From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
Nothing felt so glorious as the sight of Krosis slicing through the chest of the beast. Like a hot knife through butter, no resistance, no drag – a clean, should-have-been lethal cut. Well. Should have been. But this was no ordinary foe, now was it?
As it fell Roana was quick to stumble back, at least far enough that she shouldn’t be the easiest target should the beast escape. Its laughter or cry or whatever it was seemed muddled as her vision clouded and refocused, the venom coursing through her veins momentarily making the world spin. She fell to one knee, grounding herself as she sheathed Krosis once more, so it couldn’t do her any harm as she tried to get herself back to sorts. She fumbled for the antivenom in her pocket, prying off the lid with venom-induced clumsiness before managing to knock back the bitter remedy.
Whether it helped or not she would rise back to her feet, if a bit unsteadily, hand on the hilt of her sword, prepared for another bout.
Roana falls back and takes the remedy before righting herself again.
Whether it was haste, inexperience, poor design, or just bad luck, the glass device Remi had lit exploded almost in his hands before he had a chance to magically drop it at the demon. Fire exploded, burning his arms instead of his intended target. The grenade was true however, and it exploded with a bright burst of flame on the demon's back at precisely the same time that Ronin 's exploded against its head. Dazed and disorientated, the demon lurched to the surface, sightless face whirling about. Bits of bone and a metallic caging was revealed from where Ronin's flames had struck it, but despite the bits of scalp peeling down around where its eyes should have been, the creature moved as if it felt no pain whatsoever. Indeed its animated and furious screams were pure anger instead of pain.
With claws and a gaping jaw into which its own blood was beginning to drip, the creature advanced on Ronin. Just as it was about to lunge, a storm-cage of lightning suddenly encircled it. With a scream that was both horrified fury and colossal outrage, the demon retreated to the centre of the cage remembering well what had occurred last time. As Ashetta allowed her lightning to sing across its body, it wailed a note of devastating anguish, crumpling in on itself. Its legs and arms jittered haphazardly from its body while its jaw stuttered opened and closed.
The initiative order is as follows (determined by dice roll): MONSTER, REMI, RONIN, ASH, ROANA. Your turn is roughly 6 seconds long, so keep that in mind when writing your posts. If you want to use your turn to protect someone else, you must have specified that in your previous post.
Fire and pain sizzled against Remi's forearms, burning away the hair and making the skin feel tight and overly sensitive even as he shifted and flew. The patches of burnt skin translated into feathers with melted and uneven vanes and what should have been a relatively easy glide over the pit was instead off-balance. Landing hard on the other side of the pit, his body shifting and his feet hitting the earth in an in-elegant stumble, Remi took a moment to glance down and asses his wounds, biting back on a cry of pain. Not quite superficial, but nothing he couldn't compartmentalize for now so long as he didn't try to rely on his forearms for defense.
Across the pit, Remi saw the creature suddenly haloed in a cage of lightning. The image of Ashe astride a unicorn shooting bolt after bolt at the creature made his heart leap into his throat for some strange reason. Perhaps it was hope, perhaps it was just the mere pleasure of seeing his friend purely in her element, but either way, the alchemist smiled broadly, stifling the urge to shout a boyish cry of joy.
Instead, Remi created.
In his hands, a staff suddenly appeared. It was gnarled and twisted but made out of some strange black wood that almost looked like charcoal but much harder. Pointing it across at the creature, streaks of orange and yellow and white appeared within, appearing much like coals when blown upon. Fire suddenly streaked out from the edge directed at the trapped demon.
Remi uses 1/2 seasonal item slots to create
Fire Staff | A black staff that can shoot a beam of fire in a 10ft. radius
Яemi
& we don't know what we're waiting for & we don't know the truth anymore & we can't see clearly through the fog so we end up chasing g h o s t s
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
A man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets
Fire and blood and - Remi, fuck!
Ronin barely registered the alchemist taking to the air, but at least if he was able to get airborne he shouldn't be that badly injured. He reasoned. He hoped.
Legs pumping, the ex-captain sprinted around the side of the pit where Ashe had caged the creature in a storm still surrounded by the flames of the glass bombs. Remi added to the firefight (literally) and Ronin's grin was savage; he produced his second explosive, lighting it against the already burning ground.
