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Post by Tokrochiru on Nov 5, 2016 2:00:48 GMT -5
A few days of travel ensued after a quick rest. Mars' keen eye, SEEKER's knowledge of the land and Sasha's cunning carried them further along the trail and into harsher conditions. The venture was mostly uneventful until the third day in, when the group began to realize they getting dangerously close to coldest, most turbulent area in all of Skaldra, the Eye. The Eye was an inhospitable place. Even the snow was dead in its own way, containing little water. It was technically classified as a desert. Any wayward traveller could actually see where the wind sped and turned from a few miles away from it, forming gales that could tear apart magically enchanted steel.
The only solace that anybody had regarding the eye was that it never expanded. It was a self-contained area that somehow stayed self-contained. The area in which the deadly winds spiraled always maintained the same diameter, never moving beyond a certain point.
Seeker was glad that the trail hadn't led them directly into the Eye. Their search brought them close to it, but it didn't lead them inside. Even gangrites couldn't survive in that terrible vacuum.
The trail, confusingly enough, came to a sudden end. One particular, round spot in the snow was completely covered in Faerie dust. There was enough of it for the entire group to see it as plain as day. It sparkled like a pristine geode.
"It must mean something," said Seeker. He had a few ideas on what it could be, but as with anything regarding fey, it was best to be careful and methodical. He chose to wait on the humans to offer their input before interacting with the spot directly.
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Post by SlvrNight on Nov 10, 2016 9:27:16 GMT -5
Sasha had a constant sense of anxiety as she and her two allies made their way into the Eye. Of course, who could blame her? The place was extremely dangerous, and a simple mistake in direction could spell the end of her life as she was swept into the violent winds and torn asunder. She shuddered at the thought of this, realizing that even her own abilities would offer no aid in such an event. If she didn't die instantly, she'd be in constant torment as her body would attempt to mend itself in a futile effort at survival.
The detective stopped when Seeker and Mars did, her emerald eyes moving to the pile of faerie dust. It was quite large, any normal person would be able to see it without an ounce of difficulty. It was strange, however. Why would there be such a large pile? Although what really bothered her was the fact that this was where the trail ended. However unlikely it was, Sasha had maintained the hope that the trail would continue on to a point where it was obvious where to go next.
Instead, it stopped here. In the middle of this frozen desert.
She sighed and massaged her brow in aggravation. Oh well, moaning about it would accomplish nothing.
"Agreed." The detective said to the geistmech. "Although I'll be honest and say I'm not completely sure what. It's possible that this is simply residue from all the gangrites that met their ends in the Eye. It is unlikely their dust would all end up in a pile such as this, though... Perhaps magic has a bigger hand at this point. An arcane door of some kind? I imagine having a portal or a base of some kind with its entrance hidden in the Eye would stop many from accidentally coming across it. If that were the case, however...we'd be dealing with someone rather proficient in magic."
Yes, it was possible for an amateur mage to make a portal from one place to another, but in such a hostile environment, as well as a maintained portal and not a simple one-time-use doorway...that was beyond an amateur. Then again, this all was assuming Sasha's theory was right in the first place. It was very likely the pile of faerie dust meant something else.
"Mars. Seeker. Any ideas besides mine? Would be appreciated at this point."
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Post by Jisui on Nov 17, 2016 0:04:48 GMT -5
Mars had a vision. A day ago, or two perhaps. The details were already slipping from his mind like water in an easel.
It wasn't anything of substance of him, he thought. It was a vision of two young men, in a worn, abandoned skyscraper. He recognized neither of them, although one gave the mercenary a somewhat familiar feeling. Fragmented sentences and sentiments drifted across his mind, which attempted to meld them all together to form a disjointed memory.
In the vision, he saw through the eyes of the older of the men. His features were shadowed by the setting sun, legs carefully folded across the staircase as if to rest for a moment. The man's every movements and mannerisms were somewhat awkward, as if uncomfortable with his own body.
"Hey, I know you!"
The man's eyes snapped upward, locking gazes with that of a young man with navy blue hair and a pink button-up shirt that had seen better days.
