When the beast did not, in fact, try to chase her as a target, Leifite was honestly almost relieved. It would have probably taken her out in a heartbeat with one of those legs. New orders filtered in, namely get the hell out of the Rift, and Leifite was not going to say no to that.
She took a swipe at some roaming youma and booked it.
He squished some youma under his feet as he charged through the fray, tail swatting more behind him. Haymitch never really reached Xenia; at the mention of 'youmafied officers' over the coms he came to a stop and actually looked at himself.
... O...ohhhh... that ah. That made sense. He was a youma now. A very big, very scary cat youma with a very nasty looking tail. He probably didn't even look anything like ---
A paw slapped his head and came away empty.
"MY HAAAAAAATTTTTTTT"
Strickenized generated a random number between
10 and 25 ...
16!
Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2021 11:55 am
Quote:
Youma Whim HP: 7448/10,000 (-530) Notes: Despite being so bulky, it seems this youma is at the end of its energy stores.
The brunt of their youma problem descended for the bottom of the crag with the dropped starseed. Droves of them pushed off from various paths, causing a handful of the treacherous walkways to crack and fall. Quetzacoatl, Viridian, Gemini and others each left their more familiar officers for the starseed. Violent things darted this way and that, fell like a waterfall toward the very basin. A handful of Lieutenants and Basics could not avoid these violent creatures and were carried off to their fates below.
Apart from a stubborn dozen, and those who were dusted by the Negaverse's pushback, most of the youma had now left the area. Once again, the beleaguered and battered Negaverse faced their target, and their target shrieked shrill again to call its allies back. Naught but a couple came; the rest were too absorbed in their hunt for a fresh starseed.
Weakened and wearied by repeated attacks, carapace gored and battered by numerous Negaverse weapons and senshi magic, the target youma gathered its remaining strength to push forward. While it could not be fast, it could be foreboding; the creature loomed as it bore down on the closer agents. With another shout, clawed at any in its path, striking only a handful of agents, and sending debris toward a couple more.
Those who were first youmafied would find their bodies reverting to normal. The scale entrenched in them, now dulled, would fall to the ground and crumble into a black, nameless solid. They were free from the scales' abilities — until they were hit again. And those who were newly afflicted would, if they looked around, learn that their fates weren't permanent. But that was small solace in the face of impending death.
The cliff held fast by a small, unbroken chunk. Any strike to the cliffside will cause it to fall, though it may just do so on its own if left alone.
For every agent that wasn't exhausted, three more were. Their forces dwindled, but their stock of scales grew. By Jet's call, it was time to leave.
Quote:
Event-wide damage to characters has ended. Characters have taken a total of 22 event-wide damage. Character-specific damage will continue, largely dished out by errant youma. Whim is approaching and will still shoot scales if attacked.
Atheneite, Taenite, Lilith and Lionel take 16 damage.
Captains and Generals who are trying to escape, roll 1d6. Your Captain or General is calling whatever dregs of youma that remain in order to get back down from the cliffside. The number you roll is the number of youma that answered your General's call. Each youma can carry up to 3 people (player characters take precedence over the unknown number of NPCs). There are 38 39 (didn't realize I never counted Kamacite) PCs to account for. This is the last prompt — obtain freedom!
Anyone else who is trying to escape, your damage rolls must outpace the number that I rolled. Exceeding that number gets you a gold star. Falling short of that number means that the difference is divided as evenly as possible among agents, rounded up (with Generals taking any odd/leftover amounts).
Anyone trying to drop the cliffside, this is still possible — however, you cannot roll to attack the cliffside and also roll to attack the youma. Please specify that you are attacking the cliff if that is your target. I will assume any other damage affects the encroaching youma.
Lastly, if your character picked up one or more scales, please put [Name] acquired scales! at the top of your post. These will get tallied later.
Sylvite kept her eyes on the large youma until it seemed that some of the others were beginning to get away from it, and then she glanced away. She hadn't been lying when she'd said that she was going to be at the back. She wasn't trying to be all self sacrificial.
She glanced towards the cliffs, keeping an eye on how many people were in that space, getting away.
That was when she saw it. It was a monkey youma, one of the ones that had helped carry her team up to the caves back before everything had started falling apart. Another one stepped out from behind it. How there were two monkey youma.
It was like she remembered all at once that the youma could be nice.
Getting away from the tired, oversized centipede, she called out to the monkeys, "Hey! Help us out again, okay?"
She waved an arm at the surrounding agents. "Some of these people are hurt, we're gonna need help climbing again."
General Aquamarine HP: 66/100 Youma Called: 1 (3 characters out!) Lovely again; managed to command a single youma. Great job, Aqua.