Once it was ignited he threw it towards the cage where the Spire demon was trapped. "Give it hell!" he called.
Ronin runs close enough to throw a grenade at the creature!
Remi! Her heart stumbled as she spared only a brief glance for her friend and that bomb burst apart on him, but she couldn't consider him any longer than that. Worry for the fellow hybrid tugged sharply at her, but this magic required all of her attention. The beast was wailing, screaming at her lightning, and her lips curved into a snarling grin with the fangs of a wolf bared.
Ashe urged Percy forward with a loping gate, the golden-horned stallion tossing his large head. The assassin grit her teeth to bite back her groan at the way her heart started beating a bit too shallow, every muscle in her straining as she maintained the crackling cage of wild magic. She moved in closer still, chest heaving as she pressed the cage in tighter, lower down around the demon. She took a deep dive into her well of power, ignoring the pulsing dark in her head as she shoved her magic forward. From within the cage, lightning burst apart, aiming to strike relentlessly upon the demon. She could hold it - as long as she could fucking hold it they would have it.
As she had urged Percy forward, she used her free hand - her left hand with the prosthetic - to pull free the glass bomb. With the click of a button, she lit and hurled the explosive for the center of her cage.
Ashe continued with her cage and lightning strikes, and she moved in closer to throw a glass bomb!
Sweet relief. Her shoulder still burned and bled but her stomach settled, the world stopped spinning, and her vision cleared. It seemed the antivenom that Isla had concocted worked – thank…Safrin she supposed. That was what they all did now, right? Thanked Safrin? Well thank you, Safrin.
She heard Remi’s name shouted across the way and looked just as the flames on his arms subsided. Shit. It seemed one of them was going to be injured at all times. The fact that the fire stopped and Remi still stood was a good sign though, and Roana quickly refocused on the task at hand. The former Captain rushed forward, pulling out the flint and glass bomb as she did so. She stopped just within throwing range of where the monster was trapped before lighting the wick and throwing it at the beast as hard as she could and still maintain accuracy.
Roana gets within range to throw her glass bomb, lights, and throws said bomb at the demon.
Trapped. It was trapped, and so it waited. Curling in upon itself like some grotesque, leathery ball, the cage tightened around it. And then the world grew light, grew blinding and hot and there was fire and noise. It grew silent. It concentrated, even as its flesh peeled and sizzled and detonations embedded sharp rubble beneath its skin.
Remi's blast of fire had been successful - the group would know that much. Ronin's grenade, too, hit home, and the crackling cage grew hazy with the dust and ashes that erupted from the ground in its wake. Then Roana hurled her bomb and it sailed, sure and true, directly at the demon! Only...
Only...
When the dust cleared, it wasn't in the cage any longer. No.
Fizzing and flickering, as if the effort had put strain upon its systems, the creature stood quietly, its rictus grin a mess of inky blood and jagged teeth.
It stood right. Behind. Ronin.
With a screech that would disorient the ex-captain and echo up and around the Spire, it raked Ronin's back with a deep slash of its claws. It was a miracle that it didn't manage to snag hold of his spine in the process, else it would have ripped it right out like an irksome splinter.
The initiative order is as follows (determined by dice roll): MONSTER, REMI, RONIN, ASH, ROANA. Your turn is roughly 6 seconds long, so keep that in mind when writing your posts. If you want to use your turn to protect someone else, you must have specified that in your previous post.
The monster was in the cage, consumed in fire and lightning and then—
—oh gods and then it wasn't.
Appearing like some hideous gargoyle behind Ronin, the alchemist felt his breath catch in his throat in a way it never had before. The world slowed, time seemed to reorder itself and flashes of his friendship with Ronin danced before his eyes. "RONIN—" Remi screamed, spit flying from his lips with the forcefulness of his anguish and outrage as the demon's claws came away wet and red from his friend's back.
"DOWN." He commanded in his next breath, raising his staff with a snarl. Pointing it at the thing, Remi poured a streak of fire forward, his teeth gnashed together in a soundless snarl of concern and panic. To it he conjured bits of stone, hopefully super-heating them so that the impact would be that much more abbrassive and damaging than just the fire alone.
He couldn't lose Ronin, he couldn't lose Ronin, he—
—he couldn't lose any of them.
