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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 17, 2021 13:44:20 GMT -8
More legs slowly descended, totaling four as it probed.
The Mirrorskin flickered back into the mind as the black blade scraped across the armour of the spider's leg, dark energy crackling and peeling back the scales as the joint bled. High pitched clicking echoed across the valley, appendage flicking back with surprise. The leg started retreating past the other three, not wanting to lose the limb to the razoring ant below.
The grinding chatter snaps the mind like a foot pressing on thin ice, threatening to shatter it.
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Post by Blaze on Dec 17, 2021 13:57:41 GMT -8
For her part, Blaze had absoluetly no interest in staying to fight the oversized spider - the Elemental saw no benefit in doing so, and they had places to be. She hopes Oren will, too, realize the futility of the endeavor and moves ever forward, pushing the maddening chitter out of her mind with iron resolve.
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Oren
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written by Hiver
Posts: 242 
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Post by Oren on Dec 17, 2021 18:34:12 GMT -8
Oren wove shadow with intent to harm. But when he made contact with the Skein Spider's flesh it reverberated coarsely in his mind, glistening and climbing. A kaleidoscopic arrhythmia. The razoring ant took this moment, thoughts sluicing out of his ears and pooling into his space between his shoulder blades, to make like a tree, and leave. If it gave chase, great. If it scampered after some other thing? Even better.
If only he could clear its wake. Eggshells, indeed.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 18, 2021 12:45:53 GMT -8
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 19, 2021 0:47:05 GMT -8
As the fourth leg retreated and Oren threw himself in the opposite direction, the trio of legs probed, twitching in detection as Blaze breathed. Eddies erupted as the closest joint hitched to swat at the Ifrit, sending them flying as they landed in a protective crouch. The force was like being hit with a small vehicle.
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Post by Blaze on Dec 19, 2021 11:40:45 GMT -8
The strike knocked the breath out of the Ifrit, and for a second she was seeing double. Feeling the human instinct to cut and run, or better yet lay down and accept her fate. A small part of her mind wanted her to just give up, ignore Oren, ignore the mission, let things happen.
No! exclaimed another piece of her brain Get a grip on yourself, soldier! Stop whining. Stand up and fight.
Blaze's face contorts into a snarl of rage and hate, so out of character for her Court and so in character for who she is at heart - a pure expression of power, a force of nature. She's never allowed herself to be pushed around when she was just a human, and she sure isn't going to start now that her dreams are filled with flames. The temperature starts to rise and the ground begins to tremble.
"You want to play, you spindly bitch? I'll burn you for that!"
The fires and tremors only grow in strength as she lets out a war cry at the top of her lungs.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 20, 2021 21:22:45 GMT -8
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 20, 2021 21:43:25 GMT -8
Oren watches the Ifrit ignite with the roar of a challenge, the legs descending from on high taking slices from the slate of the splitting Road. The fire pooled out, beginning to spread as the light shone against the cosmic being's armoured joints, which twitched again in surprise.
Walking into the inferno seemed counterproductive, but his attention wandered up the jagged stone pillars.
He couldn't find a right footing, but it didn't mean he had to waste time. Pointing the shadowy rapier at the multi-eyed beast, the Mirrorskin announced his intent to duel.
Well, fuck — it didn't seem very interested in paying attention to his speech while Blaze upstaged him. Loophole failing, the Wyrd took its tithe as fate bended at odd angles, waiting to redirect a strike into another one of its spindly appendages.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 20, 2021 21:50:05 GMT -8
The leg twitched, attempting to swat at the source of chaos as it cuts itself against the splitting and shaking earth that Blaze weaved between the shield of the smoke.
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Post by Blaze on Dec 21, 2021 9:18:28 GMT -8
Blaze watches with satisfaction as the legs fail to hit her, ineffectually flailing in the flames and barely holding onto the shaking earth. Now it's just a matter of time to convince the monster that they're more trouble than they're worth - the Torrent quickly ducks, rolls around and sidesteps, letting the elements do their work.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 27, 2021 16:06:23 GMT -8
Second try allowed the Mirrorskin to scale the pillar, making himself a more obvious target at Fae Cunning took effect and focusing his efforts on his movement.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 27, 2021 16:33:28 GMT -8
The heat was overwhelming, with two of the limbs twitching back as the third swung one final time to try and end the source of its stress.
In anger or blind fight, the giant entity swings again before the guttural clicking echoes through the valley. Blaze moves away, watching the limb catch fire as it immediately withdraws with the other two and leaving the Ifrit alone.
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 28, 2021 20:31:47 GMT -8
The target quickly shifted to Oren, aiming to slap him off the pillar and pierce him on the end of the sharpened leg. Fate curved, sending the tendrils into a mess to bend at odd angles and hammer itself. Another swing of the sword severed one of the tips, sending another cry into the ether that seemed to set off the Mirrorskin into his own temporary hysterics as pressure was applied to the fractures of his mind.
Like a trapdoor, the myriad of eyes tucked into space, snapping its legs from the realm as it gave up on its meal. The paltry nourishment wasn't worth losing a few limbs.
As the pair reunited and cross through the chasm, Oren eventually led them back to networked causeways. The road eventually turned to sand, but as they began to trudge through it, they realized it was abrasive and sharp to the touch. Given his previous experience, the Iron Spear was confident this was the territory around Fawkes' Bastion.
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Oren
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written by Hiver
Posts: 242
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Post by Oren on Dec 29, 2021 10:06:00 GMT -8
The barbs looked familiar. Spike Spindle and the Forking Bunch. All jagged and asymmetrical. Like him, in a way. He could still feel the corners of his mind twisting at odd angles, forming odd knots. Slipping into a mindset that was considerably more fluid and effervescent made it strangely easy to look at the wild glass-blown fractals. The madness made it harder to taste anything other than a distant nostalgia for something equally disorienting.
He wandered around pockets that tickled his skin, lollygagged to an arrhythmic notion, and a part of him tried to taste the truth of what this was. The Great Big Spiky Spooky Mess.
"Can Fawkes come out to play....can we come in? Pretty pleaaaaaaaase?"
Oren tried to worm his way in, teasing open crevices with the allure of the Dreamer's own voice, to wrap Fawkes' mind around the whimsy that spiraled out of Oren's mouth.
To bridge the gap between creating and perceiving.
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Post by Blaze on Dec 29, 2021 12:16:25 GMT -8
For her part, Blaze took a more literal approach to tasting their environs as she took a deep breath of the air and placed a single grain of harsh sand under her tongue. Using stones, sticks and other improvised tools she tested the borders of the Bastion, measuring its defenses and dangers. Like an explorer of an alien planet or an apocalypse-ravaged Earth.
All she was missing was a gas mask and a Geiger counter.
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