Re: Mini-Grand 5102 [Round 1: Sprawl-Mart]
06-18-2011, 04:30 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by XX.
Rome roared long and loud at the stampede around it, viciously striking down the people in its way with its cruel and hungry hooves. It was angry now, and terror was like a fluttering bird deep in its heart. These people. These hordes. Rome remembered better swarms of flesh, screaming for blood and howling at the bodies crashing to the dusty Coliseum floor. Rome remembered what a true crowd wanted. Rome was ancient. They wanted glory and death, they wanted to see their champions fall. They wanted to know that their Triumphs would stand quietly in the shadow of the gladiators and that their empire would be christened with sand and fire.
Rome hated crowds.
The scent of the warrior was fading, and in its place came the cracking of plastic and the distant roar of a fight. Rome reared back on its hind hooves and screamed a challenge at the distant noise. War drums were thundering in its ears; Rome wasn’t sure where it was but it knew a battle when it heard one. Behind it, metal slammed to the ground as new waves of shelves collapsed, tossing out jars and bottles like beads from the hands of dancers. Shards of glass flew out and were dissolved in the trail of dust and blood Rome left behind as it ran obliviously for the electronics section, slicing into the tiles as it went. Screams flew past it; it heard them as the cries of a war rally and threw itself into the wind.
Janet didn’t notice at first that a horse-sized striped thing was bounding over fallen shelves towards her, for good reason. Earth sprites were swarming her TV golem like ants on a carcass in the Amazon. Except that these ants weren’t biting so much as ripping things apart with their tiny rocky hands, and the carcass was a conglomeration of high-end televisions held together by spectral energy. It was a confused metaphor and it wasn’t helped by Rome’s arrival, who could have been a swooping hawk or something. An eagle, maybe. A very light tapir. Two crocodiles fighting over a hovercraft, and the hovercraft was crashing.
Rome slammed hooves-first into the left arm of the TV monster, howling like a banshee on speed. Claws the size of small bananas raked the screens, cracking them and warping the displays and darkening whole areas of Janet’s erstwhile host. Furious, the ghost girl’s image whipped around. “The hell-? No one invited you, tiger thing! Get the hell off!”
The Dust Beast responding with a warbling roar and scrambled on top of the golem, stomping defiantly. It was nearly bucked off as the golem swung its arm hard into the wall, leaving a crumbling crater of plaster behind. Janet shook the golem’s arm once more and was surprised to see the whole thing creak and fall cleanly off, exploding on the ground in a shower of dust and rotting cables.
Rome howled. It wanted gladiators to die.
Rome roared long and loud at the stampede around it, viciously striking down the people in its way with its cruel and hungry hooves. It was angry now, and terror was like a fluttering bird deep in its heart. These people. These hordes. Rome remembered better swarms of flesh, screaming for blood and howling at the bodies crashing to the dusty Coliseum floor. Rome remembered what a true crowd wanted. Rome was ancient. They wanted glory and death, they wanted to see their champions fall. They wanted to know that their Triumphs would stand quietly in the shadow of the gladiators and that their empire would be christened with sand and fire.
Rome hated crowds.
The scent of the warrior was fading, and in its place came the cracking of plastic and the distant roar of a fight. Rome reared back on its hind hooves and screamed a challenge at the distant noise. War drums were thundering in its ears; Rome wasn’t sure where it was but it knew a battle when it heard one. Behind it, metal slammed to the ground as new waves of shelves collapsed, tossing out jars and bottles like beads from the hands of dancers. Shards of glass flew out and were dissolved in the trail of dust and blood Rome left behind as it ran obliviously for the electronics section, slicing into the tiles as it went. Screams flew past it; it heard them as the cries of a war rally and threw itself into the wind.
Janet didn’t notice at first that a horse-sized striped thing was bounding over fallen shelves towards her, for good reason. Earth sprites were swarming her TV golem like ants on a carcass in the Amazon. Except that these ants weren’t biting so much as ripping things apart with their tiny rocky hands, and the carcass was a conglomeration of high-end televisions held together by spectral energy. It was a confused metaphor and it wasn’t helped by Rome’s arrival, who could have been a swooping hawk or something. An eagle, maybe. A very light tapir. Two crocodiles fighting over a hovercraft, and the hovercraft was crashing.
Rome slammed hooves-first into the left arm of the TV monster, howling like a banshee on speed. Claws the size of small bananas raked the screens, cracking them and warping the displays and darkening whole areas of Janet’s erstwhile host. Furious, the ghost girl’s image whipped around. “The hell-? No one invited you, tiger thing! Get the hell off!”
The Dust Beast responding with a warbling roar and scrambled on top of the golem, stomping defiantly. It was nearly bucked off as the golem swung its arm hard into the wall, leaving a crumbling crater of plaster behind. Janet shook the golem’s arm once more and was surprised to see the whole thing creak and fall cleanly off, exploding on the ground in a shower of dust and rotting cables.
Rome howled. It wanted gladiators to die.