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Post by Talus on Apr 27, 2017 20:07:58 GMT -6
She didn't really seem to answer hid question on a memory of magic, and took that as a cue to ask again later. "True... but almost anything's worth trying once." he said. As he tried working his way through, he was all set to do it, all psyched up... And then Althea dunked him down (surprisingly) back to reality. "....well f**k" he thought as he realized that she was right. Somehow, the fact that nothing was really happening made it all the more embarrassing, like someone had pantsed him. "... yeah. Probably should. Just gimme a sec to get my magic off. All that energy has got to go somewhere." he said as he discharged it. That felt good. A buildup of magical energy released always made him feel good... And then he heard this weird grating noise from behind him. Before he could ask Althea what questionably sane thing she was up to, she said she thought she found the thing that killed the animals in a tone louder than usual. "Uh-oh. I had a bad feeling that fate was just waiting for this." he thought as he turned around to see what it was slowly. "What is it Althea...." he said to her as his voice died when he saw it, making a soft terrified squeak in the proccess. There were Mauthe Doogs, monsters that looked like hellish dogs. And they looked ready to kill. At that moment, he had the ultimate look of terror on his face, and it took all his willpower not to let his lower body get the best of him, and to not scream like a little girl. He tried to speak, but no noise came out at first. "Zoinks!" he whimpered fearfully. And then... "RUNNNNNNNNNNN AWAYYYYYY!!!!!!" he said, grabbing Althea by the hand and dragging her along as fast he could at a speed that would put a certain sleuth dog to shame in the same situation. They had to get out of there. Otherwise, well, that just put thoughts in his head that encouraged him to run like hell. He was going to have a bad time.
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Post by Althea on Apr 30, 2017 0:59:22 GMT -6
While she... respected... Talus's open mindedness, Althea privately felt that not EVERYTHING was worth trying once. In fact, even with the little qualifier he added, she rather felt that most things weren't worth trying. But the occasionally icy shaman recognized that she was less, ah, open to new experiences than some, so perhaps it was merely a flawed perspective on her part.
Speaking of things that she did not want to try: being dragged away by people. Her temper flared almost immediately, the unexpected physical assault and decision making for her striking the shaman quite ill, but a hair's breadth of a moment gave her the time needed to momentarily reign in the rising tide of anger... somewhat. Though once again it was not entirely by her own decision so much as the realization of the unnatural anger breaking her natural calm that gave her pause. Well, it kept her from smacking Talus upside the head anyways, but that was about it.
"Unhand me, you-" ripping her hand away from the mage's with uncharacteristic force, the sputtering shaman speared him with a glance before jerking her head back to the Mauthe Doogs, which had started to follow the duo in some degree of confusion, confused if that had been an escape attempt or some sort of elaborate ploy - they were not intelligent but neither were the creatures entirely stupid. At least so she suspected. They moved with a sort of pack mentality and guarded - grace, she almost wanted to say, that suggested there was a little more going on upstairs than 'kill eat poop.' Not that any of that stopped the mental process singlemindedly controlling the direction of her thoughts as Althea bristled into speech. "-Buffoon! If you run, you'll only die tired!"
Whether he ran or not was irrelevant to her at this point, if his first reaction was simply to flee then she wasn't sure she could trust him at all. But logically speaking, they would have a better chance of surviving if they fought together - if he fled, the dogs would attack her, likely kill her, and then find him - and quite frankly she did not think he would do well on his own unless he had been hiding a phenomenal amount of power from her. Which, er, she didn't think was likely.
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Post by Talus on Apr 30, 2017 13:49:50 GMT -6
Her Voice Was All It Took To Snap Him Back To reality,That And The Sudden Force Of Her Ripping Her Hand Away From his. Her words were practically Victor's in his head.... Him encouraging him to stand up for himself... that he shouldn't always run... even if he was afraid as hell of the monsters.. Even if they were big scary dogs... But he had to make a decision now. Abandon Althea to die... or fight. A simple decision now that he thought about it. It wasn't very gentlemanly to leave a lady in trouble. So if she wasn't going to run away then, even though she was more likely to get killed than him because dark magic, he figured wasn't going to do nearly as much damage against creatures similar to it.
