From beneath the redhead's gunshot rang out a, "Cool!!" Just as loud, following the bang of the gunfire like an echo.
Gwen was staring at the two strangers with purple saucer plates instead of eyes after watching their dynamic entry and bouncing on her heels.
She looked back to Amanita, "Did you see that? Did you see them drop out of the sky? They were like nyoom! rubleoo rubleoo rubleoo pop! And then she was like," The girl mimicked Red's pause by pantomiming with her bow, "Wait lemme line up this shot first... And then she went-"
She appeared on the other side of the woman and shot her best impression of what she thought a smoldering gaze was at Keydis, never breaking her line of babbling. "Then I gotta look at you for good luck real quick baby, mwah-" Then she was back on the other side of Red, pantomiming with her bow again, "and then she went BANG!"
-
The claw marks on Laermont’s arm were an undoubted badge of honour, a mark of a warrior’s respect. He looked at them briefly before the second wicker worm caused the demvir to turn his head for a moment, but the closer one was threatening Kai. It was clear that the detective’s training was to deal with immediate threats first. The great eldritch horror seemed to strike fear into those around him, but Laermont’s massive frame appeared still and betrayed no hint of turning. His cutlass and pistol were ineffective, so from within the metallic being began to draw on more arcane powers for his response to this gigantic threat.
In front of him, a portal opened, filling the air with the distinctive scent of ozone. Two crackling lightning bolts defined it, crossed over one another. As if drawing something out of the portal, Laermont reached toward it with a gigantic metallic hand and seemed to take a ball of electricity into it. He let it fly with a grunt of seeming effort, keeping his hand open until the orb of energy neared its target. Abruptly he clenched his massive hand into a fist as it struck and exploded in a shower of sparks against the flank of the wicker worm. There was a sensation of the whole world going silent and then the great eldritch monstrosity began to turn toward him. In response, Laermont shouted at it. “Yes! Here! Come here! I am what you want!”
As the thing turned, Laermont drew his blade, squaring his shoulders and facing the it, his towering frame tall and still.
The young sniper saw the beast before him and shivered slightly, the awe he felt at the creature seemed to outshine his survival instinct as he simply stared at it. The beast didn’t have eyes, at least not things any surface dweller would recognize as eyes, and the brace of tentacles around where it’s face would be seemed to be weaving in a hypnotic way. It was as if it was ‘tasting’ the air around it to try and find its prey.
Grimacing Kaizaell attempted to snap himself out of it, but his legs and arms refused to move in the presence of the massive beast. Some part of him was sure it would sense him as soon as he moved, but another part wondered if it could smell him and would send one of its massive tentacles to smash him like a fly.
Suddenly, the creature’s attention seemed to be distracted by some kind of explosion happening underneath him. The hypnotic dance ended as the bioluminescence running up its back and ringing around its head turned and it brought its attention to something nearby on the ground.
Laermont, the dark haired soldier thought to himself, finally snapping himself out of his daze. You crazy bastard, thank Araevis you’re here.
Now, the real question was what could he do now. He didn’t know if the thing had a weakspot he could hit with precision, and his mind whirred rapidly through his options. No doubt if he directly attacked the thing he’d be scooped up or slapped down by the monster before him. He vaguely registered that a skyship had rocketed past, shooting a barrage at the nearby creature.
It howled in rage, turning its attention back and forth between the presence at the base of the tower and the now widely circling ship before losing interest as it turned in a wide arc and began an assault on the other one.
The young soldier stepped forwards, the temporary paralysis on his body seeming to have ended. He brought his rifle up and looked down it, searching for a target he could actually take.
If the naga shamans had controlled lightning, what was to stop them from controlling a beast from the deeps?
With that thought in mind Kaizaell looked for a target, anything that seemed to stand out or look odd to him. Nothing on the roofs, apparently the scalies had learned their lesson and had moved to areas that were easier to keep themselves from getting taken out by a stray sniper shot.
When he looked at the second floors of some of the houses he finally spotted something odd.
The naga was dressed in robes, peeking out from a second story window and making sure it could keep an eye on the beast, but instead of blue light wrapping its limbs, this light was a sickly greenish color. The young man couldn’t help but grin as he calculated the shot. The thickness of the walls would make it a difficult shot, but he was confident in both his skills and his father’s old hand-me-down Longinus.
He waited, his breathing short and controlled as he waited for the thing to peak out again. The size of the rounds could probably penetrate the stone that was the side of the building, but Kaizaell wasn’t ready to miss a shot with unnecessary risk. He felt, more than saw, the thudding of the beast near him as it slammed down its limbs, trying to swat at or grasp at whatever had pissed it off, but he refused to let it distract him. If anything he was a professional.
The beast peaked out again, a simple twitch of movement from the shadows and that’s when he fired. He wasn’t really able to pick his timing, relying on the target to lead the shot, so the Btoom of the rifle firing echoed across the battlefield. The naga, flinched for a moment, before falling over. Even if he’d just nicked him a sizeable hole had to have been blown in him.
He shifted his sight, seeing another movement in a building about ten meters away, and the telltale green ghostly light wrapping around his arms as he ducked for cover.
In that moment the beast’s luminescence changed from the green color to a more blue green color. It paused, for a single moment in its assault, and then seemed to flail about more wildly, striking at not only its target but the Naga who had been pushing forwards to attack the plegian forces during the distraction.
The young man grinned for a moment, going back to watching his second target, hoping the poor bastard would pop his head out at some point soon. The more control he removed from the beast the easier this would be.
"I saw," Amanita said. "Remain focused. The beast will be on us soon." She sheathed the gladius. She put a gentle but firm pressure on Gwen to keep her from bouncing around too much. They were still in the middle of a dangerous situation. "My name is Amanita Agaricales," she introduced to the two newcomers. "This is Gwen. And those giant things thus far seem resistant to both lightning and acid."
Thinking about it made Amanita suspicious. Those monsters were a perfect complement to the naga's attack strategy. It felt strange directed, such as when it retreated back through the fog. Something or someone must be controlling it. Her mind went back to how the shaman's could have influence over people.
