understand his almost unnatural attachment to the thing. It was one of the few pieces that remained on his costume from when he’d first signed on—it had been with him through everything, and now it was being crushed underski by a giant snowman. Still, she was right: his bag would have to wait. He’d need it soon, but for the time being he could make do without it.
Rig Geam was in place, and the blademaster changed out his armor for the highest he owned, prepared to take a bit of punishment in case his plan didn’t quite work as well as he hoped. Ap Do was still going strong, and the blademaster made one last push towards the spell-sniping, heavy-axe-wielding snowman. To this point, it was something of a miracle that he hadn’t yet been noticed by the thing. One more of the smallest of Frosty’s Friends™ happened to be in his way, and a quick slash down its middle turned it into the flaky wet powder that coated the rest of the ground in uneven clumps. “Gan Crack!” He shouted, leaping high into the air and closing the distance between himself and his gargantuan target. So it wouldn’t yield the elemental critical he’d hoped—he was more trying to get the thing’s attention anyway. Which it did. Hues of orange and brown flowed in a shadowy haze about his blade as it carved through the snowman’s back and crashed into the ground.
It turned slowly, glancing over its shoulder at the flea that had just bitten. Dien, too, glanced over his shoulder, quickly finding the giant who he’d been luring to himself. “Come on!” He shouted for what felt like the umpteen-millionth time this fight. Whether or not these enemies could hear him was debatable, but he knew one thing was for sure as he turned to face his second enemy: he was going to have to be careful. The sculpture heaved a giant axe over its shoulder and spun the rest of its body round to match the blademaster who’d seen fit to aggravate it. Both of its stickly arms grasped the disproportionately large (and heavy) weapon and hoisted it high into the sky. Dien’s eyes darted to the first snowman to find out where he sat: two feet behind him and in the same posture as snowman two. Evading one of the monstrous weapons in close quarters combat was going to be difficult, but two…he desperately hoped that they’d be halted on one another’s bodies.
Matoi was swapped for Fire & Sky, and the blademaster activated its AoE skill: Vak Revolver. At the least, it would attack both opponents at once and draw them closer: at most, it would give both an elemental critical that would make his survival of this stunt slightly less of an improbability. The axes cleaved through the frozen air, quickly driving towards their target…only to be stopped mid-arc by the bodies of their comrades. The damage was halved due to their elemental affiliations, but it was still than the blademaster could have hoped for. Dien smirked, and then proceeded to unleash his own attack on the snowballs to make them forget that they’d just attacked one another.
“Vak Revolver!” he shouted, spinning once as his blade was imbued with the orange-red glow of the fire element. Twice the words “Elemental Critical” rose from the wounds he inflicted, and he laughed at his own success. This might actually work! he thought, watching as the two snowmen pulled their weapons out of one another and wound up for another go at taking down the thorn that was pressed between them. The skill was called a second time and another pair of Elemental Critical phrases rose from the deepened gashes. Once again the snowmen’s axes plowed deep into one another’s shoulders in a misguided attempt to crush the blademaster who’d sown the seeds of destruction between them. With a third Vak Revolver, another pair of Elemental Criticals, the snowmen shattered, white dust and powder filling the skies in their absence before drifting lazily to the earth.
“Now, where’s my bag?” he asked, turning and following the ski tracks back from the first snowman whose wrath he’d incited. There, lying as a sad and battered leather sack in the snow some thirty feet away, was the odd leather bag that he’d concocted for himself. With a huff that danced before his face like an odd cloud, he began walking toward it. His legs felt like he’d just been running a marathon—which on some level was very true. Moving through snow was not an easy thing by any stretch, and even though he was practiced in it since his youth, it still took a lot out of him. However, he hadn’t taken two steps before another rune made the earth glow blue beneath him.
“Oh for the love of God!” he shouted, gritting his teeth in preparation for whatever spell was being called against him. Dien dove, knowing that he probably wouldn’t be able to escape the radius of the spell entirely, and already well worn out by his last tactic. From below, a complex of inverted icicles and other frozen spires erupted, running him through and shredding his flesh against them as they flung him into the air. It was the same spell he’d used to launch himself at his opponent in a duel of ages past, but this time his fate was significantly worse. It felt like his legs had been severed from the shins, and that everything below the waist was beyond repair. Looking down revealed bloodstains on his clothes to match what his nerves were feeding to him, but absolutely no damage to the flesh.
Still, the bag needed retrieval. Yes, his legs hurt, but they were still usable in a conundrum he’d thrown to the back of his mind since he first discovered it. While it did allow for options like not breathing, it was too much to try and wrap his mind around or get used to. For instance, if he got used to still being able to use his legs after it felt like they’d been snapped off, that would be a horribly convenient thing in the real world, should that ever happen. Granted, the chances were slim, but the point remained. Slowly it numbed away, Rig Saem still working hard, and Dien pulled himself up, trudging through the slush and ice to his bag. That the snowman who’d decided to attack him hadn’t decided to keep attacking him was something of a miracle, but it was simply uncanny that it was allowing him to refasten the thing to his belt—along with all the others.
Needless to say he kept an eye out, which proved to be a worthwhile thing as a group of small snowmen brawlers decided to try and pig-pile on him. It was odd to him that while the majority of the little ones seemed to be speedy spell-snipers, the only ones who were attacking him were the ones that emulated heavier classes. Granted, it made sense that they’d all try to attack him at once—there was more of a chance of them actually winning if they stuck together in close-quarters combat, but what they probably didn’t count on was a pair of Vak Revolvers from the blademaster. The group dissolved around him after the skill quite literally, becoming one with the ground again. For a moment, Dien thought to sheath his sword and sit the rest of the fight out, but that wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the team—even though he could use a moment to heal up and rest.
“To hell with it,” he said, before twirling his sword about and jumping right back into the fray.
((OOC:
Level 10: 70/300 (11 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 110/150 (8 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 28/50 (6 Lightly Injured)
))
But back to the matters at hand, the blademaster was remembering a spell he’d seen Demorian cast: Ranki Lei had been used on one of the Rogues to make it attack its ally. While neither that nor Miu Lei were in Dien’s repertoire, the concept was still one worthy of notice. Take two of the big snowmen and get them to attack one another, and they’d probably have one another dead faster than the blademaster would alone. That would actually work beautifully. If he got one of the giant heavyblades to fight one of the giant heavy axeman by agro-ing them both on himself as he sat in very close quarters between them by repeated area skills and spells, then their strikes would very likely only land on one another as they tried to hit him.
Life was restored, and he smirked. “Thanks Senna!” he shouted, turning to track down the candidates for his dastardly plan. Spotting the big ones through the turbid atmosphere that was being thrown into chaos amidst the constant battles between the heat and cold was no simple task. There was a lot of snow, and after a certain point the trees seemed to obscure everything around. “Come on!” he urged, eyes peering into the blight in search of the large, heavy-class snowmen. The speedier, smaller species were available in vast array, but they weren’t much of a challenge against him—so long as they weren’t casting any summon spells.
However, as he prepared to issue his challenge in the form of a Vak Kruz spell, it appeared that someone else had already decided upon a fiery doom for most of their opponents. Between the orange haze that covered the field and the fire and brimstone that was raining down from the sky, the scene was turning very quickly into something of a snowman apocalypse. While his plan was good in theory, it would probably be better to wait until the barrage had ended so as to avoid friendly fire. Sticking his sword out clotheslined another of the fastest ones who was trying to avoid the melting plague from the sky. It rolled on the ground in two pieces, slowly trying to pull itself together as Dien delivered a stab to the thing’s head, letting the rest of it shatter into a million tiny snowflakes. A muffled screech from above drew his attention, and through the light of the clouds he thought he could make out the falling form of their fearless leader. Okay, so maybe not so much falling as speeding through a controlled descent. He landed in front of Zan, and after a few short words, the blademaster noticed something: the barrage was over.
“Oh because that makes so much sense,” he said aloud, trying to locate the ideal pair of snowmen for his plan of sabotage. Rue Rom formed around him, and he sidestepped, activating a fire scroll in the appropriate direction of response to decimate the foolish monster who’d thought it proper to unleash a spell on him. Not that it mattered: the damage was minimal, and would be healed by Rig Saem before he’d be able to attack the two snow-giants. As for the snowman, its death hadn’t quite been secured by the fire spell, so Dien turned and threw his sword at it, the blade spinning end over end before chopping straight through and letting the thing fall to the earth. Changing swords for Fire & Sky called Jinsaran back to his inventory, and the blademaster pulled out a fire scroll to replenish the one he’d used.
Spotting one of the most abominable snowmen around, the blademaster let the spell fly, stopping the thing in its tracks and hastily making his way towards it. He’d need to be particularly clever to pull this one off. He paused right in front of the thing, letting the blaze about it cease before brandishing his weapon and beginning to backpedal. As he’d planned, the wrath of the snowman had been incited. But the thing was a bit faster than he’d anticipated, and as his eyes widened as he realized it was gaining on him quickly in his backpedal through the snow. Cursing inwardly, he spun around and used his last Speed Charm to aide his steps. He shouldn’t have been surprised when he didn’t move as fast as he’d hoped—but he was. Adrenaline filled his veins as he darted to one side, narrowly avoiding a hefty Rue Don spell from the thing behind him. This was going to be a bit trickier than he’d thought. He needed to find a second target quickly.
To your right, Danielle noted, and the blademaster turned his head. There, amidst the trees was exactly the mark he’d been looking for. Thanks, he thought, and pulled a hard turn, rolling once or twice in the snow before starting off in the direction of his new target. Chunks of earth and ice shot from behind him, and a quick check over his shoulder revealed that the massive ice axe of the behemoth he’d agro’d was being pulled out of the earth as it turned to follow him. Or rather, it wasn’t being pulled out of the earth, it was being pulled through the earth, the monster evidently having no reason to try and pull it out again before moving on. Note to self: don’t get hit by the giant ice-axe. He looked ahead, noting a similar weapon on the other snowman he was heading towards. Noted.
He was still a good ten yards off when the runes for another Rue spell began to light his path, and he quickly dove left, sliding in the snow as his feet took the damage from a level 2 Rom. The blademaster cursed, pushing off the ground and trying to ignore the pain as the wounds closed themselves. One more fire scroll would be needed, and fortunately that was just one reach into his bag awa—wait, where was his bag? Panic washed over him once again as he stopped mid-step to try and locate the crucial bulge that had gone missing from his thigh. And just as he spotted it, the bumbling behemoth ball of slush slid right on top of it. The blademaster let out an audible whimper, torn between trying to push the thing off and returning to his pursuit of the other snowman. Logic dictated that he should try for the second target, but the longer his bag was under the ice-skis of that enemy, the lower his chances of ever seeing it again.
Really, Dien? Just hit the second mark… The disappointment and frustration in her voice was unexpected, though it made sense given the situation. But I like my bag! he retorted, expecting the girl to understand his almost unnatural attachment to the thing. It was one of the few pieces that remained on his costume from when he’d first signed on—it had been with him through everything, and now it was being crushed underski by a giant snowman. Still, she was right: his bag would have to wait. He’d need it soon, but for the time being he could make do without it.
Rig Geam was in place, and the blademaster changed out his armor for the highest he owned, prepared to take a bit of punishment in case his plan didn’t quite work as well as he hoped. Ap Do was still going strong, and the blademaster made one last push towards the spell-sniping, heavy-axe-wielding snowman. To this point, it was something of a miracle that he hadn’t yet been noticed by the thing. One more of the smallest of Frosty’s Friends™ happened to be in his way, and a quick slash down its middle turned it into the flaky wet powder that coated the rest of the ground in uneven clumps. “Gan Crack!” He shouted, leaping high into the air and closing the distance between himself and his gargantuan target. So it wouldn’t yield the elemental critical he’d hoped—he was more trying to get the thing’s attention anyway. Which it did. Hues of orange and brown flowed in a shadowy haze about his blade as it carved through the snowman’s back and crashed into the ground.
It turned slowly, glancing over its shoulder at the flea that had just bitten. Dien, too, glanced over his shoulder, quickly finding the giant who he’d been luring to himself. “Come on!” He shouted for what felt like the umpteen-millionth time this fight. Whether or not these enemies could hear him was debatable, but he knew one thing was for sure as he turned to face his second enemy: he was going to have to be careful. The sculpture heaved a giant axe over its shoulder and spun the rest of its body round to match the blademaster who’d seen fit to aggravate it. Both of its stickly arms grasped the disproportionately large (and heavy) weapon and hoisted it high into the sky. Dien’s eyes darted to the first snowman to find out where he sat: two feet behind him and in the same posture as snowman two. Evading one of the monstrous weapons in close quarters combat was going to be difficult, but two…he desperately hoped that they’d be halted on one another’s bodies.
Matoi was swapped for Fire & Sky, and the blademaster activated its AoE skill: Vak Revolver. At the least, it would attack both opponents at once and draw them closer: at most, it would give both an elemental critical that would make his survival of this stunt slightly less of an improbability. The axes cleaved through the frozen air, quickly driving towards their target…only to be stopped mid-arc by the bodies of their comrades. The damage was halved due to their elemental affiliations, but it was still than the blademaster could have hoped for. Dien smirked, and then proceeded to unleash his own attack on the snowballs to make them forget that they’d just attacked one another.
“Vak Revolver!” he shouted, spinning once as his blade was imbued with the orange-red glow of the fire element. Twice the words “Elemental Critical” rose from the wounds he inflicted, and he laughed at his own success. This might actually work! he thought, watching as the two snowmen pulled their weapons out of one another and wound up for another go at taking down the thorn that was pressed between them. The skill was called a second time and another pair of Elemental Critical phrases rose from the deepened gashes. Once again the snowmen’s axes plowed deep into one another’s shoulders in a misguided attempt to crush the blademaster who’d sown the seeds of destruction between them. With a third Vak Revolver, another pair of Elemental Criticals, the snowmen shattered, white dust and powder filling the skies in their absence before drifting lazily to the earth.
“Now, where’s my bag?” he asked, turning and following the ski tracks back from the first snowman whose wrath he’d incited. There, lying as a sad and battered leather sack in the snow some thirty feet away, was the odd leather bag that he’d concocted for himself. With a huff that danced before his face like an odd cloud, he began walking toward it. His legs felt like he’d just been running a marathon—which on some level was very true. Moving through snow was not an easy thing by any stretch, and even though he was practiced in it since his youth, it still took a lot out of him. However, he hadn’t taken two steps before another rune made the earth glow blue beneath him.
“Oh for the love of God!” he shouted, gritting his teeth in preparation for whatever spell was being called against him. Dien dove, knowing that he probably wouldn’t be able to escape the radius of the spell entirely, and already well worn out by his last tactic. From below, a complex of inverted icicles and other frozen spires erupted, running him through and shredding his flesh against them as they flung him into the air. It was the same spell he’d used to launch himself at his opponent in a duel of ages past, but this time his fate was significantly worse. It felt like his legs had been severed from the shins, and that everything below the waist was beyond repair. Looking down revealed bloodstains on his clothes to match what his nerves were feeding to him, but absolutely no damage to the flesh.
Still, the bag needed retrieval. Yes, his legs hurt, but they were still usable in a conundrum he’d thrown to the back of his mind since he first discovered it. While it did allow for options like not breathing, it was too much to try and wrap his mind around or get used to. For instance, if he got used to still being able to use his legs after it felt like they’d been snapped off, that would be a horribly convenient thing in the real world, should that ever happen. Granted, the chances were slim, but the point remained. Slowly it numbed away, Rig Saem still working hard, and Dien pulled himself up, trudging through the slush and ice to his bag. That the snowman who’d decided to attack him hadn’t decided to keep attacking him was something of a miracle, but it was simply uncanny that it was allowing him to refasten the thing to his belt—along with all the others.
Needless to say he kept an eye out, which proved to be a worthwhile thing as a group of small snowmen brawlers decided to try and pig-pile on him. It was odd to him that while the majority of the little ones seemed to be speedy spell-snipers, the only ones who were attacking him were the ones that emulated heavier classes. Granted, it made sense that they’d all try to attack him at once—there was more of a chance of them actually winning if they stuck together in close-quarters combat, but what they probably didn’t count on was a pair of Vak Revolvers from the blademaster. The group dissolved around him after the skill quite literally, becoming one with the ground again. For a moment, Dien thought to sheath his sword and sit the rest of the fight out, but that wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the team—even though he could use a moment to heal up and rest.
“To hell with it,” he said, before twirling his sword about and jumping right back into the fray.
((OOC:
Level 10: 70/300 (11 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 110/150 (8 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 28/50 (6 Lightly Injured)
))
-
- Exalted Player
- Posts: 300
- Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 3:58 pm
- Location: In da' plains of hell, natch.
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
(Down by the frozen needle tree, lighting up a paltry smoke, sat the winged Twin Blade. He was recuperated from his prior feat of fighting, and now prepared for Round 2...in which he would stand to use a little guile. No, not as in "Sonic Boom!". As in cleverness. There was something important that he had noted with all the Snowmen that had attacked them here, this vast waste of cold space, this blessed plot. And he was determined to take certain advantage of them. But first, it was time to get back into the fray. Standing, Canti took to sneaking behind the nearest Deluxe and twisting its neck sharply. As expected, that did absolutely nothing except for make it angry. And wouldn't you know it? It was a dual-wielder with claw-type weapons. The weird part was how it lashed out even though it was now facing him entirely backwards, forcing him to jump back. The way it slinked towards him then... You'd think it had the Soul of Voldo or something. Well, why not? You program game enemies with video games. However, if this was the actual case here... Canti waited patiently for its attack, and then sidestepped when it did a swung-down slash. The process was repeated when he did and his demon instincts told him clearly... Under the right circumstances, the AI of these Snowmen were total idiots. Nevermind. He took paltry slashes at it at close range until he used Flame Dance to elemental critical it to death. This was where things became a pain in the ass.)
Canti: Yah! Ow! Agh!
