Welcome to Gaia! ::

Up ahead, away from Savius and the duck's location near the back of the pack, energy moved forth from strange forms in the ground, hissing and spitting like bubbles on the top of a boiling vat of oil. The fragrance of burning flesh and cut roses drifted through the discord dangerously, neat biological order affronting nose and mind. Already the vines were growing larger, challenging the bird children capriciously.

Hylusis rubbed her nose with her free hand, giving a dark look towards her new ward. He tightened his grip, his enegry looping around hers like a snake. Not much she could do at this point beside play her part and step back into line.

Yet, something still weighed at the back of her mind. A very certain panicked arrow something. Still fairly unperturbed by the impending danger, Hylusis took a moment to look for the legged creature. After all, though she certainly wasn't a very strong magician, she was at least generally aware of her own energy (thanks in great part to the sensory aid this new world lent her), and she deduced it to be keeping in direct contact with her, though she couldn't pinpoint the actual location.

Strange noises filtered through the darkening world above, making cracks in the sky where heavy footsteps were placed. Hylusis shrank back instinctively, drawing her energy close about her. The layers of worn earth crack and bruise from years of time spent underfoot. They dry, and harden, and grow dense, waiting for rain to spread their wings.

Someone was on her side. Her childish pouting ended quietly, and she went into a pensive silence. If the teenagers were willing to listen, she would tell. Though she knew that the words would not be heard, it would be the nice thing to do. It wasn't an excuse, she cautioned herself; it was a reason.

Iamel had been watching almost everything go on in silence thus far. Hylusis being stupid, Heron getting hurt and Diacyn getting mad. The vines coming and being hurt was interesting but while Diacyn was pissed and that hindered HIM, Iamel lacked the anger needed to fire up his own wells of magic.

"Nice," He echoed the compliment, red eyes slanting towards his bald friend. The 'bad' ones were still out there, lurking. They still had Shanuh and Jojo and they could have them at any time. This was time to think about his Shiniee wasn't it?

But he was still pleased from previous events.

Shiniee. Shiniee. Angry and frustration and fear and.. DAMNIT. Good mood. That alone was pissing him off, teh fact that he couldn't get angry enough to hurt his thing. The palms of Iamels hands tingled and shot through his fingertips.

"Damnit!" He cried, echoing his inner thoughts even as his magic flew at the approaching vines. Explosions were his expertise and he was good at it, with his temper. But, in his lack of true anger, his own magic was cut. There was a flaw in the cosmic plan, somewhere.

((A . . . 5?? HO-HO! Now he's livid! ))


The build up was great. Xaxis did a great job draining the area around him in to nothing but a sea of misery. Even poor Hylusis, who was still being clung to, got to feel the weakness in her bones, that fatigued sensation, along with what could almost be described as a scratchy throat.

And yet . . .

Something wasn't right. Something held him back. Something stopped him from being able to do much of anything.

There was a pause. . . the tendrils and fog of energy swirling about, built up, but needing a release.

Was it frustration? Anger? Annoyance?

s**t. s**t s**t s**t!

Oh no. Not now. Not here - not when magic was needed!
Those vines weren't going to stop for nothing, and Xaxis sure as hell wasn't going to be stuck ready to destroy, and humiliate himself a second ******** that!

((Sorry for the spam. I always forget to put in the dice roll. ><

Annd . . . ******** that. It's funny - I always said dice hated me, since I always, ALWAYS rolled low. It appears that dice, even digitally, still hate my guts. Haha.

But ya know what? I had forgotten about an invisible arrow that seems to be perched within Hylusis. >:3~! ))

Still. Nothing.

For whatever reason, his magic just wasn't cooperating with him. Not today. Where it should have been, it wasn't. Where so easily controlled, it had become seemingly difficult. The magic that Xaxis held within him only seemed to grow with his anger, only seemed to reach out further, and further.

But there was no release.

Snippets of it seemed to wrap around Hylusis, appeared to ensnare her. It didn't hurt her - just left a linger taste of disease, decay, and overall misery upon her tongue and pallat. It wasn't comfortable, persay, but his energy around her didn't wound.

Yet.