"There may be more naga shamans nearby that are controlling this creature. Search for it and eliminate them."
Amanita stepped back from the others while drawing a symbol on the inside of her scutum. When she finished, she slammed the scutum to the ground. There was a deep orange glow as a daemon was pulled out onto the roof.
Memerosia turned to glance at Amanita with eyes wide and one brow raised.
"Yes, I summoned you when you were already summoned. Deal with it," Amanita said. She felt better having more options on hand.
Though he would never admit it, Deni had been looking forward to a fight, especially after the rift he had crafted between himself and Ignis. For the entire journey he had been restless, twitching his knee and obsessively fidgeting with his guns. He craved the heat of battle, the prickle that touched his spine, the hurricane in his gut, if only to distract himself.
The sight of Flumen Petram quelled his irrational ardor. His gills contracted at the sight of the Son of Cete. The rogue had fought people, daemons and most of everything in-between. How could he fight the stories that his mother used to tell him when he was a child?
“Serpent’s saggy tits,” he uttered in disbelief. The churning in his stomach was something different than before.
A glimmer of golden light shimmered in the darkness as the pale velen lifted the butt of the rifle to his shoulder. On the Prince’s command, he closed one eye and opened fire on the huge monster from the deep. The metal bolt soared alongside the ethereal green spears, closely followed by a volley of bolts and bullets and even the odd spell. The creature writhed in pain, lashing out at buildings, the ground itself, anything its long limbs could reach.
In the brief quiet that followed the volley, Deni heard another gunshot. His blue eyes darted to the roof of the building behind him. A sniper? Were they targeting the wicker worm? The looming shadow from the other side of the structure caught the gunslinger’s eye.
I hope that sniper’s not alone. They’re in a world of trouble.
Deni’s gaze drew to a pile of rubble that had fallen from the lighthouse. His heart sank at the idea that popped into his mind. With a groan, he broke away from the ranks of the velen soldiers. He crouched low and crept around the side of the building. Panting, he arrived on the wicker worm’s flank. Using the corner of the building for cover, he loaded another bolt into his auritium rifle, Prae Excidiis. From down on one knee he observed the creature, shifting his aim this way and that as he looked for a weak spot. All other sounds became nothing. All he could hear was the steady exhale of each heavy breath. In, then out again, as consistent as can be. Like his own heartbeat. A predictable rhythm. One pulse. Then another.
With a clank the steel bolt hurled through the air, piercing into the bioluminescence inside of what appeared to be the creature’s head.
Sodden boots squelched as they landed on the roof. The lightning had slowed, and the gravity bullets Micali had with her were more than enough to scale the two-story building and leave her with ample ammo. As she landed, rifle held across her lap, she took an instant to survey the landscape. Or at least, it’s what she would have done, had she not been blinded by an unbearable light that came from the east. The arrival of the reinforcements brought a small smile to Micali’s face - relief, mostly, that her chances of dying were slimmed, even just slightly.
A second wicker worm had appeared, and while she could probably help from where she was, she would be left open to whatever forces came from behind her - including that thing she had seen before. Gravity ammunition still loaded, Micali leapt from the side of the roof and landed squarely. The end of the downpour helped at least somewhat with the slippery nature of the landscape, just enough to ensure she didn’t slip as she continued her run across the rooftops, approaching closer and closer to Gwendolyn and the reinforcements.
She stopped short on the next roof over from them - she saw Amanita checking on Gwen, and it seemed the girl was completely fine, judging by her continued ranting. Good. Now she could focus on the task at hand. Ignoring the other two women who had appeared and assisted in the fight, the sniper pivoted on her heel, crouched, rifle raised. She popped out her clip and precisely reached into her bag’s pocket for her regular ammo. Loading it was a movement of the subconscious, something she’d done more than countless times. Eyes honed on the wicker worms, both somewhat obscured by the onslaught of barrages from the airship, the magic and gunfire from the combatants. One seemed deeply wounded, hemorrhaging a brackish fluid. The sound of a Longinus captured Micali’s attention, and her sight turned to the lighthouse, crushed and dysfunctional. The silhouette of a rifle amongst the storm clouds that swirled in a tempest above was unmistakable. Knowing she wasn’t the only sniper was a damn relief, that she alone wasn’t responsible for knowing the battlefield.
Whatever that sniper shot, however, really pissed off the nearby wicker worm. Through the throngs of naga corpses she caught sight of the glint of metal. Laermont, engaged with the second monstrosity. He was going to get himself killed, demvir or not. Her grip tightened on her rifle as she brought her finger to rest on the trigger. Once the man made a move, she’d be watching, ready to assist.
What the fuck? Keydis came up to her feet, hand on her sword, but she didn't draw it out. Her eyes were locked on the massive, tentacled monstrosity in front of her. She wasn't seeing the wicker worm, though. Instead, she saw a purplish mass, seething and bubbling, tentacles swinging, slamming, and searching. She could even smell it, a metallic tang so cold her nose burned. Her skin tingled, ached, memories of the corrosive fluids. Running, falling, burning, diving headlong into certain death. The pulse of its heart beat in her ears, loud, louder--!
Bkow!
The deafening report of a pistol, one of Red's revolvers, snapped Keydis back into the moment. Cold sweat sheened her skin, hidden under the rain, and her knuckles were white where her fist clutched her sword, still in its sheath. More gunshots rang out, and Keydis welcomed the dizzying ring in her ears. Her focus sharpened and her lip curled into its familiar, feral grin.
"It was about twice that size!" Keydis shouted out over the rain and the gunfire. Only Red would know what she was referring to, if anyone. She looked around, plotting her approach. Surprised to see Gwen there, she briefly acknowledged the girl. "Hey, Gabby! Back on both feet!"
