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MalkyTop · 01-14-2010, 10:46 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

The giant bees were long gone. More beasties flew overhead, but didn't bother disturbing them, preoccupied with fleeing. Once more, it seemed a good time as any to take a break. With fire all around, they could only wait. At least they had a brighter light source than Right.

If he could, Right would have stroked his flaming pearl like a beard, or maybe tugged on his whiskers, but he could only look around hopefully for any exit or ponder this war they had somehow gotten into, though really, it hadn't gotten warlike yet.

That strangely-named man, Hatman or whatever, was still passed out. He wasn't entirely sure what happened besides something about pulling things from nowhere and bats flying out of swords. As Rong decided that just leaving the dead bees around was a waste and devoured them, Right went over the introductory speech for probably the fifth time. The being that had brought them together (still nameless for he had never introduced himself) had called Hatman a 'super-hero.' What was a superhero? Above a hero? But how could you be more heroic than a hero? This really didn't make sense. Was that why Hatman pulled out a bat-spewing weapon from nowhere? But he was basically a hero. Only...super, somehow. So he probably went around doing hero stuff. Saving maidens. Killing evil men. Searching for adventure in his free time.

Vasily seemed to be staring at not-Lainey, stroking his chin for a bit before approaching, saying something that Right couldn't hear, though he could guess it was words of comfort to get close. Or something. Another man that Right knew little about, though this one he actually had spent some time with. From the introduction, it seemed he had quite a few skills. So far, he had seen little. But sometimes Right thought he had a cunning glint in his eyes, looking back at him. Both scrutinizing each other.

As Rong complained about a sting she had carelessly gotten while gulping down a bee, Right thought about the words said at the very beginning. A series of locales. So at some point they would leave the forest. An idea that Right would have welcomed openly right about now. But when? What triggered the change in scenery? Some kind of hidden switch? That seemed unlikely. A time limit? Hm. This was supposed to be a fight to the death...were you supposed to kill someone to move to the next stage?

Right mulled over this thought some more. For a person that would pluck those from their own worlds and force them to fight to the death, that last possibility sounded more like a certainty. If it turned out that whatever-it-is came and they couldn't escape, it would be nice if someone died and they would move on, away from the danger. It seemed that the scrawny kid, the Jordan guy would be the easiest to kill in such a situation. But that would antagonize him.

God, this was so frustrating. Why did he overthink these things? Why didn't he just adopt Rong's simple mindset and just kill everybody?

Eemp suddenly swiveled around, pointing its false eyes at something beyond the fire. As it looked, the fire seemed to dim and the trees seemed to wither. One even crumbled. An unearthly dark cloud was travelling swiftly close to the ground, swallowing everything in its path, sucking the life of whatever it touched.

Rong, startled by this seemingly living darkness, instinctively shot her fire at the thing. It died, not even slowing it down. It started condensing, as if concentrating on the small group before it.

Fire behind them and darkness ahead.

"Now would be a good time to have one of those smart plan things." Rong stared wide-eyed at the approaching darkness as Eemp backed away over the ruins of the cottage.

"Well, er, I, um," Right replied.

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GBCE · 01-14-2010, 11:46 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MyifanW.

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Honestly, the manikin was failing to eat much. The trees here were too full of life- somehow, they had become harder than the manikin's teeth. It attempted to transform it's teeth into the hardest material it could, the beetle carapace, but the carapace teeth bent as the mouth bit down. The carapace was designed to withstand shock by distributing the impacts through the shell, and therefore could not apply force well either, the Manikin realized. It ran through the information it had... and found what would work. The manikin's arm split in two, each transforming into the pincers of the giant beetle. With one solid action, it jammed the pincers on the tree, crushing the bark. It quickly created a mouth with it's other arm and swallowed parts of the broken bark. That manikin stopped moving as it analyzed it's meal. It was similar to the wood it had eaten before... but mutated, such that the strands of wood wove though each other, and became much denser. Interested, it tried to get a larger piece, for a better analysis... when it's kaleidoscopic eyes saw movement near it. It turned, focusing on that movement.

