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 Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:44 am
"HHRGHK!" Samuel ganked forward, his only usable hand reaching to his throat, only for the whole area to become a flash of searing heat and light. The ground echoed out it's dissaproval with a small-ranged quake, cracks and slabs appearing.
The smoke and dust mushroom began to slowly ebb away, and a medium-sized crater became visible. Standing slightly hunched over, in the epicenter of that crater, was none other than Samuel.
"HA...HA...HA..." The devil's breaths were severely ragged, blood seeping from all his pores. "Goddammit...You peice of s**t!!" Samuel panted out, perspiration running down his whole face.
It seemed the endurance this guy carried was a sbig as his body.
"Wow," Vahn said as he remained standing a bit offish to the side. "You're still standing. I figured you were at least a little tough." Vahn couldn't help but grin wildly, quite amused by the whole thing.
It wasn't everyday you saw your friend spit a fire ball down someone's throat after all.
"You look a bit worn out, Samuel." Ezekiel said softly, still amazingly never having moved at all from his spot. It was clear by now that he at least honored some form of "rules of engagement". "Do you want to switch?"
"SHUT UP!" Samuel bellowed out, not needing Ezekiel to throw in his two cents. It seemed he was desperate now, as his large hand gripped about the handle of his sword. Samuel's fist shook and shuddered, as he held onto the handle, almost as if he were afraid of drawing it himself...
"Hey now...Are you really going to use that on such worthless opponents?" Ezekiel once again piped in, yellowed eyes transfixed on Samuel's hand.
"I SAID SHUT UP!!"
A sword?! Vahn stared, a bit more interested now, as he actually took a good look over the strangers. He can barely raise his arm... but he still fights. A cracked mask, all these demons... I came here because Nahara told me to... Vahn turned his head to glance over at Sunstrike. Just what are these guys?!
"Let's go." Samuel was grinning that gorilla grin again, as he began to slide out his blade.
But Vahn was just a bit too preoccupied to begin moving.
Are they the same as... A picture of the young man came into view, his hand extended out to Vahn, right before Sunstrike walloped him a good one. ...as Laffite... AND I!?
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Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:17 pm
"Aww man...d'ya know Vahn...I give up..." The salamander waved his arms dramatically, throwing blood all over the place, even as Samuel and Ezekiel discussed issues, and fell seated on the ground, pouting the best that he could in a form that never was meant to pout, tail curled around him in a huff.
That was before Samuel reached for his sword. Sunstrike looked sharply at the demon, standing up again, weapon in hand. There was more to this...
Something resonated again...
"Vahn....VAHN?!!" Sun's voice was cracked and scratchy from the dangerous magic he'd just applied.
He was a black blur as he slammed into his dazed friend.
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Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 12:46 pm
The resonation was indeed there.
It pulsed pounded outwards, like a heartbeat.
Again.
Again.
And again.
Vahn once more found himself as if standing on the edge of a clif, and peering down the edge into a bottomless ravine. Something was threatening to push him over the edge, and the resonation continued.
Having witnessed it before, in the arena, Sunstrike picked up on it easily. It was the same heavy feeling as when he'd nearly been stabbed to death after all.
s**t... Yellowed eyes widened, even as his body keeled over, suddenly feeling like he was going to wretch. Samuel stared down at Vahn, confused.
DON'T... Vahn looked up at Samuel, eyes narrowed as he saw the huge gorilla smile on the devil's face. Samuel knew something was up. He didn't know what exactly, but he liked it. COME...
He could faintly hear Sunstrik'es voice, as the pounding in his head got louder and louder. GO AWAY...
The pain became too much to bear, as Vahn found himself clutching at his head tightly with one hand, the veins on his forehead standing out. Go away, go away, go away, go away, go away, go away, go away, GO AWAY!! I'm...not...your...
His body jostled, and then travelled backwards, blood being coughed violently out of his mouth, as Sunstrike came barreling into him.
The action was enough to bring Vahn abck to his senses, even as his eyes widened. "Get away from me, Sunstrike!!!"