(Literally. A squad of five Level-10s had blindsided him from a distance. Three Archer-types and two Wavemasters. Stuck in a few painful areas from behind, Canti leapt right at their throng and was simultaneously Rue Don'd and Rue Zot'd, which stopped his sudden charge from being completed. Okay, so they were thinking things, to a degree. So was a monkey. He distracted them with Vak Rom and then resumed with slashing about at them. The damage via cold spells wasn't necessarily as high as it was when he used Rashou. Some of his elemental levels were elevated with Magatsu. The first of them fell over dead...and that's when the trouble really started. Have you ever heard of a closed circle? Well, Canti being more or less one of the stragglers here, keeping the Snowman numbers occupied and away from Nall and Sheena at the moment, it was only a matter of time before they decided to isolate him. And so, they did. Occupying him a handful of irritating nobodies, a mixed group ranging from the lows to the highs had surrounded him in particular. He laughed.)
Canti: Come on, what're you thinking? I can fly out of-
(That was when he heard and felt the presence of something monstrous...way way up in the air, beyond the clouds. Canti looked up, no longer finding this to be funny.)
Canti: -here.
(Something wicked this way comes. Didn't Zan mention something about an Admin going mad and changing into a hideous monster? Yeah, something like that... And it happened soon after Nighthand did something uber-heavy to the Snowman ranks too, which meant it was both Twilight and pissed, able to pick up on big explosive powers that didn't fit the Wasteland profile. That basically meant that if he went suddenly all-out on this gathering of coal-faced foes, he might attract it even more.
Canti: A mad maniacal Admin, tripping on ultimate power in the middle of a fight like this? I don't think so.
(Time for secret Plan B. But first, Canti put out his hand and caught an arrow from another Snowman with a bow and arrow. These Archers were gonna have to do better than...that? Okay, one of the Supremes had a set too, and he was suddenly launching the equivalent of a whaling harpoon at him. The arrow was launched, the Twin Blade ducked, and there was an explosion of ice shards all over the place in the circle which they had had him trapped. No sign of him after, though. Canti was gone. With fighting sounds in the background, all was quiet in the immediate area. That is...until a hand reached up and grabbed one of the small ones by the nose. The Snowman was pulled down, its head plunked in the snow and its body up-ended, and then it thrashed around wildly before going still. The other Snowmen backed away from this, but then one of the Deluxes began to spasm wildly, seemingly rooted on the spot until the whirling knives of the dark Twin Blade spouted from it. Its remains fell to the ground and there was Canti, grinning fiendishly, before diving below the surface again. The Freedom Fighters were in a snow-filled environment in which regular traction was hard because of a couple feet of snow, snow which was oddly not really cold...but still snow. The Snowmen were on top of that, on skis. Using his agility, his flight power, and his instincts - which he could trust without fail - Canti had burrowed and 'flew' along the ground and under the snow to get below his frosty enemies. Because it was a game, the snow was a graphic. It did not diminish through trampling and it would not suddenly melt away. If he dove into it and moved along the ground, it had to pass over him. Thus, Canti was a winged shark among swimmers made of compacted snow.)
Canti: I'd hum away with the Jaws theme, but I don't wanna give myself away that easily.
(He was moving about swiftly under the snow, about as hard to see for the Snowman as they were against a white background. The Snowman Supreme with the archery kit began to slam its massive arrows into the ground, Deluxes following its lead and stabbing into the ground. Too slow. They were singing to Canti's tune now, and he had them exactly where he wanted them. Going under a throng, the snow suddenly erupted in Darkness Flames and blasted apart three Deluxes and a regular fun-size, quick as you like. Small-scale blasts. You couldn't expect that to blip on anyone's radar specially, right? He had them chopping, pounding, and stabbing at the ground closely enough to murder each other's toes...except that they didn't HAVE toes. No matter. Canti slid right under their proverbial feet and let loose with a deadly eruption on singular targets. Don't think of it as passing gas. It's just Volcano Day, that's all! In this manner, he caught eleven off guard all together. Four regular Snowmen and seven of the Deluxes. Nothing worse than a pillar of Darkness Flame in the one spot you can't protect. However, he knew this couldn't last forever. They'd come up with some way to pinpoint him and stop him. Best to keep the bastards guessing, so suddenly...Canti jumped up and out of the snow again to land in the face of the Supreme with the arrows.)
Canti: Fun fact. Coal burns.
(One Vak Rom later, the Supreme's eyes were burning holes in its head and it shouted in sort of a muffled way. Of course, this was where three other Supremes came over with battle axes and got ready to tear Canti apart. In a split-second, though, the Twin Blade fired gouts of black flame into all of their faces, disrupting them in a similar fashion to how they had done to him earlier. Of course, their leaps couldn't be interrupted, so he had to jump off as the axes came down, chopping into their screaming friend instead. Landing on a Deluxe's head, Canti rapid-fired his Darkness Flames in short bursts until his SP went dry. The Snowman Deluxe he was on was a Fist Fighter, and it knocked him off with a sudden punch to the groin. Canti fell down, suddenly in alot of pain in the land down under.)
Canti: Ow...not there...
(There was suddenly a monstrous glow about him as spikes formed on his body and he went demonic, leaping up and trying to throttle the Snowman with clawed hands and head-butting it with a horned head. This managed to crush it's so-called 'skull' and kill it, but...Canti soon noticed that he had a number of angry Snowmen behind him and he was out of SP for the moment. Spikes and horns retracting with a quick burst of common sense, he took the Snowman Deluxe's skis and used his flight power to retreat across the snow, an angry frozen mob pursuing him.)
Canti: Little help here?
OOC: Tally, thus far.
Level 10: 59/300 (11 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 97/150 (8 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 24/50 (6 Lightly Injured)
Canti: Yah! Ow! Agh!
(Literally. A squad of five Level-10s had blindsided him from a distance. Three Archer-types and two Wavemasters. Stuck in a few painful areas from behind, Canti leapt right at their throng and was simultaneously Rue Don'd and Rue Zot'd, which stopped his sudden charge from being completed. Okay, so they were thinking things, to a degree. So was a monkey. He distracted them with Vak Rom and then resumed with slashing about at them. The damage via cold spells wasn't necessarily as high as it was when he used Rashou. Some of his elemental levels were elevated with Magatsu. The first of them fell over dead...and that's when the trouble really started. Have you ever heard of a closed circle? Well, Canti being more or less one of the stragglers here, keeping the Snowman numbers occupied and away from Nall and Sheena at the moment, it was only a matter of time before they decided to isolate him. And so, they did. Occupying him a handful of irritating nobodies, a mixed group ranging from the lows to the highs had surrounded him in particular. He laughed.)
Canti: Come on, what're you thinking? I can fly out of-
(That was when he heard and felt the presence of something monstrous...way way up in the air, beyond the clouds. Canti looked up, no longer finding this to be funny.)
Canti: -here.
(Something wicked this way comes. Didn't Zan mention something about an Admin going mad and changing into a hideous monster? Yeah, something like that... And it happened soon after Nighthand did something uber-heavy to the Snowman ranks too, which meant it was both Twilight and pissed, able to pick up on big explosive powers that didn't fit the Wasteland profile. That basically meant that if he went suddenly all-out on this gathering of coal-faced foes, he might attract it even more.
Canti: A mad maniacal Admin, tripping on ultimate power in the middle of a fight like this? I don't think so.
(Time for secret Plan B. But first, Canti put out his hand and caught an arrow from another Snowman with a bow and arrow. These Archers were gonna have to do better than...that? Okay, one of the Supremes had a set too, and he was suddenly launching the equivalent of a whaling harpoon at him. The arrow was launched, the Twin Blade ducked, and there was an explosion of ice shards all over the place in the circle which they had had him trapped. No sign of him after, though. Canti was gone. With fighting sounds in the background, all was quiet in the immediate area. That is...until a hand reached up and grabbed one of the small ones by the nose. The Snowman was pulled down, its head plunked in the snow and its body up-ended, and then it thrashed around wildly before going still. The other Snowmen backed away from this, but then one of the Deluxes began to spasm wildly, seemingly rooted on the spot until the whirling knives of the dark Twin Blade spouted from it. Its remains fell to the ground and there was Canti, grinning fiendishly, before diving below the surface again. The Freedom Fighters were in a snow-filled environment in which regular traction was hard because of a couple feet of snow, snow which was oddly not really cold...but still snow. The Snowmen were on top of that, on skis. Using his agility, his flight power, and his instincts - which he could trust without fail - Canti had burrowed and 'flew' along the ground and under the snow to get below his frosty enemies. Because it was a game, the snow was a graphic. It did not diminish through trampling and it would not suddenly melt away. If he dove into it and moved along the ground, it had to pass over him. Thus, Canti was a winged shark among swimmers made of compacted snow.)
Canti: I'd hum away with the Jaws theme, but I don't wanna give myself away that easily.
(He was moving about swiftly under the snow, about as hard to see for the Snowman as they were against a white background. The Snowman Supreme with the archery kit began to slam its massive arrows into the ground, Deluxes following its lead and stabbing into the ground. Too slow. They were singing to Canti's tune now, and he had them exactly where he wanted them. Going under a throng, the snow suddenly erupted in Darkness Flames and blasted apart three Deluxes and a regular fun-size, quick as you like. Small-scale blasts. You couldn't expect that to blip on anyone's radar specially, right? He had them chopping, pounding, and stabbing at the ground closely enough to murder each other's toes...except that they didn't HAVE toes. No matter. Canti slid right under their proverbial feet and let loose with a deadly eruption on singular targets. Don't think of it as passing gas. It's just Volcano Day, that's all! In this manner, he caught eleven off guard all together. Four regular Snowmen and seven of the Deluxes. Nothing worse than a pillar of Darkness Flame in the one spot you can't protect. However, he knew this couldn't last forever. They'd come up with some way to pinpoint him and stop him. Best to keep the bastards guessing, so suddenly...Canti jumped up and out of the snow again to land in the face of the Supreme with the arrows.)
Canti: Fun fact. Coal burns.
(One Vak Rom later, the Supreme's eyes were burning holes in its head and it shouted in sort of a muffled way. Of course, this was where three other Supremes came over with battle axes and got ready to tear Canti apart. In a split-second, though, the Twin Blade fired gouts of black flame into all of their faces, disrupting them in a similar fashion to how they had done to him earlier. Of course, their leaps couldn't be interrupted, so he had to jump off as the axes came down, chopping into their screaming friend instead. Landing on a Deluxe's head, Canti rapid-fired his Darkness Flames in short bursts until his SP went dry. The Snowman Deluxe he was on was a Fist Fighter, and it knocked him off with a sudden punch to the groin. Canti fell down, suddenly in alot of pain in the land down under.)
Canti: Ow...not there...
(There was suddenly a monstrous glow about him as spikes formed on his body and he went demonic, leaping up and trying to throttle the Snowman with clawed hands and head-butting it with a horned head. This managed to crush it's so-called 'skull' and kill it, but...Canti soon noticed that he had a number of angry Snowmen behind him and he was out of SP for the moment. Spikes and horns retracting with a quick burst of common sense, he took the Snowman Deluxe's skis and used his flight power to retreat across the snow, an angry frozen mob pursuing him.)
Canti: Little help here?
OOC: Tally, thus far.
Level 10: 59/300 (11 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 97/150 (8 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 24/50 (6 Lightly Injured)
I'll have a doozy of a sig later, I swear. It'll reflect ".hack//CODE" an' everything.
Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.
Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
Talking to Demorian had unfortunately only served as a mere and brief distraction for the girl. Her feet unconsciously carried her back over to lean against the wall while the others asked whatever was on their mind of the… was he a spy? Double agent? Bad guy turned neutral? At this point she didn’t much care. Her mind was preoccupied while her heart was beating rapidly causing a domino effect of issues that she was doing her best to hide.
She decided to follow the first few up the stairs after watching the injured man walk out the door to the wasteland. A soft sigh escaped her while she watched him fly away. The Twin Blade couldn’t deny that the desire to go with him was strong. The girl wanted to get out of the prison and back to somewhere more secure as fast as possible. Her lack of wings, not to mention having no clue where exactly she was going to go, was a clear sign that the Twin Blade was better off to stay with the group.
After another long stairwell, but not nearly as long as the first and this time more enclosed, Talal entered into the room at the top of the stairs. It appeared to be some sort of control room. One of the pedestals wasn’t occupied so she decided to step up and see what it was all about. The keyboard was a bit odd but she soon figured her way around it enough to consider looking, or rather asking for information.
From listening to the others on her way by, she had an idea of the kind of information that might be available and it sounded like everyone was already covering the normal bases. So maybe it was time to ask something a little abnormal, or at least to her it was. There was one thought that she was curious about. Their current escape, even with the most recent fight, seemed a little…too easy. Almost as if they wanted them to escape in order to test the prisons current defenses and such.
”List current prisoner experiments.”
”What do you mean?”
The girls’ fingers yanked themselves away from the keyboard. That was certainly an oddly formed question for a computer; almost as if it were real instead of….well, not real. Sure she had seen some movies where the computers could talk and practically think for themselves but surely this wasn’t the case here, was it? Hesitantly, she placed her fingers back on the keypad and began typing.
”Experiments such as tracking devices, testing prison security measures, things like that.”
”No active experiments. All measures currently in place.”
A small frown formed. The Twin Blade had really thought their escape had more to it than shear luck. Why did she always need to have a reason for things instead of just accepting the outcome?
”List current measures.”
”Command access required. Access denied.”
An even bigger frown now formed and she wasn’t in the mood to go poking around for information. Withdrawing herself from the terminal, she looked up to see one of her fellow Twin Blades, Canti, standing nearby looking to be extremely puzzled by something. Immediately she dropped the frown and tried to bury all of her own thoughts and questions away for the time being while she approached quietly not wanting to startle him. By the lack any acknowledgement that she had arrived however, the girl was either too quiet or he was just so deep in thought that his surroundings had all but disappeared to him.
”A penny for your thoughts.”
The small female tried to be attentive to what he was saying but there were just too many thoughts and unanswered questions roaming around in her mind and on more than one occasion, the girl blurted things out that either made no sense at all or managed to ask something she already the answer to. There were good moments as well though and this Suraisu person sounded like there was a decent, even if small, chance that he still had his morality in tact. When she offered to go with Canti to find him, she was quite serious about the offer even if she turned it into a small joke. Still, she could tell he knew the offer was legit.
He then told her that he had found the exits. The overwhelming joy that she felt inside was immediately and intensely translated through her eyes and face. Oh how she wanted to get out. Canti even acknowledged her desire along with his to do what he had to do first. Talal really wished she could bring herself to tell him the biggest reason behind the desire. It was extremely selfish and had everything and yet nothing to do with being comatose. There was no need to worry him with such a thing though. He had enough on his mind, not to mention a goal to achieve.
She knew the possible consequences of ending up in the state she was in and she was really okay with it. Sure, it was a gamble that she could have been one of the ones to not wake up, but for some reason, it never really felt like actual death would happen. Her body would be kept alive and she could be here to help Takua and the others. It had been so long since she believed in anything worth while, anything that she wanted to sink her heart and soul into. The problem was, she hadn’t expected it to happen quite so soon and she hadn’t had time to put any safeguards in place. No one knew that was physically near her. Not like what Takua had with Centrus; someone he could count on to check in on him and make sure he got to a hospital and the care he needed. No, she was locked up in her apartment, alone and absolutely no one would know for a few days when she didn’t report back to work. By then, it would be too late. Her desire to get out was entirely based on being able to stay and help as odd it sounded.
A natural defense mechanism, humor, reared its head when the female Twin Blade had stuck her foot in it once again with a dumb question. In the end though, it seemed as if some of her comments made sense and if she wasn’t mistaken had curbed the black winged player’s uneasiness, if ever so slightly. Talal smiled, watching him turn and disappear back down the stairs.
There were very few left in the control room and then they heard a woman’s voice yelling commands from downstairs. One of the things that Canti had said though, had stuck in her mind…deleting the history files. If they couldn’t delete the files, they could at least try to make them inaccessible. Taking out one of her blades, Talal stabbed the center of the nearest console with as much downward force as she could muster. Much to her dismay, the blade landed with a wrist wrenching stop and slid off the console which brought her foot around to kick the damn thing in frustration. This of course did nothing in the damage department as well, except to her pride and her big toe as she let out a loud hiss at the pain she’d just caused her self.
She limped slightly, passing Demorian on her way to the stairs not even bothering to look at him. She was filled with anger, but most of it was directed inward at herself. Hobbling down the stairs, working out the kink in her toe, Talal joined the group at the bottom and followed as directed out the door taking a side position towards the back of the group while removing the other single to her set of blades. There was not going to be any waiting for an attack for her to be ready, not to mention it looked like they might come in handy to get through the thick brush the group had just entered.
Only steps through what appeared to be dense forest and the surrounding began to change, fast. The air got cooler and the trees became lethal weapons with their long needles poking and scraping as the Twin Blade passed a little to close to a branch allowing a second, but this time hushed, hiss to escape from the girl in a matter of minutes.
When it started to snow, the chill of the air covering the small girl in goose bumps, Talal thought to herself how a good snowball fight could break so much of the tension the group was feeling. If it hadn’t been for the extremely horrible timing of needing to get out of there as quick as possible and the fact that perfectly formed snowballs were beginning to appear in all sizes, she would have just randomly picked one up and thrown it at someone. Instead, she closed in her spacing a little to the ones they were trying to protect; the oddity reminding her too much of the strange things that occurred in the Juk prison field.
When the snowballs became nasty, mean and ugly snowmen, the Twin Blade couldn’t say that it surprised her any. These so called Elites had already given a hint that they were just as, if not even more twisted than the Highers were. This was also the Wasteland they were entering where all the strange and uncontrollable monsters of the Yamiyo server were supposedly corralled.
What seemed like mere seconds and the group was surrounded by hundreds of snow monsters in varying sizes. At least finally they were fighting monsters instead of other people. Searching through her inventory, the Twin Blade quickly switched out for her Yosetu & Fuyou blades.
There was no need to jump into the mix since the mix was charging in from all sides. The girl quickly moved forward and out trying to dry the horde away from those the group was trying to protect. Activating the Vak skill of her weapon, a whirling tornado of flames formed. It wasn’t much in comparison to a lot of the other skills the female saw being cast around her but in her book, every little bit counted. A few of the smaller snowmen were caught up and sucked into the funnel shaped fire melting them down. The slightly larger ones on skis however, simply dodged their way around it.