He had to be brave, because frankly, he would need her help if either hoped to survive the night. The odds were only 2:3. Not too bad. He needed to protect her. So he turned around, spinning as he did so a bit. "Ah. You're right. I sincerely apologize. Now then... let's do this." he said, face suddenly changing from fear to courage. To show his newfound courage,he fired a bolt of lightning at one of the dogs. He took advantage of their confusion to do this, and hopefully at the very least, it would get their attention on him over her, and she would catch on. Hopefully. Otherwise, this was going to be a very short and very gruesome demise.
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Post by Althea on May 2, 2017 2:58:59 GMT -6
...Hm. Perhaps she had misjudged Talus. Althea regarded him with a searching gaze for a moment, trying to decide if she had been wrong or if he had changed his mind - perhaps a bit of both - but it didn't matter that much, she supposed; either way the end result was that he had come to his senses and was willing to stand at her side. Whether from fear, courage, stupidity, or wisdom - was something they could argue about later, ha ha. Interestingly enough, rather than be annoyed that she had been wrong, the shaman found that for once it didn't actually bother her that much. She was used to people existing solely to annoy her and waste her time, so the last few months had done much to remind her that there were still worthwhile folks out there. People that, even if she wasn't good enough at empathy to be friends with exactly, she could call - companions? Partners? Whatever the word, those that she could trust.
She didn't know if she could actually trust Talus yet or not, but given the circumstances it'd have to be a trial by fire.
"...Thank you. Let us begin."
Bringing both hands up in the familiar position, inky darkness sprung to life between her palms, a roiling orb of liquefied shadow that bubbled and writhed within the confines of the growing sphere. She had never fought these canine beasts before, but given the, er, fangs and all, and the lithe bodies, she had a pretty good idea of their game plan. The problem was that Nether magic was not always the... fastest of magics, either to cast or to aim, and she needed space to really do her thing. It was almost ironic to see Talus so casually hurl lightning long before she could cast anything, but she'd make up for it in raw firepower, hopefully.
Though the twin magics of light and darkness signaled the Mauthe Doogs that playtime was over - their prey was ready to stand and fight rather than fleeing. And that meant no more playing around. The three split up, one circling around to the side of each magic user while the third, the one nearest hit by Talus's magic, approached down the middle, more carefully, eyeing him in particular.
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Post by Talus on May 2, 2017 17:04:55 GMT -6
Her thanks made him nod. He watched her cast dark magic, taking in the sight of the pitch-black roiling orb that was fired at the dogs. This was now officially a fight.
He watched as the dogs split up, and as he watched one take a particular interest in him, realize what was going on. "Aw crap. They're going to flank us!" he thought, moving so that he would be back to back with Althea. "This might be kinda obvious, but don't let them get behind us. They're trying to get us from behind. You make your shots count, and i'LL cover ya. Try not to let them seperate us too far apart and/or for too long either." he said as he fired a bolt at one of the dogs that was about to pounce. It was almost like a bullfight, in a sense. If he didn't dodge or attack the dogs before they pounced, he was going to be in for a whole lot of pain, if not death. Thus, he turned so that he could make sure that he could see at least two of the dogs at any given time. "Ah ah ah. No pouncing on me!" he said as he blasted another one that would have pounced. ... only to barely avoid another one soon after that came from the opposite side. "Crap. They're getting smarter. We gotta take down the leader before they think of a way to call us... or call for help." he thought. He began to look at them. Which one was the leader?
