Re: The Grand Battle S2G1! [Round Three: Water...place!]
03-18-2011, 09:47 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.
Kath gasped. It might've been the extended ambulation through the innards of Cyk'nl, but she'd come down with a strong bout of oddly good sense that said she didn't want a lungful of whatever she was swimming through. The bartender-artful blending of blood and phlegm in an accessory heart seemed a good a point as any for a respiratory reminder - not to mention the walls closing in around her.
The sword came out and made short work of it, the vessel splitting with an almost musical ripple. Kath stepped out, and looked up and down the corridor.
It wasn't Hydresther, it wasn't Cyk'nl, and it was barely the innards of a monstrous city-serpent. The seweresque circulatories like the one the maid had just crawled out of were still present, but reconfigured to a higher logic again. They all ran across the corridor, rather than down it, though they varied in size and height. Kath jumped over a gutter of churning black bile, slashed through a few foul-smelling noodly vessels at head height, before resisting the temptation to prod the swollen, tunnel-sized vein embedded in the ceiling with her sword.
As she negotiated the corridor (featureless save for the blood vessels), it eventually occurred to Kath the whole thing was curving steadily to the right. Very steadily.
Kath walked a bit further, found a gap in the wall on the right, ran the rheumy-eyed crone standing there through with her sword before it could vocalise its bewildered outrage, and pressed on.
---
Hydresther was starting to drift into focus, when the Ovoid started screaming. Jen and Kracht were unceremoniously spat out. Jen hit the vaguely-intact skyscraper's top floor and swore at the beige son of a bitch, which poked its elliptical nose out at them just to make it clear they weren't out of its sights. Kracht just stared gloomily up at the snaking heads of Cyk'nl. A monsoon bucket-sized drop of blood rolled down the blue head's flanks, exploding as it hit the water.
The mineral sighed. "Whatever's going on up there, it doesn't want us anywhere near it."
"Fuck that," Jen shouted over the Ovoid, which was still wailing.
Fantha.
Hm?
Did that - did that fish cop have anything like jet propulsion?
[color=#red]I thought you'd never ask - I'll whip something up now. Although wings are probably more reliable-[/color]
I- No.
Maxwell's thing? That's all right. I understand.
Don't do that.
Sorry.
---
Kracht... felt thoroughly out of his depth. This whole round had kept him constantly on edge, each development forcing him to come to terms with the death of his perfect, victorious seven rounds. It was a bit like grieving, but with the constant depressing interruption (in the form of the latest landmark on the Xadrez and Ovoid Bastard Team Rail Trail) of your updated odds of survival.
It wasn't the first time he'd had to pull things back into shape, but it was the first time in a very long while. The nagging familiarity of the Ovoid's screams wasn't helping either.
Then it hit him. Kracht turned, but the amalgam had already vanished. The echo seemed to persist, the Ovoid-permeated landscape unable to forget the noise. He was still staring at the point the Ovoid had been when Jen grunted with pain, and primed the modified talons on her back with a unified click.
"Oh thank christ, it shut up."
"That was..."
"Xadrez? Yeah. I don't know what kind of stunt he's trying to pull, but it doesn't seem to be working for him. You think he would've learned from last time he fucked with the Ovoid, but whatever. Come on." Jen extended a hand impatiently.
"...What? How did you-"
"It's his knife, Kracht. He's screaming blue murder about betrayl or something. Seriously not a big deal. Now are you coming or not?"
"I- last time I heard that noise I died." Kracht sounded vaguely panicky.
Jen winced as her other arm finished weaponising, then stared at the green humanoid. "When the Ovoid made that noise?"
Kracht nodded, words suddenly spilling out. "Things were really derailing and the two of them did something this noise happened and they broke their way out of Round 4. I chased them through, amplified the rend, destroyed the pocket dimension and probably nuked a hole in the multiverse itself. The Observer had to reset the Battle."
Jen said nothing.
"The conditions aren't right - this isn't a pocket dimension - they can't tear this one apart. Oh god, you'd survived that time, too, things were a complete mess I had to kill you. You and me and the hundreds of innocents trapped in the wall ghoul's labyrinth.
That was the worst iteration, Jen. I don't know if I can bring myself to do that again."
"Fine. You won't have to."
"You're sure?"
"Hell no," scoffed Jen. "Now come on."
Kracht accepted a hand, gloved in something exoskeletal. There was a click, and the two were launched skyward. The head housing draco-aerial support turned to greet them, a slate-grey beast wriggling out from between its teeth and launching itself at Jen with a screech.
Jen braced her free-flying form behind her taloned arm as she lined the dragon in her sights. The blast slowed their trajectory beautifully, Kracht grabbing for the hydra's immobile eyelid and hauling Jen up into the hangar-like upper skull's interior. She collapsed against a wall with a gasp and a radiation-induced bout of dizziness; Kracht rolled his shoulder as he morphed the crystal of his arm into something sharp and suitable for cutting through the swarthe of organelles they'd just interrupted.