One came straight for her wielding a spear. Watching the snowman’s movement, Talal found a kind of clockwork in its pattern. It made some sense in order to keep the momentum going on the skis she supposed. Still it played in her favor, watching the sway of its…did it have hips? Leaping forward she vaulted over the spear as he tried to sweep her legs out from under her. Her landing put in her to a half roll that placed her at the creatures feet. Before it could speed by, her Twin Blades struck across its lower region sending it toppling head over skis.
Turning to chase after her fallen enemy, the girl’s eyes grew huge. Looking up what looked to be about 15 feet in the air was a pair of nasty dark eyes staring back down upon her. What came over her next was pure stupidity but in that instant it was better than freaking out…or so she thought. The small framed girl took a defiant stance, crossed her arms and stared back at the so called Snowman Supreme by its tag.
”You’re not so tough. I’ve brought down bigger things than you!”
Inside her stomach felt like it was in her throat and it was all she could do to keep her knees from knocking together from both the cold air and the nerves that were threatening to bring her down like a limp noodle. Reaching into her pouch she pulled out a Speed Charm and activated it. Calculatingly she waited for the creature to attack since that’s what they do best and sure enough down came the Heavy Blade sword.
Darting to the right, Talal utilizing the effects of the charm raced around to the back side of the beast. Shoving her swords into its back like snow spikes, she climbed up to the shoulders. Leaving one blade in for stability, every last breath of anger from the control room came pouring out into the remaining single blade. She hacked and stabbed at the ice creation’s shoulder and neck. All the while it was attempting to reach back and dislodge the girl who was sticking to it like bad static cling.
So caught up in the release of so much pent up tension, anger, fear and worry that she hadn’t even heard the sound of the flashmail arriving. Something did break her fury though and it came in the form of a shadow wizzing by; a shadow of someone that she thought lost forever but still held out hope for his return as well as the others. Talal looked around feverishly trying to pinpoint the shadow almost certain it was her mind playing tricks on her. That was when she saw Zan, fighting side by side with the others.
Suddenly all of the anger and emotion she had been putting into fighting was turned to happiness and for a moment she forgot about everything else and focused in her mind that at least one of them got out, which increased her hopes for the others as well. That moment of happiness was just the distraction the Snowman Supreme needed though and the female Twin Blade found herself falling to the ground. Startled by the sudden loss of anything substantial to hold onto, Talal let lose a very girlish squeak on the way down. Instead of landing with a soft thump in the snow like she was expecting however, she landed straight down on the head of a Wavemaster class of the snowy kind. The unsuspecting Snowman separated into sections from the impact.
Well that’s another one down but man did he have a hard head.
Rubbing her rump as she stood up, all hell began to break lose. Someone was using some major fire power over yonder but that didn’t seem to deter Mr. Supreme that was still hot on her tail. Casting another Vak Rom, the beasts’ outer layer began to shimmer in the sunlight; the icy exterior melting from the heat. It began flailing about with its huge sword and the poor girl got side swiped with the flat side of the blade like a ball getting hit by a baseball bat sending her flying.
Tumbling through the air, she caught sight of Canti fleeing a mob of snowmen on some skis he had apparently acquired from a fallen foe. Unfortunately, her trajectory was sending her right for the black winged Twin Blade. Frantically, she tried leaning, moving her arms and legs, anything she could think of to avoid the collision. She thought she had it made until she felt her foot hit something solid.
Oh jeez, oh jeez, oh jeez, please let me not just do what I think I did.
Turning her head, she caught a glimpse of the poor guy going head over skis. A loud gasp sounded from the girl that turned into something of a screamed “AWW SHIT!” when she turned back around to find herself headed right into the mob of snow people. Knowing it was going to hurt no matter how she landed, the Twin Blade figured she might as well try and take as many with her as possible. Straightening herself out as flat as she could get, she crash landed into the mob like a bowling ball on a three strike final frame mission from hell with Canti playing the lead role as the head pin.
(The last thing that went through Canti's head, before Talal's foot, was "Wait, isn't that-", and then The World went tumbly and sharply painful. Skis went zinging into the air, probably lodging themselves into a Snowman somewhere. Vaguely, Canti had seen the mob bowled over as he fell. Now holding the left side of his forehead, Canti attempted to get up again, trying to make the brain work.)
"Talal?"
Barreling into the mass of snowmen, the poor girl finally came to a halt with very little health left. But it wasn’t the pain she was feeling from her first round of several broken ribs as a comatose player, not to mention the pounding headache and throbbing muscles that was first on her mind; it was of Canti, who she almost certainly thought she’d find laying unconscious somewhere in the snow, if she ever managed to get up that is. Seeing the rest of the unaffected snowmen quickly approaching sent her into that fight or flight response, allowing her to scramble to her feet. That was when she thought she heard her name and looked up.
Thank GOD he’s okay! ”YES! I’m over here!” She waved while trying to limp towards him quickly.
(Whatever he was feeling, she was worse off, and she was pursued. Canti held up a hand to cast something and there was this sputter-pop sound in place of anything useful.)
Fuck.
(He got his footing, unsteadily, took a Mage's Soul, and casted Vak Rom, the only spell he had that they were properly afraid of. It delayed them, wounded them. He tried to fly over in a swoop, but the shot to his noggin threw off his equilibrium and he landed short and off-balance. Talal would see the left eye snapped shut.)
"You alright? What happened?" La Repth.
Thankful that Canti’s head shot hadn’t affected his ability to think quickly, Talal kept moving toward him while the fire spell caused a brief distraction amongst her their predators. The feeling of the broken bones going back into place was to say the least an extremely weird and uneasy feeling but in the end she was much better off.
”Thanks! I’m much better now. I got side smacked by a rather upset Supreme Snow Guy’s sword and well, as your face can agree to I’m sure, the rest is history as they say. I should be the one asking if you’re okay. Your eye...”
Talal felt so badly for what she had done. Not only had she completely thwarted his escape, but she managed to clobber him pretty good and put them both back in harms way. One eye had been closed shut where her foot had made contact. Thankfully, the healing had taken care of the outward appearances, but she was fairly certain it still smarted on the inside. She wanted to apologize profusely to him and make sure everything was okay but the fact of the matter was they still had some baddies to deal with and now was not the time to develop a guilt complex. She turned to stand next to her fellow Twin Blade and thought for a moment.
“What do you think, a tag team of Blazing Wheels? Or do you have a better plan?”
"I've had worse, believe me. Some of it was even my fault."
(He healed both of them enough and took another Mage's Soul. They were alright, but his eye and balance were suffering a massive headache at the moment. Canti tried to keep her reassured. Pulling up Magatsu, he said...)
"These are my second-best right now. They have Flame Dance. Other than that, I'm all for it. Need a speed-up?"
She tilted her head slightly with a puzzled look to her face when he said some of it was his fault. How could he have possibly predicted that he’d get clocked by a flying foot? She nodded at his choice of weapons and then responded to the question.
“Thanks, but I’ve got it covered for this round.” She smiled, a slight devilish ‘let’s kick some snowman ass’ kinda look in her eye as she activated another Speed Charm.
“Let’s do this! Blazing Wheel!”
Talal coiled up and shot out like a spinning bullet with spikes towards the remaining group. Her flaming blades spun and cut through snowmen of all sizes like butter. Some were left separated into sections and no longer functioning. A couple met with Elemental Criticals while others were left with an array of slices along their sides, the edges of each cut melting from the heat and a haze of light grey smoke filled the air from all of the vaporizing snow.
(Well, he didn't mean this time. Taking his own Speed Charm, he took into Flame Dancing whatever was nearby.)
"So, what'd you think of your first flight experience? Apart from the landing, I mean?"
Wow! She hadn’t really thought about it like that. She had been so taken with trying to not collide with him, that she didn’t have time to process how high up she had been. Thinking back on it now, it wasn’t as scary as her fears usually led her to believe, not that she’d want to do it anytime again soon, she thought to herself and chuckled.
“I did kinda fly, didn’t I. I guess I’d have to say that it wasn’t bad. I was so distracted with trying to avoid you that I didn’t have time to think about the fact I was in the air. So, all in all, a decent first trip except for yes, the landing needs improvement but at least some of the snowmen provided a little padding. How are you doing? You still look a little off kilter?”
Canti swayed into a passing cut into a Snowman.
"I'm taking a course in Drunken Boxing as we speak, only with knives."
(He was only half-joking, because let's look at the figures. He'd been flinging himself smoothly over snow in an act of retreat. She'd been flung in his direction and hit the Snowmen chasing him. The foot in his face struck very sharply. So basically, Canti was hiding a concussion.)
"You looked kinda' bad yourself, at least at first. Those aren't soft-padded snow-goons, but iceball wonders."
As Canti felled the last of the their pursuers in a rather staggering motion, she knew he wasn't at his peak. His onset of humorous retort was refreshing to hear all things considered and she laughed. Considering though that humor was her out when she was really not so good inside, gave him a fifty/fifty chance that he was using it to hide that he was a bit worse off than he was letting on. No harm, no foul she thought since she was attempting to do the same thing.
“I’d say you’re passing the class with flying colors. As for me, I’m alright. Bruised, battered, sore and extremely tired but I’ll live. You’ve got me on the snow-goons though. I have to admit, they weren’t very soft at all. I’ve got the bruises to prove it. Hehe. We make a pretty good team, even if some of it was accidental. Are you up for some more? Looks like they could still use some more help over there?”
She was concerned he’d take things a step too far while he wasn’t at his best, but on the other hand neither was she and there wasn’t anything that would stop her from jumping into help out. Her eyes now had two she needed to keep a watch over.
(Actually, the back-wound he'd made was supposed to be neck, but we'll keep silent about that.)
"Heh, yeah. We are at that, Talal. Speaking of team, we're neglecting what Demorian said. Let's stick closer to Nall and Sheena. At least for now."
(He saw the concern in her eyes. Knowing that he was the higher level, he had to look the dependable part in this partnership. They'd be closer to support that way while both of them weren't at their best. This was the Wasteland, a terrible place for careless behavior.)
She nodded agreeing. ”Yes, we should.”
With that, the pair returned to provide closer support to the injured Nall and his protector.
OOC: Tally, thus far.
Level 10: 44/300 (11 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 94/150 (8 Lightly Injured)
Level 50: 24/50 (8 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
She decided to follow the first few up the stairs after watching the injured man walk out the door to the wasteland. A soft sigh escaped her while she watched him fly away. The Twin Blade couldn’t deny that the desire to go with him was strong. The girl wanted to get out of the prison and back to somewhere more secure as fast as possible. Her lack of wings, not to mention having no clue where exactly she was going to go, was a clear sign that the Twin Blade was better off to stay with the group.
After another long stairwell, but not nearly as long as the first and this time more enclosed, Talal entered into the room at the top of the stairs. It appeared to be some sort of control room. One of the pedestals wasn’t occupied so she decided to step up and see what it was all about. The keyboard was a bit odd but she soon figured her way around it enough to consider looking, or rather asking for information.
From listening to the others on her way by, she had an idea of the kind of information that might be available and it sounded like everyone was already covering the normal bases. So maybe it was time to ask something a little abnormal, or at least to her it was. There was one thought that she was curious about. Their current escape, even with the most recent fight, seemed a little…too easy. Almost as if they wanted them to escape in order to test the prisons current defenses and such.
”List current prisoner experiments.”
”What do you mean?”
The girls’ fingers yanked themselves away from the keyboard. That was certainly an oddly formed question for a computer; almost as if it were real instead of….well, not real. Sure she had seen some movies where the computers could talk and practically think for themselves but surely this wasn’t the case here, was it? Hesitantly, she placed her fingers back on the keypad and began typing.
”Experiments such as tracking devices, testing prison security measures, things like that.”
”No active experiments. All measures currently in place.”
A small frown formed. The Twin Blade had really thought their escape had more to it than shear luck. Why did she always need to have a reason for things instead of just accepting the outcome?
”List current measures.”
”Command access required. Access denied.”
An even bigger frown now formed and she wasn’t in the mood to go poking around for information. Withdrawing herself from the terminal, she looked up to see one of her fellow Twin Blades, Canti, standing nearby looking to be extremely puzzled by something. Immediately she dropped the frown and tried to bury all of her own thoughts and questions away for the time being while she approached quietly not wanting to startle him. By the lack any acknowledgement that she had arrived however, the girl was either too quiet or he was just so deep in thought that his surroundings had all but disappeared to him.
”A penny for your thoughts.”
The small female tried to be attentive to what he was saying but there were just too many thoughts and unanswered questions roaming around in her mind and on more than one occasion, the girl blurted things out that either made no sense at all or managed to ask something she already the answer to. There were good moments as well though and this Suraisu person sounded like there was a decent, even if small, chance that he still had his morality in tact. When she offered to go with Canti to find him, she was quite serious about the offer even if she turned it into a small joke. Still, she could tell he knew the offer was legit.
He then told her that he had found the exits. The overwhelming joy that she felt inside was immediately and intensely translated through her eyes and face. Oh how she wanted to get out. Canti even acknowledged her desire along with his to do what he had to do first. Talal really wished she could bring herself to tell him the biggest reason behind the desire. It was extremely selfish and had everything and yet nothing to do with being comatose. There was no need to worry him with such a thing though. He had enough on his mind, not to mention a goal to achieve.
She knew the possible consequences of ending up in the state she was in and she was really okay with it. Sure, it was a gamble that she could have been one of the ones to not wake up, but for some reason, it never really felt like actual death would happen. Her body would be kept alive and she could be here to help Takua and the others. It had been so long since she believed in anything worth while, anything that she wanted to sink her heart and soul into. The problem was, she hadn’t expected it to happen quite so soon and she hadn’t had time to put any safeguards in place. No one knew that was physically near her. Not like what Takua had with Centrus; someone he could count on to check in on him and make sure he got to a hospital and the care he needed. No, she was locked up in her apartment, alone and absolutely no one would know for a few days when she didn’t report back to work. By then, it would be too late. Her desire to get out was entirely based on being able to stay and help as odd it sounded.
A natural defense mechanism, humor, reared its head when the female Twin Blade had stuck her foot in it once again with a dumb question. In the end though, it seemed as if some of her comments made sense and if she wasn’t mistaken had curbed the black winged player’s uneasiness, if ever so slightly. Talal smiled, watching him turn and disappear back down the stairs.
There were very few left in the control room and then they heard a woman’s voice yelling commands from downstairs. One of the things that Canti had said though, had stuck in her mind…deleting the history files. If they couldn’t delete the files, they could at least try to make them inaccessible. Taking out one of her blades, Talal stabbed the center of the nearest console with as much downward force as she could muster. Much to her dismay, the blade landed with a wrist wrenching stop and slid off the console which brought her foot around to kick the damn thing in frustration. This of course did nothing in the damage department as well, except to her pride and her big toe as she let out a loud hiss at the pain she’d just caused her self.
She limped slightly, passing Demorian on her way to the stairs not even bothering to look at him. She was filled with anger, but most of it was directed inward at herself. Hobbling down the stairs, working out the kink in her toe, Talal joined the group at the bottom and followed as directed out the door taking a side position towards the back of the group while removing the other single to her set of blades. There was not going to be any waiting for an attack for her to be ready, not to mention it looked like they might come in handy to get through the thick brush the group had just entered.
Only steps through what appeared to be dense forest and the surrounding began to change, fast. The air got cooler and the trees became lethal weapons with their long needles poking and scraping as the Twin Blade passed a little to close to a branch allowing a second, but this time hushed, hiss to escape from the girl in a matter of minutes.
When it started to snow, the chill of the air covering the small girl in goose bumps, Talal thought to herself how a good snowball fight could break so much of the tension the group was feeling. If it hadn’t been for the extremely horrible timing of needing to get out of there as quick as possible and the fact that perfectly formed snowballs were beginning to appear in all sizes, she would have just randomly picked one up and thrown it at someone. Instead, she closed in her spacing a little to the ones they were trying to protect; the oddity reminding her too much of the strange things that occurred in the Juk prison field.
When the snowballs became nasty, mean and ugly snowmen, the Twin Blade couldn’t say that it surprised her any. These so called Elites had already given a hint that they were just as, if not even more twisted than the Highers were. This was also the Wasteland they were entering where all the strange and uncontrollable monsters of the Yamiyo server were supposedly corralled.
What seemed like mere seconds and the group was surrounded by hundreds of snow monsters in varying sizes. At least finally they were fighting monsters instead of other people. Searching through her inventory, the Twin Blade quickly switched out for her Yosetu & Fuyou blades.
There was no need to jump into the mix since the mix was charging in from all sides. The girl quickly moved forward and out trying to dry the horde away from those the group was trying to protect. Activating the Vak skill of her weapon, a whirling tornado of flames formed. It wasn’t much in comparison to a lot of the other skills the female saw being cast around her but in her book, every little bit counted. A few of the smaller snowmen were caught up and sucked into the funnel shaped fire melting them down. The slightly larger ones on skis however, simply dodged their way around it.
One came straight for her wielding a spear. Watching the snowman’s movement, Talal found a kind of clockwork in its pattern. It made some sense in order to keep the momentum going on the skis she supposed. Still it played in her favor, watching the sway of its…did it have hips? Leaping forward she vaulted over the spear as he tried to sweep her legs out from under her. Her landing put in her to a half roll that placed her at the creatures feet. Before it could speed by, her Twin Blades struck across its lower region sending it toppling head over skis.
Turning to chase after her fallen enemy, the girl’s eyes grew huge. Looking up what looked to be about 15 feet in the air was a pair of nasty dark eyes staring back down upon her. What came over her next was pure stupidity but in that instant it was better than freaking out…or so she thought. The small framed girl took a defiant stance, crossed her arms and stared back at the so called Snowman Supreme by its tag.
”You’re not so tough. I’ve brought down bigger things than you!”
Inside her stomach felt like it was in her throat and it was all she could do to keep her knees from knocking together from both the cold air and the nerves that were threatening to bring her down like a limp noodle. Reaching into her pouch she pulled out a Speed Charm and activated it. Calculatingly she waited for the creature to attack since that’s what they do best and sure enough down came the Heavy Blade sword.