Яemi
& we don't know what we're waiting for & we don't know the truth anymore & we can't see clearly through the fog so we end up chasing g h o s t s
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
A man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets
They were going to kill this thing, come hell or high water. Ronin felt a grim smile spread across his face as the monster was engulfed in flame, in shattering stone, in blood and lightning. But then all of a sudden it... it wasn't there?
A curious ringing sounded in his ears, then. Ronin thought it might have been someone calling his name. Only... the world moved so slowly, suddenly, and he felt hot all over - his back, in particular did not feel... right.
Oh.
Oh.
Clarity returned hand in hand with agony, and Ronin was able to obey Remi's screamed command mainly because he was already falling. The creature had struck him hard, forcing him to stumble, and red spurted up and out from his back and shoulders for a moment, like he had sprouted crimson wings.
But Ronin could take this. He could take all of it, and more besides. Vanya's face, smiling, laughing, dead sleeping danced through his mind; he leaned on it for strength and gathered his reserves of energy.
His roll was clumsy, but he managed to angle himself to face the creature on the ground. One arm was braced against his knee as he panted in quiet, laboured breaths, but the other - the one with the gauntlet - was raised up defensively. It would seem barely perceptible to most, but those with the keenest sight might see the outline of something shimmering - a shield.
"BRING IT DOWN!" He yelled, baring his teeth at the creature. "Come and get me then, you ugly fuck."
Ronin has baited the demon and moved into a full defence, engaging the shield on his gauntlet! The following effects are in play:
Type: Grey
God Hand (upgraded) | Custom made for Ronin's hand, this gauntlet is incredibly light-weight and can create a magical shield large enough to shelter Ronin and one other (The gauntlet's shield will absorb any damage equal to or below Ronin's endurance). Against Ascendeds the shield radiates electromagnetic energy that severely harms their bio-mechanical systems. Can be used twice per thread.
03-15-2019, 12:11 AM (This post was last modified: 03-15-2019, 12:33 AM by Ashetta.)
ASHƎ
She was a storm:
sudden;
powerful;
violent;
devastating;
They had it, they had it, they had it -- Ashe pressed her cage of brilliant electricity downwards, her heart fluttering dangerously unsteady as she fired bolt after bolt after bolt. She could hardly see the beyond the light, the smoke the debris, but she could feel her lightning striking down upon that flesh.
And then it was gone. No, not gone, it was -
”RONIN!” Her outcry sounded with Remi’s, and time slowed as she watched the demon’s claws rip savagely into her friend’s - no her brother’s back. His blood flew, gleaming and ruby red in the high noon sun. Her heart stopped - she forgot how to breathe - her ears were ringing -
Remi called for Ronin to get down, and everything crashed back into her. She released her lightning and snapped Percy forward. The ram-horned stallion lunged into a dead gallop as she released her now empty cage of lighting - How? No time. Her vision pulsed black for a moment, and she had to hang tightly to Percy's mane as he flew towards the source of his rider's distress. Her vision cleared with the firm command that resounded powerfully down that bond: she had to stay long range. Kalt was right, she knew he was, if she was taken down they'd lose half their firepower their firepower (thank the gods for remi's magic staff at least), but gods, oh gods, Ronin --
She heard the ex-captain's roared command as he braced himself upon the ground with nothing but his guantlet to sheild him - wait, was that an actual sheild?. Remi's blast of fire burst forth the very same moment Ashe raced by the monster with an explosive blast of lightning. The thunderclap reverberated in her bones, the flash turned her pupils to pins, her vision shuddered, but she still snarled viciously on her way by, "You can't have him you reeking motherfucker."
Ashe released her electrical cage to gallop around the monster at full superspeed, and she fired an explosive stream of lightning as she raced by!
While Roana was definitely concerned for her fellow former Captain, she didn’t exhibit the same sort of outburst they did. She swore under her breath and charged forward towards the demon. The monster could pack a wallop, and Ronin was just a mortal man, but he could take a lot more than that – any good close combat fighter worth their salt could.
First Remi’s blast whizzed past her to hit the monster, then Ashetta’s lightning. As the effects dissipated she reached hitting distance, having come up behind the monster. Still silent as she could be in the situation, hoping its attention would stay focused on Ronin or the other two attacks, she swung Krosis, aimed for its neck. It couldn’t exactly do much of anything if it was headless, right?
