RE: Full Immersion [Archive dump in progress!]
05-26-2016, 01:44 AM
martialAcademic Wrote:>Try and damage one of it's wings. Focus on the one you and/or the Florians have the highest chance of rendering useless for flight.
ForestGardener Wrote:>Run to the other side of the dragon (between it and the cliff) so that you have a clear shot. This may delay the dragon going off the cliff until enough damage has been done, and the Florians should be able to keep it on the ground. But be ready to run out of the way again.
Link still wants to get some more shots on the dragon, particularly in its right wing, which looks slightly more injured than the other one, but there are too many Florians in the way. His probability calculation for hitting one of them when trying to hit that wing from here just gives up and outputs 1 every time.
So he starts running toward the dragon's side, and beyond, to a place where there are no Florians in the way at all. Behind the dragon, behind its flailing tail, on a fairly small and decreasing strip of partially-on-fire land with a cliff at his back. This isn't a good idea safety-wise, but it seems like the only place to get a clear shot.
The fox-boy draws back his bow, aims, fires, repeats. To enhance the chances of success a bit he just arbitrarily hyperspeeds his shots. He doesn't take time between shots to assess damage because there just isn't time for that, but he can see the effects as he goes. First shot glances off and splinters as the wing moves. Second shot pierces straight in--good! Third shot scrapes across the top of the wing, draws some blood. It's hard to keep reacting mentally to the shots on an individual basis, but on average the wing damage per shot seems pretty good. Ten shots are out before the tail starts getting too close and he has to unequip/store-in-inventory the bow to move out of the way fast enough.
He does it again. Ten shots, average pretty decent, straight at the wing. The most important point is that none of them hit his allies, even though they're around, more of them starting to focus on this wing than the other though some have to stay on the other side so the dragon can't change its course. He turns back this time to run away from the tail only to find far too little of the cliff left, and immediately change course to the side, off to the dragon's right as it gets closer.
After making it clear of the fire-breathing mythical megabeast, Jin realizes he's breathing very heavily, sore, maybe burned in a couple more places. He hadn't exactly been paying attention to just how on fire the area around he was just standing was, it's lucky he didn't get hit more. Which immediately raises the question to him of whether luck plays a part here.
Looking back up: Its wing looks pretty bad by now; there's at least one entire hole in it that wasn't there before. Surely that's enough, right? Apparently even main characters don't get unlimited endurance in this game, and he's not sure he can draw back a bow at this point. So he carefully moves toward a part of the land that isn't on fire, and watches the Florians drive the dragon the rest of the way back, until the cliff under it just isn't enough to support its weight.
They scatter away as the ground collapses under the dragon; it opens its wings and tries to take flight, but fails, twisting awkwardly in the air briefly before spiraling downward. There's a good few seconds or so before the ground around Jin shakes from the impact.
There are a couple more distant sounds from below. The dragon roars in rage, and then...another rumble? It hit the ground again, just as hard as the last time. But...physics suggest it shouldn't hit the ground just as hard from attempting to fly again as it did from terminal velocity, and..well, the dragon can't be stupid enough to try to fly again. What just happened?
An orc and a Florian, both women, sit on one of the relatively stable platforms between steps, about halfway up a cliff. The latter is saying, "I dunno, sometimes they just go quiet for a while. So far they always start chiming in when something important happens, though."
"What about all the noise up there?" signs the orc, a voice speaking the words for her as she does so.
"Maybe it's not--"
The conversation is interrupted by a very big, very loud dragon falling a few feet away from them, taking a fair chunk of earth and rock with it. The orc reflexively holds up a hand and causes a small bluish-transluscent dome to appear around the pair, which the few rocks that would have hit them bounce harmlessly off of. With a loud rumbling and a slight shaking of the ground, the dragon lands.
Aureolis is about to say something when the dragon comes back up into sight, surrounded by a strange purpleish glow that seems to be responsible for holding it up somehow. And then it goes back down and hits the ground again, just as hard, and stops obscuring the view so the pair can see someone in the distance been behind the dragon being held up by the same sort of glow.
It's hard to make out many distinct features, but the person has very long, voluminous black hair and their eyes have a bright purple glow that seems to stream out to the sides of the face, flickering and moving like fire. They look to be in a more natural standing position, at least before angling and flying downward on a path toward where the dragon just landed for a second time.
"...Was that...?"
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