RE: Grand Battle (S?) (Round 1: Matmor Atoll)
06-17-2013, 09:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-18-2013, 12:16 AM by Elize.)
Sari jetted straight up from the water's surface like a cork from a bottle, just as the distant rolling sphere dropped into it. As she burst into the sunlight, she nearly froze. With a slight motion of her hand, her mask drifted up away from her face, seeming to affix itself in a point in space above her head. Her eyes grew wide, her mouth hung open slightly, and her long arms dropped limply at her sides. She turned from one side to the other in mute wonderment. As she slowly drifted back down, the rolling gleam of the massive sphere's wake touched her foot. Sari recoiled. Looking down at the water, then at the unfolding madness around her, she seemed to reach a decision. She leapt off the waves towards the distant point of a coral spear topped with a disgusted stormtrooper.
Volter peered over the side of his perch atop this alien effigy. The quaking hive of sea-spawn came alive below and roiled with the ill-intent of a hundred score misshapen aberrations. He swallowed the growing lump at his throat. It wasn't that he was afraid of his situation, no. Maybe. Volter was no stranger to battle. That is, he was no stranger to bold, soaring combat. He was no stranger to risking his life for homeland and glory. That was not this. He did not know where, he did not know why, and worst, there was a nagging voice at the back of his mind telling him that he might not know how. In evaluating his options, he looked towards the distant shore, trying to mentally bury the leap he knew to make from his years of experience in favor of the one he was now estimating would actually take him to his destination.
Krugrug suffered no doubts whatsoever. Blasted loose from his high position, his massive body skipped once across the rocks and plunged mightily through the surface of the water. Bubbles rose and popped. The merfolk began to advance again, intending to make certain of the kill.
They vastly underestimated what they were up against.
Krugrug leapt from the shallow bottom, tearing open the water's surface in a shower of shimmering droplets. His meaty fist grasped the overhanging tentacle of a hoversquid.
Kyle, knowing that ninety percent of these action scenes was usually meaningless yelling, grumbled in an attempt to dirty his throat rather than clear it.
"RrrrrrrrAAAAAAUGH!" Krugrug shouted, both pulling himself up and the squid down in one sturdy tug. The barbarian released the tentacle just in time to sail over the side of the squid and land fist-first on its pilot. The impact cracked both the merman and the seat clean in half, showering one of his emerging fellows below with a hail of debris and viscera.
A green streak leapt from the no-longer-flying machine and landed on a bloody crater where one of the coral walkers used to be. Pebbles and sand erupted into the air, the hoversquid hit the ground with a loud and flashy explosion, and Krugrug let out a feral scream of barbaric fury.
The advancing coral-walker merfolk, for once, took a step back.
Volter watched, with reasonable apprehension, as one of the natives on the mounts of writhing arms pointed his position out to one of its bretheren. Time was a precious commodity in a combat situation, and Volter recognized that he had a moment of it between now and when the creatures were in range. He swallowed his immediate urge to leap and fire, and considered his jump again. Was that his first response? He doubted they would be civilized enough to parlay, but he was far outnumbered and less familiar with the terrain. To flee would be to show that he had something to fear from them and-
Volter blinked. There was a flash of wood and steel in the seat of one of the squids, then another. The pilots slumped over, one by one, at the blades in their backs. Their mounts began to plummet, either to crash into the waves or expode brilliantly against the rocks. He stepped forward, preparing to make that leap he had been working out while also trying to suss out the details of his assailants' assailant.
Dangerously close behind him, a bell chimed.
Volter whirled around. One of the others snuck up on him! Slick, sinewy blue, glowing all over with sickly-colored sorcery. Too close! In a moment of panic, all his planning fell away. His boots fired and he soared through the fetid air, firing off a volley of glowing bolts at his aggressor's position.
But the thing didn't aggress. It didn't even dodge. It cocked its head to one side, as if curious about the incoming projectiles, and rang once.
Dee?
Brilliant flashes dazed Sari's senses. Her body soared through the air and rebounded in a shower of blue sparks off the rocks down the shore from Krugrug. Glowing eyes fluttered as she righted herself and looked out over her surrounds. The corpses were beginning to clutter the shore. Krugrug's club tore through mountains of opposition. A bored and lethal apparition dropped bleeding dead from the sky. The purple man had just sent her away with flashes that brought pain and drip of blue blood down her arm and lower back. Sari saw all of this, and internalized it. This was not something to be feared. This simply was.
