Xero's attention had been captured by Lopezite near whom it slowed to a stop. A grunting breathing was coming from somewhere on the creature, possibly on its underside or behind its many horns. The goring device that was youma grew inert afterward, which bid the explorers more time to react to the other one.
kyuseisha no hikari
Xero is under Lopezite's command for 4 turns.
What Cheep heard, it usually ignored, though this time it heeded a call from a Captain (Atheneite) "Cheep?" The creature responded, once again cocking its head at the group. Its beak worked against itself, chewing nothing, and its plume lowered down flat against its head.
"Cheep cheep?" More of its neck came out of the hole, and bent in the middle so Cheep's head was near the ground. Cheep angled its head and pushed gently against Atheneite's side.
aurelius0815
Cheep is under Atheneite's command for 3 turns. It wants pets.
He nodded to those who shared with him their skills, appreciative of each of them for offering something, no matter how useful or not they thought their abilities were, quietly thanking each one of them. Since they still had their communicators, he didn’t think they would need the General’s youma to send messages to other teams. Instead, having one more target would be more beneficial. Ideally, the youma of the Rift wouldn’t attack their own, but it may give them pause in attacking the rest of them.
Kamacite nodded graciously to the venomoushalf-youma Lieutenant with the hypnotizing voice, and then turned his attention to the dark haired Senshi that approached him with a feather in his hands. It had Kamacite pausing for a moment. While it could have been from any feathered youma, the colors wouldn’t exactly make hiding easy. He would know, since they looked like his own.
But there was no time to make any comment on it. The youma under Titanite’s command was flicking its tail at an overly curious Senshi. Kamacite didn’t see the arms reaching out to grab at him because he was too distracted by the rhinoceros and feathered youma.
Kamacite hadn’t expected to come out of this venture unscathed, but he hoped they would get farther along than they were before any serious damage was done. He saw the youma as it charged towards him, but it looked injured, like it had been fighting something more ferocious. Perhaps a larger youma they were bound to encounter, or maybe even their elusive youma they were hunting?
Either way, it was fast, and Kamacite was too close to the edge of the wall to effectively get out of the way without putting the rest of his team in danger of getting trampled. He quickly shoved the dark haired senshi (Cleeia) away from him, and braced himself for the impact. Kamacite moved out of the way just enough so that it was only his arm and shoulder that had been torn up by the youma’s horn, its brutish body was surely going to leave bruises all along Kamacite's side.
Thankfully one of the Generals (Lopezite) on the team was close by, and had already issued a command to the youma to try and convince it to stop. Which it thankfully did.
And another Captain (Atheneite) managed to get the other youma to stop.
Kamacite clutched at his arm and shoulder where red stained the already bright orange of his now town robes, his breathing heavier than before and his complexion paler as well. He nodded to the General when asked if he was alright, his eyes already darting towards the others who had been injured by the most recent attack.
“Yes, thank you. Let’s move quickly,” he said again, hoping that they could make it further into the Scar before they attracted too many more youma.
“Are you okay?” he asked of the Senshi (Cleeia) he shoved. “Hold onto that feather, please.”
To the General (Lopezite) that had command over the youma that attacked him, he cautiously approached. "General...? Um... those wounds it has--" Kamacite tried saying more, but anything else was lost. He was already overwhelmed, trying to keep an eye on everyone.
Bloodstone prepared to make an attempt at commanding the youma that came barreling into the area. One looked injured and tore through their bright leader like tissue paper, only to be placated by one of the Generals. Another Captain seemed to have control of the other youma. That meant there was nothing for Bloodstone or Carnallite to worry about at the moment, so they would just keep trudging on. Hopefully they found this youma they were looking for soon.
It might have been unfair to distrust the youma, which was complying for the time being, but Lopezite didn’t want to take his eyes off of it. The entire front half of it looked like a disaster waiting to happen, and now that it wasn’t currently trying to gore anyone, he’d had a few seconds to eye the damage on its back.
He honestly wasn’t sure if the intention had even been to attack Kamacite or if it was just running from something.
It wasn’t an option he was ruling out, just one he would prefer not to have to deal with. If their goal was to head deeper into the Rift, he didn’t want to know they were going into a location with a youma already hostile enough to attack its own.
