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Post by Jalid Al-Qabbad on Jan 23, 2017 21:12:02 GMT -6
So. New fact he'd learned? Humans had very comfortable beds. In-fact, he'd slept better in some of the rooms of these inns than hundreds of years worth at home. At-least, the inns that had a bed large enough for him. Most did, but not all. It'd become a bit of a pattern. He would go to a town, and often find someone to help. Usually this involved carrying things, moving things or some menial task. Every now and then he'd be something fun or exciting. Like confronting ruffians, and showing them what the meaning of the term "rough" really meant. Once, though not by request in exchange for money, he'd even gotten to battle undead who had remarkable endurance.
Then there was the food. Arcadian food was fairly...unchanging. Hundreds of years with the same things as your meals began to feel a bit bland. Here however he'd gotten to taste spices and seasonings he didn't even know existed. Just imagining the savory nature and seasoning of his meal the night prior had him nearly drooling. With a grunt, he was slowly leaving the inn within Badon, a large hand on the door frame as he moved through the sleepy town's inn. Badon Proper was quiet in the mornings. Though the stirring wasn't nearly as quiet. People loading freight onto ships. The ringing bells of ships as they marked their departure for their crew.
People had started frequenting it, and Jalid was moving through the market district quietly while still waking up. An apple in his hand, he bit into it with a voracious bite. Teeth carving out a large swathe of destruction through that delicious ripe fruit that he'd never quite experienced before. Many fruits and vegetables here were completely new to him. The Dragon was scratching his the back of his neck while he tried to make his way past a few particularly intriguing stalls. truly, if he wasn't careful, he'd get lost in these human towns. Raising a forearm to wipe off some of the apple juices trickling down his chin and threatening to slip into his beard, the dragon grunted quietly when he heard loud voices raising with ignorant tones. In the distance he saw a trio of men who were raising a commotion near a stand with tomes. Shouting towards the man who'd been working it quietly. The thunderous crash of them tipping one of his crates drew a few on-lookers.
"OI! Whattre yew gettin' at ol' man! Yew know o' were lookin' for! Lots o' white hair. Tiny little thing! We saw er' ere' minutes ago! Where'd she get to?!"
Yes. That was the other thing he'd noticed. It seemed that, with no dragons around, humans had taken to fighting eachother.
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Post by Althea on Jan 24, 2017 0:04:19 GMT -6
She had most assuredly NOT expected to run into Circe back at the docks there, or be... bamboozled into taking the young mage along with her, admittedly. Althea was still a little frazzled over that little recruitment episode. Not angry, it did sound interesting, just, er, a touch overwhelmed. Still! She was finally back in civilization, NOT being murdered by pirates, and that meant she had work to do. Especially with a major excavation-exploration combo coming up soon, she needed toiletries, dried food, to ensure her water rations were fresh, get some replacement bedding, make a few inquiries, research the dig site a bit, visit some local libraries to look up the history of the area, try to interview a few of the organizers... oh! Yes, and she needed to visit an embroiderer to hem some damage in her dress, practice victory lines and poses for when casting. Of course, how could she forget that?
Hm. She had been here before. Althea was slightly confused, though not overtly annoyed. During her earlier errands she had walked by this very stand, looking for any great deals on magic tomes (unsuccessful) and possibly information on ancient magic tomes (VERY unsuccessful). She had written down some of the symbols she was beginning to recognize from her book and the shopkeeper had suggested she 'get the hell out of the way of paying customers,' as she recalled. That had been quite rude! You could never put a price on knowledge, after all!
This time though, there was a disturbance in the force, as it went, a trio of crass looking adventurers who seemed to be hassling the tome shop clerk. Ignoring the thought that he had it coming - probably Eris chiming in again - Althea observed the confrontation passively for a moment before a thought finally entered the barren wasteland of her mind and she considered actually investigating what was going on, like a real detective! Maybe she could even help them find whatever they were... looking... for.
Lots of white hair? Tiny little thing? Female? Near the tome stall a few minutes ago?