Before the manikin was the bunny. It was bigger than it was before, maybe with a few extra eyes (the manikin never saw it without that many eyes) but still looked harmless. What bothered the manikin was that the bunny was not fleeing from it, like the other animals had. It tried to read the bunny's life, but the interference was simply too great. Unsure of what to do, the manikin approached the bunny- and froze. Again, the insect's survival instinct restrained it, but several times more severely than before. The manikin had no doubt as to what it was feeling now- fear. But why? Why fear the tiny animal... It focused it's life sense as much as it could, all on the rabbit. Suddenly, the reason why it felt fear was made clear. The rabbit had the densest amount of life in the forest- it was probably the most powerful thing here. It must have absorbed more life than anything else...The manikin couldn't even imagine what kind of Monstrosity the rabbit would turn in to if it allowed itself to mutate to fit the size of it's life.

Alex watched the bunny, feeling uneasy. There was something wrong with it- it had too many eyes, it's proportions were strange... had he seen it before? Either way, it didn't matter. He recalled the nature of the lifeforms in the forest- giant and mutated. He wasn't going to take a chance with this thing. He lifted his sword... although tired from his previous exertion, Alex was quickly recovering.

Slowly, the manikin. backed away and sat down against the tree, curled up as tightly as possible. Hopefully, hopfully... The bunny would have no interest in a seemingly inanimate object. With this idea, the manikin stopped it's every movement. The bunny watched the Manikin for some time... and dodged Alex's swing instantly. Aso soon as it touched the floor again, it flew at Alex like a missile.

Alex was slightly off guard, but quickly lined his sword up with the direction of the rabbit's charge and pressed forward, with the intent to slice it in half. The rabbit's Skull smashed into the edge of the sword, and the blade slid through the rabbit's head... and stopped. Alex swung the sword, sending the rabbit away. Something was wrong, he knew. The rabbit should have been in halves...
The corpse of the rabbit bounced on the ground, and came to a rest. for a moment, nothing moved. Then, it's body warped and bubbled, expanding it's mass. The cleaved head split apart entirely, and each half regrew the other side of the head, giving it two heads. It's once petite herbivore mouths expanded, growing down the length of each head, filled with razor sharp teeth. It's body did not stop it's change yet, but at the rate it was growing... Alex grimaced and charged. He needed to destroy the thing as soon as possible.

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GBCE · 01-15-2010, 12:09 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.

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GBCE · 01-15-2010, 12:03 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MyifanW.

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GBCE · 01-16-2010, 08:24 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by Lisawags.

Menacing giggles were heard from the darkness. Then, strange creatures leaped from the darkness and into the light! These animals had giant, red, and slanted eyes. There were long, thin antennas attached to their small heads. Some of them had four claws on each hand while others had five. A few of them even had both. These beasts also had a grin similar to a jack-o-lantern, but there was not light, only darkness. They were small and didn't look like much of a threat, but in numbers they were powerful, like Pikmin. Soon, there were dozens of pairs of read eyes staring from the darkness and shaking, probably from all of that laughter.

Vasily, Rong, Eemp, Right, and Yume ran towards their enemies, while Jordan cowered at the rubble of the cottage. All of the contestants but Jordan fought courageously and well, but they were certainly outnumbered! There was an endless amount of these creatures, and the contestants would fall to them if nothing was done!

Suddenly, a blood curdling roar was heard throughout the clearing, and the fire on the opposite side of the players and close to the cottage swiftly dimmed into darkness. A gargantuan dragon slowly, but surely, emerged from the gloom. Each footstep made the ground rumble, but the combatants did not stagger!

Jordan stumbled toward the others rapidly as the dragon roared once more. It, the basilisk, glared at its opponents without moving at all, holding its breath, as if it was waiting for the first move.

While everyone was distracted, what appeared to be the last wave of the little monsters surrounded the contestants. There was a plethora of these pests, but they could be beaten with enough effort.

The coward, obviously Jordan, looked about with fright. With no exit, no hiding place, he had no choice, no choice but to fight... to risk his own life. With his back against his temporary allies, he concentrated on the large clump of these savages. In a blink of an eye, a little less than half of the immense army were burned to a crisp. They continued to hoot with laughter, and several of them made the fatal mistake of soaring toward Vasily.

Then, with no more than a couple of swings with his sword, a handful of the demons were dead. The puny corpses dissipated into the air, but there was so much more of these devils!

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MalkyTop · 01-16-2010, 09:44 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

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GBCE · 01-16-2010, 01:55 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by Lisawags.

MalkyTop Wrote:

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SpoilerYeah. I keep writing long posts too often. I really think at some point, I should learn how to reserve.

Although I write too much anyways, so I should let off a bit.

Gonna have an audition soon. I might write something afterwards.

