Re: The Battle Royale S2 [Round 3: Endymion]
05-13-2011, 08:41 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.
Sirius needed a plan.
He knew the ant would charge again soon - it probably was right now. He wouldn't be able to clear enough bile from his face before it struck.
He'd have to react without even seeing it. The best option he had would be a spell. He dispelled his fiery barrier and reflected on his options.
There was no chance of preparing another Holy Gale. It would be effective, but the casting would take too long; the ant would surely arrive before he finished.
But none of his other spells seemed suitable... he had one protective spell, that might do the job, but it wouldn't work this high off the ground, and he couldn't fly down safely enough in this state...
A second later, he stopped flapping his wings and dropped swiftly towards the ground.
Two seconds after that, the ant rocketed past his last position. It stopped itself, and turned around, readying itself for what the Eccentric hoped would be its final charge.
Sirius intended to grant that wish.
***
"Found it!"
Wardell's scarf pulled itself out of his coat, and handed the bookworm the Complete Encyclopedia of Ghosts, Spirits, Phantoms, and Assorted Apparitions. He quickly flipped through it with one hand, tossing a copy of A Tale of Two Cities at Umbra to buy himself some time.
"Ah! This looks like it." He read through it quickly.
Doppelgeist: It is unknown if this spirit is actually the ghost of a living being or if it has some other origin. Very few have been observed.
This spirit attaches itself to a living being, and at first takes on the form of a younger version of its host. It will reflexively protect the host from all harm to the best of its ability; however, it is not a benevolent spirit. It offers this protection for purely selfish reasons.
As the Doppelgeist remains with a host, it gradually grows older in appearance. At first, the Doppelgeist appears to be roughly seven to nine years old; it will then age at a slower rate than its host for a period ranging from one to three years.
At this point, the aging becomes more rapid. The Doppelgeist will appear to be a year older in the space of a month, sometimes aging even faster. There are even a few reported cases of a Doppelgeist aging at least ten years in less than an hour. The circumstances which spur this sudden growth are unknown at this time, as so few specimens have been observed.
The aging continues until the Doppelgeist's apparent age matches that of its host; at that point, the host's soul is destroyed, and the Doppelgeist takes over their body completely. This appears to be why it is so protective of the host; it does not wish to let its future body be harmed. Once the takeover is complete, the host's body will be nothing more than a mindless killing machine.
Despite their unusual characteristics, they are quite vulnerable to standard exorcism techniques.
Wardell looked up; Umbra still looked about nine. Well, at least he wouldn't have to rush this.
"Hey, scarf!" he shouted. "Can you get me a holy text? Doesn't particularly matter which one."
The scarf immediately responded by handing Wardell a book marked with strange runes, written in an unfamiliar language. Considering the sheer number of phrasebooks and language trainers Wardell had read in his life, that in itself was unusual, though far from impossible.
He flipped through, confirming it to be basically unreadable, then shrugged and simply flung the book at Umbra's face.
Umbra glowed a bright green, and then vanished.
Wardell let out a sigh of relief, then went over to pick up the books he'd thrown or discarded during the battle. No sense letting them go to waste, after all.
***
FOR GERTRUDE! SERIOUSLY, I MEAN IT THIS TIME!
The Eccentric's voice served as a warning to Sirius, who had given up on even wiping his eyes. He needed full concentration.
Earth, grant me protection... Earth, grant me protection...
He felt nothing. And he was falling faster.
The ant charged, straight down towards the falling angel. Swhales was feeling weak; he was sure he would soon pass out, and the Eccentric didn't seem to care. The Grandmaster was only out for revenge against Gertrude now, and Swhales was only important if he could help with that.
Earth, grant me protection... Earth, grant me protection...
Any decent tactician watching the scene would have observed that if Sirius moved out of the way, the ant would most likely hit the ground and end its charge rather spectacularly. Unfortunately, Sirius couldn't see it, and was too preoccupied with his spell preparations to reflect on the ant's likely tactics.
Earth, grant me protection... Earth, grant me protection...Earth, grant me protection!
A response! Sirius began to flap his wings to slow his descent; he was less than a foot off the ground, but it was enough to prevent the impact. Not that he could see through the bile.
It didn't matter. He had a spell to cast.
"Stone Wall!"
The ground below began to shake.
The ant paid it no heed, and flew downwards, gravity moving it down even faster than before.
The earth around Sirius suddenly began to rise up in a circle.
The ant flew closer.
The walls rose higher, and began to curve in, closing into a sphere.
Sirius could feel the structure closing, protecting him from every direction...
He could also feel the intense heat from the ant, drawing closer... it was almost here...
CRUNCH!
The next thing he felt was the severed head of a fire ant landing on him.
