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 Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 10:53 pm
It was like watching the ending of a horror movie unfold before his eyes.
She was dead - no -
They were both dead - weren't they? Gale wasn't sure.
The creature - the huge, enormous, leather winged creature was gone, in a cloud of ash and smoke, and their instructor's body - the invincible Caelius - lay face down in it, the glowing scythe gone and the death hunter unmoving.
What happens now?
<< ..... >>
There was no sound from Jinhai except a low, barely audible murmur. Gale felt his chest grow tight, his lips pressing more firmly together.
A pale blue light glowed beneath the ratty, dirt stained shirt of his uniform. His fingers dug beneath the cloth and pulled out the pendant, holding it in one worn, gloved hand.
Let's go, Jinhai.
He didn't look at the others, his thumb pressing into the center of the rune. There was a flash of light, and Gale disappeared from the battlefield entirely.
[ EXITING ]
[ HP: 40/40.
Target: N/A.
Damage: N/A.
Charge: 2/3
Charged Attack: Diamond Dragon of Fucanglong: For a limited time, when Jin is shot, tiny ribbons of crystallized ice twist around with the bullets, giving them more force and causing more discomfort to the target. Gale uses "The Battle Cry." ]
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 10:57 pm
The feeling of helplessness was strong, as damien watched on as Red used the last of her strength to protect them not by destruction but with the manner that was befitting of a teacher with her students.
A mournful cry erupted from the hound when the human came forward to violate her body even in its passing, It was clear to the Dog that he had no honor. The image would be forever burned in his mind. always there and never forgotten.
The fact that he lost a teacher was even colder than the ice that formed in front of them. The cries of mourning came down like a torrent but the green eared boil was not ready for tears yet as he rushed off to collect the shattered fragments that was Red's skull.
He didn't care, she was not going to rest here in this blank lonely world.
But it was hard to deny how shaky his fingers were, trying to collect each and every part in is shirt and watched it all tumble out into a clatter behind clenched fists.
"IS THERE ANYONE WHO'S GOING TO HELP ME HERE OR WHAT?!" he cried out in frustration and the hopelessness of the situation, fisting the ground like the blame was all on it. No, tears did not need to be shed yet.
not while the skull was not in its true final resting place.
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 10:57 pm
Jordan stared at the still tableau for long moments. Then he said, "Madison, Ennea - make sure the others are all right, okay? I'll meet you back at home." Without waiting for an answer, he strode towards where the senior Death Hunter lay in the ashes, awkwardly gathering him up before activating his own pendant in a blue flash.
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 10:59 pm
During the last cry of students, Bul was beginning to fade into his own world, a world where he had to make very critical decision. Even wailing out in pride was exhausting to him and his recently scorched body but he was coherent enough to watch everything that happened. Biting his lip he bowed slightly into the ground until it was time to move into the safety of the groups of students around him in which he stumbled back into the ground upon the sudden activity from Red once more.
"Do you really think that this is how it was meant to be?"
YOU ARE HALLOWEEN YOU CANNOT DIE
Laughter. Laughter was all that flowed from Bul's throat now, victorious, actually cheerful laughter. No he hadn't cracked and no he hadn't gone off the deep end. What Red said sounded so encouraging to him that as soon as it happened his face was FROZEN- which was not in any way related to the ice barrier she had provided for them.
First she began to fuse out of color crumbling into a level of despair he would never experience. He watched her as she grew weaker and weaker until the calm shudder seemed to crawl across the plain in which they stood. Some students remained crouched, some stood proud and Bul had to stand as he was prepared for Red to pull off a final miracle. On shakey legs he raised his hands, throwing them up triumphantly and screaming incoherently for Red, filled with ecstasy from the battle-
He screamed until IT happened.