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MalkyTop · 01-16-2010, 04:53 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

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MalkyTop · 01-16-2010, 11:30 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

At least the fire finally died down. But they were still as cornered as before.

Though the large dragon was certainly something to worry about, Vasily was thinking carefully about this strange darkness. Was it actually sentient? It seemed to have sent out minions despite the fact that they had been cornered, that there was no way they could get out. The minions, perhaps, were distractions. The darkness, though it seemed to repel all life, sent out something seemingly alive in hopes they wouldn't see something. Maybe.

These small demons were not so hard to fight. Yes, they were surrounded, but the demons seemed to lack any plan besides rushing, and they almost were as insubstantial as the darkness seemed. A wide swing and poof, there they went. So the pirate allowed himself to watch the still-approaching wall of darkness. Watched it carefully for any signs of a weakness.

The darkness had already come up to the cottage, covering about half of the clearing. And then it went...carefully around the ruined cottage.

There was something about the cottage that the darkness didn't like.

Right seemed to be shouting out to the dragon for help. The dragon didn't appear to respond, but as they were driven closer and closer to the beast, he could see why. It was simply a giant, mutated lizard. What he thought were odd, black eyes were actually glossy compound eyes. It roared again, opening its mouth in four parts. Its tongue forked out, grotesquely swollen, sporting a large eye at the end. It was just another unintelligent beast. Then the red dragon noticed Vasily dropping his guard to first drag Hatman so he wouldn't be caught in the swarm, then to pick up a hefty piece of rubble.

"What are you-" Vasily chucked it towards the wall of darkness. It wasn't a very good aim, since he immediately had to fight off more of the dark demons, but with a target that huge, he didn't really need to.

Even that small piece of rubble caused the wall to hesitate and its demons to dissipate. Vasily, now more confident than ever in his hypothesis, ran up to the wall and stabbed it with his rusty poker.

Half the poker immediately disintegrated. However, it apparently pained the darkness enough for it to condense further and draw backwards, leaving plenty of room for escape.

Seeing such a large exit, Jordan immediately went for it, ready to circle around the horrible lizard and run further away from the darkness before it recovered. He paused a little to turn back and see how the others were doing, but they had seen the chance to escape as well and were fine without him. The lizard had apparently tried to catch one of them with its tongue, but got a stabbed eyeball for its trouble and stopped around in pain and anger. It turned on the still-weakened darkness in anger, but recoiled as its forearm simply decayed. Nobody saw any more, trying to run as quickly as they could away, dodging some still-flaming trees.

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**Schazer** · 01-18-2010, 02:52 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

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MalkyTop · 01-19-2010, 09:42 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

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Running running running. Eemp seemed to be doing a lot of running recently.

As they were all escaping from the clearing, everybody seemed to have separated. Jordan seemed to have immediately disappeared, having run off in the opposite direction, while Right lost sight of not-Lainey once more, who had apparently decided that her smaller, sleeker form was better suited to running. (Which was true. She had darted quite quickly ahead of everybody else.) Vasily might have fallen behind, though it wasn't so surprising. He was already pretty exhausted by the recent events and he probably stopped to rest for a bit, maybe confident in his knowledge of the living darkness's weakness.

As for the trio, they were stopped by a wall of fire. Once again, Right found himself wishing there were some clouds nearby.

"Do we go back?"

"No. I get the feeling that we'll just run into more dead ends..." Right stared at the fire, listening carefully to the groaning of the trees. "I think we can risk running through."

Eemp stepped back before running straight into the inferno.

It was uncomfortably hot like Right imagined. Rong was probably used to such heat and Eemp didn't have any nerves to feel, but Right was not used to being surrounded by fire. He hated the way it licked around him, threatening to scorch through his scales and burn his whiskers.

A tree fell with a resigned grumble, but Rong caught it and let it fall in front. Eemp hopped over it and after only a few minutes jog, they were out.

Unfortunately, they might have gotten themselves in a bigger mess.

"Hey!" Alex called out, his sword aflame. He was using it to separate himself from the maw of...of...whatever the hell that was. Right also saw the mannequin, but it seemed to have died or given up on life or was simply waiting for something else to die. "Can you help me out here?!"

"Let me guess."

"No firebreathing until I say the word." Right contemplated the idea of just abandoning Alex and leaving him to his death, but remembered that he himself had offered a partnership. Though no agreements had been made yet, he felt as though he had a word to keep. At least for now. "Alright. So it's a giant, two-headed rabbit with, it seems, extras of everything, and...it looks like it's growing bigger..."

