|
Post by HungryHunter on Jun 22, 2019 5:43:40 GMT
“Yeah, I’ve seen those ribbons before. Never seen one of these brain guys though.” Dan ducked and weaved as best he could, but multiple ribbons passed through his slow body. He remembered being shot, the bullet piercing through without pain initially. He remembered his wife, lying bald and frail in a hospital bed. But he also remembered good times. Birthday parties. First kisses. Beachside walks. Mind flooded with information, he stumbled to a stop, trying to sort his head out. Fortunately, Leone’s attack was effective. Her fireballs lit up its greasy flesh, making it drop to the ground. Its mental scream cut through Dan and Leone’s minds, dropping Dan to his knees. “Frigging hell, this thing!” He growled, managing to kick out and send it sprawling. It continued to scream and threw out more ribbons of light, trying to overwhelm Leone and Dan with sheer information overload.
|
|
|
Post by Vapovile on Jun 30, 2019 23:43:08 GMT
A smile began to appear on Leone's face...until the creature began to scream and attack their minds once more. "I thought that nasty crap was supposed to stop this!" Leone yelled in annoyance. More false memories began to flash through Leone's mind, almost as if dreams were taking over her mind while she was awake. Glaring toward the creature, Leone reached to her side and pulled out a strange oval-shaped object with ridges along the outside. "Stand back, Dan! This is going to be messy!" Pulling a pin out of the grenade, Leone lobbed it in the direction of the mind-altering creature.
The grenade would unleash a violent explosion of fire and shrapnel. The grenade was filled with napalm, which Leone hoped would cover the monster in a coat of burning hellfire that would kill it without much more involvement from the both of them.
|
|
|
Post by HungryHunter on Jul 1, 2019 19:34:08 GMT
“I’ve touched those threads before. Trust me, that gunk is making this a lot more tolerable. Normally it would take our own memories in exchange for new ones.” Dan raised his fists to pummel the brain to bits, but Leone yelled to stand back, and stand back he did. Just in time too, as Leone’s grenade lit half the room on fire. Dan’s aura dampened the little flecks of shrapnel that riddled him, leaving him only with little scratches, but he was left gasping for a few seconds as the fire devoured every bit of air it could get its burning hands on.
The brain danced in silhouette, edges flickering and curling away like a leaf. Its mental scream rose to a nigh-deadly keen before abruptly cutting off. Something that might have been a skeleton crumbled to ash as the flames died down, leaving only a little crumbly bits of monster. They resembled little more than scraps of burnt sponge. Dan breathed a sigh of relief and trudged through the ashes towards the back of the room. “...hey, Leone. I think Abijah’s out of delay tactics.” He peered through the door at the back and saw something that shouldn’t be there. Abijah stood on an impossible cliffside with the kid from Greenwater Pier. Haruko lay strapped to a bed before them, standing over her...
“Yamiko…” Dan mumbled. “How!? Leone, be ready! Abijah is no longer the most dangerous person in the room!” His fists raised and he rushed in, trying to tackle Yamiko away from Haruko’s body.
|
|
|
Post by Vapovile on Jul 26, 2019 9:38:24 GMT
Leone let out a sigh of relief when the monster finally perished before them, the mental attacks ceasing. "Gaaaaaaaaah..." The seamstress mercenary grumbled. "See, this is the annoying thing about mental attacks. If they just cut us up a little, I could heal that up. But this headache? Only a bottle of whiskey can help that now." Leone half-joked. She briefly had the thought of demanding a refund from that bartender who sold them that nasty drink earlier, but he likely wasn't in the mood to negotiate that at the moment.
Following Dan to the back of the room, Leone loaded her shotgun with more incendiary rounds and peered around Dan's shoulder when he opened the door. The sight before them made her take a step back in surprise.
Yamiko craned her head to the side, giving a wide, toothy smile toward Dan and Leone. "...Sup?" She casually asked. Yamiko was lightly coated in a strange clear substance, something she utterly detested but couldn't do anything about at the moment. She craned her neck even more when Dan began to charge. "Oho? We have our first challenger! Pity..." Waving her right arm up, a wide and transparent maroon wall appeared between herself and Dan. "...that you're about as interesting as a cup of piss. Here, let me help you with your image!" Cackling, Yamiko extended out her fingers and expanded dozens of spikes to shoot out of the wall, aiming to skewer Dan.