Keydis didn't recognize the demon summoner, or the woman on the nearby roof, but it looked like everyone else had some means of attacking from a distance. It would have been smarter to let Deni's smarmy ass out on the rooftop. "Ah well, anchor the sky, right?" she muttered quietly to herself before raising her voice, "Red, cover me!"
The spiky-haired brunette whipped her sword out, holding it out to the side as she broke into a run. She hit the corner of the warehouse roof, kicking herself high up into the air, cobblestones rushing past far below. Her boots hit the corner of the next roof, where the sniper woman was, and she dipped into a roll, splashing through a puddle with the sword still held out to her right. "Don't mind me," she called out, regaining her stride just in time for another wild leap to the next building. It was much shorter than the first jump, no need for a roll.
The next jump, though… Keydis let out a yell as she jumped again, this time aiming for the building with the wicker worm's tentacles coiled around it. From that angle and height, there was no chance in hell of making the jump. The wet cobbles below rushed toward her, her black and purple half-cloaks both flaring up behind her. Keydis punched out with her left arm, biting back a hiss of pain: flashing purple in the dim light, the barbed blade of Caeancora shot out, plunging into the corner of the building.
The chain attaching the blade to her arm snapped taut, reversing the direction of her fall. Keydis swung downward and underneath the wicker worm, eyes widening as green bolts and unseen missiles whirred past, miraculously missing her. She kicked her legs forward at the very bottom of the swing. At the apex of that swing, she twisted her wrist, releasing the chain with a wet snap.
This time, Keydis thrust up with her sword, unleashing the gale force held in Promoveo's blade. The winds swirled around her, catching and pulling Keydis straight upward, passing by the undulating body of the beast. Got you now! The brunette spun, grabbing her schiavona hilt in both hands, pointed downward. With all her weight behind it, Keydis dropped on the pelagic horror, plunging the blade straight in to the hilt.
"Fuuuck!" She clung on for dear life as the fiend began thrashing wildly, clambering with her feet to try to get a grip on its slippery, fleshy body.
[629/6136]
Note
All that for one hit!
I'll do a prince turn later. Feel free to get in extra turns meanwhile.
Quick note: naga aren't actually controlling these things, but keep doing what you're doing.
Ignis angled the wings as Aeria instructed until their ascent steadied and they were soaring high over the sea. The enlil took a moment to peek out the window and take in the view. Before she’d been more focused on studying the controls. The heights they were able to reach via the Collopterus far surpassed even Ignis’ ability to get off the ground as a full-blooded enlil.
“No, there’s nothing quite like being in the air,” the avian admitted in a thoughtful voice. Over time, the heavy feeling in her stomach had eased as though being so far above Araevis was the same as being distanced from her relationship problems.
That thought was quickly discarded in favor of laying out charts and maps on the dashboard above the controls she was responsible for. After scrutinizing the varying symbols on the map, notes squeezed into the margins, and the keys in the corner of each chart and map she traced the location where Garus’ ship had last been spotted. She relayed the information quickly and concisely.
She kept her gaze between the Collopterus’ wide windows and the maps when Aeria brought up Deni. Ignis squirmed uncomfortably, remembering that she wore not her own clothes, but an outfit borrowed from her friend. She’d shown up at Aeria and Deni’s room late the night prior in a right state. Wet, crying, and naked.
Ignis had managed to explain what happened, but they hadn’t gotten much further than that. Somehow, having an audience besides Aeria made it difficult to talk about the more emotional aspects of her lover’s betrayal.
“I honestly don’t know what to say, Aeria. I don’t understand why he did it. He said he didn’t know but… I don’t believe him. He regretted it with every inch of his being, I could feel it but… I don’t know how to deal with something like this. Did that woman in Infernalis have something I failed to give him? Did he think I was dead or… did he just forget me altogether?”
After a long pause, Ignis finally concluded, “I don’t even know if we’ll get a chance to work this out. I didn’t say goodbye.” Her throat tightened at the idea of that longing glance Deni had sent her being the last image of him alive that she would ever get.
As the creature was pierced by a metal bolt that hit it with stunning force, Laermont seemed to sweep the entire battlefield with his eye plates. They caught the motion of Deni as he fired and the flailing of the eldritch beast as it was struck and assaulted, becoming increasingly angry and violent. His magic appeared to have had little effect on it other than drawing the horrifying thing’s attention to him.
As if time was slower for him, he unhurriedly sheathed his blade and drew forth his brass and steel revolver, readying it for action. With a powerful shove of his legs, he launched into a sprint and halfway through his dash across open space, his revolver let out a series of sharp cracks, bullets flying free. He appeared to be aiming the shots so that they struck in the vicinity of the bolt Deni had fired at it, seemingly trying to open that wounded area further.
He dove behind the cover of the fallen wall, his revolver empty, landing next to Deni who was crouching there. In a low voice, he spoke words of respect. “Your bolt shot of the creature was greatly appreciated. What ought we do now? I would heartily appreciate any suggestions that you might have. I suspect the sooner we bring this monstrosity down, the better for everyone concerned.”
Given a brief respite, he reloaded his weapon, checking it to make sure it was still working as his eyeplates swept over the terrible creature.
Kaizaell grimaced, trying to hold still as the tower itself shook beneath his feet. The monstrosity seemed to be ignoring him, but seemed to have no problem striking at the tower itself. The reinforced metals running through the stone walls, that usually would have been used to guide errant electricity safely within the walls, seemed to be holding for the moment though the stone itself was doing more poorly.
Keeping his eyes on the prize finally was rewarded as the figure peeked out, casting its arms out in what looked to be the beginning of a spell of some sort. The Sniper fired, again the Btoom of the rifle echoed far and wide, painting him as a target for the some groups of naga that were beginning to push forwards towards the tower. They didn’t know what was going on, but someone had ordered them to investigate the thunderous death coming to their casters.
The shaman didn’t fare so well, flying backwards as a hole was punched through his chestplate. The soldier reloaded instinctually and saw one of the packs of naga approaching from the main thoroughfare to the north-west. A group of six, one acid spitter and a group of berserkers. Kaizaell grinned, as if they were begging him to take part of his shooting gallery. He almost couldn’t have asked for a better kill-zone.
