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Heroes Community > Bards Glade Pyre (RPG) > Thread: Battle Avatars - RPG IC
Thread: Battle Avatars - RPG IC This thread is 8 pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 · «PREV / NEXT»
eugen_cosmarul
eugen_cosmarul


Famous Hero
hey
posted September 28, 2008 08:37 PM
Edited by eugen_cosmarul at 21:13, 28 Sep 2008.

Hearing those words from the –what seemed to be- Angel, Djenn decided to cancel his battle-readiness state and adopt a more “relaxed” position.

“I am a creature of the Nexus, I was born here, and lived almost all my life here, but in a plane long ago forgotten…”
===
"Hmm, interesting. Then you must serve this other man and I should be speaking to him instead." He turns to Coshma’.
"You must be seeking the nexus' center. Correct?"
===
"Just like anyone else who passes the Nexus portal."
Coshma’ takes a second to think then decides to ask his question, hoping to avoid a new battle.
“Are you willing to join us?”
===
The angel seems to think about his suggestion for a while. Like he's having some kind of inner argument about it. But he comes to a conclusion.
"Very well. we shall join you. Now we need to find a the portal to the next plane."
===
“We shall join…?” Coshma’ found himself talking, amazed of what the Angel had just say.
“I mean… shall we… ehmm go search for the… ehmm… portal?” He knew it wouldn’t work, and he was ashamed of saying that.

Before the Angel had time to say anything the portal appeared, just 50 feet above them.

____________

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King_Nikolai
King_Nikolai


Known Hero
with plans of Rebirth!
posted September 28, 2008 11:40 PM

His eyes were fixed at the high priest as the old man slowly walked forth at the altar. The holy man was now standing face-to-face with Sagrath.
  "In the name of our Holy Enlightor, we hereby greet Sagrath into our sacred call". The priest looked deep into the young mans eyes. "Are you ready child"? he whispered, before he continued. "We now welcome thee, High Inquisitor Sagrath, and wishes you the strength and wisdom of the never ending spirit".
 
The ceremony had been long. It was late at the evening that Sagrath was invited to the Salaminence's Room. He was still in chock after his 'promotion' as he constantly reffered to it as. He had been dedicating his whole lifetime (Who was a total of 19 years) to the Church. As the youngest Inquisitor ever, yet High Inquisitor, he always felt at unease with the elder and important members of the higher society.

He quitly entered the room. The Salaminence, along with the High Priest and the Bonthon all turned their attention to him. He instantly started feeling ill.
  "Ah, our wonder-child" Bonthon Garened said with a happy smile. "Please, have a seat". The Salaminence sat quitly watching , while Garened leaned forth to hand Sagrath a glass of wine.
  The High Priest raised. "I'll think I will be leaving now, your highness". He turned to Sagrath. "Good Luck boy". When he had left, the Salaminence finally spoke.
  "Inquisitor, could you tell me what you want to achieve with your work"?
  "For the good of our land, higness", he responded quickly.
  "Then" the old man took a deep breath. "To what extent do you intend to go"?
  Both the Salaminence and the Bonthon became completely quiet. Sagrath suddenly felt both scared and amazed of what was going to come.
  "Are you, Sagrath Natharilan Oscaine, willing to do everyting and anything for the service of the Salaminence", Borthon said.
  "I am", he responded quietly.
  "Then this is it, son. We have discovered a portal, who by inscriptions tells about a network of tunnels and dimensions". His eyes seemed to pierce his soul.
  "And...you want me..." Sagrath stuttered.
  "Yes. We want you too enter".
  Sagrath was completely owerwhelmed. He though he would have simple tasks as preaching and learning from the masters.
  "I will, you higness" Sagrath said.

He had been given three days to reconsider. But there was no way he could decline. He had sworn to serve the Spirit of Light, and it was of greatest honour to be assigned to this. He was now standing in front of the portal.
  "And He casted his fear aside and faced the darkness, as long as his soul remained pure he was invunerable...
  When he was done with praying, he gave the guard a quick nod, and stepped into the portal.
____________
Once again he roams the
forums!

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Mytical
Mytical


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Chaos seeking Harmony
posted September 29, 2008 08:07 AM

((Special update for Mam..and others 'might' want to pay attention also..things are going to start picking up..))

Mam - No sooner do you and your BA make it to the next door that you hear a mighty rumbling.  The arena shifts around you.  Everything is warping and twisting.  As it settles the Arena has changed.  The bricks are much darker and there are new exits and entrances.  A large black/purple mirror stands in the center of the room.  You hear clanking and stomping.  Two collums of metal creatures come through the portal, 10 in each row.  They are about 12' tall, on two legs with a square chest.  They have somewhat humanoid 'faces' resting above their chests, with a red light that goes from left to right and back.  On their chest is two guns, and each of their hands are guns.

They do not seem to notice you yet..and you get the strong feeling it would not be good if they did.  More are starting to come through.
____________
Message received.

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Kareeah_Indaga
Kareeah_Indaga


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
posted September 29, 2008 03:30 PM bonus applied by Mytical on 09 Nov 2008.

Dr. Hythan Crates woke to the sound of pained moaning across from him. Wherever they had moved to during the night seemed to be underground; a single pale, standard-issue camp light illuminated a blasted basalt ceiling and reflected off obsidian walls. It likewise glittered on the cybernetic arm of the man groaning nearby; a man he vaguely recognized as a compatriot, though the name escaped him at the moment. They were in unfamiliar territory, but that was not unusual—so still half-asleep, he went reflexively for the med-kit at his waist and moved to tend the wounded man.

—and it was only then that he realized his hands were tied.

He woke up more thoroughly then, surveying his surroundings carefully. He was hobbled, wrists and ankles bound together, as was everyone in his unit he could make out. Things he’d taken at first to be rock formations were force rods in a standard prison-grid. With the new clarity of wakefulness, he tried to recall anything after his last glimpse of that volcano the previous day and—nothing.

Memory suppressors, he realized. Tiny nanites that intercepted certain brain impulses and interfered with the hippocampus—a recently popular method of subduing anyone you didn’t want to kill immediately, they had the advantage over drugs in that they did not inspire allergic reactions, and could foil all but the most advanced blood-filtration implants. They were fragile, however, and their normal lifespan lasted on average between one and seven days. Which meant he might have been out for as much as a week…

A further examination of his designated patch of space revealed no weak points that he could find, and the next few hours passed uneasily. Twice a pair of men in mech-armor came and dragged away one of the prisoners, and neither was returned. His only guess was that these had been taken to be interrogated, but for what, he could only imagine—he had not been under the impression that their unit had been given anything in the way of important strategical information.

Eventually it was his turn.

He was dragged out of his pen with a wholly unnecessary amount of force by another pair of armored men—or perhaps the same pair, it was too dark to be sure. They brought him before a man in the extra-thick but weapons-light style of armor normally granted medical personnel, who ran a scan wand over him. It blipped once, over his eyes, and the presumptive-medic had a silent conversation over radio with his guards before waving them away. They said nothing, but the body language was plain.

Get rid of him. He’s worthless.

He began to understand as he was dragged down another tunnel. These were harvesters—small armed bands that hid in remote locations, preying on small units from any forces that ventured nearby and harvesting their cybernetic implants for sale. As he himself only possessed a minor, mundane upgrade to his eyes—a set of implants that brought his vision up to spec with the rest of humanity, completely devoid of any of the fancier, more valuable abilities such as infrared vision—he could see why they wouldn’t think it was worth the trouble of extracting them.

His captors carried him further into the tunnel complex, passing several of their fellows on patrol—and, in a side corridor, one screaming man from his own unit in the process of having his leg removed. Dr. Crates was in no position to do more than glare in disgust at his guards, expression illuminated by a reflected light source up ahead; one of them caught the expression and activated his external comm., voice betraying the man’s smirk.

“Aw, don’t be like that. Maybe you’ll get lucky like the last guy,” his captor suggested mirthfully, motioning to a dark spot in the lighted tunnel up ahead.

A hideous corpse had been nailed to the wall.

His medical background told him all the details a more casual observer would have been happier not knowing: the entire corpse was energy-burned, intestines appearing to have burst out with a life of their own and wrapped around the victim’s body before frying there in ribbons of charcoal. By the way the arms were held and how the spine was arched, he could tell that whoever it was had fought against the grip of their own entrails—meaning they’d still been alive at the time.

He was carried past the charred carcass before he had longer to reflect on it. The chamber ahead turned out to be home to one of the most bizarre energy anomalies he’d ever laid eyes on.