"Um, excuse me," Althea piped up from behind the triplet of troublemakers, smiling as brightly as she could manage at the thought of actually being able to help them and trying to put up a good front as a result. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
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Post by Jalid Al-Qabbad on Jan 24, 2017 10:14:47 GMT -6
Of the three pirates that were causing a fuss, the one who'd been yelling at the shop-keep was by far the largest. Burly, with a single bit of tattered shirt remaining on a large muscled torso covered in curly brown hair and a bushy beard to match, the man turned with an incredulous look to stare down at the white haired girl. Clearly she had something special in her brain that let her walk right up to them! He wouldn't complain none though. Stroke of luck really. The pirate gripped the shop-keeps collar and threw him down to the side roughly while he took a few steps away from the stall as the tome-vendor landed with a loud crash into a stand to the side. All the while, the other two were already moving. One reached out in an attempt to snatch Althea up between extended large arms as the head of the trio laughed with a guffawing tone.
"Yew ain't very smart girleh'!! What says yew ta' this! We's 'ere been sent to drag yer tiny white arse back to the cappin' for that hole yew put in our ship! Oi! Donnel, Clear the way!!"
While one tried to grip up the kind young Shaman, the other one started brutishly marching down the path a ways trying to shove everyone away so they could hastily make their get away. Until he stopped at a particular impasse. An impasse that had just finished his apple and was examining the core, trying to figure out what to do with it when the brutish pirate tried to muscle his way past. Except...Jalid didn't move.
"Oi! Ya' lame in the head? Move ya oaf!"
Jalid's lips began to curve into a frown of sorts as the man tried to shove him aside. His body instantly anchoring as his knee's locked and the ice dragon spoke in a stern, heavy tone. Fingers releasing the core to the ground beside him while he reached out with one hand and roughly palmed the man backwards a step.
"I do not move for others. Others move for me. Now allow me to continue on my way...or you will be moved."
There was his world class diplomacy at work. So far, literally every solution had been "Can I hit it? I can hit it." Well. He had been a mother's boy growing up, so it made sense that his solutions would coincide with hers as opposed to his fathers. Though, the other man did not seem to understand the situation he was in, and as he charged towards Jalid, the Ice dragon braced himself in preparation to repel the pirate once more. This time it was a bit different though because the man had gripped and lifted an ax from his side. In response, Jalid stomped his foot into the ground after spreading his legs a bit and braced himself with his hands rising from his sides to rest in-front with one hand out near his waist and the other facing the rushing pirate. His muscles instantly bulging slightly as they ran taut, tensing his entire body in anticipation of the force he'd retaliate with.
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Post by Althea on Jan 24, 2017 21:36:48 GMT -6
"Wha-ah! Bla!"
Articulately stammering with the grace and poise of a drunk duck and half the sense, Althea slipped under the grabbing arms and thwacked the nearest ruffian in the face with her pack by accident, almost immediately beginning to apologize as she hurt herself in her confusion before her brain switched on and the shaman began to put the pieces together in her mind. They had been looking for her, that should have been a warning sign in retrospect given how generally uninteresting she was, but it took the mention of ships and holes to actually make it all properly click. She didn't, er, put a lot of holes in ships as a regular thing, in fact Althea could count on one hand the number of times she had ever even thought of doing that, and it only took one finger. ...Because it had only happened once, ever, a few days ago, and there was LITERALLY no other reason for them to be searching for her related to that.
"YOU!" It wasn't often the quiet shaman raised her voice, but the indignation and judgement in her words were clear for all to hear, on the off chance they were unfortunate to be anywhere in the vicinity. She hadn't... liked that particular vendor a great deal, admittedly, but unprovoked violence against the innocent was detestable. Wait, did that make provoked violence against the innocent - DAMMIT Althea focus! "Y-You're the pirates who attacked our ship!" Yes, Althea, good of you to finally get on board with the program. "You should leave innocent people alone? Or - or else!" Oh yeah, you could just taste the hardcore savagery and brutal bloodlust in her wavering words; not even the traces of dark magic congealing around her did much of anything to make Althea actually look or sound especially intimidating.