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Post by Althea on May 2, 2017 17:35:24 GMT -6
There was very little actually useful information about Mauthe Doogs that she had found during her travels - basically just that they looked like big dogs and traveled in packs - but Althea decided that the literature hadn't quite done them justice. The size for one; they looked more like lions than dogs. And the coloration was all... off. The coppery reddish toned fur covering them gave way to an oddly mottled greyish skin beneath that simply felt unnatural - not that the creatures in general were especially natural.
Whatever the case, neither they nor Talus seemed particularly inclined to stand there gawking at each other for the next half hour... understandably so. As ever she found herself drawn into the pace of others rather than her own, more typically relaxed speed. And no Jalid to take the hits for her. nor Drei to restrain them. But Talus did have a good point that getting separated would not end well for them - she was vulnerable enough with someone at her side - and that it fell to her to do her best to make each spell inflict maximal damage. So. How best to handle these beasts? She didn't have time to try to set up the portals, and the creatures moved too quickly to reliably land shots at range. Hm. As one approached her slowly, an idea struck and her hands contracted as she began to reforge the building spell, repurposing it, weakening some of the seals and strengthening others - and then the damnable monster jumped at her, not willing to give her the time to finish what she was doing.
It was rewarded with a conal explosion of acrid Nether, a billowing blast of significant scale by her standards that engulfed it almost immediately; Althea took the agonized yelp in with grim satisfaction as she focused the blast to a much narrower ray. What had been as much force as magic rapidly focused into a killing beam, disintegrating parts of the creature's flesh and body before rapidly dissipating as that cast ran out of power. But the damage had been done - on both sides. The creature was dead, but she was momentarily defenseless. having spent too much magic on the single spell, and the other two were likely to be less than enthusiastic about the loss of their kin.
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Post by Talus on May 2, 2017 18:01:57 GMT -6
For the first time in his life, he got a glimpse of the power of dark magic personally. And it scared him as much as it awed him. The way the nether magic tore apart the creature was truly magnificent... ... But There Would Be Time Enough For That later. At the moment, he had mainly bigger worries to think about. Mainly that there were now two angry dogs giving Athena a look of sheer hatred. "Hey,uh... any chance you can do that again anytime soon? The dogs don't look too happy..." he said nervously as he began to blast them back with wind, as the speed of their pounces was now getting too fast for him to keep up with thunder magic. Wind wasn't nearly as powerful either, and it was really only meant to stun them briefly. He was hoping that her answer was yes. Otherwise his previous optimism was going to take a dive for the worst. That was when he got an idea. "Hey, I got an idea that might just work, but first... how much magical energy can you concentrate into just one finger? I need you to put as much power as possible into it, and fire it as a single beam. If you can take down one more of these guys, I can handle the rest." he said. It was a kind of gamble in a sense. He figured that if the issue was in time, and that the blast came from her hands, he figured that the more the magic was focused into a specific part,the quicker the blast could be fired. Also, it would be more precise (hopefully) and (hopefully) more intense. Although the Area of effect wouldn't be as large, meaning that she had to take careful aim..
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Post by Althea on May 2, 2017 21:48:56 GMT -6
"N-not-" Althea paused, closing her mouth and swallowing to try to avoid looking like a gibbering idiot for a moment. "-Not immediately." She wasn't quite fool enough to completely burn herself out in one spell, but that one had been, er, pushing it a bit, it was POSSIBLE that she had gotten carried away slightly and used too much magic, and not quite immunized herself to the backlash of the blast perfectly either. In a normal situation it would be a moment of wooziness; right now it was a bit more of a pressing concern though.
As for one handed, or one finger casting... "stabilizing the Nether is an arduous task," she began as if they were out for a casual stroll in the woods. After all, what better time to explain the basics of Elder magics than in the midst of a battle! "One that takes time and concentrammrf?"