The floor some two or three stories below resembled nothing so much as the aftermath of a war between artists, covered in splotches of bright, glowing color that writhed of their own volition. Every now and then, ‘bubbles’ of a sort would form, floating along the surface or, occasionally, even rising up out of their multicolored bath to fly in a wobbly path and burst against the ceiling, which was itself a good story above his head and dripping a glowing, sticky-looking rain like glass on the floor below.

Noting the lack of any other entrances or side-tunnels, it occurred to him what his captors meant to do.

Up ‘till now Dr. Crates had been lucky in one respect—medics were well-protected, and thus either survived combat without a scratch or died instantly from overwhelming firepower annihilating the entire unit. Thus he had survived this long without needing major implants, replacement limbs or cybernetic organs.

But now it seemed was his time to die instantly.

They threw him in.


* * *

The last thing he remembered before regaining consciousness was the rush of falling and the sting of glass-like streamers eating at his back and shoulders. His conscious mind might have accepted his death as unavoidable, but his subconscious was not so willing, and his nightmares were filled with the images of a patch of bright blue, moving as though alive, rushing towards him until he fell through face first.

So it was some minutes after awakening before he opened his eyes, as the rest of his senses gradually agreed amongst each other that he was not falling, or burned, or indeed, injured in any way. He opened his eyes.

The room he was in was strangely blurred, lit by a sourceless, ambient light; the walls and ceiling shades of soft storm gray and the floor a bright, fuzzy green. He was lying in the center of a circular rock formation of some sort, oddly jagged and seeming out of place, though just as blurry as everything else. His brush with death left him mentally disoriented enough that he did not question why he was still alive, and he was used to waking up in strange places as a matter of course. As a result, rather than follow one of those routes of questioning, he tried to discover what it was about the room that made it blur like that.

He climbed out of the spiky rock formation he had been lying in to explore.

Closer inspection—scarcely a hand’s length away—revealed that the spongy grass-like material underfoot was not blurred, after all, nor were the walls. He puzzled over what sort of biological or atmospheric effect could cause such a phenomenon for several minutes, and it was only when he looked down at his hands and saw that they were blurred as well that he realized that it was his eyes—and not the room—that were at fault.

His implants weren’t working, or were perhaps gone altogether; he had no way of knowing. He swore out loud but there was nothing else to do about it, until he noticed something glittering on the grass-like floor; something small, brass-gold, and reflective. Bringing them up closer to his eyes revealed they were…

Glasses? “How quaint,” he remarked, placing them on his face. The room cleared instantly.

He gazed around the cavernous room contentedly, feeling pleased, while a small corner of his mind wondered who his mysterious benefactor was—and then he realized the rock formation he’d lain in earlier was staring at him.

He startled, blinked furiously, and looked again. There was a piece of formation there that almost looked like a head, but though the shape suggested them, there were no eyes. Partly curious, but more to reassure himself than anything, he went back over to examine it. He peered over the polished surface, glanced around the spiky protrusions (it really was amazing he hadn’t cut himself), and finally reached out to tap the gleaming material.

The acknowledgement of its existence seemed to be whatever cue the creature needed, because then it stood up.

Dr. Crates let out a loud, startled exclamation and fell right on his rump, then backed away awkwardly before regaining his feet. The monstrous form before him was quadrapedal, with blade-like claws, flexible-looking legs and feet, and a cruelly spiked tail. It was big, bigger than he was, at least, and now that he got a good look at it the beast seemed more skeletal than rocky…the overall impression was of a sculpture made of knives—all sharp edges and polished silver.

A very still sculpture. Once standing, it didn’t so much as twitch, and there was no movement that even suggested breathing. Yet he nevertheless got the impression that it was watching him. He back slowly away.

Faster than he could react, the beast was moving again; it head-butted him soundly enough to knock the wind out of him and send him sprawling onto the grassy ground. It froze again as he once more scrambled to his feet.

He stayed as still as he could this time, not wanting to provoke another attack. This time the whatever-it-was made the first move, taking careful steps forward until it was nose-to-nose with him.

And then it knocked him over again, taking a stance over his once-more-prone body.

And, somehow, though the beast made not a sound, though there were blade-like protrusions so close they could have sliced him open with a single sharp jerk, the feeling came over him that this was a friend.

“Will you let me go?”

The beast backed away without a word, head still turned in his direction. Dr. Crates got to one knee, and then to his feet, dusting himself off carefully.

“I’m…going to go now,” he said self-consciously. He moved to leave, walking carefully toward an exit on the far side of the room, one eye always on the statue of blades.

It fell into step with him, head roughly equal with his, body and tail trailing along behind.

* * *

After a while of what would have been companionable silence under any other circumstances, Dr. Crates felt some attempt at communication was necessary.

“Why are you following me?” he asked. “What do you want?” The beast said nothing, didn’t even look curiously at him as though not understanding. He wondered if it was deaf or just ignoring him.

The silence dragged on, and Dr. Crates and his would-be guardian wandered through the grass-carpeted caverns until they came to running water. Dr. Crates hesitated to call it a stream; streams didn’t get up out of their beds and corkscrew around in mid-air, only to continue flowing in a normal manner—up on the ceiling. Having no better path to follow, he followed the floating thread, noting bemusedly a place in its course that appeared to stop entirely only to continue some three feet further on—a small striped perch caught in the flow disappeared from the one point and reappeared in the other as though there were no break between them.

Eventually they came to the end of the gray caverns, and here was another oddity; the caves beyond were of a different sort entirely, and they began immediately with no transition at all, as though the two caves had been sliced out of their proper places with lasers and pushed together.

There was a queer sucking sound and a wet smack from the end of the stream. They had been roughly keeping pace with the little yellow perch; now he saw that on the ground at the end of the stream, where the water cut off cleanly, its body was flopping futilely in its death throes--the fish had been turned inside-out, its entrails spreading a stain over the ground as it struggled and died.

Dr. Crates stopped immediately where he was, scant feet from the border between the two caves. His companion finally took an action other than trotting alongside him, however, and head-butted him (about the only way the thing could touch him without impaling him) over the line. He stumbled into the next cavern, unharmed, but the sight of the still-twitching fish did nothing to ease his mind and he hurried through the area as quickly as he could manage.

Fortunately the stalactite-filled cave was much shorter than the gray cavern had been; this one opened up on a hall of thick glass, with nothing but more glass and darkness beyond, so his face was reflected back at him a dozen times from a dozen angles. It was quiet, and seemed deserted for as far as he could see; the quiet struck him as unnatural so he attempted a conversation.

“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me what you are,” he stated to the beast of blades. To his lack of surprise, his companion said nothing. “Do you have a name? Family? Do you even speak?” Still nothing, but Dr. Crates didn’t let it bother him. The sound of his own voice was enough company for now.

They had been traveling through the glass corridor for some time when Dr. Crates started to feel the onset of fatigue.

“I need to stop,” he told his companion, though he wasn’t sure why. He slid to the floor to rest, realizing suddenly that it had been quite some time since he’d last eaten, and he was hungry.

The beast had stopped as he sat, once again eerily unmoving; now its gleaming head dipped down to the floor. The hinged bits of blade and pointed metal that passed for its jaws parted, gently depositing something on the slick glass. It was the body of the fish; raw, and still dripping occasionally. He took it anyway.

“Thank you,” he said. Once he finished his light meal, the pair continued on.

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DagothGares
DagothGares


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
No gods or kings
posted September 29, 2008 06:45 PM

The girl walked towards the hole in the wall. "Where's my furry mister rabbit, mister?" She asked in a sad tone of voice as if she already forgot he went in there.

"Well, I think he entered that room... Well, made an entrance is a better term I suppose..."  Nevil said slowly.

The little girl hesitated. "Would you mayhaps enter first?" She then asked nicely.

Nevil stared in the dark room. He imagined great demons and other monsters awaiting him at the other side. "I'd rather not..." He then said.

"Ow, for crying out loud!" Xaphan shouted and paced towards the hole. A great slam by a wooden stick in xaphan's face halted him. "AGE before beauty!" Nevil shouted and hurried inside. "He sure can be childish..." The girl said harmlesly. "Tell me about it." xaphan muttered.

Once inside the room lit up brightly... mainly because xaphan's hand was on fire(Which nevil was very thankful for). It was a long hallway, stretching to a bright burning light with which the bunny was playing. "Mister, would you carry me, please?" the girl suddenly asked. "Why can't mister furry rabbit carry you?" Nevil pleaded.