That look of pleasure of cocky, selfish pride twisted now into a nauseated terror that left an unpleasant taste in the half beasts' throat. A hunter brought his scythe down into Red and destroyed her. LITERALLY ERADICATED HER BODY into a pile of ash and a couple shards of bone. Bul threw his hand over his mouth and fell back to the ground on his knees. Oh how he felt sick. Everything around him, the smell, the sound, the sight, he wanted to heave-
Instead, and fortunately, tears were the only thing that escaped his face, leaving trail in the dust that had collected there in the short time he'd been in the domain. Red... their very most IMPORTANT asset, a wonderful instructor and one ******** hell of a monster was obliterated.
OBLITERATED.
Bul felt every last ounce of pride wash away. He was nothing but ashamed now. Bare naked, ashamed, filthy. All he could feel was guilt that he and his peers could do nothing for her and her last words were hardly anything to be proud of. But they WERE Halloween.. and he had to remember that, he just
had to.
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:01 pm
So.. they'd won.
Right?
Then why did everyone look like they'd lost?
Robert reached out and tugged Petra's hand into his own, before wrapping his arms around Ennea and Madison. Something wrong had happened here, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He thought, the big bad monster was defeated, this was a good day.
Wasn't it?
He could hear the wailing of the students. The screams, the tears. Why did it sound sickening? Why did it make his stomach churn, as if they'd all done something wrong?
As soon as Jordan picked up their leader and teleported away, he squeezed the trio of girls and nudged them gently. "Let's get out of here. This place stinks."
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:02 pm
It was over.
Oh, Cass was never so happy to see something end as she had been that. She seemed to sigh in relief, Nicodemus unsummoning in her hands, a simple chain in her hands. She took a moment to put it around her neck before she looked to her companions.
"We made it." her voice shook as she spoke and after a moment her entire body began to shake as well. No, she couldn't let the sudden terror of what could have happened descend upon her. It would just birth those.. things. More of them. But still, she couldn't help it. The rush of adrenaline was leaving her and... the pendant called to her. She looked out to Caelius who was in the ashes of the creature, debating moving out to him.No. She wouldn't. He had just accepted the greatest of victories they could have had that day.. perhaps even more than one victory at the rate they were going, but...
The hunters had won that day. She even had a boot as a trophy to show for it. Albeit it wasn't a very nice boot, but eh. A boot. She'd hold onto it in case the dog boil wanted it back.
Like Gale, Cass soon noticed the calling of the pendant around her neck, digging through her vest to pull it out and stare at the run on the front.
"Guys. I'm ready to go home now. I'll..... let's check in on each other when we get to there, alright?" she asked, before she also pressed the center of the rune and was devoured by the light, vanishing as well.((And then Cass made the whole group spoon with her out of distress when they got home, the end.))
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:03 pm
Junko had laughed herself breathless, collapsing to her knees and sitting on the ground near the others as they worked. She felt...useless. She wanted to help but she couldn't bring herself to really do much of anything. She was done. Junko wanted to go home and sleep. Sleep and sleep and cry and sleep some more. Possibly cry some more too. Junko was rubbing her face, spreading the drying blood from Shehk's head around a bit more until Red suddenly...laughed. She looked up, terribly confused again. Cannot...die?
Junko's bottom lip trembled as she listened to Red's words, her jaw slack and her glowing eyes wide and brimming with tears. They could not die. Then..then that meant Red couldn't die either! It had to! Red couldn't die! She wouldn't die! She'd be okay! Any minute now she'd turn back into the professor they all knew. Just...any second now.
....Any...second...
No, instead Red breathed fire at them again. Junko cried and covered her head defensively, only to find she felt no pain. She opened her eyes and looked around, lowering her arms. A..barrier?
Red protected them.
More tears welled up in Junko's eyes as she stood on shaky footing. "Red...wh..what are you..." There was a movement and Junko followed it, watching as it moved closer and closer to Red. "..No..." He moved closer. Junko's eyes widened as she scrambled to the edge of the barrier, pressing her hands flat against the ice.