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Post by Jalid Al-Qabbad on Jan 24, 2017 22:20:28 GMT -6
While she struggled free and her pack slapped the attempted kidnapper in the face the man stumbled backwards a bit. Growling in frustration and covering his nose while nursing it with a gentle series of rubs with his palms. The larger of the three pirates was slowly moving away from the vendor and closer to the girl. His hand meatily resting atop the hilt of his large over-sized hatchet while he started closing in on the girl.
You should leave innocent people alone? Or - or else!
People surrounding the stalls, most of which were slowly backing away heard this line. The pirate who had thrown the vendor was laughing at her words even, with his head reared back as if he'd just heard the greatest joke in his life. Laughing that was, until a third sound punctuated itself into the space around them.
WWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!!
A body instantly flew between the young shaman, and the pirate who had been about to lean forwards towards her. Instantly the larger man recoiled as his third comrade sailed through the air and crashed into a wooden crate sitting in-front of a stall next to the tome-stall. The groan of pain as the man rolled off the mess of wooden planks was evident, and both of the standing pirates turned to look as Jalid started walking down the path again. This time, his expression was not as pleasant. His fists clenched slowly, fingers coiling as his muscles began to clench and bulge while they ran taut. He relaxed his fingers before balling them again, slowly stretching his limbs by tensing his muscles repeatedly. He lifted his right hand into the air, golden gauntlet and finger guards glinting slightly in the slight before the Ilian Dragon smashed his balled fist into the open palm of his left hand. His tone was a near gravelly tone as he stared with frigid blue hues, not an ounce of restrain visible in the gaze as his brow creased with anger.
"You are all in my way. And you wish to harm this girl? I believe, you must all be moved."
Sure she could probably defend herself. Honestly they were about to figure that out weren't they? Because while the larger pirate drew his hatchet and turned to face Jalid, the other one had extracted his ax and was already trying to make a clear path for Althea as people in the market district began to scramble about wildly in a mad frenzy to escape the violence. A few people bumped into Jalid as they ran past, but he moved through the crowd like a glacier. Slow, but steady.
His lips parted slightly, as he quietly exhaled from a deep breath with the mantra of his path upon steady tongue.
"Unyielding, like Iron."
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Post by Althea on Jan 25, 2017 0:13:04 GMT -6
Althea frowned as the largest pirate began to approach her, seemingly uncowed by her attempt to convince him to leave her alone. It was not a kind look, born less of confusion and annoyance as from a primal anger that she knew - she thought - was not her own. Eris's effects on her were still somewhat confusing, and the fear at the back of her head was always that it WASN'T anything from outside - from Eris's existence - but simply the manifestation of her own true nature. It was an eerie concept to the usually mild mannered shaman, used to having her emotions well under control to the point that they appeared dampened or even deadened.
So having someone else's emotions thrust on her - that left HER feeling a little unbalanced, too. But it didn't hurt her ability to cast. If anything, the torrent of rising emotion empowered her spells; Althea was not so blind as to not notice that all her most powerful casts recently had been accompanied by that surge of rage that was so intense as to be overwhelming - and yet so lonely as to be sad. Something else to grill the cavalier Eris about later. But for now... a spark of eternity flickered to life between the shaman's hands, her face hardening as she forcibly brought herself back to the mindset she had managed to channel on the ship, the ruthless but far from emotionless woman who had been able to handle the brutal combat.
And once again, it seemed that she was not alone. A strange man, seemingly as strong as any of them. The warrior who had sent one of the pirates flailing through the air, approaching the remaining man with rage guiding his steps. Hm. Perhaps they were both monsters, then, driven by the same affliction; the sin of Wrath. Althea didn't know what to think about that. She'd never really thought of herself as the kind of person who actually got angry. But these days, it just seemed to be getting easier and easier.
Her palms crashed together on the core of her magic, flickering light and shadow as a familiar pinkish-purple magic hexagram whose hands were petals. No need to consider dual seals now; the range was short enough that she could do it with one - which meant much faster casting, and much less strain on her mind and body. Her eyes turned fully to the approaching pirate as she finally spoke again, all trace of kindness evaporating from her voice, though it still bore the sweet trills it always did, somewhat of a dichotomy.
"Leave. Now."