Sighting on the spitter first he fired, blowing the creature away before it even knew what was going on. The echoing retort of his rifle caused the rest of the naga to freeze for a moment while he loaded the next shell. They began to scramble for cover as the laicar heard the familiar click of his rifle telling him he’d fired his last shell and needed to reload.
Cursing to himself for losing count he quickly loaded his bullets into his rifle, then looked down the pathway, only to have lost most of the enemies that had quickly hidden themselves. A pair of the berserkers were still visible, but he couldn’t see anyone else. Sighing, he took his shots, taking out the further away serpent to not cause the one in front to panic, then shooting the one in front. Both went down quickly, but no movement betrayed any of the other naga that were hidden.
The soldier brought his rifle back up, looking for more targets when he spotted another shaman, this one hidden in the doorway of what looked like an apothecary, the green light seeming to flicker at the edge of the doorframe. He could take this one, no doubt it was panicking with the sounds of gunfire echoing across the battlefield. He only hoped it popped it’s head up soon, he needed to find other targets to take out and on a battlefield it was dangerous to waste your time focusing on a single enemy for too long.
Gwen didn't get a chance to shout, "My name's not Gabby!" Until Keydis was already a few buildings away. Amanita's admonition did bring her focus back to task though, as well as to the body felled by her arrow just moments ago.
They, she couldn't tell the naga's gender, lay still on the roof tile with her arrow, still glowing, sticking out of its throat. The look on her face went from excited to pensive, and then something unreadable and sad that should have had no business on her face.
Naga didn't crumple into dust like the shambling things at the temple. It just lie there. ... That's weird, right?
The feeling was weird, too weird, so she turned to focus on Amanita's words. She seemed like she knew what she was doing. So, eyes still glowing blue from mage eye, Gwen walked to the edge of the rooftop and scanned the skyline.
Most of the glowing, humanoid blips she'd noticed before were gone already, but new ones that glowed fainter lit up her vision instead now. Soft light hit her cheek from her bowstring as she drew it back and took aim at her new targets until she noticed a tentacle from one of the sons of Cete smash into the battlefeild, and wink out a group of the lights.
"Wait, why are they hitting their own guys?" Gwen let her spell fade in one eye and closed the other to see normally. What she saw was a group of allied forces squashed flat against the stone, not more naga bodies.
She quickly averted her eyes.
"Okay not their own guys, but why did they start glowing? They were all holding swords weren't they?" She had a mind to look back and confirm, but fear of ruining her dress with bile kept her eyes away. She opened her still enchanted eye. "Okay, what about that guy?"
She took aim at another target, a burly shape nearly as large as the spitters and carrying a sword like the same model she'd seen her Aelflead carry, though it seemed to fit more reasonably in his hand than it would in her sisters. "I wonder if she really swings those things, it doesn't seem like-No, focus."
She took aim at the middle of his back and pulled her string, but once again, a son of Cete's tentacle came crashing down on them as well. When Gwen switched eyes, she saw it was a velen in uniform, not a shaman. "Oh come on!" Frustrated and confused, Gwen opened both eyes and pulled her eye away from her bow sights.
She looked over the battlefield and through the confusing haze of half magic vision, realized that aside from the few mages, blue lights were lighting up all across the battlefield among allies. She noticed Micali as well, but she had more important things to focus on now. She could catch up after. "Are they all being turned into conduits?" She frowned, and shook her head. "No, they're still fighting Naga. That doesn't make any sense." They were certainly producing a similar effect though.
Each time an ally lit up, a son of Cete struck shortly afterwards and Gwen had to avert her eyes from the squashed mess that was left. "What the heck is happening? Are people suddenly becoming mages or something? How are they learning magic that fast? I mean, it's not hard but it's not easy either. You shouldn't be able to learn it that quick, that's weird. This is weird, something weird is going on. And why are the pretty tentacle things getting angry at people with magic? Do they not like magic?" She looked up at the son of Cete that had held her in its grasp just moments ago, scrutinizing it. "No, Amanita said they don't care about acid and lightning-well I guess those are specific kinds of magic, not all magic. Maybe they just don't like specific kinds of magic? But what about me? I don't think I know any lightning or acid spells yet, at least, I'm pretty sure I don't. Maybe sis was right when she said no Bellator magic- No wait, they grabbed me too, that doesn't make any sense. Hmm, are there anymore shamans? They were controlling the lightning, maybe they're doing something to the tentacles? But why are people getting magic all of a sudden? That doesn't make any sense. What if-"
As she stared at the monster, a faint tugging sensation made itself known on her body and she found herself more enamored with the creature. It was so beautiful. What if it did make you magic? Was that bad? "I like magic honestly, I think it's really good for making clothes and baking and fixing roads and things and if these pretty things are passing it out I mean, that's not a bad thing is it? That's like really really good- No wait, I think they're angry right now though, maybe they're giving away bad magic. OH!"
She clapped her hands together, nearly dropping her bow. "They're giving people bad magic and then... Wait, why are they hitting people with bad magic though? And why not just hit them instead of giving them bad magi-wait where are the shamans?" She continued, scrambling to re-orient her bow.
She squinted and took stock of the battlefield again, not noticing the distance the monster above had traveled in the time she'd waxed poetic about its beauty, and noticed an actual shaman this time. This one was dressed the same as the shaman she'd felled, and moving its hands in a way that seemed... Familiar somehow. The result was immediately recognizable though. A tiny flare of light appeared around the naga, then linked to a velen woman just as big as the last bruiser she saw but carrying a blunt iron bar with a handle. In the next moment, she saw a black tentacle rise up to strike her down.
"Ohhhhhhhhhh." Gwen said.
Then she looked up to see that the tentacle was... Closer than it should have been. She looked over towards the building Micali had situated herself upon, then back to Amanita and Red still standing on the rooftop nearby.