"E-Excuse me?"
"You're that one guy. -----, right?"
No... that wasn't quite right. His name was...
"You're that one guy. Alejandro, right? Didn't expect to see a guy as well off as you in a place like this."
"I don't recognize you."
"Ouch, that stings." The boy replied, placing his hand over his heart in mock pain. "...Nah, I'm just fooling. We only ever met that one time. Never even shook hands. Even so, I owe you big time for what you did."
Confusion. Uncertainty. Mars, Alejandro- whoever this person was, tried to search in the depths of his mind for any recognition of who this young man was. Seeing that he was still drawing a blank, the young man gave a small smile while scratching the back of his head."
"Back then, some of your dad's uh...Is it okay if I call them lackeys? Anyway, they were pressuring my family for money, and..."
Ah. So that was it. That day, back then...
"I told them to forget the debt," The older man spoke, speaking from a memory that was not quite his. Yes, this body's previous occupant had such a memory before.
"...Yeah!" The boy shouted with a smile. "To be honest, I thought I'd never see you again after that. I'm glad I did though. I can't thank you enough for what you did that day."
It was misplaced thanks. The person who had saved his family was not him, nor was the action entirely selfless. The previous owner of his body had merely been hungry.
"You shouldn't thank me."
"Huh? Why not?"
"Can't say."
There was a long silence between the two after that, and the shadows of the evening only grew to cover them further. The older man took a moment to stare out at the setting sun before the younger man spoke again.
"What are you doing sitting in a place like this anyway?"
"Thinking."
"Fair enough. I actually planned on doing the same." He glanced at the younger man, who was staring with fascinated eyes at the hole-ridden skyscraper around them. His next words caused an unfamiliar feeling to emerge in the pit of his stomach.
"Because Krizno once fought here." The boy said, smile widening further. "When Krizno came to town, this was one of the first places he hit up. Even though it was filled to the brim with guards with magic weapons, he busted through like a gods' damned wrecking ball! He helped out a lot of people by doing it too. A lot of the 'tax collectors' that used to be all over the place took their money here. After Krizno busted the place up, he brought that money back to us."
As he spoke, the man immediately knew that his body's previous occupant would have hated this place; this monument to a hero. He would have hated everything it represented, and everything that it stood for.
I was not that man.
A few more seconds of silence passed before the increasingly familiar silence was broken, again by the young man.
"Say, my dad's a pretty good cook. You wanna come over?"
"You barely know me."
"Yeah. Let's fix that." He pulled me up by my shirt, pat me on the back and started to walk, expecting me to follow him. I had to know. Who was this boy who was so insistent on repaying me for a deed I didn't commit?
"Who are you?"
The young man let out a laugh the sound of a clear bell, with a smile like that of sunshine.
"Name's Rean. Rean Schemmel."
The vision didn't particularly mean anything to Mars. But for whatever reason, after it had ended, he had been filled with a peculiar sense of loss.
That was then, and this was now. And now was in the middle of shredding winds and frozen gusts that threatened to push Mars back and forth at every step in the snow. He would never complain, Mars had seen worse throughout his many years as a mercenary. But not by much.
The scarlet eyed mercenary halted at the same time as Sasha, giving a small grunt as he was forced to look away at the slightly blinding circle of faerie stacked right in front of them. Mars didn't particularly enjoy being led to what looked like a vague clue or possible dead end. His mind over the past few days had created a mental picture of the faerie dust leading to some type of lair of some sort. He was a straightforward person after all, and much would have preferred storming a nest of fey than guessing about for clues.
"Not a clue." He answered truthfully, glancing back at the spot curiously. "I do know someone who might though."
And he did promise to call her, so it was like killing two birds with one stone. Reaching into his sack, Mars pulled out a familiar metal orb, gripping it tightly as another gust struck them. With deft hands, he quickly opened the holo-display and selected Selatia's number on the call screen.
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Post by Tokrochiru on Nov 21, 2016 3:24:30 GMT -5
Ring....ring....ring.
