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 Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 11:01 am
Chris stepped closer to Jack and Chel as he summoned Ava, clearly readying himself to jump in as shield. He watched the figure warily. Couldn't see eyes, couldn't see hands. He had a feeling he wouldn't need to. Cloaks hid monsters.
"It's going to lie."
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 12:37 pm
"Uhhh ..." the figure stuttered, putting his hands up in retreat. "My intention? There isn't one, I guess." The cloak came off and the the person underneath looked ... remarkably normal. Black messy hair, somewhere around 20 years old maybe. He could have easily passed for a hunter, if that hunter was cosplaying maybe.
"So you're a reaper?" she asked him. "Necromancer?"
The figure nodded.
s**t. He just seemed like a normal Halloweener causing FEAR like he was supposed to. Had there not been earthquakes and discrepancies, Chel might have left him alone. "Why are you kidnapping people?" she said sternly, arrow still drawn and ready to fire.
"What? I haven't taken anybody. I've been down here with my conduits the whole time."
Chel squinted suspiciously.
"Honest!"
Chel didn't like the idea of shooting someone who wasn't putting up a resistance. He could have easily called his dragon or the beetle to come help but he hadn't. The bow lowered. Still drawn, but not threat of death. "What's on the altar?"
"Armor. Maybe. You touch it and-" Now he looked somewhat offput. "I don't have to tell you anything." Chel flashed a look at the twosome. That sounded like an artifact alright. Unfortunately the necromancer caught the look too. "It's not yours."
There was an awkward moment of silence as both parties acknowledged the facts. Both of them wanted the artifact and there wasn't going to be a way to compromise like originally intended.
The dragon roared somewhere in the cavern and the entire thing shook once more. It was one thing to hear the creature from thousands of feet away. It was another to have it bellowing loudly near you. The entire sound rattled through their bodies, and it froze everyone in the clearing, save for the necromancer. He dissipated in a shadowy burst of darkness and disappeared down the side of the cliff.
The element of surprise was lost, considering once they were free from the stun, the beetle was taking flight and headed towards the three of them. Who the hell knew where the dragon was.
"s**t," Chel called. She didn't take responsibility of the other two, impulsively sliding down the rocks to try to catch up to the necromancer. In a way, the plan was still in tact. She knew he was the key to shutting this situation down. Chel disappeared under the treeline instantly, but the pink glow of her bow could still be traced for a short time.
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 11:57 pm
Lie or not, at least they would get something out of the cause of all these issues--although it seemed adamant about taking people. Given the look the reaper gave them at the mention of the artifact, Jack could suppose it truly was only interested in the item rather than the Fear. Maybe. With that many "conduits", however...
And then they were at odds anyway, and without the element of surprise to boot. s**t. He thought to follow after Chel, but already the beetle was closing in, and knowing their luck, the rest would soon follow suit. A get away into the jungle and a switch to guerilla tactics? Not likely, the beetle at the very least had a bead on them and flight was faster than their legs. Head on assault it was.
Glancing at Chris to get a read as to whether he was staying or going, he then grasped the zweihander with both hands and braced himself for a collision. There was a high chance the beetle's outer carapace would be solid as s**t--he targeted its underside whenever he could to test the theory.
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 7:11 pm
It was more unsettling that he looked normal, honestly. While he wasn't a raging homicidal a*****e about halloween, unlike some hunters, he wasn't nearly as comfortable with them as Chel. His shielding arm was so tense it almost hurt as he listened to them.
"I don't believe him," he reiterated as the reaper denied kidnapping. He felt justified when the man started hiding information.
The roar caused him to stagger so hard his arm dropped a bit, but he glanced back at Jack. He was here to stay, clearly. He analyzed Jack's stance and moved to the side, and when the beetle came flying past he gave it's side a hard shove with his pata that probably really only hurt Chris's arm, but it at least tilted the beetle enough that it's belly was an easier target.
"Gut that ******** thing!"
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:19 pm
Chase
Trees and trees and trees. Chel struggled not to fall over rotten logs and nursing ferns, and it didn't help that the necromancer could shadowstep out of her way. Pretty soon she was lost in a tangle of greenery and heavy breathing.
And she was alone.
She stopped to catch her breath, leaning on a tree. She could hear the sounds of battle- it was hard to ignore with the monsters shaking the cave with every footstep- but she had to focus on their mission's goal. Jack and Chris both knew if they needed to pendant out, they could. She would do the same.
Tenebrae was summoned for a single moment, only enough to use his added ability; slightly heightened eyesight was useful when you needed to find something. It wasn't enough to tell where it was (it wasn't x-ray vision after all), but it was enough to tell her where the foliage thickened. Since she needed to find the center of the forest and that altar, that would be her goal. Undoubtedly the necromancer would be there waiting for her, but what was one reaper.
Her weapon disappeared for better maneuverability and she took off at a brisk pace. In the back of her mind she was worried about Jack and Chris, but she had to rely on their abilities.
