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 Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:08 pm
Zelcion was pleased to see his father in the air. Xelloss was a force to be reckoned with when he had a full range of motion at his disposal. He was less pleased to see a line of enemies racing towards them. He recognized them all. Lorenna's children were especially interesting though. They had grown much larger and both sported large racks of antlers atop their heads. This would be an interesting battle. "Get ready." Zelcion said coolly as he paced into a better position for attack.
At first Yseult wasn't aware of much. She was regaining her footing and no longer seemed to be under attack, at least for the moment. The rocks had stopped as had the snatching at her hair and stabbing at her neck. Then she saw something shooting at her face. She blinked. There was a slight pressure and a sharp pain. Ysuelt hissed and drew back sharply. Something was lodged in her eye. Her spaded tail cut into the ground as she thrashed around violently. Her other eye opened but one lid was held into place by the tiny needle. Yseult's wings beat against her sides as she flailed around never hard enough to get her into the air but with enough force that she was still kicking up clouds of dirt. The membrane of her sliced wing continued to tear. She shrieked and spat venomous curses at the small creature that had attacked her.
Othelia lifted herself off the ground. It felt like she'd hit something but for all she knew it was a rock. Othelia took a few steps back just in time to see Beryl rolling into the rabbit hole that had trapped her earlier. She snapped at the hole but Beryl was well out of her reach. "Beryl!" She snarled. "Get back here!" Her anger towards the particular flutter came to a stop when she heard Yseult shrieking like a wounded wild cat. Othelia's head snapped to attention as she looked at the white kalona. She couldn't see what was troubling her so but it was worth investigating. Othelia kicked at the hole before racing over to Yseult, a mistake. She tripped over a rope and ended up kissing the dirt.
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Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:32 pm
Xelloss was pleased to see the Padmapani stallion turning to meet him in the air. Impressive. Many soquili would be too frightened after such a horrifying experience to relive any part of it. This one was clearly made of sterner stuff, even if he did look like a fluffball.
"That's right, come here," he crooned, beating his wings and rising to meet Vivace.
Zenoskelis heaved himself to his feet with a moan. He could put weight on the leg, but not without pain. Only his father's presence beside him kept him from turning around and running in the face of their charging enemies. Those horns looked sharp and Zenos had no horns of his own to counter them with. He turned sideways. It made himself a bigger target but freed up his tail to attack anything coming at him from the front. He had no horns, so tail and teeth would have to suffice.
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 5:07 pm
Zamyr hadn't been followed to the ground by Xelloss. Looking up he found the reason why, Vivace was engaging the kalona stallion in the air. Zamyr wished him luck silently before picking out an opponent of his own. The dark mare with stunted wings had fallen to the ground thanks to a trip rope. Zamyr hopped towards her with a series of short glides always making certain to land in areas clear of traps. He didn't want to kill the mare but he needed them to turn away and leave these lands for good. He landed beside the fallen mare making sure his talons were right in view. "Will you leave?" He asked digging them into the ground a little. They had already beaten the kalona down, now it was time for a chance.
This was not an act of revenge. Revenge was not something to seek. It could only hurt your soul and mind in the end. As Vivace hurtled through the air towards Xelloss he realized that this was an act of defiance. A refusal to be tainted or controlled by the past. A counter to a dark cloud that was threatening peace. He would never be the same after fighting like this but it needed to be done to preserve the balance of the world.
Vivace also refused to act predictably. He angled himself upward sharply before shouting down to Xelloss with all the scorn he could muster, "Filth!" He had heard of the pride of kalona. Lorenna had proved that they thought with this pride. They had underestimated Lorenna's craftiness and Vivace was willing to bet Xelloss would underestimate him too.
Othelia was getting up as Lorenna drew near. Lorenna couldn't make out any blood but she also couldn't see Beryl anywhere. Then she noticed movement, Beryl had dropped herself into a hole. Lorenna could just make out Beryl's words. She couldn't help but smile. Beryl was as much of a fighter as Lorenna was. They recognized their limits. Othelia snapped and kicked at the hole hiding Beryl but it didn't seem to have any effect. Lorenna waited until Othelia headed away, and tripped, to fly in and check on her comrade.
