The Battle Majestic (Round 4 - Magpie Skies)

Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

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Nalu dropped Vex's upper half with an unceremonious thud, gingerly examining the harsh burns Magog had inflicted. The skin on her hand had charred and melted almost immediately to a scarred mess. Nalu bit back the screams as Mohea placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Leave him." There was a cold steel to her voice, previously wavering. The two women, supporting each other, exited the chambers; Nalu however lingered at the entranceway, the sounds of male chanting, of feasting, of life as they knew it in the tribe reaching their ears without yet the sights to back them up. It was hard to tell which of the two women was worst bearing their shared knowledge of Vexmagog's deception - the young woman, the chance of escaping fate wrenched from her by her own Pandoran hand; or the shamaness, whose disappointment was more manifold, with her beliefs torn down and shored up and ripped apart again by this scheming intruder into their once-peaceful lives.

Nalu rubbed her hand. The pain was fading, but the scars remained, indelible. Pensively: "do we tell them?"

Mohea nodded, conflicted, her mouth half-open as though figuring out what to add. "The other strangers... they could well be devils, if their chief lied to us." The women looked to each other, glancing wordlessly down at the unremarkable pouch of Ko-Uki paste Nalu clutched in her Magog-scarred hand.


Blitz, still unsure of what was going on, and more confident of avoiding confrontation if he just stayed out of everyone's way, retreated to the edge of the clearing in the jungle which comprised the village. Apart from the occasional mistrustful glare from a villager, and fleeting acknowledgements from Vex amongst his incomprehensible liaisoning with the natives, Blitz was free to imagine the worst and fret over where Father had disappeared to.

Skulking around the perimeter, avoiding the feast, Blitz approached Steven. The man was surrounded by quite a crowd, watching as he methodically conjured up lengths of chain. A wary glance was shot in the wretched-looking kid's direction, their altercation at the end of the last round not forgotten. Unsure, but sick of having no idea what was going on, Blitz slowly approached once it looked like the gloves had finished their work, leaving Steven to piece it all together into an effective Tender-trap.

With a rising hubbub, the crowd's attention shifted to the other side of the clearing. There was a bit of shouting, but it didn't sound too alarmed. The pair of outsiders took the chance to reconcile and reconnoitre, free of suspicious onlookers. Blitz stood awkwardly, just watching Steven shuffling the chains around on the ground, figuring how best to go about this.

"I..." he gave up trying to segue this and cut to the chase. "Steven, what's going on?"

The journeyman glanced up from his work, at the twitchy, anxious-looking kid. "Honestly, I don't know. Vex convinced the natives we're not looking for trouble." An inscrutable shrug, and the two paused as the destructive left glove soared back to its roost, whatever it reported prompting Steven to systematically uncreate the mesh of chains. Noting Blitz's questioning look, he explained, "Vex asked me to make a trap for Sen, so he couldn't destroy the island while we tried to stop the battle."

"then, uh, why-"

Steven dusted off his jeans as he rose, only a faint impression in the dirt where his work had lain. "he just arrived, with a native girl around his neck."


The Tender divested itself of Tolo with a gentle swaying motion, tail twitching thoughtfully as Sen appraised the ring of spears now pointed at him. The disorganised return of the defeated hunting squad had coincided rather fortuitously with Vexmagog's attentions being directed elsewhere, and news of the green devil's single-handed victory had yet to spread through the village. As Mohea and Nalu emerged from the hole in the mountain, Sen emerged from the forest to the nervous mutter of rabble. Cries of fear, their pitch shifting to surprise, were heard through the clearing as the beast and then its cargo were spotted.

From their higher vantage point, the two women watched to see what the beast or devil would do, as one huntress broke ranks and tried to grab the injured girl from underneath Sen's watchful, glittering eye.

Sen made no response save for huffing quietly. Removed from the heat of battle, the Tender was finally recalling its floral roots - plants did not use the element of surprise, save when a foe underestimated their tenacity. Plants bent, accomodated, insinuated, until the tipping point was reached and the cradle suddenly became a casket and its occupants didn't realise until it was too late.

To this end, Sen was willing to be patient - with the children of this land, at any rate. Those pesky ones that had pursued him from one potential colony to the next, well... not knowing how to deal with those, the beast figured as far as it was consciously capable of thinking that it'd figure that out as it went. Or had to.

With clumsy slowness, Sen's gangly legs folded and the green beast crouched upon the ground, staring solemnly at the perplexed huntress who was taking in Tolo's breathless explanation of what had happened in the jungle.