"Dan, get away from her!" Leone yelled at the fighter, sprinting forward and firing an incindiary round directly at Yamiko. A well-placed wall blocked its advance and made the pool of fire drop harmlessly onto the ground. "Doing to have to do more than that, glasses bitch!" Yamiko yelled out to Leone.
|
|
|
Post by HungryHunter on Jul 29, 2019 5:14:53 GMT
“Good work Harold! Now run along, this will be ugly.” Abijah ruffled her charge’s hair and gave him a gentle shove away from the battle. He didn’t need to be told twice, quickly ducking behind the tree and vanishing. Abijah’s attention turned to the charging Dan. He skid to a stop before the wall and raised his aura just in time. The spikes shoved him back with a variety of shallow gashes across his guarding arms. His feet dug into the ground and he shot off to the left, taking off around the wall. He was too slow to rely on dodging around them, so he’d have to go through if she made another. His aura swirled around a single fist and he prepared to punch through anything she put in front of him, then punch through her in turn.
|
|
|
Post by Vapovile on Aug 2, 2019 5:24:01 GMT
"...hm..." Leone muttered to herself, seeing Abijah complement the kid's 'work'. Was he somehow behind this? The answer would have to come later, as Yamiko cackled at Dan's attempt to dodge around the wall to punch her. "What a fuck'in unique idea!" She mocked. Suddenly, Yamiko leaped into the air and flipped forward, planting her hands on top of Dan's arm when he missed the punch, holding herself up with a handstand. "...it's almost like I was expecting that shit. Unlike you and your kid." Letting out another laugh, Yamiko sprung off Dan's arm and flicked her knife out of her skirt, attempting to carve a horizontal line directly across Dan's neck.
While Dan was too close to Yamiko for most of Leone's weaponry to do much damage, she did have the ability to set up. "Here goes nothing!" Leone muttered, pulling out a tripod from her briefcase and setting her shotgun on top of it. She then began to attach several pieces to it, morphing the gun into something far more powerful. She just needed a little more time. Truthfully though...a weapon this powerful wasn't meant for Yamiko...but Abijah and that kid.
|
|
|
Post by HungryHunter on Aug 5, 2019 4:28:05 GMT
Dan only had time to register Yamiko’s weight on his arm before her glowing knife branded the sky. His arm raised just in time to take the blow and Dan felt his veins open. Gritting his teeth, he cast a glance Leone’s direction. He saw her doing something with her weapon. There was a brief flash of anger that she wasn’t helping, but it faded immediately. It was irrational. He was hurting and frantic. No, the one deserving of his rage right now… was Yamiko. He took note of Abijah’s attention being on Leone. He had to let her finish whatever she was doing. “I’m not much for the unexpected. For example, you expect me to smash your face in, and I’m certainly going to…” Dan raised his fists.
“When I’m done with Abijah!” He whirled and lunged into her range. Before she could get her hands up, his knuckles had met her temple. She took a few stunned steps backwards, letting him land another punch before her hand lashed out to shove him away. She couldn’t seem to comprehend what had just happened, eyes wide and hand to her head. “No… I had to do this eventually.” She transformed into Jade Army and more of herself began emerging. “I’m sorry, my lord. Alive, Yamiko, please. You can do what you wish with the other one.”
|
|
|
Post by Vapovile on Aug 7, 2019 7:19:55 GMT
Yamiko stood almost dumbfounded when Dan lunged at Abijah, mouth slightly open with annoyance searing into Dan through her eyes. "...excuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me?!" She asked with indignation. "Who the fuck said I was done with you?! And you want this stain alive?!" She asked in frustration. Glancing over to Leone, Yamiko's eyes widened when she was the launcher station Leone had set up. A toothy smile spread across Yamiko's face. "Hey Abijah, some of your kids are about to get fucked!" She yelled out.
