Re: Grand Battle S3G1! (Round One: Vio Maleficat)
03-08-2011, 03:12 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Pinary.
Tor went down as well, moving deeper and deeper into the Chaos-saturated caves just as Jetsam did. His journey differed, though- rather than merging with the Chaos and leaving the solid world behind, he became all the more aware of the real world around him as he did his best to cling to its shifting, warping surface. Chaos didn't want him, it didn't want his help or his presence. It twisted and writhed, but the glow of Unity emanating from the walls kept any actual apparitions at bay. But still, the tunnel writhed, and each step forward sent the Telpori-Hal nearly tumbling to the floor (whatever that happened to be at the time).
Slowly, though, he made progress. The knife-wounds Scofflaw had given him weren't exactly comfortable, but they too kept him grounded in reality. He was about at the minimum amount of toxin needed to being able to regenerate, now, but he didn't want to waste it on just a pair of gashes. He knew there would be worse to come, and he didn't want to be left two minutes away from regeneration with a gushing chest wound.
As he moved forward, he found himself approaching a split in the tunnel. One path curved sharply up and left, and what appeared to be sunlight flecked the far wall of the curve; the other curved down and to the right, its appearance dark and foreboding.
The twisting and lurching tunnels calmed down as he arrived, and for a moment, everything seemed almost normal. He was in a blue-glowing tunnel under an absurd facility fighting off even more absurdity, all taking part in a battle to the death at the whim of a being dressed as a jester, so normal was relative, but the solid rock of the tunnel walls and floor were remaining solid. Gravity wasn't trying to knock him down, the magnetic field wasn't conspiring to make him lose his lunch- for the moment, everything seemed calm.
Seemed, of course, being the operative term. Chaos may have relented in its spatial warping, but it hadn't given up; no, merely turned its attention elsewhere.
A number of footsteps echoed down from the left corridor first, sporadic and mismatched. Someone stumbled and fell into the wall, and soon after, they tumbled in a heap to the cavern floor at Tor's feet.
It was himself, but not. He knew the hal well- it was the one he saw every time he looked in a mirror. The body, though, was different- it was thin, long, and angular, all knees and elbows and long limbs in between.
Most importantly, it was smoking. There were numerous scrapes, cuts, and slashes all over this Tor's body, and smoke, black and rancid, was seeping from them all.
He was trying to regenerate, but he just didn't have the time. He could only have been around for five minutes or so at this point, not nearly long enough to build enough fuel. Even worse, in his vain attempts to ignite what little toxin he had, he was simply burning them out. He would die from his wounds, that much was plain.
While Tor was still processing this, another stream of footsteps approached, this one regular, fast, and hard. Tor barely had a chance to look up before they were upon him- true to expectations, it was him again. This him was the same him as the one on the floor- long-limbed and skinny, an untidy mop of metallic, rusty-brown hair atop his head.
Tengeri and Velobo were behind him, the latter astride the former, and they barely stopped to acknowledge the presence of another pair of Tors.
He wasn't even sure they could see him as they raced by, turning the corner sharply and heading up the left tunnel and up to the surface. As fast as they'd arrived, they'd gone, with not so much as a glance at the Telpori-Han they passed.
In some of his more intellectual-leaning incarnations, Tor might've stopped to ponder what he was experiencing. Was it a double time loop, showing him one future, then the other? Was it two possible options, showing him what would happen whichever way he went? An unstoppable prophecy, or one potential future?
He didn't sit and think about the implications. He didn't consider the potential ramifications of choosing one tunnel over the other. He didn't consider alternate options like just turning back and going the way he'd come. He just went, heading down the tunnel on the right at a fair clip.
-
It wasn't long before he reached the end of the curving tunnel, and it opened into a large underground cave. There was a swarm of creatures of all descriptions swirling around the center of the cavern, and a short ways away, a water-wreathed serpent and a greenish cuboid were just launching into action.
Velobo, aiming carefully, shot his tongue up into the creatures, latching into one creature in particular and pulling himself up to it in short order.
It was at that moment (precipitated by the Plazmuth's actions, no doubt) that the cloud of whirling, Chaotic monsters kicked into overdrive, whirling faster and faster and bringing their assorted pointy and harmful weaponry to bear on the two- now three- beings below them. A loud, grating keening echoed dangerously through the suddenly small-seeming cavern- the sound of a thousand Chaos-beasts calling for blood.