On the third ring, the display morphed into a clear, blue, 3D image of a familiar woman in a fur coat. She wore a smile accompanied by tired, closed eyes.
"Thank GODS you called, Mars! My arch nemesis boredom was mere inches away from claiming my life." Her projected visage momentarily flickered as a particularly harsh gust of wind blew by.
Mars couldn't help but chuckle at her melodramatic greeting. It was a welcome change from the hostile atmosphere he had to endure for the past several days.
"It's nice to see you too Selatia," he said while returning her smile
"Isn't it always?" She puffed her chest out proudly, one hand on her hip while the other held the phone. She never lacked for ego, and she did her damnedest to ensure Mars didn't either. "I mean, we're both pretty amazing people. It's only natural that we'd enjoy each other's company, right?"
Mars didn't make a habit of proclaiming his greatness to others. He never felt the need to. Besides, Selatia already did that for him. If she wasn't bragging about herself, she was bragging about Mars or one of her other close friends, all of which were on the same level of divinity as her.
"I'm sorry if this disappoints you, but I didn't call just to talk." Mars tried to put it as politely as he could. She sighed in response.
"A bit disappointing, but a call like this is still better than no call at all. What is it you need?"
"What do you know about faerie dust? Sasha and I found a large concentration of it near the Eye."
Selatia gasped in surprise. "So that's what causing all this interference! Your image is flickering in and out. You should be careful Mars. That place is dangerous. It's not just the weather. There's something else there. A magical distortion of some kind. That's why people can't enter within the eye. Barriers and other protective enchantments are dispelled as soon as people enter it."
In other words, don't get too close or the wind will tear you apart. Duly noted.
"I appreciate the concern," Mars said, scratching the back of his head. "But right now I'm more concerned about the faerie dust."
"Ah. Right. Sorry. I just...I don't want to see you hurt, darling. That's all." Her blush was only barely noticeable given the shoddy quality of the flickering blue holorgram. "Well, anyway....I'm not an expert on druidic magic or fey, but I do know magical creatures often leave some kind of residue behind. It's a bit of a gross comparison, but think of it them like shedding fur or skin flakes off an animal's body. If there's a very large concentration of it in one area, that probably means something is visiting that place often. Try digging underneath it a bit."
Before Mars a chance to respond, SEEKER had already begun digging. His large, six-fingered hands were very well suited to the task. Moments later, after a modestly large pile of snow had been stacked into a pile on the side, the ground gave way to doorway-sized hole There was a tunnel in the ground leading straight down. By Sasha's estimate, the descent was a little more than 30 feet deep.
Mars looked back to Selatia. "It worked! I think we've found some kind of den. Thanks, Selatia."
"Oh, there's no need to thank me," she said with a hint of fake modesty. "I'm just glad I was able to help. You know I'm always willing to lend you a hand..."
It was a simple statement, but it still felt heavy somehow.
"Oh! I just had the most wonderful idea. There's an old man that just moved into Agria and he's trying to open a restaurant."
That caught Mars' attention. Of all things... "A restaurant? In Agria? The city is still under construction. Isn't it a little early for place like that to plant itself there?"
"I know, it's absolutely ludicrous." She audibly and visibly laughed. "But it's Castillan cooking. You know I can't keep myself away from Castillan food. That's why I was hoping that we could have a look at the place together. I doubt Duster would be interested, so it would just be the two of us."
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Meanwhile, over by the newly revealed hole, Seeker peered downward. He looked for a moment to Sasha. He saw her fleshy, thin legs and imagined them falling downward. In his mechanical mind's eye, he could see her shins cracking from the impact.
"I'll carry you and Mars as we drop down. That way you won't get hurt from the fall."
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Post by Jisui on Nov 25, 2016 11:21:26 GMT -5
Dinner or lunch at a Castillan restaurant with just the two of them... given how unsubtle Selatia tended to be, not even Mars was dense enough to ignore that one. While he usually stumbled about to an answer most of the time in these situations, the magician's hopeful and earnest gaze asked for a serious answer this time.