Frowning in annoyance, Leone stood behind a tripod that held a massive rocket launcher that was anchored into the ground. She had loaded a rock into the barrel and was taking aim at Abijah. "Of course you just have to ruin everything..." She spat, pressing a button on the underside of the barrel and launching the rocket inside directly at the Abijah clones. Meanwhile, Yamiko cackled as she flew toward Leone and unleashed a powerful knee directed at the seamstress's forehead.
|
|
|
Post by HungryHunter on Aug 8, 2019 6:09:22 GMT
“Don’t argue with me, Yamiko. You can have Haruko, as I promised.” One Abijah said, catching Dan’s fist. She wrenched his wrist back, but Dan didn’t fall. “Thanks Leone.” He grinned, putting his full weight into swinging her into the path of the rocket. “What-” She vanished in a plume of fire and heat that made the other clones cower for a second. Dan rushed through before the shockwave even died down to plant his fist in another Abijah’s face. “You beat me last time, but this time’s different!” He stopped her retaliation with a vicious gut punch and spun to catch the club of another with a cross guard.
“This time, you took my son!” He battered her to her knees before another struck him in the back of the head, driving him to his knees. “Our son!” She cried, crossing her club over his neck to choke him. Dan shot upwards, mashing her nose with his head and elbowing her away. “You know, I’m not going to even attempt to argue that with you. It’d be a waste of breath better spent pummeling you.” He rushed as three Abijahs closed in.
|
|
|
Post by Vapovile on Aug 18, 2019 4:08:26 GMT
"Did I say you could give me orders?!" Yamiko shot back as her knee was ducked by Leone, the distraction throwing off Yamiko's aim. The combat seamstress then grabbed Yamiko's leg and slammed her down onto the ground, using her other hand to fire 3 bullets directly at Yamiko's face. A deep red block appeared before the bullet made contact, ricocheting off to the side while Leone looked on with satisfaction. "Protecting your head, huh? So you have human anatomy too." She said, Yamiko opening her mouth to spit back a vile comment about fucking her own anatomy, but Leone twisted her leg sharply and fired two rounds into Yamiko's calf. "FUCKING SHIT!" Yamiko screamed out, twisting her other leg to kick Leone in the side of the head, making her leg go and letting Yamiko stagger back to her feet, massaging her twisted leg.
"You are NO fucking fun! I swear, I am going to take all of those bullets of yours, tie them to a string, force them down your throat, and full metal floss you to death!" The demented idol roared. The comment elicited a chuckle from Leone. "Cute and creative, I like you. Somewhat." She stated, gesturing with her pistol. Letting out a garbled yell, Yamiko dashed at Leone and swept her hands to the right, summoning a horizontal array of deep red knives that shot at the seamstress in a wave.
|
|
|
Post by HungryHunter on Aug 18, 2019 22:23:11 GMT
Dan was upon one Abijah when another clubbed him in the back of the head. He was halfway turned when another struck him in the gut and he bent double. He managed to come up with a fierce uppercut and knocked one away, but the other two were already on him, bashing him back and forth between them so he could never defend himself properly. He felt like he was being pelted with rocks from all directions. His aura flared up and he fired off balls of energy in both directions, blasting his foes back.
He only had time for one stumbling step forward before the third Abijah smashed the back of his skull with her club, dropping him to his knees. The other Abijahs brushed themselves off and stepped forward to finish the job, spiking him face-first into the ground and delivering a few more brutal smashes before finally lifting him up.
“Harold, come. Let's get this over with quickly.” One fetched the cowering psychic from behind the tree while the other two strapped the dazed Dan to the bed where Haruko and Yamiko had been minutes before. “Begin.” She gently removed his headphones and the world began to tilt in the perspective of everybody present. The ocean froze, waves remaining in their peaks, while the sun shuddered and multiplied until the entire sky was like a kaleidoscope of shifting stars flowing into and through one another. Abijah stood stoically through it all, even as the ground began to swim under her feet.
|
|
|
Post by Vapovile on Sept 14, 2019 22:31:39 GMT
Being in a predictable pattern, Leone leaped over the horizontal wave of knives and loading her pistol with napalm bullets. Before she could fire though, Yamiko grinned wide and stomped her foot onto the ground, summoning 4 deep red spikes out of the ground to intercept her. “Shit shit shit!” Leone muttered, twisting her body to avoid as many of the spikes as possible, but one managed to strike a gash through her right side, while another carved out part of her left arm. Yamiko cackled as the spikes began to morph around Leone, forming a deep red spherical prison around the seamstress.