The rabbit's ears twitched and one thin, gangly arm shot out where Eemp was standing. The straw doll managed to jump out of the way, avoiding any more damage, and the arm, instead, stuck in the ground. Without even any prompting, Rong reached out and ripped off the skeleton-thin arm, causing the mutated rabbit to release Alex's sword in pain. Alex immediately took this chance to slash at the rabbit's torso. Though the monster tried to guard with its other arms, he sliced through them easily and stabbed its stomach, though once again, his sword didn't go as far as it should have. He retreated a bit as the rabbit started regenerating.

"Tasty," Rong commented, swallowing the arm.

GBCE · 01-19-2010, 06:33 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.

Alex recalled what he knew of regenerating creatures from his own world, most of them had regenerating powers that can be stopped with fire, he hoped it worked like that here, his blade turning red with heat once more as he cleaved a gash into one of it's legs, which hissed as the blood boiled on contact. the flesh started healing where he struck, but at a much slower rate. Alex doubted he could hit it hard and fast enough to overcome it's resistance... alone. he needed some way of making the manikin overcome it's apparent fear of this thing. maybe if it was it? worth a shot. Alex waited for an attack and dodged the lunging head that tried to bite him and lopped off a part of one of it's ears. grabbing the wiggling piece of flesh Alex throws it at the manikin, and then gets back on the defensive, dodging with wind, and blocking with fire so it hurts itself from the attack.

GBCE · 01-19-2010, 11:02 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by Red Herring.

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GBCE · 01-21-2010, 11:57 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by MyifanW.

The Manikin wanted no part of this. The Small piece of flesh in front of it seemed safe, but The Manikin did not want to move... Until the piece of flesh began growing, twisting, expanding. While the Mankin did not want to move, the flesh piece was quickly becoming a monster right in front of it. Maybe if it kept still... Suddenly the flesh touched the Manikin. It had no intellect, actually- the manikin had nothing to be afraid of, it was just a piece of meat that kept growing- but it touched the manikin, who didn't know that. Like a cornered animal, the manikin lashed out at it, surrounding it with teeth and swallowing it whole. It began to digest... Slowly. Even as it ate, the flesh kept growing. It took all of the Manikin's resources to keep digesting the flesh- for now, it could do nothing but digest.

MalkyTop · 01-21-2010, 02:08 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

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Mannequin. Useless. Right saw it move a little, so he knew it was still alive in the strange way it was, but it continued doing nothing.

Alex seemed to be doing well on his own, actually. Maybe they could just stroll along their merry way. But no, looking closer, it was obvious the knight was starting to struggle. He was lopping appendages off easily now, but they were just growing back too fast and he ended up just wasting energy trying to slice and hack and slice again. He would probably tire out soon.

"You regenerate, don't you?" Right said rather conversationally as the battle continued. It seemed that since Alex was going all out, the monster was focusing all attention on him.

"Eh, yeah."

"How hot would a sword have to be to cauterize it so it won't regrow?" This time, Alex was knocked down, but got up again in time to dodge and started over.

"Mmm, I dunno. This guy's different, I think. Keeps growing everywhere. If you burn one place enough, he'd just keep growing elsewhere."

"Meaning you'd have to be able to burn every area to a crisp, I suppose." The red dragon paused, contemplating an idea. The rabbit-beast continued to grow grotesquely, despite Alex's efforts. "So I'm guessing his flaming sword isn't hot enough."

"Ha! It's delicious-looking, but it's not as hot as my flames!"

Right quickly suppressed the urge to say a nasty joke. "Okay. It looks like you'll be able to burn something after all.

"Hey! Alex Corendal!" The knight, now distracted, missed an attack. The monster took advantage of this and forced Alex into defensive. Frustrated, Alex spat back, "What?!"

"If you lop off something, get out of the way quickly! Rong here'll try to cauterize it more!"

"Will that stop it's growing?"

"Debatable." Alex had no time to hesitate. He didn't like the idea of possibly getting caught in the line of fire, but if it would at least slow the rabbit, then, well, better for him.

As a reply, he lopped off one of the many arms and dodged the fire that came almost immediately afterwards. As for the wriggling arm on the ground, Rong took care of that too, almost swallowing it whole.

The beast roared, holding its stump of an arm. It appeared as though it did stop growing, but Right could not be sure. Maybe it was just growing slowly. In any case, it was some sort of progress.