"cause he's too tiwed and can't carry me anymore." the girl said in a sad tone of voice.

Nevil looked desperately at Xaphan. "Hey! Don't look at me like that!" Xaphan threatened.

A tricky little plan popped in nevil's head. "Wouldn't you rather fly with mister Xaphan over there?" Nevil said slyly.

"YAY!" The girl said, madness sounding through her voice... Or sheer delight. But before she caught Xaphan, they were standing right in front of the lightly formed figure.

It was some sort of angelical being... Except that it was very small and had baby-ish features. Well, if the nexus thought Nevil would be grossed out by such an act, then the nexus doesn't understand demented sorcerers as well as it should. "Xaphan, fly out and strike with a burning  fist!" Nevil commanded. "Good idea!" Xaphan taunted as he rose to the ceiling, trying to gain an advantage in height.

"Now, listen here, little girl." Nevil turned to her. "I'd give you some liquorish, if mister furry rabbit and that little child played for awhile.

Meanwhile, Xaphan gained the high ground and dove towards the source of light with great speed and fire engulfing his form.
____________
If you have any more questions, go to Dagoth Cares.

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Keksimaton
Keksimaton


Promising
Supreme Hero
Talk to the hand
posted September 29, 2008 06:48 PM

The totally not friendly looking gargoyles approach and the colorfully dressed up man says as mellowly as always: "My stoned out friends! Violence is not the answer to your problems... Come now and tell me your problems and we'll meditate together..." The gargoyles don't seem to react in anyway and keep doing their thing. "J.J. I don't think they know english or anyother form of communication... I don't know if they are even sentient..." Says the piece of the cloud nearest to the colorfully dressed up man and the man answers: "You may be right, but what to do?" "I'm glad you asked..."

The four pieces of the cloud attempt to use their "Vapor" abilities and then attempt to move around the colorfully dressep up man to shield him/hide him from the gargoyles.
____________
Noone shall pass, but no one besides him shall pass.

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Asheera
Asheera


Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Elite Assassin
posted September 29, 2008 09:00 PM
Edited by Asheera at 21:02, 29 Sep 2008.

Mordekai and Mephisto followed the path from the map they received from that strange man in the odd-looking set of armor, and arrived at the Witch's hut. Even from the outside it could clearly be seen that the witch is crazy: the tree that's holding the hut was rotten, and a lot of garbage, junk and other toxic wastes were lying around it.

Mordekai was too disgusted at that, and didn't even dare to think about entering the hut which would clearly be even worse than what's seen from the outside. Instead, he ordered Mephisto to attack the hut from distance, and lure the witch out. It worked, she came out from the hut to see what's happening, and saw an ArchDevil attacking her hut using some kind of dark energy ray that was coming from his Trident.

She screamed in a crazed manner and started casting some of her spells. Along the process she created multiple big cubes of different materials, around 2 feet on each side, and magically threw them at Mephisto. He dodged some of them, and using dark energy from his Trident he disintegrated the remaining ones. The Witch started screaming louder and was preparing for a more powerful spell, but Mephisto stroke her down with the Dark Nova ability.

Mephisto approached the Witch that was lying on the floor. She was still alive, and was trying desperately to cast a spell. She managed eventually, and created some kind of square-shaped protective shield around her. She was weak, and Mephisto could easily destroy that shield. He attacked the witch once more and killed her, after which Mordekai approached the scene as well.

"We need some kind of proof that we killed her, do we not?" - after that Mordekai summoned a small sword and cut the witch's head off. When doing so, he has seen that she wore an amulet which had a squared-like shape. Remembering about her spells which were also creating squared-like things, and about the fact that she has a serious advantage over the man in the odd-looking set of armor, Mordekai came to a conclusion: "I think this is it! The cylinders that control those abominations can be destroyed with a squared object, and that's why that bastard feared the Witch, because she had some kind of obsession with squared shaped amulets and spells, it seems."

Mordekai forms up an evil grin on his face: "If that bastard decides to kill us after I give him the witch's head, he'll be in for a big surprise." - he takes the witch's head and they both start following the path from the map backwards.

After they return to the man in the set of armor, Mordekai shows him the Witch's head: "There. She is dead."

"Excellent."

"Would you open the portal to the next realm now?"

"Hmm, no, why would I waste such precious 'materials' for my pets here? I think I'll use your bodies to improve them considerably."

"You've picked the wrong targets, fool!" - after these words Mordekai summoned a few bricks and threw them at the cylinders that were floating above the monstrous creatures. They were quickly destroyed.

"Noooo! What have you done?!" - said the man in the armor desperate. The monstruous creatures, without those cylinders to control them, collapsed to the ground just like some unanimated corpses.

"Now you're on my mercy." - Mordekai said to him.

"Please don't kill me! I'll summon the portal to the next realm, just don't kill me!" - the man used his special magic powers to summon the portal: "There it is. I warn you, should you kill me, the portal will disappear right before your eyes."

Mordekai wasn't sure if the man told the truth, and wanted badly to kill this bastard, but he didn't want to risk to be stuck in this realm forever, so he decided to let him live and enter the portal: "After you, Mephisto."
____________

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King_Nikolai
King_Nikolai


Known Hero
with plans of Rebirth!
posted September 30, 2008 06:14 PM

Everything was white.

He could't even see himself. Still he felt that he floated around in this weird dimension.

There was also a weird sense of time. He knew he had just stepped into the portal. Still he felt like he had lived his whole life in this absurdity.

 "Who do we have here?"

 The voice had a tone of arrogance, bit still seemed interested. Sagrath looked around by reflex, but since he couldn't see anyone, he had to answer to thin air.
 "I am Sagrath, High Inquisitor and Explorer of the Nexus. Tell me who you are!"
 "Hahahaha. Explorer of the Nexus? You?"
 The laugh had sent chills down Sagrats spine. The voice had aldready lost some of its arrogance and instead becomen more sinister.
 "You have still not..not answered MY question. Who are you?"
 "Me? You do not have to know that."
 "Tell me now! Also tell me how to enter the Nexus."
 "And why should I, little priest?"
 Sagrath became quiet. In fact, he didn't feel much of his powers since he entered this place. Did the voice know that?
 "Otherwise I will purge you from existence, he said with so much confidence he could put up with."
 "Haahaahaahahahahaa. You truly are amusing."
 Sagrath became more and more frightened by the laugh every time. He had to come up with something.
 "How can you be so sure of yourself, demon?"
 "Demon? You really are worthless, aren't you? You believe me to be something as pathetic as a demon? Still, you are amusing."
 "Then show yourself! Or are you too afraid to come forth?"
 "It is not I who hide, human. It is you who still not are ready to step forth. But I guess you could need a little help, pathetical being."
 Suddenly he felt something pulling him away. He wanted to stay at the white, calm place but the other force was too strong.
 When he opened his eyes, he was standing at a small strip or stone floating in the air. It was about 20 meters wide and 100 meters long. He stood at one edge, while the other side was occupied by the physical form of the 'thing'.
 He was very close in appearance with a human. Dressed in a simple white robe, with black cape and belt and long white hair covering his back. But his most personal feature was his face.
 He had his steel face of arrogance and cooldness, except for his grim smile that revaeled a set of sharp teeth. He started laughing again, which became more terrible with his sick face.
 "Ah you made it. You are way better than the other ones."
 "Other ones?" Sagrath froze solid in fear. There had been other ones?
 "Yes, of course. I have dealt with many priests like you in the latest time. Dont say that you thought you were the first one."
 His evil grin appeared again. Sagrath begun trembling with fear as he picked his battle hammer.
 "What did you do with them?"
 Another mad laughter. The thing bended backwards in his joy and revealed a thin, long sword.
 "WHAT I did to them? HAHAHA! What do you think? I killed them! Watching them in their suffering was most enjoyable. He calmed down and his face regained his cold hearted look.
 "And I will now do the same with you. Prepare to die, Sagrath."
 Sagrath swiftly used his large hammer as a shield and prepared to defend. He had just enough time to out it up when the maniac had reached him. He was speed was unrealistic. With two fast slashes, he knocked down the priest.
 *How can he move so fast? He must be at least twice as fast as me.* Quickly he got up on his feet and made a swing against his foe. Just as he was about to hit him, his target moved away and hit him in the back at the same time.
 "You have no chance, priest. You will die."
 "I will never die to a coward who does not dare speak his own name", Sagrath said, angered by his wounds and disadvantage. "I am guided by the light of the spirit. You are nothing!"
 The face became crazed once again, the grin opened up.
 "Really? You may be worthless in fighting, but at least you got some spirit in you."
 Suddenly winds started to blow against Sagrath. He lost his balance for a second, whick was exactly what the maniac needed. Once again he received two fast slashes, both covering his torso. The pain was overwhelming, he couldn't get up fast enough.
 "Oh, and you just seemed interesting. You have made it better than all the others." He walked forth to Sagrath who laid on the ground, unable to attack because of his pain.
 "Tell me, priest. What do you think about death?"
 Sagrath begun rabbling prayers.
 "His followers will be blessed with eternal life in his gardens as they have been promised, and all their sins cleansed from their souls.
 "Stop praying, you fool. Your god can not help you now. Nothing can. I am amazed that you all are so eager to follow someone you don't even know anything about."
 "It is called faith. I'm sorry you never will understand it."
 The thing, who just had been ready to strike the final blow, lowered his sword.
 "What do you know about faith? Faith is for those who are unable to claim their own power. Faith is only for the weak." He raised his sword again. "And you, Sagrath, are weak".
 His trick had bought him the time he needed. He quickly casted a defensive spell, blocking his would-be-death-blow. He than shakily raised up, and took his Spirit Amulet in his hand.
 "By the light of the spirit, I hereby judge you as an enemy of our Partiarchy. I cannot alowe you to do more harm to this world."
 As he had completed his phrase, yellow walls surrounded his enemy, and Sagrath prepared for his final blow.
 "WAIT! NO! If you kill me, you will be stuck in here forever! Only I can open the path to the Nexus."
 "Prove it", Sagrath said, not lowering his weapon.
 With his finger, the thing opened a rift in the white air into a mass of stars, dimensions and existences. Just as Sagrath rushed forth to enter, the barriers he had forgottena bout crashed, sending both him and his enemy into the Nexus.
____________
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eugen_cosmarul
eugen_cosmarul