For a small, unseen arrow with two legs, appeared to be nibbling upon just the smallest, and weakest of tendrils. How an arrow ate, one couldn't be sure, but if Hylsus could look over her shoulder to see what the little thing was up to . . . it was . . . .eating.

Xaxis.

In a sense.

Said arrow appeared to be enjoying its little snack. More and more tendrils of plague seemed to drift towards the arrow. As if it wanted more to absorb. It wasn't often it got to enjoy such a delicious treat.

Disease . . . .had a bit of a zesty kick to it, besides the fever aftertaste.

Of course, none but Hylusis could see the source of the problem.

All Xaxis knew was . . . he felt a little leaky. And that was not a good sensation.

The more he pushed in to his energy, the more it seemed as if a smallest of holes had appeared, as if the energy build up (just before release) suddenly disappeared.

Xaxis could build up all he wanted (and he was) but it never seemed to reach the climatic moment. He couldn't cast his magic, he couldn't send tendril after tendril . . . .

And the anger that had once so blatantly stained his features suddenly changed to surprise.

This wasn't good.

Not. At. All. Did he stop? What would happen to the energy built up? Would it explode? Would it go scattering out upon any direction? He couldn't reasorb what he'd already attempted to cast, could he??? It wasnt apart of him anymore, it was already molded in to a sort of attack, a sort of weapon.

Could they aborb such energy?
Could Diacyn redevour said ice and snow?
Could Iamel lick up the stains of his explosions?

Xaxis honestly didn't know. And Shanuh wasn't there to reassure him.

So the raven stood still, prepared to strike, but unable. His magic leaking in to the smallest part of the ensnared Hylusis.

Savius's magic manifested itself slightly different than the others. Violence wasn't exactly a beam one could shoot. Well, maybe it was, but it wasn't something the Kestrel would think of. Not when he was holding a sword, anyway.

Stepping closer to the plants, he swung, his swords edge bright with red energy. And it worked, sort of. The plants were cut away where rust red met furious green, they fell back, hissed retreated. Damage was being done, thing were being accompished. Hell he could hack a path right through these things.

And then he heard the quiet sizzling of acid on metal, and saw that where the plants were touching the sword instead of the energy that surrounded its edge, the sword was showing the first signs of damage. If he kept this up for long, he wouldn't have a sword.

Dammit.

Taking a step back he rubbed the blade off against his arm, hissing in pain as residual acid burned him. It hurt, but a good soldier took care of his weapons. Savius had known many good soldiers.

"Well, ********. That's not gonna work."

For some reason, pain was a wonderful conductor.

Energy trickled out slowly, shimmering like molten gems over his pallid flesh.

The heron watched the structure. His eyes fasceted upon it with white hot intensity.

But then he smiled, and with the hand the energies had so willingly torn their filthy lesions through, he extended it towards the energies and focussed.

For now he understood...Now he had felt the living muscles torn wide and the warm sensation of pain drowning him in sinful euphoria. Pleasure for those unfortunate enough to fall prey to such sensation, such marvelous mixture of fear and addrenaline clashing together in his system.

The result fell nothing short of his intent. His energies lashed out at the plant, regardless of whether or not it chose to hold ground, and whether or not it to felt the gloriously awesome feeling of it delicate being now splitting apart into segments, only it could tell as he continued his assault upon his wretched prey.

((*gives this roll one last shot to see* If it's over 10 then things will happen. If not. . . . . Xaxis is just screwed. ))

As the invisible arrow continued to feed, Xaxis continued to fight and struggle with his magic. It wasn't that he didn't know how to control his energy, it was more like it just wasn't listening. The anger, annoyance, irritation, and plain snarky behavior the raven was feeling was now laced with a pretty lining of embarresment and fear.

Eyes danced from one to the next - even the wounded Heron had no problem doing something with his skills! Savius could hack and slash, Iamel sizzeled and Diacyn froze.

So where was his plague? Disease?
Where was his death period.

It was in front him, a growing, surging nova of misery. The more he pushed for release, the more energy he gave his attack, the less it did much of anything. Almost as if there was an invisible chain, something to keep the radiating plumes of flu, fever and hemmoraging at bay. Larger, bit by bit, his attack grew.

