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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jun 3, 2014 13:38:50 GMT -6
[Located in Tuscana, several days after the events of Frozen Memories in Ilia]
The dying glow of flickering embers was the only light to be found in this world of shadow, cut off from the moon by the trees that grew all about them. In another time, in another world, it might have been peaceful; no bandits, no strife, no civilization. Normally, she would be relaxing, even as night watch. But these woods were diseased, rotten to the core with a creeping virus that seeped through the shadows and hid from the light. It didn't take any particular knowledge of magic or attunement to nature to have felt that as she walked, but mortals were less durable than she and needed their rest daily. Rather than pushing through in one marathon trek, they had been forced to break for the night, setting up camp off the beaten path and hope that nothing ill befell them.
Alone with nothing but her thoughts to keep her company, Nayru slowly circled the encampment, wrestling with her unease while keeping an eye on the woods around them while wishing she had some sort of perfect night vision. There had been little noise from the forest, less so at night - but in its own way that was perhaps the most worrisome sign of them all. Forests were full of life, of vim and vigor and activity, not the silence of the grave, accompanied by a pall of death that seemed to hang heavy over her senses. Something was wrong her, terribly wrong, but the manakete could do little more than hope that naught ill happened this night, that the forest would spit them out unharmed and save its ire for some other unfortunate group of travelers.
...What was that?
She had barely heard - felt - a faint vibration, not so much sound as motion, a gift of her senses that did little to inform her of what might have actually happened. But in the instant before it had faded once more, there had been life in these dead woods, she was sure of it. Whether it was natural life or the very plague that had flensed the life from them, though, was the real question - and one she was not sure she cared to find out the answer to.
It had come from... over there. Ish. West? Nayru took a moment to orient herself, trying to remember which direction the sun had set several hours ago. No, that was west, and this was east. Did the noise coming from the east have any significance? She couldn't think of any. Tossing another log onto the fire, relishing the sputter of sparks and burst of light, Nayru then cautiously approached the eastern edge of the clearing, noting again the strands of silver steel that spread between trees and from the earth, thick lines of tensile material far more durable than steel.
She had seen this before, and the recognition, when she first realized it earlier, had not been pleasant. Veigue and Hayle had not known what to make of it, but she had seen it before, in the ruins of Salvation Point. One of them had even joked about oversized spiders, but they had not seen the beasts crawling forth from the depths of humanity's nightmares, the unending horde of skittering horror that had nearly consumed her and Aerious alike. It was a sobering thought. The brood mother of the time had been a brutally overpowering monster, breaking through her defenses and sending her flying like a defenseless baby with every strike, and its lair had been small, its brood young. They had been in the open, able to see the coming tide. There had been light, room to maneuver.
Now, there was only darkness, and the three of them possibly trapped inside a womb of terror.
But they hadn't seen anything today, had they? Certainly if there was a giant army of Baels wandering around the forest, they would have been attacked earlier, or at least seen something. These webs might be a decade old and the horde extinguished long ago. None of her empty hopes proved up to the task of lifting the dread that crept in the shadows, though, of lessening her sense of foreboding. With a frown, Nayru slowly lifted her hand, tapping the unearthly fibers in grim curiosity. It twanged, vibrated, but did not move; so great was their strength that she would have to put forth entirely inhuman strength to bend or break them, and that would only cause a commotion.
Again. Nayru's head snapped up in the wake of what she was bloody well certain had been another vibration, one that this time rang from the fibers themselves... after her own experimental push had ceased to propel them. She took an immediate step back, not certain if it was simply her motion translated to a different strand or if she had awoken something else, and was greeted by silence once more, though now the pall of silence seemed actively foreboding, a herald of impending hatred rather than natural. Certainly there should have been SOME noise, even just the wind rustling leaves - why wasn't there? Another step backwards as Nayru pivoted, already in a fighting stance, as if ready to battle... what? The forest itself? She immediately felt like a fool, but could not shake the feeling that something was very wrong here.
...Was something actively dulling their senses?