Jet was furious. Aquamarine could sense it clear as day. Jet wasn’t often furious, didn’t teem with anger the way Aquamarine did — not anymore, not now that he was grown and fixated on his duty — so when it rose up, bubbled to the surface and begged for release, Aquamarine knew. It was in Jet’s eyes, in the tense set of his shoulders, in the grip of his hand around his weapon, in his voice, not as noticeable to others when he spoke, but Aquamarine knew what pitch to listen for.
The mission did it. The starseeds, the agents who didn’t listen, couldn’t wait for orders, acted on their own instead of as a unit, ******** things up for the rest of them. But Faustite did it, too, testing Jet’s patience whether he meant to or not.
Aquamarine would have snapped at him, snarled at him, gone after him for Jet’s sake, but Faustite was there and gone again before more time could be wasted, and the overwhelming herd of youma began to lessen, chasing a starseed down below.
Then Aquamarine twitched and groaned. His skin, grey-tinged and decaying, seemed to heal. His claws became nails again. The scale that once embedded itself into his shoulder fell to the ground.
He was himself again.
Aquamarine had only a moment to bask in relief. He looked at his hands, patted his uniform, touched his face, reassured himself that he was human, that he would not be stuck here, living out the rest of his days in misery. He looked at Jet, wild-eyed with the realization that they could leave together, that all would be as it was, almost threw himself at Jet in a single uninhibited moment of happiness, but the Rift was neither the time nor the place, and Jet, no matter how relieved he might be, too, was still furious.
Offering a brief, comforting touch to Jet’s arm, Aquamarine sneered, “Scurrilous. Who the ******** even talks like that?”
He summoned his rapier, dropped who knew where when the change came upon him, tossed about when the scene grew chaotic. The hilt was sturdy in his hand, the weight of it comforting. With it returned, his focus was restored. There was still the mission. Survival would be easier with less youma to contend with, but they still had to get off these ******** pathways.
Aquamarine managed to wrangle a single youma under his command — some sort of giant lizard with bulging eyes and a lolling tongue.
It would have to do.
“Take it,” he told some lower ranking officers in the vicinity. “Get on. Go.”
Aquamarine would leave when Jet left, and no sooner.
Whatever Kamacite had expected, it hadn’t been the sound of his name being called. He had his hands out, prepared to send off another of his attacks, even as his energy was getting dangerously low after using his magic a few times by now. But he looked up in surprise when General Lopezite appeared and then helped him up with an arm around his waist.
He had no idea where Cymophane had gone. He had no idea where Faustite was, or if they’d been able to get to safety on their own. Many of the youma seemed to be clearing from the paths, and he let out a panicked yelp when one of the pathways near where they were standing started to crumble from the weight of the youma on it. He clung tightly to Lopezite’s arm and shoulder out of instinct, urging him to quickly move away from where the ground was no longer safe.
But…
“Thank you,” he said politely, and a little frantically, barely audible above the roar of the noise around them. He knew that he was going to end up causing Lopezite and whomever else he was with only more trouble. Lopezite was better off trying to get out on his own. Or with those who weren’t injured like he was. Kamacite knew that his fate was likely bleak, but he would rather that than someone else get killed on his account. He’d volunteered for this, knowing he would be used as bait and the outcome might not be a good one.
“I-- I’ll just slow you down. My arm. I can’t climb,” he quickly tried to explain, even as he willingly went wherever Lopezite was leading. Back to a half-youma Captain? Kamacite stared at her for a moment and felt his face flush with color, and quickly unhooked his fingers from digging into the fabric of Lopezite’s clothing. He looked up at the General as well, still trying not to panic about what to do.
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Thank you for saving him crying
Shanyume
Sorry, he's a bit shy sweatdrop (no rush, I just didn't want you to have to post Laven standing around and waiting!)
Guine rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4Total: 4 (1-6)
Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:37 pm
Captain Bloodstone HP: 53/75 4 youma summoned (12 people can escape!) Bloodstone acquired scales!
Bloodstone worked his way through the throng of youma, avoiding claws and teeth as best he could, but still getting a bite on his leg and something that melted his uniform in places hit his shoulder.
By the time he reached Carnallite, he certainly wasn’t in the mood for jokes. As if he ever was. “I do, actually,” he frowned at her, and then looked around so he could see who was left. The group seemed to be joining together, which made them an easier target, but also helped to get everyone lined up to escape.
Since he was a Captain, and could actually do some of the same things a General could, despite Carnallite’s lack of faith, he summoned up four youma that looked like they were some kind of aardvark with mutated feet made specifically for climbing up or down the rocks.
“Get on,” he glowered at her, and quickly looked around for Roselite to try and make sure he was getting on a youma as well. The faster they got out of there, the better.
