[Training] dreams of slaying

your dreams are all full of war
you are from another time

Skipping over a few longer, jagged pieces of lava layers, the youth clambered over to a widened expanse, tooth still in hand, as they found a flattened, well-worn place for eventual training. Placing her bag down, and permitting both companions to guard it, the Honeybee contemplated efforts. They’d need to work beneficially – her uncle surely had some other incantations to potentially implement and utilize, while she aimed and sought to impale it.

Shrugging her shoulders at the inward thoughts, she raised her chin back towards her taller relative. “What if you conjure something I can stab? Or do you have anything you need to practice with?”

salvation doesn't look like light
So what remains?

Melita

SuNjATA

the flood

Avoiding the orange cracks in the ground to the best of his ability, Sunjata trails after Melita to a space that’s relatively flat and free of accidental fire and lava, and with it the realization that perhaps his magic would to basically fuck all for the lava – a fight of fire and basically steam to get the ball rolling. But their space is flat and he watches the lava spit out far enough away from them that he feels alright about it, setting his own bag down as well in a space where it would be safe and the coal could continue to smolder without harm until reaching King’s End.

“I’m flexible.” Sunjata murmurs as he thinks on whatever or not he can conjure anything. The answer is no after a moment of thought, but he does have a new shift to try one – one that promises the return of his head should it get cut off or stabbed, so perhaps the injury from that would be far less painful. “I can only conjure tangible forms of water to grapple or shield, but.. I have a hydra shift that might not be too bad for you to stab?” He asks, huffing a soft laugh with the insanity within it.

get a load of this trainwreck

your dreams are all full of war
you are from another time

She waited, though never with a bout of steady patience, already beginning to warm her body up for the inevitable. Springing and light on the balls of her feet, she stretched her arms, listening all the while as he contemplated potential opportunities and incantations.

Her brows furrowed into a tight little line though – she hadn’t been intending to skewer him. “A what?” Hydras hadn’t been fixtures of her youth – dragons, unicorns, and the like, certainly, but neither Helovia, the Rift, nor the current fixtures in Caido, had enlightened her on such a subject. “And you want me to just stab you,” came on a flat tone – eyes narrowing suspiciously.

salvation doesn't look like light
So what remains?

Melita

SuNjATA

the flood

She begins to stretch and while Sunjata explains what he’s got for her to stab, he can’t help the hum of a laugh that leaves him as he starts to stretch out too. “A hydra’s like a… big snake dragon thing with three heads.” That’s what he’d seen in the reflection when he’d become one for Frey.

As for whether she could stab him or not, the amusement shifts to an almost eager grin. “Frey said if you cut one of the heads off, two grow back.” A part of him is curious to see how that would work – and why not try it against a person where he’d be safe in testing it out? Besides, he can always use his magic to heal after with the rain.

“So if you wanna test it out and stab away, I’m game. And immortal, so you can’t really hurt me that much.” So long as she doesn’t drown him, he supposes. But there’s little to no water around here anyway.

get a load of this trainwreck

your dreams are all full of war
you are from another time

Her eyes narrowed at him again, as if trying to ascertain whether or not he was playing her for a fool. And perhaps both of them were anyway – so she shrugged her shoulders, huffing a breath as she snagged at the tooth again, squaring it away in her palm. “All right, fine,” sure was what she wanted to say – somewhat surprised they hadn’t encountered anything like that before out in the wilderness. Sounded like one of those monsters Frey would find amusing or Rae would set upon the world for experimentation.

“Whenever you’re ready then,” came on a arch of her brow, arms folded across her chest, waiting to see this supposed many-headed being (had she fought a three headed one during the war and won? Yeaaaah but it hadn’t sprouted more in the process).

salvation doesn't look like light
So what remains?

Melita

i am on a journey to discover what it's like to be free of all my demons

There’s a bit of excitement at the idea of testing the shift out more fully, an eagerness to his smile as she agrees. He finishes stretching out, stepping back from her to give her space when she looks as though she’s ready – arms crossed over her chest waiting. Luckily, it doesn’t take long for the shift to take over – as large as his dragon shift but without being too large, three long necks swivel toward her, each with heir own maw of sharp teeth.

The rest of him is scaled like a deep hue of blue, his steel gaze unmistakable even in this shift with a serpentine slit to them, four legs with claws extend to dig into the climb’s rocky flooring beneath them, and he sits there for a moment, letting her either get the first shot or to inspect the shift for what it was. Weird yet incredible.

SUNJATA

your dreams are all full of war
you are from another time

Melita waited – and though it wouldn’t take long, any thoughts circumventing their way through her brain weren’t quite measuring up to this. Eyes widening, she hadn’t quite counted on dragon size, and then all the mentioned heads.

Huh.

Stopping her jaw from dropping all the way, she closed it swiftly and simply took the entire shift in.

“Well, that’s neat,” she ultimately declared, now that she was through with all the doubting. “Are you…all set?”