“Hah! Try to shoot through that, I dare you! Now just sit tight, the gorilla bitch is going to do something fun.” Yamiko called inside the prison, looking on to see the sight with Dan, Harold and Abijah. The perspective change was bizarre, but the grin on her face didn’t stop. Just what was she going to pull out of this guy?
|
|
|
Post by HungryHunter on Sept 20, 2019 0:49:20 GMT
Blood dripped from Harold’s eyes and ears, turning first blue, then purple, then bubbling away entirely. The sky continued to bend until very suddenly it ripped like fabric pulled too far. Sunset pink light leaked through the rips in reality, between the consistency of fire and flesh. Bubbles popped on the surface, giving way to vibrant blue eyes. A roar tore away more of the thin skeen of reality as something that must be a foot came down, taking up most of the cliff. Its body was unreadable, a mass of muscle and talons and teeth, pulsing and winding, filling the air with a constant dull roar. The voice of the id, the wild king with a crown of fangs, the cruelty of nature given flesh. The Primal Roar floated overhead.
Tears flowed down Abijah’s face and she sniffed. She cradled a collapsed Harold in her arms. “You did a beautiful job, Harold.” Her face turned down to Dan, barely moving in his bonds. “You… what did you do?” His eyes were filled with horror at the sight above. “I have drawn out our god. You have failed as an avatar, so it is his turn to enlighten this world.” She put a hand on Dan’s cheek and sighed. “Yamiko. You can have them. Come, my lord. The world awaits.” The grass at their feet was turning pink and growing, already coming up to her ankles.
|
|
|
Post by Vapovile on Sept 21, 2019 7:09:10 GMT
Leone stared up at the monstrous deity that emerged from Dan’s body, punching and kicking the makeshift prison she was inside to little effect. She didn’t want to shoot anything inside, as the ricochet would likely kill her if this prison was strong enough. “What on Earth…?” She asked with horror. Yamiko tapped her arm with annoyance. “Ooo, spooky.” She remarked. All she needed to hear was Abijah saying she could do what she wants. A wide smile spread across her face, looking from Leone, to Dan, and finally to the unconscious Haruko. “Oh, I am going to have SO much fun with this! Maybe I can fit your entire head down Dan’s throat, I’m sure he can handle it!” The demented idol giggled. Dan struggled, but the bounds held him tight. Yamiko’s laughter seemed to grow until it was all there was.
And then it stopped.
Yamiko was thrown overhead, slamming into the tree. For a moment she dangled there, stunned above ripped-up roots. Then it tilted, taking her down with it. “Don’t you fucking touch my mom, you glowy bitch!” Cosmina yelled, her sister standing behind with her fingers wrapped around her horns.
---
Several hours prior:
“Alright mom, we’re ready!” Cosmina saluted, decked out in tactical gear, all tough fabrics resembling a sort of white police uniform. Kate looked annoyed at the black uniform she was given. “You can’t be serious.” She mumbled. Haruko placed her hands on her hips and shook her head. “I already told you Cosmina, it’s too dangerous for the two of you. Don’t worry, Leone will be there to help me. You don’t doubt her, do you?”
“Well no, but…” Cosmina frowned. “I take care of Qiang! I can’t just sit by while he’s in danger! And you could use the extra backup!” Haruko shook her head once more. “I understand, trust me, I do. But I don’t want you put in danger either. You’ll be his babysitter again soon enough, I promise.” Haruko smiled, patting Cosmina on the head and straightening up. “I have to go talk with Dan and Leone now, so I’ll see you all later! Make sure nothing happens, Kate.” With one last wave, Haruko was gone.