Famous Hero
hey
posted September 30, 2008 08:31 PM
Edited by eugen_cosmarul at 20:33, 30 Sep 2008.

“How are we all going to reach the portal?” Djenn broke the silence.

“I’ll take care of that.” The Angel raised his left hand and pointed it towards the two, then pointed towards the portal.

“How can you… what the…?” Coshma’ and Djenn were lifted by an irresistible force that threw them into the portal.

The Angel followed them into the portal, finding the other two lying on the ground.

“IT SEEMS THAT THE HEIGHT OF THE PORTALS IS THE SAME FOR BOTH ENTRANCES…” Djinn shouted and slowly raised himself.

They seemed to be in a large cave, and the only way out was a tight corridor,opening in a wall. The Angel decided to land after observing the surroundings. There seemed to be no danger.

“The only way out is that corridor. We’d better get going.”
After saying this he sheathed his rapier.

“Is there any dan…”A blinding flash illuminated the cave, leaving Djenn shocked of what he was seeing.

____________

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Mamgaeater
Mamgaeater


Legendary Hero
Shroud, Flying, Trample, Haste
posted October 02, 2008 03:14 AM
Edited by Mamgaeater at 13:59, 04 Oct 2008.

As Navura ventured into the darkness Novaran skitter silently searching for something...

"SCK"

"i know those things do looks dangerous indeed."

Navura walks around and takes a stone out of his pocket...

The stone glows bright blue

"Rats, Novaran we are nowhere near any trace of Neptodium... its going to be a long time until we get back."

"SCREEEK"



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JoonasTo
JoonasTo


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
posted October 02, 2008 11:04 AM

*Oh, great! What this time?
*We're stuck, that's what.

"What happened? Where are your wings?", the scientist asks. I take a look around and smile.

*Correction, you're stuck.
I raise our hand. It's my old hand again.
*Oh, great! So now I'm stuck in here like you, I mean me, were, was?
*Seems like it. Better get used to it. I already tried everything. We're stuck with each other.

"Hello, old maaaaaan!", the scientist shouts. We ignore him.

*So what's up with this body then?
*You don't know?
*Yes, of course. Now it's all clear.
*Care to share?
*I know everything that you do because I remember them but you have no way of knowing what you are going to do in the future. That's why you don't know it.
*I'm going to have to quess what everything you are thinking about means then?
*More or less.

"Is anyone home?", it's the knight this time. We ignore him too.

*You could try...
*...to feed you my memories. I know.

"Hmmph", the scientist seems top give up.

*But that wouldn't necessarily be...
*...completely without complications.
*Exactly.
*We should...
*...get going.

We turn to the two confused ones.
"We should get going. Standing here won't do us any good.", the scientist seems a little annoyed.
"Wouldn't you mind explaining what just happened to you first?"
"Oh, this. It's complicated and I'm not sure I understand it fully. Simply put, the other ones my battle form that seems to come out when I unsheath my rapier.
Shall we go?"
____________
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Adrius
Adrius


Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Stand and fight!
posted October 02, 2008 07:54 PM

"GET OUT HERE FOGGY! WE'LL KICK YOUR ASS!"

No response... the fog remained calm...

Then suddenly it moved, the fog unveiled, and with a terrifying hiss, a giant serpent appeared from it. It had blue skin and red eyes, although it looked ferocious, it had an aura of intelligence around it. The fog adapted to its movements and was soon engulfing it again, only leaving parts of its body visible.

"Ouch... didn't expect that..." Harus took a few steps back, giving Kenji room. "The fog's still too thick for your sensors right?"

"Yes, but at least the fog moves when it does, and it seems to take some time for the fog to adapt. That might be its weakness." Kenji unsheathed his blade and assumed a battlestance.

Suddenly he dissapeared from view, the serpent uttered a confused hiss and looked around. It turned around as it spotted a change in the fog, Kenji had entered it and had left a trail after himself. The enemy attacked with its massive mouth against the hole in the fog, but hit nothing.

Kenji had jumped, and was now visible again, but the serpent's body was open for an attack. He roared as he used all of his power to bring down the sword towards the enemy.
____________

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Mytical
Mytical


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Chaos seeking Harmony
posted October 04, 2008 06:16 AM

Everywhere at once the Arena suddenly warps and twists.  Creatures and Battle Avatars are swept away during this transformation.  ((However, for some reason all of you and your Battle Avatars are unaffected..there is a reason, but you will have to discover this))

Once the Arena settles, it is darker then before.  All the enemies you were facing are gone, with no trace left.  A voice Booms over the Arena.  "For those of you who somehow survived my transformation of the Arena, allow me to introduce myself.  I am Abrix, your new GOD!" at this the arena shudders and heaves those on the ground about.  "I have claimed the center, and my army of Battle Avatars are now going forth to capture and contain you.  Do not resist, it is useless.  I control the Nexus, you have no chance of defeating me."

In one out of every 10 areas in the Arena a portal similar to the one Mamga faced opens. Each one of you (besides Mamga) is now faced with one of these mechanical creatures.  It does not see you..yet.
____________
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Adrius
Adrius


Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Stand and fight!
posted October 04, 2008 11:02 AM
Edited by Adrius at 19:25, 04 Oct 2008.

A large metallic guardian ascended from the dark mirror that had suddenly appeared in the room. It resembled some sort of humanoid creature, but with extremly large forearms and short legs.

"Oh come on! We were just about to kill that snake-thingy and now it dissapears? Damn it!"

"Master, should we retreat?" Harus looked back at Kenji, his eyes clearly said no. Kenji sighed and once again assumed a battlestance.

It spotted them and mumbled something before charging towards them with its hands in the air. Harus stepped aside while Kenji leapt across the room with his blade ready to strike, at least the enemy seemed slow.

Meanwhile, Harus had his own problems, who was this Abrix? Were they too late now that the center had been taken, or was it just a simple ruse to make others give up? After all, if  a person who has claimed the center can be defeated, the power gained there can't truly be as divine as the stories told...

In any case, Harus wouldn't go back to Edernia, not to that mechanical hell.

Kenji managed to dodge the enemy's strike and push off his large palm with his feet while in the air. He made a flip and was now descending quickly towards the enemy, preparing a strike.

"Let's see what you got."
____________

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King_Nikolai
King_Nikolai


Known Hero
with plans of Rebirth!
posted October 04, 2008 01:30 PM
Edited by King_Nikolai at 20:50, 04 Oct 2008.

