The Last Stand

[EnDSchultz]

((I'm not sure what's happening at the Rebel's hideout or the remnants of the Guardian Citadel, but over where my character's at, the Mobile EC HQ is under attack from rock monsters, and I'm fighting nearby against Ravana alongside Caton and Mortracta.))

EnD grinned, thrilled to have finally done some real damage to his foe as blood from the severed member spattered onto his mask and frontside. This small amount of fluid on his person began to short his cloaking device, causing strange electrical distortions that blatantly gave away his location. The Predator hastily deactivated the system, becoming visible for the first time, his dark green and grey form a sharp contrast to the pure white of the tundra around him. With a flick of his finger he casually but swiftly wiped a glob of blood from the left lense of his mask, which had already begun to freeze to the cold metal in the icy conditions.

Then, he spotted Hollow Eyes emerging from under the snow, but just as he reached down to help the SiC up, he noticed the deep gashes on the Parasitian's neck, and the red heat of the body rapidly fading to a dark blue in his infrared vision. The Yaut'Ja took a step back, aghast at the sudden and unexpected death of his fellow Councilman.

The Yaut'Ja couldn't afford to be shocked for more than a split second, and quickly regained concentration, turning his attention to Ravana. His weapon of choice had been stolen, a great dishonor for any Hunter, and his comrade had been slain by this Grendelian creature. This beast was no longer simple prey to be hunted and killed for sport. Things had gotten personal. To add insult to injury, Ravana then drew EnD's Combistick, ready to defend himself with it. The Predator would NOT stand for this. Behind his mask he glared at the Enigma with a firey anger; he would see to it this monster regretted having ever crossed the EC...

"How the heck... Never mind. Your dagger's MINE!"

Not if I have a say in the matter, the Yaut'Ja thought to himself as Ravana's two remaining tails burrowed into the ground once more, intent on ensnaring Hollow Eyes' servant. Greatly to the Hunter's advantage, the apparently impenetrable timeshield surrounding Ravana started to dissipate. Thinking quickly, EnD seized the opportunity and swiftly drew two weapons from their respective holsters. With his right hand, he grabbed the Smartdisc, and with his left he held the Netgun.

In only a few seconds he utilized both of these: He tossed the Disc with perfect accuracy straight for the Combistick being wielded by the Enigma of Time. Immediately after letting fly the razor-edged disc, he unleashed a metal-mesh net from the weapon in his left hand. It would be unlikely to completely immobilize the massive Grendel, nor would it take him long to cut free of it, but should the plan work, it would give the Yaut'Ja just enough time to move in for the kill......

((Note regarding the Smartdisc: Not only does this weapon have mass and momentum, but also a mysterious form of propulsion to keep it's trajectory in a straight line, or even change it to track a moving target. This added force allows it to cut through flesh effortlessly and keep going....but not the Combistick. Ravana can try to block the projectile sailing at him, with great risk of the polearm being knocked from his grasp, otherwise risking losing a limb much more vital than his tail. May I remind that should Ravana be able to dodge in time, this would also pull his tails from their borrows in the ground, possibly enough so as to prevent him from reaching Caton with them, so this is not advisable. Or he can try some devious time trick, your call.))

[3kul]

Against all logic, the dead HollowEyes had lurched towards the surface, and was now moving about as though nothing had happened to him at all. A sickeningly unnatural grin spread across the Second-in-Command's face as he darted towards Caton, his empty eyes rising to stare directly at Ravana.

Of course, those who were up to scratch on their magical knowledge would understand what was happening - the minion had become the master, or more accurately, the puppet master. Nekomata like Caton had the ability to control the dead like marionettes, and whilst this was usually used merely for entertainment purposes it wasn't such a stretch to use it in combat or for protection, especially when one was as familiar with HollowEyes' movements as Caton.

The Parasitian moved as though he was still alive, circling Caton once before coming to a stop behind him. Then, without any hesitation, HollowEyes pulled his leg back and kicked, launching Caton high up into the air. Caton hoped that this would keep him out of Ravana's clutches for long enough to enable him to carry out the second part of his master's plan.

The nekomata tried to mentally prepared himself, but then decided that it was probably best to do this without thinking. Wincing as he tore out his right eye, he quickly replaced it with a bloody metallic orb - HollowEyes artificial third eye. The more keen eyed observer would have noticed that he'd ripped this from his master's chest as the dead Parasitian had been made to move around in front of Caton.