Darting to the right, Talal utilizing the effects of the charm raced around to the back side of the beast. Shoving her swords into its back like snow spikes, she climbed up to the shoulders. Leaving one blade in for stability, every last breath of anger from the control room came pouring out into the remaining single blade. She hacked and stabbed at the ice creation’s shoulder and neck. All the while it was attempting to reach back and dislodge the girl who was sticking to it like bad static cling.
So caught up in the release of so much pent up tension, anger, fear and worry that she hadn’t even heard the sound of the flashmail arriving. Something did break her fury though and it came in the form of a shadow wizzing by; a shadow of someone that she thought lost forever but still held out hope for his return as well as the others. Talal looked around feverishly trying to pinpoint the shadow almost certain it was her mind playing tricks on her. That was when she saw Zan, fighting side by side with the others.
Suddenly all of the anger and emotion she had been putting into fighting was turned to happiness and for a moment she forgot about everything else and focused in her mind that at least one of them got out, which increased her hopes for the others as well. That moment of happiness was just the distraction the Snowman Supreme needed though and the female Twin Blade found herself falling to the ground. Startled by the sudden loss of anything substantial to hold onto, Talal let lose a very girlish squeak on the way down. Instead of landing with a soft thump in the snow like she was expecting however, she landed straight down on the head of a Wavemaster class of the snowy kind. The unsuspecting Snowman separated into sections from the impact.
Well that’s another one down but man did he have a hard head.
Rubbing her rump as she stood up, all hell began to break lose. Someone was using some major fire power over yonder but that didn’t seem to deter Mr. Supreme that was still hot on her tail. Casting another Vak Rom, the beasts’ outer layer began to shimmer in the sunlight; the icy exterior melting from the heat. It began flailing about with its huge sword and the poor girl got side swiped with the flat side of the blade like a ball getting hit by a baseball bat sending her flying.
Tumbling through the air, she caught sight of Canti fleeing a mob of snowmen on some skis he had apparently acquired from a fallen foe. Unfortunately, her trajectory was sending her right for the black winged Twin Blade. Frantically, she tried leaning, moving her arms and legs, anything she could think of to avoid the collision. She thought she had it made until she felt her foot hit something solid.
Oh jeez, oh jeez, oh jeez, please let me not just do what I think I did.
Turning her head, she caught a glimpse of the poor guy going head over skis. A loud gasp sounded from the girl that turned into something of a screamed “AWW SHIT!” when she turned back around to find herself headed right into the mob of snow people. Knowing it was going to hurt no matter how she landed, the Twin Blade figured she might as well try and take as many with her as possible. Straightening herself out as flat as she could get, she crash landed into the mob like a bowling ball on a three strike final frame mission from hell with Canti playing the lead role as the head pin.
(The last thing that went through Canti's head, before Talal's foot, was "Wait, isn't that-", and then The World went tumbly and sharply painful. Skis went zinging into the air, probably lodging themselves into a Snowman somewhere. Vaguely, Canti had seen the mob bowled over as he fell. Now holding the left side of his forehead, Canti attempted to get up again, trying to make the brain work.)
"Talal?"
Barreling into the mass of snowmen, the poor girl finally came to a halt with very little health left. But it wasn’t the pain she was feeling from her first round of several broken ribs as a comatose player, not to mention the pounding headache and throbbing muscles that was first on her mind; it was of Canti, who she almost certainly thought she’d find laying unconscious somewhere in the snow, if she ever managed to get up that is. Seeing the rest of the unaffected snowmen quickly approaching sent her into that fight or flight response, allowing her to scramble to her feet. That was when she thought she heard her name and looked up.
Thank GOD he’s okay! ”YES! I’m over here!” She waved while trying to limp towards him quickly.
(Whatever he was feeling, she was worse off, and she was pursued. Canti held up a hand to cast something and there was this sputter-pop sound in place of anything useful.)
Fuck.
(He got his footing, unsteadily, took a Mage's Soul, and casted Vak Rom, the only spell he had that they were properly afraid of. It delayed them, wounded them. He tried to fly over in a swoop, but the shot to his noggin threw off his equilibrium and he landed short and off-balance. Talal would see the left eye snapped shut.)
"You alright? What happened?" La Repth.
Thankful that Canti’s head shot hadn’t affected his ability to think quickly, Talal kept moving toward him while the fire spell caused a brief distraction amongst her their predators. The feeling of the broken bones going back into place was to say the least an extremely weird and uneasy feeling but in the end she was much better off.
”Thanks! I’m much better now. I got side smacked by a rather upset Supreme Snow Guy’s sword and well, as your face can agree to I’m sure, the rest is history as they say. I should be the one asking if you’re okay. Your eye...”
Talal felt so badly for what she had done. Not only had she completely thwarted his escape, but she managed to clobber him pretty good and put them both back in harms way. One eye had been closed shut where her foot had made contact. Thankfully, the healing had taken care of the outward appearances, but she was fairly certain it still smarted on the inside. She wanted to apologize profusely to him and make sure everything was okay but the fact of the matter was they still had some baddies to deal with and now was not the time to develop a guilt complex. She turned to stand next to her fellow Twin Blade and thought for a moment.
“What do you think, a tag team of Blazing Wheels? Or do you have a better plan?”
"I've had worse, believe me. Some of it was even my fault."
(He healed both of them enough and took another Mage's Soul. They were alright, but his eye and balance were suffering a massive headache at the moment. Canti tried to keep her reassured. Pulling up Magatsu, he said...)
"These are my second-best right now. They have Flame Dance. Other than that, I'm all for it. Need a speed-up?"
She tilted her head slightly with a puzzled look to her face when he said some of it was his fault. How could he have possibly predicted that he’d get clocked by a flying foot? She nodded at his choice of weapons and then responded to the question.
“Thanks, but I’ve got it covered for this round.” She smiled, a slight devilish ‘let’s kick some snowman ass’ kinda look in her eye as she activated another Speed Charm.
“Let’s do this! Blazing Wheel!”
Talal coiled up and shot out like a spinning bullet with spikes towards the remaining group. Her flaming blades spun and cut through snowmen of all sizes like butter. Some were left separated into sections and no longer functioning. A couple met with Elemental Criticals while others were left with an array of slices along their sides, the edges of each cut melting from the heat and a haze of light grey smoke filled the air from all of the vaporizing snow.
(Well, he didn't mean this time. Taking his own Speed Charm, he took into Flame Dancing whatever was nearby.)
"So, what'd you think of your first flight experience? Apart from the landing, I mean?"
Wow! She hadn’t really thought about it like that. She had been so taken with trying to not collide with him, that she didn’t have time to process how high up she had been. Thinking back on it now, it wasn’t as scary as her fears usually led her to believe, not that she’d want to do it anytime again soon, she thought to herself and chuckled.
“I did kinda fly, didn’t I. I guess I’d have to say that it wasn’t bad. I was so distracted with trying to avoid you that I didn’t have time to think about the fact I was in the air. So, all in all, a decent first trip except for yes, the landing needs improvement but at least some of the snowmen provided a little padding. How are you doing? You still look a little off kilter?”
Canti swayed into a passing cut into a Snowman.
"I'm taking a course in Drunken Boxing as we speak, only with knives."
(He was only half-joking, because let's look at the figures. He'd been flinging himself smoothly over snow in an act of retreat. She'd been flung in his direction and hit the Snowmen chasing him. The foot in his face struck very sharply. So basically, Canti was hiding a concussion.)
"You looked kinda' bad yourself, at least at first. Those aren't soft-padded snow-goons, but iceball wonders."
As Canti felled the last of the their pursuers in a rather staggering motion, she knew he wasn't at his peak. His onset of humorous retort was refreshing to hear all things considered and she laughed. Considering though that humor was her out when she was really not so good inside, gave him a fifty/fifty chance that he was using it to hide that he was a bit worse off than he was letting on. No harm, no foul she thought since she was attempting to do the same thing.
“I’d say you’re passing the class with flying colors. As for me, I’m alright. Bruised, battered, sore and extremely tired but I’ll live. You’ve got me on the snow-goons though. I have to admit, they weren’t very soft at all. I’ve got the bruises to prove it. Hehe. We make a pretty good team, even if some of it was accidental. Are you up for some more? Looks like they could still use some more help over there?”
She was concerned he’d take things a step too far while he wasn’t at his best, but on the other hand neither was she and there wasn’t anything that would stop her from jumping into help out. Her eyes now had two she needed to keep a watch over.
(Actually, the back-wound he'd made was supposed to be neck, but we'll keep silent about that.)
"Heh, yeah. We are at that, Talal. Speaking of team, we're neglecting what Demorian said. Let's stick closer to Nall and Sheena. At least for now."
(He saw the concern in her eyes. Knowing that he was the higher level, he had to look the dependable part in this partnership. They'd be closer to support that way while both of them weren't at their best. This was the Wasteland, a terrible place for careless behavior.)
She nodded agreeing. ”Yes, we should.”
With that, the pair returned to provide closer support to the injured Nall and his protector.
OOC: Tally, thus far.
Level 10: 44/300 (11 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 94/150 (8 Lightly Injured)
Level 50: 24/50 (8 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Walk beside me that we may be as one.
***************************************
Talal
![Image](http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk195/SemLovari/Talal/Talal.jpg)
Level 39 (0/1000 EXP) Twin Blade
Weapons/Armor: Mukuro (Swirling Dark, Dark Dance), Ice Hunter Cap (Repth), Wristbands (Juk Rom), Fishing Gloves (Rue Kruz), Wyrm Hide (Gan Don), Snow Panther (Ap Vorv)
Wish List: Scrolls, Tarot Cards, and Armor higher than level 30.
***************************************
Talal
![Image](http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk195/SemLovari/Talal/Talal.jpg)
Level 39 (0/1000 EXP) Twin Blade
Weapons/Armor: Mukuro (Swirling Dark, Dark Dance), Ice Hunter Cap (Repth), Wristbands (Juk Rom), Fishing Gloves (Rue Kruz), Wyrm Hide (Gan Don), Snow Panther (Ap Vorv)
Wish List: Scrolls, Tarot Cards, and Armor higher than level 30.
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
Given a normal, humanoid opponent, Senna would have tried scrambling between or around its feet to get away from the attack it was revving up to. Sadly, snowmen didn’t have either legs or feet. So her surprised scramble just got her up against its largest section. Special.
Having hefted the axe over its head, the massive snowman was now making its downward swing. Senna shuffed sideways, basically throwing herself to one side, but a little too slow. The blade being roughly as large as she was, however, a nick was more than enough. She kept the scream mostly down, strangled to a rough sound min her throat and tried to move.
Much as she would have liked a bit of a reprieve after that, there wasn’t one. There was a moment of amusement, fleeting but sharp, as the continuation of the thing’s swing ended with the axe firmly embedded in its lowest section. Unfortunately, the second of the two snowmen was right there. This one was mocked up as a Long Arm, and its weapon, like hers, gave it incredible reach. It had stopped, so for the moment the speed of its skiing wasn’t a factor, but given another few seconds, it would be.
She started running again, the Speed Charm for the moment offsetting the painful limp she was working with, and the big snowman was again gouged by an ice weapon, this time the spear of its counterpart. Unlike the axe, this one actually seemed to do it some minute amount of damage.
Unfortunately, while the attack missed, the follow-up level-2 kruz spell didn’t. She had just enough time to recognize what was coming and to brace herself for it before the ice slammed in on her. The stats on her armor mitigated it a little bit – thank goodness for how much light armor she wore – but it was still a pain.
After downing a Health Drink, she glanced around for help, but no one was in her line of sight. The snowfolk at least seemed to be clearing out. Well, that meant no hoping for outside salvation. This had to be all her.
“All right,” she said, turning and zeroing in on the Long Arm medium snowdude. It was gaining momentum as it followed the trail of comparatively tiny footprints she’d left. Planting her feet, she intoned “Vak Wipe.”
The skill blazed a red-tinted arc through the air, bisecting the skiing snowman. The bottom half continued forward and bowled her over, but the other bit, the one with the weapon, was down for the count. It dropped its weapon and tried to use its arms to lever itself upright.
After picking herself up, Senna took five quick steps and swung like a baseball player. The thing’s head didn’t fly, but it did depart from the body in a slow, almost surreal topple.
Leaving the big one.
She looked up too late to prep for another skill. “Vak Rom” she cast, even as she started an awkward, stumbling run. And about five steps in, the speed charm failed on her.
Just great.
The abrupt change in speed vs momentum upended her and sent her tumbling. Luckily, the snow broke her fall. Unluckily, she was run over seconds later by the size jumbo snowman from before. Her Vak Rom had apparently been at least somewhat off target, for its head was half-melted, eyes skewed, side slushy and falling apart, turning it into some horrible parody of its earlier self.
The contact sent her rolling again, but at this point she was getting used to the over-and-over view of the world. She came up more-or-less aware of things. She fired off another Vak Rom as it came around for another pass, this time taking a chunk out of its midsection. Then it was like before. Plant your feet, Vak Wipe, then finish the job. In this case, finishing the job meant a good four or five further attacks and taking a Rue Rom to the face, but in the end it worked out.
Tired and now thoroughly low on SP, she finally started making her way for the pain group. With the numbers thinning, she felt less target-y being with several others.
((OOC totals:
Level 10: 44/300 (11 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 93/150 (8 Lightly Injured)
Level 50: 23/50 (8 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Having hefted the axe over its head, the massive snowman was now making its downward swing. Senna shuffed sideways, basically throwing herself to one side, but a little too slow. The blade being roughly as large as she was, however, a nick was more than enough. She kept the scream mostly down, strangled to a rough sound min her throat and tried to move.
Much as she would have liked a bit of a reprieve after that, there wasn’t one. There was a moment of amusement, fleeting but sharp, as the continuation of the thing’s swing ended with the axe firmly embedded in its lowest section. Unfortunately, the second of the two snowmen was right there. This one was mocked up as a Long Arm, and its weapon, like hers, gave it incredible reach. It had stopped, so for the moment the speed of its skiing wasn’t a factor, but given another few seconds, it would be.
She started running again, the Speed Charm for the moment offsetting the painful limp she was working with, and the big snowman was again gouged by an ice weapon, this time the spear of its counterpart. Unlike the axe, this one actually seemed to do it some minute amount of damage.
Unfortunately, while the attack missed, the follow-up level-2 kruz spell didn’t. She had just enough time to recognize what was coming and to brace herself for it before the ice slammed in on her. The stats on her armor mitigated it a little bit – thank goodness for how much light armor she wore – but it was still a pain.
After downing a Health Drink, she glanced around for help, but no one was in her line of sight. The snowfolk at least seemed to be clearing out. Well, that meant no hoping for outside salvation. This had to be all her.
“All right,” she said, turning and zeroing in on the Long Arm medium snowdude. It was gaining momentum as it followed the trail of comparatively tiny footprints she’d left. Planting her feet, she intoned “Vak Wipe.”
The skill blazed a red-tinted arc through the air, bisecting the skiing snowman. The bottom half continued forward and bowled her over, but the other bit, the one with the weapon, was down for the count. It dropped its weapon and tried to use its arms to lever itself upright.
After picking herself up, Senna took five quick steps and swung like a baseball player. The thing’s head didn’t fly, but it did depart from the body in a slow, almost surreal topple.
Leaving the big one.
She looked up too late to prep for another skill. “Vak Rom” she cast, even as she started an awkward, stumbling run. And about five steps in, the speed charm failed on her.
Just great.
The abrupt change in speed vs momentum upended her and sent her tumbling. Luckily, the snow broke her fall. Unluckily, she was run over seconds later by the size jumbo snowman from before. Her Vak Rom had apparently been at least somewhat off target, for its head was half-melted, eyes skewed, side slushy and falling apart, turning it into some horrible parody of its earlier self.
The contact sent her rolling again, but at this point she was getting used to the over-and-over view of the world. She came up more-or-less aware of things. She fired off another Vak Rom as it came around for another pass, this time taking a chunk out of its midsection. Then it was like before. Plant your feet, Vak Wipe, then finish the job. In this case, finishing the job meant a good four or five further attacks and taking a Rue Rom to the face, but in the end it worked out.
Tired and now thoroughly low on SP, she finally started making her way for the pain group. With the numbers thinning, she felt less target-y being with several others.
((OOC totals:
Level 10: 44/300 (11 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 93/150 (8 Lightly Injured)
Level 50: 23/50 (8 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Senna, level 33 Long Arm (710 HP/180 SP)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
Click for full equipment and items
14300 (1/23)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
Click for full equipment and items
14300 (1/23)
- Nighthand
- Master of Games
- Posts: 1265
- Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:23 pm
- Class: Bladesmage
- Location: ...Tracking...please wait...
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
Sheena punched haphazardly at a passing snowman, blocking and knocking aside its spear. The beast swung around to ski over her, but she kicked it apart, and turned her attention back to Nall. He’s getting worse. We have to get him out of here and back to Raine as soon as possible… At this point, the poor Blademaster was saving as much of his energy as he could. He was far beyond using even the most trivial of his Twilight abilities, and perhaps the only reason he was still alive after all the attacks directed at him was the Cape. He was smart enough to avoid attacking, and the passive effect of the cape, to cause attacks to pass through him, was active.
Sheena turned to focus on him, the small wires extruding from her hand-glove, the same that had helped her take the Twilight Items back in the first place. The small needles jabbed into his flesh, or is data, and some of the faded patches and scars began to return to normal. Then the wires pulled back, and Sheena sank to her knees, the fatigue getting to her.
Demorian parried the blow of a Supreme, the heavyblade-shaped gargantuan blade crashing to the snow beside him. He drove his sword into the creature’s torso, and yanked it sideways, slicing through the wrist that held the blade. Then he jumped, landing on its already-collapsing head, and flipping into the air. He twisted to avoid a spear driven his way, and grabbed it as he fell, abruptly altering his path. He swung from the surprisingly firmly-held shaft and drove his feet, his momentum behind him, through the torso of one of the Deluxe snowmen. When he landed, brushing snow from his face, three of the plain tiny snowmen had converged on him. He smirked and spun, letting the snow below him keep his spin going with an occasional kick, and turned himself into a dizzy blade of death. The first three, then two other tiny snowmen were caught in the makeshift revolver, utterly destroyed. Then his spin stopped, his sword buried in the lower portion of another Supreme.