It was true that he had missed her and Duster throughout his mission. Seeker and Sasha weren't unwelcome company, but the people that you had fought and bled with for years would always have a different kind of bond. And if it was with Selatia, it would probably be a good time, if not hard on the wallet.
"Alright. But Mars, next time we have some time off, you have to help me test some new incantations I've created."
...Mars hadn't forgotten about that one either. Perhaps this could substitute the previous obligation?
His mouth parted slightly, gaze softening as he answered the blue haired woman.
White hair and teal eyes flashed across his mind.
"Sure, Fiona."
Mars froze, eyes widening as his brain took in what he just said. He didn't know what Selatia's expression was at that moment. And he would never know, because he fled.
"...Looks like they're waiting for me. I'll talk to you later, Selatia."
Closing off the communication, the mercenary walked over to his companions, quietly storing the stone in his sack and hiding away whatever expression he might have been making at the moment.
"Wait." Mars interrupted, cutting off Seeker's line of thought before he could get any deeper. Focus. It was all business now.
"We need to secure our method of escape before we head in. If there are survivors, we need to account for them too." The mercenary took a moment to peer into the darkness of the hole, shaking his head when he couldn't see the bottom. Charging into the enemy's lair with no preparation was tantamount to suicide. But they might not have much else choice, or else the fey would find them if they stood around for too long.
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Post by SlvrNight on Nov 25, 2016 20:15:05 GMT -5
Sasha raised an eyebrow, impressed with Seeker's initiative. From what she was looking at, and the sounds she could hear, she could guess the hole went down around thirty feet. Although the drop isn't what worried her, it was what was at the bottom. While she couldn't hear anything obviously hostile from it, even her senses had their limits and the noise of the gusting winds of The Eye weren't helping. Of course, she heard Mars's and Selatia's conversation loud and clear, including her unsubtle attempt at getting alone time with the mercenary, as well as his complete and utter bungling of a response. The detective said nothing, of course, but she felt great pity for such a screw up. Although considering Mars seemed to have known Duster and Selatia for quite a while, hopefully the mage would understand his screw up more than others would.
But enough thinking about that. It was time to get back to business.
"There's times where I regret not becoming a mage of some kind. Would be able to just use a spell of levitation as an escape plan. No point whining about what-ifs however. Hm..."
The longer they stood here trying to figure out an escape plan, the more likely a faerie of some kind would spot them. Their element of surprise would be completely demolished and they'd likely be overwhelmed by hostile forces. Time was their enemy, not their ally.
Sasha looked at the geistmech next to her, then towards the akma mercenary.
"Seeker and I will go down first. If something bad happens to us upon our arrival, I will scream as loud as I physically can as a signal for you to get the hell out of here. If that happens, you contact Norman, tell him what happened, and you two can proceed from there. If we're fine when we reach the bottom, we'll send you a different, less obviously dying, signal."
She paused as she realized a flaw in her plan.
"Unless you have no way of getting down there without getting hurt yourself, Mars. In which case, we don't have much choice besides all going down together."
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Post by Jisui on Nov 26, 2016 21:46:50 GMT -5
He was displeased.
There was no self-respecting bodyguard that would be happy with their charge diving into a bottomless pit without them. It wasn't that Mars didn't trust Seeker or didn't believe in his abilities to keep Sasha safe (although it was true they had just met the robot), it was just an irrational feeling that told him that if he took his eyes off the detective, she would disappear like a stray breeze.
"...I have a line." The mercenary spoke after a few minutes of terse silence, his eyebrows drawing together slightly while rummaging in his sack. He pulled out a braided dark blue metal rope wrapped around a type of reel, with an open ring and spike at one end.
"Casnese metal wiring. It should reach all the way down. I'll anchor the line up top and head down as soon as you reach the bottom." Mars paused, taking another glance downward at the hole and grimacing in disapproval.
"...Try not to make dying signals."