Sari smiled. Not a sinister smile, no. There was not the menace that a creature sharing our understanding of the world would tie to a violent revelation. It was a simple, cheerful smile, belonging to a being happy to have learned something new.
It was that moment when, far below, a vast and terrible scream began.
Volter peered over the side of his perch atop this alien effigy. The quaking hive of sea-spawn came alive below and roiled with the ill-intent of a hundred score misshapen aberrations. He swallowed the growing lump at his throat. It wasn't that he was afraid of his situation, no. Maybe. Volter was no stranger to battle. That is, he was no stranger to bold, soaring combat. He was no stranger to risking his life for homeland and glory. That was not this. He did not know where, he did not know why, and worst, there was a nagging voice at the back of his mind telling him that he might not know how. In evaluating his options, he looked towards the distant shore, trying to mentally bury the leap he knew to make from his years of experience in favor of the one he was now estimating would actually take him to his destination.
Krugrug suffered no doubts whatsoever. Blasted loose from his high position, his massive body skipped once across the rocks and plunged mightily through the surface of the water. Bubbles rose and popped. The merfolk began to advance again, intending to make certain of the kill.
They vastly underestimated what they were up against.
Krugrug leapt from the shallow bottom, tearing open the water's surface in a shower of shimmering droplets. His meaty fist grasped the overhanging tentacle of a hoversquid.
Kyle, knowing that ninety percent of these action scenes was usually meaningless yelling, grumbled in an attempt to dirty his throat rather than clear it.
"RrrrrrrrAAAAAAUGH!" Krugrug shouted, both pulling himself up and the squid down in one sturdy tug. The barbarian released the tentacle just in time to sail over the side of the squid and land fist-first on its pilot. The impact cracked both the merman and the seat clean in half, showering one of his emerging fellows below with a hail of debris and viscera.
A green streak leapt from the no-longer-flying machine and landed on a bloody crater where one of the coral walkers used to be. Pebbles and sand erupted into the air, the hoversquid hit the ground with a loud and flashy explosion, and Krugrug let out a feral scream of barbaric fury.
The advancing coral-walker merfolk, for once, took a step back.
Volter watched, with reasonable apprehension, as one of the natives on the mounts of writhing arms pointed his position out to one of its bretheren. Time was a precious commodity in a combat situation, and Volter recognized that he had a moment of it between now and when the creatures were in range. He swallowed his immediate urge to leap and fire, and considered his jump again. Was that his first response? He doubted they would be civilized enough to parlay, but he was far outnumbered and less familiar with the terrain. To flee would be to show that he had something to fear from them and-
Volter blinked. There was a flash of wood and steel in the seat of one of the squids, then another. The pilots slumped over, one by one, at the blades in their backs. Their mounts began to plummet, either to crash into the waves or expode brilliantly against the rocks. He stepped forward, preparing to make that leap he had been working out while also trying to suss out the details of his assailants' assailant.
Dangerously close behind him, a bell chimed.
Volter whirled around. One of the others snuck up on him! Slick, sinewy blue, glowing all over with sickly-colored sorcery. Too close! In a moment of panic, all his planning fell away. His boots fired and he soared through the fetid air, firing off a volley of glowing bolts at his aggressor's position.
But the thing didn't aggress. It didn't even dodge. It cocked its head to one side, as if curious about the incoming projectiles, and rang once.
Dee?
Brilliant flashes dazed Sari's senses. Her body soared through the air and rebounded in a shower of blue sparks off the rocks down the shore from Krugrug. Glowing eyes fluttered as she righted herself and looked out over her surrounds. The corpses were beginning to clutter the shore. Krugrug's club tore through mountains of opposition. A bored and lethal apparition dropped bleeding dead from the sky. The purple man had just sent her away with flashes that brought pain and drip of blue blood down her arm and lower back. Sari saw all of this, and internalized it. This was not something to be feared. This simply was.
Sari smiled. Not a sinister smile, no. There was not the menace that a creature sharing our understanding of the world would tie to a violent revelation. It was a simple, cheerful smile, belonging to a being happy to have learned something new.
It was that moment when, far below, a vast and terrible scream began.