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Post by Jalid Al-Qabbad on Jan 25, 2017 1:03:46 GMT -6
Pirates weren't known for being smart. They weren't brilliant scholars, or great alchemists, or brilliant tacticians. If they were, they wouldn't resort to pirating. These pirates however, were like the special pirates. As if the man who made the evolutionary chain would take them by the hand, and say "Come with me my friend" and lead them back to the spot with the chimps. For the man before Jalid lifted his hatchet with a loud shout. This man was not smart. Jalid's shout as he cocked back his fist was louder.
"GGGGGGRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGH!!"
Jalid's fist sank into the man's gut as the ice dragon lunged forwards, hooking his right fist into the man as he started lunging forwards past him with his elbow cocking back before thrusting with every ounce of considerable might he could muster. Just like the pirate prior, this one was sent flailing through the air between the pale haired shaman and her quarry. However they had a second momentary lapse in eye contact as Jalid's figure rushed between them and leapt into the air once he'd moved past them. Until his heels came crashing down atop the pirate's torso. He was almost certain he'd heard a crack. That might've been wood beneath the man's back however. The pirate he'd thrown initially was gripping at an Ax to bring down upon the intervening dragon, and Jalid was already struggling with the other before he turned and threw himself at the other man with the ferocity of a wild bear protecting its cub.
He lunged for the man, bringing him back to the ground as he slammed one knee into his abdominal section and began to crash his right palm down into the brigand's jaw repeatedly. Each thrust hard, and him attempting to flat out break the man's jaw off its hinge until he was thrown backwards by the rough brute force of the tallest and largest of the pirates. A loud cacophony of noise sounding out while he smashed into a wooden crate himself. This hurt, yes, but there was something it did more so. It infuriated Jalid. He exploded from a prone position almost instantly and threw himself at the other two pirates with an unbridled ferocity and fury. Neither seeming to get a chance to actually draw their weapons and keep them aloft yet.
The pirate who had been staring down Althea lunged forwards, swinging his ax at her in an attempt to at-least harm her so they could bring her back to the captain. His anger putting him at a point where intimidation didn't quite work. Truly, a world class intellect. His body's self preservation instincts clearly weren't enough.
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Post by Althea on Jan 25, 2017 2:37:08 GMT -6
Staring down the charging pirate as he neared her, Althea oddly found herself focused more on the complex emotions surging through her than on the fight itself; as her body and mental subprocesses continued to channel the Nether, her mind was freed to note the sad irony of the situation, the fact that if the man had taken any of his many opportunities to simply walk away, none of this would have had to happen. He could have left the second he got off the battered ship, he could have separated from his mates during the search for her, he could even have taken her warning, seen the dark magic brewing, and taken the wiser route of simply turning tail and fleeing. She wouldn't have thought less of him for it, certainly. But instead, the pirate had consigned his soul to oblivion doing the same heartless acts that had already nearly cost he and his crew their lives. HAD cost many of the crew their lives, during the brutal battle aboard the passenger ship.
"...I'm sorry."
There was a glimmer of recognition in his eyes as he neared her, a moment of intelligence surfacing through the anger that all of them were sharing in that brief instant of understanding. It felt as though being awash on a very dark sea, seeing a blink of light amidst the endless shadow, only to watch it being blotted out. There was a certain sadness to it, almost a sense of tragedy; if things had gone differently, if his emotions had not ruled him, perhaps they might have interacted some other way. Perhaps, the sadly optimistic part of her ventured, they could have been friends. But probably not.
Above her head the petals of the seal began to open and an inky torrent of concentrated dark energy flowed thick as blood through the gate, a blackened ray of shadow that rained down on the pirate far faster than any Flux. He only had the time to begin to shift the axe in his hands, human ingenuity and survival instinct winning out over rage for a moment, before the caustic cancer was already upon him, eating through flesh and blood and even wood in its path. Without any need to consider the vagaries of range and motion, only power and concentration were a concern, and while Althea was no legendary magus, the fury she fed the Nether and the coldly clinical precision with which she utilized her techniques were a dangerous combination.