"Beryl, are you doing alright?" She asked at the mouth of the rabbit hole as she surveyed the field again. Her boys were on the move with Devmani. Vivace was taking on Xelloss, Lorenna hoped whatever gods he believed in were watching over him. Zamyr had just flown over her head. The white kalona was shrieking as though she were dying. Lorenna could not see Lapointe but she knew he must be responsible for that somehow. She would check on him next if she didn't hear from him soon.
As soon as they were clear of the traps Thatcher charged in with his antlers angled down. The pale male was presenting his side like an idiot. Thatcher knew he could take him easily. That stallion didn't have anything to stop him but a tail.
Fletcher was horrified to see his brother charge in without a second thought. There was more than one enemy to consider here! "Thatcher!" He shouted racing after his brother to provide additional back up. His brother still hadn't figured out how real the situation was.
Devmani wasn't sure where to go, he had never participated in combat before. He had claws but no direction. He followed after the twins assuming they had some sort of plan that they would clue him in on. If not...he could always just scratch anything that got close.
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Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 3:43 pm
Dirt rained down on Beryl as Othelia assaulted her underground hiding place. She spluttered and sneezed, dodging further down the hole. Othelia might not be able to bite her, but she probably could snake her tail down the hole and do some damage. It sounded like Othelia was moving away, but Beryl still stayed hidden. She was wary of ruses and still had dirt to blink out of her eyes. She would get back to the fight in a minute.... or so she told herself. All things considered, she was realizing that she probably wasn't Lorenna's greatest asset. Just as she was thinking that, she heard Lorenna herself calling down the hole.
"Yeah, I'm ok!" she called back, as loud as her small voice could get. "Just need a minute..."
Meanwhile, Lapointe's world was being flipped upside down. His aim had been true and he'd skewered the eye of the kalona mare, but now he had to deal with the aftermath. He was flung off of her almost immediately after, flipping through the air with wings painfully bent from the velocity. Unable to control himself, he smacked against the side of a tree and then began tumbling towards the ground. At the last minute he managed to pull his wings into position and slow himself, but it was far too close for comfort.
His needle, now bloodied, thumped against his chest almost in time with his racing heart.
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Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 11:53 am
Whatever had been pinning her eye closed slid free not that it helped her any. Opening her injured eye was agony and closing it again was no better. Blood trickled sluggishly from the wound. Yseult could only see out of one eye but she didn't need both to recognize that no one was coming for her. The mazoku were only out for themselves. She spun wildly in every direction as her mind raced. They didn't care about her. She was a tool and now she was a broken tool. Her shredded wing left her grounded, her wounded eye left her half blind. She would be useless.
They would kill her.
Yseult snarled and backed away from everything around her. They would kill her. She looked from Zelcion and Zenoskelis preparing to battle three soquili to Xelloss in the air facing down the angeni to Othelia on the ground to the empty space where Phibrizzo was certainly watching. They would kill her if they could. She would make sure they couldn't. Yseult charged away from the fighting, away from the mazoku, and away from her certain death. She would face the wilds with an arrow shot straight through her heart before she would resign herself to the chopping block the mazoku had prepared for her. Maybe she would still die but at least it would be on her terms.
Othelia turned her head to look at the sand-colored hippogryph. He asked her to leave. A snarl slowly drew back her lips as she began to growl. She had no intention of leaving. They were outnumbered and needed every body to fight with their full if they had any intention of winning this. Instead of answering the stallion she swung her tail around to slash at the clawed beast's side. She could kill him. He was a good deal smaller than her and she knew how those claws worked thanks to her grandchildren.
Zelcion launched himself forward as soon as the first cerynei came into range. He couldn't tell the two apart but it didn't matter. With looks like that there was no way they weren't related and killing one would certainly disable the other. From the sounds of it this one was named Thatcher. Zelcion caught Thatcher's antlers with his horns and began to push. With their heads locked like this the cerynei was out of weapons but Zelcion still had his tail. He shoved the smaller cerynei back past Zenoskelis and out of the way. "Hold the others off while I finish this one." Zelcion said with a wicked smile.
