Re: Pitched Combat [Round 5: Garden of Shades]
10-02-2010, 09:35 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
Jordan stormed through the garden, kicking moodily at the grass in the very image of teenage petulance. He briefly glanced behind him in the general area where those other two guys were. One of them, if he had thought about it much, would have really looked like him. Only older. But he didn't think about it much. Perhaps he didn't really want to. He already had enough teenage stuff to worry about. An older doppleganger would possibly push him over the edge.
He slouched and sighed, brushing his hair out of his face, wondering where the hell he was right now. This definitely didn't look like the way to school. It actually looked a lot more like a dreamscape. So maybe he was dreaming. If he knew he was dreaming, didn't that mean he could do all these cool stuff like fly or something?
He tried jumping. He didn't jump higher than usual. Even in his dreams he couldn't win. Jordan sighed again and continued shuffling around in the gray grass.
Something suddenly burst from the trees. It was flying, Jordan noticed glumly. And firing what seemed to be laser blasts out of its hands. And...er...it was actually an angel....and...should...he be running now...?
His question was answered rather quickly as another something exploded out of the trees. This was a much larger something and it was a lot more threatening than the smaller angel something. Jordan was already turning to flee. He saw the angel get swatted down angrily by the threatening something. Then he saw the monster-free trees he was running towards. After a bit, he made the mistake of looking back. No angel. Lots of monster.
With a yelp, Jordan tried frantically to set it on fire, but apparently it was a rather fire-proof monster. Any fire that erupted around it was simply shaken out. It hadn't really inconvenienced the monster, but it did anger it. And Jordan suddenly found himself running even faster from a stream of fire that came out of the monster's mouth.
He screamed, but immediately regretted it when he ran right into a cloud of meandering insects.
Jordan couldn't be sure which was worse, but at least the bugs were flammable. Multiple mini-fires erupted in the air and the few bugs that hadn't burst into flame were buzzing around very confused, letting their prey escape.
Luckily, some other, larger prey came running right into them.
The Manikin tried to shake off the ridiculously large insects that were now trying to latch on tightly to it with mandibles that could probably tear through metal if they put their minds to it. It even tried breathing fire all over its flank to burn any buggy hitchhikers to a crisp, but it also didn't want to lose sight of its frantic prey. So, against all common sense, it ignored the giant bugs chewing on it to continue pursuing Jordan, much to the young boy's dismay.
It couldn't have gotten any worse, but somehow it did. Jordan jumped out of the way of a giant webbed foot and gaped for a moment. The giant goose didn't seem to notice him, which he supposed was a good thing. Nothing good could come of getting noticed by a giant goose.
The Manikin paused, seeing the goose. It had grown huge, but even its size paled in comparison. The goose glanced down disdainfully at the pseudo-dragon and hissed. Not daunted (well, maybe a little), the Manikin decided that, you know what, goose would be delicious. After trying to shake off the bugs once more (and failing), it just went ahead and leapt at the goose's leg.
That worked out as well as anybody would have thought.
The goose shook off the Manikin easily before stepping back, limping slightly. The Manikin landed on its feet, having anticipated that it might get tossed off. What it didn't anticipate, however, was the laser beam.
Jordan stared. Then he remembered himself and fled. Staying here any longer would just be insane.
--------------------------------------------
"Stand still," the supervisor snarled as he drew back his flaming clawed hand for another strike.
"Goddammit, why is everything in this garden fireproof!" Rong shouted in frustration.
The supervisor was ablaze and still going at them. Even his suit didn't seem to suffer any ill effects of the fire. He was looking worryingly demonic now.
Eemp wobbled unsteadily on a shredded leg. Both Right and Rong had almost tangled themselves several times trying to dodge the rapid-fire attacks of the supervisor. The demon barely even gave them time to think. They could only react to what he dished out at them. Right even tried transforming into a blade again, but got attacked before he could even finish and was now sporting three rather hideous gashes down his side.
"Do--do you think you could hold him off a bit?" the Chinese dragon shouted.
"What?!" Rong shouted back. "He clawed through your scales like they were nothing! And mine are weaker!"
"Well, at least your blood is acidic," Right retorted. "You dont have to--GAH. It won't be long! I just need to gather some juice so we can actually fight back!"