The warning would have been in vain, as Samuel was already upon Sunstrike. He'd intended to score a free hit upon Vahn, so now, instead-- that hit went straight for Suntrike. A vicious backhand from his only remaining arm, enough to send the lizard flying sideways.
"SUNSTRIKE!" Despite the blood that seeped from his mouth, Vahn still yelled out, unable to move because of the blinding pain in his chest. The wound from the spear was bleeding again...
"SHUT THE HELL UP!!" Samuel bellowed out, as he slammed his fist like a hammer against the top of Vahn's head.
s**t....I can't move! More blood hacked out from his lips, as excruating pain racked his entire body. A fierce hollowed out black pupil stared outwards.
I won't let you come out this time...You're the one who's screwing me up right now... Vahn panted heavily, staring to the floor. His entire body was half knelt along the floor, his right hand barely having enough strength to keep the Fang gripped. Damn you!!!
"HA!!! I don't get what's going on, but suddenly you can't move right?!" Samuel chortled out, as he went into an all out frenzy, just slamming his left arm back and forth against Vahn. "Die then!! Die, you stupid a*****e!!"
All the while, Ezekiel continued to merely observe, the expression on his face never changing. How unusual...his aura is rising up and down... Just what is going on? One moment he's trash and then the next...
Ezekiel stared hard at Vahn. ...He's even more powerful than I. What in the world...
"IT'S OVER SHITFACE!!" Samuel shouted out, his left arm raised high into the air. "I'LL MAKE YOU DISSAPEAR IN AN INSTANT!!"
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Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 1:20 pm
Nononononono.... This wasn't good, not good at all....something had broken again...a rib? And arm? His head? Blood blurred his vision and he tried to get up from where he landed. It wasn't the pain he was complaining about though...because he could feel it, a reaction...the heat....everything was becoming almost stifling, even to him....more craters shifted through the large circle that contained the fighters. The air seemed to blur....
Vahn....He shuddered to his feet and shook his broad head, the streaks of red from his spinal ridge was matted down, and his left shoulder was dislocated...he tilted his head to see Samuel, moving again and again, blood flying.
"b*****d!!"
Sunstrike snarled came up from behind Sam on his last boast, slamming his bone back into the joint with a loud crack by colliding full on with the rock hard body of Samuel. Sunstrike was nothing but sharp pointy bits as he attacked the larger demon ferally, foot claws raking the bloody stump of an arm that was left by Vahn earlier, both arms and claws wrapped around the arm that was beating his friend, and a mouth clamping over the back of a bloody neck.
Why am I always...too late?
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Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 2:56 pm
"UH?" Samuel took two steps backwards, his only usable hand trying to peel the rabid lizard that had now taken to him like a second skin. Blood spilled out freely, flesh rent into after several tries, and the primal screams that uttered out all played to the bloody scene.
A feather drifted directly in front of Samuel's face.
The next sound heard was a deafening BOOM, as Samuel's fist slammed earthward, aimed for the vunerable Vahn. "FLOW WIND!"
The blow was a killing one, and in the state Vahn was in, it was easily enough to send him packing to the other side for good.
However, the sound of contact came from something else entirely. There, in front of Vahn, with outstretched arm was----
"What now!?! One after another...are they ever gonna learn their lesson?"
Nahara stood there, looking as daunting as ever, feirce red locks of dyed hair whipping about her shoulders. Her grey bluish eyes stared with a feoricty rivaling that of the desert winds. Before her palm, the air itself was whirling, ripling-- hardened and compacted.
Standing next to her was Dain, one arm folded and resting within the folds of his tunica, the other arm at his side.
"Hello~~!" The old man was smiling, not looking the least bit worried. "I'm ever so sorry about our late arri~~ival."
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Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 3:12 pm
Coming right after Samuels cry was one of Sunstrike's own.
"Godsdamnit, you people....do ANY of you bloody well listen to me?!!"
He was actually astride Samuels shoulders, and if both weren't dripping blood, spit, and various other viscous liquids, it would have been amusing...