Roana comes up behind the Spire monster and tries to make it Headless Ole’ Spirey with Krosis.
Once again it was consumed by fire. With a roar that was more annoyance now, it glared across at Remi with a snarl bathed in flames. Lurching a step forward, its muscles twisting and twitching beneath a pelt that seemed bizarrely adhered to the flesh below, it lurched awkwardly as its back was jolted violently with a stream of electricity from Ashetta. Luckily hit given the speed at which Percy was moving, the monster braced itself, arms streaking haphazardly from its side as the lightning invades its senses and temporarily dulled its receptors.
Ronin 's taunt indeed caught the demon's attention. With his blood still dripping down its claws, it made a strangled sort of cooing sound low in its throat as it lunged—narrowly avoiding Roana and her blade. Still disoriented, the first swipe of its claws went rogue. Righting itself and lunging in earnest now, both teeth and claws landed upon Ronin's bracer, though with shocking accuracy, its teeth were somehow stopped precisely against the gauntlet. With a brilliant rush and burst of static, the demon was thrust back from Ronin with horrific needle-point accuracy.
Tendrils of electric blue wrapped around the beast like bindings. Its muscles spasmed away from its body in a gruesome display as the electricity seemed to insidiously slip into its open orifices. With a screaming wail that sounded like true agony, it collapsed to the ground, body twitching as the blue-netting of electrical discharged caused by Ronin's gauntlet continued to scour across the surface of skin which was quickly being eroded away. Beneath, gears wrought with rust and tendrils of muscles that looked more like cabling than quick-twitch fibers twirled and shook with the strain. Heat slowly escaped through these openings in its leathery hide and as it rose to its feet. All the animalistic tendencies it had once displayed—growling, roaring, seeking, sniffing—were gone.
An eerie calm descended, and for the second time, the creature unhinged its jaw and began to laugh.
The initiative order is as follows (determined by dice roll): MONSTER, REMI, RONIN, ASH, ROANA. Your turn is roughly 6 seconds long, so keep that in mind when writing your posts. If you want to use your turn to protect someone else, you must have specified that in your previous post.
As the monster lunged towards Ronin, for a moment the alchemist's hands stretched out as if he might magically do something. He knew of his friend's shield, but the last time it had been used he'd been huddled beside Ronin. Seeing the blowback of electrical damage from his current vantage point was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before, or indeed might have imagined. "You lucky idiot." Remi whispered beneath his breath with another too-naive grin.
With a slight glance towards Isla, Remi shook his head, their thoughts intertwining through the bond. Though both he and Roana had been struck, neither seemed in worse enough condition to warrant the unicorn risking her second-life by coming any nearer.
With tentative hope seeing the creature radiating electricity and seemed stunned by Ronin's blow, the alchemist trotted forward a few steps to bring himself 1/4 ways around the pit. Reaching out with his earth magic again, Remi tried to upset the ground beneath the demon and pummel it against its wounded sides, while thrusting his staff forward to shoot another blast of fire at it.
Remi gets a bit closer, grabs at the earth beneath the demon to throw it at it, and hurtles another blast of fire.
Яemi
& we don't know what we're waiting for & we don't know the truth anymore & we can't see clearly through the fog so we end up chasing g h o s t s
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
A man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets
It was time - time to see how effective his gauntlet was against the monster; time to see if his faith in Safrin would be rewarded. Ronin forced himself to keep his eyes open, though his jaw was set and his body braced of an impace that would fucking hurt if the shield failed. But... it... it didn't. The shock of it vibrated through his bones and brought forth a groan of pain, but he was otherwise unharmed as the demon was flung back, twitching and sparking. Only when he realised he still had his arm and that it hadn't disappeared into the creature's maw did he let himself breathe out.
Which wasn't a great idea, since it strained the wounds on his back and reminded him that he was torn to ribbons back there. But there wasn't time to take stock of things. "What is that," he muttered under his breath as the... the twitching, rusty thing rose to its feet and laughed at them. Grunting a curse, Ronin levered himself up and prowled around opposite to where Remi approached, almost so they could pincer the thing between them.
The alchemist struck and Ronin was hot on his heels, trying to aim a blow right at one of the monster's exposed sides. If he could get his hand in there, he was damned well ripping out whatever he could find.