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Post by Tokrochiru on Dec 5, 2016 4:54:30 GMT -5
SEEKER nodded his "head" in response, though the motion was more comparable to a bird's movements than a man's. Afterward, the robot simply dropped into the hole, landing steadily on his metal feet. Sasha decided to take the wire rope Mars offered, repelling off the side of the cavern as she descended into its depths. Mars soon followed suit, and the three ventured off into the rocky burrow. The subterranean pathway was fairly straightforward. SEEKER had expected some kind of labyrinth, specifically something hive-like, with many holes in the walls and ceiling. There were no forks, though there were plenty of steep drops. The smell of rot grew more and more potent as they progressed. As the three delved deeper, Mars heard a beep coming from his holophone. He took it out of his pocket. The display said "NO SIGNAL!" With little else to do, he put his phone away and continued onward, nervous about how deep the rabbit hole could go. Eventually, he found his answer at the turn of a corner, along with many more questions. The stench hit a pique as the three of them took it all in. "Those people. All of those innocent people..." It was a sight SEEKER recognized in a different form. A gigantic pile of mangled flesh. A stack of naked bodies six feet high. He had worked in recycling before, salvaging whatever usable mechanical parts he could from his defunct brethren. He had never seen such a pile composed of organic creatures. Somehow, the sight of it felt wrong. Humans and akma weren't meant to be disposed of like this. Their parts couldn't be repurposed after death. There was no moral argument that could defend such a grave mistreatment of departed life. SEEKER was disgusted. Disgusted and livid. "Was it not enough to simply kill them? Did they have to dispose of their bodies so crudely!?" SEEKER angrily slammed his fist into the cavern wall. He never knew these people personally, but he knew enough about them from simply watching. They were people with dreams and hopes akin to his own. Construction workers that toiled hard in order to feed their families and support a thriving new culture. Explorers that only ever wanted to learn about the wonders of Skaldra. Children who simply wanted to go outside and play in the snow... "This is abhorrent!" While SEEKER stewed in his own anger, Sasha did her job. She approached the pile of corpses and examined them. It only took moments for her to siphon new clues from it. The bodies, while all deceased, had very little in common. They had all suffered different injuries, though gashes and tears in the flesh seemed to be more prevalent than other types. The one thing all the bodies shared was a head wound. Each and every one of their skulls were cracked open in several small places. There was nothing inside their heads. It was as if something tiny burrowed in and devoured all the grey matter inside. At that moment, the three heard footsteps, as well as the sound of creaking wood and brushing foliage. A creature stepped out from behind the pile. It was humanoid in shape and possessed a feminine physique. It wore no clothes, but was covered in a wide variety of leaves. Its flesh looked like green-colored bark. Its face had a pair of lips, one right eye and roots growing out of its left socket, stretch out and forming a giant purple flower that covered her head. Its branch-like fingers scraped against the corpses as it moved to face the group. "I knew you would come. I didn't know when, but I knew..." it spoke. Mars felt a sharp pain in the front of his head. Two words came to mind and refused to leave. "Midnight Rose."SEEKER pointed his gun at the plant-thing. "You. Is this this your doing? Are you the one responsible for this tragedy!?" 66.90.91.26/ost/kara-no-shoujo-original-soundtrack/syqcjmrbzh/206%20Discord.mp3The creature looked to SEEKER. "Yes, and no, no and yes. There are so many at fault. I am just the last link in the chain that strangled these little things to their deaths." It looked away from SEEKER, and looked directly at Mars. She smiled widely with her eye wide open. "Do you remember me, Mars? We met not long ago....No. No, that isn't right. I met you a long time ago, but you only saw me recently."
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Post by SlvrNight on Dec 8, 2016 22:22:28 GMT -5
So the worst case scenario had fallen before them. They were too late. The pile of corpses, the stench as they rotted, the smell of bodily fluids around them. It was all the proof they needed.
You never got used to seeing such a mass grave. You never got used to seeing dead civilians. To become used to the sight, to become apathetic towards such a thing was a sign you were losing your humanity, your very heart. This was not limited to humans or beings with physical hearts, no, it applied to anyone with free will and sentience. Seeker was proof of that.
This was not the first time Sasha had been greeted with a sight like this. She had failed before, back during her time as a government employed agent and even before then. Failure was a bitter pill to swallow, but even moreso when the lives of others were lost because of it. Seeing the bodies of those you failed pushed it even further.