The pirate's shriek of pain died down as his chest began to decompose, the axe shielding him falling from his hands as they too began to disintegrate, and his lungs followed suit. She was too busy focusing to think much of it, though this time Althea recognized when her spell was rapidly reaching critical mass and had the sense to close the channel beforehand. It spared her the backlash of a spell implosion, but momentarily nonplussed, mentally and physically overwhelmed, it took her a moment to register that the cast had ended as the corpse before her stood unsteadily for a moment before collapsing limply to the ground. Emptily. Bereft of the grim purpose of a moment before.
Standing very still for a few moments, the heaving of her chest the only real sign that the shaman was even still alive, Althea began the arduous process of pushing everything back down, controlling the emotion that had begun to go rampant. Her magic had sustained power, but range and cost efficiency were currently both - put frankly - complete garbage, and her magical reservoirs did not refill anywhere near fast enough to cast that often even ignoring the cost to her body.
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Post by Jalid Al-Qabbad on Jan 25, 2017 18:00:34 GMT -6
Now. There were many moments that Jalid could recall in his life with near perfect clarity. Every moment seemingly perfect lining up with another moment. All in a sequence that made everything seem so clear. So here, while he lifted up the large watermelon and violently smashed it into the largest priate's left temple with enough force to shatter the large melon against him while throwing him to the side he was finding a hard time seeing the build up. What moment in his thousand plus year life had led to combating someone with melons. Perhaps it was a hidden martial art he'd master? Melon Master! That...was not something he felt he should proclaim aloud. Especially in the presence of women. Oh look, the pirate was throwing his ax at him. That was a fun distraction. Now he could focus less on Melon Master and more on-
"RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
Jalid roared in pain as the hatchet cut into his left bicep while he leaned to the side. The ax slicing through skin and rending flesh with ease before twirling into the distance. At this point, the explosive blistering rage within turning into a violent explosion from the molten core within him. Even if a cold fury seethed beneath his veins, the fires of rage swept through him even as the pain did. He instantly smashed his way up through the remnants of two wooden crates while bulldozing forwards and grabbing the pirate. In his anger and pain, he lost some of his restrain. His body shifting in the most minute ways. Ices adjusting. Pupils altering to slits, and the red-bloodshot vein like network upon the whites of his ices becoming a frigid blue shade. His brow became slightly more emphasized, while finger nails hardened into sharper ones as he grabbed at the pirate's shoulder and shouted wildly while throwing him up against the wall. The man's head crashing against Jalid's.
For a moment the other pirate seemed to fall into a daze from it. Stumbling back against the wall fully as his plan back-fired while Jalid showed little signs of injury, before he crashed his own head into the man's face. The bridge of his nose breaking and the sickening wet crunch of a broken nose sounding a moment before the pirates scream of pain. Jalid's fist came crashing into his rib-cage next with balled knuckles meeting soft flesh and seemingly fragile bone. His left arm gripping the man's shoulder now and holding with a tighter grip so his feet no longer touched the ground. His thumbs' nail puncturing skin so a trail of red trickled down the broad biceps of the pirate.
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Post by Althea on Jan 25, 2017 23:29:14 GMT -6
Okay. There was a... distinct possibility that she was just seeing things, and from ten-fifteen feet away she couldn't make out the details, but it almost seemed as though the man fighting the pirates had changed slightly, she couldn't quite see how. Perhaps it was just his demeanor altering as his anger... audibly... and visually grew, the somewhat light hearted melon mashing turning into, er, actual melon mashing as he headbutted one of the pirates far harder than she had imagined possible. Admittedly, she was not an expert on... headbutting. The shaman generally found that she preferred her brains in working order and located neatly in place, inside her head, and was somewhat paranoid of taking severe mental damage.
-But she couldn't exactly stand here and gawk forever. Whatever the reason for these three men's absolute ire towards her, they were still vile killers, responsible in part for the countless deaths aboard the ship, and she was beyond the point of feeling especially sorry for them. Again the Nether sprang to her command, and she noted that it was much easier than she recalled to spin a basic Flux together than it had been in the past, perhaps as a result of her beginning to understand and control Mire's powers better. Easier, not easy, though. It still halted her mobility as the gelatinous goop collected within the sphere in her hands, pulsating with dark power as she focused on the other of the two pirates, the one that the berserking martial artist had melon mashed and let be for a moment while brutalizing the axe wielder.