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Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 7:27 pm
The maneuver worked. Xelloss' tail swiped at the air as Vivace swooped upwards but he was nowhere near his mark. His speed and momentum carried him away from his opponent, even as Vivace hurled insults at him. His lip lifted. Very few had that sort of skill in the air. He wasn't dealing with an amateur.
With a tilt of his wings he spun around midair, once more facing his pale blue prey. "If only that brown mare had flown half as well as you, she might still be alive," he taunted, trying to goad Vivace into a rash move.
Zenoskelis met the eyes of his opponent, the charging cerynei. Watching the twins charge gave him an odd sense of mirrored vision, so alike were they in form. He waited... He waited even though his adrenaline urged him to dash forward and meet his enemy in combat. He waited until the cerynei was just within range, and then he striked. He lashed his tail like a whip, aiming for the neck behind the reach of pointed antlers.
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Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2014 8:15 am
It felt as though a fire had just spread throughout his body. Vivace had always suspected this particular kalona to have been directly involved with his sister's untimely death. Vivace remembered all of the faces that had attacked them that day and Xelloss's had been the only one that matched up with the damage his beautiful sister had taken that day. Bodhi, whose life had been cut far too short. To hear this stallion confirm it served to torture Vivace as well as fueling his drive to defeat Xelloss.
"Don't talk about my sister!" Vivace snapped venomously. This devil had no business tainting her memory with his foul breath. Xelloss wanted him to act rashly. Xelloss would get his wish. Vivace shot at Xelloss again but this time he was not aiming kicks at Xelloss's head. This time he was going to find a way to ground him. Vivace was trying to kick and snap Xelloss's wing or at least injure the joint.
Thatcher made a strange noise as one stallion collided with his head. He was used to the type of impact having sparred with his brother frequently, but their was an entirely new force behind it. The darker stallion was nearly a full head taller than Thatcher and his brother and built far more solidly. Thatcher tried to push the larger stallion off but instead found himself being pushed back. "Fl-fletcher...!" Thatcher called needing his brother's help.
Fletcher could not help no matter how much he wanted to. He had been snagged. He choked as the pale stallion's tail wrapped around his neck like a snake. Fletcher dug his hooves into the ground and pulled his head back as hard as he dared to, ever mindful of that sharp spade at the end.
Devmani came to a halt. Both Fletcher and Thatcher were now caught and in danger. Devmani could not be in both places no matter how much he wanted to be. His feathers ruffled and his eyes widened before he made up his mind. "Lorenna! Lorenna they trapped the deer ones!" He called before racing to help Fletcher who seemed more in danger. The trouble, again, was he wasn't sure how to help. He stopped short. What if he attacked and hit Fletcher?
Beryl was alright. "Take what time you need, they've mostly left the trapped area." Lorenna said watching as the white mare fled all together. She couldn't pretend to understand why but she feared the mare was going for back up. Lorenna frowned. "Try to be quick about what you need though...there may be reinforcements coming." With a new focus Lorenna grew to her full size and ran to where Lapointe and the mare had been to figure out what had happened.
En route, however, Devmani's cries stopped her in her tracks. She looked to the tree where she saw both Fletcher and Thatcher caught by the kalona. Her heart stopped. "Lapointe, if you need rest then rest, if not then make your way to the tree!" She shouted in his general direction before taking off towards the tree. Not those boys. The kalona would not be allowed to take those boys from her. They would not be allowed to take anyone from her or anyone else ever again. "Let them go!" She ordered as she took to the air, her butterfly wings beating with surprising ferocity.
The kalona's tail struck him, true enough, but it drew no blood. It only loosened a few feathers. Zamyr had been hoping that she would give up the fight. Now he had no choice but to fight her if only to keep her from causing any of the others trouble. One kalona had run off but there were still four left to deal with. Lorenna's allies outnumbered the kalona two to one now but that didn't mean this would be easy. He could hear Devmani's cries well enough, the twins were in trouble. Vivace was holding his own against Xelloss well enough but there was no telling how long that would last. "I'm sorry about this." He said sadly before striking out at the mare with his talons. He didn't like fighting but that didn't mean he couldn't or wouldn't.
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Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 6:34 pm
Lapointe watched as his kalona foe went running away. Did that mean he had defeated her? Had he somehow managed to best a kalona in combat? He didn't have long to think about it. Though in his small size he couldn't see what was happening elsewhere in the battlefield, there was no mistaking those cries of pain and for assistance.