Unfortunately, one of the Mauthe Doogs disagreed with her assessment, and while she was fortunate enough to not have an arm (or a head) immediately removed, the shaman quickly found herself in a less than advantageous position with herself pushed down to the ground and a surprisingly very angry and unexpectedly large canine monstrosity mounting her with intent to turn her into a meal. Huh, they actually did seem larger up close, oh gods above they smelled terrible too, if it didn't rip out her throat she might do the job herself just so she didn't have to live in a world where such horrible stenches exist-oh! right. About to die. Slightly belatedly, Althea remembered to shriek in a mix of surprise, horror, and outright distaste at the situation, very temporarily holding the creature off of her but ah... not entirely likely to do so for very long, given that it was very muscular and she was... not... muscular at all.
"Tallussssssss!"
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Post by Talus on May 3, 2017 0:44:16 GMT -6
That was a not a good response. That was a bad response. Though there were things that were more important right now. Like staying alive. "Well, if it doesn't need to be stabalized, then skip that part and let it run wild! At least it'l be better than being torn apart!" he said as he fired something. Then he heard her shriek. He wheeled around to see a Mauthe Doogs on top of her, ready to kill. If he didn't act fast... "GET AWAY FROM HER!" he said, firing a thunder spell at the dog. He had no time to perfect the aim, and it could just as easily hit her, but it was either that, or die. And then he felt something surge in him. Power. "SPECIAL ATTACK! FULMEN OMEGAA!" he yelled as he concentrated. This wasn't something he could do too often, but occasionally he could create a slightly more powerful Thunderbolt than the normal. Albiet, this required a great deal of energy, and it wasn't something easy to do. But Talus was prepared to do this for Althea. The result was a Thunderbolt that on impact with the dog, utterly shocking it to death, it laying off to the side like a rag doll, twitching. It was the dog he had zapped earlier, now dead. Panting hard, he knew better than to stop there. "Come on. Try that again you monsters, and i'LL blast you back to the nether piece by fragging piece!" he yelled at the remaining dog, eyes alight with a newfound fire in them. He was filled with determination from the power of a critical hit.
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Post by Althea on May 4, 2017 17:23:35 GMT -6
What she wouldn't give to be back in a nice musty old building with some form of temperature control, lots of books, and absolutely nothing trying to kill her.
Althea couldn't really see what Talus was doing and she was too focused on trying not to die horribly to really pay attention to it initially, though the first bolt of electricity definitely helped to get her attention and the second electrical blast did a fantastic job of sealing the deal. Apparently the repeated magical blasts had been enough to weaken the beast because the last one knocked the big dumb mutt right off of her, to the lovely scent of burning flesh and singed fur. The shaman was rather glad that her hands hadn't been in the way. Oh and she was also glad to NOT be about to die, but distracted enough by the smell and being shaken up that her scrambling upright still took a few moments and did not lead to a perfectly in control Althea immediately. Instead, the white haired woman stared around blankly for a few moments before focusing in on the subject at hand, remembering that there was still a battle of some sort going on.
"...Thank you," she managed after a few more moments, remembering her manners and a certain degree of actual gratitude for the mage's act. Apparently she had underestimated his magical abilities if he could pull that off and still be standing, though given that he appeared to breathing pretty hard, it was definitely not an act without cost. Well, it wasn't like she was just casually chilling at full power either. The third of the Mauthe Doogs, on the other hand, was, and it looked even less pleased now that the other two were gone. And was it her imagination, or was this one a bit... bigger? And she already knew they were fast, too fast for her to easily hit, and this one had seen her little area-effect ambush so that probably wouldn't work twice. "Talus, I may need you to pin this one down for me to hit it. Your magic is faster than mine."
