CW: Canon typical violence, PG-13 realism with canon typical violence.
"Wasgo, bring him to me." Moonstone pressed her fingers into the worn wood of her weapon, feeling the magic thrumming gently through it as she waited for her Youma to comply with given command. The evening had been most bountiful for the Haida general, she had gathered much energy for Metallia's glory, but she was also in the practice of taking a few starseeds from those that were less likely to be noticed.
Transients, the homeless. Runaways - or those that could be made to seem like runaways. Moonstone felt nothing for the lives she took after so many years under Chaos' yoke. She was a blade, honed and glinting in the moonlight.
As his Mistress willed it, the massive youma brought his prey down from the chain-length fence mercilessly. Between the beast's teeth and in the twisted metal, ribbons of filthy denim and chunks of flesh were caught. Groaning on the ground, another man lay supine and teetering at the edge of consciousness, blood matting his hair and plastering it against damaged skull.
Moonstone rested the head of her weapon to the concrete, admiring the red that glazed the razor edges and festooned Crow's breast. The man on the ground was not a worry, it was the one screaming in Wasgo's jaws that she had to contend with before they were done for the night. Two starseeds to go atop the massive amounts of energy she'd drained. Being a general made it disgustingly easy.
She didn't even have to touch her prey anymore.
Metallia gave as many gifts as she took. Wasgo creaked like an old ship at sea, as familiar a sound as the blubbering and screaming from the victim being tossed rag-doll like and bloody at her feet. Her expression never changed, no warning given as she whipped her weapon around to sink one of the bladed wings deeply into yielding flesh, hauling him close to reach already bloody fingers into his chest. "Give me your star, a dull thing like you doesn't need it."
Wasgo nosed at the other man and swept his tongue over the battered body, eliciting a pained sound and spasmodic twitching.
Lithiasaur
Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 8:08 pm
Syrie
Camelot felt the aura and moved toward it on instinct. His patrols had taken him a little farther from his usual area tonight, but it was a good thing in many ways. Perhaps it was known to not patrol around his stomping grounds, thus making encounters with the negaverse a rarer thing. While it seemed positive on the surface, it only meant they were hunting elsewhere. He had to move with them, to protect the city to the best of his ability.
And as a Royal Knight, that was a big job.
He barely took a moment to digest the scene at hand before he called his massive shield to his arm. It was almost as tall as he was, made of shimmering silver and gold metals, with a large red dragon emblazoned on its front, its wings outstretched and arching upward to complete the top of the shield. Its eye glinted green even in the darkness, the power of the Terra Viridis crystal stored inside.
That was not the power he opted to call on in this moment, though, instead using his knight magic. A barrier outstretched from him as he slammed his shield down in front of him, coming to a stop not far from the General and her pet monster. The barrier pushed anything Chaos from the area, leaving the bodies on the ground where they had fallen and shoving both youma and General a few feet away from them.
He walked forward as the barrier faded, standing over the civilians with his shield in front of him. He was not stooping behind it, though, standing tall and glaring at the familiar Negaverse soldier angrily.
"I would send your pet home," he growled, angered by the wasted life at his feet. He doubted the other one would last that long, if he was still alive, judging from all the blood. "Unless you want me to destroy it."
Camelot was not an attack-first sort of knight, but his will to protect was strong and he would not let a violent General run amok. He knew very well what they were capable of, as tainted by Chaos as they usually were at this point in their 'careers'.
Bright and bitter across the back of her tongue came the Order aura, then came the Knight, larger than life and twice as blinding. He is no ordinary Knight, by that aura. Moonstone's eyes narrowed, the fine hairs of her nape standing on end as she took in Camelot before her: Grey hair, chain mail. Tower shield. Earth knight insignia. He moved gingerly on one leg - an old injury, perhaps? There was something almost familiar about him, but the Haida general couldn't quite put it to mind, the connection there and gone like quicksilver fish flitting about running stream bed.
At her side, Wasgo stood alert with massive head down. The beast held a low growling rumble within it's deep, barrel breast - a sound that rose in pitch and fervor when the Knight addressed the beast's mistress. The barrier magic that expelled them did nothing to save the dead civilian, nor the rapidly dying one either. Moonstone held a defensive position, her totem axe held before her to block the magic's effect from touching her directly and said something in a low singsong language to her youma that caused it to retreat to a flanking position.
"I am Moonstone and I take no orders from colonizer men, much less pretenders to the Throne like yourself, Knight." She straightened slightly, shifting her weight forward slightly. "You will regret stepping into Metallia's business, Earth knight."