"No! Nono...no..." The scythe was raised. Junko's hair lifted. "Nononononono.. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Junko shrieked, pounding her fists against the barrier's wall as the hunter killed their professor once and for all. Their protector. Their Red.
"Red?! RED?!" The skull made her stomach lurch and she gagged, a hand flying to cover her mouth. No...NO! "YOU SAID WE CAN'T DIE! RED! NO! No..." She slid down to her knees, dragging a hand down the wall of the barrier and just staring at the ashes. The hunters...they..they'd won? No. No, that wasn't possible. There was no way. Any second now Red would just...magically appear. She'd reform. There was so much FEAR in the world she had to! She just...she had to.
"She's...she's not coming back..." Junko finally choked out, pressing her hand hard against her mouth and hiccuping. Red wasn't coming back. Red was gone.
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:05 pm
No.
No.
Oh Jack, please, no---
Tears welled in her eye as the flames began, but it wasn't due to fear; it was the knot in her stomach, the gnawing of dread in the back of her head. This wasn't right. This wasn't fixing it. She cringed when the light became too bright, but as it faded she was too afraid to open her eyes. They wouldn't open, for fear of what they would see.
At first, the silence was deafening. Painful, agonizing, deafening silence.
It was enough to make her look, to peer through the protective ice at the stone-cold remains of their beloved Teacher. Her shoulders shook, pure emotion welling in her throat. No, Red...no, this can't be--- There were no words; she couldn't say a thing.
The laughter started, shaking her to her core.
No.
No.
Oh jack, no, please, don't-
By the time she could drag herself to the ice barrier, it was over. Her once resolve to strike the barrier came down in a weak ghost of what it should been, bumping harmlessly off. She was too late. The Hunter destroyed the shell of what was once a beautiful, dangerous creature. All she could do was stare, tears streaming down her cheek until, finally, the wail of despair tore free from her throat, and she sank to her knees, her fist still against the ice.
Red...
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:09 pm
Danny stared up at the beast that was Red. Even an idiot like her could tell that something wasn't right. She was arguing with ... herself? No it wasn't her. It was someone else? Maybe it was just a hallucination developing from being so worn out. One thing rang out in Danny's head, echoed across the battlefield, and drove right straight into her heart.
HALLOWEEN. CAN. NOT. DIE.
Her legs went weak all over again at the tremendous force, and she collapsed onto the ground again. A thin layer of blue covered her vision. It seemed like a shield of some kind ... Danny could see spikes ... but she chalked that one up to fatigue as well. It was all just a dream. A dreammm.
Red dying, that was a dream too. It was all some sort of act. After all, that wasn't even Red right? Red was Amity's werewolf, who barked orders (pun quite intended) in her gym class. Danny loved Red, she was probably her most favorite teacher.
Caelius started smashing the stone where Red had "died" and ashes scattered everywhere. Though it was tremendously sad, and Danny was shaking, she couldn't help but think it was pretty. Ash fall was common where she was from, and Danny thought it looked beautiful. The only thing that ruined the scene was that Caelius, banging away on the stone where Red lay. He was a human in every sense of the word.
"We are halloween," Danny said weakly, "And we cannot die." Then consciousness slipped from her grasp, and she faded into darkness.
((Mandy has permission to carry Danny out~))
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:09 pm
Madison wobbled on her feet, unable to move - the girl who had climbed up the behemoth not an hour before was frozen stiff, her arms clamped around her body as she shivered and watched, still cold under the weight of both her coat and Jordan's. Had she really blushed, momentarily, when he put the coat on her shoulders? She couldn't remember. Not any more.
(Had she really climbed that? No, no, impossible; it was distant as a dream.)
When it was all over, a bit of the behemoth's skull bounced her way; she scooped it up automatically, holding it to her like a lifeline. She remained in place until Jordan spoke, only then snapping out of her fugue. Robert's hug helped, and she leaned into his reassuringly warm form, hoping distantly that Petra didn't mind. "Y-yeah. Let's go. Now. Right now."