He finally wiped the bile from his eyes, now that it was relatively safe; Swhales had likely survived, but he was unlikely to break through the walls any time soon.
Looking up, Sirius saw that the structure was closed, but there was a sickly green stain at the center, where the walls had joined together. A quick glance at the fluid leaking from the head explained matters; it was the same shade of green. The ant must have arrived just in time for the walls to decapitate it.
Sirius prepared a quick regenerative spell. Swhales was weak, if he was even conscious, but it was hardly worth taking the chance.
***
NOOO! NOT RAMONE, TOO! GET HIM!
Swhales groaned as he hopped off the ant and slid down the earthen structure he found himself on. He began to crawl away, on his last legs.
"Can't... can barely move... no shape to fight..."
SO, YOU CAN'T FIGHT BACK, CAN YOU? The Eccentric's voice suddenly took on a slightly amused tone; it frightened Tim even more than the sheer rage had. THEN I GUESS I'LL HAVE TO DO THIS MYSELF.
Tim's shortsword suddenly began to glow with dark energy, and lifted itself from the sheath. Then Tim's body began to glow, and was lifted into the air.
"Wh... What are you doing?"
WAIT FOR IT...
Tim found himself unable to do anything but watch as the Eccentric carried him and his sword towards Sirius' makeshift fortress. As he drew near, the earthen structure slowly opened up and sank into the ground. Sirius emerged, angrier than ever. He raised his hand in preparation for a spell; clearly he didn't intend to waste any time.
NOW!
Tim never saw what happened next. He was too busy having his head chopped off by his own sword.
AND NOW COMES THE FUN PART. GERTRUDE, RAMONE, THIS IS FOR YOU!
"Angel Sphere!"
Sirius had unleashed the spell before he saw Tim's headless body fall to the ground. That caught him by surprise; the spell shouldn't have done that.
He didn't have much time to ponder what had happened before the torc around Tim's bloodied neck started glowing and hurtled towards him. It snapped shut around the angel's neck before he could react.
HELLO, SIRIUS. LONG TIME NO SEE! I BROUGHT YOU SOME NEW FRIENDS.
Sirius' screams continued until he vanished from Prospect Creek.
Sirius needed a plan.
He knew the ant would charge again soon - it probably was right now. He wouldn't be able to clear enough bile from his face before it struck.
He'd have to react without even seeing it. The best option he had would be a spell. He dispelled his fiery barrier and reflected on his options.
There was no chance of preparing another Holy Gale. It would be effective, but the casting would take too long; the ant would surely arrive before he finished.
But none of his other spells seemed suitable... he had one protective spell, that might do the job, but it wouldn't work this high off the ground, and he couldn't fly down safely enough in this state...
A second later, he stopped flapping his wings and dropped swiftly towards the ground.
Two seconds after that, the ant rocketed past his last position. It stopped itself, and turned around, readying itself for what the Eccentric hoped would be its final charge.
Sirius intended to grant that wish.
***
"Found it!"
Wardell's scarf pulled itself out of his coat, and handed the bookworm the Complete Encyclopedia of Ghosts, Spirits, Phantoms, and Assorted Apparitions. He quickly flipped through it with one hand, tossing a copy of A Tale of Two Cities at Umbra to buy himself some time.
"Ah! This looks like it." He read through it quickly.
Doppelgeist: It is unknown if this spirit is actually the ghost of a living being or if it has some other origin. Very few have been observed.
This spirit attaches itself to a living being, and at first takes on the form of a younger version of its host. It will reflexively protect the host from all harm to the best of its ability; however, it is not a benevolent spirit. It offers this protection for purely selfish reasons.
As the Doppelgeist remains with a host, it gradually grows older in appearance. At first, the Doppelgeist appears to be roughly seven to nine years old; it will then age at a slower rate than its host for a period ranging from one to three years.
At this point, the aging becomes more rapid. The Doppelgeist will appear to be a year older in the space of a month, sometimes aging even faster. There are even a few reported cases of a Doppelgeist aging at least ten years in less than an hour. The circumstances which spur this sudden growth are unknown at this time, as so few specimens have been observed.
The aging continues until the Doppelgeist's apparent age matches that of its host; at that point, the host's soul is destroyed, and the Doppelgeist takes over their body completely. This appears to be why it is so protective of the host; it does not wish to let its future body be harmed. Once the takeover is complete, the host's body will be nothing more than a mindless killing machine.
Despite their unusual characteristics, they are quite vulnerable to standard exorcism techniques.
Wardell looked up; Umbra still looked about nine. Well, at least he wouldn't have to rush this.
"Hey, scarf!" he shouted. "Can you get me a holy text? Doesn't particularly matter which one."