The barrier faded, she felt the magic disappear - the pressure keeping her away lessen - and whistled sharply, twice. Wasgo bellowed and charged Camelot from the left while Moonstone teleported behind him and took the right; she swung her weapon silently and with great finesse, counterpoint to the mayhem and ruckus that Wasgo was causing for his approach. Neither would turn aside nor slow their attack, both were fully committed.
Although she may not have joined with a royal knight in battle before to make that particular energy signature part of her powered lexicon, the sheer auric magnitude told the Haida general all that she needed to know about the man before her: he was Dangerous to the Negaverse. He was worth stopping. At almost any cost.
And short of permanently losing Wasgo, she was willing to pay such a price.
Some things were simply too precious to lose, even for someone as dedicated to Metallia as she.
Lithiasaur
Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 12:40 pm
Syrie
"I am pretender to nothing. I am a Royal Knight, servant to White Moon, and all those that fight for Order. I exist to be in your Metallia's business, to stop it. And monsters like you."
Maybe it was old bitterness seeping into his tone, but he found his heart thundering in his ears, hot and uneven in its frantic pace. It was very difficult not to let memories long forgotten suddenly rush forward, old fears and anger fighting for attention in the back of his mind. But no, he was here to stop this danger from causing any more damage tonight, and nothing more than that.
Camelot lifted his shield and felt the impact of Moonstone's wicked looking weapon as it slammed against the thick metal. He had given her warning about her youma, and let it charge him, holding up his armored arm and elbow to block its teeth as it charged. He first had to distance himself from one of the combatants, and since Moonstone had the misfortune of being at his shield, she was the one to get the taste of the crystal nestled inside it.
"Terra Viridis Crystal Power!" He called, and the eyes of the dragon lit up ferociously. A beam of green light burst forward, slamming into Moonstone with her ax still in contact with his shield. Though it did not cause physical damage, the power of the crystal was to cause pain to anything it touched, lighting nerve endings almost on fire in intensity. It was not a long lasting effect, but it was certainly terrible in its few moments.
Not something Camelot liked using, really.
"I warned you!" He yelled, turning to slam his shield into the youma now that he had a chance to. He would have to dust the thing, though it was always a shame when he knew youma could be purified. He tried not to think of his half youma friend, but of the duty at hand. "I gave you and this beast a chance!"
Pedantic, words coming from the leather-clad Knight with the bags under his eyes. He was so concerned with her verbiage, with being called what he was - what everyone in these lands were - that he immediately stooped to calling her a monster, as though he were something better, purer.
As though anything separated them but an invisible line drawn in the sand and Metallia's sweet kiss.
"She is not my Metallia, I am Hers, False One."Royal Knight? What is that? Like the bloated princes and princesses growing fat amonst the senshi ranks? Another useless creature to be crushed by it's own ego? Or will it actually have use? Being covered in Arthurian chain and leather meant nothing to whether he could actually fight or not, nor did his shield with it's glowering, emerald-eyed dragon make statement to Moonstone other than 'I am here, I am loud, I am a target' so she would not hold her breath.
Wasgo's massive jaws closed around Camelot's arm with the biting force of an alligator, the heavy wood-like structures that made up his magical composition locking down to crush the armor-encased limb. It was tough metal, but he regularly devoured pieces of minivans, lamp posts, and other metallic sundries - very little could stand against the youma's powerful jaws for long.
'Terra Viridis Crystal Power!' Words Moonstone had never heard before - words she would never forget - sent magic coursing through her body, setting nerves aflame. The Haida general screamed in rage and agony, high and keening as shock coursed through her body -- it was not the worst pain she'd been in, but it was up there. Having lava touch her skin had been worse, possibly. Moonstone couldn't quite remember, but her body did - it told her this wasn't the nadir of pain she could experience, that it would end, that she should be ready.
When Camelot went after Wasgo, the woman's wail became a snarl. "I'll kill you--"
Wasgo, hearing it's Mistress in distress, had begun shaking Camelot so that his ability to strike with the shield was less than perfect; a glancing blow was taken by the youma, but the beast did not relinquish it's hold. Instead it raked a claw at the human in it's jaws, trying to tear at the armor, at the shield, to render the Awful Man easier prey for Mistress.
"Your chance is to submit or die, Pretender!" Recovering further but still unsteady and white-knuckling her weapon, Moonstone licked her lips at Camelot. He would pay for daring to dream of hurting Wasgo. The blood in her own mouth meant nothing against the gouges the Knight had put in Wasgo's beautiful markings. "Wasgo, release--" The youma worked in perfect tandem with the general, letting go of Camelot just in time for Moonstone to leap in with her blade again, swinging it to slam into the already weakened armor of the Knight's chewed arm.
Lithiasaur
changed my formatting so only her text is red to make it easier to pick out since there's a lot of internal monologue going on xD
