Court of the Fallen
[Training] Never skip arm day - Printable Version

+- Court of the Fallen (https://cotf-rpg.com)
+-- Forum: Out of Character (https://cotf-rpg.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=26)
+--- Forum: Important (https://cotf-rpg.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=27)
+---- Forum: Archives (https://cotf-rpg.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=38)
+---- Thread: [Training] Never skip arm day (/showthread.php?tid=8258)



Never skip arm day - Hadama - 05-26-2023

As inhospitable as the Bay was, it was still the only place in Halo where Hadama could meet with Evie and Hotaru for magical training. At least in Longheat the ice-boulders were smaller and the water was slightly less frigid? Though thanks to his Academy affiliation the cold was no threat to him, and his own magic protected him from the icy bullets in the currents below.

The women had returned to their respective duties, heading back to Snowcloak while the Tidebreaker had intended to aquaport himself back to Torchline. Today, however, he had paused, lingering by the black sand beach for a little extra training with the ice and water around him, testing his ability to change its temperature and the size of the ice boulders that he could lift. He concentrated and brought two large chunks of ice aloft, about ten feet up, and began to circle them at the limits of his reach in a careful dance of both might and control.

Noah


RE: Never skip arm day - Noah - 06-01-2023

Stalking a herd of luxere took time. Making sure he knew their patterns and how they would travel for the coming months was imperative to harvesting at the best time. He didn't want to take any does from their fawns. The herd took him all over Halo until he was finally at the bay. Taking that as good sign, Noah took notes in his handy-dandy notebook before pocketing it. Looking up, a familiar face moved across his field of vision.

"I'm surprised to see you here." Noah called out, his breath causing a puff of vapor despite the summer season. He puled his Sentinel's coat closer around his neck and closed the distance between him and Hadama. When he was close enough, he reached his hand out to greet the merking. "a bit different than the place I saw you last."


RE: Never skip arm day - Hadama - 06-02-2023

He had not been expecting anyone else to come to the Bay, but though Noah's voice was a surprise the mermanta's concentration didn't break. Instead he brought the floating ice to a slow and stately halt before he turned to face Vi's demigod. He lowered his practice pieces and inclined his head respectfully, swimming a little closer to the black strand so they could speak more easily.

"Noah," he greeted, pulling the water of the chilly ocean up in a column beneath him to lift him up so he could comfortably clasp the other man's hand. "I had a lesson with the Academy today." The Academy's protection from the cold was what made it possible for him to visit at all, and his water magic protected him while swimming in the Bay's deadly currents. "Are you well?"


RE: Never skip arm day - Noah - 06-03-2023

Closer now to Hadama as the merking lifted himself with a pillar of water, Noah could see the evidence of the magic bestowed upon him by the academy. "Good, then you won't freeze to death." He grinned as he shook the mer's hand before he rested his forearms on his knees and rocked back slightly on his heels.

"I am well." He said. ”I've been tracking some luxere today, to make sure I know their patterns for the next season to be able to harvest well before Deepfrost." And to continue to make sure his stores were stocked with the coming of his twin infants.

"While you're here, you wouldn't mind a little practice? I wouldn't mind seeing how the academy is doing since I stepped away from it." He hadn't had time to balance the Academy, the hunter's guild, advising Halo, and the impending fatherhood that was coming.


RE: Never skip arm day - Serendipity - 06-03-2023

You know how sometimes you step outside and the cold just catches your lungs? And you cough and gasp and desperately try to inhale more oxygen?

Congratulations! You probably just wandered into a breath snatch!

Yeah, that glittering cloud of glittering frost wasn’t friendly either. Who knew?


You’ve encountered a Breath Snatch. This counts as an uncommon creature encounter for the purposes of levelling, but does not count as a Random Event for levelling or MP. There will be no further admin/re intervention. If you choose to follow this creature, you do so at your own risk, however, just having it in this thread is enough to satisfy your levelling requirements. (You may not kill this creature without admin permission. )

Breath Snatch (uncommon) - A minor Halo nuisance, the Breath Snatch is a small elemental spirit that lingers in open areas on cold days. They're easiest to notice on bright days, a concentrated cloud of glittering frost lingering in the air, but if not noticed and walked into, the elemental will disperse in a puff of freezing air, often freezing the breath in the lungs of whomever was unlucky enough to come across it. It doesn't seem to possess enough sentience to be truly malevolent. Large groups of the spirits are rare, but potentially deadly if walked into unknowingly.


