Re: The Battle Majestic (Round 2 - Firestar)
03-13-2010, 08:04 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.
Sen drew a rattling, furious breath as his clear blood scabbed rapidly upon exposure, the pod on his forearm now bobbing in a bark ocean. Sen took a moment, while Jacob scrambled away from the questing fresh shoots wriggling out of the fallen tree, to flex and stretch the arm; realigning his innard slime into muscle tone again. The Tender uttered another raucous shriek; Jacob gritted his teeth and raised his sword.
The beast crouched, and Jacob automatically looked upward to anticipate its jump, but was instead blinded by the tropical sun's dazzle as it watched sentinel over the glade where the pair fought. He glanced down just in time to dodge another furious sideswipe as Sen closed the gap between them in several easy strides. The knight lacked the momentum to avoid the subsequent backhand, as the creature switched hands and smacked him across the clearing. A quick burst of magic managed to adjust Jacob's free-flying into something less bone-breaking on impact, but the strain on his own body sent a rush of dizziness through the chronomancer, leaving him reeling and struggling to catch his breath as the Tender came bearing down on him.
With the aid of his broadsword, Jacob rose, perhaps still a little unsteady, to his feet. Sen uttered a grrkt of unwelcome surprise and tried with limited success to slow himself down; it figured the man was finally down for the count. Jacob extricated the end of the sword from the forest-floor duff, took one step toward the oncoming monster, and swung.
The resulting shriek was so loud, just about everybody on the island would've heard it. Despite sounding unabashedly alien to all present, the blood-curdling gurgle-scream had an unmistakable meaning, universal across the cosmos. Pain. Sen staggered about the clearing, struggling to stay upright, as it lurched upon a hand missing half its fingers. The two outer digits were reduced to stumps half their full length; the other ends of the green, taloned twigs lying in a rapidly spreading pool of slime about a sword's length from where Jacob still stood. He was leaning on his broadsword again, warily watching the disabled creature howl its way around the clearing, the otherworldly wail increasing in pitch whenever the Tender tried to stand upon a foot that could no longer carry its weight.
Eventually, Sen's yowls were reduced to angry, click-groaning whimpers as it figured out how to walk around on the fingers it still had. The human still hadn't moved, not wanting to expend his remaining reserves by provoking the beast into a chase. Jacob wasn't too concerned now - certainly, his depleted mana was problematic, but it wasn't a pre-requisite to using a sword. And much to his relief, it appeared Sen couldn't regrow what had been traumatically removed - and when you had only had two limbs, a finger/toe was that much more valuable.
Sen lowered his head, at a pertinent distance, and let out a savage, hissing note of hatred at the man. It took one cautious, comically small hop towards the chronomancer, and the forlorn pile of fingers in front of him. Jacob smiled wanly at the creature; where it had been a thread to the survival of the other six contestants, now it just seemed pathetic. One tottering foot forward, then the other, all the while the beast atop the freakish limbs slunk lower and lower, as though offering its neck for slicing up next. Jacob steadied himself on his blade as he felt another tremor underneath-
wait. Tremors. Shit.
The ground suddenly seemed to explode in a frenzy of erupting roots just as Sen balanced on the remaining fingers of his mangled hand and plunged his good one into the loam. Jacob automatically stepped back as the ground, to his surprise, caved in and swallowed up the Tender - and also its severed digits. He hadn't leapt back far, and could see the far wall of the pit; a helical tube of roots that had spiralled beneath the sliced-off fingers, then grown outward to produce a narrow pit. the design was ingenious, really - or so Jacob would've conceded if he weren't hacking furiously away at the greenery which was sealing over the Tender's prison.
From deep underground, before the chamber was sealed off by the surging roots, came a ratchety snicker.
Sen drew a rattling, furious breath as his clear blood scabbed rapidly upon exposure, the pod on his forearm now bobbing in a bark ocean. Sen took a moment, while Jacob scrambled away from the questing fresh shoots wriggling out of the fallen tree, to flex and stretch the arm; realigning his innard slime into muscle tone again. The Tender uttered another raucous shriek; Jacob gritted his teeth and raised his sword.
The beast crouched, and Jacob automatically looked upward to anticipate its jump, but was instead blinded by the tropical sun's dazzle as it watched sentinel over the glade where the pair fought. He glanced down just in time to dodge another furious sideswipe as Sen closed the gap between them in several easy strides. The knight lacked the momentum to avoid the subsequent backhand, as the creature switched hands and smacked him across the clearing. A quick burst of magic managed to adjust Jacob's free-flying into something less bone-breaking on impact, but the strain on his own body sent a rush of dizziness through the chronomancer, leaving him reeling and struggling to catch his breath as the Tender came bearing down on him.
With the aid of his broadsword, Jacob rose, perhaps still a little unsteady, to his feet. Sen uttered a grrkt of unwelcome surprise and tried with limited success to slow himself down; it figured the man was finally down for the count. Jacob extricated the end of the sword from the forest-floor duff, took one step toward the oncoming monster, and swung.
The resulting shriek was so loud, just about everybody on the island would've heard it. Despite sounding unabashedly alien to all present, the blood-curdling gurgle-scream had an unmistakable meaning, universal across the cosmos. Pain. Sen staggered about the clearing, struggling to stay upright, as it lurched upon a hand missing half its fingers. The two outer digits were reduced to stumps half their full length; the other ends of the green, taloned twigs lying in a rapidly spreading pool of slime about a sword's length from where Jacob still stood. He was leaning on his broadsword again, warily watching the disabled creature howl its way around the clearing, the otherworldly wail increasing in pitch whenever the Tender tried to stand upon a foot that could no longer carry its weight.
Eventually, Sen's yowls were reduced to angry, click-groaning whimpers as it figured out how to walk around on the fingers it still had. The human still hadn't moved, not wanting to expend his remaining reserves by provoking the beast into a chase. Jacob wasn't too concerned now - certainly, his depleted mana was problematic, but it wasn't a pre-requisite to using a sword. And much to his relief, it appeared Sen couldn't regrow what had been traumatically removed - and when you had only had two limbs, a finger/toe was that much more valuable.
Sen lowered his head, at a pertinent distance, and let out a savage, hissing note of hatred at the man. It took one cautious, comically small hop towards the chronomancer, and the forlorn pile of fingers in front of him. Jacob smiled wanly at the creature; where it had been a thread to the survival of the other six contestants, now it just seemed pathetic. One tottering foot forward, then the other, all the while the beast atop the freakish limbs slunk lower and lower, as though offering its neck for slicing up next. Jacob steadied himself on his blade as he felt another tremor underneath-
wait. Tremors. Shit.
The ground suddenly seemed to explode in a frenzy of erupting roots just as Sen balanced on the remaining fingers of his mangled hand and plunged his good one into the loam. Jacob automatically stepped back as the ground, to his surprise, caved in and swallowed up the Tender - and also its severed digits. He hadn't leapt back far, and could see the far wall of the pit; a helical tube of roots that had spiralled beneath the sliced-off fingers, then grown outward to produce a narrow pit. the design was ingenious, really - or so Jacob would've conceded if he weren't hacking furiously away at the greenery which was sealing over the Tender's prison.
From deep underground, before the chamber was sealed off by the surging roots, came a ratchety snicker.
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