Re: Intense Struggle! (Round 4 - Old Salem)
03-20-2011, 02:11 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Aryogaton.
Oh… kay…
Aegis didn’t quite know how to respond. As D’Neya strolled by, not even sparing the tactical glance at her apparent opponent, Aegis looked at the sandwiched fight occurring not too far away.
The lightning-spewing girl in the middle began to generate a concentrated orb of something arcane, while the dragon approached from above.
Since when was there a dragon in this town? This is ridiculous.
The dragon made a tail swing towards the girl. She narrowly missed being flung into a house at the cost of losing control over the half-made arcane whatever, which was tossed upwards.
Aegis had an idea. It was stupid, but acting intelligently was not exactly the top priority in his mind at the moment. Aegis took a few seconds to gauge the trajectory of the orb and ran behind D’Neya. Hardly pausing a moment, he seized her by the head and flung her upwards. A second later, she collided with the incoming ballistic, and the combined force of her momentum and the explosion left her on a trajectory coincidentally headed towards the three-way fight.
Aegis gave a chuckle, and began walking towards the fight as well.
“Yes.” Drake made his best effort to look impassive. As he and the Devilish Man watched, D’Neya was pitched an obscenely large distance into the air. Drake focused on her trajectory. “This… may not impress you at the moment, but I have no doubt in D’Neya’s abilities.”
“Correct. I am unimpressed. However, I believe you mentioned that there exist entities greater than gods.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Furthermore, you have led me to believe that you are quite familiar with these entities.”
“Yes…”
“And you have been killed by one of these entities. One of the more powerful ones, in fact.”
“In the objective reality, yes.”
“You have an unfavorable status with regards to these entities, then?”
“I wouldn’t say that. Well, I have a significant history with a number of these—let’s call them ‘Grandmasters’, shall we?—but this is little more than rivalry, albeit in a larger scale. Except, perhaps, the one who killed me; my ‘status’ with him is more of a… an attempted and failed usurper.”
The Devilish Man paused for a moment.
“Your motive for the participation in this particular battle is to establish a ‘god’ as your loyal underling. This necessarily means that you are weaker than a god, else such a motive would be redundant. It follows that you are neither a god nor an entity greater than a god. Yet, you have rivalries with such entities and attempted to usurp one. This is a contradiction.”
“Uh. Hold on a moment. Yes, you are correct in that I don’t have the kind of power the Grandmasters have. My rivalry with some is more of—well, consider that one Grandmaster is a subordinate of another, and I am a subordinate of this Grandmaster. I rival with the subordinate in this way. As for D’Neya, the power that her ritual completion would grant me would allow me to traverse and consolidate my abilities to become a Grandmaster’s equal, or even superior. If you are free to explore every facet of reality, there are countless ways to do this, but currently, my only reach is D’Neya.”
The Devilish Man said nothing. Drake deduced that his explanation wasn’t sufficient. All in good time. For now, let’s focus on the matter at hand.
“Gah!”
Aegis turned around. Just a few feet away, a black-robed man stood rather nonchalantly. He looked unfamiliar, but then again, every contestant was supposed to look unfamiliar at this point. Aegis noticed the distinct lack of footprints indicating where he came from. Damn, another wizard.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Before you react, and as much as I doubt any statement I make will convince you otherwise, I will simply say that I am not a ‘contestant’ in your battle.” What. “My name is Reverend Nathaniel Greene.”
“Impossible. If you’re not a contestant, then how do you know that I am?” Whoops. So much for cover.
“I talked to her.” The man motioned to the three-way fight.
The girl with the lightning? How the hell did he talk to her? Must be able to read minds, then. Wait, he could still be lying. Ugh.
“Simply take solace in this: I do not concern myself with ensuring your death. I am simply a native of this land, and I am far more concerned in the fact that it has been made your battlefield.”
“What?”
“All I ask is for you to tell me your side of the story. Then we may potentially discuss a way for you to proceed in the game and for me to be rid of this chaos.”
“What? I’m not a schemer! I’m not much of an explainer either. Just… if you really want us gone, go kill one of them” Aegis motioned towards the fight “and we’ll all disappear. Or do you want to fight me?”
“Please, try not to be impulsive. I simply—”
The reverend instinctively dodged a preemptive fist and withdrew several feet, out of Aegis’ reach. He withheld, suspecting that Aegis was not malicious, simply brash. If he could simply calm him down, he could po—
Greene’s thoughts were interrupted by a large sword, ostensibly appearing out of nowhere. Dodging again, he withdrew several more feet than before.
D’Neya landed on something. It didn’t quite feel like dirt. In fact, it seemed to be moving, and quite randomly at that. She sat up and looked around, mildly surprised to see sky just about everywhere. She stood up, easily keeping her balance on top of the violently-swerving dragon.
The girl made her way up the back of the dragon, tiptoeing between its wings. The dragon’s hand swept back and scratched a few times, but otherwise was kept amply busy by upside-down lightning.
D’Neya sat down and got into a comfortable position. She extended several tentacles, which swiftly wrapped around the dragon’s snout.
“Giddy-up, draggy!”