RE: Never skip arm day - Hadama - 06-04-2023

The merman was unfamiliar with luxere, but got the general gist of 'pod animal' from context and nodded his understanding. The request for training, however, brought a gleam of good humor into his emerald eyes and he inclined his head more deeply in acceptance of the suggestion. "Indeed. I would be honored."

In point of fact his abilities had improved under Hotaru's tutelage since his last encounter with Noah, as the Sentinel would soon learn.

The Breath Snatch appeared just as it had the last time he had trained with the Academy and this time Hadama was ready, ducking briefly beneath the waves to ease his lungs and draw in soothing gillfuls of unfrozen water.

While he was down there he swam back a little ways from the strand into deeper water where he would be able to dodge and maneuver more easily but remained in range of their respective abilities. He waited until Noah was similarly ready and then he began, raising a wave of water in front of himself--

As a feint. At the same time, a large, soft snowball coalesced behind Noah and flung itself towards the demigod's back.


RE: Never skip arm day - Noah - 06-06-2023

So far, the two shifters had only done one of two things each time they met -- fought (to train, of course), or go on a hunt with a map. Today, it seemed that training would win out. Noah smiled back at the merking and nodded in mutual agreement.

As Hadama dipped below the water and Noah prepared to stand, he hesitated for a moment as the familiar glittering just barely caught his eye. Holding his lips shut and shifting himself backwards to avoid the frost spirit, Noah crawled just a few feet away and then sprung to his feet. Able to avoid the breathsnatch, Noah readied himself to defend against the oncoming wave.

That wasn't the intended attack, however. The demigod just barely dodged enough to the right as his ears caught the whistling of a snowball. It plopped into the water before him, rather than splattering on his back. Taking a moment while Hadama was still beneath the water, Noah covered himself quickly in the cloak draped over his shoulder and disappeared out of sight.

Hidden by the cloak's magic, Noah summoned a Spirit Stag to charge Hadama where he hoped he would come up from the water to look for him.


RE: Never skip arm day - Hadama - 06-06-2023

His vision of Noah beneath the surface of the Bay was blurred and made unclear by both the angle and the water between them. He could see his shape and movement well enough, but not the finer details, so he was uncertain exactly how the demigod disappeared after dodging his surprise attack. All he knew was that the other man was gone...

And he had little choice but to swim a short distance away to surface and scan the beach for his opponent.

He didn't spy Noah, but he certainly noticed the Spirit Stag that was abruptly charging towards him across the water! He remembered well how dangerous the summoned creature was and this time he wasted no time in gathering his magic and successfully Aquaporting farther away just as the Stag reached him.

This time he placed himself well out of the thirty foot radius of most abilities he'd seen. With Noah still not in sight the Tidebreaker paused to dive and consider his options, giving himself several centering breaths of water before he surfaced again, roughly forty feet from shore.

And brought the sea with him.

Using his mastered water manipulation, he gathered a wide wave of water and then propelled it into the sky in an arc, freezing it as it came apart. True, he could no longer control it once it reached the limit of his magic, but momentum and gravity were sufficient to do the rest, blanketing the shore in a brief, frosty rain of sharp hail while he scanned the stretch of black sand for a place the hail did not down upon the strand, hoping to pinpoint his opponent that way.


RE: Never skip arm day - Noah - 06-06-2023

The stag, having missed its target as Hadama dove beneath the water again, threw its brilliant head and then dissipated. Glinting, bright stars burned hot for a moment before a burst of fire signaled the end of the summoned beast.

Noah slowly backed up from where he was, making sure to be as careful in his movements as he could as to not disturb the cloak too much. He watched as Hadama popped his head above the water, then disappeared again, and then popped his head back up. He prepared to strike, but as Hadama came back to the surface, so did his magic.