Hylusis was practically swimming in Xaxis' disease. Savius, then Iamel were both touched by the ash grey, wistfing plumes. Disease was silent, deadly, and oh so beautiful.

The power within Xaxis was incredibly apparant. Aching joints for Savius, a plugged nose for Iamel. "It won't release!" The raven finally managed to hiss, snapping at his friends more out of annoyance with himself than any of their words. Was he okay? The answer was pretty obvious, wasn't it? Again with the case of the stupid.

Not again.

Xaxis' eyes danced at the retreating form, watching it slowly make an escape. And now it was leaving! NO!

God be damned magic!

A surge of hostility and anger renewed, present in the whirling, flowing, wispiness that made up his magic. The grey seemed to to turn to a whiter shade of pale, reminiscent of dry lips and malnourished flesh of a soon-to-be-corpse.

The little arrow at that moment decided he'd tasted enough of Plague. There would be others to nibble upon later, others to aborb all in due time. But at least he knew of the raven's taste, of the way his energy worked.

The moment the arrow discarded that ever-so-small trickle of energy he'd been leeching, the build up was released. The hole had been patched, and with all of Xaxis' strength did the magic shoot torwards the retreating form.

The pale cloud struck at the magenta and azure mass, settling upon its tendrils like a fine dew. And yet, large as the mass was, like the disease it was it seemed ot grow, reaching and forming new veins and tendrils, wrapping around the new, healthy energy. Like a devouring mass, it struck the form and began to "eat" its way over a large portion of the retreating form.

To the parts it touched, the pink and blues seemed to flicker and fade in to that ashen grey. Leaves wilted and began to fall, while other places seemed to bubble and pucker with mucuous and infection. Goop of some unknown substance seemed to dribble down any and all of its previous wounds, a black substance that stained, hissed and burned.

Let them feel a taste of their own energy.

Tangles of the attakcers energy seemed to collapse from fatigue, dragging behind, festering quickly and leaving back a rather noxious scent in its wake. As the roses wilted and left a trail of the dead, so the acid became weak and basic. . . harmless.

Perhaps not the most flashy display, but it was quite effective.

It didn't stop there, either.

Even parts that went untouched by plague felt weak and weary. Sluggish the form became, ill, distracted. Pain the had the flavor of e-bola, and a fine bloody aftertaste that stained its senses.

What part of the mass survived would be ill for quite some time, and the recovery would not be swift.

Despite finally getting his magic to cooperate, Xaxis was less than pleased. He watched not his magic at work, but merely scowled.

Quite honestly, the raven felt as sick as the retreating mass. Was he really that weak? Could he not cast a smiple spell without an after effect? Why did he feel so . . . so awful?

Nautious, but ignoring the feelings, he crossed his arms and waited for the treck to begin again. Any scolding he had planned to shove down the childrens throat had long since passed. He was far too annoyed and still embarressed by his lack of control to even think of talking. Besides which, part of Xaxis felt as if his words would be slurred and he was NOT going to admit to feeling under the weather.

He was fine, just needed to catch his breath.

At least the mass was leaving, so they could go finish up the mission.

A little arrow, still perched within Hylusis, unknown to all looked quite content and sedate.

A good lunch - now who would be around for an afternoon snack?

That's right. Everything happened. Iamels hand ended up clamped over his mouth as a wave a nasuea hit him. It wasn't the normal post-spell headache and ear-ringing (although those weren't helping) but it was somethign that twisted up his gut. Ugh.

s**t-tastic.

Savius' voice broke through and red eyes slid over to him from over his hand. "Mph." THe woodpecker agreed, nodding briefly even as he glanced over to the remaining two of the raptor squad. Slowly, his hand lowered and the woodpecker looked a bit green around the gills.

"Diacyn?" Iamel queried softly, eyes on his short friend after Savius decided they would keep going. "Xaxis? Chickies? Let's go." The eyes were still on Diacyn but only for a moment. They slid over towards the children and birds, especially Hyulsis.

"...and you are totally getting an asswhooping later. Just so you know."

The ringing slowly died and his head shook, hopping a step towards Savius. "Yes. Wipe it on the chicks. Let's go?"