Hm. In the wake of that last major cast, it seemed she needed a moment to regather herself before launching any other large scale attacks, so Althea simply let the darkness flow from her, sinking into the ground and pooling around the melon man before rising around him and detonating, a burst of dark energy not strong enough to rend flesh and bone, but enough to singe flesh and char clothing, buffeting him with force from every direction. Not her finest work, but at least easy enough to do that it allowed her to focus more on building up her reserves again.
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Post by Jalid Al-Qabbad on Jan 26, 2017 19:43:52 GMT -6
The other pirate had become quite distracted. Which suited Jalid fine. If the pale skinned girl with hair like snow was still standing and had vanquished the first, she was not such a push over. That was good to know. Jalid was briefly lost in his infuriating as the man struggled and gripped while trying to keep his weight supported so that he did not sink further into the piercing nails puncturing his shoulder. It seemed however, the large ilian dragon was not the only one to gain might from being infuriated or being wounded. The man's feet lifted after a few minor flailing motions before he kicked out with enough force to dislodge the dragon and send him stumbling back slightly.
The shaky grip as the dragon was thrown back allowed for the release of the pirate. He instantly lifted up his Ax as Jalid stumbled down to one knee. The Pirate lifted his ax high into the air with a loud proclamation. Evolution at its finest.
"Yew shoulda stayed out o' this! Now yew Die!"
The stuffed sound, and almost nasally accent were likely thanks to the broken nose that was pouring blood out of it like a ship with a leak. However, As he brought his Ax down Jalid merely extended his left hand. There was a solid thud, and though the blade cut lightly into his palm, it seemed to stop almost at the first layer of skin. Jalid's hand rising as the human's limbs shook from his exertion, and an effort to lower it further. His legs leaning into the motion. The tall dragon slowly rose from his knee while he steadily pushed the man back, fingers latching onto the flat sides of the ax blade even as he lifted the mans arm high. Disbelief prominently dominating his face as the dragon looked to him both with a partial smile, and a nearly composed gaze. His biceps going taut as he clenched the weapon tightly. Crimson lightly coating it.
"I die? Who decides this? You? No..."
His audible scoff was heard a near moment before he ripped the ax upwards and lunged forwards to grab the man's neck with his other hand. The weapon falling harmlessly to the side a moment later while Jalid slammed the brigand into the wall, Jalid's fist indenting the stone structure slightly while he slammed his other fist into the lower left abdominal portion of the pirate. The man's lips parting to a sputtering blood filled cough from the blood upon his lips. Perhaps some from within? The Ilian dragon didn't pretend to know how internal bleeding worked.
The Dragon's voice raised as he leaned back his fist once more. Anger staining his words and his blood filling the folds of his palm as he closed it as tightly as possible. His right hand tossing the man slightly into the air with strained bicep.
"The only one who decides that...is ME!"
His fist crashed into the pirate, punching into him with enough force to actually puncture his lower torso and force a fist sized hole slightly within it. He felt the warmth of bodily fluids, and organs? He couldn't be sure, but the man's blood stained lips loosed another salvo of crimson liquid that splotched onto the dragon's forehead while he held the man their briefly, before letting him drop to the ground after extracting his fist. The howl of pain was almost muted, as if he was nearly unable to breath. He'd likely winded the man, because the tears in his eyes and the way he gasped for air seemed to take priority.
His eyes reverted, and brow returned to normal while the dragon hunched over the man and examined him. The thrashing a blatant indication that he was alive for the present with enough vigor to do such. So Jalid would rise once more to turn and see how the snowy haired mageling fought. He'd glimpsed magic prior. She wielded a dark magic. A kind he'd seldom seen in his reclusive lifestyle. He lifted a single foot to slowly press atop the pirates chest with a fraction of his weight applied. He was now invested. His curiosity in this girl, and her would-be-kidnappers great enough that he wanted to question the wounded pirate later.