Oh… kay…
Aegis didn’t quite know how to respond. As D’Neya strolled by, not even sparing the tactical glance at her apparent opponent, Aegis looked at the sandwiched fight occurring not too far away.
The lightning-spewing girl in the middle began to generate a concentrated orb of something arcane, while the dragon approached from above.
Since when was there a dragon in this town? This is ridiculous.
The dragon made a tail swing towards the girl. She narrowly missed being flung into a house at the cost of losing control over the half-made arcane whatever, which was tossed upwards.
Aegis had an idea. It was stupid, but acting intelligently was not exactly the top priority in his mind at the moment. Aegis took a few seconds to gauge the trajectory of the orb and ran behind D’Neya. Hardly pausing a moment, he seized her by the head and flung her upwards. A second later, she collided with the incoming ballistic, and the combined force of her momentum and the explosion left her on a trajectory coincidentally headed towards the three-way fight.
Aegis gave a chuckle, and began walking towards the fight as well.
-----
“A god?”“Yes.” Drake made his best effort to look impassive. As he and the Devilish Man watched, D’Neya was pitched an obscenely large distance into the air. Drake focused on her trajectory. “This… may not impress you at the moment, but I have no doubt in D’Neya’s abilities.”
“Correct. I am unimpressed. However, I believe you mentioned that there exist entities greater than gods.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Furthermore, you have led me to believe that you are quite familiar with these entities.”
“Yes…”
“And you have been killed by one of these entities. One of the more powerful ones, in fact.”
“In the objective reality, yes.”
“You have an unfavorable status with regards to these entities, then?”
“I wouldn’t say that. Well, I have a significant history with a number of these—let’s call them ‘Grandmasters’, shall we?—but this is little more than rivalry, albeit in a larger scale. Except, perhaps, the one who killed me; my ‘status’ with him is more of a… an attempted and failed usurper.”
The Devilish Man paused for a moment.
“Your motive for the participation in this particular battle is to establish a ‘god’ as your loyal underling. This necessarily means that you are weaker than a god, else such a motive would be redundant. It follows that you are neither a god nor an entity greater than a god. Yet, you have rivalries with such entities and attempted to usurp one. This is a contradiction.”
“Uh. Hold on a moment. Yes, you are correct in that I don’t have the kind of power the Grandmasters have. My rivalry with some is more of—well, consider that one Grandmaster is a subordinate of another, and I am a subordinate of this Grandmaster. I rival with the subordinate in this way. As for D’Neya, the power that her ritual completion would grant me would allow me to traverse and consolidate my abilities to become a Grandmaster’s equal, or even superior. If you are free to explore every facet of reality, there are countless ways to do this, but currently, my only reach is D’Neya.”
The Devilish Man said nothing. Drake deduced that his explanation wasn’t sufficient. All in good time. For now, let’s focus on the matter at hand.
-----
“You think yourself a humorist, do you?”“Gah!”
Aegis turned around. Just a few feet away, a black-robed man stood rather nonchalantly. He looked unfamiliar, but then again, every contestant was supposed to look unfamiliar at this point. Aegis noticed the distinct lack of footprints indicating where he came from. Damn, another wizard.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Before you react, and as much as I doubt any statement I make will convince you otherwise, I will simply say that I am not a ‘contestant’ in your battle.” What. “My name is Reverend Nathaniel Greene.”
“Impossible. If you’re not a contestant, then how do you know that I am?” Whoops. So much for cover.
“I talked to her.” The man motioned to the three-way fight.
The girl with the lightning? How the hell did he talk to her? Must be able to read minds, then. Wait, he could still be lying. Ugh.
“Simply take solace in this: I do not concern myself with ensuring your death. I am simply a native of this land, and I am far more concerned in the fact that it has been made your battlefield.”
“What?”
“All I ask is for you to tell me your side of the story. Then we may potentially discuss a way for you to proceed in the game and for me to be rid of this chaos.”
“What? I’m not a schemer! I’m not much of an explainer either. Just… if you really want us gone, go kill one of them” Aegis motioned towards the fight “and we’ll all disappear. Or do you want to fight me?”
“Please, try not to be impulsive. I simply—”
The reverend instinctively dodged a preemptive fist and withdrew several feet, out of Aegis’ reach. He withheld, suspecting that Aegis was not malicious, simply brash. If he could simply calm him down, he could po—
Greene’s thoughts were interrupted by a large sword, ostensibly appearing out of nowhere. Dodging again, he withdrew several more feet than before.
-----
“Oof.”D’Neya landed on something. It didn’t quite feel like dirt. In fact, it seemed to be moving, and quite randomly at that. She sat up and looked around, mildly surprised to see sky just about everywhere. She stood up, easily keeping her balance on top of the violently-swerving dragon.
The girl made her way up the back of the dragon, tiptoeing between its wings. The dragon’s hand swept back and scratched a few times, but otherwise was kept amply busy by upside-down lightning.
D’Neya sat down and got into a comfortable position. She extended several tentacles, which swiftly wrapped around the dragon’s snout.
“Giddy-up, draggy!”