“She doesn’t trust us! Can you believe it?!” Cosmina bristled, but she smiled when she saw what Haruko had left behind. “Well, she can’t get rid of us that easily!” Cosmina picked up Haruko’s phone, decorated like pink yarn with a bit of fuzz on top. She turned it to Haruko’s map program, quickly finding what she was looking for. “So Kate, you still in? Cause I know just where we’re going.”
Kate looked at the phone and reached over to try and slap it out. “No! Mom said not to follow her, you dummy!” She shot at her sister. “Come on, you’re the one already telling me to toughen up! You want me to back down now when Mom and her friends need our help?” Cosmina shot back. “If she needed our help, she would have asked for it! You’re not going to get far without my car, so hah. Only I have the keys.” Kate beamed. Cosmina pouted. Stupid Kate and her car. Cosmina had failed her driving test, so she wasn’t getting anywhere without her. “Kate, come on… Qiang needs me.” Cosmina lowered her head. This made Kate soften a little. “...ok, I’m only willing to drive you there so you can see everything is fine. Deal?” “Deal! Ohmygod you’re the best sister!” Cosmina hugged Kate tight, nearly lifting her off the ground. Kate groaned in response. Perhaps she made the wrong choice here.
---
Yamiko stared up at the sky, body mangled upon the tree she was shot against. “...you...can’t be fucking serious. YOU BRATS?!” Yamiko screamed as her body slowly morphed back into shape. Kate finished upgrading Cosmina’s horns as much as she could and began to sprint down the path toward the spot where Haruko fell. “Keep them busy! Leone!” Kate called out, Leone already free from her prison and sprinting toward Dan. “Time to go!” Kate placed her hands on the metallic bonds of Haruko and Dan, one hand on each and degraded them into dust. She then grabbed the other two bonds and did the same. The rush of magic made Kate dizzy, but now isn't the time to complain. “Time to go!” Leone called, grabbing Dan and attempting to carry him toward the exit, Haruko slung over her shoulder. “Focus on Haruko… I can walk.” Dan put his feet on the ground, but he could barely support his own weight. It wasn’t just his injuries. He felt… weak.
“Got it!” Cosmina fired at Yamiko again to keep her down. The next second, Abijah was upon her. “Child! I don’t care how you got here, but you will leave in pieces!” Abijah knocked Cosmina flat before she could fire once more. “We came… with him!” Cosmina yelled up. “With…” Abijah looked up into the darkness. “Yeah, I was gonna fuck them up, but I realized how funny it would be to watch one of Marika’s brats slap you around, miss high priestess.” Huntsman emerged from nowhere, twisted into a hellish form. Oversized claws drooped on the ends of overlong arms, black plates embedded in his torso. Half his face was burned away, leaving a smouldering pit of hatred glowering out at Abijah. “So how about you step away from the kid and let me rip you and… and…” He looked up at the thing in the sky. “Dan! What the fuck did you do!?” He turned his glare from Abijah to the weakened martial artist. “Great to see you too.” Dan grumbled. He stopped his limp, eye on Abijah, blocking his path. “You fucking… she ripped the fucking deity out of you! Fuck, you were useless before, but now you’re a straight up load!” Huntsman grabbed Cosmina, dragging her away from Abijah. “Change in plans! I was gonna impale Abijah on that tree and drown Yamiko in her own blood, but now we’ve got a god to kill. You little worms do some dimension crap, right?” He turned an eye to Kate.
“Uh...I can sorta mess with dimensions! I haven’t done it in years though!” Kate’s mind flashed back to the bizarre dimension she created that Haruko and Arthur rescued her from. The experience made her never want to manipulate space ever again. “I made a Kaspa… so this place is like a Kaspa?” Cosmina was trying to understand why this mattered. “Great. You two are going to destroy one.” Huntsman threw her a thumbs up and stepped forward. “...you can’t… Yamiko! Drop everything! Kill those two!” She yelled. “Yeah, that’s what Leone and I are making sure you don’t do.” Huntsman rolled his neck and flexed his claws.