The Ruby Dagger glowed slightly as Caton was engulfed in a pale blue flame, and his body began to change shape. He hadn't done it too many times before, but he decided that a more humanoid form might be better for this. As he dropped back down to the snowy tundra, the blue flames quietly receded back to the Ruby Dagger, Caton's soul drifting back with them. Two souls cannot exist within the one body for too long after all, and Caton had originated from the Ruby Dagger to begin with.

Landing roughly, the humanoid creature stumbled about for a bit, blinking several times as he examined his new body. His feline ears suddenly pricked, and he remembered what he'd been doing. Wrenching the Ruby Dagger from where it was stabbed into his back, the creature turned to face Ravana. The Enigma seemed preoccupied with EnD, and hopefully perhaps Mortracta, so for now the creature stood back.

The dead Parasitian grinned once more, flicking several charms across the windy tundra. The humanoid Nekomata snatched the charms out of the air as though he'd done it hundreds of times before, his own smile mirroring that of his old body.

HollowEyes had discovered how to cheat death, and it had been all too easy for him.

[TheBlackSoul]

Ravana was downright surprised when HollowEyes, who he thought dead, suddenly ran up to Caton and kicked him out of the way of his tails, which burst out of the snow, grappled at something invisible, then retreated back beneath. Then Caton turned into a humanoid, adding throughly to the mess his mind was in.

Looking around, he finally noticed a greenish humanoid thing first release a disk then a net in his direction. He threw himself out of the way of the net, but the disk continued flying towards him.

I can't handle this many enemies on my own! I need backup!

Looking around, he finally noticed the iron golem swinging a massive ax around. He remembered it saying something about helping, but he couldn't remember what it was. He decided to take a chance.

"Golem! Take care of my attackers!" he yelled at it, then turned and ran away as fast as he possibly could, pride and anger giving away to fear. Given the structure of his legs, he could move at least 25 miles an hour, perhaps more. He kept a firm grip on the Combistick, ready to use it if needed.

[Chronos]

((Oh gods, sre, guys.))

Mortracta had frozen for a moment. How had this terrible thing happened? Hollow Eyes was dead before Mortracta's hub received the message. Now something surprised Mortracta. The lonely flower had just lost a companion. Previously, she had felt completely detached from those in the cave except for Ensichrys, but now she was feeling zealously loyal to the Evil Council.

And the SiC had to be avenged.

Mortracta thrust herself underground and violently surged toward Ravana; her mind was racing. How could she make the rebel scum suffer? She had to catch it first...

Mortracta tore through the permafrost with frightening speed, sending long linear cracks in the ice preceding her. She had once been clocked at a digging speed of 45 km per hour. Ravana would pay dearly for his ruthlessness!

[EnDSchultz]

((Damn it, I've taken far too long to reply to this. Seems that the only ongoing battle is between all of us and TBS...with everyone else put into some sort of mysterious RP-Lag stasis field O.o
I'm wondering if maybe TBS should just take control of the two remaining golems, since they're really his only ally in the fight capable of assisting him at the moment. Though, the rock golem is still being pummelled mercilessly by a hail of plasma fire, it probably won't last long.))

The Predator scowled as his attack failed completely, the net losing momentum and falling harmelessly to the ground. The SmartDisc curved its path to follow Ravana as he darted off, but EnD outstretched his hand, and the Disc looped back around and returned to him, settling softly in his hand. The Yaut'Ja could probably have kept pace with the Enigma, but when Mortracta gave chase, he saw no reason to.

He looked over to where his fallen comrad was, or, at least where he was a moment ago, and was greeted with a completely unexpected sight, the likes of which he had never seen in his 400 years. The slain Hollow Eyes was standing a few yards to his right. But the body was fridgidly cold, so the Yaut'Ja began to understand this had to be some sort of undead magic trick. What seemed to be Caton was considerably farther away, but now transformed into something EnD had not seen before. . .

He approached the Nekomata, and with his gaze darting between the former Hollow Eyes and the Nekomata, he asked,
"Care to explain to an old Elder just what you've done?"

[TheBlackSoul]

Ravana continued his flight, wondering why nobody had bothered giving chase yet. Then he noticed cracks in the ice beneath him, and looking back, saw some sort of plant-beast chasing him. He couldn't see too much of it, but he knew it was probably hostile.

Whatever it was, it was catching up to him fast. He had to either pump up his speed (unlikely that he would be able to keep a reasonable distance between himself and the plant), or attempt to face off the creature (which wouldn't succeed, he guessed).

It looks like I'm screwed, he thought. But then he remembered one last ability he had-an ability that would be quite effective against a ground-based foe like this.

While running at top speed, he jumped, pulling his legs up at the zenith of his flight. Then, as he came back down, he slammed the ground with as much force as he could muster. He repeated this 3 times.

What the enigma had done was sent a series of 4 shockwaves radiating from the places he landed. While they themselves were invisible, they sent a frightening wave of ice shards and snow in all directions. And furthermore, the shockwaves didn't just go over the surface, they went in all directions underground.

That ought to take care of you, he smarted in his mind, before turning around and fleeing again.

[3kul]

The humanoid Nekomata turned towards EnD, quickly deciding that given that they were still in mid-combat it was better to be practical and explain things properly rather than try to be mystical or cool about it. "It's not so hard for somebody like me to do something like this, the most difficult thing was getting my head around it to begin with," He said, pointing to his fake eye. "I've said it many times and it's pretty well documented, but charms are little more than pieces of paper charged with spiritual energy. Using the same techniques, it's not too difficult to imbue other objects with spiritual energy, such as how I recently transferred my spirit energy into my artificial eye."

He was not mocking EnD in how he explained this, more hoping to jog the Elder's memory - even though the Yaut'Ja did not specialize in any kind of magic, HollowEyes was quite confident that he'd be able to understand the concept that he was trying to present here. "I'm in a different body now, but I'm still HollowEyes."

It was an impressive display of the Second-in-Command's level of control over spiritual energy, and on the surface it would appear that he'd managed to immunize himself against death, however HollowEyes knew that this was not true. It was a temporary solution, as the eye did not make a body any less mortal - he could still die, just not as easily as some.

"Ah."

Ravana's sudden jumping movement had caught HollowEyes attention and cut off the SiC's musings, he was looking to attack. Or rather, as HollowEyes soon realized, he was looking to create a diversion to allow for an escape. This might have worked not too long ago, but things were different now.

Despite his preferences leaning towards it, HollowEyes himself actually possessed very little magic power, and he mostly relied on borrowing the powers of strong spirits to aide him in battle. As such it's only natural that over the years he's built up a wealth of experience on how to fight using his very limited abilities. Caton on the other hand was the exact opposite - only recently raised from the dead to make the transformation from cat to nekomata, he now naturally possesses a very large amount of magic power but is horribly inefficient with it due to his own inexperience.

Sadly there probably wasn't anybody here who'd appreciate the brilliance of this, but the combination of HollowEyes' mind with Caton's body was an extremely beneficial union. Well, this wasn't really the time to brag about clever schemes anyway, thought HollowEyes, raising the Ruby Dagger in front of him. He was almost drowning in magical energy now, and the Ruby Dagger responded instantly - a wave of bright red flames shot out to protect the Council members from the onslaught of ice and snow. Naturally he couldn't protect Mortracta for fear of doing her more harm than good, and he hoped that he wasn't being too presumptuous in extending the flames to protect EnD as well, but he'd see the results of his actions soon enough anyway.

-----------------------------

Far above the combatants, a massive white lance plunged towards the tundra. Anybody with exceptionally good vision would notice that this spear was woven, and that it had several eyes that were all focused on the only non-EC creature that was now attempting to flee the scene.

~Keh! A cowardly killer who can't even stick around to face the music!~ Little Sister laughed to herself, spinning slightly as she picked up speed. She wasn't one to go getting justice for her (not quite) dead brother, but it kind of pissed her off to let this worthless cretin get away with doing something like this scot-free.

The lance angled itself more, curving through the air as it changed shape slightly to follow after Ravana, aiming to skewer him in the most painful way possible.

[Danikat]

(( Suprise Come-Back Post of DOOM!

I didn't originally intend to drop out of this RP at all and I'm not quite sure what happened but having finally caught up to whats going on I intend to re-join, esspecially since it looks like the rebels could use some help. For those who don't remember Danikat's last apperance was...well, more of a dissaperence. She rushed out of the Dome and onto Alzaranth, who then promptly dissapeared, carrying Danielle's dead body. Why she did this will now be made clear thought the ancient magic of explaining.))

Danikat carefully slid Danielle down to the stretcher held by the waiting team of armadillos before jumping down herself and following them as they hurried through the maze of passages underneath her home.

Soon the party reached a huge door, made of solid obsidian and coated in thick steel. Danikat keyed the access code into the panel to one side. After a moment a loud click was heard from somewhere in the doors frame and grasping the handle she pulled the huge door to one side revealing a large chamber beyond. This room was about the size of your average school hall and largely featureless although one wall did contain a large opening which was being gradually revealed as the steel shutter drew back into the rock above, activated by the same control as the door. Directly below this was what looked distinctly like an altar. It featured a large open space, raised slightly above the floor, with a smaller pedestal in front of it, both carved from the solid rock of the chamber.