And then there was nothing but motion and struggle, a massive blob of crimson and ebon erupting from the shadows and impacting her with the force of nature itself. In the brief instant of vision in the firelight,she could see the rotund shape of its body, the veritable forest of spindly legs all closing in on her like so many gargantuan blades, and then all she could see was red for a moment as the colossal weight drove her to the ground in an instant before she could even bring her strength to bear, tremendous weight crushing the life from her body and the breath from her lungs. Where once there had been silence, now there was only noise, a grating chittering that filled her ears and mind, accompanied by the noise of their sudden struggle. And the fangs - no sooner was she on the ground than her assailant was already bringing its head down in an attempt to finish the job, massive fangs glinting in the firelight as countless eyes glared at her malevolently.
Bael.
She reacted instinctively, headbutting the creature to gain a moment's respite, feeling its disgustingly squishy head impacting against her own, and flooded her body with power, ripping off what limiters she safely could to amplify her strength as the draconic essence filled her veins, her muscles, her will. The horrible creature hissed in her face, the nightmarish stench issuing from its mouth evident in the glistening venom dripping from its claws, but as she pushed it back Nayru immediately switched to shoulder-checking it below the head, temporarily immunizing herself from a direct bite... but she could hear the chittering and slavering just above her ear, feel the crazed clashing of its legs through the air and impacting on her back like swords. It was a temporary measure at best.
But the creature was off balance, reeling backwards as its legs attempted to find purchase or grasp her and take her with it, giving her a momentary advantage. reaching around the small of its body, Nayru ripped it from the ground, lifting the beast as large as a horse with a growing roar of her own, and hurled it like a sack of lumpy potatoes halfway across the clearing. It impacted a tree with a reverberating thud and a crack as the tree itself gave way before the monster did. It gave a horrible chittering screech, its legs waving wildly as it disappeared from the light atop the falling tree.
...And all around them, the chittering began, skittering motion and rotund shapes beginning to appear in the shadows.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2014 17:50:15 GMT -6
Jeez, he was having the weirdest dream ever. Seemed like he was paralyzed on the ground and Nayru was having a wrestling session with a giant spider way bigger than any he's seen before. Seriously, did he eat something weird before going to sleep?
...Oh.
It...wasn't a dream. When his eyes popped open from all the commotion, he witnessed Nayru slinging the a giant spider about halfway across the clearing before it hit something. Okay, was this one of those dreams where you wake up from it only to find out that you were in another dream all along? Only one way to test that out...Clenching his fist, he gave himself a deck to the stomach, and...well, that didn't feel good. Yep, this was real. Veigue's seen insane, but this was just retarded-insane. What in the world did a spider have to eat to get THAT big? Unless...it was one of those monsters he heard about. That seemed about the most logical answer. Though he hardly had the time to sit around all night and think about what the hell the thing was, as Nayru was fighting it on her own.
...And from the sound of things and shadowy figures, there were more of the buggers. Releasing Kenji from his arms and placing it back on his belt, he did the reverse and grabbed his own sword from the opposite side, brandishing the iron as he kept the sheath in the other hand. Looking around, he could see the shadows of the monstrous spiders and braced himself for anything. Well, this was definitely a new experience! Except...he didn't expect it to be against mutant spiders. "Well, Veigue...maybe this is what you need to discover your true strength..." ...And survive it in order to have the benefits later. They did say foes that you have the least experience against is a growth opportunity, after all and while they were in the face of danger, he also needed to stay focused enough to learn something out of this. He had a feeling from what just happened with Nayru that this...was going to be difficult.
Getting a little closer to where Nayru was, but still close enough to where Hayle laid, he placed himself into a battle-ready stance as his head inched sideways a bit towards Nayru, but not looking at her entirely. "...You okay?" He didn't know what was going to happen next, so he remained as attentive as possible.