By this point, Yamiko’s body had reformed into a mostly humanoid shape, her eyes burning with fury at Kate and Cosmina. “Don’t order me around, bitch!” She screamed, blasting toward the others, summoning a spear 4 feet in diameter and launching it to skewer Cosmina through the head, until it was shot out of the air by a large shotgun slug. Leone looked on with annoyance. “Forget about me, didn’t you? Come at me!” Loading 4 huge rounds into the shotgun, Leone fired 4 shots at Yamiko, each exploding into hundreds of tiny metallic blades that ripped through Yamiko’s body, sending her back to the ground. Mist then exploded out of Yamiko’s body, moving toward the others. “You will all die, SCREAMING!” Yamiko roared.
“Oh, probably. It happens to a lot of people I know.” Huntsman hissed. “But it won’t be today.”
|
|
|
Post by HungryHunter on Sept 22, 2019 2:26:53 GMT
“I’m not running!” Dan growled.
“Oh, yes you are. You’re running and finding your brat, and then you’re running some more.” Huntsman eyed him. “Qiang… you know where he is?” Dan asked. “Check the hallway you came in through. Abijah probably has him bottled up in one of those rooms. Now get the fuck out of my sight, weakling! You’re depressing me!” Huntsman roared and lunged at Abijah. In her moment of surprise, Dan was able to run past. “Come on you two!” He dragged Kate and Cosmina backwards. “We need to help! Kate, I’m going to start casting spells to undo a kaspa! You do your best too!” Fairy dust sparkled on Cosmina’s fingers as she chanted in an inhuman tongue.
“Stop them! Stop them!” Abijah yelled, ducking away from Huntsman’s slashing claws and writhing tendrils. The Primal Roar was hovering lower. The earth shook as He approached, ocean spinning into a whirpool. The waves gained jaws that appeared and disappeared with each rise and fall. Another Abijah appeared, trying to fly over Huntsman, but a tendril caught her and pulled her onto a thrusting cage of claws, impaling her all over. “The little redhead brat has got me all pumped up. She took me from my usual hundred to a hundred and fifty. You’re going to have to try harder than that.” He licked his claws and rushed in, madly swinging.
Up above, Dan took Haruko, Cosmina, and Kate all on his shoulders as he charged through the unreal space. It was beginning to hit him now. His powers were gone. He shouldn’t feel such little weight at all, but he was noticeably slowing. The realization was making his head spin, but something else kept his feet moving step by step. Within moments, they were back in the lounge room and Dan took the hallway that had been left alone before. Every door had a personalized name card, titled by Abijah herself. All cult members, but at the very end, there stood a solid purple door. “Qiang” it said, written in perfect purple pen strokes.
Dan didn’t hesitate. He was carried into the door foot first and the lock blew open with a thunderous crash. It was a deceptively normal child’s room inside. Toys littered the floor, coloring pages to draw on. But Dan knew it wasn’t right. There was nothing of music here, none of his favorite books, no instruments or little speaker. Abijah spoke of love, but she didn’t know her own son at all past where he came from.
“Qiang! Daddy’s here!” A little fluttery thing bolted off the bed and Dan’s mind was flooded with thoughts that weren’t his. It was Qiang’s equivalent of shouting at the top of his lungs. Dan felt another dozen hugs in addition to the one his son gave him. “I know, I know. Come on, let’s go home.” Dan smiled, picking him up too. “Oof… Haruko, can you walk?” He gently asked. He couldn’t carry four people right now. Not in this state. Not… not right now.
|
|
|
Post by Vapovile on Oct 14, 2019 1:35:45 GMT
"Wah!" Kate yelped in surprise at being drug backward by Dan. The sheer amount of chaos erupting around her was overwhelming, to say the least. Huntsman was trying to keep the strange woman away, while Leone was busy fighting Yamiko by alternating between scattershot and concussive shots that blasted the mist backwards. "Hurry up over there!" Leone called after the group as they disappeared through the door. While it was horrible that they now had to face down this bizarre godlike being in addition to Abijah and Yamiko, it was nice that her new partner seemed to be more capable than Dan.