When Lorenna called, he was ready. The time for being small was done. Now he needed his full size and strength to join the fray. He concentrated and increased his size until he was as large as he could manage, finally able to see the dire straits that his allies were in. With a wordless battle cry he gripped his needle and ran to where the ceryeni twins were being attacked.
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Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2014 8:43 am
Re-enforcements were coming. Zelcion hissed but didn't back off. That just gave Zelcion a little more incentive to finish this whimpering buck off quickly. He swung his tail out and around to bite into the stallion's shoulder. It didn't have the force he was hoping for because there was no way to put more weight into the swing while still keeping the stallion in place. Still it cut through the coat and into flesh leaving a bright line of red on the young one's coat. If Zelcion could angle his tail right he could do some real damage. The trick would be figuring out how to make it reach when he had to stay in a fixed position.
Othelia had missed any real target. She wouldn't let that happen again, especially not now that he was showing real interest in killing her. Othelia quickly moved out of the way of his striking talons before charging with her head down trying to skewer him with her horns. She would drown in a sea of blood before she ever gave up.
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Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2014 9:39 am
Vivace's hoof struck a glancing blow against Xelloss' head. It cut through thin skin and would soon start oozing blood, but not enough to slow Xelloss down. As his grandson Zenoskelis had discovered, ankles were a delicate thing. Xelloss decided to take advantage of this, snapping at the ankle belonging to the hoof that had just knocked against his skull. He had great faith in his own flying ability. If he latched onto Vivace he might be able to pull him from the sky, leaving himself to flap away before impact.
Zenoskelis' teeth grit together from exertion as he wrestled with the cerynei he had caught. His tail had the whole weight of his body grounding it, but it was still relatively weak compared to some of his other limbs. His grip loosened and began to slip when Fletcher pulled, dragging Zenoskelis a few steps forward.
"Not yet," he hissed, straining and tightening again. He was dimly aware that many other combatants were charging his way but he couldn't afford to lose focus. His whole body was tensed and rigid, straining to keep the cerynei under control.
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Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2014 6:45 pm
Something caught him. Something sharp. Something painful. Vivace cried out as he realized that Xelloss had just snapped his jaws down around his ankle. What triumph Vivace had felt over actually hitting the kalona was fading quickly as worry set in. They were locked together now. Unless he could make Xelloss let go if one went down so would the other. "Let go!" Vivace shouted, his voice pained, before he angled his wings to start beating down across Xelloss's own set. He doubted that Xelloss would let go of his own free will. Vivace had to give him some incentive. Making it so that Xelloss would have a difficult time flying seemed as good a strategy as any. If they both fell then at least Vivace would have helped destroy a great evil or at least cripple it.
Devmani made up his mind at the sight of fresh blood on Thatcher's shoulder uncomfortably close to the young buck's neck. Help was coming now, help that would know what to do. For now he needed to stop Thatcher from sustaining any damage he couldn't come back from. "Help comes, Fletcher." Devmani said before turning away from the older of the twins to go help the youngest of them all. As soon as he was close enough Devmani reached out with his claws and grasped at the monster's tail to keep it from striking again. It felt like a snake, all muscle, Devmani just hoped it couldn't curl up and bite him like a snake too. "Leave the little deer alone." He said sounding less hesitant than he felt.
Thatcher let out a cry of pain at the first strike. It wasn't the first time his shoulder had been cut open but it was definitely the first time someone had done it on purpose. As the beast drew back its tail for a second strike Thatcher gave his head a forceful shake to rattle the kalona's skull, he may have caught Thatcher with his own horns but he doubted that the devil was used to fighting like this. The pressure was keeping them locked together at the head but Thatcher wasn't trying to disengage, he was trying to ensure the stallion missed the next strike that would never come.
At first Thatcher just thought he had missed entirely or that the shaking had thoroughly dazed him. After a moment he noticed a patch of golden-brown standing just behind the demon. Thatcher laughed, relieved. Devmani had come to help.