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Post by Talus on May 7, 2017 16:29:39 GMT -6
Was she in shock from the near-death experience? He almost would have yelled at her to get back up due to being irritated as all heck. For gods sake, would it kill her to thank him for saving her life? Thankfully, she thanked him for his hard work, and that was enough to satisfy him. "You're welcome. You can repay me by not dying and get back to fighting." he said to her, eyes focused on the one remaining dog. Then he heard her ask him to pin it down. "Need time to cast? Alright. I can put on a show for it that'll get it pinned down. Be quick about it though... I don't have much left in me." he said as he began to focus on it. He may not have much of a tank in him left, but he hoped it would be enough for her to charge up whatever she had in mind. So he began to fire wind blasts at it. Light bursts of the stuff meant to draw it into a certain area, a burst fired every time it tried to leap in a certain direction. It growled at him, and he knew that this was a battle of endurance at this point for him. All the dog had to do was wait and not get hit by Talus's wind bursts long enough for him to run out of energy, and it would win. Talus had to fire as conservatively as possible to maximize this duration. He mentally prayed that she was almost done. If this failed... Well, he didn't want to think about that.
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Post by Althea on May 7, 2017 17:40:20 GMT -6
"I believe I can afford that sort of repayment," Althea stated calmly with a twinkle in her eyes. Was that a joke? From her? Haha yeah no obviously not. Oh god she felt dirty. Perhaps she should be turning handstands through the forest while wearing a bright red bulbous nose like some manner of... of street performer. Bah. Focus! She wasn't in prime condition, still somewhat disheveled after the creature had mounted her, but physically mostly unharmed aside from some scratches and minor tears. So she owed it to both Talus and to herself to make an effort to perform at her best, or there would likely be no future for the either of them. Not after what they had done to this creature's pack.
So instead of wasting breath agreeing or arguing further with Talus, Althea threw everything she had into coalescing the Nether between her palms, a crackling mass fueled by a mixture of excessive quantities of her own magic - inefficient, but faster - and the Nether itself drawn precipitously from the source. Melding, molding a monstrous mass that bubbled and hissed, crackling with magical energy and vitriol. And within her the emotions came unbidden, righteous fury and vindictive justice mingling into one profane slurry of feeling. She didn't... hate the creature, exactly, but there was no denying that in that moment she should of nothing but its demise, fueling the spell with her emotions as well, for the Nether was always hungry for what she had to offer it.
She registered Talus's own magical assault, an impressive flurry of aerial magic meant to pen the creature in and limit its mobility. He actually managed far better than she had thought, further moving the mage up in her estimations, but it was clear that he couldn't keep forever. He had potential and skill, but not the experience and bottomless reservoir of magical energy that a truly experienced magician did. Not that the shaman did either, of course - it wasn't a statement of superiority so much as recognizing that he suffered from some of the same issues she did.
The turbocharged Mire spell contracted and pulsed one last time before dissolving into a rain of shadow into the ground, something inspired by - ironically enough - the basic Flux spell that every beginner shaman knew. The creature was smart enough to try to dodge a large magical projectile after all; monsters might not be intelligent per se, but neither were they fools, or they would not be so dangerous. But the budding mire beneath it was subtle enough at the start to give her the moment she needed to lock in the spacial coordinates, and from almost nowhere the spell detonated violently beneath the creature, launching waves of tidal energy up and around it like a bubble, each crashing inwards against each other, battering the creature from above and below and from every side, constricting it as the trap finished springing and the caustic liquid began its work.
When the spell decomposed shortly after, dripping and falling apart into nothingness, only parts of the creature's skeleton remained, rotting away into nothingness. All flesh and most of the rest of it had been eaten away by the consuming tide.
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Post by Talus on May 8, 2017 14:19:09 GMT -6
Wow. Was she getting snippy too? At this rate, they would be exchanging banter and one-liners in a fight. He discarded those thoughts though as he focused on harassing the big, angry dog so that it wouldn't pounce and kill them. And also to keep the voice of fear from shrieking about how there was no way they had much magic left. He focused on the sound of the dark magic gathering behind him. He REALLY needed to find a way to cast spells without a tome, because even if he memorized the incantations, he still had to waste precious time and concentration opening it.