....
...hell, it was still amusing.
Then Sunstrike finished the inscription he'd been carving out of Samuel, hefted the stolen sword, and scarpered down. His large form half fell, half leaped off the bigger demon, scooping up Vahn he began to book it.
"Betterrr RUN!!"
There was a glow, as Sunstrike's blood suddenly seemed to vibrate with firemagic in a spiderweb all over Samuel's body.
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Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 9:07 am
"Well if you're gonna line up like that..." Samuel towered over both Dain and Nahara, Vahn knelt on the ground behind them.
Old man... Vahn could only see out of one eye, since blood coated nearly half his face, his breaths coming out in pants as he could barely even stand.
"That must means you wanna die first, huh?! Sounds good to me!!" Samuel bellowed out, thick tail thrashing wildly as he cocked his left arm back. Sunstrike had been all but forgotten about.
A mistake to be sure.
"What..." Samuel's eyes widened, even as he felt the prickling along his hide. "the" His left arm tried reaching behind him, as the lines spread across. "hell?!" There was a deafening explosion, the ground catering and smoke rising instaneously.
Both Nahara and Dain hadn't budged a single inch, and Ezekiel merely continued watching. His lower lip hung open, as he couldn't quite beleive what was going.
If it wasn't apparent to people by now, maybe now it would sink in. Samuel was originally a lizard, a Thorny Devil to be exact, and from the race of sentient cold-bloods within the Lizard clan. Now barring the very long explanation of evolutionary chain and how this race came to exist-- Samuel was also something else.
He was first and foremost, a devil. Lately, there'd been a nasty habit of devils melding with other living beings in order to attempt to increase their bound power status, to reach a new level if you will. The same was going on with humans melding with devils to accomplish this.
Now the determining factor was that whichever side initiated the process first, would become the dominant trait.
Enter Samuel.
Humanoid and bipedal in appearence, we all know that it's not what the car looks like, but whats under the hood that matters. And under this particular hood was one stamina driven monster. So far in the fighting, Samuel had sustained enough damage that was more than mortaly fatal to normal people.
And as the smoke cleared, Samuel proved, he could still give as good as he took.
"YOU PEICE OF s**t!!" Samuel roared out as he bursted from the ground, his sights set squarely on the fleeing Sunstrike.
"I'll tend to Hibon. I need the medicine." Nahara turned and began walking towards where Hibon lay.
"Yes Ma'am!" Dain remained where he was, not at all worried despite the severity of the situation.
"WAIT," Samuel whirled, his eyes widening in anger that everyone was just hellbent on disrespecting him today. "b***h!!!" His left arm raised as he reached out to yank her by the head.
There was a moment of quietness, as Nahara's tunica suddenly blew off her shoulders. Only clad in her sandles, and her pants, the rest of her upper body gleamed in the sunlight.
Her entire torso, her forearms, neck, as well as aprt of her head was ashen white and very stiff, looking very much like sculpted stone.
With the simple grace that only a female could have, she lightly hoped backwards, enough to nimbly land atop Samuel's fist. The next thing that Samuel saw coming was a straightforward mule kick.
"BU--?!?" Samuel's head twisted to the side, his entire left cheek swelling and bruising.
Nahara somersaulted backwards, sending both her feet into the top of Samuel's head, forcing his whole body to crash into the earth with a roar of broken rock.
She stood calmly atop Samuel's body.
How exactly did all this happen? Wasn't she supposed to be a mere mage?
The level 4 Earth Spell, Guise of Bone (also called Skeleton Shield or Bone Deflection) can turn a part of a body into a bone-like structure, thus giving it solidity and strength - allowing it to deflect minor blows, or, if using it as a weapon, causing severe damage. Hands and forearms are most commonly casted upon, followed by torso and face. A dangerous side effect of the spell is the stiffening of the over-spelled area - over many years the area will stiffen and truly take on a bone-like density and appearance.