Sagrath and his 'companion' had been traversing long chambers and ancinet rooms for four days now. Apparantly his powers were completey useless here, but with his Spirit Amulet he had forced the  being, who reffered to himself as a ,Battle Spirit, to protect them both from the dangers of this place.
  On the fifth day, the corridor they were resting at suddenly changed, and became more dark. A mighty voice echoed though the hall.
  "For those of you who somehow survived my transformation of the Arena, allow me to introduce myself. I am Abrix, your new GOD! I have claimed the center, and my army of Battle Avatars are now going forth to capture and contain you.  Do not resist, it is useless.  I control the Nexus, you have no chance of defeating me."
  The Battle Spirit draw his sword, for in that moment a mechanical soldier, some kind of a golem appeared. Sagrath screamed in chock, and was just to tell the Battle Spirit to retreat, but he had already attacked.
  "What is this then, wortless piece of junk?" However his cuts didn't affect the solid metal much.
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Mamgaeater
Mamgaeater


Legendary Hero
Shroud, Flying, Trample, Haste
posted October 04, 2008 04:21 PM
Edited by Mamgaeater at 16:21, 04 Oct 2008.

"Novaran i think we should head back"

"scrck"

The pair slowly inch backwards and open the door.
stepping through they close it behind them.

they examine the area slowly observing the surroundings unsure of what to look for.


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Asheera
Asheera


Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Elite Assassin
posted October 04, 2008 05:35 PM

As soon as Mordekai and his Battle Avatar arrived in a new realm, with a large and peaceful meadow, it already started to change. The grassy ground and sky started to warp and twist, and it was getting darker as each moment passed.

"I don't like this at all, Mephisto. Be on your guard." said Mordekai shocked.

After some time the world stopped changing, and a voice could be heard: "For those of you who somehow survived my transformation of the Arena, allow me to introduce myself. I am Abrix, your new GOD! I have claimed the center, and my army of Battle Avatars are now going forth to capture and contain you. Do not resist, it is useless. I control the Nexus, you have no chance of defeating me."

From the large black mirror that appeared in the new room, a large metallic creature comes out of it. Mephisto prepares to attack it, when Mordekai stops him: "Stop! This guardian looks very powerful, and it doesn't seem to see us yet. It's better not to rush and attack it, at least until we find more about its origins and powers."

"Very well, master."
____________

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DagothGares
DagothGares


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
No gods or kings
posted October 04, 2008 07:22 PM

Xaphan crahed down and left behind a reasonably sized crater...

"What the h-" Nevil uttered as suddenly the very fabric of reality twisted, bent and vanished. they woke up in the same twisted room, but some things seemed out of place. The small girl girl seemed to be lying with that over-sized bunny-monster curled around her. Nevil got up and brushed off the dust of his clothes. "Well, xaphan, old chum, it seems we underestimated this elf." he sighed. Xaphan looked confuse and said: "I don't think the creature did that."

Suddenly, a voice Booms over the Arena.  "For those of you who somehow survived my transformation of the Arena, allow me to introduce myself.  I am Abrix, your new GOD!" at this the arena shudders and heaves those on the ground about.  "I have claimed the center, and my army of Battle Avatars are now going forth to capture and contain you.  Do not resist, it is useless.  I control the Nexus, you have no chance of defeating me."

"Brilliant" nevil sighed as a great golem entered. "Yes, this is ******* brilliant." Xaphan said sacastically.

____________
If you have any more questions, go to Dagoth Cares.

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Kareeah_Indaga
Kareeah_Indaga


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
posted October 05, 2008 07:34 AM
Edited by Kareeah_Indaga at 16:46, 05 Oct 2008.

((Post starts before the Arena transformation because I already had the sucker half-written.

Translator I used for the giant.))

With the silence and lack of any other reference, the glass corridors had an oddly timeless quality to them; he would have sworn at once that they had been walking for hours, and sworn just as quickly that they had only been traveling a few minutes.

Regardless, his companion was starting to grow…anxious, near as he could tell. It prodded him repeatedly when he began to slow, and the one time he made to turn back with the intention of returning to the gravity-defying stream for water it head-butted him with careful savagery (knocking him once more to the floor) and started pushing him along the slick surface until he took the hint, regained his feet and continued forward under his own power. Then even that seemed not to satisfy it; whatever instincts the thing possessed seemed to be screaming, and it urged him on to greater speed.

What is the matter?” he demanded at last, tired of being herded so.

The beast of blades stopped, and pointedly turned its head back the way they had come.

The glass floor, and indeed the walls and ceiling too, once so flawlessly smooth were starting to ripple behind them; tiny wrinkles and imperfections were forming even where they stood, throwing up spectrums of color as the glass distorted. As he watched, the wrinkles deepened, the imperfections grew, and in the distance he could have sworn he saw the walls start to cave in and implode.

“Very well,” he said as conversationally as he could manage. “We’ll do it your way then.”

It took no more urging to catapult him into a sprint down the glass hall.

They raced onward with all possible speed, the beast of blades dogging his heels to urge him faster. Dr. Crates felt his lungs start to stab from the exertions, but pressed blindly on anyway—not knowing how far away safety may lay. The only blessing was that his traction was improving; the distortions were catching up with them despite their best efforts.

Finally a thin veil of fog came into view, its presence just enough to blur—but not conceal—the violently different world beyond. It was not a moment too soon; the glass was rippled and distorted enough now that the nothingness outside was obscured beyond a veil of dark specks and even the clearest spots were decaying to muddy brown.

The pair dove through the translucent mists with only minutes to spare, and were treated to the sight of the twisted dissolution of the corridor into blackened and flawed scab over the exit they had fled through. The decay did not pursue them; Dr. Crates took the opportunity to regain his wind before taking the time to look around.

The room they were in was a near-perfect sphere, with circular entrances halfway up the walls leading off onto miniature side chambers. The walls here seemed coated in gasoline, with opaline lakes set in geometric circles and rimmed with something like white crystal sand.

Dr. Crates approached the largest of the lakes, ground crunching oddly under his feet. He knelt down to test the water and—

—the vicious bladed tail sliced down in front of him, sending him leaping back.

The beast barred his way with its skeletal frame, and shook its head in the near-universal sign for ‘no’.

“May I at least see it?” he asked, growing incredibly frustrated with his silent, would-be guardian. The beast seemed to consider him for a moment before (reluctantly, it seemed to him) backing up.

He wasted no time lest the creature change its mind, kneeling again besides the milky pool. He reached out tentatively to touch the opalescent liquid—and drew back his hand rapidly when the mere touch burned, like fire.

“So much for water,” he remarked.

The creature beside him dipped its head low, gumming up sand and making a swallowing motion—though being so skeletal, the tiny crystals just flowed through the joins in its neck. Then it gummed up more sand, this time dumping the load on his hand. Dr. Crates was reminded of the perch.

“You’re serious?” His companion, of course, said nothing.

Dr. Crates scooped up the white crystal sand. On close inspection, each grain was identical and perfectly transparent. The handful in his hand felt oddly gel-like.

Bracing himself, and scolding himself for doing this without any kind of poison-testing equipment, he poured the handful into his mouth.

It dissolved almost instantly into pure, clean liquid. Dr. Crates almost choked in surprise, only managing to swallow with difficulty. He licked his lips tentatively afterwards, waiting for any ill effects. Fifteen minutes passed, then twenty, and nothing seemed to happen. Finally he shrugged it off as safe and swallowed more of the odd sand, this time with less choking.

* * *

As his compatriot showed no sign of wanting to move, Dr. Crates assumed the room was safe, and settled down to rest for a while. It seemed that no sooner had he nodded off, however, when a gurgling sound brought him back to wakefulness.

A darker whorl on the walls he hadn’t paid much attention to before was bubbling and burbling noisily. His companion was up and stalking back and forth between him and the disturbance, bladed head never leaving the roiling wall.

At last the building tension was released in a loud ‘pop!’, as a particularly large bubble burst and formed a clear hole, which expanded wide enough to disgorge the being traversing it before shrinking back to about the size of a manhole cover.

He couldn’t help but stop and stare. It was a person!

…maybe.

The rider—if indeed that was what it was—seemed to consist entirely of bright, multicolored pieces of chewed up bubblegum. It had a head, or at least a roughly cone-shaped section that resembled a head, and a single blob-like limb extending from what would have been the torso on a human. Both appendages flowed together and expanded into a cape-like construction that might have been a tail, or perhaps a snail-like foot. It had no feet or other distinguishing features, barring the gossamer strand held in its single limb, but that he attributed as reins for its strange mount—a giant, S-shaped packing peanut, which would have been easily four times longer than he was tall were it to flatten completely.