“Well that was unexpected.”
The giant snowman, this one a fist fighter, punched downwards. Quickly, Demorian crouched and pointed his blade up. It sliced into the arm of the snowman, slitting the arm in two with the force of the thing’s own blow. Then he stood and chopped the rest of the creature to bits. He looked around, and while the crowd had thinned, it wasn’t over yet. Not for a long shot.
Nighthand, meanwhile, was chopping through a trio of Deluxes while busy with an internal dialogue.
I wish I had more high power fire scrolls.
You don’t, though. Heck, you don’t even have a good selection of fire skills.
I always have Vak Divider.
To your left.
Nighthand parries a blow and cleaves through the arm it came from.
Good. Yeah, Divider, but it’s a single target skill.
Good use against the giants, but not the little ones. Those I can kill easily enough as it is.
You might try powering up a Fire Tempest.
You think? I might as well, I suppose.
You have… fifteen of them. Might as well drop a few.
Nighthand nods and finishes off the third of the Deluxes, then takes wing. This time, though, he doesn’t even fly above the trees. He finds a nice high branch to work from, and pulls out four of the Fire Tempests. With these, he has more time to work, but his buffs have worn off. He cycles around until he finds his Ap Vakz, and recasts it, but doesn’t bother with the others. With these, if he lets them go out of control, they’ll do minimal damage. He does use his eye, at least. That blackened hole in his skull that opened his mind to the world beyond. His eyes narrowed. As it happened, he supposed he could blame Demorian for it. The pain and the blood and the fire in his head, as part of him was deleted… Or rather, dragged to the Repository, as his data was never truly deleted. The thought was morbidly amusing, a chunk of his face and a single black orb that was his eye, laying in the collapsed chunks of data.
For each of the four scrolls, he figured he would spend a little time increasing the power of them, before using the rest of his control to widen their range. The more he could hit, the faster this battle would be over.
The first scroll was weak. The fire barely flared behind the scenes of the world, and try as he might, he couldn’t increase it (8+2:10) At least, not by anything significant. So he focused on stretching the range, making the Rom spell strike far more than it should have. He had enough time for perhaps two tweaks, two stretches, so he made them. (17+2:19) (16+2:18).
Without even looking, he released the spell into the field, its range sufficient to coat almost the entire battlefield. Only a few snowmen would escape the miniature foot-tall tornados of fire that sprung up. He was already focused on his second scroll.
In contrast to the first scroll, the second flared almost too much for him, so surprising was it. (20+2:22) Before long, he held almost a level 3 spell in his grasp. He tweaked the parameters for the range, and found it unusually pliable as well. (15+2:17) (19+2:21) This spell came out just as large as the last, and he laid it in almost the same spot. The tornados that spawned this time were larger, obscuring vision and damaging snowmen, but only reached six feet off the ground. While concentrated it would have the power of a level 3, spread out it was much less damaging.
The third scroll did much worse in comparison. The power increase was actually a decrease, as it seemed to squirm and drain away from him. (6+2:8) He tried to increase the range, but it slipped as well, and he ended up with little more than a reverse drop spell, which he targeted on the weakest-looking supreme he could find. (7+2:9) (9+2:11)
Disgusted, he simply activated the fourth scroll, aiming it for the largest concentration of snowmen he could find… which now happened to be a cluster of Deluxes at the base of his tree, working quickly to chop it down.
The tree began to topple and the heavyblade found himself caught in the once-horizontal branches as they turned vertical. He had the presence of mind to wrap his wings tight so they didn’t get broken as he fell, but he was still caught half under the trunk as it crashed down. Amusingly enough, the tree took out a couple of snowmen on its way. Great planning there, snow goons.
Demorian glanced up as a nearby tree began to fall, smiling slightly as Nighthand fell. The man had been lighting up the area with fire, and the icy Blademaster had been quite uncomfortable. In fact, he hadn’t killed a single thing since the first scroll went off. He even avoided stepping on the tiny tornados that formed. When the fire had faded completely and he glanced around, he found himself almost shoulder to shoulder with Sekai.
“Well, your black-winged leader puts on quite a show when he wants to, eh?” He says to the petite archer next to him.
"Um... yes, he does. I haven't seen him do that before." She sounds quite impressed as she takes aim and destroys one of the snowmen in the distance. "I think Nighthand-san has been here the longest... aside from Sheena-san, Nall-san and you, of course. But, that might be a bit, um, presumptive of me." Sekai commented as an afterthought
Demorian nods. “Definitely. By this point, if I remember right… he’s been around for something like five years now.” He watches the heavyblade struggle out from under the tree and start hacking away at the snowmen around him. “He’s had quite a bit of time to develop his powers.”
Sekai's response was fairly predictable, a widening of her eyes and a pause in her careful assault on the smaller snowmen in order to watch Nighthand's emergence from under the tree. "Ola Repth!" Somewhat satisfied and hoping that it'd helped him out, the girl returned to picking off snowmen with her bow. "...five years. That's such a long time." A pause before she turns to look up at Demorian, brow furrowed. "Do you know how long the rest of the Freedom Fighters- yourself included- have been here?"
“Not exact figures, offhand. I had the data in Marionette, but that web is elsewhere. Though, to give you an idea… Twilight was introduced shortly after The World was released, and as long as there’s been Twilight, there’s been freedom fighters.” He carefully doesn’t answer anything about his personal timeline. “By the way… shouldn’t you be showing a little by now? Powers, that is.” He grins.
"Webs? Is that your power?" Sekai was clearly struggling to try and figure out exactly what a 'web' could be or mean exactly. Too many possibilities for one young mind. "Um... not sure what you mean by powers. I can't do anything like Nighthand-san or Dien-san are able to." She said shyly, as if a little embarrassed by that fact. "I can summon Kira if I need someone to help me in a physical battle though." Sekai offers, clearly not a hundred percent sure about the whole 'powers' thing.
“Ah, well there you go. I’m sure Kira will grow stronger as you do, over time.” He shrugs at the webs comment. “Marionette was like a suit I wore, that was plugged into a lot of different data lines. It was how I knew as much as I did about everyone.”
The tiny Archer's eyes sought and found Kira in the middle of doing... something odd with her spear and a few of the snowmen. Something told her she really didn't want to look too much closer either as she turns back to Demorian. "How did you find out that you could do that?" Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back... or something like that.
Demorian chuckles, the relative ignorance of the girl getting to him. “That was sheer hard work, coding and programming it all. It’s not my power. My power is… different.”
She blinks a couple of times, clearly able to understand the hard work part and rather impressed by it. So many people who were talented with the programming and fancy technical stuff... "Different in what way?" Realization and embarrassment flashes across her face as she ducks her head sheepishly. "S-Sorry if I'm prying or being too nosy, being curious tends to make me forget my manners."
“Just different.” He doesn’t seem offended, at least. “I’d rather not talk about it within range of the towers. I’ve hidden it too well so far.” He smiles. “I like my ace in the hole, you see.”
Sekai glances at the towers, staring for a moment in contemplative thought before nodding her head. "A good idea, we may very well need that if Tritoch-san is looking for us." She gives a tentative, shy smile in return before glancing over toward Nall and Sheena. "We should probably go back to keeping those snowmen away from Sheena-san while she's trying to protect Nall-san, or she might get upset again."
Demorian laughed aloud, and grinned. “Indeed, we should.” Then his smile faded, as the horrible screech resounded overhead. It was further, this time, but still too close for comfort. Tritoch was searching.
------------------------ooc:
Count:
Level 10: 34/300 (34 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 87/150 (71 Lightly Injured, 16 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 20/50 (19 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Hopefully by the end of this round they should all be dead. I think you can do it, do you? =D
Sheena turned to focus on him, the small wires extruding from her hand-glove, the same that had helped her take the Twilight Items back in the first place. The small needles jabbed into his flesh, or is data, and some of the faded patches and scars began to return to normal. Then the wires pulled back, and Sheena sank to her knees, the fatigue getting to her.
Demorian parried the blow of a Supreme, the heavyblade-shaped gargantuan blade crashing to the snow beside him. He drove his sword into the creature’s torso, and yanked it sideways, slicing through the wrist that held the blade. Then he jumped, landing on its already-collapsing head, and flipping into the air. He twisted to avoid a spear driven his way, and grabbed it as he fell, abruptly altering his path. He swung from the surprisingly firmly-held shaft and drove his feet, his momentum behind him, through the torso of one of the Deluxe snowmen. When he landed, brushing snow from his face, three of the plain tiny snowmen had converged on him. He smirked and spun, letting the snow below him keep his spin going with an occasional kick, and turned himself into a dizzy blade of death. The first three, then two other tiny snowmen were caught in the makeshift revolver, utterly destroyed. Then his spin stopped, his sword buried in the lower portion of another Supreme.
“Well that was unexpected.”
The giant snowman, this one a fist fighter, punched downwards. Quickly, Demorian crouched and pointed his blade up. It sliced into the arm of the snowman, slitting the arm in two with the force of the thing’s own blow. Then he stood and chopped the rest of the creature to bits. He looked around, and while the crowd had thinned, it wasn’t over yet. Not for a long shot.
Nighthand, meanwhile, was chopping through a trio of Deluxes while busy with an internal dialogue.
I wish I had more high power fire scrolls.
You don’t, though. Heck, you don’t even have a good selection of fire skills.
I always have Vak Divider.
To your left.
Nighthand parries a blow and cleaves through the arm it came from.
Good. Yeah, Divider, but it’s a single target skill.
Good use against the giants, but not the little ones. Those I can kill easily enough as it is.
You might try powering up a Fire Tempest.
You think? I might as well, I suppose.
You have… fifteen of them. Might as well drop a few.
Nighthand nods and finishes off the third of the Deluxes, then takes wing. This time, though, he doesn’t even fly above the trees. He finds a nice high branch to work from, and pulls out four of the Fire Tempests. With these, he has more time to work, but his buffs have worn off. He cycles around until he finds his Ap Vakz, and recasts it, but doesn’t bother with the others. With these, if he lets them go out of control, they’ll do minimal damage. He does use his eye, at least. That blackened hole in his skull that opened his mind to the world beyond. His eyes narrowed. As it happened, he supposed he could blame Demorian for it. The pain and the blood and the fire in his head, as part of him was deleted… Or rather, dragged to the Repository, as his data was never truly deleted. The thought was morbidly amusing, a chunk of his face and a single black orb that was his eye, laying in the collapsed chunks of data.
For each of the four scrolls, he figured he would spend a little time increasing the power of them, before using the rest of his control to widen their range. The more he could hit, the faster this battle would be over.
The first scroll was weak. The fire barely flared behind the scenes of the world, and try as he might, he couldn’t increase it (8+2:10) At least, not by anything significant. So he focused on stretching the range, making the Rom spell strike far more than it should have. He had enough time for perhaps two tweaks, two stretches, so he made them. (17+2:19) (16+2:18).
Without even looking, he released the spell into the field, its range sufficient to coat almost the entire battlefield. Only a few snowmen would escape the miniature foot-tall tornados of fire that sprung up. He was already focused on his second scroll.
In contrast to the first scroll, the second flared almost too much for him, so surprising was it. (20+2:22) Before long, he held almost a level 3 spell in his grasp. He tweaked the parameters for the range, and found it unusually pliable as well. (15+2:17) (19+2:21) This spell came out just as large as the last, and he laid it in almost the same spot. The tornados that spawned this time were larger, obscuring vision and damaging snowmen, but only reached six feet off the ground. While concentrated it would have the power of a level 3, spread out it was much less damaging.
The third scroll did much worse in comparison. The power increase was actually a decrease, as it seemed to squirm and drain away from him. (6+2:8) He tried to increase the range, but it slipped as well, and he ended up with little more than a reverse drop spell, which he targeted on the weakest-looking supreme he could find. (7+2:9) (9+2:11)
Disgusted, he simply activated the fourth scroll, aiming it for the largest concentration of snowmen he could find… which now happened to be a cluster of Deluxes at the base of his tree, working quickly to chop it down.
The tree began to topple and the heavyblade found himself caught in the once-horizontal branches as they turned vertical. He had the presence of mind to wrap his wings tight so they didn’t get broken as he fell, but he was still caught half under the trunk as it crashed down. Amusingly enough, the tree took out a couple of snowmen on its way. Great planning there, snow goons.
Demorian glanced up as a nearby tree began to fall, smiling slightly as Nighthand fell. The man had been lighting up the area with fire, and the icy Blademaster had been quite uncomfortable. In fact, he hadn’t killed a single thing since the first scroll went off. He even avoided stepping on the tiny tornados that formed. When the fire had faded completely and he glanced around, he found himself almost shoulder to shoulder with Sekai.
“Well, your black-winged leader puts on quite a show when he wants to, eh?” He says to the petite archer next to him.
"Um... yes, he does. I haven't seen him do that before." She sounds quite impressed as she takes aim and destroys one of the snowmen in the distance. "I think Nighthand-san has been here the longest... aside from Sheena-san, Nall-san and you, of course. But, that might be a bit, um, presumptive of me." Sekai commented as an afterthought
Demorian nods. “Definitely. By this point, if I remember right… he’s been around for something like five years now.” He watches the heavyblade struggle out from under the tree and start hacking away at the snowmen around him. “He’s had quite a bit of time to develop his powers.”
Sekai's response was fairly predictable, a widening of her eyes and a pause in her careful assault on the smaller snowmen in order to watch Nighthand's emergence from under the tree. "Ola Repth!" Somewhat satisfied and hoping that it'd helped him out, the girl returned to picking off snowmen with her bow. "...five years. That's such a long time." A pause before she turns to look up at Demorian, brow furrowed. "Do you know how long the rest of the Freedom Fighters- yourself included- have been here?"
“Not exact figures, offhand. I had the data in Marionette, but that web is elsewhere. Though, to give you an idea… Twilight was introduced shortly after The World was released, and as long as there’s been Twilight, there’s been freedom fighters.” He carefully doesn’t answer anything about his personal timeline. “By the way… shouldn’t you be showing a little by now? Powers, that is.” He grins.
"Webs? Is that your power?" Sekai was clearly struggling to try and figure out exactly what a 'web' could be or mean exactly. Too many possibilities for one young mind. "Um... not sure what you mean by powers. I can't do anything like Nighthand-san or Dien-san are able to." She said shyly, as if a little embarrassed by that fact. "I can summon Kira if I need someone to help me in a physical battle though." Sekai offers, clearly not a hundred percent sure about the whole 'powers' thing.
“Ah, well there you go. I’m sure Kira will grow stronger as you do, over time.” He shrugs at the webs comment. “Marionette was like a suit I wore, that was plugged into a lot of different data lines. It was how I knew as much as I did about everyone.”
The tiny Archer's eyes sought and found Kira in the middle of doing... something odd with her spear and a few of the snowmen. Something told her she really didn't want to look too much closer either as she turns back to Demorian. "How did you find out that you could do that?" Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back... or something like that.
Demorian chuckles, the relative ignorance of the girl getting to him. “That was sheer hard work, coding and programming it all. It’s not my power. My power is… different.”
She blinks a couple of times, clearly able to understand the hard work part and rather impressed by it. So many people who were talented with the programming and fancy technical stuff... "Different in what way?" Realization and embarrassment flashes across her face as she ducks her head sheepishly. "S-Sorry if I'm prying or being too nosy, being curious tends to make me forget my manners."
“Just different.” He doesn’t seem offended, at least. “I’d rather not talk about it within range of the towers. I’ve hidden it too well so far.” He smiles. “I like my ace in the hole, you see.”
Sekai glances at the towers, staring for a moment in contemplative thought before nodding her head. "A good idea, we may very well need that if Tritoch-san is looking for us." She gives a tentative, shy smile in return before glancing over toward Nall and Sheena. "We should probably go back to keeping those snowmen away from Sheena-san while she's trying to protect Nall-san, or she might get upset again."
Demorian laughed aloud, and grinned. “Indeed, we should.” Then his smile faded, as the horrible screech resounded overhead. It was further, this time, but still too close for comfort. Tritoch was searching.
------------------------ooc:
Count:
Level 10: 34/300 (34 Lightly Injured)
Level 30: 87/150 (71 Lightly Injured, 16 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 20/50 (19 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Hopefully by the end of this round they should all be dead. I think you can do it, do you? =D
![Image](http://static.flickr.com/48/185807763_8ac187a5da_o.jpg)
Wishlist: Any Armor or Weapons under level 50, Any Scrolls (prefer level 2+)
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
A swift slice of his blades took down another snowman as Baron kept moving. His body was running on autopilot at the time, automatically attacking as he approached enemies. His mind, however, was stuck questioning, thinking, and worrying. Things had become so muddled and jumbled for him that for the past little while that he had been forced to shove everything aside and focus on nothing but keeping one foot moving in front of the other. Oddly enough, battle seemed to give him some time to think, contrary to what people might believe. Though some fraction of his attention was put on avoiding attacks and keeping himself alive, the majority of it was finally assimilating all that had happened within the last few hours. It was a lot to take in.
In a matter of a few days, things had completely turned upside down for the Twin Blade. Before, he had been a normal (barring the whole Zodiac situation that he had been dealing with) player in The World. There were the occasional odd occurrences, but everyone waved them off as some bug in the system, and when they vanished shortly after they were forgotten. But now, after being exposed to both the Eventide Crescendo and the Freedom Fighters, Baron had come to realize that there was far more things than “bugs” in the system. No, there was much more to everything than met the eye, from the hackers that put players into comatose states to the strange AIs that made their homes in varying parts of The World. Baron had experienced all of it now… and there was still certainly more to come.
Another small snowman was taken down in a burst of flames from a Vak Don as the Twin Blade continued his line of thought. Since he had been a part of The World, the boy had encountered the usual share of bugs, but then he had come up against the Zodiac. Since then, things had been going downhill and Baron had found himself as one of the comatose players who were trapped in The World. And speaking of the Zodiac… the Twin Blade still had to deal with them. After all of his time and work, he had only come across Libra and the Gemini, and since then he hadn’t had any luck. Then the situation with the Eventide Crescendo came up, pushing the whole Zodiac issue to the back of his mind, followed shortly by the encounter with Xenobia that had left him comatose.