But the result was worth it. At first he nearly lost it when he saw the shadow of darkness just disappear into the he ground without further effect. That had been possibly their last best hope of survival. Then he saw the underground burst of the stuff, and understood. It was actually a two-pronged attack. The first part was a bluff, and the second part would be a fient meant to compliment it. What occurred was a site that he would never quite get used to, the void swallowing up the monster,turning it back into the darkness that it was made of, leaving only a few bones in its wake as it disappeared from existence shortly after. He almost compared it to a beast eating it's prey, and it made him think. A sentient void.... ...fascinating idea for a monster, if terrifying. But all that aside, he was relieved. They had survived. "We... we did it... we won...! We won!" he said, slowly at first, then breaking into a jubilant laughter at their triumph. They had won.
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Post by Althea on May 8, 2017 21:32:11 GMT -6
"Yes." She tried to laugh, but all that came out were a few short coughs as Althea slumped against the nearest tree, not in mortal danger but thoroughly ready to NOT fight again for a while. While the fight had gone well, she was still a little shaken up by the dog jumping on her, usually she had someone in front of her as a meatshield, and despite the low quantity of spells she had unleashed today, they had all been of extremely high quality - or at least high power. Much like the ship battle, pushing her limits came with significant and near immediate downsides such as magical exhaustion. She had cast far fewer spells than Talus but seemed more winded too, which was... slightly frustrating, but not in any way his fault. In truth it was simply proof that her stamina needed work, a lot of it.
But - he was right. They HAD won. More importantly, they had survived. Not entirely unharmed, but the kind of thing they would both recover from. Wounded pride, the death of innocence, some bruises, and a bit of smudgy dirt on her dress that would need a good washing to clear off. Hm. "Well, Talus, I hope you will forgive me if I suggest we head back to civilization for the evening. The cairn stones are unlikely to disappear in the near future, and I would prefer not to be stuck out in the woods too late at night." Her voice wavered only slightly, betraying the state of her body, but Althea wasn't too concerned about that. She'd be fine to walk after a few moments.
"Regardless. Thank you for accompanying me, Talus. Without your aid these creatures would likely have had another meal tonight." She managed to favor him with a tired smile before lapsing against the tree once more for a moment, then pushing off and beginning the trek back to a nice warm bath and a soft bed.
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It was not until after they were long gone that one of the cairn stones pulsed in shades of shadow, strands of the Nether evident for a moment, before lapsing back into stony silence.
[End topic]
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Post by Talus on May 8, 2017 22:42:43 GMT -6
He could hear her laugh, although she could only manage a few short coughs, which he attributed to the adrenaline running out. Although he had to wonder if she was exhausted because she had run out of juice herself, probably from all the powerful dark magic spells. He heard her ready to call it a night, and he nodded. "Yeah, sure. Same here. I just... yeah.." he said, he himself slightly winded. Frankly, he needed a nice long soak, and some nice good food. Although her thanks made him slightly blush a bit. "Yeah, no problem. I still wish the stones would activate though..." he said as he also began the long walk back to town, pausing only to gather the few Mauthe Doog bones that remained, a sort of memento for this adventure. For a second, he thought he saw something else out of the corner of his eye, but then dismissed it. If it were a monster, it would have come out by now. ... or so he figured.
Although now that he thought about it as he walked, something seemed odd. If that had been a pack of wolves, even granted they were monsters, then why did it seem like there were so few? It didn't seem like anything else could have killed them... could there? After all, they were the first humans he knew of to find this place in a long time, and barring some gruesome demise that there was no evidence of that he could find, so what could have? Or rather, now that he thought about it, what had attracted the dogs in the first place? They didn't smell that bad... did they? He wondered if they were attracted to the dark magic, or if they were just hunting. ... but in the end, he set aside those questions for now, preferring to just look at the moment now. One day, he could come back here. That was good enough for him. [End of Topic]
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