The rider at least seemed to take more than casual notice of the lanky human man staring at it and the living metal sculpture that guarded him. It pulled up its mount; the blobby head swiveled to look at Dr. Crates as the packing peanut slowly pulled to a stop.

Neither side said a word at first; the gum-creature’s head was flattening, expanding and contracting all at once, the pieces of ABC gum coming together into a roughly formed human face. After another few seconds spent perfecting the shape, Dr. Crates was astounded to find himself seeing his own face, albeit in a bright patchwork of colors with no thought given to matching his real tones.

“I greet you, stranger.”

Crates nodded back warily. “And I you. Who are you?” What are you?

“I am Tbikk’ekk of Glob’er’ath,” the bubblegum being greeted thickly. Its head tilted meaningfully at his skeletal protector. “You may call off your guardian. I have no desire to combat you at this time.”

“I—”

The beast of blades stood down before he could say another word, stalking out from between the two speakers and arching its head over his in a way that almost struck him as haughty.

“I have answered your question, now you may answer mine.” He thought the thing was trying to be cordial, but the wet, rubbery quality of its voice made the words sound like an order. “What is your purpose here, traveler?”

“My…purpose? I died, didn’t I?”

“Did you? If you died, then why are you here in the Nexus?”

Nexus…? “This isn’t the afterlife, then?” he asked, trying (and failing) to sound casual.

“No.”

Crates blinked. “Oh.”

The creature’s voice warbled a bit as it experimented with the form of its voice box; it was starting to sound a little like him as well, now. “I…see. You did not come here intentionally, did you?” Crates shook his head. “Unusual. Most do.”

There was a pause as Tbikk’ekk appeared to ponder this thought.

“What is this place, if it isn’t the afterlife?” Dr. Crates asked at last, feeling awkward breaking the silence but badly wanting clarification. Was it a dream land? Some sort of limbo?

“Why, it is a bridge between all the worlds,” Tbikk’ekk explained, as though this were the most obvious thing in the world. “People come here seeking power and combat, though I suppose the latter is just another form of power-seeking. If that is not why you are here, I would suggest returning to your world-of-origin; this can be a very dangerous place. Ekki’ekki’pu and I” the being of bubblegum motioned to the giant packing peanut he rode “are returning to our own now, in fact.” The riding beast began to move again, the curves of the S-shape dipping and uncurling to propel it forward. “Farewell to you, lost traveler.”

With that, Tbikk’ekk and Ekki’ekki’pu oozed across the chamber and up one of the walls into another dark spot, which widened to admit them. The resulting portal swallowed them up and they were gone.

* * *

Dr. Crates pondered his current location for a while afterwards, as he gathered sand with the intent of moving on. Now that he knew what to look for, he noticed there were a few more of the dark portal-splotches in the walls. A few were even close enough to ground level for him to peer through, so he did.

Of the three within easy reach, one was a volcanic wasteland with hypnotic dancing lights over rivers of molten rock, and another seemed to be locked in a perpetual (not to mention electric blue) sandstorm.

But beyond the most promising portal was a huge hall—the ceiling at least ten stories above his head, the walls gilded with gold and hung with gigantic banners. Precious gems—lapis lazuli, turquoise, amethyst, emerald and a dozen shades of coral, rimmed with gold and all polished to a mirror finish—had been set in massive geometric patterns in the floor; everything that wasn’t set with gems or gold was smooth marble. Upon entering with his guardian he discovered further that the lights were fuel-less, floating silver fires that produced no smoke, and the ceiling above was a giant mirror that reflected the room—but not, he was disconcerted to note, either he or his metallic companion. The hall was T-shaped, with yet another exit on the far side and a side corridor even larger than this one branching off out of sight.

“Wow,” he breathed. His first order of business was finding more food, but he could still appreciate the amount of craftsmanship that must have gone into such a structure.

Suddenly a loud, booming creak like a giant footfall sent the entire chamber rumbling. Another sounded shortly after, and another, in an ill-defined pattern with no set interval to the sounds. Curious, and not a little worried, Dr. Crates angled his path closer to the gleaming walls; the beast of blades was suddenly alert and flanked him.

They had no sooner passed the corner when the source was revealed. A shout both surprised and angry rocked the chamber; the volume was such that Dr. Crates felt momentarily stunned from the bellow. He regained his wits enough to look for the source, and was stunned again at what he saw. His head craned back almost of its own volition, a sudden block of lead forming in his gut as he realized that sound hadn’t been LIKE a giant foot fall…

Wux siofme ekess confn ias sia okarthel ios sia naam, wux svaust re trian ir?

The being before him was pale gray, human-like but so much taller, with snow-white hair and twisted beard, dressed in an archaic tunic and hammered paldrons. A giant axe lay grasped in between the massive hands, its twin blades sparking with lightning. The giant took a step forward, and Dr. Crates felt his whole body shake from the impact of the step.

Wux geou ti waph ekess krethel coi!

The massive man charged the duo on foot, swinging his axe; Dr. Crates had the good sense and reflexes to dive one way while his would-be guardian dove the other, and the axe skipped over the floor between them. The giant seemed to decide that Crates—unarmed and unarmored as he was—was the more dangerous of the two, because the lightning-sparking axe was directed towards him first.

Dr. Crates just barely had enough time to duck, the axe blade slicing close enough overhead to make his hair stand on end from the electricity. As the giant pulled his weapon back for another blow, Crates scrambled frantically to get to his feet and dodge.

But before the second blow could fall the giant stepped back, bellowing with rage and grasping at the back of his knee. A loud, rattling shriek that pierced the ears and reverberated through one’s very spirit sounded behind him, its eldritch tones overlaying the giant’s own enraged bellow and nearly as loud. Dr. Crates had to look around frantically for a few moments before locating its source; his companion was circling around the giant man, its claws stained with the same sapphire blue blood trickling down the giant’s huge calf.

It was the first sound he’d heard the beast make.

With a roar the gray giant charged the metal quadruped, his axe once again in both hands and swinging wildly. The beast of blades skittered across the smooth tile, away from Crates, its form a blur. The lightning-wreathed axe arched low, crackling sinisterly, but the skeletal frame leaped over the blade to the wall, and sprang from there to the giant’s shoulder, its razor-like claws leaving furrows in flesh and stone alike. Crates was left to frantically search the room for a weapon, but the chamber was bare of anything even remotely close to a size he could use.

Meanwhile, heedless of the sharp pointy bits sticking out of almost every piece of his antagonist’s body, the giant grabbed the beast in one calloused gray hand and threw the creature across the room. “Bafoid! Wux siofme douta plythu kamati geou troth wux de lowan?

The beast of blades arched through the air and into a wall with the sick clunk of denting metal. It slid to the floor, blade-like protrusions ringing off one another from the impacts, before slowly climbing to its feet.

A queer rippling of light passed over its form, and it was whole again.

The giant’s eyes widened with hate. “Wux noiwwe fueryon! Si geou svent wux tenamalo vur tenamalo sjek si tepoha ekess!

He readied his axe. Dr. Crates’ companion ducked its head low and charged, claws ringing as it ran. The giant swung at it, trying to bury the blade of his weapon between the creature’s shoulders, but the beast darted left at the last second sending the axe blade screeching across the floor. It changed directions with whip-like speed, and charged again before the giant could recover. One toss of the beast’s head, then two, and the horn-like blades had sliced open the giant’s thigh for nearly the entire length of the femur.

The giant flailed wildly, axe dropping to the ground with an earth-shaking clatter, and started to thrash at the smaller quadruped. One lashing foot caught the beast of blades in the ribcage and sent it flying onto its back to roll awkwardly across the floor.

The giant was bleeding heavily now; the last gash appeared to have breached the femoral artery, and blue blood was flowing heavily down the giant’s right thigh to puddle in splotches all over the hall floor. He gave a last, feral scream, turned to Crates and dove at him, determined to crush the tiny man before his own lifeblood gave out.

The beast of blades noticed. For a moment it appeared to contract, its leg joints bending and its spine arching, every knife and point pulling inwards. Its head rose, wolf-like as if to howl. Its jaws parted, but no sound emerged. Instead, veins of light traveled across the chamber as reflections off a rippling pool. Across the hall the giant started to choke, coughing up blood before collapsing at Crates’ feet; the beast of blades was on him in an instant, but the medic was too overwhelmed to notice.