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MalkyTop · 01-22-2010, 09:54 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

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GBCE · 01-22-2010, 10:15 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.

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Now that he had the dragon providing fire-support (ZING!) Alex switched to wind so that he was now dancing circles around the beast. making perhaps 2 nearby slashes before he had to move to let the fire blast in. the beast was definantly starting to weaken from the constant attack but Alex would let his guard down, too many good warriors were taken out when they thought the enemy was nearly done and relaxed their guard only for it to pull some bullshit like self-destructing.

MalkyTop · 01-24-2010, 12:24 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

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Slice, dodge, fire. Slice, dodge, fire.

They had quickly fallen into a comfortable routine that it seemed the monster could not break. It was still huge, of course, but it was slow. Too slow to catch the two nimble figures, despite all its multiple appendages.

It had determined that though the one with the sword was indeed chopping up its limbs, the one with the fire was more troublesome. Eemp was suddenly getting all the attacks. Though Alex tried to slice off any claws (or in some cases, teeth) that came after his much needed accomplice, Eemp still had to dodge almost constantly, making it harder for Rong to aim. To compensate, she made her fireballs a tad bit larger.

Which is why Alex had to quickly stamp out a fire on his shoe.

"Sorry!" Rong called out after being shouted at by Right.

"Yeah, yeah." It was fine. All he had to do was concentrate a little more and move faster...they'd better get finished quick. He was getting exhausted.

Even with some setbacks, half of the monster was scorched and useless, causing it to bulge strangely out the still growing end. It started growing more legs to support itself from the front, but didn't seem to be able to move anymore for the most part. Alex started getting bolder with his cuts, trying to go for the actual torso rather than just the appendages. He just wanted it to be over already.

And then finally...

"Cut off the heads!"

Alex bit back a sharp retort to the obvious command and did so, his sword slicing easily through the necks and with one last fire burst, the monster's growth stopped. It was just one huge, scorched mass now.

Alex wobbled a bit as he landed, his legs getting used to standing on stable ground again for more than a few seconds. He could even see Rong wheezing, venting out some excess smoke. Eemp had managed to escape many of the attacks with his help, of course, but still had some more hay falling out, which was obviously annoying Right.

The large charcoal seemed to shudder, then completely shattered, unable to hold the growth in, revealing all the red, all the pulsing organs, all the blood and fat nobody wanted to see. It didn't even resemble a rabbit, so much as a giant, fleshy slug with tiny rabbitty ears on top. Strangely enough, for all the undulating flesh and branching veins that seemed to leak in places, there was only one heart. Alex could see it, a dark pulsing mass in the center, protected by what seemed to be a ton of fat and lungs and livers and stomachs.

As the dragons seemed to panic beside him, he stood up straight once again, hoped for the best, and launched his sword right through the pink fat, the gasping lungs, the intestines, the stomachs, through the heart and out the other side where, covered with blood and many other things he'd rather not think about and having lost most of its momentum from its journey through a body, it clanked off a tree and seemed to squelch on the ground. The heart was still stuck on its point.

The rabbit monster quickly healed up, but was definitively dead. For some reason, though it could still continue growing, it could not grow another heart to pump its blood. It just stayed there, sometimes leaking. And Alex tottered and finally fell over backwards, wanting to close his eyes and just let everybody else fight each other.

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Dragon Fogel · 01-24-2010, 12:43 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

MalkyTop Wrote:

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SpoilerJeez, that was longer than I thought it'd be. And it was more about Alex then my own actual character.

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GBCE · 01-24-2010, 03:07 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.

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Alex wearily walked over to his sword and retrieved it. looking inward on his magic reserves he saw that he was at... damn... 5% no wonder he felt like shit. that was critical low, at that lvl his 'magic capacitor' is strained. like a deflated lung it needs ether a lot of time or outside help to power back up... normally. with the ability to generate elements came the ability to absorb it as well, of course it has to be a magic version of it for it to work. but you can't get much more magical then dragon-fire from a living severed dragon head. turning it back on to fire but having the energy flow inverted he asks "hey, dragons, could you breath a little of that fire on my sword? but not too much, never tried this before."

MalkyTop · 01-25-2010, 05:08 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

Rong stared at the sword, then at Alex. A goofy smile spread across her face. "Oh man, nostalgia attack...I remember when those puny little knights would come up, all wrapped up like canned beans. And then I'd fry 'em and they'd get all toasty inside..." Alex shifted slightly. "Oh man, wow. Remember that?"