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Hayle
Archer
Posts: 55
Profession: Lone Traveller
Affinity: Wind
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Post by Hayle on Jun 4, 2014 3:04:51 GMT -6
The commotion made him open his eyes, but it was really the giant spider soaring through the air with the grace of a hippo in a mud pit that really woke him up.
Or maybe Hayle was dreaming. I mean, giant flying spiders? Clearly a flight of fancy. Nothing to worry about.
Of course, that is when the noise really picked up. Chitinous legs clacking madly through the underbrush, fangs and pincers clashing together like some sort of demented puppet show.
Spiders. Huge ones at that.
Well, that certainly got him moving at least. Throwing aside his coverings, Hayle leapt to his feet with bow in hand. Sere of course, promptly curled up in the now discarded blanket and went back to sleep. Blasted feline.
Of course. Spiders. Huge ones. Clearly, they were the most pressing problem at the moment.
Arrow loosely nocked to the bowstring, stance wide for balance, Hayle stood with his back to the dying fire.
"...So what fresh hell have we gotten ourselves into this time? You couldn't find us some bandits to play with? You had to choose spiders? SPIDERS, of all things?"
Hayle could feel the panic and tension starting to creep into his voice. But then, he wasn't exactly expecting spiders the size of freaking ponies to come gallivanting out of the forest while he was trying to sleep!
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jun 4, 2014 4:01:42 GMT -6
Nayru took a shaky step backward, nearly staggering as she gasped for air, trying to assess the situation. The surprise attack had done little real damage to her, but it had obliterated her calm and thrown her completely off guard, and both qualities took time to regain. Time she did not have, that they did not have. She had to bite back the urge to yell at the two humans, to tell them to run - as little as she wanted to expose them to this lurid side of reality, there would be no escape for any of them unless they cut their way free, and leaving the light would be naught but a death sentence while the woods crawled with creeping death.
"Baels," she rasped, forcing herself to focus on the situation at hand. "Creatures born of mankind's nightmares, shadows of a world before the Scouring." Just before a desperate battle to the death was a perfectly good time for a history lesson! The horrors of Salvation Point were fresh once more. "These ones are far from fully grown. Be joyous you have yet to face a Broodmother, and pray you never will."
She had been alright with entering the fray with Aerious at her side - as a dragon she didn't have to worry about him, and he had been far stronger than her anyways. With these two, humans, and both fragile to boot... Nayru could only wish they were not here for their own sakes, an exercise in futility that would do nothing to change the present. They would have to fight, and hope that this was merely a roving group, rather than the precursor to an entire nest. She had been there before, and she did not wish to revisit it, especially not with two people she rather liked liable to die in the process.
"Hayle." Her voice was hard, uncharacteristically almost commanding; she could not live in Aerious's shadow forever, and while Nayru did not know where to go from there, she knew that they were going to have to work together if any of them planned on leaving the clearing alive - not even she could take on a full nest by herself without transforming, and that was a price the manakete was simply unwilling to take. "My bag." The lumpy parcel was somewhere around the campfire, she was sure of it, and he was a lot closer to it than she was... and significant motion on her part might well trigger the predatory instincts of these creatures. Nayru had the distinct impression that the instant anyone made any sudden movements, the attack would begin in earnest.
Lowering her voice somewhat, she continued, racking her brain for any useful information she could impart in the moments of respite they had remaining. "Their venom is acidic, and their abdomens are filled with it. Be careful when cutting them."
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Hayle
Archer
Posts: 55
Profession: Lone Traveller
Affinity: Wind
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Post by Hayle on Jun 4, 2014 6:10:39 GMT -6
Spiders. Big spiders. Huge, pony sized spi-
Nayru's voice cut through the spider induced panic to snap Hayle back to a semblance of calm, though how long it lasted was another question.
The bag in question was only a few steps away at least. Moving with at least some of the grace of the currently snoring feline nearby, Hayle managed to grab the bag in his free hand.
"Oi, Nayru," he yelled out as he began to throw the bag in her direction, "Catch!"
Right. With that out of the way, he could get back to the large, many legged task at hand.
Though... Wait. What did she say about acid?