A fear greater and more powerful than any force he had ever experienced had washed over him at onset of the attack. Sight, sound, everything was washed away in a torrent of overwhelming terror, leaving only enough thought and sensation to find his way away from the source of the feeling. Dr. Crates bolted down the hall, his instincts recalling the misty corridor opposite the door they had come in through. He dashed blindly for it and through it, not thinking or caring what may lay beyond.

Behind him the bladed metal tail slashed down, killing the giant in a spray of deep blue blood.

* * *

He emerged into another cave; at first glance this one seemed as ordinary as any he had ever seen, lacking any sort of gravity-defying feature or other bizarre formations. He stumbled down the rocky corridor for what seemed like several minutes before finally regaining his senses.

Now that his wits had returned it seemed to him a mistake to have taken off like that, and he was more than a little ashamed to have been overcome in such a fashion. He was sure—reasonably sure, anyway—the skeletal creature that had accompanied him thus far would have killed him by now if it had intended him harm, but something about that last technique had shaken him to the core…

It was too late now, in any case; the cavern was rough, dark and twisted enough that he wasn’t sure he could find his way back, and he dimly recalled at least one jagged slope that he doubted he could go back up without equipment he didn’t have. The rocky floor left no tracks; the best he could do was either stay put or wander around and hope to find another way back. He opted to wander around.

* * *

The lighting down these tunnels proved to be sporadic and sourceless; most regions had as much lighting as an outdoor region just prior to sunrise, while others were so bright they seemed to have acquired their own invisible spotlights. At the moment he was traveling through an area of pitch black—and, as his night vision was no better than that of most humans, and the terrain rough, it was not surprising that he tripped on an outcropping and fell.

What was surprising was the feel of something small and cylindrical slipping out of his uniform sleeve and clattering on the stone floor.

He froze in the dark, knelt down and cautiously felt around for the object. At length his hand closed around the small piece of equipment, and the feel of it told him what it was—it was the pen light he’d kept in his sleeve for field examinations, apparently overlooked by his captors before he’d been thrown into this bizarre world, and simply forgotten about as he had had more pressing concerns up until now. It worked, after a fashion, and with it he was able to make a little more speed through the darkened areas of the cave.

A bit of exploring proved that this cavern was a bit more heavily populated than the previous ones. Twice he took cover as strange beings passed him by, and several other parties he glimpsed at a distance. Groups would vary in species composition very widely, but they almost always traveled in pairs, though occasionally he would spot a larger group…

Most of those in the cave complex seemed to be passing through to one place or another, but in a large and well-lit chamber off to the side a quartet of creatures were engaging in combat—a woman with snakes for hair and her mammoth-like mount against a short, hairy man paired with an alligator.

The alligator parted its jaws and an orb of electricity was expelled to crash into the mammoth’s chest; meanwhile the hairy man was attacking its flanks. The woman tried to fend him off as the mammoth retaliated with a stream of frigid air from its trunk; the latter frosted the alligator before charging and trampling it. Then the woman managed to throw the little man away with the spear at her side as the alligator let out a reptilian scream and dissolved into little flecks of light. Seeing this, the hairy man let out a cry of his own and bolted down the passage—right past Dr. Crates, at which point the latter realized he had insufficient cover and the medusa’s full attention.

She brought her beast to bear on him; he backpedaled and turned to beat a hasty retreat of his own, not so foolish to pick a fight while armed only with a pen light. But the medusa woman threw a thin cord ending in an odd metal contraption at his feet; it wrapped around his ankle and he went crashing down.

A large shadow spilled over him from the medusa’s titanic mount and she chuckled down at him, voice slightly mocking.

“Where is your Avatar, traveler?”

Dr. Crates had twisted around and was struggling with the cord, trying to break it or slide it off. “I have no idea what you’re talking about!” he replied.

The medusa looked him up and down with a smirk, noting his complete lack of weaponry. “I can see that.” Her mount wrapped its trunk around his ankles and hoisted him into the air so he and she were roughly at eye level.

“What do you want with me?” he demanded.

“We’ll see,” she replied teasingly. “Since I doubt you got here on your own, I might see if I can’t get a ransom or a bounty on you. If not—” the mammoth dropped him. “I’ve always wanted a pet, and you need a protector.”

Dr. Crates coughed from his position on the cavern floor, wheezed the air back into his lungs from being dropped. “I am not a pet.”

“What are you then?”

“A medic.”

“Even better. You’re coming with me.”

Dr. Crates opened his mouth to retort and was summarily picked up by the mammoth again. His jaw snapped shut again, sullenly.

The medusa woman chuckled, slithering down from her perch—an odd saddle with buckled straps for her tail, since she had no feet—to the ground. She transferred the cord from his ankles to his wrists, and regained her seat before the mammoth put him down again. It started to walk off and she tugged at the cord to make him follow.

“Come along.”

* * *

It had been at least twenty minutes spent leashed to the medusa woman, and Crates had yet to decipher the method to release his bonds.

They had encountered very little in the mean time; most seemed to give her a respectful berth (or perhaps she was avoiding them?), though one gentleman traveling alongside a walking construction of office supplies (mostly paperclips) gave her a cordial nod and they exchanged polite greetings as they passed one another.

Now suddenly she stopped, yanking him closer to the mammoth and brandishing her spear. “Show yourself!”

There was a flash of silvery metal in the dim cave lighting as something large and gleaming dropped from the ceiling to coil around him, knocking him away from the mammoth. Another flash, and the rope leashing him snapped, the remnants loosening on their own and falling to the floor. The snake-haired woman hissed and raised her spear, her mount trumpeting surprise—but the metallic form only turned on her and crowded Crates backwards away from them, posture defensive and whipping bladed tail swinging wide.

It was the beast of blades, having crawled across the ceiling to avoid detection.

The medusa put down her spear, expression one of ironic amusement. “So you have an Avatar after all. Foolish of you to go wandering without it.”

The beast of blades bristled at her, pawing in her direction as though desiring to claw her for the remark, but Crates put his hand on its shoulder and shook his head. He motioned away from the woman and her mount, and they started to stalk off into the dark.

“Stay.” The medusa called after him.

“Why should I?” he called back, still walking.

“Why shouldn’t you?” she countered. “It is plain you have no idea where you are—”

“This is the Nexus.” He snapped back, mentally hoping he was right and he hadn’t wandered out of the thing into something else.

“Then what are you doing here?”

Dr. Crates stood stiffly but said nothing; he had no answer to give.

The woman smiled, showing the tips of fangs. “I thought so. Come with me then. I have use for a medic, and you need to know what I can tell you. I can even pay you,” she added, holding up a little bronze square retrieved from a pouch on her hip, “Though I doubt my world’s currency will hold any value to you.”

“It doesn’t.”

“But my information does,” she insisted.

He considered. Wavered. “All right then,” he said at last.

* * *

They chatted as they traveled, the medusa woman casually and Crates warily, trading information.

Her name it transpired was Natsa, her mount Grissom, and it soon became clear to him that, despite their initial meeting, she was not a bad sort, simply a bit too mercenary and far, far too opportunistic. That fit nicely with her career choice; she was a bounty hunter, taking employment from those within and without the Nexus to hunt down nuisances and escaped convicts that tried to use it as a method of escape.

At the moment, she claimed, she was tracking a man named Traxax, who she explained was a bloody-minded serial killer who had escaped execution when his cell unexpectedly opened up into the Nexus. Dr. Crates was well aware that she could be lying to him to secure his cooperation; politicians back home did it all the time, and it was part of the reason the war had gone on so long. He decided to take her at face value anyway, though; while he had no real reason to believe her, he also had no reason to disbelieve her and no evidence that she was lying.

In the mean time, Natsa explained facets of the Nexus to him and he ventured careful questions in return.

After a while, though, she brought her mount to an unexpected halt and climbed down from Grissom’s saddle.

“Hah! I knew it was a good idea to keep you around; you’re good luck.”

“What?”

Natsa tapped the ground with her spear; on inspection, there was a small puddle of blood in the spot she indicated, partially clotted and so blending in with the stone.

“This is from his Avatar. I’ve seen it once before; nasty thing. Leaves puddles like this wherever someone died, no matter how long ago.”

“And he just leaves them there for anyone to find?”

“He’s not sane.” Natsa replied succinctly.

* * *

They spent another hour following blood marks and other signs, and then they saw him, sitting in a gigantic stone chamber and singing madly off-key.

Traxax was visibly unbalanced; if he had been sane before entering the Nexus he wasn’t now. His hair was matted and filthy, its color invisible under the dirt, its strands uncombed and standing up all over the place. His clothes were torn and blood-stained but he didn’t seem to notice or care, and there was a look of madness about his countenance. He also hadn’t made any efforts to conceal himself, instead having built a huge bonfire—though heaven only knew from what.