Sunshine Alouette
Guine
Crew
Lonely Explorer
Offline
Sunshine Alouette
Eternal Senshi
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Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:37 pm
Corrupt Cymophane HP: 16/50 No longer a cat boy Cymophane acquired scales!
On the ground, watching Reidite turn into a maned beast, Cymophane didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so he settled for doing neither.
He scrambled up onto his feet, about to chase after Reidite, stop him from doing anything foolish, but the scale embedded into his face dislodged. Cymophane groaned, tried and failed to catch it as it fell. He stumbled as he reverted back to himself; the scale clattered to the ground, ugly and harmless looking. Not quite panic-stricken, but edging in that direction, Cymophane brought his hands to his face. No whiskers. No fur. He was maybe a little scraped up, but nothing that should leave any permanent scarring.
With a delighted cheer, Cymophane bent down to retrieve the black scale that struck him, and a healthy looking one near it. That was the mission, after all.
Then, waving an arm around to get his attention, Cymophane called, “Reidite!”
The amount of youma in the area was decreasing — some thanks to Reidite barreling through, but most were busy chasing a starseed prize.
Cymophane covered the hole in his chest and avoided a few stragglers, approaching the youma that was Reidite without fear.
He spun around to show off the loss of cat ears and tail.
Guine
Guine rolled 1 6-sided dice:
6Total: 6 (1-6)
Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2021 6:00 pm
General Jet HP: 78/100 Youma summoned: 6 (5 sent to the group for 15 people, and he's keeping his personal youma, Arles, with him and Aquamarine to escape on at the end + 1 other person if they're lagging behind)
Jet visibly bristled, his eyes wide with rising ire and teeth clenched tight at Faustite’s comments.
But there was no time for him to bark a retort at Faustite’s receding form. How did Faustite expect to lead the mission if he kept going off and doing his own thing, and he didn’t even have a communicator! Jet sure as hell wasn’t about to hand his over to get melted!
He knew that there were others still around him, still waiting on his, or Faustite’s orders. Just as the order to retreat were repeated words from Faustite himself. And he knew a breakdown of command was not going to benefit any of them.
“Stick close with the group, but hold off until you get the signal from General Faustite,” he turned to Lionel since Faustite was apparently only going to be vague and then ******** off. His voice was as calm as it could be, given the situation, but his eyes flashed dangerously.
It was the worst ******** response he could think of, but despite Faustite apparently having a lower opinion of him than he realized, Jet never forgot that it was Faustite who was leading the mission.
To Nembus, he lifted his communicator to respond, “Great job. General Faustite heard, so don’t worry about trying to find him. That means you need to get out in one piece, understood? Stay close to the others. I’m going to summon some youma that can help everyone out of here.”
A group of horned creatures arrived, horned and hoofed, similar to alpine ibexes, five in total. Arles slunk out of the shadows as well.
Jet glanced down at his communicator to make sure he switched it over to speak to everyone. “I’m sending some extra youma towards the group. Have everyone get on and get out as quickly as possible. Keep close to the walls and avoid the unstable cliff.”
The five were sent, as he said, but Arles remained by his side.
And then Aquamarine’s form shifted again. Jet turned to watch, his eyes widened again but this time the anger from before had completely deflated. He didn’t want to think about what he would have actually done if Aquamarine had really been a youma. The thought about taking him to be purified just to get him back had crossed his mind, but without time to think about the logistics of that, he had no idea how that would have turned out. He might have been taking Aquamarine to his death for all he knew.
“Aqua,” he finally breathed a sigh of relief, and blinked the sting in his eyes away. While Aquamarine might have had enough sense to not throw himself on Jet, everything building up meant Jet couldn’t stop himself from reaching out to wrap an arm around Aquamarine and pull him close for a tight embrace, his forehead dropping to his shoulder for a second, and his lips might have brushed against Aquamarine’s neck, out of view of anyone else--
Then the moment was over. He pulled back and gave Aquamarine a nod and indicated for Arles to stay close.
“We’ll stay as long as possible. Get anyone out that we can.”
He was still angry, but he had Aquamarine with him at least.
Quote:
To everyone: “I’m sending some extra youma towards the group. Have everyone get on and get out as quickly as possible. Keep close to the walls and avoid the unstable cliff.”
Still a bird-headed monster Titanite got no scales, she went for ponching, what a loser Titanite summoned 1 youma and can get 3 people out, extra loser
It seemed that some of the others who had been afflicted by this youma curse were starting to regain a semblance of humanity, and the sight of them returning to normal gave the General hope for her future. She might not have gotten any scales, might not have finished off that beast below, but she was most likely going to regain her humanity.
And she knew that the Rift was now officially on her list of Places I do not wish to vacation.