Sigh. As if things weren't already complicated enough. The bloody things had to be poisonous too. Though, how did Nayru know that? Clearly there was more to her than he'd been lead to believe. Probably worth asking about later. Much later.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2014 19:22:40 GMT -6
...Venomous on top of that. Great. Well, since he was precise with his swings, it shouldn't be too difficult to just outright avoid their abdomens. But in the face of a new enemy, he didn't know how his confrontations with the beasts would be like. However, he knew any slip ups could be avoided if he just kept a cool head during this mess. And really, they were the size of a horse, so not hitting them there was the easy part. Not getting hit by THEM though...that was a problem on it's own. But from what Nayru said, there were bigger ones...that was a nightmare on it's own to picture, but hopefully one that big wasn't around. Really, if it was, they would have seen it's humongous shadow too a long with the others. Unless it wasn't in the vicinity. He wouldn't want to get eaten by that thing...that's if it was merciful.
Taking his own advice, he held still as he tried to keep his nerves and mind as calm as possible. The last thing he needed was to think bad thoughts like what he was going to do if one of them latched on his back. Didn't have the strength Nayru possessed, so chances were he'd never get thing off him. There was much more horrible things he could imagine, but that was the perfect line not to cross.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jun 4, 2014 19:51:15 GMT -6
Wellllll on the bright side, at least not all of their current problems were horse-sized spiders. Two of the ones she could see waiting in the wings were only about the size of a dog, three that were maybe pony-ish sized, and the horse-sized one she had tossed earlier that was making thrashing sounds as it righted itself. So if that was all there was to it, maybe they would be fine! Definitely no literal tides of giant spiders, nothing even as big as wagon, or Mother Earth forbid a house.
For some reason, Nayru had the sinking suspicion that her optimism would be crushed within the next thirty seconds, but she'd burn that bridge when she came to it. Hayle was yelling something - she half turned to see, catching sight of her bag lopsidedly arcing through the air in a particularly non-aerodynamic way. Not really surprising, given the wide variety of things inside it, but that was gonna require more attention to catch than she was entirely comfortable sparing.
The Baels at the edge of the clearing paused, their heads craning upwards towards the bag much as hers had. A moment of respite, perhaps... or were they simply in the eye of the storm? The undergrowth in the direction of the largest Bael rustled, and a wave of chittering erupted, first from it, then echoed amongst the other spiders. Was it their... leader? Did Baels even work like that? Nayru wasn't certain; she had told the other two basically everything she knew about the beasts, which really wasn't all that much, all things considered.
The bag reached her, a grinding clang as metal bit into metal, and she ripped both kama from their cloth home as if her life depended on it. And perhaps it did; the largest Bael stumbled out of the brushes, veering dangerously sideways in its daze, and its kin began to skitter cautiously forwards, two steps forward and one back, as if waiting for any last-moment developments before finishing off their prey.
Well... Veigue always said that real combat was the best way to hone your skills, right?
Tossing one kama in an arc to her left hand and hurling the bag behind and below her in a bouncing, skidding arc that hopefully sent it to the side of and beyond the fire, Nayru brandished steel as the woods seemed to vomit up a tide of skittering legs, the spiders they had already seen erupting into action in a mad dash towards the group, joined by three more that seemed to appear from the trees like ungainly phantoms, one directly at her and the other two somewhere behind her field of vision - in the general direction of her companions, even as the main body of their attackers similarly split into three.
The thought that these creatures actually understood the concept of pack hunting was as chilling as it was completely unexpected, and Nayru almost quailed for a moment as she realized how little she actually understood of the creatures before they were upon her.
The flying one - it was small, almost the size of Hayle's damnable cat, and quite amenable to being swatted away in an arc that made the bag's almost look delicate. But in its wake was another, the largest spider bearing down on her as one of the mid-sized ones attacked from the side to sap her attention, ensuring she wouldn't be able to aid either companion even if there was a need to do so.