Danikat gently laid Danielle down on the larger space before sitting cross-legged on the smaller pedestal. She nodded thanks to a group of armadillos who brought in a tray of various items before hurrying out and closing the huge door behind them. And now for the tricky part. She had seen this done and knew the principals involved but she had never actually done it herself and had never really wanted to. Still, now was not the time for doubt. She closed her eyes and concentrated, hoping it wasn't already too late.

Compared to most magic it was fairly uninteresting. The observant watcher might have noticed a faint shimmering in the air above the altar, similar to the heat waves seen above a road on a hot day, but other than that the room was completely still and silent until all of a sudden Danielle coughed.

Danikat opened her eyes at the sound and stood up, slowly moving towards the altar, finally getting close enough to notice Danielles eyes were open.

"Danielle? Can you hear me?"
"D....Danikat?" her friend replied, her voice sounding weak and horse.
"Yes, its me. You're safe in Obsidian Cove."
"I feel dead." She smiled weakly up at her friend.
"Well...its funny you should mention that..."

[EnDSchultz]

((Haha, welcome back. You and Danielle better get your butts moving, or poor Ravana's gonna be Fried Grendel (delicious...) by the time you make it back into the fight.
I hate all of us ganging up on him like this, but at the moment there really isn't anyone else for us to attack! Frankly, he should probably be dead by now. =p ))

The old brute nodded, digesting the information Hollow Eyes had given him. It's likely he could have deduced what happened on his own had he been paying closer attention to the two as the 'soul transfer' was taking place, but at the time was concentrating more on exacting revenge on Ravana.

In proper Yaut'Jian society, meddling with souls and spirits, especially this clever death-cheating stunt Hollow Eyes pulled, would be considered blasphemous at best. Then again, so would the fighting tactics of pretty much every magic-wielder on Blackstar. This was the chief reason that hunting on this planet was banned, and EnD cast out of his clan for his affiliation with spellcasters. Over his long years the Predator was awed time and time again by the feats of magic and spellcraft, and learned quickly to be wary of and respect its power.

EnD noticed the Enigma's 'attack' at the same time as Hollow Eyes, if not a moment or two sooner. Though, admittedly there wasn't much he could have done to stop the sharp chunks of ice, but at the same time these shards were hardly a threat to his incredibly tough skin anyway. Hollow Eyes was quick on the draw, and spared the Predator the annoying sting of impacting ice with the intense wave of fire, which simply melted and evaporated the shards ((I can safely assume that without powerplaying, I think)).

Making use of his Plasmacaster for the first time in the battle, the Yaut'Ja aimed it for the Enigma's feet as he darted off once more, and fired a few rounds, hoping to trip up the fleeing foe.

((Okay, so realistically I could just blow your head off right now if I wanted to, TBS, but that would suck majorly, so I resisted the urge to finish you off. ))

[Danikat]

((Well Danielle is going to be out of action for some time still. She lost a lot of blood when she died and the ressurection wasn't perfect either. At the moment lying there and talking is pretty much the limits of her abilities. Danikat on the other hand is pretty much fine, extremely pissed off and lacking a specifc target. Oh...and she has a suprise for you lot. ))

"I....died?" Danielle croaked as Danikat put a blanket around her gently.
"Yes. You were stabbed by some cursed EC pawn"
"Oh, yes I remember them. I haven't died for a long time."
"You were sent back, in time you'll be fine. I'm going to leave you in the care of the armadillos. Rest, get your strength back and don't worry about me."
"Where are you going?" Danielle tried to grab her friends hand, but couldn't seem to make her fingers bend properly.
"To avenge your death."

With that she stood and turned to an armadillo who had just re-entered the room. "Get Danielle to one of the guest rooms. Let her rest and keep watch, make sure she has everything she needs and keep her updated on the battle." The armadillo nodded and went to get the stretcher back.

"Right. Back to the party."
"Bloodshed? Violence? Revenge?" Veamoth asked, the excitement plain in his voice.
"Yes, its time for some payback. Come on!"

Danikat rushed down to the weyr where her dragon/weapon of mass destruction was stood waiting for her. She checked the bag strapped to her back over her sword and leapt to the dagons neck.
"Alzaranth, you stay here but be ready in case I call. Veamoth, lets go!"