“Hello Natsa. Do you remember me? I remember you,” Traxax smiled vapidly, an expression that may have been intended to seem innocent but was utterly undermined by the guarding form behind him. The creature accompanying him—his Avatar, Crates corrected himself—was a boney, bloody construct with long curled arms and shriveled legs, skinless and wrapped in gore. A quartet of still-beating hearts protruded from its back like the plates of a Stegosaurus, and the sockets of its malformed skull were utterly empty.

“I remember you,” Natsa assured him. “You’re going to die today, Traxax.”

“After you!” he invited cheerily. “Go and get them, my sweet!”

The gore creature leaped at them with unexpected strength given its crippled-seeming form. Its jaws parted, abdomen heaving, and then it vomited something like acid at them. Though the substance hissed dangerously, the stuff fell far short of all four combatants; it wasn’t for several seconds that the real purpose became clear.

The smell of the stuff was horrendous to the point of it being nearly impossible to breath, and despite the danger, Dr. Crates could do nothing but gag and retch for several seconds as the smell dissipated. Natsa and her mount were affected as well though not as badly, but the madman ignored the stench, protected by his insanity or perhaps just used to it.

Crates’ own Avatar however was unaffected, so when the gore monster saw him so preoccupied and leaped to attack him the beast of blades was there to intercept it, sending it flying backwards with deep claw marks down its flanks, wailing like one of the dying.

Traxax’s face twisted into a horrifying expression of rage, and he leaped mindlessly at Crates. Natsa (who had dismounted earlier so she and her mount could fight separately if need be) intercepted him as the gore creature circled around, trying to get away from the skeletal metal monster while also trying to get closer to the other three and attack.

“Crates, get MOVING!” Natsa ordered, fighting the madman off with her spear. The gore monster was stalking closer, the tenseness of its limbs betraying its intention to leap at him. Crates obeyed, dashing off behind Grissom so the gore monster would be stuck between the two allied Avatars when it leaped.

This didn’t work out quite as well as planned, as Traxax’s Avatar launched itself at Natsa instead, just as the madman himself snapped the head off her spear with his bare hands.

The creature landed on her back with frightening force, and there was a wet snap as Natsa’s left arm gave way under the attack. She cried out involuntarily, and Grissom charged the bloody monster who had done the deed, heedless of the consequences. Traxax and his Avatar retreated hastily in different directions, Traxax cackling; having no clear target Grissom picked up Natsa with his trunk and deposited her on his back.

Now safe, or at least as safe as could be, Natsa directed her mount to charge the bloody monster, bracing what was left of her spear with her good arm. The beast of blades may have aided their offensive, but Traxax took the bounty hunter’s preoccupation with his Avatar to attack Dr. Crates, distracting it.

The tactic worked; Natsa and her beast were taken by surprise when the enemy Avatar bounced clear over their heads and slammed a fist into Grissom’s hindquarters, sending the mammoth sprawling.

The beast of blades seemed torn with rage; both madman and Avatar had threatened Crates, and while the Avatar was more powerful the man was much closer and a more immediate threat. Finally its head tilted back with a soundless howl.

It was a repeat performance of the technique that had driven him here in the first place. Strange light rippled across the massive chamber walls as man, medusa and mammoth were all overcome with a supernatural panic, and only luck kept them all in the same chamber; the latter two were pinned by the blood monster and couldn’t flee without getting past it, and Crates was quickly pinned by his own Avatar to keep him from running off into trouble again.

Traxax’s Avatar wailed again, staggering, before finally collapsing and falling apart, the four hearts rolling off its back and across the floor, no longer beating. It dissolved into bloody pulp and was absorbed by the floor shortly after. Traxax himself fell to his knees, screaming as every vein in his eyes burst and purpling spots like bruises formed when other veins and capillaries followed suit. At last he too collapsed.

Cautiously, Crates made his way over to the still form and checked for a pulse.

“He’s dead,” he pronounced at last.

“Thank the Celestial Scales,” Natsa replied with relief, rubbing her injured arm. She blinked, flexed it experimentally and discovered it was no longer broken. To hide her surprise, she switched topics. “If that was what sent you across my path, Crates, I can’t say I blame you.” Indeed, she and her mammoth were both quite shaken still, and gave his companion a wide berth.

“Now what?” Crates asked.

“Now we—”

She never finished the sentence. Abruptly the ground lurched, the walls twisting and shifting like a video put on fast-forward. Natsa and her mount began sliding uncontrollably backwards, then both began screaming in unrelievable agony; the medusa’s body shriveled and dried while her mount dissolved into a glow-in-the-dark puddle of goo beneath her. Her final scream was cut off with a dry rattle as the last of the shifting cavern settled down—she was dead.

For a heartbeat all was quiet. What was once dark rippling stone now resembled the inside of a very large pipe, even down to bits of insulation sticking through the holes rusted in the walls.

And then a voice that seemed to come from all around trumpeted through the chamber, rocking the walls and raining bits of debris onto the floor.

"For those of you who somehow survived my transformation of the Arena, allow me to introduce myself.  I am Abrix, your new GOD!"

The chamber rolled violently sideways, sending Crates into his companion’s ribs. Only sheer luck kept him from being sliced open by his guardian’s body.

"I have claimed the center, and my army of Battle Avatars are now going forth to capture and contain you.  Do not resist, it is useless.  I control the Nexus, you have no chance of defeating me."

Crates swore to himself. The last thing he wanted was to get captured again, and he certainly didn’t need an army after him. His immediate thought was that he ought to seek out other survivors, but the beast of blades was crowding him again, a gesture he was beginning to learn was protective.

He dove into the hollow space in its ribs, grabbing the straps placed there by Natsa—he blocked the thought out—for just that purpose and braced himself against any future rolling.

“If it gets too bad, get to your Avatar and stick to the ceiling, Crates, she had said to him earlier. “Some creatures not native to these tunnels never bother to look up, and the ones that do can’t always reach you. If nothing else, trust your Avatar; it’s there to protect you when no one else will, and it’s a lot more durable than you are."

The beast of blades fidgeted until he was safely installed and then immediately raced for the walls; not a moment too soon, for as they crept into the shadow of a fall of insulation at the top of the pipe, a tall robotic-looking creature was disgorged in the distance, single red ‘eye’ scanning and guns at the ready. Crates quieted his breathing, watching, waiting to see what it would do.

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Mytical
Mytical


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Chaos seeking Harmony
posted October 06, 2008 06:16 AM

((Adrius will update you in a bit.  Have something planned, but will take a bit for you)).

King_Nikolai - The metal creature turns its face toward you, and unleashes a energy beam toward your Battle Avatar.  It strikes it sending it backward about 20'..but it is barely scratched.  The seemingly innefectual cuts have created a few long cuts in the legs.

Mamga - The room you enter appears to be desert like in nature.  The creatures from the other room are fanning out, one coming right your way.  However, your BA would have a great advantage in the type of setting that this room provides.

Asheera - As you observe the creature, you notice that despite its metalic skin it seems to move like it weighs almost nothing.  You see steam for just a millisecond as it turns.  Perhaps these creatures have an Air attribute..if so the information might come in handy.

DG - The girl stands up.  "I don't like him Mr Bunny.  Bunny..HOP!" And the BA flies way up into the air and comes down on the creature with a powerful THUD.  The Battle Avatar is smashed completely to bits, and the girl didn't even seem to be trying.  "Bad mr machine man, that will teach you.  Come on Bunny, we have more toys to find." she turns to you.  "Coming mr toy?"

Kareeah_Indaga - The creature indeed does not look up.  It passes by you without incident.  It goes lumbering off following a specific pattern, whatever that may be.  As you contemplate what is happening, you hear some voices.  "Claimed the Nexus my left foot.  He probably has one of the outter nodes at best.  As if somebody like him could even make it to the Nexus.." A man in a brightly colored blue and green cloak passes under you.

Following him is a shiny silver elf looking .. person.  Though you think it may be a Battle Avatar.  "Indeed Sir, I find his claim to be questionable at best."

"Well, no matter.  These tin cans won't stop the greatest bard of all time from his destiny.  Onward!" and he turns around and starts heading back.

"Wrong way sir..we just came that way."

The man stops.  "Quite right..quite right...onward!" he turns around again and starts leaving.

The shiny man looks up, winks, and the two continue on about their way.
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