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Hayle
Archer
Posts: 55
Profession: Lone Traveller
Affinity: Wind
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Post by Hayle on Jun 7, 2014 2:13:58 GMT -6
As tempting as it was to try and shoot the now airborne spider, chances were that the bad light and occasional gusts would just send his arrow elsewhere. Probably into someones tender posterior.
Probably not the best way to ingratiate Hayle with his companions.
Though, it would have been a really nice shot if done right.
Of course, the task at hand of not being eaten was slightly more important. The biggest spider, moving somewhat drunkenly towards Nayru was probably slightly less of a risk. The dog sized one, however...
"Clever girl..." muttered Hayle as he sighted down the shaft, eyes and arms following the eight legged monstrosity moving towards Nayru.
Breathe in, breathe out. Calm and focused, mind emptying in preparation for the shot that would give that one spider something new to think about.
Breathe in, breathe out. As the breath left his lungs, Hayle released the arrow.
With a steely whistle, the arrow leapt towards its medium sized target and with a bloodcurdling screech from its unfortunate recipient, buried itself deep into the chitinous rear flank of the now very unhappy arachnid.
Eh. Not quite the perfect, right between the eyes shot Hayle was hoping for. But boy, would that spider have trouble sitting down now.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2014 21:43:00 GMT -6
Well, a lot of crazy crap was going on. Flying Spiders? An arrow to the butt? For the first time in a very long time, the calm swordsman had no idea what to react to first. Hayle's arrow ensured the smaller one wasn't going to attack Nayru anymore, and considering that there were a good bit of these monstrosities around now, it was more like he needed to choose a target than anything. But blindly rushing any of these things would spell his doom, as they didn't seem like the type of monsters that could simply be overpowered by normal means. But he couldn't just sit by and do nothing either, so it was time to take action. He had the option of helping Nayru directly with the bigger one, but there was no telling how that was going to end up. And above all else, he'd probably just get in the way.
Though his train of thoughts was interrupted with the sounds of one of the critters was closing in on him. One of the spiders that was the size of a dog...it launched itself at him without warning as he caught it creeping towards him. Clever little beasts. Didn't think they could quietly throw off his awareness for that moment just to get close. His initial thoughts were to NOT get bitten or latched onto. But it was going for a tackle, that's for sure. His reflexes kicked in the moment the over sized spider jumped at him, sliding quickly to his side to avoid the thing entirely. At first, he was planning on blocking it with his sword, but given how powerful that tackle probably was, he wouldn't be surprised if his sword snapped like a twig. Of course, his weapon was tough, so it was probably a groundless fear. Couldn't be too safe though.
When the giant bug fell flat in it's failure, Veigue prepared himself as it was his time to strike. While it was down, he had a chance to at least deal some damage, or potentially kill it if he could. In one quick motion, a sudden burst forth was enough to close the distance and strike. He stabbed his blade in a downwards thrust, attempting to aim for the creature's head. But to his surprise, it recovered fast. Quick enough to the point where it crawled away with ease and his sword's tip was stabbed into the earth. Well...that was bad. By the time he pulled his weapon back, the spider tried a similar move from before, except he could see it's fangs spaced out and ready for a bite. He didn't have enough time to think of some over the top way of avoiding it again and striking fast enough to hurt it, but at the same time, it was also vulnerable...
It was still too sudden, but he could strike while it was attacking him, and it wasn't a full-on tackle this time, so he could take it. The sacaean spun his blade quickly to have it in his proper grip, then after the moment the spider came into contact, he vertically swung his blade at the center of it's face with all of his strength applied, dropping his sheath at the same time and gripping his hilt with both hands. He felt his blade's edge slice through the creature's weirdly squishy face, though with the way he swung his blade, it was not intended to kill the thing. Just to protect himself. With a swing to the side, Veigue was pushed back from the clash, but in turn, his attack swatted the beast away to the side and on it's back. He had to chance to finish it off, but he couldn't move immediately since that push was enough to make him slide backwards and was temporarily stunned for a short moment. If it was still on the ground from it's head injury after a few more seconds AND if another one of the buggers didn't attack him, he could finish it off.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jun 8, 2014 4:44:43 GMT -6
The whistling shriek of an arrow lanced past her faster than she could react, sending Nayru's heart rate up for a moment before the shriek of the beast to her left clued her in to the idea that maybe it hadn't been aimed at her. She risked a glance backwards, seeing that Hayle looked as though he had shot it. Unless he just got his bow out randomly for show, which was possible, but she liked the idea of him being a good shot better. And it had been a pretty good shot, not that she was a professional judge of archery but Nayru was quite aware that it was better than she could do, which wasn't actually saying much since whenever she tried to do archery she either ripped the bow in half or launched the arrow like a harpoon and broke it - and the bow - in the process. And missed the target.
She - she wasn't a very good archer was the point. And the other point was that she was still in the middle of a fight, and the spider Hayle had shot was now doubly angry and lurching towards her with murder in its eyes. Which, to be fair, was almost exactly the same look as before, when it was already planning on murdering her, but now it was personal. But its movements were sluggish, pained, and that gave her all the edge she needed to dispose of it - permanently. When the damnable beast leaped at her, Nayru spun around for a roundhouse kick, making solid contact with its bulbous abdomen and feeling the tough fur and squishy flesh palpitate for a moment before the severe force from her foot launched it like a rock from a catapult, impacting a nearby tree with a fairly loud and very messy splat.
The big one was on her now, though, a nightmare of motion and hatred and lanced out at her with legs that could shatter swords. And while she had fought larger, it had the advantage of momentum and sheer unrelenting hatred, a furious assault that sent her reeling as one leg made it past both her attempts to block the rest and slammed against her iron skin hard enough to send reverberations throughout her body. Her reinforcement held, for now, but she couldn't take hits like that repeatedly and expect her body to stay intact. Another swath of slicing legs, and her right hand's kama went flying, her inexperience with holding the weapon evident in how easily it was knocked out of her grasp.
Thaaaat probably wasn't a good sign.
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Hayle
Archer
Posts: 55
Profession: Lone Traveller
Affinity: Wind
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Post by Hayle on Jun 9, 2014 1:03:09 GMT -6
Help Veigue or help Nayru? Decisions, decisions. On one hand, Nayru was getting attacked by Mr large, dark and hairy but she seemed to be holding up okay, where as Veigue was currently kicking back and relaxing after going a couple rounds with an ugly terrier sized spider.
Ehhhhhh. Nayru could probably hold out for a little while longer. She had sent the large one through the air earlier so she was probably okay for now.
With a smooth, easy motion, Hayle fitted another cloth yard shaft to his bow. The sharpened point gleamed mutedly in the sparse light from the fire and moon as he swiveled around slightly to aim at Veigue's opponent.
Aim and... Fire! Jumping forth once again, feathers rustling in the night as it flew towards its target...
With a nice, meaty "tchnk!" sound, the arrow found its mark. Despite the seriousness of the situation they were in, Hayle had to wince in sympathy for the poor beast. The wind having picked up at the last moment caused the arrow to drop slightly.
Instead of the nice, clean killing shot to the head that Hayle had been aiming for, well... the spider had instead picked up a nice, new, iron tipped decoration to its abdomen.
Right in the arachnads, as it were.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2014 22:30:31 GMT -6
How very fortunate. Just as he thought he wouldn't make it in time before the large spider would spring back into action, the sudden arrow from Hayle hitting the monster in it's...huh. Wow. It was somewhat surprising to see the thing drop in momentary pain just like a man would if he was struck there. Even he had to shut one eye while wincing in pain for the thing, but he had little time for that. The archer gave him the opportunity he needed to get this over with and start being a little more helpful towards both of his companions. That, and even though this monster was seeking them out as prey, he kinda wanted to put it out it's misery. Hey, monster spiders probably have feelings too! Though for Veigue, not enough for him to spare it anymore mercy than it deserves.
Another burst of speed in his step as he approached the downed spider, and with one quick, yet strong and accurate swing of his blade vertically, the sharpened iron sliced clean through the area between it's head and body, since...he didn't think spiders had necks. But his blade decapitated the beast to it's inescapable doom, watching as it's legs stopped moving and it balled up like a normal spider would when it dies. Well, that was one down...at least one from how many he and Hayle killed. He couldn't help Nayru at the time, so there was no telling what she's done. Looking over towards the archer, he opted for only giving his ally a nod, expressing his thanks for his assistance...in his own little way. Goodness, he needs better social skills. Ah, but he'll work on that when necessary. It was time to see what Nayru was--
...Oh dear Mother Earth, that big one. Nayru seemed to be holding her own, but with noticing her being disarmed from one of her kama, that was certainly was a sign of some unfortunate events beginning to unfold. He had to choose his actions wisely from here on, as he doubt fighting the bigger one was going to be the same as the dog-sized one they just murdered. He was also certain he couldn't kill it by just slicing away at it's body parts. The thing had to be a little more durable than it's buddies. He had an idea though after picking his sheath back up, hitting a sprint as he began to speak loud and clear towards both Hayle and Nayru. "...I'll provide a distraction. You two attack it when you see an opening!" Normally, that'd be a bad idea. But with his maneuverability and dodging skill, he could draw it's attention away significantly with little harm to himself.
Rushing past Nayru, but going in a slightly different direction, the nimble fighter gripped his sheath tighter as he halted in his tracks, a good bit on the side of the spider where he was still in the huge monster's view. Raising his arm and pulling it back, he hurled the hardened sheath towards the beast, seeing it cluck the thing upside it's head successfully as it let out a hiss and hopped upwards while tilting it's body around in Veigue's direction. Good. It was charging at him as ferociously as a bull. Well...bad simile there, but whatever. Seems like it wanted to go straight for a bite as it made a huge leap towards him with it's fangs out and ready. Couldn't do like he did to the smaller one (can't believe he considered that thing small now!), so common sense told him to hit a back flip to evade the thing entirely.
As he slid backwards in his short fall, it just kept coming at him. It began swiping around it's razor sharp blades of legs towards him as he tried to dodge the swipes to the best of his ability. Huh...well, this wasn't so bad compared to dodging a faster, human opponent with terrifyingly accurate strikes like Zarius. Though he knew that getting even the slightest bit overconfident was going to get him a lot of dead. After swiftly dodging to the left, he took the opportunity to strike the spider's leg that just missed him as a counterattack, striking the monster's leg was like clashing with another sword. His attack caused the monster to momentarily lean backwards on the back of it's legs from the clash, and Veigue was forced to jump back as well to gain himself some distance. Hopefully that provided enough time for his allies to think of their next move if they trusted his plan.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jun 13, 2014 0:52:23 GMT -6
With a kiai shout, Nayru crashed into the spider from the side with a roundhouse kick that impacted its two rearmost left legs, snapping them like brittle spaghetti on the way to a... less effective impact on its bulbous, bouncy abdomen, which absorbed the impact without actually causing any apparent damage. Nayru paused in her attack, half flabbergasted by the lack of actual damage in the wake of having expected it to explode or something, but recovered faster than the reeling spider to bring her remaining kama in for a piercing strike that left the blade lodged up to the hilt in the arachnid's abdomen, prompting a hissing screech from it as its momentary lurching became frenzied thrashing.
She lost grip of her weapon while trying to avoid its remaining legs, the massive spider lurching to its right precipitiously before righting itself, enraged beyond even its poor temperment of a moment before as it locked in on a new target - her - through the haze of blinding pain and its falling-apart body. Nayru momentarily entertained the thought of fastening the blades to her hand by way of chains, but focused back on the subject at hand rather quickly; funny how six-foot-tall spider charging you head on can help focus the mind. It was slower, though, hobbling along on remaining legs that had trouble bearing its immense weight and leaning to the side as they failed to counter its leaning body. Putting the accursed beast out of its misery would be a kindness, if anything.