Kath gasped. It might've been the extended ambulation through the innards of Cyk'nl, but she'd come down with a strong bout of oddly good sense that said she didn't want a lungful of whatever she was swimming through. The bartender-artful blending of blood and phlegm in an accessory heart seemed a good a point as any for a respiratory reminder - not to mention the walls closing in around her.
The sword came out and made short work of it, the vessel splitting with an almost musical ripple. Kath stepped out, and looked up and down the corridor.
It wasn't Hydresther, it wasn't Cyk'nl, and it was barely the innards of a monstrous city-serpent. The seweresque circulatories like the one the maid had just crawled out of were still present, but reconfigured to a higher logic again. They all ran across the corridor, rather than down it, though they varied in size and height. Kath jumped over a gutter of churning black bile, slashed through a few foul-smelling noodly vessels at head height, before resisting the temptation to prod the swollen, tunnel-sized vein embedded in the ceiling with her sword.
As she negotiated the corridor (featureless save for the blood vessels), it eventually occurred to Kath the whole thing was curving steadily to the right. Very steadily.
Kath walked a bit further, found a gap in the wall on the right, ran the rheumy-eyed crone standing there through with her sword before it could vocalise its bewildered outrage, and pressed on.
---
Hydresther was starting to drift into focus, when the Ovoid started screaming. Jen and Kracht were unceremoniously spat out. Jen hit the vaguely-intact skyscraper's top floor and swore at the beige son of a bitch, which poked its elliptical nose out at them just to make it clear they weren't out of its sights. Kracht just stared gloomily up at the snaking heads of Cyk'nl. A monsoon bucket-sized drop of blood rolled down the blue head's flanks, exploding as it hit the water.
The mineral sighed. "Whatever's going on up there, it doesn't want us anywhere near it."
"Fuck that," Jen shouted over the Ovoid, which was still wailing.
Fantha.
Hm?
Did that - did that fish cop have anything like jet propulsion?
[color=#red]I thought you'd never ask - I'll whip something up now. Although wings are probably more reliable-[/color]
I- No.
Maxwell's thing? That's all right. I understand.
Don't do that.
Sorry.
---
Kracht... felt thoroughly out of his depth. This whole round had kept him constantly on edge, each development forcing him to come to terms with the death of his perfect, victorious seven rounds. It was a bit like grieving, but with the constant depressing interruption (in the form of the latest landmark on the Xadrez and Ovoid Bastard Team Rail Trail) of your updated odds of survival.
It wasn't the first time he'd had to pull things back into shape, but it was the first time in a very long while. The nagging familiarity of the Ovoid's screams wasn't helping either.
Then it hit him. Kracht turned, but the amalgam had already vanished. The echo seemed to persist, the Ovoid-permeated landscape unable to forget the noise. He was still staring at the point the Ovoid had been when Jen grunted with pain, and primed the modified talons on her back with a unified click.
"Oh thank christ, it shut up."
"That was..."
"Xadrez? Yeah. I don't know what kind of stunt he's trying to pull, but it doesn't seem to be working for him. You think he would've learned from last time he fucked with the Ovoid, but whatever. Come on." Jen extended a hand impatiently.
"...What? How did you-"
"It's his knife, Kracht. He's screaming blue murder about betrayl or something. Seriously not a big deal. Now are you coming or not?"
"I- last time I heard that noise I died." Kracht sounded vaguely panicky.
Jen winced as her other arm finished weaponising, then stared at the green humanoid. "When the Ovoid made that noise?"
Kracht nodded, words suddenly spilling out. "Things were really derailing and the two of them did something this noise happened and they broke their way out of Round 4. I chased them through, amplified the rend, destroyed the pocket dimension and probably nuked a hole in the multiverse itself. The Observer had to reset the Battle."
Jen said nothing.
"The conditions aren't right - this isn't a pocket dimension - they can't tear this one apart. Oh god, you'd survived that time, too, things were a complete mess I had to kill you. You and me and the hundreds of innocents trapped in the wall ghoul's labyrinth.
That was the worst iteration, Jen. I don't know if I can bring myself to do that again."
"Fine. You won't have to."
"You're sure?"
"Hell no," scoffed Jen. "Now come on."
Kracht accepted a hand, gloved in something exoskeletal. There was a click, and the two were launched skyward. The head housing draco-aerial support turned to greet them, a slate-grey beast wriggling out from between its teeth and launching itself at Jen with a screech.
Jen braced her free-flying form behind her taloned arm as she lined the dragon in her sights. The blast slowed their trajectory beautifully, Kracht grabbing for the hydra's immobile eyelid and hauling Jen up into the hangar-like upper skull's interior. She collapsed against a wall with a gasp and a radiation-induced bout of dizziness; Kracht rolled his shoulder as he morphed the crystal of his arm into something sharp and suitable for cutting through the swarthe of organelles they'd just interrupted.
peace to the unsung peace to the martyrs | i'm johnny rotten appleseed
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow