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 Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:01 pm
Ruuvan loosened and tightended his grip on the swords, stopping at the entrance to turn around and face the woman with a smaller smile on his face. With only one eye, it was harder to get emotion through in ways people could see, so he relied on talking to get the messages across.
"Yea, I'm going in there... is there a reason I shouldn't?" He had halted his entrance into the mine, but he hadn't relinquished his grip on the swords nor his constant awareness to the situation; she was too beautiful a woman to not be here without a stronger reason, "As far as it being boring goes, that's what I'm going to find out." Ruu figured she was hiding her true intetions, if not her true appearance, so he did the same to his own. Of course, carrying weapons and looking like you're ready to jump anything that comes close wouldn't hold his story that well; who just 'checks something out' armed in such a manner? Aside from the US Marines!
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Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:19 pm
She nodded, that same sweet, neutral smile on her face. Her demeanor was neither here, nor there- she was just observing and finding all this quite uneventful. So she bowed playfully to Ruuvan and shook her head in a negative at the same time.
"Of course not. What you do with your time in that cave is your own decision. I'm not here to question it- I'm just here to look around. Maybe we'll see each other back in town... if we do, how about we talk a bit more? I could definitely use some company."
She began walking away and waved farewell to the man. "You come back safe, okay?" Then she turned back towards the city and headed towards whatever residence was there. If Ruu turned towards the cave, and yet looked back to find her...
She would be gone. Completely vanished from his line of sight.
He should have seen her still running back towards town, wanting to get away from all this boring-ness... right?
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 5:13 am
With nothing else left to say, what with his bases being suitably covered, Ruuvan turned to head into the caves once more, only to hear her say something else and take steps away from him. He turned to say goodbye in return only to see nothing but the trail he had walked up, so where the hell did she go? Considering he had something to do and time was a factor of his contract, Ruu shook this thought from his mind and proceeded into the caverns, constantly aware of what was going on and ready for anything that might jump out at him.
"Heaven forbid these jobs happen in a nice open area." Ruu wasn't claustrophobic, but he did wish that he could get a change of scenery in his work.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:32 am
And it wasn't that long before the mining caverns got darker... and darker... He wouldn't reach any sort of light source until further in, and that was quite a ways from both the entrance... and the surface. This was when something he hopefully brought with him would come in handy... Equipment Alert NightVisor- a light-amplification visor that activates upon a certain deprivation of light particles in the area, thus shedding a light of its own via an internal battery and a non-harmful lighting source inside the top frame of the visor. It is a special piece of equipment that fits over the eyes and acts like night vision goggles, save for the fact that they're not as cumbersome. The same visor comes equipped in the SWAT helmets that RI produces and have the same biometrics and targeting systems. tracking vital signs and possible signs of movement in an area via nanocircuitry within the eyepiece itself and not the frame. If he had them, they'd come in handy right about now.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:39 am
Ruuvan's elven blood couldn't keep him seeing in the darkness for that long, not to mention the deeper he got the worse the light became, thus leading to him needing the equipment RI had supplied him with. Of course, night vision goggles were always a good choice for sucha reas, but the NightVisor that lay in a small satchel on his right hip would definitely make things easier. Stopping where he was, though still able to see slightly, Ruu placed one of his swords against the cavern wall and slipped said equipment over his eyes, after turning it on ofcourse. The cavern suddenly came back to life as he was able to see things previously hidden, not to mention the funky HUD that he could now see. Taking a few moments to let his eye focus, Ruu picked the sword back up and cotinued to venture further into the cave, navigating his way closer to the centre as he went. It was surely only a matter of time before the warm up group made themselves known.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:47 am
And it wasn't long before they did come, too... he would hear the noise of skittering legs before the readout warned him of two readings on the radar. Two white targeting circles would end up on the creatures, which looked more like oversized crabs.
Oversized crabs that didn't like to have their sleep disturbed.
Huge pincers that could break ribs and fracture one's spine without much of a second thought. A shell that was quite hard to crack. And it was not only their legs that made the chittering noise- it was the noise they made, period.
Creepy.
One of them lashed out at Ruuvan with one of the humongous claws, but as soon as the visor picked up the hint of movement to strike from the muscles, the targeting reticles on both crabs turned yellow... Warning.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:01 am
Before the crabs made themselves known, and before the visor had shown him the targets, he could hear the chittering and quickly turned to face the two appearing crablike creatures. Another movement and another change on his visor; both targets turning yellow and a side window showing the crabs planned move on the side - these things were awesome. Having seen the crab intended to severe his legs in one way or another, Ruu moved to the left to allow the claw to pass, but that would allow it to sweep back and knock him off his feet if he didn't do anything. So, having the upper hand of knowing the creature's move, Ruu used his right sword in a downward slash in order to severe the arm off the crab. This would be possible due to the simple fact these swords were created by Dante Decker, and not only that, but he had trained with them everyday and had managed to get a pretty damned powerful strike.
Alongside this strike to severe the crab's claw, Ruu used his left sword in a stabbing move in an attempt to pierce the top of the crab's shell and perhaps get to the brain of this creature. He wasn't undead or elven yet, but knowing the move the crab would make alongside his strength and skill with a Decker blade, he could only hope it would work.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:13 am
The claw, being a weak joint support anyway despite its strength, was debilitated. The head however was a different story. sparks flew as the weapon hit the shell, and it scraped forward instead of inward. As said before, these were some tough nuts to crack.