The caster must have a bone contact with their physical body; on a necklace, bracelet or held in hand. It can be a bone of any animal, but orc bones are preferred due to the strength of the orc race and the density of their bone.
In low-level casting, the words dead shell are said to help mentally focus on the area meant to receive the spell. Higher level mages need only to think of the area with a bone in hand to apply this spell. - Within seconds (even quicker for high level mages) the area of focus will turn ashen white and very stiff, looking very much like sculpted stone.
However, the magic of the spelled area has now actually changed - the element of earth is predominating, making the area as stiff as true bone, but also just as brittle. That area can be used as defense against fists or polearms, or offense if the spell is casted on fists or spread fingers. However, the spelled area will not hold against a sword or a mace; it will usually shatter. If this occurs, the seperated pieces become flesh again instantly, and when the spell is removed the injured area will react as if just struck.
To break this spell, contact between the bone used and the body can be broken (removed, taken or dropped) or the spelled area can be seperated from the rest of the body. If a bone hand is severed from its arm, the bone hand becomes flesh again instantly.
After all, Nahara's grandfather was the Magister of Strata.
She was a Preistess of the Sands, with a will of fire all her own.
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Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 10:25 am
Sunstrike snickered tiredly as he ran, disappearing around what was left of the gate. They had to get out of the city, well...what was left of the city.
If Vahn was going to go boom in a big way, it was better to get him as far from normal populous as possible. At least, that's what the forefront of his mind was thinking...his subconscious....his subconscious knew that he was just making excuses for something that could probably take out a lot more then just Strata.
Honestly he didn't know where he was going, or whether or not he'd be stopped before he got there. But he didn't care. He had Vahn, and he'd deal with it, or he wouldn't, end of story.
"You already helped pull his arse out of the fire once, Sunstrike....you can only do that once......shutup, I can do the hell I want to...
Finally he came to a halt in the sand.
"Why...do I always...end up...CARRRRYING your arrrse all overr ******** Gaia, Vahn?!!" Contrary to his sharp words he set his friend down gently. "I swearrr all overr that next time...you can pick me up and rrrrun...I rrresign..."
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Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 7:35 pm
Ezekiel remained motionless. Apparently, seeing the s**t beat out of his partner really wasn't affecting him all too much.
Nahara continued moving forward, walking across from Ezekiel, until she reached Hibon's motionless body. Brother... She knelt beside his body, lifting his head up slowly.
"Si...Sist...er?" It was true that Sunstrike had healed Hibon, by effectively re-attaching his limb, but Hibon wasn't like Vahn. The same method of fire-sealing wouldn't work on an ordinary human with ordinary healing rate.
"Yes?"
Smoke continued to stream off of Samuel's body.
"S...Sun...Sun...strike...is..."
The earth settled underneath his massive frame...a solitary finger twitching.
"He's fine. Don't worry about it." she said softly, uncapping the bottle of specially prepared medicine. "Can you drink this for me?"
"...Yea...."
"BAHAAA!!!" The haggard laughter boomed aloud, as Samule rose up from the ground, streams of blood running down his whole body, severl spines snapped off-- his white suit shredded and bloodied. And he was staring right at Nahara.
"Ah--" Her eyes stared out in surprise, as Hibon already began trying to get to his feet.
"I'll kill you...HAH....kill you real good....HAH..." Samuel was absolutely livid, his entire body shaking with rage. "I'll fuggin'....KILL YOU!" Samuel unhinged his lower jaw, widening it as far as he could possilby take it, as soemthing began to swirl and come to life. Bright red sparks, mixed with pure white ethereal tendrils.
The souls Samuel had consumed, as well as the fire ball that Sunstrike had hacked down his throat.
"!" Nahara stared up, in complete shock. No way...!
Samuel unleashed the beam straight from his mouth, as if it were some giant eraser cannon; point blank at Nahara.
The next thing heard, was another tremendous explosion, as a panned shot of the City of Strata, showed an entire section of buildings collapsing in on each other.
~~
Whatever Sunstrike was scared of coming out, certaintly wasn't coming.
