|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2019 10:24 am
Carrot and lash, the general and the corrupt were set upon the task of driving the smaller youma beneath the thundering feet of the behemoth they were seeking to wrangle. It was a simple enough request, but not so simple to execute. Like herding cats. But they'd manage. With the dainty dancer sprinting out front to play as bait, she'd weave back and forth with the stride of the gigantic beast, narrowly avoiding being crushed in her own right but that too close proximity ensured a goodly number of the snarling horde disappeared to dust beneath the pounding of mammoth feet. Deeper within the pack Xenotime split her attention between dusting some of the youma herself and driving others to be trampled. And as the beast above shifted, further plans executed, she abandoned the youma to their crushing fate to teleport to the front of the pack with time enough to scoop up the dancer before she joined that same fate, then blinking away again to safety as the behemoth finally fell. "Xenotime and Ceraskia clear," she announced quickly across their coms, ready for further orders.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2019 9:46 pm
Schörl and Kamacite chose a true path, made truer by the rote need to move to her grating voice and grating command. What a lummox his youma composition must be if fool was enough to rouse it to action. It was enough to distract -- enough to make one, two false steps.
One, two, and one of its winged symbiotes shot up to the height of the great youma's back, shrieking attention to itself. Too near it was, too unpleasant, too large to ignore. Faustite drew breath, gathered smoke inside his body --
Beyond him, the youma roared. The ground beneath his feet shivered and shook, straightened. Its voice quavered, pitched high and violent, and Faustite knew Aue struck true.
In the moment before smoke billowed out of him, Faustite realized the winged youma already escaped for the sky. It had always been escaping for that bleeding sky, like its multitudinous flock, high up and shrieking, even bursting through the dregs of his smoke that dared reach too far off the side of the beast. They were leaving en masse. They were fleeing.
Something pounded at his feet, then Faustite felt the rush of air at his back propel him weightless. They know what's coming. He reached, scrabbled, swept hands about for any kind of purchase — a rock, a youma's leg, even one of the fliers — but the nothing went on, and the wind pressed from upper back to mid back to lower back until the panicked officer twisted in the air, half-hoping the maneuver would give him a clue to stop his fall, half-hoping he could still catch himself, his hands outstretched, his fingers splayed. The youma sounded further and further to his right. He heard it stumble, pounding the ground with enormous feet that must've lifted dust —
Then the cliffside struck him hard enough that his shoulder buckled in catching him, its announcement pulling the breath from his lungs. Faustite had time enough to swallow at the air once before crystalline spines pounded into him, then gravity caught up and sagged him toward the earth. Faustite looked on with pale dread toward the drop. He hadn't a moment to yet feel the pain before once more falling.
Down and down, tumbling like a black-streaked rock, he fell along the cliffside until pipes were battered into odd shapes and crystal splinters thoroughly embedded themselves in his body. Finally he reached floor, in time to watch the great youma's legs buckle and surrender beneath it. Its tail swung wide and pounded the cliffside with a resounding bellow, much like a dying bull.
Then the pain set in, and Faustite found voice enough to groan when a second set of crystalline splinters discharged from its back. Its own haze of arrows, Faustite now realized, were once the gravel on its back. Ceraskia and Xenotime were far, Schörl and Kamacite were far, and youma gathered quickly. No sign of Aue. Drawing a haggard breath, Faustite lurched his bleeding body upright enough to watch a stray pack of youma begin to circumscribe him. What luck, he thought, as he felt around the absence on his left hip.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 8:06 pm
Leading it was the order, although how they would manage—
There wasn’t much time, but Kamacite saw the opportunity presented to him, and he grabbed on as tight as he could manage with the injury. It felt as though teeth had pierced more than just skin, but now was not the time to assess the extent of the wound.
Blood on fur and green uniform, dark eyes to the giant eclipsing the purple sky. Words took a moment to process. This wasn’t his first language, nor his second, so for a moment he thought he didn’t understand but… no, he knew this. He hadn’t been training with Aue all this time to not understand simple commands, militaristic in nature or not.
“On your five,” Kamacite gasped out as he kept watch of the terrain behind them and the youma that followed. Small, angry, energy starved youma, none with the discipline to obey even Metallia, he wouldn’t be surprised. All converging towards them as the General lead. Their main target, eyes pierced by Aue, blinded and enraged, also turned, stumbling and crushing the youma underfoot, just as Faustite predicted, and why the other General and senshi were ordered to corral them there.
“Two coming— eight!” There were too many. The green General was fast, but with him weighing her down, would she be able to get out of harm‘s way? The giant youma could crush them as well as it charged, blinded.
Deafening footfalls made his ears ring with each step, splintering crystals and youma in the path.
Faster. We’re not fast enough.
Getting the words out was more difficult than he wanted it to be. At this level of heightened panic, English wasn’t what his brain sent to the tip of his tongue.
This is not the time. He tried to breathe through the wind that swept by and the cloud of dust that obscured his view of what was following them, the crystalline haze barely outrun by the General. Hand gripped onto bloodstained green, tugging to the left as debris came crashing close behind. Please understand. But there were few he’d met who could decipher.
“Jump!” he choked out the word, giving the General’s shoulder a quick squeeze as he did so. You’re not making sense. You don’t even know what you’re doing, Kamacite gritted his teeth against his own thoughts. He had to do what he could. She couldn’t look behind and know without risking running into something. He had to try to figure a way to communicate without having planned for something like this before.
But whatever thoughts in whatever languages were twisting in his head went mute as he caught sight of their commanding officer out of the corner of his eye take a crippling hit.
“Faustite!” he thought he shouted as the tail swung towards the cliff side, but his ears seemed clogged. Everything was muted.
A youma lunged towards them. Six! Did he say it out loud? He squeezed the General’s shoulder again, and pulled his other hand away.
“Éruption solaire!”
He thought he’d felt the youma’s breath on his hand, the rush of wind as teeth snapped down, just as he’d called his attack. Brilliant white sent the light sensitive creatures writhing away from them. It gave them some time. But how much?
How much further?
How tightly was he being held?
Where was Aue?
They weren’t going to be able to get out of the way if it came crashing down towards them.
Were Xenotime and Ceraskia okay?
He was feeling... a little dizzy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