The other crab made a somewhat ingelligent move and circled around behind Ruuvan, but not before the visor could pick up its movement. A slight beep sounded, warning him of a target exiting the field of vision. It was behind him, and would grab without hesitation towards his torso, making an attempt to crush a few ribs in the process. Meanwhile, with his sword kept busy, the other crab was open to carve towards his left leg with the other, still unused claw.
The reticle, along with the arrow that pointed downwards to indicate that the other target was behind him, turned red. No longer obstacles... enemies.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:32 am
With his sword scraping along the shell and not penetrating, but with the first claw successfully evaded, Ruuvan was left with little choice as the other crab circled around to his rear; he was now surrounded in the confined space. There was little he could do, what with two attacks coming from different directions, so he'd have to get out of the line of fire before making any large decisions.
With his second attack failing, leaving him in perfect mobility with no weapons stuck in any part of the creature, Ruuvan was able to push himself over the front crab, using its hard shell as a higher surface to roll over and then land on the other side. He didn't bother catching himself, he instead fell to the ground and was given a perfect view of the crab's underside. Months of eating seafood taught him this was the fleshy bit, so he took one sword and thrust it straight into the body, from stern to tip, hopefully rupturing many organs and killing the first crab. With that done, he rolled back a bit and scrambled to his feet, preparing for the other crab to assault if the first died.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:54 am
CRACK
The quite loud sound of the claws missing their marks rang through the confined tunnels as Ruuvan made a roll over the shell of the crab in front. Unfortunately, this sound was enough to bring out more of their buddies, beady eyes gleaming slightly in the already low light to watch who would eat whom and if there'd be any left for them.
The awnser was confirmed somewhat when Ruuvan had landed a successful hit on the crab that he was now behind. With a nice, sickening crunch and a violent shudder, the crab died. Unfortunately, the other one was quick to respond, and as the man was recovering, it skittered over its fallen comrade, claws already lashing out at his crouched form.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:59 am
One crab down and an unknown number to go, but the one that had just climbed over its fallen comrade and was now coming towards him was the problem. Already being in a crouched form, thus having tension in his legs, Ruuvan used his already backwards momentum of rolling over the crab, and the spring effects in his legs, to launch himself in a backflip as the crab approached him. He flew high and remained in place, but the attacking claws flew straight under him, as did the rest of the crab. In the midst of his backflip, with the claws safely past and the main body coming, Ruuvan used his speed and strength to slash out with his remaining sword in an upward arch that followed his flip. This would bring the sword from below the crab's claws and hopefully up through its face, killing it in the process. Regardless of whether or not the best died, Ruu would follow up by landing on the crab.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:07 am
And then its face was cut in half, sparks flying from the ridge of the shell that protected the top of the head. The crab slowed... then shook a few times before dropping to the ground with a thud as Ruuvan landed on its back.
They came down from their hidey-holes immediately after that... but they didn't seem to be after Ruuvan. They were after the "food" that was pretty much ready for them. But if he didn't move and move now, their attention would happily split between their meal... and making him their meal.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:12 am
And so it was done. Both crabs now lay in pools of their own blood, if you could call it that, and were no longer within the realm of the living. It took a few moments for the other creatures to make themselves known and head towards the corpses, so Ruu used this time to grab his sword from the first crab before taking off further into the cave as fast as those legs would carry him; he was not about to die or be eaten in this god forsaken hell hole. Ruuvan kept an eye out for anything that moved and continued to navigate his way further into the centre of the cave, thinking briefly about how deep this cavern actually ran and how many more creatures he would have to get through.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:22 am
Of course, there were other dangers in the caverns besides the monstrosities. The legendary water dragons, Leviathans, swam within the channels down here. of course, they were completely harmless... but other things were not. The crabs for example- their nest went along these caverns and tunnelways for miles...
However, it was not just that. There were things down here that defied explination...
Like the giants that still roamed around. The seven foot tall brutes were ugly, strong, and quite sick in the head. Big fists, bigger swords, and roars that could shake the foundations of the cave to collapse. When he heard one, it was best to move in another direction....
Though how these giants still existed when Jotunheim -the world of giants- was no more was odd... very odd indeed. Still, it was best to evade these monstrosities for the moment. The only ones who could take those on were the Aesir or Vanir that still existed.
There were few of them left these days...
In any event, he would soon come to the underground channels, and a bit of light as well, though it was all terribly dim. Thus, he still needed the NightVisor. However, he would notice that they all seemed to travel in one direction... as if drawn to something.
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:22 pm
Ruuvan heard many strange noises down certain shafts as he continued on his vnetures into the centre of the network, but he decided against going to find out was making such noises and moved away from them until he was posed with something rather strange; he had been going underground since he first entered and now light was flooding some sort of channel, smoothly warn away by obvious tides that came in and out of these places, and he couldn't find anywhere else to go except down them. They had signs of age, showing that these caverns had been around longer than the newly dug ones, but something about them held great power. Needless to say he continued down them, waiting for the legendary warrior of one of the lower entities to show themselves.
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