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Post by Althea on Jan 26, 2017 21:52:29 GMT -6
Oh dear. Her attack had distracted and damaged one of the remaining pirates, but it was from from enough to obliterate him. Overcharging a Flux spell was almost as magically expensive as launching Mire at her... limited level of mastery, and without those two things she didn't have a phenomenal amount of absolute destructive ability, at least not in a single hit. In truth, a basic axe blow did more than a single strike of her simplest magic, when wielded by strength as these ruffians possessed, though that was not to say that her magic was harmless.
The problem here though was that the pirate she'd just struck was too far away to be really effected by her directly channeled beam, and as she'd learned on the ship, creating a secondary entry post was essentially using the conceptual sealing magic twice for the same spell - far from effortless. Flux WAS her only real effective ranged magic for the time being, at least cost-effectiveness wise. Having come to the inevitable conclusion as her mind broke down the problem into its components, she invited the Nether into herself again, feeling the dark energies build and crackle beneath the palms of her raised hands one more time. But this time, inspired by her earlier use of Mire, she strove to keep the Nether magics in a purer energy form despite the greater costs, stepping momentarily away from the congealed, caustic goop that she often worked with. It was more difficult to seal, but in the end it was still Nether magic, still Flux, merely approached from a different perspective.
And this time, when the shadowed death emerged from the injured pirate's shadow as he caught sight of her and realized she was unscathed, the cloudburst of darkness erupting inside his upper chest did not stop at merely damaging flesh, erupting inside him with enough force to shatter bone and balloon his upper body outwards almost comically for a moment before the already lifeless corpse fell like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Trying to ignore the tinge of pain above her right eye from the extra strain of the manipulation of energy directly, though, Althea could only watch in horror as the third of the three pirates brought his axe down on her unarmed savior, her magical reserves significantly drained and her ability to channel and cast at the speeds necessary to interfere... well, simply not there yet, not even close. It was frustrating, to have felt so effective in one moment and utterly useless the next, before the impossible happened. Not merely improbable, but the bulwark of a man before her caught the axe with his bare hand, seemingly unscathed by it - though there might have been a line of blood, she couldn't tell - and simply battered his opponent in return, the pirate bending and breaking like a reed before the hurricane of his fury.
Huh.
Swallowing her nervousness at, er, actually approaching the pirates, even if they did seem to be fairly... thoroughly dealt with for the time being, Althea gingerly stepped over the first one she had killed before approaching Jalid and his fallen prey with a look of uncertainty. She... most definitely had not been prepared for all of this, any of this, to happen. The shaman hardly even knew where to start at trying to break the situation down, there were simply too many questions demanding answers to be neatly arranged and meekly await their mental massacre. But she could think of at least one thing that probably bore saying before the rest came jumbling out.
"...Thank you," she stated simply but truly, as though each fiber of her being was invested in those words. And in no small way, that much was true. She would be dead or worse had he not interfered - Althea had managed to avoid the first set of grasping hands, but she was under no delusions as to just how unlikely it was that she could have continued to avoid or outrun the three men, and without the man's interference she most assuredly would not have had the time to casually and repeatedly cast as she had.
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Post by Jalid Al-Qabbad on Apr 19, 2017 13:38:05 GMT -6
She was soft spoken. Her body was thin. She looked frail. She looked young. Yet she commanded dark magics. As if she was his polar opposite.
His was a voice able to fell Baels, and boomed loud enough to make such feats believable. His body large. Sturdy. He was old. At-least, older than her. He did not command mighty magics. He relied on punching things into submission. It was far easier this way. If he were to cast magic it would no doubt have materialized in the forms of colossal fists. The girl's soft tone drew his attention though and his gaze rested upon her while the wounded pirate struggled beneath Jalid's large foot. Bent at the knee, his leg sank a little lower as he applied more force to pin the beaten dog harder to the ground.
Large forearms folded over one another while he crossed his arms to his chest before nodding. Despite the severity of the situation his expression widened to a smile in response to her kindness. His baritone voice booming while he tried to ensure she was comfortable. As comfortable at-least as one could be after an attempted abduction.
"You are welcome tiny mage. Are you uninjured?"