Disarmed, but far from helpless. Heh. Clasping her hands together, Nayru brought them above her head as the creature blindly charged her, partially unsealing the power of her stone in a heady rush of essence that flowed through her, before bringing them down in a massive hammer blow as the Bael's head came close enough. The creature's head was reduced to dust in an instant as its entire front body was crushed into the ground, the weight of its abdomen driving it forwards in a streak in the ground, uprooting grass as the force of her downwards blow traveled through it and brought it to a halt as its suddenly-lifeless legs scrabbled uselessly for an instant against her own, then all was silent.
A deep breath as her power receded again, and Nayru slowly reached over to retrieve the protruding kama from the dead Bael's corpse. Where the other one was, she had no idea. Focus. Veigue. Hayle, both alive. That had been WAY too easy. And there had been far too few Baels. Was this a scouting party, hunting pack, or just a few random Baels together? Turning to her human companions, Nayru managed a tired smile, trying to convince herself that everything would be fine. "Are the both of you alright?"
[OOC: I don't actually care how many spiders I initially spawned, let's just say we killed them all]
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Hayle
Archer
Posts: 55
Profession: Lone Traveller
Affinity: Wind
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Post by Hayle on Jun 15, 2014 4:14:16 GMT -6
Phew. At least the spiderpocalypse was over for now. Cat was still sleeping too. Typical.
That said, clearly Nayru had been working out, considering the ease in which she turned the largest spiders heady into a goopy mess of pain, venom and brains.
"All good over here." called out Hayle in response to Nayru's questioning.
"Are you alright though? It looked like large, dead and hairy over there gave you quite the workout."
Ah crap. Hayle's face fell as he realized, his arrows, the ones currently embedded in various, spidery places were probably becoming less than useless thanks to the arachnids poison.
Hopefully they wouldn't run into anything else that needed slaying tonight. Killing beasts was really more of an after breakfast thing.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2014 11:09:16 GMT -6
After simply nodding in response to Nayru, one quick swipe of his sword sideways was done to remove the...well, guess you could say "guts" of the giant spider he beheaded earlier, then immediately returning the blade to it's sheath after finding it on the ground again. He really needed to throw it more often. It sure did work well as a throwing weapon...though sadly not one that returns to him. This fight was teaching him a little something though...he lacked a little range for situations where he needed to keep his distance before going in, and his sheath probably isn't the best weapon to use for those situations. Only worked against the spider because it was distracted, and all it did was cluck the thing upside it's head and sent it into a rage...which in a sense was kinda funny to look at. But still...if he did it more in the future, there was no guarantee his sheath would even return to him in one piece. Granted, it was tough, so it couldn't be broken that easily.
As they were checking up on each other, Veigue took the time to scan their surroundings. No more spiders now...but it still seemed to be too easy. Well, that back there earlier wasn't exactly "easy", but he couldn't shake off that itching feeling that the worst has yet to come. It was quite unusual to see spiders that big and all in one place. Not to mention this dead forest looked like it housed some seriously freaky stuff here. It probably would have been for the best if they just skipped a night and focused on getting out of here before something else springs out those trees. If there were more big ones like the one Nayru just killed, he didn't know how they'd fair against multiples. But for the most part, it seemed quiet all around...and that's what concerned him the most.
Inclining to stepping beside the dead monster spider, he crouched down as he examined the beast. It couldn't REALLY be a spider...the thing was too freaking huge, and it's appearance was that of an otherworldly one. Something he wouldn't have even dreamed of seeing in Elibe. Though once he thought about it, there was talk about giant monsters somewhere in Sacae a while back. Could these spiders be the same of those rumors? Well, guess he'd have plenty of time to think about it at a later time. Could ask Nayru, as she seemed surprisingly knowledgeable about these creatures and handled them better than the rest of them here. She called them "Baels"...quite the odd name and that further rose his suspicions that it wasn't a spider natural to the others.
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