Rong hesitated for a moment before launching herself towards the supervisor and headbutting him right in his blazing chest, impaling him with both her horns. He was stunned for a moment but quickly started clawing at her head. The blue dragon gritted her teeth and continued pushing him backwards as blood started flowing down her neck, both her's and the demonic supervisor's, mixing and plopping on the ground where it sizzled.
All around them, the fruits on the trees popped and the juice inside flew out and up, coalescing into one big sphere. As it grew and loomed above, it started to form into a giant spear.
"Right!" Rong yelped from where she was. Her eyes started to tear up as the supervisor stopped trying to struggle off her horns and started down the simpler route of just ripping her head off. "Hurry up! He's--"
And that's when a giant icicle went through the supervisor, swept him off his feet, dragged him off of Rong's horns and continued to a nearby tree, where it sank in and only stopped three-quarters in.
Many fruit fell from the tree. As Rong stared, they burst and drenched the supervisor so that he was no longer ablaze. The giant icicle twisted and warped until it was wrapped around the tree and, more importantly, the supervisor.
Rong looked back at Right. She opened her mouth, thought a bit, and said, "You could've been a little faster."
"We need to get out of here."
"I mean, he was really going to rip my head off."
"Would you shut up for once? Your head is fine. Let's get out of here."
"But," Rong said, turning back to the supervisor. The horned being was struggling and though cracks appeared across the ice's surface, they healed up almost as soon as they were made. "We haven't killed him yet."
"And we probably won't be able to. Shut up and let's go. We have someone else to kill."
"The Manikin?" Rong asked after a moment.
"No. It'll take too long. We have to kill Jordan."
---------------------------------------------------------------
"So," Maxwell said casually as they ducked behind another tree. "What do you suppose is worse? Death by gardeners or death by giant goose?"
"I really don't think we should be talking right now," Jordan hissed. "And none of those options sound great."
"I know that," Maxwell insisted. "I'm just asking what you would prefer."
"Neither. I'd rather stay alive, thank you."
"But what I'm saying," Maxwill persisted, "What I'm saying is, well, if you had to die, how would you rather die?"
"Painlessly," Jordan answered, peering out from behind the tree. He could see a goose looming over the trees. He was pretty sure that it was far away and occupied with something else, though.
No gardeners around. No crazy fruit to accost them. "Let's go."
Jordan stormed through the garden, kicking moodily at the grass in the very image of teenage petulance. He briefly glanced behind him in the general area where those other two guys were. One of them, if he had thought about it much, would have really looked like him. Only older. But he didn't think about it much. Perhaps he didn't really want to. He already had enough teenage stuff to worry about. An older doppleganger would possibly push him over the edge.
He slouched and sighed, brushing his hair out of his face, wondering where the hell he was right now. This definitely didn't look like the way to school. It actually looked a lot more like a dreamscape. So maybe he was dreaming. If he knew he was dreaming, didn't that mean he could do all these cool stuff like fly or something?
He tried jumping. He didn't jump higher than usual. Even in his dreams he couldn't win. Jordan sighed again and continued shuffling around in the gray grass.
Something suddenly burst from the trees. It was flying, Jordan noticed glumly. And firing what seemed to be laser blasts out of its hands. And...er...it was actually an angel....and...should...he be running now...?
His question was answered rather quickly as another something exploded out of the trees. This was a much larger something and it was a lot more threatening than the smaller angel something. Jordan was already turning to flee. He saw the angel get swatted down angrily by the threatening something. Then he saw the monster-free trees he was running towards. After a bit, he made the mistake of looking back. No angel. Lots of monster.
With a yelp, Jordan tried frantically to set it on fire, but apparently it was a rather fire-proof monster. Any fire that erupted around it was simply shaken out. It hadn't really inconvenienced the monster, but it did anger it. And Jordan suddenly found himself running even faster from a stream of fire that came out of the monster's mouth.
He screamed, but immediately regretted it when he ran right into a cloud of meandering insects.
Jordan couldn't be sure which was worse, but at least the bugs were flammable. Multiple mini-fires erupted in the air and the few bugs that hadn't burst into flame were buzzing around very confused, letting their prey escape.
Luckily, some other, larger prey came running right into them.
The Manikin tried to shake off the ridiculously large insects that were now trying to latch on tightly to it with mandibles that could probably tear through metal if they put their minds to it. It even tried breathing fire all over its flank to burn any buggy hitchhikers to a crisp, but it also didn't want to lose sight of its frantic prey. So, against all common sense, it ignored the giant bugs chewing on it to continue pursuing Jordan, much to the young boy's dismay.