There was a lot on his mind, and Baron found himself constantly going in circles, trying to figure out where to start. No matter where he tried to begin, though, something else always took priority, whether it be dealing with the Zodiac, helping the Freedom Fighters against the Elites, looking for a way to get out of his comatose state… there was a lot to do. For now, it seemed that he’d have to fall back on his old plan of just moving forward and seeing what opportunities were presented to him… But he hated that. He hated having no control over his path, hoping for everything and getting the bare minimum. He emphasized the mental “hate” with a quick slash as he tore a snowman in two, right down the center. The monster fell to pieces on the ground even as Baron whirled to send a quick Vak Don at the next in line. It melted, not quite dead, but a quick cut severed the slushy head and left it tumbling to the ground.
Looking around, Baron noticed that the monsters were starting to run out. The large army had dwindled down to a smaller, more manageable group, though there were still plenty to deal with. The Freedom Fighters had done well against overwhelming odds, and from what the Twin Blade had seen, that wasn’t changing in the least. The biggest advantage the players had was their innovative ideas; now that they were a part of The World, with more than simple game mechanics in effect, they could do so much more than before. Watching Nighthand send the amplified fire spells across the battlefield was just one example of just how amazing the older Freedom Fighters were. Baron wondered when his own Twilight powers would become known, and what they would be, but for now he had to wait and see. He could deal with watching everyone else use theirs.
A larger snowman, one of the medium-sized ones, stabbed his spear towards the boy as he turned to face it. The weapon was quickly deflected as Baron caught it between his blades before being sent flying by a twist of the wrists. The Twin Blade slashed quickly, a pair of strikes enough to topple the monster as he continued to the next one, not even bothering to watch his opponent vanish. There were far too many for individual victories; they had to keep moving forward. There were still about a hundred opponents left, and though each kill had some small impact on the entire mass, none of them was enough to dwell upon. Not while there were plenty remaining. That was why Baron quickly turned and ran towards a small mass of snowmen, a mixed group of the small and medium ones. He figured that, even if the little individual kills didn’t mean much, a nice-sized batch should get his point across.
A pair of Vulcan spells drained nearly all of Baron’s SP as the fiery avatars burned across the field, completely annihilating the group in an enormous surge of flame. Sure, it wasn’t as impressive as a more powerful Vulcan Ch or anything, but it was enough to melt a small battalion of enemies and leave them to melt under the burning flames. One of the medium-sized snowmen had survived the onslaught somehow, but a quick slash from Baron’s blades dealt with the remaining small chunk of its HP as the Twin Blade continued his assault. The monster fell and quickly dissolved into pieces as he moved past, looking for a new target. There were still plenty to choose from, though Baron knew better than to approach the big monsters. They would simply annihilate him again, and there was no point in wasting someone’s SP or Resurrects if he could avoid it.
A Rue Zot from behind surprised Baron as he tried to turn and avoid the majority of the damage. The icy spire dug into his side, a hardly serious wound, but it stung enough to catch the boy’s attention. He pulled away, wincing at the blood leaking from the injury, but a quick Repth from his remaining SP perked him up a bit. Soon the Twin Blade was turning, moving to destroy the small snowman that had injured him. A quick sweep of his blades severed both wooden arms before another twist lobbed the monster’s head clear from the central snowball of its body. The snowman quickly fell under the assault, destroyed in an instant. Baron took a breath and looked around, finding himself clear again for a moment.
Normally, that attack from behind wouldn’t have caught him so off-guard. Libra had a habit of noticing things and always gave warning… but now he was gone. Baron wasn’t sure where he had gone, or what had happened to him, but for now he knew that the AI was indeed missing. Earlier he had lost whatever consciousness he had possessed while controlling Baron’s body for him- something the Twin Blade felt guilty about, it was his fault Libra had gotten hurt- and since then, the AI hadn’t spoken a word. What was more concerning was the lack of input from the Gemini too… had they done something to Libra? Or had something happened to them too? Either way, things had gone far too quiet for Baron to like. He was starting to get uncomfortable, wondering what had happened.
Where are you guys…?
There was something at that point; it was not exactly a sound, but that wasn’t far from describing it either. It was… an echo, maybe? Regardless, whatever it was, it felt like something had reacted to Baron’s mental query. For a moment, the Twin Blade stood still and listened. Nothing happened after a moment though, and Baron was forced out of his reverie as a pair of the medium-sized snowmen attacked him, their weapons closing quickly. Ducking aside, he spun and sliced at the skis on one’s feet, causing it to lose its footing before falling onto the ground. It was crushed into powder beneath Baron’s feet as the Twin Blade jumped aside to avoid the other attack, leaping atop his fallen foe. A Vak Don rained down on the second snowman, dealing a fair amount of damage, but a pair of slashes right behind it tore the head off of the monster.
Well, there was no time to dwell on things, they still had plenty of monsters to go.
((OOC: Sorry about the short post, not much to do atm but hack and slash...
Level 10: 22/300 (18 Lightly Injured, 4 Heavily Injured)
Level 30: 80/150 (68 Lightly Injured, 12 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 20/50 (19 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
))
In a matter of a few days, things had completely turned upside down for the Twin Blade. Before, he had been a normal (barring the whole Zodiac situation that he had been dealing with) player in The World. There were the occasional odd occurrences, but everyone waved them off as some bug in the system, and when they vanished shortly after they were forgotten. But now, after being exposed to both the Eventide Crescendo and the Freedom Fighters, Baron had come to realize that there was far more things than “bugs” in the system. No, there was much more to everything than met the eye, from the hackers that put players into comatose states to the strange AIs that made their homes in varying parts of The World. Baron had experienced all of it now… and there was still certainly more to come.
Another small snowman was taken down in a burst of flames from a Vak Don as the Twin Blade continued his line of thought. Since he had been a part of The World, the boy had encountered the usual share of bugs, but then he had come up against the Zodiac. Since then, things had been going downhill and Baron had found himself as one of the comatose players who were trapped in The World. And speaking of the Zodiac… the Twin Blade still had to deal with them. After all of his time and work, he had only come across Libra and the Gemini, and since then he hadn’t had any luck. Then the situation with the Eventide Crescendo came up, pushing the whole Zodiac issue to the back of his mind, followed shortly by the encounter with Xenobia that had left him comatose.
There was a lot on his mind, and Baron found himself constantly going in circles, trying to figure out where to start. No matter where he tried to begin, though, something else always took priority, whether it be dealing with the Zodiac, helping the Freedom Fighters against the Elites, looking for a way to get out of his comatose state… there was a lot to do. For now, it seemed that he’d have to fall back on his old plan of just moving forward and seeing what opportunities were presented to him… But he hated that. He hated having no control over his path, hoping for everything and getting the bare minimum. He emphasized the mental “hate” with a quick slash as he tore a snowman in two, right down the center. The monster fell to pieces on the ground even as Baron whirled to send a quick Vak Don at the next in line. It melted, not quite dead, but a quick cut severed the slushy head and left it tumbling to the ground.
Looking around, Baron noticed that the monsters were starting to run out. The large army had dwindled down to a smaller, more manageable group, though there were still plenty to deal with. The Freedom Fighters had done well against overwhelming odds, and from what the Twin Blade had seen, that wasn’t changing in the least. The biggest advantage the players had was their innovative ideas; now that they were a part of The World, with more than simple game mechanics in effect, they could do so much more than before. Watching Nighthand send the amplified fire spells across the battlefield was just one example of just how amazing the older Freedom Fighters were. Baron wondered when his own Twilight powers would become known, and what they would be, but for now he had to wait and see. He could deal with watching everyone else use theirs.
A larger snowman, one of the medium-sized ones, stabbed his spear towards the boy as he turned to face it. The weapon was quickly deflected as Baron caught it between his blades before being sent flying by a twist of the wrists. The Twin Blade slashed quickly, a pair of strikes enough to topple the monster as he continued to the next one, not even bothering to watch his opponent vanish. There were far too many for individual victories; they had to keep moving forward. There were still about a hundred opponents left, and though each kill had some small impact on the entire mass, none of them was enough to dwell upon. Not while there were plenty remaining. That was why Baron quickly turned and ran towards a small mass of snowmen, a mixed group of the small and medium ones. He figured that, even if the little individual kills didn’t mean much, a nice-sized batch should get his point across.
A pair of Vulcan spells drained nearly all of Baron’s SP as the fiery avatars burned across the field, completely annihilating the group in an enormous surge of flame. Sure, it wasn’t as impressive as a more powerful Vulcan Ch or anything, but it was enough to melt a small battalion of enemies and leave them to melt under the burning flames. One of the medium-sized snowmen had survived the onslaught somehow, but a quick slash from Baron’s blades dealt with the remaining small chunk of its HP as the Twin Blade continued his assault. The monster fell and quickly dissolved into pieces as he moved past, looking for a new target. There were still plenty to choose from, though Baron knew better than to approach the big monsters. They would simply annihilate him again, and there was no point in wasting someone’s SP or Resurrects if he could avoid it.
A Rue Zot from behind surprised Baron as he tried to turn and avoid the majority of the damage. The icy spire dug into his side, a hardly serious wound, but it stung enough to catch the boy’s attention. He pulled away, wincing at the blood leaking from the injury, but a quick Repth from his remaining SP perked him up a bit. Soon the Twin Blade was turning, moving to destroy the small snowman that had injured him. A quick sweep of his blades severed both wooden arms before another twist lobbed the monster’s head clear from the central snowball of its body. The snowman quickly fell under the assault, destroyed in an instant. Baron took a breath and looked around, finding himself clear again for a moment.
Normally, that attack from behind wouldn’t have caught him so off-guard. Libra had a habit of noticing things and always gave warning… but now he was gone. Baron wasn’t sure where he had gone, or what had happened to him, but for now he knew that the AI was indeed missing. Earlier he had lost whatever consciousness he had possessed while controlling Baron’s body for him- something the Twin Blade felt guilty about, it was his fault Libra had gotten hurt- and since then, the AI hadn’t spoken a word. What was more concerning was the lack of input from the Gemini too… had they done something to Libra? Or had something happened to them too? Either way, things had gone far too quiet for Baron to like. He was starting to get uncomfortable, wondering what had happened.
Where are you guys…?
There was something at that point; it was not exactly a sound, but that wasn’t far from describing it either. It was… an echo, maybe? Regardless, whatever it was, it felt like something had reacted to Baron’s mental query. For a moment, the Twin Blade stood still and listened. Nothing happened after a moment though, and Baron was forced out of his reverie as a pair of the medium-sized snowmen attacked him, their weapons closing quickly. Ducking aside, he spun and sliced at the skis on one’s feet, causing it to lose its footing before falling onto the ground. It was crushed into powder beneath Baron’s feet as the Twin Blade jumped aside to avoid the other attack, leaping atop his fallen foe. A Vak Don rained down on the second snowman, dealing a fair amount of damage, but a pair of slashes right behind it tore the head off of the monster.
Well, there was no time to dwell on things, they still had plenty of monsters to go.
((OOC: Sorry about the short post, not much to do atm but hack and slash...
Level 10: 22/300 (18 Lightly Injured, 4 Heavily Injured)
Level 30: 80/150 (68 Lightly Injured, 12 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 20/50 (19 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
))
Character Information
Baron | Level 47 Twin Blade [100/1000 EXP] | 891 HP / 265 SP
Weapon: Fishskin
Armor: Emperor's Crown/Bone Armor/Thunder Gloves/Ninja Anklet
Accessories/Books: Ethereal Angel Wings, Silver Grunty
Skills: Thunder Coil, Gale of Swords
Spells: Merrows, GiRai Don, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot, Rai Don, Ani Don, Duk Lei
GP: 750 (As of 8/2/15)
Wishlist: Nny Scales, Lucky Shoes, Saint Cross, Greave Sticker, Pet EX-Levels/Spheres(!)
Baron | Level 47 Twin Blade [100/1000 EXP] | 891 HP / 265 SP
Weapon: Fishskin
Armor: Emperor's Crown/Bone Armor/Thunder Gloves/Ninja Anklet
Accessories/Books: Ethereal Angel Wings, Silver Grunty
Skills: Thunder Coil, Gale of Swords
Spells: Merrows, GiRai Don, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot, Rai Don, Ani Don, Duk Lei
GP: 750 (As of 8/2/15)
Wishlist: Nny Scales, Lucky Shoes, Saint Cross, Greave Sticker, Pet EX-Levels/Spheres(!)
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
Senna was getting extremely tired of water spells. As a MeRue Rom went off pretty much in her face, tossing her hair all over the place (was it possible to get a permanent snarl in this world?) and slicing off little bits of HP. Her stats and whatever Lighteria had done nulled out some of the damage, but it was still a level two spell. Luckily for her, she was better armored against those than physical attacks.
Unluckily, another of the mid-levels was coming at her. Taking a cue from Canti and Talal, she initiated a Vak Wipe. Again, perhaps thanks to what Lighteria had done (what a weird yet really cool… ability?) the red aura around her weapon flared up brighter than usual. The snowman was already partly damaged, and the skill neatly put an end to its life. Blinking away the amorphous shape the light of her lance left on her eyes, she turned to the battle proper.
There were far fewer now, and it made targeting individuals a lot easier, though it also made catching them a little harder – the skis were a lot more useful now that there weren’t as many of their compatriots getting in the way.
Of course, that particular advantage was nullified to a degree when they kept coming in for attacks of their own. It might have been her imagination, but it seemed like they were relying less on magic, perhaps discerning their drop in power.
Focusing on another of the mid-level ones, she fired off a Vak Rom to get its attention. When it circled around to her, another Vak Wipe, then a finishing slice to end the deal. Unseen, something slammed into her from behind, sending her tumbling into the snow. As she came up, marveling at how qui9ckly one could get used to the pain, she zeroed in on the one that had hit here and cast another Vak Rom. As it ran through the spell, she downed a Mage Soul and replentish her spell ability.
They were getting there, but dear GOD there were a lot of them.
((OOC:
Level 10: 22/300 (18 Lightly Injured, 4 Heavily Injured)
Level 30: 78/150 (66 Lightly Injured, 12 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 20/50 (19 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
))
Unluckily, another of the mid-levels was coming at her. Taking a cue from Canti and Talal, she initiated a Vak Wipe. Again, perhaps thanks to what Lighteria had done (what a weird yet really cool… ability?) the red aura around her weapon flared up brighter than usual. The snowman was already partly damaged, and the skill neatly put an end to its life. Blinking away the amorphous shape the light of her lance left on her eyes, she turned to the battle proper.
There were far fewer now, and it made targeting individuals a lot easier, though it also made catching them a little harder – the skis were a lot more useful now that there weren’t as many of their compatriots getting in the way.
Of course, that particular advantage was nullified to a degree when they kept coming in for attacks of their own. It might have been her imagination, but it seemed like they were relying less on magic, perhaps discerning their drop in power.
Focusing on another of the mid-level ones, she fired off a Vak Rom to get its attention. When it circled around to her, another Vak Wipe, then a finishing slice to end the deal. Unseen, something slammed into her from behind, sending her tumbling into the snow. As she came up, marveling at how qui9ckly one could get used to the pain, she zeroed in on the one that had hit here and cast another Vak Rom. As it ran through the spell, she downed a Mage Soul and replentish her spell ability.
They were getting there, but dear GOD there were a lot of them.
((OOC:
Level 10: 22/300 (18 Lightly Injured, 4 Heavily Injured)
Level 30: 78/150 (66 Lightly Injured, 12 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 20/50 (19 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
))
Senna, level 33 Long Arm (710 HP/180 SP)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
Click for full equipment and items
14300 (1/23)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
Click for full equipment and items
14300 (1/23)
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
He could sense the end was near. They were nearing the end of the third quarter, and having battled all game, they were sitting here with a lead going into the final stretch. It was that killer instinct time the coaches always talked about, the time to put them away, to bare your fangs and rip out the throat of the opposition. This was the time for poise, staunch defense and fundamental offense. In other words, it was time to reduce everything around him to rubble. He took a quike break to survey the field and area around them. The snowmen were reduced by a huge amount already, the ones remaining seemed to be mainly of the Deluxe variety with a sprinkling handful of both Supreme and regular around. After surveying his allies too, and realizing that he was probably the weakest one there, something that left a slightly bitter taste in his mouth, he figured he would be best suited to annihilating the rest of the little guys. That probably wouldn’t be too difficult seeing as how a majority of the snowmen were injured slightly anyway due to the meteor shower and small blazing dust devils.
It was time to get to work. There were four snowmen in particular that looked weary and beleaguered, and would probably take a single shot at most to kill. They were relatively spread out so it was time to start with the closest. Seven steps at a dead run took him to the closest snowman where he simply stuck his Archspear out and ran it through the enemy immediately powderizing it. He turned as an arrow took him in the back and a pair of Vak Dons eliminated that nuisance. He started toward the next weak beast but had to pause midway through to parry a spear and a sword before cutting through the pair of them with a series of strokes with his pen before charging through and slashing upward through the second weakend snowman. A Rue Rom swirled up around him and skimmed off a few hit points but another charge and couple of attacks took care of that inconvience. He took a breath and looked around. There were sixteen little snowman left. Still a relatively large number, something he needed to fix, andf ix quickly.
He sucked in air and went forward, nearly missing the small axe that took a chunk out of his side. Swearing as the chill air around him stung the wound a bit he buried his spearhead in the creature’s head and then twisted out driving his weapon vertically through the beast reducing it to dust. He managed to catch the next one he came across was distracted so it was relatively easy to slash it into dust. This was going too slowly. There were still fourteen little guys left, he needed to find a way to get them grouped up, to get their attention. He had just the thing. Doing a quick calculation of his SP he found his way. Two orbs of shadow were fired outward ending the lives of the two remaining heavily injured snowmen. From there he closed his eyes and let himself drift into the shadows of the field. He pulled them to him, surrounded himself with it, wrapped himself in a blanket of the latent Ani energy still in the field. And there it was, a chorus comprised of twelve individual notes blended into a harmony that soothed his mind and as luck would have it, there were twelve little snowmen left.
His wisps sought out the twelve snowmen and delivered little more than a shove but it did its job. The twelve snowmen swirled around and raced off their skis, their convergence point the Long Arm between them all.