As they were taking off Arian fed them images of the battlefield and various rebel and EC forces. It was clear where they had to go.
Moments later Veamoth popped out of the air, barely 50 meters above Ravana's head. He had intended to swoop over the area, turn quickly and make another pass but a sharp lance of pain in his shoulder distracted him. Craning his nec around as he flew he noticed Little Sisters spear embedded in his shoulder.

Oblivious to her dragons injury for the moment Danikat landed in front of Holloweyes and EnD, all her attention on the two adversaries. "Miss me?" She asked, a cold smile on her face.

((I hope its not considered power-playing to have LS's spear hit Veamoth. The original plan was for him to swoop over Ravana as a distraction but re-reading posts it occured to me that it'd put him right in line for the spear to hit him, and that this might not be such a bad thing since Ravana has probably had enough to deal with.))

[TheBlackSoul]

[qoute="EndSchultz"]...poor Ravana's gonna be Fried Grendel (delicious...)...[/qoute]

((You think?))

Ravana heard something wooshing behind him, and he spun around to notice a woven spear attempt to skewer him.

He held the Combistick at the ready, to hack of the thing once it got too close, until suddenly a dragon flew in the way and got hit instead.

The distraction very nearly allowed EnD's attack to hit his feet, but he noticed it and quickly jumped, dodging it. After that, he quickly looked around to see all that just happened. Apparently, the dragon thbat just saved him from being skewered had a friend with him (her? The enigma could never tell with dragons), who was facing off with the humaniod Caton and EnD.

He guessed that this was the help he so dearly needed. However, now was the time to get everyone's attention back at the dome.

However, there wasn't really a chance to see if there was a way to get the message back to everyone at the dome right now, so for now he raised another time field around himself, but made no move to attack or flee. This one he wasn't putting much concentration into, and it would last only about 5 minutes or so or until Ravana took it down again.[/quote]

[Chronos]

Just as Mortracta thought that she was nearing victory, she was blasted with permafrost in the form of a small tremor, causing her to stop completely until the other three waves passed her, managing to shake her up a bit, but not to injure her.

This infuriated the lonely flower. Mortracta gave chase once again. She began to gain on her prey now once more, but something was not right. It had stopped moving! Did this creature have a death wish? Was it taking a break? Four roots broke the surface, sending up great chunks of frozen earth before them.

Mortracta smiled inwardly at what she thought was a sure victory. Suddenly, several searing blasts of plasma tore through the earth and injured one of her roots, which looked now as if a bite had been taken out of it. Mortracta's roots twisted and cringed in pain at this surprise attack. The blasts, however, ceased immediately after, cluing her in on the probability of friendly fire. She had a good guess of who had fired the beams.

Te damno, EnD! ((Damn you, EnD!)) She screamed in her mind. Mortracta now raised eight roots high into the air (so they could be seen) and aimed their tips at the presumed position of Ravana. Mortracta stopped now, to discover the reason behind Ravana's halt. She could tell by the signatures in the soil that he was still tense.

[3kul]

((Don't worry about it Danikat, I don't mind how things have turned out this way.))

Little Sister felt her body shudder involuntarily as she struck a target earlier than she'd intended, stabbing into something large and hard. Several red eyes peered out from the large woven lance to check out what she'd hit, and they widened as they noticed what the target was.

~A dragon!~ She thought to herself angrily. ~Of all the damn beasts to hit...~ The eyes swiveled about, searching for a weak point to exploit - when it came to dragons Little Sister didn't really know of any quick or simple way to take them out. The thin membrane that made up most of it's wings seemed an easy target, and it would prevent the creature from flying away. Eating a dragon was a notion that held great promise to Little Sister, but it would take a hell of a lot of effort - given how big this creature was it would probably take her days to eat it, so it would need to be quite dead first.

Several thin tendrils of white hair suddenly sprouted from the end of the white lance, whipping through the air towards the wing closest to Little Sister. At their ends they curled into wicked hooks designed to tear at Veamoth's wings.

---------------------------

As the waves of flames vanished, the forms of Danikat and Veamoth (as well as Little Sister) became clear to HollowEyes. What was also clear was that Danikat was not looking at him, but rather at his corpse. An easy mistake to make, and it played into the Second-in-Command's favour quite nicely.

Without warning, his old body suddenly leapt up towards Danikat, flicking a couple of beetle charms at her feet. The nekomata body that HollowEyes currently resided in remained standing where it was, it's subtle hand movements allowing him to play puppet master. He made sure to keep the Ruby Dagger at the ready in case Veamoth tried anything, and at the same time he tried to keep an eye out for Ravana, not seeing where the enigma had run off to.