Vahn had been beaten mercilessly to within an inch of his life. Succumbing to the draining head game going on within himself, he'd left himself wide open to Samuel's physical barrage of fists.
Contrary to popular belief, Vahn was only human.
And he bled very much like any human would.
Hacking up a fit of blood, he doubled over in pain, curling against the ground. <********... what's wrong with me...
For the first time in a very long time...Vahn was scared.
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Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 3:23 pm
"Vahn?" Suddenly the tone and movement from Sunstrike completely changed. The orange eyes finally focused on how much damage his friend had taken.
"Oh you daft little..." Half muttered to himself as he lay his friend down, ripping off what was left of a shirt. The wound was bleeding heavily, hell...the WOUNDS were bleeding heavily. He reached out and...
A claw swam into his field of vision, moving to touch a face, at first...in this state, he thought Samuel had caught up with them....then he realized it was his own hand as he jerked away.
Sunstrike slumped over Vahn, bleeding and mutilated from his fight against the demon, his blood mixing with his friends. Vahn would suddenly see a very orange eye, surrounded by black stare into his own, open and unbloodied yellow eye. "Vahn...I know...I know that this time might be it...I know that...we're both afraid. So please...please underrstand that...forr all this time..."
Sunstrike couldn't get the words out. He tried...he really did.
b*****d...he thought to himself critically. You can't even say something to him that might stop time, for just a moment...
Another part of his mind answered simply. Looking as you do...can you honestly tell him that you love him?
There was a snort and a sticky tounge suddenly licked a cheek. "You die on me, boyo...and I'm totally finding a necromancer to bring you back...."
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Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 6:04 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 6:13 pm
Sunstrike's ears flattened, and he winced, rising painfully to his feet.
You rang?
Shuttup!!
Laughter echoed hollowly in his head.
"I asked you nice-well...semi nicely not to call me that name. I'm Sunstrrrike." Came the hollow voice, his back and wings to Ezekiel. The body in front of him was living, though barely. I'll...I'll protect... He slumped, shuddering a bit as he hugged himself, before straightening fully.
You couldn't protect a rock...failure.
I said SHUTTUP!
A door slammed this time, and locked.
"You can't have him...he's mine." Still he didn't turn, simply watching the ragged rise and fall of his friends chest. He's mine... Silence was all that answered him, and he was suddenly very lonely.
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Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 6:17 pm
"I've no use for that trash anymore." His gaze remained locked with Sunstrike's never wavering in the slightest. Nor was he making any movements or showing any signs that he was going to blow them away.
"You want to go there... don't you? To your people that is."
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Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 6:28 pm
Sunstrike's head jerked around. For the first time he stared full on at Ezekiel. He wasn't stupid, things clicked insanely fast in his head. Something tore inside of him. He leaned down and picked up the unconscious form of Vahn. There was no other choice now.....he just hoped Nahara remembered the message.
"I will go, Ezekiel....I will....I will meet them. But we have to make a stop firrrst. This trrash...as you put it, saved my life once." The orange eye glared heatedly at the being in the portal. "I owe him enough to at least leave him in the humans infirrrmary. Whetherr he surrvives will be up to him there...not out herrre."
It was all he could do, and he may as well have been asked to tear off his own limbs as give up his friend, but he was spent, he had barely anything left, not that he would tell the creature that.
He turned fully towards the opening. "I-if it's not in your powerrr...it is certainly within mine...therre will be no drrain on yourr sourrces."
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 5:35 am
Ezekiel stared at the lizard, no real desicive emotion behind those eyes as usual. It was hard to tell how he was feeling, let alone what was going on inside his head.
For all the care in the world, he might as well have still been wearing a mask.
"You have my word."
Now, one might think that the word of a "monster" is certaintly no word at all, but Devils were notoriously of the lawful evil alignment. they specialized in deals, and bargains-- you know, the whole "sell your soul to the devil" thing.
If one could get a Devil to agree to something, then they were as good as solid on their word.
Of course, you'd always have to watch out for that fine print...
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