She had though several times that this could happen. With how long the disappearances had been going on and how long no progress had been made, there was plenty of time. Regardless, a part of her had maintained hope that the captured people would be found imprisoned somewhere, perhaps injured, but alive. That was clearly no longer possible.
This feminine creature...what was she? A faerie or an akma? Such a thing didn't matter at this point. The answer to Seeker's question was obvious, but the detective supposed it was worth asking anyways. What she really wanted to know though was how this creature knew Mars and why this had all happened in the first place.
Sasha stood up and moved away from the pile of bodies, standing next to her two comrades again and looking the the creature before them. She briefly glanced at Mars, looking for any sign of recognition in his face towards the plant creature, before asking her own question.
"Before you and Mars have your reunion..." The detective started, her tone calm and collected. "Why was this done? Why were these people taken and why were they killed?"
At this point she believed it was safe to assume that the gangrites were the main ones involved in actually capturing the people. It would explain the many cuts and slashes on the bodies. But the lack of brains within their cracked skulls...was that actually something their captors needed? Or was it simply what this creature before them devoured for sustenance? She said she was the last link in the chain. It was possible she knew little of what was going on and simply acted as a type of garbage disposal for the corpses once they had served their purpose.
But Sasha had to try. She had to try and get as much information out of this creature as possible.
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Post by Jisui on Aug 5, 2017 0:30:39 GMT -5
"..."
Mars silently stared at the pile of corpses, his back turned to his companions as his eyes scanned over the desecrated heap of flesh. Outwardly, there was little reaction other than the slight tightening of fists. He continued to stare at the absurd scene in front of him without fault. From behind, his companions could see nothing other than the usual stoic professionalism of the red-eyed mercenary.
But from the front, it was nothing but cold, barely contained silent fury.
There was a rage in his scarlet eyes that would give pause to even the most hardened of men.
The mercenary took a step forward, and just like that, it all vanished.
Something was injecting into his head. His mind. His brain. Digging. Digging. Digging. Growing. In him. From him.
He nearly collapsed to a knee, if the disgusting feeling of deja vu hadn't washed over him. This feeling of greedy bloodlust that permeated all of the senses... he had not felt it since that day. Mars' eyes flickered over to behind the pile of corpses, where a feminine figure stepped out and greeted them with a wooden smile.
"Do you remember me, Mars? We met not long ago....No. No, that isn't right. I met you a long time ago, but you only saw me recently."
He understood, but he did not. But the overwhelming feeling of bloodthirst ran over Mars once again, filled with such natural vitriol such that he couldn't help but suppress a shiver. This woman... this creature, was far more dangerous than the fae they had encountered before.
"Midnight Rose..."
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Post by Tokrochiru on Aug 5, 2017 1:24:42 GMT -5
The dryad chuckled at Sasha's question. "The answer is simple. I want you gone. All of you. Humans, akma, and the damnable machine-things that stalk your tails. None of you belong here. You don't belong anywhere in this world! Not after the way you treated it!" Her smile curves into a ferocious sneer. Her eyebrows creak as they shift down and inward. "Your kind loves to play the victim, but the natural world suffered most. No longer do verdant green forests color the land! It's all blue, and red, and ugly...and poisonous to us." The sound of her spite of was cut short by Mars' two, simple words. "Midnight Rose." She looked to him, her mouth slightly agape, and her literal ivory teeth clenched before speaking. "Is that what the visions call me? I'm almost flattered. It's a much more elegant name than 'Master of the Spirit.'" SEEKER thrust his gun in the feyling's direction and gave a low, mechnanized growl. "You didn't answer the question! Why are the bodies here, underground!!" "They are here so that you may see them," she spat. "This is your final warning. A representation of what will become of your people if you do not leave this land." The Rose lifted her hand as she pinched the air, her fingers facing downward. Loud rumblings and a heavy, disorienting quake preceded a gigantic mass of vines erupting from the ground underneath the bodies. The vines expanded into brilliant webs of knife-like thorns on stems. Sharp-toothed, oval shaped mouths took form at the end of the vines, assuming form so quickly that it was like watching a video on five hundred times fast forward. "Be gone from this land and take your perverse crystal growths with you. Otherwise nature will devour your entire city whole." The Rose's feet began to sink into the earth as hungry green mouths salivated over their new prey. The man-eating vines thrust towards Mars, SEEKER and Sash, forcing them to move or die. In the chaos, the dryad vanished into the earth, leaving the three to fight for their lives against the giant, carnivorous plants BOSS BATTLE: Corpseweed
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Post by Jisui on Aug 5, 2017 12:54:34 GMT -5
"Go, go!" Mars roared, eyes wildly scanning the perimeter for an escape route upon seeing the seeing the mass of hungry green vines swarm towards them.