Two bronze discs appeared in the air in front of the girl with a flourish of her brush, and then she turned around to face the pair of women behind her, still holding her journal in hand and speaking rapidly. "Hey! Hey! I don't know if y'all just wanna stay on this rooftop or whatever but I don't think that it's gonna be here for very long so I'm gonna move and I'm not saying that you have to move too but I think it's a really good idea to move so like I'm gonna move and you can move with me or you can go somewhere else idk but like I think it's a really good idea to move right now? I don't know bye I guess??"
Then with that, she disappeared from view through one of the discs.
In the next moment, a flash of light passed overhead and sailed towards the son of Cete as its tentacle rose into the air and there was a familiar bright voice in Micali's ear. "Hey! Guess what I just figured out!"
bleep
Edit for cohesivity & clarity of action.
Gwen has made two portals, they'll last the round still. One follows Gwen to Micali's building where she's gonna explain really quickly what she thinks she's figured out and suggest a way to abuse that fact.
The other portal leads... The first somewhere it might help to be if you're mostly melee than ranged that's within 200m of the initial location? I don't know what spot would be most helpful otherwise, so that portal goes to wherever the first spot picked with it goes. Elsewhile it'll fade without use.
-2x TR dahlitium for this turn.
-1 TR dahlitium from the last turn.
Adept Scolepto + Aurit recurve bow = 5 magnitude Scolepto attack on the nearest Son of Cete as Gwen launches an arrow when she arrives on the otherside of the portal.
Amanita furrowed her brows trying to parse through all of the musings by Gwen. Listening to her daemon speak was easier than that. If only she could see what the young girl was seeing. Still, Amanita had received an inkling of what the enemy was doing.
She commanded Memerosia through the second portal and followed afterwards with scutum raised. They ended up at the rooftop with the giant worm flailing about as the swordswoman dangled on. Tentacles whipped through the air, coming into and out of view through the smoke and destruction. The luminescent glow was haunting within the storm. Amanita had to crane her neck up just to see the entire thing.
"Prepare a spell," she ordered Memerosia. "Don't fire it, just prepare one." She wanted to see if her hunch was right and if it would draw the attention of the worm. Hopefully, it would focus the monster enough to stop all the thrashing and let the swordswoman on board to do something.
Memerosia formed a portal that looked like two overlapping circles while Amanita stood ready with the gladius and scutum waiting to see what the monster would do.
Deni groaned as he hastily loaded another bolt into his rifle. Perhaps it was too much to ask that he could fire from the shadows until the battle was over, to lower the risk of him dying at the hands of the giant tentacle monsters from the deep. The creature thrashed, whipping its limbs in his direction. The velen rolled back behind the lighthouse as a tentacle slammed against the ground where he was. He could only just about see the wicker worm from where he and Laermont had ended up, but it was looking directly at him. The ominous light that accompanied that gaze made Deni feel cold.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Deni replied to the demvir breathlessly. “I was thinking maybe we could lay down a blanket, have a picnic. Maybe we can talk things out over smokies and cocktails.”
After he had exhausted his sarcasm, the pelagian gestured to Laermont, though he refused to take his eyes off the wicker worm.
“I have a… thing,” he began awkwardly. He was not at all fond of admitting his otherworldly abilities to complete strangers, but he might not find another chance, and after catching a glimpse of what the demvir could do standing alone on the battlefield, it would be useful to be able to coordinate their attacks. “I can link our minds, make it so we are both aware of what the other can see and feel. It’ll feel weird but don’t fight it. It will help.”
Before he could respond, the rogue placed his hand on the shoulder of the machina’s frame. The dizziness hit as Laermont’s consciousness was fused with his own. It felt different somehow to when he had used the mark on Ignis. It was difficult to describe. Fuzzy? Distorted? But they were there. Exhaustion. Uncertainty. Resolve. And the awareness of everything Laermont could see and hear, stored safely within his mind.
“I know we’ve only just met, but we should keep a little distance between us,” Deni suggested. “That way if one of us is in trouble, we won’t both be.”
The pale velen didn’t need to say anything else. Instead, he poked his head out around the corner again and fired another bolt at the chitinous creature.
[1,390]
Note
Used 1% of Deni’s max vigor to activate magnum ability. Providing Laermont does not resist, they now share each other’s awareness.
Also 'smokies' is what Deni is using to refer to a selection of smoked fish.
Red stared after the tiny spurii girl, revolvers still aimed at the wicker worm Keydis had apparently decided to ride.
“...What?” she said. She took a slow step back, still processing the veritable word vomit Gwen had thrown her way before teleporting off to a nearby rooftop - and realized that she had been left alone. “...What??” she said again, louder. Something about the worms and magic and shamans?
Her eyes darting from Keydis’s distant form clinging to the top of the wicker worm, over to where Gwen had re-appeared, Red shook her head and, with a sharp, disgusted noise, followed the spurii girl through her portal before it had a chance to dissipate.
She regretted it almost immediately. Yet another woman was over here, this one a brunette laicar with a rifle in-hand. The girl from before was chattering in her ear, but Red’s gaze was drawn back to the nearer wicker worm again - whipping to and fro, Keydis a distant smudge of color at the top of its head. It was about twice that size! Keydis had shouted, before launching her suicide attempt on the monster.
Red scowled. Famous fucking last words, she thought, torn between anger and frustration. She hunkered down near Micali and Gwen, and emptied both her revolvers into the nearer worm’s tentacled body. If her bullets were having any affect, it wasn’t one she could see - but hell if she knew what else to do.
“Hi,” Red called out over the pelting rain as she worked new rounds into Sinistra’s chamber. “Name’s Red! I got two shitty revolvers - if you got any golden tips for what I should do with ‘em,” she scowled down at her shaking fingers as she chambered Dextera next, “I’m all fuckin’ ears.”
A blur of movement interrupted the sniper’s concentration; one of the girls she didn’t know soared overhead, and Micali had to flinch down to avoid a boot to the forehead. Said girl then mounted one of the beasts, and it fell to the assassin to try and help.