Tor went down as well, moving deeper and deeper into the Chaos-saturated caves just as Jetsam did. His journey differed, though- rather than merging with the Chaos and leaving the solid world behind, he became all the more aware of the real world around him as he did his best to cling to its shifting, warping surface. Chaos didn't want him, it didn't want his help or his presence. It twisted and writhed, but the glow of Unity emanating from the walls kept any actual apparitions at bay. But still, the tunnel writhed, and each step forward sent the Telpori-Hal nearly tumbling to the floor (whatever that happened to be at the time).
Slowly, though, he made progress. The knife-wounds Scofflaw had given him weren't exactly comfortable, but they too kept him grounded in reality. He was about at the minimum amount of toxin needed to being able to regenerate, now, but he didn't want to waste it on just a pair of gashes. He knew there would be worse to come, and he didn't want to be left two minutes away from regeneration with a gushing chest wound.
As he moved forward, he found himself approaching a split in the tunnel. One path curved sharply up and left, and what appeared to be sunlight flecked the far wall of the curve; the other curved down and to the right, its appearance dark and foreboding.
The twisting and lurching tunnels calmed down as he arrived, and for a moment, everything seemed almost normal. He was in a blue-glowing tunnel under an absurd facility fighting off even more absurdity, all taking part in a battle to the death at the whim of a being dressed as a jester, so normal was relative, but the solid rock of the tunnel walls and floor were remaining solid. Gravity wasn't trying to knock him down, the magnetic field wasn't conspiring to make him lose his lunch- for the moment, everything seemed calm.
Seemed, of course, being the operative term. Chaos may have relented in its spatial warping, but it hadn't given up; no, merely turned its attention elsewhere.
A number of footsteps echoed down from the left corridor first, sporadic and mismatched. Someone stumbled and fell into the wall, and soon after, they tumbled in a heap to the cavern floor at Tor's feet.
It was himself, but not. He knew the hal well- it was the one he saw every time he looked in a mirror. The body, though, was different- it was thin, long, and angular, all knees and elbows and long limbs in between.
Most importantly, it was smoking. There were numerous scrapes, cuts, and slashes all over this Tor's body, and smoke, black and rancid, was seeping from them all.
He was trying to regenerate, but he just didn't have the time. He could only have been around for five minutes or so at this point, not nearly long enough to build enough fuel. Even worse, in his vain attempts to ignite what little toxin he had, he was simply burning them out. He would die from his wounds, that much was plain.
While Tor was still processing this, another stream of footsteps approached, this one regular, fast, and hard. Tor barely had a chance to look up before they were upon him- true to expectations, it was him again. This him was the same him as the one on the floor- long-limbed and skinny, an untidy mop of metallic, rusty-brown hair atop his head.
Tengeri and Velobo were behind him, the latter astride the former, and they barely stopped to acknowledge the presence of another pair of Tors.
He wasn't even sure they could see him as they raced by, turning the corner sharply and heading up the left tunnel and up to the surface. As fast as they'd arrived, they'd gone, with not so much as a glance at the Telpori-Han they passed.
In some of his more intellectual-leaning incarnations, Tor might've stopped to ponder what he was experiencing. Was it a double time loop, showing him one future, then the other? Was it two possible options, showing him what would happen whichever way he went? An unstoppable prophecy, or one potential future?
He didn't sit and think about the implications. He didn't consider the potential ramifications of choosing one tunnel over the other. He didn't consider alternate options like just turning back and going the way he'd come. He just went, heading down the tunnel on the right at a fair clip.
-
It wasn't long before he reached the end of the curving tunnel, and it opened into a large underground cave. There was a swarm of creatures of all descriptions swirling around the center of the cavern, and a short ways away, a water-wreathed serpent and a greenish cuboid were just launching into action.
Velobo, aiming carefully, shot his tongue up into the creatures, latching into one creature in particular and pulling himself up to it in short order.
It was at that moment (precipitated by the Plazmuth's actions, no doubt) that the cloud of whirling, Chaotic monsters kicked into overdrive, whirling faster and faster and bringing their assorted pointy and harmful weaponry to bear on the two- now three- beings below them. A loud, grating keening echoed dangerously through the suddenly small-seeming cavern- the sound of a thousand Chaos-beasts calling for blood.