Though he himself had trails of thick crimson slowly drifting down either side of his shoulder he paid it no mind. His parted vest had two small paths of dark sanguine descending over his pectoral and along the curved paths made by his heavily toned abdominal muscles. His attention slowly shifted as the injured pirate squirmed once again fruitlessly beneath the large foot pinning him down before Jalid shifted more weight to the point of partially stepping fully upon the man's lower torso where he'd received his injury. Jalid's smile fading, and his tone becoming far more severe as the male leaned down to rest one forearm upon his knee and hardened his voice.
"You however will be coming with me. I would ask you a few questions. Unless...the mageling wishes to ask you her own now? However..you will answer. Or I will break you. Like a branch beneath my foot."
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Post by Althea on Apr 19, 2017 14:34:47 GMT -6
"I am - unharmed." Despite the small catch in her voice, Althea spoke truth, at least as far as she could. She was a bit out of breath and more than a little frazzled after what had happened, her endurance never the best and her penchant for violence nonexistent, but thanks to the strange unarmed fighter's efforts she had escaped death or worse. Though... she had never seen a man fight as he had. He did not seem to be truly invulnerable, but what manner of warrior fought without weapons? In strength and durability, from what flashes she had seen interspersed between her own struggles, he seemed to be well out of her experience zone. Part of her wanted to push towards the truth of that immediately, pirates be damned. "You possess an intriguing strength and durability," she began evenly, neutrally. As she regained her composure, it almost sounded arch. But she recognized that now was... not the time and place to grill him on his abilities. "-But for now, we should get moving."
The pale shaman bowed respectfully to her savior, another gesture of thanks that cost her little but paid much, and returned to the upright position looking somewhat more at ease as the adrenaline continued to subside. "My name is Althea. I believe these men are pirates from the ship that attacked the cruise ship I was on... though I am unsure how they tracked me here, especially so quickly." Hm. That was exceptionally strange indeed, the more she thought about it. She had not yet even been here a day, and the wounded pirate ship shouldn't have known exactly where their fanged prey had been headed to, though they could certainly have made a good guess. Was there more going on here than met the eye?
Regardless. She, ah, certainly did not envy the pirate in his current state, though the strange fighter bore minor wounds as well. Hm. She didn't have much in the wise of healing magic or medical training, but she had... some possible bandages in her pack, which was, er, right... oh there it was. Scurrying over to regain her battered belongs, wishing that she hadn't polluted it with the pirate's smelly flesh, the shaman regained her gear and rejoined Jalid quickly. "In the meantime, please try not to aggravate your injuries. I will bandage you as best we can when we reach a safer location." Yes. Because kissing his boo-boos was really going to brighten the big lunk's day.
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Post by Jalid Al-Qabbad on Apr 19, 2017 16:26:01 GMT -6
Well. Wasn't she a strange little bundle of murder magic. His good arm moved with large meaty palm curling to a fist and pressing to his hip as the man let out a loud laugh that shook his entire upper torso. A faint increase in the trickle of crimson fluids slowly coating more of his skin. There was no wince though in his poise however. If anything he welcomed it! Ahhh, to feel the rip and tear of skin from exertions again. The branding heat of pain sundering his structure! It gave him something to fight, and gods above and below did it feel great! Something to grit his teeth and stride through. The powerful male's laughter subsided however while he quietly propped himself further before gazing down at the wounded pirate before responding to Althea.
"Aye, as good a response as any. Best to wait. BUT...you...are coming with us."
He leaned down with a gravely tone uttered through tightened lips as he let one large hand grip the man around the waist and roll him as he moved his foot. Lifting a hand, he crashed his fist with...moderate restraint so it connected to his right temple. Having effectively hit the "restart" button on the man, he blacked out and went limp a moment later. Hoisting him like the limp sack of worthless shite that he was, Jalid looked to Althea with another laugh even as she expressed worry.
"Ahhh, I appreciate the gesture little mageling! Er..Mage Althea."
That was how humans greeted each other now right? He didn't know. It mattered not.
"Worry not though! My body will not give out because of a few cuts and scrapes! I am not so frail as to fall to a brittle rustling of winds like torn fall leaves! Bahahaha! Ahh. Now then. Know you a place where we can find privacy? I acquired a residence of temporary nature but am unsure if they would accept our guest so readily!"
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