Figuring she’d get a nod of…three heads or whatever, the youth snagged at the tooth in her hand again, going off of impulse and not much else, aiming to swipe and snag at his shoulder.

salvation doesn't look like light
So what remains?

Melita

i am on a journey to discover what it's like to be free of all my demons

He shifts and settles, all three heads twisting somewhat around each other to focus all six of his eyes onto his niece, one tilting slightly as he takes in her expression with a little bit of satisfaction and amusement. One of the heads nods in response to her comment, before the other two join in to say that he is, in fact, ready,

It’s a large shift and not as easy to maneuver as his others – heavy and built like a bus not unlike his dragon shift only without the ability of electricity crackling at his mouth and wings to propel him from the ground. So he tries to move when she breaks the distance with the tooth raised to swipe at his shoulder – feeling it sink in with a growl from two out of three of the heads.

One swings down, mouth tightly shut, aiming to bump into her to knock her off balance.

SUNJATA

your dreams are all full of war
you are from another time

So the problem with three heads was watching all of them – and Melita’s experience was usually in one-on-one particulars, or hunting singular portions. She had to recall the monster they fought across the beach during the war, three-headed as well, before realizing that yes, she’d have to pay the utmost attention.

Knocked off balance for a moment by the brunt of his muzzle, she shifted to the left. Why not go where the heads might not be able to twist and turn so far? Unaware of any boundaries to his proximity, she aimed to do just that, rampaging around to his back, and hoping to angle a swipe of her tooth in those machinations.

salvation doesn't look like light
So what remains?

Melita

i am on a journey to discover what it's like to be free of all my demons

One muzzle does bump into her and he watches from his two other views as Melita loses her balance for a moment. The Flood starts to withdraw, starting to twist as he notices her movement, but the body of this creature is large and without the dexterity his dragon shift offers, he’s mostly useless in trying to evade his much smaller and faster opponent – unable to do much other than watch with one of the heads swiveled back toward her as she aims to slice her tooth into his skin.

It grazes him as he moves his tail, and finally gets the movement going in his favor to swing the rest of the heads around, still out of reach from grabbing her where she is. He can only hope his tail does some work to ward her off while one of the heads of the hydra snaps a loud clacking sound toward her while the Flood reins in the predatorial nature of this shift.

SUNJATA

your dreams are all full of war
you are from another time

Oooh, the tail.

Riding on the modest and mediocre success of her last strike, she didn’t consider the tail as a plight, at the moment. Maybe because it didn’t have teeth.

It didn’t do anything to ward her off, unfortunately, following after his movements, rampaging right along with a merry incline of impulse, stupidity, and audacity. She could hear the loud clacking sound of fangs and jaws but having heard this many a time within many a dangerous moment, she didn’t much care – not even pausing, aiming to graze the giant tooth across one of the multitudes of scales. Just enough to say she had.

salvation doesn't look like light
So what remains?

Melita

i am on a journey to discover what it's like to be free of all my demons

He can’t deny that Melita is smart when it comes to the battle they’re having – and nor does he really care too much when she sinks the tooth into his scaled hide, even as it draws some blood from between some of the scales. Sure, he hisses and makes it a dramatic show – but truthfully, it’s more the Hydra shift’s frustrations at snapping at empty air than it is pain.

We all know that Sunjata isn’t a stranger to it, anyway.

So with little luck with the tail, Sunjata feels the tooth carve against some of the scales again where Melita had likely tried to graze – his movement had sunk it in, tearing up a few larger pieces of it as he shifts just in time to extend and swing a head her direction, one to coil around her escape plan while one surveys and the other snaps in the opening he’s left.

SUNJATA

your dreams are all full of war
you are from another time

He was catching on to her precision and calculations – and she was certain she was only succeeding due to the newness and foreign nature of the hydra. Eventually, he’d figure it out. The movement of the multiple heads meant she had to think this time around – exits suitably blocked from her next intended onslaught and target.

Upon the bare minimum of consideration, the smuggler simply ducked - rampaging onward and flinging herself underneath the snapping jaws, whipping tail, or opposing skull, hoping she wouldn’t be caught somewhere in between. Rolling along the hot and ashen earth, she aimed to scrape the tooth along his feet, before rampaging towards the other side.

salvation doesn't look like light
So what remains?

Melita

i am on a journey to discover what it's like to be free of all my demons

Teeth snap a hair away from where she ducks, his tail only serving to seemingly push her along as she scrapes at his feet with the tooth, aiming to come around to his other side. It’s enough that he tries to get the shift under his control, the heads lifting and angling on each side of him to ensure that he can spot her the second she appears.

Only, he can’t exactly see her – and given the last place she was? Well, he lifts his clawed feet in the attempts to stomp them back down. Not to harm her, but to push her away should she be too close, or if he felt the resistance of her beneath them it would certainly be pressed down less hard to not crush her.

SUNJATA