She didn't want to stay here a moment longer. Her fingers fumbled up, worked her pendant out from under the stained scarf. A moment later, she vanished.
((EXITING.))
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:10 pm
Cass had hugged him and certainly it had hurt against freshly acquired burns but he certainly wasn't going to give Leon the pleasure of seeing him cry out in pain or wince so he simply steeled himself up and took it until she went away or was dragged away whichever happened first. Either way he wasn't going to give Leon something else to chuckle about.
He'd observed the things gathering or trying to gather. Trying to do something.
Then the scene unfolded once more and he could do nothing but watch and listen. An overwhelming tiredness filled him when it became evident they couldn't go recapture those on the field or really do anything at all. He would have gone to get Caelius but someone was already on it so he let it be.
Struggling up to his feet he simply dusted himself off pausing only to look over at Cass and giving her a small nod. At least they could retreat now. Desummoning his weapon he touched his pendant and then he was gone.
In all likelihood he was going to get yelled at again if not by Caelius then someone else.
(EXITING)
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:10 pm
It was where she had slowed before that Toby remained, and there, staring in complete transfixion so unlike herself, was where the falsicorn found herself to be a sudden, miserable captive. The 'protection' of it felt so horribly irrelevant as she watched, half-blind stars in her eyes, as the great beast spoke its last-- ... or no. No, that wasn't even right. It was no beast before her; it was Professor Red, and this was a last will she had to honor by listening intently.
She felt her insides double up on themselves, and her bony equine knees finally gave out beneath the cold tremors. Down, on her stomach, for the first time she wanted nothing more than to close her eye and succumb to her own blindness, because it meant no longer seeing the horrible scene in front of her.
That human was a creature more monstrous than any of them, and what had she done?
She had run for her life like a coward. She had failed to protect her rider. She'd never even spotted the others of her group again since the benign puzzles which felt so long lost, and Jack only knew of Shehk and Nuk and Sammy were still alive, let alone alright. They probably weren't, though. Who would be after something like this?
Her whole body was shaking. Her ears pinned back. She hung her muzzle down by her forelegs and just breathed in, and out, with a painful sort of slowness. She might've only possessed one horrible bloodshot eye, but it was still glossier than it probably should've been from the threat of oncoming tears.
"Why..." It felt sickening and wrong. "Why did this happen?... This can't be how it was supposed to... It can't..." The sound that came out of her was probably a hiccup, but a soft one. Toby wanted Iris. She wanted to bury her face in his fur and cry. She wanted comfort, just like she wanted answers, and a sense that things would be alright, because oh, this felt so incredibly, terribly bad.
"What did we do to them for this?" she asked to nothing in particular, her gaze lifting if only to watch the retreating form of those things called humans. She wasn't even sure if she could hate them entirely, but the shapes alone made her feel violently sick. She just... she couldn't take this... after everything, after all the keeping quiet and... and... "What did we do to you?!"
It was perhaps the first time in her life she'd ever raised her voice so suddenly, let alone yelled, and with such aggression at that. She was on her feet and kicking at the barrier with both her bloody forelegs before she even realized it. "This isn't survival!" she knew she'd regret saying it, but suddenly, she didn't care. Propriety could wait. "This is slaughter! This is trying to bury your jackdamned insecurity and fear under the bluff of being predators! Is that truly fulfilling to you, humans?!"
... The regret hit about then, or at least, the misery crippled her once again, her head sinking until she could only rest her muzzle against the icy wall and shake in silence.
This was, truly, the worst thing she had ever witnessed.
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:12 pm
When there was silence instead of a roar, when there was a chill instead of flame, Savior rose from behind the rock to look out upon the scene. She was alive, all those inside the barricade alive. Friends, others, everyone - they all stood there basking in the colorless light that was cast upon the field by the dying body of the beast. Students were wailing, screaming. Some where pounding on the shell that covered them like insects trying to escape a cage, while others simply stood mute and watched. Bodies collapsed to their knees as grief overcame all over senses, and Savior looked around to spot those she had considered her companions. They would need her, this was...it was hard to explain.