“Fucking Westerners,” she hissed, her rifle rising again, and her aim near-steady before Gwen materialized beside her. The girl was a sight for sore eyes, honestly, after the...less than ideal journey Micali had been through while in Aridus.
She wouldn’t allow herself to get emotional, though, the battlefield was still raging around them, and before she had the chance to respond to the bright spurii girl, another woman followed - the second one she didn’t know. She introduced herself as Red, all sun-grazed skin and masculine energy, and just as lost as to options as Micali was.
Her half-day head start in the city didn’t give her much insight into these beasts; just that it seemed to detect her immediately upon when she spotted it initially, but that was probably due to her movement. The things didn’t seem especially sturdy along their limbs - she’d shot a chunk out of its tentacle when it grabbed Gwen, and it seemed to be sustaining damage from the main forces over time. The main carapace seemed otherwise - the shots from Dextera and Sinistra did little, even considering the range. Shooting it now to try and help the insane girl that had mounted it was just as likely to send it into a frenzy as it was to help her. The creature had no noticeable eyes, or any discernible weaknesses she could make out - though they did seem easy enough to distract, flitting from one target to the next. Micali closed her eyes, as she thought, then looked back to the wicker worm - and it looked back, several of its bio-luminescent facial tentacles writhing back around its attacking form to meet her. She looked away, eyes closed, and turned back. The tentacles had since shifted around further, then back to her. The appendages that hung from its face, changing from blue to green...were they its eyes? And why, when they shifted colours, did the overwhelming scent of salt attack her senses?
She figured she’d get the girl’s input before she potentially misled her allies. She also realized she hadn't yet introduced herself.
“Micali. Gwen - monsters aren’t really my specialty, what’d you figure out?”
Gwen drew back her bowstring again and blue light bathed the side of her face for a moment as she aimed to let loose another arrow. A grin spread across her face, in part from being near Micali again, part from pride at knowing she'd figured out something useful, though a good chunk of it was simply excitement from being listened to.
"The shamans are putting some kind of magic or something on us that the monsters don't like, to make them hit the people with magic on them! I saw them casting some weird spell or something on our guys, though I only saw it because I almost shot two of our guys-But it's okay because I didn't know they were ours and the worm things kinda smashed them before I could anyway so it doesn't matter, but what's mostly important is that I found out how to tell where the pretty tentacle things are gonna swing not that I almost shot people I wasn't supposed to cuz that y'know it's not that important. I honestly think it could have happened to anyone, I mean everything looks blue with this spell on and picking out the subtle differences is hard y'know? I for one wouldn-Sorry focusing, um-"
The girl took a breath and let her next arrow go.
It flew wide and landed somewhere in the throng of warriors on the ground.
"Uh, I think we can use that though cuz if they're using they're finding us by tracking the magic that the shamans are putting on us, then maybe that means they can't see normally, so we can trick them if we put magic on the shamans or the naga instead! They'll just attack them instead of us, like they're on our side!" She bounced on her heels as she said this and looked between the two women for their reactions, clearly pleased with her own supposed ingenuity.
Laermont nodded to Deni and wordlessly stood, he appeared to gauge the distance between himself and the wicker worm. The moment Deni fired his harpoon gun at the massive, horrible monstrosity, the demvir was up and moving. He darted out into the open and again, seemingly out of his mind, ran toward the huge creature. Once he reached what seemed to be the distance he wanted, he churned to a halt and drew his gun. Rapid calculations might have been flashing through his mind because as he shot, he aimed at part of the tower wall that was still standing.
His bullet flew toward the wall, but it was angled perfectly to bounce off of the wall and fly toward the creature. The bullet’s trajectory carried it directly on a path to collide with the wounded area that a second harpoon had hit. Not one to hang around, the detective began to circle around the creature at a fast sprint, drawing its attention away from where Deni and Kai were, trying to move as quickly as possible.
It was obvious that the creatures were using some kind of magical targeting and if their attention could be directed toward Laermont, it followed that it would leave an opening for other attackers to exploit. It didn't appear to phase the inspector that he was being tracked by it.
Far and away to the northeast, the Volitans soared over the sea of Aquilonia. Aelflead, Dante, and Maswae had spent most of the trip in silence, with the old grayscale focused on piloting, Aelflead on what she would say to Drars Ulupi, and Dante worrying over how Aeria was faring in her own journey to the west. The statue of black onyx was lashed tightly to the cargo area, but Aelflead found herself checking and rechecking the bindings from time to time.
Everything rested on getting the statue to the naga intact. There was also something about the artifact that tugged at her velen heritage.
"Storms on the horizon," Maswae announced, only tilting his head slightly over his shoulder, keeping his eyes ahead. The two passengers looked but couldn't make anything out. The sky still seemed bright and blue. Sensing their doubt, he assured them, "You get a feel for these things. Comes with experience… and age." He shrugged. "It's a good thing this time, but still makes my bones ache. Means we're nearly there. Those ophids keep their storms close when in unknown territory."
It was nearly a quarter-hour before Aelflead and Dante could make out the dark grey line of storm clouds. Right about then, Maswae pointed toward the water. "There's the island." It was barely visible as a line of green from this distance.
The island where they were set to meet the shaman and her entourage was barely large enough to call that. It was a crescent shape, an old volcano that had long ago collapsed in on itself, leaving a stony ridge surrounding a lagoon. It was in the eastern reaches of Aquilonia, close to the Chlorae Ocean, and the geography was relatively neutral ground. The features of the island came into focus and as the airship made its final approach below the dark clouds, they could see the shaman and two dozen heavily armored naga already there in the shallows waiting for them. The guards were large in their own right, but Ulupi dwarfed them all, monstrous in size, adorned in rings and bands of bright metals and shining gems.
The black clouds overhead were ominous, blotting out most of the sunlight, but it was not actually raining. That was equivalent to waving a banner of truce for the ophidians, akin to a display of weapons locked in their sheaths. "Sure hope his highness is making the right choice, here. They don't look so friendly."