Lorenna's fury drove her to fly as fast as her flutter wings allowed her to move. Her light eyes burned angrily as she set her sights on the pale kalona half-breed that was trying to strangle Fletcher. He was a wide target for the small mare and Lorenna was more than happy to hit it. Bracing herself for impact she dropped to the ground just a few feet away from the stallion's side and charged. She wasn't the biggest creature. She was, in fact, shorter than every single combatant in the area. That did not mean that a direct tackle could not do some damage or at least free Fletcher from it's hold. If she could devise an entire spy network of birds to save hundreds from danger indirectly than she could at least save this one young stallion directly. Even if that wasn't her forte.
Fletcher could feel the grip around his neck going slack only to tighten again later. The knowledge that this was difficult for the other stallion helped relax Fletcher's panicked mind. There was a chance he could pull away entirely. Help was coming, he had heard Devmani's cries loud and clear as they had almost been shouted directly into his ears. All Fletcher had to do was wait. He allowed to body to lose some tension just so that he would have the strength to pull hard when the time came.
It came in the form of Lorenna. She flew like she was being chased by a rabid purewalker. It was a sight Fletcher would commit to memory forever more but he didn't have time to dwell on it. He watched Lorenna closely and chose to pull sharply at the hold around his neck just before she would collide. He would get free.
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 9:04 am
There were two kalonas and two possible targets. One of them was fighting with one of the twins and Devmani while the other was fought the second twin with Lorenna on the way. In the split second that Lapointe had to decide he chose to assist Lorenna and the twin currently being strangled. They were the ones in more immediate danger and Devmani's claws looked pretty dangerous from this distance.
Making a very unhorselike growl around the needle, Lapointe charged in behind Lorenna, preparing to stab the kalona if Lorenna didn't take him down first.
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 9:32 am
At first Zelcion wasn't sure what was going on. He knew his head was shaking from side to side violently but he was not the one moving it. His eyes rattled around in his skull as he tried hopelessly to focus his vision. When the shaking stopped everything still looked fuzzier than it should have and he was having trouble thinking straight. His tail swung out, blindly this time, and hit something a lot sooner than it should have. Had his senses been that damaged? He heard the buck laughing just inches from his ears. Why?
Things slowly grew more clear as he realized that there was something wrapped tightly around his tail. Alarmed Zelcion pulled his head back sharply, freeing himself and the cerynei stallion from the lock to see a hippogryph cross holding his tail down with its talons. His mind fully came back to him a bit too late for him to realize that this had been a terrible idea. Zelcion jerked his tail away and dashed off to the side to get away from the two stallions. He had no control over either of them anymore. Staying in that spot would have meant certain death. He wasn't sure that moving out of the way would spare him of that fate.
Five. There were five soquili up against him and his son now. Four of them boasted sharp things for scratching and stabbing and the fifth had thwarted them before. Zelcion snarled as he turned around but continued to back away from their opponents and towards where Lord Hellmaster surely waited. His son was being attacked by two flutters and if they succeeded he was sure the other buck would join them. This was a sorry position to be in.
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 4:11 pm
Xelloss made a dangerous choice, to play chicken with his winged foe. Instead of letting go he clamped on harder, letting Vivace buffet him with his wings. He didn't try to fight against gravity, letting his wings grow limp and his weight hang from Vivace's leg. He had pulled off similar maneuvers before. He had always managed to make it away generally unscathed, and sometimes he'd managed to break a few of his opponent's bones in the process. He wondered... just how good a flyer was this scion of the Padmapani?
Zenoskelis' eyes widened as he saw his father backing away. It felt like some part of his world suddenly didn't make sense anymore. He was inexperienced but always assumed that the mazoku tended to win their fights. How had they managed to fail here?
The two flutters charging at him were small but one held a sharp weapon and the other looked like she was burning with all of hell's fury. Zenos' tail had already loosened in his distraction and now he pulled away completely. Angry, confused, and ashamed, he turned and ran.
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 4:29 pm
It seemed his son was having similar thoughts to Zelcion. It was definitely time to go. Without waiting another second Zelcion turned on the spot and bolted like someone had lit a fire beneath him. If his son wouldn't be fighting then it would be five to one and Zelcion would have been a fool to try to win with those odds. He only hoped that they wouldn't be followed.
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