He had to wait, he had to time it perfectly. Lighteria’s orbs burned brightly as the boy switched out for his Berserk spear. The snowmen were coming closer, aiming to destroy him with their numbers, thankfully the remaining ones were all melee classes. Closer and closer they inched, and then they were all in range. A Vak Repulse burned through the air and snowmen alike the snow sizzling where it touched flaming metal. Lighteria’s orbs gave him just enough of a boost that the second and final pass of the skill reduced all twelve snowmen into piles and chunks of slush. That only left Supremes and Deluxes and then they had survived the first test that the Wasteland had thrown at them.
(OOC:
Level 10: 0/300
Level 30: 78/150 (66 Lightly Injured, 12 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 20/50 (19 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
It was time to get to work. There were four snowmen in particular that looked weary and beleaguered, and would probably take a single shot at most to kill. They were relatively spread out so it was time to start with the closest. Seven steps at a dead run took him to the closest snowman where he simply stuck his Archspear out and ran it through the enemy immediately powderizing it. He turned as an arrow took him in the back and a pair of Vak Dons eliminated that nuisance. He started toward the next weak beast but had to pause midway through to parry a spear and a sword before cutting through the pair of them with a series of strokes with his pen before charging through and slashing upward through the second weakend snowman. A Rue Rom swirled up around him and skimmed off a few hit points but another charge and couple of attacks took care of that inconvience. He took a breath and looked around. There were sixteen little snowman left. Still a relatively large number, something he needed to fix, andf ix quickly.
He sucked in air and went forward, nearly missing the small axe that took a chunk out of his side. Swearing as the chill air around him stung the wound a bit he buried his spearhead in the creature’s head and then twisted out driving his weapon vertically through the beast reducing it to dust. He managed to catch the next one he came across was distracted so it was relatively easy to slash it into dust. This was going too slowly. There were still fourteen little guys left, he needed to find a way to get them grouped up, to get their attention. He had just the thing. Doing a quick calculation of his SP he found his way. Two orbs of shadow were fired outward ending the lives of the two remaining heavily injured snowmen. From there he closed his eyes and let himself drift into the shadows of the field. He pulled them to him, surrounded himself with it, wrapped himself in a blanket of the latent Ani energy still in the field. And there it was, a chorus comprised of twelve individual notes blended into a harmony that soothed his mind and as luck would have it, there were twelve little snowmen left.
His wisps sought out the twelve snowmen and delivered little more than a shove but it did its job. The twelve snowmen swirled around and raced off their skis, their convergence point the Long Arm between them all.
He had to wait, he had to time it perfectly. Lighteria’s orbs burned brightly as the boy switched out for his Berserk spear. The snowmen were coming closer, aiming to destroy him with their numbers, thankfully the remaining ones were all melee classes. Closer and closer they inched, and then they were all in range. A Vak Repulse burned through the air and snowmen alike the snow sizzling where it touched flaming metal. Lighteria’s orbs gave him just enough of a boost that the second and final pass of the skill reduced all twelve snowmen into piles and chunks of slush. That only left Supremes and Deluxes and then they had survived the first test that the Wasteland had thrown at them.
(OOC:
Level 10: 0/300
Level 30: 78/150 (66 Lightly Injured, 12 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 20/50 (19 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Level 28 Long Arm
Archspear, Newt Necklace, Smith's Gloves, Wyrm Scale, Kuja's Thong Dress
EXP: [700/1000]
WISHLIST
Levels
Weapons: - All
Armor: Head - Scarab Earring
Body - Nothing until Mid 30's. Ninja Garb Hand - Nothing until Mid 30's. Leg - Nothing until Mid 30's.
Items: Cooked Biles, Darkness Scrolls (Any and All)
Archspear, Newt Necklace, Smith's Gloves, Wyrm Scale, Kuja's Thong Dress
EXP: [700/1000]
WISHLIST
Levels
Weapons: - All
Armor: Head - Scarab Earring
Body - Nothing until Mid 30's. Ninja Garb Hand - Nothing until Mid 30's. Leg - Nothing until Mid 30's.
Items: Cooked Biles, Darkness Scrolls (Any and All)
- Takua
- Ikkitousen
- Posts: 115
- Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 12:19 am
- Class: Wavemaster
- Location: Walking the line of madness
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
Everything left was injured in some fashion or another, Takua noted with approval. That would help him quite a bit in the slaughter that had to occur before Tritoch found them all. It didn't sound like he was that close from the shrieks that were flying around, but it'd be better safe than sorry. At the moment, it'd probably be very sorry indeed if the man found them while still fighting the Snowmen. Thankfully, their numbers were winding down a bit more. Sure, there were still a metaphorical ton of them, but at least they were gradually becoming less of an army and more of a...sortie. Right, sure, cause that totally mattered when there were still more than a hundred. Perhaps they weren't really that dangerous to the entire party, but it was certainly dangerous to individuals.
Things hadn't really changed since he'd teamed up, slightly, with Sekai and Kira so that they'd keep an eye on each other's backs. That was good in a way, it meant that they hadn't been ambushed by giant snowmen on skis that were wielding any manner of weapons. So he didn't mind that he hadn't had to fire off a spell or two in order to keep that from happening. Instead, he'd been more...watching, observing how they fought. That didn't mean that he hadn't been casting spells of his own, indeed, several Deluxe snowmen had melted on the ground already and one Supreme was smoldering on the ground a scant few yards from him. Its sword had inflicted one huge slash across his chest, but the Ola Repth had taken care of that.
That didn't stop him from having to frantically dodge a bolt the size of his arm from blasting through the air just a few short inches in front of his heart. Whirling, he found the massive Snowman Supreme lining up for a second shot with its crossbow aimed directly at the Wavemaster.
Takua moved as fast as he could through the cold and the snow, but he knew he was beginning to tire. That was his greatest weakness now. Not the lack of physical defense, but the simple fact that his body wasn't used to this much strain. Maybe he never would be, since he was a Wavemaster, perhaps his stamina would be stuck at the level it was right now. Either way, he could feel his limbs deadening, slowing down, breath coming in shorter and shorter gasps. Not a good thing, and all of the frantic running that he'd been doing to dodge was making it worse. Thankfully, he didn't need to swing a giant sword around in order to fight. He simply had to have the SP and the will to cast a spell, to say or mutter the words along with the mental command. It used to be selecting the skill. Now it was mentally reaching into the connection with the Waves and pulling the spell you wanted into existence.
At least, that was how it was for him. Maybe that was simply because he was a Wavemaster and they had such a higher connection with the Waves. He wasn't a different class, he couldn't tell. Maybe he could ask someone though...that might yield interesting results. Perhaps he could ask several people.
Later though.
“RaVak Don.” The triple flaming rocks that crashed down into the beast sprayed water everywhere as the snow it was made out of melted. Two of the Deluxe versions got nailed as well, one of them melting down and dying instantly, the other responded with a single GiRue Kruz. Takua skipped out of the way, leaving the ice cores to blast past where he had been . Smiling happily, he simply spammed the spell again. There was no good reason not to after all. A single third level spell did quite a bit of damage, even against a monster that was...considerably higher in level than him. Especially when the monster in question was of the opposing element.
Thanks to it being injured before the Wavemaster ever had to attack it, the monster died...but not before launching another bolt straight through the boy's right arm. Incredible pain wrenched at him before he ripped the ice out of his arm and healed himself with a Health Drink, not wanting to waste the SP at the moment on another Ola Repth. The other Deluxe in the area got slaughtered as well, which was very good indeed.
Takua was briefly surprised to find himself close by Demorian, but that was a good thing. There were a couple questions on his mind at the moment, all of them to do with the flying beast that seemed to be looking for them. "Hey Demorian, quick few questions for you. When Tritoch finds us, if he does, what are the odds that you'd be able to hold him off long enough for the rest of us to get organized if Sekai or myself were there to back you up?"
The blademaster looks at the sky and shrugs. "No idea. It depends on how much he's been powered up. Having the two of you help would probably... well, help. Keep three targets for him to bounce between, juggle him, you know. Hopefully he can't one-shot all of us."
That...wasn't good at all. Switching lines of thought, the Wavemaster asked his next question with a bit more hesitation than the last. "Oh...what was he like before? I mean, class and powers wise, not personality. I never saw him after all."
To this, Demorian smiles. Something he knows, no doubt. "He was a wavemaster. I don't recall his level offhand, but it was high. They called him Lord of the Three, because he specialized in three of the elements." He paused, thinking. "Fire, Ice, and Thunder, if I recall correctly." He shrugs. "No telling if he's constrained by those now. Though, he had a few odd special abilities. I remember he had a very high physical attack with his wand, and when he cast a spell, it cast twice. Oh, and I think physical tolerance." He grinned. "Should be fun."
There was a long pause while Takua stared at the grin...and then slowly smiled as well. Well shit, Demorian liked to fight a bit then? Okay then, he could live with that. "Oh yeah, fun. And then he went and got a nice powerup. Well, if and when he arrives, I'll try and make sure to give you all the backup I can."
"Good." For a moment, he's deadly serious. "I'll count on it."
Taken aback, the Wavemaster looked at Demorian briefly before darting back into the middle of the fight. That...didn't sound good at all. If he was that serious about needing help, the weaker character was going to be gutted so badly he wouldn't be able to walk straight for a week. Not...very good, especially if the man had retained his physical stat power, which sounded likely. So...the few minutes while Tritoch fought them, before they brought him down (and assuming that Demorian, Sekai and himself were the only ones being attacked, not very good odds on that either) were going to be absolutely pain-filled.
((Level 10: 0/300
Level 30: 70/150 (60 Lightly Injured, 10 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 17/50 (16 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Sorry about the general lack of killing and haste of the post, but I'm not exactly home at the moment))
Things hadn't really changed since he'd teamed up, slightly, with Sekai and Kira so that they'd keep an eye on each other's backs. That was good in a way, it meant that they hadn't been ambushed by giant snowmen on skis that were wielding any manner of weapons. So he didn't mind that he hadn't had to fire off a spell or two in order to keep that from happening. Instead, he'd been more...watching, observing how they fought. That didn't mean that he hadn't been casting spells of his own, indeed, several Deluxe snowmen had melted on the ground already and one Supreme was smoldering on the ground a scant few yards from him. Its sword had inflicted one huge slash across his chest, but the Ola Repth had taken care of that.
That didn't stop him from having to frantically dodge a bolt the size of his arm from blasting through the air just a few short inches in front of his heart. Whirling, he found the massive Snowman Supreme lining up for a second shot with its crossbow aimed directly at the Wavemaster.
Takua moved as fast as he could through the cold and the snow, but he knew he was beginning to tire. That was his greatest weakness now. Not the lack of physical defense, but the simple fact that his body wasn't used to this much strain. Maybe he never would be, since he was a Wavemaster, perhaps his stamina would be stuck at the level it was right now. Either way, he could feel his limbs deadening, slowing down, breath coming in shorter and shorter gasps. Not a good thing, and all of the frantic running that he'd been doing to dodge was making it worse. Thankfully, he didn't need to swing a giant sword around in order to fight. He simply had to have the SP and the will to cast a spell, to say or mutter the words along with the mental command. It used to be selecting the skill. Now it was mentally reaching into the connection with the Waves and pulling the spell you wanted into existence.
At least, that was how it was for him. Maybe that was simply because he was a Wavemaster and they had such a higher connection with the Waves. He wasn't a different class, he couldn't tell. Maybe he could ask someone though...that might yield interesting results. Perhaps he could ask several people.
Later though.
“RaVak Don.” The triple flaming rocks that crashed down into the beast sprayed water everywhere as the snow it was made out of melted. Two of the Deluxe versions got nailed as well, one of them melting down and dying instantly, the other responded with a single GiRue Kruz. Takua skipped out of the way, leaving the ice cores to blast past where he had been . Smiling happily, he simply spammed the spell again. There was no good reason not to after all. A single third level spell did quite a bit of damage, even against a monster that was...considerably higher in level than him. Especially when the monster in question was of the opposing element.
Thanks to it being injured before the Wavemaster ever had to attack it, the monster died...but not before launching another bolt straight through the boy's right arm. Incredible pain wrenched at him before he ripped the ice out of his arm and healed himself with a Health Drink, not wanting to waste the SP at the moment on another Ola Repth. The other Deluxe in the area got slaughtered as well, which was very good indeed.
Takua was briefly surprised to find himself close by Demorian, but that was a good thing. There were a couple questions on his mind at the moment, all of them to do with the flying beast that seemed to be looking for them. "Hey Demorian, quick few questions for you. When Tritoch finds us, if he does, what are the odds that you'd be able to hold him off long enough for the rest of us to get organized if Sekai or myself were there to back you up?"
The blademaster looks at the sky and shrugs. "No idea. It depends on how much he's been powered up. Having the two of you help would probably... well, help. Keep three targets for him to bounce between, juggle him, you know. Hopefully he can't one-shot all of us."
That...wasn't good at all. Switching lines of thought, the Wavemaster asked his next question with a bit more hesitation than the last. "Oh...what was he like before? I mean, class and powers wise, not personality. I never saw him after all."
To this, Demorian smiles. Something he knows, no doubt. "He was a wavemaster. I don't recall his level offhand, but it was high. They called him Lord of the Three, because he specialized in three of the elements." He paused, thinking. "Fire, Ice, and Thunder, if I recall correctly." He shrugs. "No telling if he's constrained by those now. Though, he had a few odd special abilities. I remember he had a very high physical attack with his wand, and when he cast a spell, it cast twice. Oh, and I think physical tolerance." He grinned. "Should be fun."
There was a long pause while Takua stared at the grin...and then slowly smiled as well. Well shit, Demorian liked to fight a bit then? Okay then, he could live with that. "Oh yeah, fun. And then he went and got a nice powerup. Well, if and when he arrives, I'll try and make sure to give you all the backup I can."
"Good." For a moment, he's deadly serious. "I'll count on it."
Taken aback, the Wavemaster looked at Demorian briefly before darting back into the middle of the fight. That...didn't sound good at all. If he was that serious about needing help, the weaker character was going to be gutted so badly he wouldn't be able to walk straight for a week. Not...very good, especially if the man had retained his physical stat power, which sounded likely. So...the few minutes while Tritoch fought them, before they brought him down (and assuming that Demorian, Sekai and himself were the only ones being attacked, not very good odds on that either) were going to be absolutely pain-filled.
((Level 10: 0/300
Level 30: 70/150 (60 Lightly Injured, 10 Moderately Injured)
Level 50: 17/50 (16 Lightly Injured, 1 Moderately Injured)
Sorry about the general lack of killing and haste of the post, but I'm not exactly home at the moment))
-
- Exalted Player
- Posts: 300
- Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 3:58 pm
- Location: In da' plains of hell, natch.
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
(All in all, a good bunch of them had gone out into the hordes of ugly, put out their spark of life, and returned to the fold to defend Nall and Sheena. It was working. And if it was one thing that Canti liked, it was when a good plan came together. Despite their troubles, their set-backs, and all the bad old odds of The World...they could still pull together like this. It was for that kind of work that the dark Twin Blade believed in 'team', in keeping them in one piece. Just think... That bold plan to save Nall... They had to. His life was in danger - still is, really - and his power or information would make the Elites much more threatening. But more than just as an asset, Sheena wanted him back and Canti had to agree...because it was right. He'd be the first to charge into the fire. Not 'cause he's a hero, though. People expect it. They need to believe that they're not monsters, that humanity isn't shit. They need someone to do the leg-work, even if it means kicking someone else in the teeth. That's why Canti was here. Not because he was told. Because Nall would have. Because he did, and he didn't have to. You can't be an asshole all the time, or at least you can't be the same kind when it counts. That's all it takes: The right action at the right time. And even though they had been captured, look at them now. The fight is on! Nall's rescue wasn't a failure. It was just extended, and larger. Without the Elites' untimely arrival, they wouldn't have been put in a prison filled with everything they wanted, like old friends and new faces to keep out of the fire. They wouldn't have seen Zan and been warned about Tritoch. They wouldn't have been able to come here for the first time, so soon. To Yamiyo. All personal reasons for that aside, it was important. Demorian may have known it well, but all the rest of them needed experience. THIS was their first exploration! THIS was where they started to really draw blood!)
Canti: If we can make it here, we can make it ANYWHERE!!
(It got him excited, keeping him focused to fight off whatever came through to the spot he was protecting. There was a dead Deluxe at his feet while half his brain screamed out in torment. Fantastic! He'd conserved power, let it grow since he wasn't using it so actively right now. Defense was just that, like football. You wait, and you react. It was boring. Not that he was in much shape to whiz about like a super-crafty jet right now. Aside from the evil abomination circling up there somewhere, Canti wasn't confident he could fly straight, let alone land properly and coordinate some very impressive attacks. You just can't DO anything with a concussion. It was taking all of his super-instincts to fight the good fight at a normal level right now. You can't chance that. He was lucky it was the left side. Canti liked his right side. He was right-handed, preferred to look around the right shoulder, blinked with the right eye less... He was right-oriented. But still, one of the things the Twin Blade hated while in this defensive position was standing still when he should be kicking ass. Look at him! Health in the green, SP bar up to full, Speed Charm engaged, with fire up and the cold down. He should be swamping them, except that his damn coordination was down. And he didn't want to panic anyone, especially not Talal since she accidentally gave him the boot. It's just that...he was so pumped up on the right stats to kill these guys and now he was sitting there, basically. He felt like he should be doing more.)
Canti: There has to be something, more than just this. Anyone would say I shouldn't risk it, because it's crazy and stupid, but...that's Canti. I'm not the kind who stays within the lines. I need more because I'm a madman and because I've seen worse than this. I'm the guy who fights things way over his head like I don't care. This little head-burster isn't a problem. It's a challenge!