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:25 pm
Monster Hunter
Believe him, he tried. For a moment the belly seemed to give when Jack drove his sword in. But maybe the leverage wasn't enough, or maybe he hadn't put just enough force in, or maybe the Fear shield it had was keeping him from skewering it. In any case, his sword was rebuffed as the beetle fell forward, forcing them to roll or throw themselves out of the way.
And then they heard another roar pierce the air.
"Oh, great, now the ******** dragon is interested too."
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:29 pm
Monster Hunter
Chris took a dive out of the way, pulling Jack with him. The beetle seemed to stutter in the air, confused as the roar sounded and its targets disappeared. It didn't hesitate long before turning on them again.
"Don't worry about the dragon yet get the ******** beetle out of the air. I can't do s**t when it's flying." He pushed himself off the ground, throwing a look over his shoulder at where the dragon noises were coming from. He said not to worry, but he was a hypocrite. "Come on come on, we gotta do this fast."
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:41 pm
Monster Hunter
"I know," he said testily. When the beetle rushed him again, it didn't bother trying to avoid his sword swing; it was almost as if it knew its carapace was a solid form of safety. Even with Chris taking the brunt of the charge, Jack nearly fell over in the wake of the wind dragging behind the giant insect.
And it was smart enough to try and herd them towards the edge of the outcropping to boot.
The constant wingbeats thrummed against his eardrums to the point that he could barely think. He had half a mind to just chuck his sword at the ******** thing.
"Any ideas?" he asked Chris, eye twitching.
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:49 pm
Monster Hunter
He felt like a punching bag. Or he would, if beetles had fists, he supposed. Point was, he was getting thrown around like a rag doll, and he wasn't particularly happy about it.
He shuffled sideways, trying to avoid giving up too much ground to the beetle. Ideas? He glanced around at the resources available. Which pretty much amounted to just trees. But he could...
"No good ones," he snorted, "but we're gonna try it anyways." He grabbed on to the trunk of the neared sturdy looking tree and began to climb as quickly as he could. "Lure it this way!"
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:01 pm
Monster Hunter
Chris got a strange look, but he wasn't going to spend time asking what ploy was being concocted. Luckily, the beetle's attention was easy to engage when you were the one with an unnecessarily pointy metal toothpick and a handy height to fly at. More than a few times, Jack had to almost throw himself to the ground to avoid getting either bowled over or snatched up in passing.
He threw a look over his shoulder as he caught his breath and yelled, "Better work!" as they drew closer and closer. The insect didn't at all seem perturbed that trees might become an obstacle--it could probably knock them aside. What was Chris going to do, jump on it?
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:10 pm
Monster Hunter
Why yes, Jack. That's exactly what he was going to do.
He waited for it to be close enough that he wouldn't fall to his death and then launched himself off the tree. Impact with the beetle's back was enough to rattle his teeth, but he quickly found a place at the front of it's thorax to grab on tight. <********, ********, ********."
He needed to get it to land so he could figure out what the ******** to do from here. He was close enough to see that the top of the head, right between the eyes, lacked any protection. He slammed the hard plates of his weapon into the soft spot repeatedly until, thankfully, the beetle tumbled out of the air and landed on the ground. Chris barely managed not to be thrown off.
"Chris Axten, Giant Gross ******** Beetle a*****e Tamer!"
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:23 pm
Monster Hunter
Oh god ******** ********. Jack hurtled away as the beetle made one final landing, just in case. Sword up, he approached and squinted suspiciously, expecting the beetle to launch itself at any moment and throw Chris off.
"Tell it to roll over, then, so I can exterminate the b***h," he said as another roar echoed in the cavern. It sounded closer.
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:41 pm
Monster Hunter
Chris opened his mouth to respond, then snapped it closed. The could kill the beetle.. or...
"I don't want to. I wanna keep it."
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 8:12 pm
Monster Hunter
Jack gave him an incredulous look. "Are you ******** serious right now? This isn't a ******** pet store, Axten, so either get out of the way, or you'll get skewered too."
And he was marching forward to make due with his threat when something slashed his arm in passing and crashed nearby. Grunting, he whirled around and saw what looked like a large, cracked bone sticking out of the ground. Above and incoming: a skeleton dragon. The mystery was solved soon thereafter, as it flung its tail like a ship and unleashed several more spines off the vertebra at them.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:56 pm
Chase
Somewhere crouched behind a boulder and hiding her breathing, Chel's "my cousin is being a dumbass" senses were tingling.
--
She peered out from behind the rock. The figure was nowhere to be seen, but a chipped plate of metal was. Armor my a**, Chel thought bitterly. She'd been hoping for something dramatically cool, not this scrap of nothing.
< Remain vigilant. >
The necromancer appeared and Chel pounced. She scrambling to the top of the boulder and released a barrage of shots, one after the other. They weren't aiming for accuracy, they were meant for a shrapnel attempt.
The arrows sliced through the air, the stone dais behind where the reaper had been standing.
She felt a sharp pain in her back and then nothing at all.
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