The Callopterus sailed the skies over the Occidens, far to the west, and then beyond, to the Tenebrae Ocean. The source of countless tales to scare children, purportedly filled with dangerous and deadly beasts of all shapes and sizes. There were stories of massive squid-like monsters the size of houses; by the time you saw one, it would be too late. Massive leviathans, great sea-dragons, and all sorts of aberrant and corrupted fauna filled the ocean. At least, that's what all the stories told.
Aeria and Ignis watched the water-line below. There was actually a clear line where the deep blue waters of the Occidens rolled up against the darker indigo waters, waves from the two bodies of water crashing against each other from opposite directions. The winds seemed to shift directions in the sky at the same time, and Aeria had to fight to keep control for several nail-biting moments.
Durio Sea made her way to the front of the Sky Cutter to tell the other two that she was going to begin trying to locate Garus. "Please keep things as steady as possible. I need a clear surface to get the best results." The blue-robed scryer had spent most of the trip in the rear with the statue, carved from white marble. Beneath her robes, her skin was a bright cyan color, and although she had some gray scales, she looked fit and healthy for her age.
Durio brought out a silver-colored bowl set atop four legs, etched with runes and sparkling. "From the city, something interfered and prevented me from properly locating Captain Garus. It was different from when a person is dead, however. Even though I could not find him, I could still feel that he exists in this world. Now that we are in the dark waters, I believe we've passed the interference. I hope."
With her explanation out of the way, Durio seated herself on the deck and placed the alchemical font between her folded knees. She sat down a lacquered black box and opened it, revealing an array of small vials, numbered and labeled. Barely even looking, she selected three vials and poured them into the small bowl, filling it nearly to the brim with thick, mercurial liquid: terra regia volantis. Once the mirror-like liquid settled on the surface, free of ripples, Durio pulled out a smaller bottle and carefully added three precise drops.
The concoction began to smoke around the edges of the bowl, creating a haze over the scrying font, through which an image began to take form…
A broad room lit in somber blue-purple light, underwater. The walls of the room were lined with statues of ophidians, remarkable in quality. In the center of the room, a throne in the form of a deep bowl made of sea coal, draped in kelp rather than cloth.
To the right hand of the throne floated a towering serpentine woman, with iridescent black scales, clad in mail of red metal and bleach shells, arms covered in tattoos down to her finger-tips. Behind her head was a broad cobra's hood with bony ribs. Her teeth were translucent, eel-like. This would be Drars Etiirshaii.
In the throne itself, a broad-chested ophidian perched, his eel-like tail coiled in the bowl. He was larger even than Etiirshaii, but with skin of deep purple and scales of matte black, and while he had a broad cobra's hood, it was smooth, without the bony ribs. A crown of violet coral set with a single, large sapphire adorned his head, and he wore gold-tinted plate armor over his torso. King Tsildasiir.
In front of them, three prisoners: a long-haired laicar, somehow untroubled by the depths and the lack of air; a large velen woman going by the name Diamantus; and the orange-scaled, heavily-scarred Captain Garus, wounded, weakened, but alive.
The king was speaking, "… blood for blood, as it has always been."
Garus gave a resigned nod, but then met the king's eyes squarely. "Our ways must change, both velen and ophidian. If I must pay for my actions, so be it. Diamantus does not share my guilt, however, and she is not even a member of the Pelagian military. This man here has also committed no offenses against your people. Take my life to satisfy your need for blood, but send these two as envoy to the Emperor. Do it before more blood is shed, so that this cycle can end."
"Why should we trust anything from a velen?" the king asked in a sinister hiss. "Envoy? Informants more like, to give away the location of our city and invite another raid!"
[1186/7322]
Notes
Wanted to get more, but this is all I could manage for tonight. We're going full chaos and keeping everything in this one thread.
Myst and Threads: I would like one or both of you to write Ulupi. She's more reasonable than Etiirshaii, but still doesn't trust the velen. I honestly just need a small break from writing everywhere.
Moon, Dys, and Inks: First off, assume Garus cast water-breathing on Lea (lasts about 8 hours). Feel free to respond and if you choose, you can write the king or Etiirshaii's responses. Iszikke is also present. Etiirshaii still wants them dead, Iszikke wants to send them to the emperor, Tsildasiir is on the fence but leans toward bloodshed. None of them are aware yet that the statue is already being returned. The scryer will say something to Garus in my next turn.
Everyone else: I will write a prince/enemy turn hopefully tomorrow.
"Bell-damned slippery bastard!" Keydis shouted breathlessly as she fought to keep hold of her sword even as her body flapped and slapped against the rubbery sides of the oversized squid.
Then a tentacle slammed in, smashing Keydis. Pain blossomed everywhere, her head rattling as if she'd just been slammed face-first into a curb. Hot blood splashed over her lip. Her armor protected her ribs, at least.
The tentacle slammed in again, a whip the size of a ship. Her vision flashed white, colored spots swimming, and one hand slipped off her sword. Hanging by one hand, Keydis tried to tighten her grip on the sword. She turned, seeing the worm's limb about to come in for a third strike. A flush of sudden strength suffused her, focusing all of her pain into a bestial growl of determination. Keydis locked her elbow against the worm's body. The tentacle slammed in again, this time followed by a pained whistle from the beast. It yanked its tentacle away, revealing it to be impaled on one of the barbed blades of Caeancora, conjured up from the corruption eating away at her.
With that yank, Keydis was pulled away, ripping her sword free in a spray of disgusting, dark blood. She twisted her wrist, breaking free of her vistra-spawned arm blade, leaving it buried in the beast's flesh. She dropped, landing heavily on the rooftop below, stumbling to one knee but quickly shoving herself back up and jogging ahead, swaying but in one piece.
Sliding one foot in a wide arc, Keydis turned around to face the bloodied horror. Her own blood ran from her smashed nose and split lip, but she hadn't lost the fiery glint in her eyes or the manic grin on her lips. She gripped the wrist of her sword arm.