It couldn't have gotten any worse, but somehow it did. Jordan jumped out of the way of a giant webbed foot and gaped for a moment. The giant goose didn't seem to notice him, which he supposed was a good thing. Nothing good could come of getting noticed by a giant goose.
The Manikin paused, seeing the goose. It had grown huge, but even its size paled in comparison. The goose glanced down disdainfully at the pseudo-dragon and hissed. Not daunted (well, maybe a little), the Manikin decided that, you know what, goose would be delicious. After trying to shake off the bugs once more (and failing), it just went ahead and leapt at the goose's leg.
That worked out as well as anybody would have thought.
The goose shook off the Manikin easily before stepping back, limping slightly. The Manikin landed on its feet, having anticipated that it might get tossed off. What it didn't anticipate, however, was the laser beam.
Jordan stared. Then he remembered himself and fled. Staying here any longer would just be insane.
--------------------------------------------
"Stand still," the supervisor snarled as he drew back his flaming clawed hand for another strike.
"Goddammit, why is everything in this garden fireproof!" Rong shouted in frustration.
The supervisor was ablaze and still going at them. Even his suit didn't seem to suffer any ill effects of the fire. He was looking worryingly demonic now.
Eemp wobbled unsteadily on a shredded leg. Both Right and Rong had almost tangled themselves several times trying to dodge the rapid-fire attacks of the supervisor. The demon barely even gave them time to think. They could only react to what he dished out at them. Right even tried transforming into a blade again, but got attacked before he could even finish and was now sporting three rather hideous gashes down his side.
"Do--do you think you could hold him off a bit?" the Chinese dragon shouted.
"What?!" Rong shouted back. "He clawed through your scales like they were nothing! And mine are weaker!"
"Well, at least your blood is acidic," Right retorted. "You dont have to--GAH. It won't be long! I just need to gather some juice so we can actually fight back!"
Rong hesitated for a moment before launching herself towards the supervisor and headbutting him right in his blazing chest, impaling him with both her horns. He was stunned for a moment but quickly started clawing at her head. The blue dragon gritted her teeth and continued pushing him backwards as blood started flowing down her neck, both her's and the demonic supervisor's, mixing and plopping on the ground where it sizzled.
All around them, the fruits on the trees popped and the juice inside flew out and up, coalescing into one big sphere. As it grew and loomed above, it started to form into a giant spear.
"Right!" Rong yelped from where she was. Her eyes started to tear up as the supervisor stopped trying to struggle off her horns and started down the simpler route of just ripping her head off. "Hurry up! He's--"
And that's when a giant icicle went through the supervisor, swept him off his feet, dragged him off of Rong's horns and continued to a nearby tree, where it sank in and only stopped three-quarters in.
Many fruit fell from the tree. As Rong stared, they burst and drenched the supervisor so that he was no longer ablaze. The giant icicle twisted and warped until it was wrapped around the tree and, more importantly, the supervisor.
Rong looked back at Right. She opened her mouth, thought a bit, and said, "You could've been a little faster."
"We need to get out of here."
"I mean, he was really going to rip my head off."
"Would you shut up for once? Your head is fine. Let's get out of here."
"But," Rong said, turning back to the supervisor. The horned being was struggling and though cracks appeared across the ice's surface, they healed up almost as soon as they were made. "We haven't killed him yet."
"And we probably won't be able to. Shut up and let's go. We have someone else to kill."
"The Manikin?" Rong asked after a moment.
"No. It'll take too long. We have to kill Jordan."
---------------------------------------------------------------
"So," Maxwell said casually as they ducked behind another tree. "What do you suppose is worse? Death by gardeners or death by giant goose?"
"I really don't think we should be talking right now," Jordan hissed. "And none of those options sound great."
"I know that," Maxwell insisted. "I'm just asking what you would prefer."
"Neither. I'd rather stay alive, thank you."
"But what I'm saying," Maxwill persisted, "What I'm saying is, well, if you had to die, how would you rather die?"
"Painlessly," Jordan answered, peering out from behind the tree. He could see a goose looming over the trees. He was pretty sure that it was far away and occupied with something else, though.
No gardeners around. No crazy fruit to accost them. "Let's go."