While they sprinted to Qiang's room, Haruko finally began to stir. "Mmmmph...wha..." She muttered in confusion. Kate immediately turned and patted her on the back. "Hang on, mom! We're getting out of here!" She called out. Mentally, Kate was channeling her mana into the structure of the pocket dimension, finding the weaknesses in it and attempting to form cracks in the structure. The amount of time she hadn't used this ability made it far more difficult than it may have been years ago, but now wasn't the time to complain!
When Dan met with his son, Haruko gave a wry smile. "Aw. I am happy for you both. I think I can run, yes." She said, wobbling back to her feet. "You have to fill me on...whatever the heck is going on after this, Dan." Haruko said to her friend, before beginning her way down the hallway again.
|
|
|
Post by HungryHunter on Oct 17, 2019 6:46:46 GMT
Huntsman mixed up wide swings and trusts to keep Abijah on her toes. None landed solidly, Abijah reading every attack and dodging accordingly, but she kept backing away with each one. “I thought you were a lethal hunter, not a mad flailer, Huntsman.” She mocked, jumping away from a slash that would topple a redwood. “Maybe you’re not worth my best effort.” He didn’t stop grinning, digging in his feet and continuing his forward charge. He had her nearly on the edge of the cliff when he felt the Primal Roar’s attention. It had no eyes, but he didn’t need them to tell it was looking at him. It was that feeling you got walking alone at night when a stranger walked by, the primal terror he should have been immune to.
Huntsman had no natural predators. He was top of the food chain. And yet now, he felt like a sparrow confronted by a cat, a deer with his neck in the jaws of a mountain lion. He took a step back, and that saved him. The Primal Roar’s attack might have been a sound, but it felt too great for that. A nuke going off right overhead wouldn’t fill your ears and mind like this. The cliff cracked through under all parties, hero and villain, ally of the god and his enemies alike, but it did not fall apart. Where his voice touched it, the cliff changed. Fangs sprouted along the cracks, an army of gaping mouths, chasms sucking at the fighters above. Abijah yelped as she was drawn in and a cliff-mouth snapped shut on her calf. Huntsman scrabbled back, only keeping himself safe by digging his claws deep into the ground. It bled where he stabbed it.
Cosmina joined her sister in undermining the ties of a false reality. Fae words rolled off her tongue and she felt something unreal shudder. A spell to unwind a kaspa slithered into a constructed world and cracked at its foundations. “I feel it! It’s working… we’re still in it! Everything down here is fake! Oh hell, go go go! This place is gonna fall apart the more we keep going!” Cosmina did a panicked dance as cracks appeared in the wall, nothing but pitch black darkness showing beyond. “Way too much, Haruko. Come on, let’s get out of here.” Dan scooped up Cosmina in one arm, Qiang in the other. The wall fractured further, blurring at the edges. Sinister noises came from the darkness, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Dan did not often feel the fear of death, but absolute terror clawed at his heart now. What lay in the darkness where nothing existed? It should be, well, nothing, but something told him it wasn’t that simple.
|
|
|
Post by Vapovile on Nov 30, 2019 21:51:25 GMT
The fight between Yamiko and Leone immediately stopped when Primal Roar let out his sound attack, Leone staggering to keep her feet upright, eyes widening at the appearance of teeth below her. “Just...how?” She asked nobody in particular. While Yamiko was largely safe from the toothy ground on account of her flight, Leone’s left leg fell into a maw, sharp teeth digging into her thigh. “Gah! The cliff’s alive now?!” She yelled out in confusion. Quickly turning her rifle onto the ground, she attempted to shoot at the maw holding her leg.
Yamiko floated above the scene with a toothy smile plastered across her face. “Pahahahaha! Now that’s something new! Good work, tall dark and spooky!” Yamiko cackled up to the demon god, unsure if he could even hear her. She floated on, curious to see if her job here was done or not.