Her panicked attempt at calling some of the youma to the aid of her fellow Negaverse agents was laughable, at best; one youma, at least, seemed interested in responding to her command, and the (hopefully only shortly) bird-headed General took the opportunity to breathe while someone else did the work of carrying her to the surface.
Soon as the starseed dropped and the youma followed, Faustite relied on his formless gouts of fire to stay stuck to the precipice. It worked; most of the youma flew by without disturbing him, or even taking notice of him. Then that blaze reformed, and Faustite headed back toward Jet and Aquamarine.
He'd assumed Kamacite was with Cymophane, that Albite was with Nembus. To assume otherwise was a distraction he couldn't afford. They had but to leave —
Faustite hesitated. Fire dripped from him, runnels of it slipping off of him like water. Pooled around him, like lit gasoline before it died down to a smolder, then to nothing at all, leaving Faustite hale but shoeless. "No, no, nononono—" He looked at his coalblack hands, tried to catch the fire with them, as if it were a thing to be caught, captured, and worn again. As if he could bury himself in the illusion of youmafication. For that was all it was, he realized, as the scale came loose from his mangled grate and struck the path as crumbled black.
Couldn't hear anything after, ears full of white noise, aural equivalent of Kamacite's brilliant attacks. Struggled to pull a coherent thought together. Remembered to refresh his uniform after a broken talon stabbed into his foot, but he'd forgotten to wrench the thing out first. Limped toward the cliffside.
Saw Albite finally, but he couldn't think of anything to say. Couldn't think of words for the remaining youma either, and once he did, they came out thick and numbed. Only three arrived — one shaped like a hot air balloon made of skin, with eyes on its meat-basket; one that looked like a horse with human hands instead of hooves, and one that looked exactly like a mountain goat.
Quote:
He's Fine, but anyone can interact~
Strickenized
Garbage Cat
Offline
Shanyume rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4Total: 4 (1-6)
Shanyume
Anxious Friend
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Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2021 7:54 pm
Captain Lavendulan HP: 75 Dice: 1d8+3(tracking team) +5(half youma captain) Damage to the cliff side: 12 (round 1) + 12 (round 2) Damage to Radon/Whim: 15 (round 3)+9 (round 4) Youma Summoned Laven is taking one and sending 3 out for 12 other officers (assuming I did that correctly) Lavendulan acquired scales!
The thing about Lopezite was that when he said he wouldn't leave her, Laven honestly trusted his word and that he'd be back. She wasn't some sacrifice so he could get away and just because she was half-youma, didn't mean he'd leave her behind because she should, in theory, be safer in the Rift than the corrupts they'd brought along.
That trust went both ways and when he asked her to cover for him, she offered no argument and instead pulled the water whip towards her so it re-formed into a ball and began bending it around her; aiming for Whim's legs or an errant youma that might try following after him.
Her magic, however, was much like senshi's in the way that it was limited and in the time he had left her side, her second use had inevitably run out. With only one more shift left, Lavendulan became more cautious of her movements, backing away from the spider-like legs and only swiping with her claws when something got too near.
In a moment of lul, she leaned over and picked a single scale off the ground and tucket it into her belt.
True to his word, Lopezite soon returned with very vividly colored corrupt in tow. Kama-something, Faustite had said it on the Base Camp but she was too mentally preoccupied to remember his full name. She noted his almost owlish expression and how quickly let go of her General's sleeve.
"Half-youma," she confirmed, lifting both hands to show she wasn't a threat. Wasn't a creature that would take advantage of his injured state and turn on him the moment he left Lopezite's side.
Amidst the chaos, Laven glanced around and took notice that while many youma dove off the side of the cliff after the starseed that had been thrown over the edge, there were many that still remained. She'd heard shouting from other officers, orders were given not to them but to the youma that ran through the crowd. Aquamarine had tried something similar the day before; shouting a command to a youma that had ended up injuring one of their own by mistake. With her being only a Captian, she ran the risk of a similar incident, but she tried calling over over anyway.
It was a feral beast, scaled as she was. Smaller in stature when compared to the youma that carried up to three officers on its back. It trotted around her, circling twice before stopping and lowering itself for her to get on.
Laven's gaze shifted from the kirin-like youma over to Lopezite, a look of shock clearly written on her face, and yet she frowned. There was no way it could carry the three of them; two maybe but even that might be pushing it.
Guine
Personal Youma introduction - Kyu rolled for a mount for Kama and Lopezite.
[using his attack on the youma that attacked him to send it at the big boss]
Sailor Scout Attack: Claws of the Betrayer
Lionel speaks the name of his attack and extends his arm towards a target, and a spectral red lion leaps forward, passing through the target and leaving them with a stinging sensation and a feeling that any companions with them are going to betray them. The sensation lasts for 30 seconds, and Lionel can use this attack three times per battle.
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