"Get ba-"
The vines surrounded them, cutting their way of escape. Gripping, scraping them apart, the three of them could only give silent screams as they became a meld of flesh and metal.
"Belay that, to the right!" The mercenary suddenly yelled out, grabbing Sasha's arm and deftly sprinting over to their right side.
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Post by SlvrNight on Aug 5, 2017 13:11:13 GMT -5
Sasha said nothing to the Midnight Rose. It was clear she had made up her mind, that she had decided that both humans and akma were to blame. While it was certainly a viewpoint that had some form of reason, it was far more muddled than that. There would be no nonviolent conclusion to this. Then again, after what this creature did to these people, Sasha did have a strong desire to beat her down. Of course that wasn't likely to happen considering that she was merely human with no offensive powers while the Rose was a dryad with considerable power at her disposal.
Then the Midnight Rose conjured up a creature made of sharp vines, which erupted from beneath the corpses and formed into a mass of mouth with sharp teeth. It seemed as if she had no intention of fighting the three of them herself. Sasha wasn't going to complain about that of course. As the torrent of man-eating vines flew towards her and her allies, the detective had the full intention of dodging to the left but felt her hand suddenly jerked to the right, grasped by her bodyguard. She went along with the motion fluidly, giving no resistance. Mars was an experienced combatant, for fighting was likely one of the main things he did. She had no problem admitting he was more experienced with her when it came to that, so she would follow his lead without question. As she went with Mars's movement, Sasha spared a glance at SEEKER and quickly tapped one of his right arms as a quick signal to move with them.
"Please tell me one of you has an idea on how to deal with this thing."
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Post by Tokrochiru on Aug 6, 2017 9:58:39 GMT -5
SEEKER was just as blind as the other two. He had no experience fighting living vegetation, though he knew such creatures existed.
It didn't matter. In any battle, a moment spent idly thinking about what to do was a moment wasted. With this concept well programmed and practiced, SEEKER immediately skipped to the side as one of the hungry sprouts darted towards him.
SEEKER's body reflexively aimed his gun at the threat and pulled the trigger. A volley of hot plasma burned through the vines, completely immolating one of the heads and sending the vine it was a attached to into a writhing, screaming fit. Embers clung to the highly flammable vegetable matter, creating trails of smoke as its injured limb flailed wildly.
"BURN IT!!" SEEKER shouted as two more vine-heads darted towards him. Two pairs of vines reached out to bite at Mars and Sasha respectively.
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Post by Jisui on Aug 6, 2017 12:37:21 GMT -5
A blur of motion exploded in front of Sasha as Mars swiftly positioned himself in front of his charge. In one smooth motion, he withdrew his magitech rifle, eyes darting around at the numerous vine-heads lunging towards them. Two to the left, one to the right, one above... the steady hum of mana filled the air.
Almost too quick to perceive, the mercenary whipped his rifle around and deposited dark blue bursts of superheated mana in four different directions. Keeping his rifle trained, he called back to his two companions in a tone that was about as calm as a person under attack by man-eating flora could be.
"Escape doesn't seem to be feasible." He doubted that they would be able to make it back to their rope without the plant-creature catching up to them. Mars sneaked a glance back to the detective behind him before looking back to the creature. The primary objective was protecting her. Not a single thing would pass him.
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