---
Both Cosmina and Kate worked to destroy the reality around them, Kate’s breathing becoming steadily shorter as the exertion of mana and trauma from before ate away at her mind. Haruko picked up Kate and followed the others, eyes slowly adjusting to the bizarre reality that they were in. The burning instinct in her wished to ask why on Earth her kids were here, but now wasn’t the time to talk about that. “Got...any ideas, Dan?” Haruko asked, still not thinking clearly enough to form a plan yet.
|
|
|
Post by HungryHunter on Dec 5, 2019 7:47:42 GMT
Huntsman looked up at the thing of fangs and talons writhing above. There wasn’t a way to fight this. There really wasn’t even a way to slow it down. Well, no safe way. “This is gonna suck, gun lady. You wanna do something hot, do it now, cause I’ll have to actually pay attention to the problem now.” Body bending into something more feline than humanoid, he sprang forward, jaws opening wide to take a bite out of Abijah’s throat.
He didn’t make it. The tree behind her was warped into a tangled mass of clawed tentacles by another roar ripping through it, and a mass of branches entangled him mid-leap. Abijah took the chance to rip her leg free and limp into flight towards the exit. “Don’t let her leave, and keep it hard for her! The Primal Roar’s defending his mate! The more he does that, well, it’s gonna suck for us, but it’ll keep him here!” Another roar made the tree grow further warped, top half splitting into a massive maw it tried to pull him into. Abijah threw a ball of green energy behind her to keep Leone at bay, struggling onwards.
“Yeah, my idea is to keep going!” Dan pushed Haruko forward, running back down the hallway. Holes had broken through the floor, letting darkness and whispers seep through. Dan caught a glimpse of something through one. It seemed to be living, if a mass of rippling shapes could be considered living. He dug in his feet and ran faster, fleeing the hallway before it could come out. The whole world was collapsing, less floor now than abyss, horrific things swimming in nothing. An undulating pattern of triangles flashing every color in the rainbow, a gasping ripple darting in and out, an absurdly green thing shaped like a musical note with an axe for a face. Dan went pale as he contemplated the sight before him.
Escape looked less likely with each step. They were entering the room of total darkness, swarming with a nightmare menagerie of absurd monstrosities. “Haruko, I just have to say, if we don’t get through this…” He drew a deep breath, hesitating a moment further, but terror loosened his tongue at last. “I’ve loved you since we first met!” He yelled, and it seemed even the whispering creatures around them went silent. After a long, pregnant silence, Cosmina piped up. “So, I can use my sonar to lead us on the ground that’s still here…” She mumbled. “Uh, yeah, do that.” Dan patted her on the back.
|
|
|
Post by Vapovile on Jan 27, 2020 7:02:09 GMT
“Do something hot? You make it sound so easy!” Leone shot back, reaching into her belt and pulling out a small black grenade, tossing it into the jaws of the monster holding her and letting it blow up, yanking her leg away and leaping onto a nearby tree branch. When Huntsman yelled out to keep Abijah here, Leone let out a pained grunt and leaped off the tree, allowing the energy ball to smash into the tree she just stood. “Sorry, but you’re not getting out of here just yet!” Leone called out, twisting to reveal the barrel of a grenade launcher she had recently pieced together. With several pulls of the trigger, Leone unleashed a hellstorm of grenades in Abijah’s general vicinity, each exploding violently in a shower of metal and fire. “This hot enough for you?!” She yelled at Huntsman.
Yamiko watched the action unfolding from her spot in the air, hand thoughtfully pressed against her cheek. “Oooooooo.” She said with interest. Everything going on had little to do with her currently. ‘I was brought out by that woman and that dumb kid...but I don’t owe them shit! But this beasty might be a pain for me on the outside…’ Yamiko thought to herself. Perhaps some intervention may be in order?
---
The world was collapsing around them, Haruko and Kate running along to try and keep up with Dan. Both of them now wished they had Dan’s longer legs, as their stride couldn’t exactly match his. Fear gripped Haruko when she realized this now could mean the death of both her, and her kids. A mixture of anger and sadness welled up inside her, but there was one thing she could do right now; run.
Hearing Dan’s confession almost made her slow down, but Haruko shook her head. “Thank you Dan, but we can discuss this kind of stuff later!” She shot back, a smile spreading across her face when Cosmina piped up. “Yes, please! Quickly now!” Haruko encouraged.
|
|