There was some relief that Athenite was doing well with the other youma that had joined in, though he’d been so preoccupied with this one that he hadn’t had much time to assess anything else. He knew Kamacite was checking in on someone else, but he only looked out of the corner of his eye, and then back to the youma, and then briefly to the red new red coloring. If he hadn’t been looking for blood, he might have mistaken it as a colorful design.
He lowered his sword just slightly but kept a firm grip on it; just because the youma wasn’t attacking didn’t mean he could lower his guard.
He had the luxury of knowing Kamacite’s name by nature of him being team leader, and in the commotion of everything and everyone the Eternal was expected to look over, Lopezite hadn’t expected him to commit all of their names--and, even if he had, Kamacite had been jumpy from the beginning.
And, now he was covered in his own blood.
Now wasn’t the time for long winded introductions, so he briefly introduced, “Lopezite,” and moved on to more important things. Like the wounds on the youma’s back. “They look pretty bad, don’t they? And fresh.”
And they needed to head in deeper.
“If I’m crowding you, let me know. If you think I’m better off to you somewhere else, I won’t argue. But, I think we should be careful about who’s going in first.”
He had no doubt that Kamacite knew what he was doing. His concern was that there were others in the group who didn’t. Kamacite was an Eternal Senshi, and their team leader. And, he looked like he’d taken a good hit despite all of that.
He didn’t want to think about anyone less sturdy getting blindsided by anything that could have torn this one up so badly.
Their leader hadn't taken him up on his offer and for that Arseno was silently grateful. Ödön wasn't really meant for odd and end tasks. He heard the Youma give a friendly trumpet to the flying-serpent Youma that had hissed at it. Whatever relationship the two of them had, perhaps it could be used to their advantage.
Before they could do anything else, another Youma, this one looking as though it was a Rhino that had way too many spikes on it barreling towards them. He didn't even have a chance to react before a General had commanded it and a Captain had gotten the other one that had popped up.
Clearly the Youma weren't done yet, but they needed to move forward if they were going to get anywhere. They could go and command Youma and gain allies from them all they wanted, but if they did they wouldn't have any room to move.
Ödön flew over to the mutated rhino and gave a sad trumpet noise when it saw the injuries on the other's back, looking to see if it could find anything in particular. But whatever the friend had been running from, it appeared that it could injure Youma this big very easily.
For the moment it appeared that their leader was now injured, which made moving forward even more difficult. "I have a first aid kit if you need it." He said to Kamacite. If the other rejected then they needed to move. They couldn't stay here in the same spot. It would be much harder to find this elusive Youma otherwise.
HP: 100 Damage: 1d10+4, hits assumed. Special: Can command youma, but it only works on certain youma. Roll 1d10; If a General's roll is an odd number, the youma will obey them. Quote Strickenized when this happens.
Quote:
Youma Quetzacoatl HP: 36/100 — Under Titanite's command, 4 turns - 1 turn from team attack for 3 turns Special: Venom bite — Can bite a character for regular damage, and that will take half as much damage on the next turn from the venom.
"Good youma," Titanite praised Quetzacoatl, "Very good. Thank you for your compliance."
The snake-bird was hovering over her head, and its tail-flick at Calverite was not missed. "I do not think it wishes to be pet. Perhaps it will allow you another time."
The other youma that had appeared seemed to be commanded quite quickly, so Titanite resumed a comfortable standing position until Kamacite said, Let's move quickly.
Shouldering her backpack, the General commanded Quetzacoatl"Please fly ahead of us to help scout. Thank you." With the command in place, she began to move forward slowly, wordlessly offering to take 'point' (and thus serve as meat shield- perhaps she should have thought this through more carefully) on this little adventure.
Two more youma attacked, and those same two youma quickly found themselves subdued. Carnallite refrained from attacking either one of them and waited, as instructed, watching a General and a Captain bring them under their command.
Their leader was injured by one of the youma, perhaps not terribly, but it seemed like a terrible sign.
Still, things had not gone quite so poorly as she’d been expecting.
So far, anyway. Certainly that would change as they continued on. Every moment led them further into danger.
Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2021 8:13 pm
General Benitoite
Watching the toddling youma that he'd gained control over, though it did seem to be injured, the General kept a close eye on it as he walked along side Wolframite and a corrupt senshi. The senshi seemed to know Wolframite, something he'd ask the youma captain about at a later date. This wasn't the time to go asking about recruits and team members people had.
As more youma seemed to appear the General didn't have much time to do anything, other than stare and start to move to action, before a rhino like youma was barreling towards the eternal who was leading the party. "This isn't going so well, is it?" He didn't want to attack the youma and the idea of bringign out his weapon seemed a bad one.
(Not much to say here.)
[qupte="moonkitsune"]
Sleet Tempest Snape
Noble Vampire
Online
Sleet Tempest Snape
Noble Vampire
Online
Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2021 8:16 pm
Super Corrupt Miyamoto
He knew youma didn't like corrupt senshi like himself, what corrupt senshi didn't know this, but to see so many youma...it certainly made you feel a bit unsafe and a lot unanted byu the resident youma. He knew some people, officers, didn't like corrupt senshi either. Wolframite had told him as much, the captain didn't keep much from him, he did a good job in informing Miyamoto on everything he might need to know.
Seeing an eternal, someone more powerful than himself, outright attacked by a youma certainly sent the message home better than anything else so far had. To see a corrupt senshi attacked, when he wondered if an officer would have been, made him certainly feel unsafe. He took the captain's words seriously and kept close to Wolframite, even as things seemed to go a bit more to s**t than they already were.
"I say we find this youma and get things done so we can go home. This place really isn't friendly." And he'd rather take on a senshi or a knight ratehr than be around all these youma - in their home.
Nagya saw the youma charging, and moved out of the way--there was nothing he could do to stop it before it got to Kamacite, and he didn't exactly let that weigh on is conscience. Kamacite was an Eternal, he was sturdier than a rank Lieutenant, even one with some monster parts.
At least no one was hurt too badly, and someone was popping over to help Kamacite out. That was good, and Nagya hoped that they could remain at least as not-dead as they were now. Collectively.
This was getting to be a theme; Marialite was barely able to keep up with all the monsters attacking them, and by the time she even thought to do anything, both the beasts were already under the control of other officers.
This was not exactly the spectacular Captian debut she'd hoped it would be. So far, in fact, she felt like she'd barely done anything at all.
But that was okay!! It was all good!! There was still the big fight coming, and that, well.
Cleeia yelped, when Kamacite shoved him out of the way, but honestly, it was a lucky thing, because he wasn't going to dive away on his own. He was far too stunned byt the monster charging them to have even had a moment's thought of self-preservation,. which was greatly unusual for him.
He did end up on his a** on the ground, butt hat was still better than Kamacite, who was bleeding, which made Cleeia wince.
The good news was, he was still holding onto the feather! Clinging to it for dear life, in fact! So when he pushed himself off the ground and dusted himself off, he could hold it up.
"I'm okay, thanks. And I've got it, boss. Sir?" He coughed, embarrassed. "Sorry. I'm bad at this."
Okay. Sooo, once again, he was too slow to get in on literally any of the action. By the time he managed to take any aim, the freaking captains or generals or whatever had already gotten the stupid monsters under control.
Like, he got that this was a good sign or whatever, but what the hell was he supposed to be able to do if he couldn't get a punch in edgewise?
He sidled up to Marialite and gave her a tired smile. "So many people here, kinda can't do anything, huh?" He'd noticed he wasn't the only one able to react quick enough.
Albite took it all in, as best he could in the near pitch black - with the lantern tied onto the end of his pack casting slanted glow he moved on up alongside and around the heaving youma - because it’s wounds were fascinating - the ******** had hurt something like that all the way out there?!
“At the meeting you all said this thing was a chameleon - <********> - a lizard, changeling? Whatever! Not a godamned Chimera.” vibrant feathers like a Phoenix, and tooth mouthed big beasty bastards that looked like they’d been violently mauled by something with massive claws. Whatever. Albite growled in his frustration, and kept just to the side of the creature as he turned to shout towards the group behind them all.