The scarf immediately responded by handing Wardell a book marked with strange runes, written in an unfamiliar language. Considering the sheer number of phrasebooks and language trainers Wardell had read in his life, that in itself was unusual, though far from impossible.
He flipped through, confirming it to be basically unreadable, then shrugged and simply flung the book at Umbra's face.
Umbra glowed a bright green, and then vanished.
Wardell let out a sigh of relief, then went over to pick up the books he'd thrown or discarded during the battle. No sense letting them go to waste, after all.
***
FOR GERTRUDE! SERIOUSLY, I MEAN IT THIS TIME!
The Eccentric's voice served as a warning to Sirius, who had given up on even wiping his eyes. He needed full concentration.
Earth, grant me protection... Earth, grant me protection...
He felt nothing. And he was falling faster.
The ant charged, straight down towards the falling angel. Swhales was feeling weak; he was sure he would soon pass out, and the Eccentric didn't seem to care. The Grandmaster was only out for revenge against Gertrude now, and Swhales was only important if he could help with that.
Earth, grant me protection... Earth, grant me protection...
Any decent tactician watching the scene would have observed that if Sirius moved out of the way, the ant would most likely hit the ground and end its charge rather spectacularly. Unfortunately, Sirius couldn't see it, and was too preoccupied with his spell preparations to reflect on the ant's likely tactics.
Earth, grant me protection... Earth, grant me protection...Earth, grant me protection!
A response! Sirius began to flap his wings to slow his descent; he was less than a foot off the ground, but it was enough to prevent the impact. Not that he could see through the bile.
It didn't matter. He had a spell to cast.
"Stone Wall!"
The ground below began to shake.
The ant paid it no heed, and flew downwards, gravity moving it down even faster than before.
The earth around Sirius suddenly began to rise up in a circle.
The ant flew closer.
The walls rose higher, and began to curve in, closing into a sphere.
Sirius could feel the structure closing, protecting him from every direction...
He could also feel the intense heat from the ant, drawing closer... it was almost here...
CRUNCH!
The next thing he felt was the severed head of a fire ant landing on him.
He finally wiped the bile from his eyes, now that it was relatively safe; Swhales had likely survived, but he was unlikely to break through the walls any time soon.
Looking up, Sirius saw that the structure was closed, but there was a sickly green stain at the center, where the walls had joined together. A quick glance at the fluid leaking from the head explained matters; it was the same shade of green. The ant must have arrived just in time for the walls to decapitate it.
Sirius prepared a quick regenerative spell. Swhales was weak, if he was even conscious, but it was hardly worth taking the chance.
***
NOOO! NOT RAMONE, TOO! GET HIM!
Swhales groaned as he hopped off the ant and slid down the earthen structure he found himself on. He began to crawl away, on his last legs.
"Can't... can barely move... no shape to fight..."
SO, YOU CAN'T FIGHT BACK, CAN YOU? The Eccentric's voice suddenly took on a slightly amused tone; it frightened Tim even more than the sheer rage had. THEN I GUESS I'LL HAVE TO DO THIS MYSELF.
Tim's shortsword suddenly began to glow with dark energy, and lifted itself from the sheath. Then Tim's body began to glow, and was lifted into the air.
"Wh... What are you doing?"
WAIT FOR IT...
Tim found himself unable to do anything but watch as the Eccentric carried him and his sword towards Sirius' makeshift fortress. As he drew near, the earthen structure slowly opened up and sank into the ground. Sirius emerged, angrier than ever. He raised his hand in preparation for a spell; clearly he didn't intend to waste any time.
NOW!
Tim never saw what happened next. He was too busy having his head chopped off by his own sword.
AND NOW COMES THE FUN PART. GERTRUDE, RAMONE, THIS IS FOR YOU!
"Angel Sphere!"
Sirius had unleashed the spell before he saw Tim's headless body fall to the ground. That caught him by surprise; the spell shouldn't have done that.
He didn't have much time to ponder what had happened before the torc around Tim's bloodied neck started glowing and hurtled towards him. It snapped shut around the angel's neck before he could react.
HELLO, SIRIUS. LONG TIME NO SEE! I BROUGHT YOU SOME NEW FRIENDS.
Sirius' screams continued until he vanished from Prospect Creek.
There's no reason for this | Or this | Death is inevitable | You can't challenge fate | The smallest change | I'm overwhelmed
I'm serious | It makes perfect sense | Easy as ABC! | I can't even explain it | Cleaning up someone else's mess
I suck | I rule | I've got it made | Really, I'm serious | This bugs me | It's all lies | I want to believe | Beauty is a curse
I'm serious | It makes perfect sense | Easy as ABC! | I can't even explain it | Cleaning up someone else's mess
I suck | I rule | I've got it made | Really, I'm serious | This bugs me | It's all lies | I want to believe | Beauty is a curse