Water shot into the air and changed forms. As quick as a blink, though unseen to the merking, Noah teleported out of range of the assault. He landed hard, tucked and rolled. His cloak shifted and he became visible to the mer again, but as he rolled back into a stable position again Noah grabbed his bow and nocked an arrow, then let it fly.


RE: Never skip arm day - Hadama - 06-06-2023

The water may not have revealed the form of the landwalker, but sudden movement off to the side of his rain of hail drew Hadama's attention sharply. Emerald eyes gleamed as Noah shifted back into sight, some sort of obscuring garment swirling around him as he raised a weapon. Aquaporting would have been the easiest way to avoid it, but the ability was one that took time to recover from, and it would be a little while longer until he could do it again.

His other magic, however, was unaffected.

Water rose swiftly from the Bay as Noah released the arrow, and the liquid shield solidified into ice just as the arrow struck it, bringing the projectile to a swift halt a few inches from the unperturbed mermanta. He released the ice and reached out to pluck the arrow before it could fall into the sea, glancing along its construction--

And then returning the volley with three arrows made of ice that he sent speeding towards the Sentinel: one at the hem of his cloak to pin it to the ground and one to either side in case he should dodge.


RE: Never skip arm day - Noah - 06-13-2023

The time it took for Hadama to lift water to block himself was just enough for Noah to react. Before the ice shards could come and pin him to the ground, the hunter clutched his bow to his chest and used his cloak to cover himself once more. Completely covered and hidden from view, Noah used this time to creep towards the water’s edge.

Once he was close enough, Noah suddenly flung the cloak back, and shifted. The amulet pulsed against his chest for only a moment before a giant snake was at the water’s edge, snapping towards the king with massive, fanged jaws.


RE: Never skip arm day - Hadama - 06-14-2023

This time when Noah vanished, Hadama had a better understanding of why and he wasn't caught so flat-fluked. The Tidebreaker was already gathering the ocean again for another rain of hail when the demigod reappeared. It didn't necessarily change the mermanta's plan - a hail strike was still a valid offense and at the very least could distract the hunter and throw off the aim of whatever his next attack would be - but before he could implement it Noah changed his shape and a monstrous head shot towards the King.

He had seen leviathans and krakens and knew his opponent to be an animal shifter as well The appearance of a large serpent perturbed him very little, but he was ignorant of the mythical beast's main ability and so he met the eyes of the oncoming charge unflinchingly.

And promptly sank like a stone... largely because he was one. A very handsome and finely carved stature of a merman... but stone nonetheless.

The Bay's lethal currents were, thankfully, unable to do more than tug him a small distance away as he descended into the dark and dangerous waters, and when the petrification wore off he had enough presence of mind to erect the water shield around himself that deflected the icy bullets that shot through the Bay's depths.

But when he peered up it was to the realization that the snake-shape was in the water now, too. Wasting no further time, unsure of how much had passed in his statuesque state, Hadama surged upwards and flexed his magic to the utmost to freeze the sea around the serpent and encase Noah's sinuous new shape in rigid glacial ice.


RE: Never skip arm day - Noah - 06-14-2023

Basilisk!Noah hissed as he chomped for the man, but at the last minute feigned as he watched the merking turn to stone and begin to sink. With only the last bit of his tail on shore, and most of his body in the frigid water, the basilisk lifted his head high above the waves. His impressively muscled body kept upright as his muscles coiled and he started to move backwards, ready to take to the shore once more. With experience, it would only be a short time before the king would regain control of himself, and Noah was sure he wouldn't drown.

As quick as he was to strike, the basilisk was slower to retreat. He had to control each shifting muscle and scale to keep himself afloat as he searched backwards for the black-sanded beach. Thus, Hadama was able to regain himself and utilize his magic once more. The basilisk felt the water harden to ice and try to wrap around his lower two-thirds. Noah thrashed hard, his body bursting up like a spring as water splashed in great waves and the sound of cracking ice overwhelmed the sky. Sharp shards of ice that the thrashing basilisk broke made some gashes in his sides, staining the water with light clouds of red.

Shifting back down into the man he was, Noah landed in the shallowest part of the shore and tripped over a large piece of ice, landing on his butt with a thud and a laugh. "A tough one you are, Hadama!"

FIN