(Alright, so...what? Flight was out and his aim was off. So...he could run, he could probably hit, and there was some possibility of some casting going on. What could he do? What could he, a complete lunatic, do in a situation like this? Well...how about stir up a hornet's nest? These guy weren't so bad, once you've gotten to kill alot of them. According to Demorian, monsters like these are nothing, since there's a bunch that can't be killed at all. They couldn't afford to be bothered by little fish like this. They were just a nuissance. So, Canti started walking. He came right up to - of all things - a dual-wielding Snowman Deluxe. Raquar had eliminated all the little ones. Good job, Raq. The monster tried to slash and Canti kicked its own arm up, so that it cut its own face. Then he laughed at it, and moved fast. There was something he had done in the past, a completely nutty act from before he was infected. He had aggro'd everything, and let chaos be his partner in killing them all. Not quite the same thing he had in mind here, but with a Speed Charm VS the biggest and the baddest of all Snowmen, he just might work it all out. One Snowman giving chase, he picked his targets. Everything was injured, but he wanted the big boys, strongest and dumbest. Also, the slowest, but not the point, seriously! So, that was him, running for his life and kicking into the first Snowman Deluxe in the lower section.)
Canti: EXCELSIOR!!
(The sound that followed was a heavy blade of ice hitting the ground right behind him because he was running and he dare not look back, not even to check and make sure... For you see, the damage dealt from a kick or a small slash was dismal, nothing. But monsters are monsters... They lash out when they're attacked, and they do NOT like a smartass. So, Canti did it once more, and running for his life suddenly became a routine. He passed up the other Deluxes, and mostly they didn't care. They had bigger fish to fry, and there was still alot more of them to go. Now, you're probably wondering what happened to the first Deluxe he'd gotten mad. Well, there was the beauty of it: Collateral damage. It was trampled, as Canti's pursuers swelled in numbers. His targets were deliberate. Get the attention of all the biggest ones and keep on running. Those he didn't dare go near because of the crowds, he pinged with a spell. Even then, some of the Deluxes following was inevitable. Now, what did this look like? Anyone? It looked like he was trying to get himself into exactly the situation he'd been in that had gotten him chased by a mob...mostly because it was another mob he was running away from, right? Well, the funny thing about doing something stupid is...if you're actually doing something smart and making it look stupid, then it's brilliant. Finally, he had the attention of all of them, all 17 Snowman Supremes pissed off at him plus guests. They were all injured from before, and now Canti stopped, and he was reaching inside himself, concentrating...)
Canti: Come on, then... I know what I am and I know what you are. I don't know what we're becoming, but we have to live long enough to see it. I know what I can do, what I can control... Let's do it.
(He turned to face his pursuers.)
Canti: Come on, you coal-faces. Santa's pissed.
(Black flames came off of his hands, as well as surrounded his body, densely. It was deliberate. He was keeping an aura, only it was really an explosion. A controlled explosion of the Darkness Flame, burning away his SP but keeping itself fueled as he sacrificed Mage's Souls to it. And the result? Lemmings. They came at him and they tried to beat him, bash him, slash him, chop him, and grind him to death...except that they couldn't. Being that strong, you'd figure they could bash right through the flames, but not when they were like that. Canti knew he didn't want to set off a giant explosion, just like before, so he compressed it and learned patience. The dark power of his dark fire exploding at them was still there. They were wielding their hammers and swords into it, vaporizing in the dense darkness. And true, it was not their weakness, which was why it he needed more power and SP to do it, but they still came to him to die.)
Canti: You're a program and I'm alive, and I'll do anything to stay alive. Even cheat. You can't help it. I picked a fight. I'm the enemy. But I win because there's blast of rot and corrosion between us.
(Nature abhors an asshole like him. He just doesn't play nice. The dark Twin Blade headed back as soon as it was done. It was reckless, stupid, and pure lunacy. In short, it was Canti, and he'd been meaning to do something crazy like that for a good while. And you know? Maybe he was starting to feel a bit better, having risked life and limb to murder aplenty in the name of good old Christmas. And you probably wonder...why did he bother? It would've gotten done without all that. He didn't have to. Except, he did. He couldn't help it. He'd been throwing himself into bad situations for all the wrong reasons every since he was 14, maybe before. Why not a few in the right direction?)
OOC: Mind the gap! Or rather...tally up!
Level 10: 0/300
Level 30: 65/150 (56 Lightly injured, 9 Moderately injured)
Level 50: 0/50
Canti: If we can make it here, we can make it ANYWHERE!!
(It got him excited, keeping him focused to fight off whatever came through to the spot he was protecting. There was a dead Deluxe at his feet while half his brain screamed out in torment. Fantastic! He'd conserved power, let it grow since he wasn't using it so actively right now. Defense was just that, like football. You wait, and you react. It was boring. Not that he was in much shape to whiz about like a super-crafty jet right now. Aside from the evil abomination circling up there somewhere, Canti wasn't confident he could fly straight, let alone land properly and coordinate some very impressive attacks. You just can't DO anything with a concussion. It was taking all of his super-instincts to fight the good fight at a normal level right now. You can't chance that. He was lucky it was the left side. Canti liked his right side. He was right-handed, preferred to look around the right shoulder, blinked with the right eye less... He was right-oriented. But still, one of the things the Twin Blade hated while in this defensive position was standing still when he should be kicking ass. Look at him! Health in the green, SP bar up to full, Speed Charm engaged, with fire up and the cold down. He should be swamping them, except that his damn coordination was down. And he didn't want to panic anyone, especially not Talal since she accidentally gave him the boot. It's just that...he was so pumped up on the right stats to kill these guys and now he was sitting there, basically. He felt like he should be doing more.)
Canti: There has to be something, more than just this. Anyone would say I shouldn't risk it, because it's crazy and stupid, but...that's Canti. I'm not the kind who stays within the lines. I need more because I'm a madman and because I've seen worse than this. I'm the guy who fights things way over his head like I don't care. This little head-burster isn't a problem. It's a challenge!
(Alright, so...what? Flight was out and his aim was off. So...he could run, he could probably hit, and there was some possibility of some casting going on. What could he do? What could he, a complete lunatic, do in a situation like this? Well...how about stir up a hornet's nest? These guy weren't so bad, once you've gotten to kill alot of them. According to Demorian, monsters like these are nothing, since there's a bunch that can't be killed at all. They couldn't afford to be bothered by little fish like this. They were just a nuissance. So, Canti started walking. He came right up to - of all things - a dual-wielding Snowman Deluxe. Raquar had eliminated all the little ones. Good job, Raq. The monster tried to slash and Canti kicked its own arm up, so that it cut its own face. Then he laughed at it, and moved fast. There was something he had done in the past, a completely nutty act from before he was infected. He had aggro'd everything, and let chaos be his partner in killing them all. Not quite the same thing he had in mind here, but with a Speed Charm VS the biggest and the baddest of all Snowmen, he just might work it all out. One Snowman giving chase, he picked his targets. Everything was injured, but he wanted the big boys, strongest and dumbest. Also, the slowest, but not the point, seriously! So, that was him, running for his life and kicking into the first Snowman Deluxe in the lower section.)
Canti: EXCELSIOR!!
(The sound that followed was a heavy blade of ice hitting the ground right behind him because he was running and he dare not look back, not even to check and make sure... For you see, the damage dealt from a kick or a small slash was dismal, nothing. But monsters are monsters... They lash out when they're attacked, and they do NOT like a smartass. So, Canti did it once more, and running for his life suddenly became a routine. He passed up the other Deluxes, and mostly they didn't care. They had bigger fish to fry, and there was still alot more of them to go. Now, you're probably wondering what happened to the first Deluxe he'd gotten mad. Well, there was the beauty of it: Collateral damage. It was trampled, as Canti's pursuers swelled in numbers. His targets were deliberate. Get the attention of all the biggest ones and keep on running. Those he didn't dare go near because of the crowds, he pinged with a spell. Even then, some of the Deluxes following was inevitable. Now, what did this look like? Anyone? It looked like he was trying to get himself into exactly the situation he'd been in that had gotten him chased by a mob...mostly because it was another mob he was running away from, right? Well, the funny thing about doing something stupid is...if you're actually doing something smart and making it look stupid, then it's brilliant. Finally, he had the attention of all of them, all 17 Snowman Supremes pissed off at him plus guests. They were all injured from before, and now Canti stopped, and he was reaching inside himself, concentrating...)
Canti: Come on, then... I know what I am and I know what you are. I don't know what we're becoming, but we have to live long enough to see it. I know what I can do, what I can control... Let's do it.
(He turned to face his pursuers.)
Canti: Come on, you coal-faces. Santa's pissed.
(Black flames came off of his hands, as well as surrounded his body, densely. It was deliberate. He was keeping an aura, only it was really an explosion. A controlled explosion of the Darkness Flame, burning away his SP but keeping itself fueled as he sacrificed Mage's Souls to it. And the result? Lemmings. They came at him and they tried to beat him, bash him, slash him, chop him, and grind him to death...except that they couldn't. Being that strong, you'd figure they could bash right through the flames, but not when they were like that. Canti knew he didn't want to set off a giant explosion, just like before, so he compressed it and learned patience. The dark power of his dark fire exploding at them was still there. They were wielding their hammers and swords into it, vaporizing in the dense darkness. And true, it was not their weakness, which was why it he needed more power and SP to do it, but they still came to him to die.)
Canti: You're a program and I'm alive, and I'll do anything to stay alive. Even cheat. You can't help it. I picked a fight. I'm the enemy. But I win because there's blast of rot and corrosion between us.
(Nature abhors an asshole like him. He just doesn't play nice. The dark Twin Blade headed back as soon as it was done. It was reckless, stupid, and pure lunacy. In short, it was Canti, and he'd been meaning to do something crazy like that for a good while. And you know? Maybe he was starting to feel a bit better, having risked life and limb to murder aplenty in the name of good old Christmas. And you probably wonder...why did he bother? It would've gotten done without all that. He didn't have to. Except, he did. He couldn't help it. He'd been throwing himself into bad situations for all the wrong reasons every since he was 14, maybe before. Why not a few in the right direction?)
OOC: Mind the gap! Or rather...tally up!
Level 10: 0/300
Level 30: 65/150 (56 Lightly injured, 9 Moderately injured)
Level 50: 0/50
I'll have a doozy of a sig later, I swear. It'll reflect ".hack//CODE" an' everything.
Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.
Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.
Re: Captured! Jailbreak of the Century
Even though the outcome of the battle end of things ended in their favor, Talal couldn’t help but feel guilty for causing at least part of Canti’s current aches and pains, even if he did look fine. She tried hard not to let the guilt show through and even harder not to let her own aces and pains radiate through her body language. The healing that had been cast fixed the broken things and restored her points a fair amount but she’d never had anything happen to her that caused so many aches and sore muscles. Definitely something she would have to get used to.
They were headed back over to help Sheena protect Nall, neither of which the dark haired girl had made acquaintances with but that could come later. It was evident that spells would be her best hope in helping the group seeing as how the majority of baddies left were of the deluxe and supreme variety, so she downed her very first Mage’s Soul which sent her whole body into a rapid but brief shudder from the taste. Next time she’d have to remember to plug her nose or something.
There were bright orbs floating above the group and the Twin Blade had noticed that the Vak skills cast appeared amplified or at least more potent. Talal wasn’t exactly sure what the orbs were, how they got there or who sent them but as long as they were helping she should just go with the flow…right?
A constant barrage of snow chunks were flying around in the air from snowmen being slaughtered by the Freedom Fighters and Eventides alike. Were they still Eventides now or because they were now stuck, were they automatically in the Freedom Fighters club? She swung a low roundhouse kick to the belly of a deluxe while the pointless questions filled her head before she let fly a Vak Rom at a threesome that were closing in. They had to keep the others safe. A quick glance over her shoulder found a snowman literally phase through the man they were supposed to protect.
What the…?
Talal turned back around convinced she was imagining things. No way would they need to protect someone who wasn’t even there. She looked again and Nall was there all right but how…? Too many questions still and not time to ask. Hopefully they would be somewhere relatively safe soon that she could take someone aside and just drop a list of the most confusing things and hope they had answers. Her eyes fell upon Takua with the end of her thought and noted that he looked to be fairing alright having teamed up with Sekai and Kira a bit. Canti also was doing his part looking like he was doing fine even after the smack upside the head she’d given him. She didn’t know his style well enough yet to really tell if he was holding back but hoped he was as good on the inside as he looked to be on the outside.
That was when her fellow Twin Blade broke out into a run and, was he picking fights with the snowmen and then running like a chicken? His path didn’t make any sense at first until she noticed the slowly forming mob of Supremes, some of them trampling over the Deluxes to keep there place in line as it were. It was an interesting plan but not one she would have ever thought of for just one person to attempt alone. What in the Hell was he thinking?
When she saw the dark flame encompass him, she bolted towards him, putting to use what remained of the Speed Charm from before thinking he was in trouble, that a spell had been cast on him. The least she could do was be there to revive him if necessary. Powered with anxiety and adrenaline, the girl bull rushed through a group of Deluxe’s like a quarterback, her blades rotating wildly about slashing off chunks and occasionally a head. Another Vak Rom was aimed at a pair trying to side swipe the quickly afoot female. What she didn’t know was that they were the distraction; turning her head just in time to see a Long Arm’s spear held out in front of her ready to clothesline her.
Surprised and panicked, Talal lost her footing and fell haphazardly, slip sliding in the snow. She couldn’t have planned it any better though since doing so dropped her to the ground missing the spear with her throat and instead just got a good smack in the forearm.
”GAN DON!”
The boulders fell and crushed her assailant while she scurried out from underfoot and her attention immediately turned back to Canti. The heavy mist was hard to see through until she got her bearings, just in time to see the flame around him die, calmly, controlled and leaving him very much whole instead of a ghost. Her eyes filled with a gambit of expressions from confusion to fear.
What was…how…where…he should be…
Thoughts began but never ended constantly running into other thoughts while she picked herself up out of the snow and headed back to the main group to help with what was left. Victory was close but they weren’t quite there yet.
((OOC: The Count!
Level 10: 0/300
Level 30: 57/150 (53 Lightly injured, 4 Moderately injured)
Level 50: 0/50
))
They were headed back over to help Sheena protect Nall, neither of which the dark haired girl had made acquaintances with but that could come later. It was evident that spells would be her best hope in helping the group seeing as how the majority of baddies left were of the deluxe and supreme variety, so she downed her very first Mage’s Soul which sent her whole body into a rapid but brief shudder from the taste. Next time she’d have to remember to plug her nose or something.
There were bright orbs floating above the group and the Twin Blade had noticed that the Vak skills cast appeared amplified or at least more potent. Talal wasn’t exactly sure what the orbs were, how they got there or who sent them but as long as they were helping she should just go with the flow…right?
A constant barrage of snow chunks were flying around in the air from snowmen being slaughtered by the Freedom Fighters and Eventides alike. Were they still Eventides now or because they were now stuck, were they automatically in the Freedom Fighters club? She swung a low roundhouse kick to the belly of a deluxe while the pointless questions filled her head before she let fly a Vak Rom at a threesome that were closing in. They had to keep the others safe. A quick glance over her shoulder found a snowman literally phase through the man they were supposed to protect.
What the…?
Talal turned back around convinced she was imagining things. No way would they need to protect someone who wasn’t even there. She looked again and Nall was there all right but how…? Too many questions still and not time to ask. Hopefully they would be somewhere relatively safe soon that she could take someone aside and just drop a list of the most confusing things and hope they had answers. Her eyes fell upon Takua with the end of her thought and noted that he looked to be fairing alright having teamed up with Sekai and Kira a bit. Canti also was doing his part looking like he was doing fine even after the smack upside the head she’d given him. She didn’t know his style well enough yet to really tell if he was holding back but hoped he was as good on the inside as he looked to be on the outside.
That was when her fellow Twin Blade broke out into a run and, was he picking fights with the snowmen and then running like a chicken? His path didn’t make any sense at first until she noticed the slowly forming mob of Supremes, some of them trampling over the Deluxes to keep there place in line as it were. It was an interesting plan but not one she would have ever thought of for just one person to attempt alone. What in the Hell was he thinking?
When she saw the dark flame encompass him, she bolted towards him, putting to use what remained of the Speed Charm from before thinking he was in trouble, that a spell had been cast on him. The least she could do was be there to revive him if necessary. Powered with anxiety and adrenaline, the girl bull rushed through a group of Deluxe’s like a quarterback, her blades rotating wildly about slashing off chunks and occasionally a head. Another Vak Rom was aimed at a pair trying to side swipe the quickly afoot female. What she didn’t know was that they were the distraction; turning her head just in time to see a Long Arm’s spear held out in front of her ready to clothesline her.
Surprised and panicked, Talal lost her footing and fell haphazardly, slip sliding in the snow. She couldn’t have planned it any better though since doing so dropped her to the ground missing the spear with her throat and instead just got a good smack in the forearm.
”GAN DON!”
The boulders fell and crushed her assailant while she scurried out from underfoot and her attention immediately turned back to Canti. The heavy mist was hard to see through until she got her bearings, just in time to see the flame around him die, calmly, controlled and leaving him very much whole instead of a ghost. Her eyes filled with a gambit of expressions from confusion to fear.
What was…how…where…he should be…
Thoughts began but never ended constantly running into other thoughts while she picked herself up out of the snow and headed back to the main group to help with what was left. Victory was close but they weren’t quite there yet.
((OOC: The Count!
Level 10: 0/300
Level 30: 57/150 (53 Lightly injured, 4 Moderately injured)
Level 50: 0/50
))
Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Walk beside me that we may be as one.
***************************************
Talal
![Image](http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk195/SemLovari/Talal/Talal.jpg)
Level 39 (0/1000 EXP) Twin Blade
Weapons/Armor: Mukuro (Swirling Dark, Dark Dance), Ice Hunter Cap (Repth), Wristbands (Juk Rom), Fishing Gloves (Rue Kruz), Wyrm Hide (Gan Don), Snow Panther (Ap Vorv)
Wish List: Scrolls, Tarot Cards, and Armor higher than level 30.
***************************************
Talal
![Image](http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk195/SemLovari/Talal/Talal.jpg)
Level 39 (0/1000 EXP) Twin Blade
Weapons/Armor: Mukuro (Swirling Dark, Dark Dance), Ice Hunter Cap (Repth), Wristbands (Juk Rom), Fishing Gloves (Rue Kruz), Wyrm Hide (Gan Don), Snow Panther (Ap Vorv)
Wish List: Scrolls, Tarot Cards, and Armor higher than level 30.