The Marrowstripe had been raised alone, depended on no one this far into her life, so the idea that she had been saved more than once by fellows was baffling. She was confused, but not in the usual manner - it was an emotional tugging she couldn't process. Simple feelings like anger or happiness she could understand, they were basic and didn't need explaining, but anything complex left her with a nagging sensation and a bad taste of something beyond her scope of comprehension. Her soul ached, if that were possible, and it wasn't the same pain as when her flesh had been on fire. This pain was in her head, in her chest, and the monster was surprised to find something was running from her eyes and over her mask, something she'd honestly never experienced before.
Savior was crying, she was mourning, and a series of whistles issued forth from her entire body, an eerie call and hymn dedicated in passing to the woman who had saved her life; Red.
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:13 pm
Her attention shifted her Red, her hand still holding on to Tybalt's arm. She watched and listened, the adrenaline in her blood and the tension in her ribcage were making her feel jittery. Her hands shook and her wings trembled faintly against her back. As the smoke thickened, she squinted her eyes to try and see if she could keep an eye on the teacher. But as the glyphs went out, Red's shape was harder to make out.
Without warning, the fire washed over her and everyone of her fellow student. The light was blinding. She flinched, covering her eyes until the light dimmed. The demoness gazed up at the barrier of ice that surrounded everyone. Simone returned her gaze towards the teacher, surprised by the faded grayscale that surrounded Red. Something in the pit of her stomach sank like a stone. Red wasn't moving. She looked like a statue, stone cold as the rock that supported her.
Tears pricked at her wide eyes, threatening to fall. The sight of Caelius destroying what was left of Red caused them to drop freely and heavily down her cheeks. The demon gave a furious and mournful cry. Her ears were ringing, her mind reeling from what had happened. Simone covered her mouth with one of her hands, tears rolling across the back of her hand and down her wrist.
Red was no more. Utterly destroyed, save for a few fragments.
An anger burned in her chest, a hatred for those who had done this. It wasn't fair!
A familiar voice prevented her from spiraling deeper into the pit that had formed in her stomach, filled with the bitter bile that threatened to rise into her throat in response to what she had bore witness to.
Halloween would never die! So long as she and those that had seen what happened today were around, they would never, ever let it die!
"Night!" She whipped herself around, her own aches and twinges dulled by shock. "Oh, Tybalt, my kitten is okay."
Lust ran for his voice, her despair causing her to hiccup as she ran. Spotting him, she ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck. The demon shook all over and didn't give a damn if her sprint had caused a few of the strips of latex that kept her decent snap. They were mostly around her waist anyway, mostly. She held on as if he'd disappear from the world if she let go.
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:17 pm
Jeremy watched the display, but when it was over, all he could feel was relief. The Sun Hunter sighed heavily, one hand on his hip while the other ruffled through his hair, thinking on how close everything had been. At first he did try to make a move to the bossman, but it seemed Jordan had already picked him up; when Cass spoke, he turned his attention towards her. "Yeah, I'm ready too." He submitted with a shrug, putting his burnt and tattered uniform jacket back on. "Whew, glad that's over." One creature less to worry about, in his opinion. "I'll follow you in a minute, I just have to find Ariane." He waved to Cass until she vanished, and headed the slight way to the battlefield, to stop at Bix, Before, and the weakened Ariane. "Hey there, If you don't mind, I'll take over the Princess from here?" Jeremy's voice sounded soft for once, friendly. He felt guilty over not having been able to help her this entire time, but the least he could do was help take her home. "I'll make sure she gets there safe and sound." The Hunter promised, adding she's as precious to me as she is to you under his breath. Leaning down he helped her up, or at least held her as he took both their pendants, porting them both out before anyone could protest. (( Jeremy has left the building - with Ariane! ))
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