"No," said Right stiffly. "While you were off striking fear among the masses, I was busy being worshiped. Well, I could cause floods, so I guess they might've been scared of me. A little."

Alex coughed, catching both of the dragons' attentions. "Ah, right. Hm. How much is too much?"

"I don't know. Whatever's less than burning me to a crisp, I suppose." His voice sounded sick. Or maybe just weary. He swayed a little.

"Hold steady, then." And Rong released a small, constant stream of fire, showing a level of control that even Right didn't think possible. The sword went red hot and Alex stood rigid. In his head, he imagined the numbers going up and up, whirling so much that he grew dizzy. "Wait! Stop!" The knight fell down again, trying to take deep, even breaths, quelling that sick feeling that comes when you eat too much too fast.

He was up around fifty percent now...which was good enough, for now, at least. Feeling stronger, he stood up and stared at the disgusting pink mass. It looked kind of like jello, if all the fruit pieces were livers and bones and brains.

"It's still growing...we should leave," said Right. Alex walked around the throbbing blobby thing and found the mannequin right where he saw it last.

"Can you help me carry this?" He called back. Once his temporary partner(s?) came into sight, he could see Right wrinkling his snout.

"Rong, help him pick it up."

"I don't wanna gag myself!"

"Well I don't either, and I don't want to miss a chance to stop your babbling."

"Woah, wait," Alex held up his hands, hoping that by trying to mediate, he wouldn't get a face full of dragon fire. "One of you could curl around an arm like a snake, right?"

Rong looked blank for a moment, but slowly grew a smile as Right scowled. "Wow! I didn't think of that."

"You never think in the first place. I suppose I'll help carry it. If she's not carrying an arm in her mouth, it won't be as satisfying..." A pause as the two heft up an arm each and start dragging the motionless mannequin further into the woods. "...Why are we taking this anyways?"

Alex shrugs. "I'm not sure if I would want anything to be crushed by the blobby innards of what used to be a horrifying rabbit monster."

"Hn."

"Keep an eye out for any of the others."

"What? Do I fire at 'em on sight?"

Alex paused, considering the strange mentality of his temporary partners. "No."

SleepingOrange · 01-25-2010, 09:33 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by SleepingOrange.

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SleepingOrange · 01-26-2010, 10:15 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by SleepingOrange.

Hatman awoke surrounded by leering demons; a short way away, a rapidly-decomposing dragon corpse was being caressed by some manner of shapeless darkness. Perhaps not the best way to wake up, but still! It wasn't as bad as the time with Doctor Von Boz's nightmare machine, right? And back then, he hadn't had this little beauty...

Hatman leapt to his feet. A lesser man might have climbed or staggered; an observer might even mistaken his leap for a lurch, but leaping is what heroes do and Hatman was a hero. QED. He prepared to reach into hammerspace, but found the pistol already in his hand. Had he been holding it when he went down? Had it been a pistol then? Didn't matter. There were demons to slay. Lots of them.

The little blighters went down easily, actually; typical minions, really. A bullet or a slash and they fell apart and disappeared. His weapon seemed to have ideas of its own what it should be and when, but always switched at convenient times. Usually when Hatman would have switched himself, and sometimes when he should have but wouldn't have thought to; handy all around, it seemed.

The horde dissolved quickly, its numbers already depleted; its master seemed to have more interesting things to do than bother with Hatman, judging from the reptilian skeleton that was even now decaying to dust. Hatman looked at it curiously, tapping the barrel of the pistol against his thigh thoughtfully as the last few demons scampered away. He was too deep in thought, and too used to it now, to notice that his weapon had shifted to blade form.

He noticed it when the sword fell from his hand, though; he noticed when it jerked away as he bent to pick it up; he noticed the clawed, black hand that wrapped around the now-out-of-reach hilt, and he noticed the blade that sunk into his stomach as the demon made a flying leap. He wasn't noticing much more than pain as he hit the ground, and he noticed only cackling as his senses started to fail.

He wasn't in any position to notice anything as the darkness licked across his still face; if he had been, he might have noticed the blood on the blade reshaping itself. If the demon could have read, it might have noticed:

He is the first.

GBCE · 01-26-2010, 09:19 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.

reading that combined with looking at your avatar makes it seem like you are being really coy. as well as ending all your sentences with a little tehehe.

MalkyTop · 01-26-2010, 10:49 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

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