“Get your people, get your pets, and get patched up on the go! Let’s get a ******** move on - Before all us here ‘live bait’ up and die, yeah?” Used his stature, easily drawing himself up and shouting to the back of the group; wasn’t like the whole of the rift didn’t know they were already there. Noise didn’t mean anything anymore.
He needed to be sure people knew, just in case no one had heard quiet Kamacite’s plea for expediency of motion.
Because that’s what they were, live ******** bait, and they knew that going in. The youma wouldn’t stop coming. There would be no pause or surrender - only forwards or back - motion or death. A nice ugly one too if the current rift youma in their possession were anything to go off of.
Albite wasn’t waiting anymore - started forwards after he’d spoken. Kept a bead on Titanite’s vibrant blue hair and her snakey winged boy that’d shot out ahead to scout.
Quote:
Shouting for shoutings sake - easily overheard and always free to interact - from the front to the back.
Infinities
mention and following along
Kyuseisha no Hikari
just eyeing your youma.
Guine
the heck are we hunting again?! Talking and walking on
Shiningamisgirl
Ruthless Consumer
Offline
Strickenized
Garbage Cat
Offline
Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2021 6:31 am
While the others walked, their steps led them on a low-grade decline further and further into darkness. Holes became more frequent as they went on, though its denizens were fewer and fewer. Youma Gemini became increasingly hesitant as they traveled, until it refused to go any further, even at a General's command. The creature then disappeared into one of those labyrinthine holes, likely to gain great distance on the team that kicked it like a football and put it to command.
The lanterns soon became their only source of light. Each time they caught the craggy sides, they drew dramatic shadows upwards, like giant teeth, reminding them of the dangers of their mission. The lack of youma was echoed in the silence that enveloped them.
Soon it was only the crunching of loose rock underfoot that echoed off the Scar's walls. Quetzacoatl and Ödön had ventured ahead, their screeches and honks disappearing in the depths.
Cheep followed, its neck growing longer and longer. Cheep cheeped at Atheneite as the group went further ahead, then its head ducked into one of the holes. That long neck stretched and stretched, then its head popped out its original hole and followed the neck into the new hole. Cheep, too, had turned back.
Time ticked by. Their steps were plodding, but sure. After a time, even the rhinoceros youma refused to go further. It sat on its haunches and panted heavy breaths, whole body heaving, and leaned against the Crag's side. The youma's extremities began to shed ash. It grunted baritone at Lopezite, the tone of which was apologetic. If its mind had the wherewithal to go on, its body did not.
Quote:
Youma Xero HP: 20/500 Notes: Appears to be dusting from bleed damage.
Ödön was the first to return. Trumpeting thing, it returned to its master with a burden in its claws. The creature had brought part of a youma's face. Brown, furry, looked to be stretched over a mammalian skull. Seeing it caused Xero to shudder and grunt. Ödön was proud of its find nonetheless, and wanted to continue honking in Arsenopyrite's ear.
Quetzacoatl was the next to return. While it had nothing, it shrieked repeatedly, flew to Titanite's back, and pushed with the flat of its head.
The team was nearly upon it anyway. A vast, rounded hole in the center of the Scar, the only lit area in its very basin, where looking skyward gave a view of both the bloodshot sky and the myriad paths that laced the upper echelons of the Scar. The Tracking team was visible through the holes between the paths, each split up in different segments. They could even see the repeating holes in the topmost areas of the cliffs where the Interrogation team would be working. But what was most notable about the place wasn't the marvel of the place's astounding height, but what was buried in the floor.
An impact crater. In it, youma ichor that was turning ashen.
Journey's End
Quote:
This team has found all of the clues that were available to them, given their playstyle. There will no longer be prompts in this area that lead to clues, but you can continue playing in the area and examining if you would like! This won't lead to a full formal prompt, but I will respond to any characters' investigations of the things they've found thus far. For example, if someone wanted to inspect Xero's wounds or the impact site, they could still do so and glean information if you quote me!
Now would be a great time to communicate with the other teams!
You did great! There was some lovely teamwork to witness in this thread, and marvelous restraint shown by officers! Nobody got themselves mauled to death, so hey, good times!