Casting a look over, she saw the demon summoner nearby and noted the sword. "Its skin is like thick leather armor," she called out. "Don't half-ass it!" Then she rushed ahead, slashing at the bulbous body, drawing a deep line that seeped out more of the brackish cruor. She didn't stay in one place, though, dashing away before the worm could retaliate then ripping into it one more time.
While one wicker worm faced a barrage of relentless attacks, the one coiling and twisting around the lighthouse faced attackers with precision and tactics. The blow to the 'head' particularly seemed to harm it, and some of the smaller tendrils that waved around it lost their glow. It seemed slower to focus, attacking with just as much terrible strength but without the deadly accuracy of its brother.
It coiled tentacles around the lighthouse and squeezed. The tower began snapping and cracking before even more of it crumbled to rubble. The worm snapped a tentacle forward, launching a barrage of stone and cracked wooden beams in Deni's direction, then threw a second pile of debris at Laermont.
In and around the buildings, the naga forces retreated out of sight. The concentrated sniper fire was too much for them to contend with. Ophidian shamanistic power was aptly called 'wild magic' and while it was terrifying in its raw ferocity, it could not be channeled precisely. Therefore the naga fell back to the tighter streets of one of the city's residential districts, with innumerable alleyways and roads that curved to break the lines of sight.
Without the shamans cloaking the unsuspecting Pelagian forces with surges of magic, the wicker worms stopped attacking at random, and instead began to focus attacks on the greatest threats.
"Your highness! Tofradeity!" Driweus was beside himself, unsure whether to be ecstatic or alarmed, whether to fight or to bow. The orange-scaled captain lost the luxury of debating over it as one of the deadly tentacles snapped down toward the prince. Driweus called out a chant and conjured up a shield in front of Prince Caput. The tendril slammed against the barrier, which held for only a moment before cracking and shattering into wisps of spent energy.
Just long enough for Caput to grab Driweus by the shoulder and pull him along to safety. The tentacle slapped heavily into the cobblestone road and Caput wasted no time in thrusting his slender sword into it. The blade pierced easily into the tough, springy flesh, but the wound seemed shallow, and the brackish fluid that seeped out engulfed them in the smell and taste of rotting fish.
Driweus swapped places, this time grabbing the taller prince and tugged him away at a dead run before the tentacle began to thrash side to side. "What are you doing here, your highness?!" It was known that the prince never left the capital.
"Captain, we're here on a mission of peace!" Even as he said it, Caput was unleashing another barrage of magic toward the body of the wicker worm.
"I can see that, sir," Driweus remarked uncertainly, holding his saber up defensively as he eyed the many sweeping limbs. "But I mean…"
"No more velen casualties," Caput ordered fiercely. "Attack! Force the beasts to retreat or put them down! Then we will deal with the ophidians. I will deal with them."
The worm facing the bulk of the forces from the ground and the nearby rooftops already looked harried and desperate. Five of its tentacles had been severely wounded or severed entirely, but it continued to whistle and shrill angrily. The one clinging to the lighthouse seemed in better shape, though it was noticeably sluggish in its own movements, seeming to have trouble following its more coordinated attackers, chasing after the demvir detective in between lashing out toward the snipers harassing it.
"Stop casting, Prince, wicker worms are drawn to magic!" Driweus shouted, slipping into Himai in the heat of the moment.
Caput nodded and fired off another spell before answering in common, "I know, Captain. I won't fall here, though, and if you have doubts, then protect me!" Bravery or foolishness, it was difficult to tell. The prince had never seen open combat, never seen battle beyond the training and sparring around the palaces. There was no foundation for his confidence.
Yet for all his lack of experience, the man commanded the magic of Bellator with rare talent, his body moved with grace and his sword struck with precision. He fought, ignoring the protests of Driweus, darting in toward the groups in greatest peril and either fending off the monster's attacks himself or forcing the surrounding warriors to converge on him with protection and shields, concentrating their defenses around him and whoever he had rushed to. And then, they followed him.
In that way, with his mere presence there on the battlefield, the prince coordinated the Orca's warriors. They were drawn to him, attacking where he attacked, defending together as attacks honed in on them. The wicker worm let out another pained shrill as another tentacle burst free in a shower of oily blood.
Instead of aiming to finish the wounded monster, Caput abruptly turned his back to it, trusting implicitly that the others would cover him, as they did. Air crackled and hissed as he summoned more infernal power, tracing an invisible line between himself and the worm above the lighthouse. A flash erupted as the latent force made its connection, a searing lightning bolt ripping through the air between the prince and the monster. Thunder followed after, partially drowning out the angry warbling as the worm faced its tendril-covered head toward him.
It might not have done much harm, but the worm slapped blindly at the demvir and snipers before it rushed toward Caput, tentacles thrashing wickedly, cracking the road as it surged forward.
[904/8595]
Notes
No real need to update the map, I don't think.
WW A, on the right side of the map, only has four tentacles left, is wounded all over (barrages of pistol fire, arrows, sword slashes, plus concentrated barrages from the prince and others), and is likely ready to try to get away. Whoever's in its way as it tries to flee, though, is going to get attacked. Its most likely avenue of escape is east, away from the prince and most of the Orca's forces -- which is going past Gwen, Micali, Red, Keydis, and Amanita. You could let it go... but that would mean that a Tenebraean monster would be loose in the Copiae Ocean.
WW B, on the left side, has fewer overall wounds, but there shots have been more focused, including a serious blow to its 'head' by Deni. It's disoriented, but still dangerous. It tore up more of the lighthouse (might put Kai in peril) and threw cones of debris at both Deni and Laermont, and is now aggroing the prince.
Thanks to the concentrated sniper attacks on the lurking naga, they were driven back. This means that people aren't going to get attacked without warning anymore, but also that you can expect the worms to focus all their attacks on one or two particular targets.
If you can force the second worm to retreat, it will flee westward, which will take it to the Basal Lake and (hopefully) back to Tenebrae.
