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PrinceAlexusChapter One, Desperation in Lingayen, Part Eight
Lingayen Beach, Municipality of Lingayen, Lingayen Gulf - 9/25/2022, 17:15 UTC+8
Noel nodded, saying, "Of course, you can -" before he was blinded full-on by the flash of light from Huo Ren's spear. As he stood blinded by the light, Noel said to Nemo, "You have a healing ability, right? If you can use it, do it now so I can get my eyesight back faster!"
Meanwhile, the head-to-head battle with the Zodiac's Dragon was going... debatably well. As Fukyuko stumbled away, shins scorched by the grazing blow of Huo Ren's superheated spear, the man in question smiled grimly and made to pursue. Allowing his spear to slide down his grip, he extended his effective reach. Blinded and disoriented, the Japanese princess would have no feasible way to dodge his follow-up.
Cruel amber eyes snapped to the incoming pale-haired bodyguard of the princess, and Huo Ren's continence darkened at the continued interference. "Safety?" he hissed all too coldly at her words. His spear's edge flared again without warning or build-up, instead of a mere flash, a continuous near-searing sheen glaring off its length, heatwaves billowing oppressively out from his position. "Know your place in a battle between the Strong, insect." His right arm readjusted his grip on his spear, the blow he had been aiming for the princess beginning to redirect towards the incoming bodyguard, as the heat intensified explosively, the very sand beneath the nearby fighters' feet seeming to glow searingly.
A violent explosion of hissing sand erupted behind Huo Ren, a ringing thump of impact thundering out in time with the dying eddies of a sharp shriek and flash that had torn through the air overhead faster than the eye could blink. With a spray of crimson mist, Huo Ren... went flying, his entire body abruptly ragdolled away from the impact site, tumbling for a brief, uncontrollable moment through the sands.
Spitting sand furiously, the sun wielder staggered to a sense of composure on his knees, his spear having been flung away to pierce the war-torn beach like the grim gravestone of a battlefield from a medieval time. The heat was no longer quite as oppressive in the immediate area, but that didn't mean the sands weren't still hotter than the hottest desert wasteland.
"What?!" His face screwed up in equal parts fury and confusion, Huo Ren boggled... at the sight of his suddenly absent left arm, nowhere to be seen, a trail of crimson following his tumbling path. Snarling, his amber eyes seemed to glow with an inner fiery wrath, even with his spear out of hand, as he glared at the barrier... and the shadow writhing within. "Traitor-!"
Even despite his injury and disorientation, in the absence of his own light and having been bodily spun around by the prior blow, the incoming flare of Nico's presence could hardly be missed. The speedster blazed across the heated sands like a lesser comet, the oppressive heat from below searing into his soles with every step closer. For while he was protected from his own flames, the same did not hold true for others. Even so, he persisted, but the hesitation and hotfoot stepping the oppressive heat would naturally create was enough.
Huo Ren's spear disappeared from where it lay out of his grip. He wasn't fast. No, not by far was he quick enough to physically avoid Nico's attack, especially not severely injured and nearly prone. He was a living artillery, best suited to backline support, a commanding position. Frontline fights, for all that he could crush lesser foes in mass with the best of them as any A-Rank worth their salt could, pit him against a dedicated frontline fighter or two… and even he had to admit, he was in a spot of trouble.
His opponent was charging him head-on, so naturally, Huo Ren responded as any half-competent spearman would. His Noble Arm reappeared in a flicker beside him with one hand gripping the opposite end of the shaft from the head, the functionally instantaneous dispelling and summoning process his only practical way to respond to such a blazingly fast opponent. And so, he repositioned it exactly in Nico’s path, right into his momentum, his straight-forward charge. Huo Ren’s spear, propped up and beginning to glow with heat, was now inches away from impaling Nico upon his own momentum.
Success or fail, Huo Ren grit his teeth in fury and spat. From his lips, an eye-searing burst of blue flames spilled forth like a tsunami in the direction of Fuyuko and Rin. Thankfully, the stream was thin enough at the start that it could still be dodged narrowly by both girls, even if it would still result in nasty burns just from the proximity. Like the Dragon he was bestowed with the title of, Huo Ren exhaled powerfully. Veins of effort and strain bulged on his forehead, and his own skin reddened and flaked from the heat that he had not the concentration to fully protect himself from. The stream of blue fire then blazed white-hot, crashing into Ari’s weakened barrier in a tidal wave of destruction. Superheated sand shone like the sun all around, as the glowing barrier shuddered… cracked… and then shattered.
“Finally,” he couldn’t help but muse. His role to play was almost done. Just one final stretch, one last push through the pain and pests, and he could stop wallowing in the dirt with these insects and their traitorous Snake. The plan was almost complete. He could sacrifice a little dignity now… to revel in absolute victory later. After all, he was The Dragon. He was The Strong.
And a Dragon would allow nothing less.
Thunder sounded on the horizon.
Clearly sensing something untoward, Sophist whirled around with a look of unadulterated panic on his face, his attention entirely redirected from the rolling earth below. Shrieks of punctured air ripped closer, as the Egyptian thrust out his hands, a wave of force distorting the air. It happened so fast that only the telekinetic seemed able to respond in time.
The first hit sent him reeling, as an artillery shell winged his barrier and thundered into the sands below with a massive plume of silicon. The only grace was that it hadn't been a high explosive shell, as Sophist staggered, before firming himself against its friends.
Far too fast for him to even consider grabbing the shells themselves mid-flight, he could only defend, as half a dozen more pounded into his defenses. A stream of blood dripped down his nose, but he held, maintaining his secure grip on Callie's team, shielding them behind himself from the sudden assault.
Not for long.
A harsher shriek approached, and Sophist could only shake himself to clear his foggy, strained senses in horror. A missile. One had managed to approach in the time the shells had kept him busy. A hand flung out, bleeding energy from the deadly projectile. But it was too close already-! Too fast-! There was too much energy to bleed it dry before-
-A shift redirected it somewhat, but the missile corrected. He firmed his barrier. He-
Thunder and fire rang with the impact, as four Arms Masters tumbled through the air. Miraculously, Callie's team had seemingly come out only singed and with potentially ringing ears, but Sophist...
The Egyptian hurtled senselessly. Unconscious. A nasty burn crawled across the right side of his body, and his legs... were nonexistent stumps. It was quite likely his Noble Arms had saved him, so long as his body remained intact and undisturbed from further harm. But there was no doubt that it was he who was in need of saving now.
And as Sophist went, so too did his gravitational hold upon Callie’s team, sending them plummeting towards the earth. By fortune or perhaps foresight on the telekinetic’s part, however, the fall was not long, hardly 20 feet up. And moreover, the landing zone was, for better or worse… a bit softer than packed earth.
Callie, Nil and Henri found themselves flopping into the writhing intermittently gold and crimson sands of the western beach, barely missing landing atop the bladed edge of one of the panes of glass below. The waves of sand were surprisingly soft -even if not exactly comfortable- to land upon, and the lurching motions… Well, it was not a place for anyone without sea legs.
Though the roiling motions of the sea of silicon continued unfettered, it was more than obvious that the impact of the four Arms Masters hadn’t gone unnoticed. The sands in their near vicinity shuddered, pulsing like a sonar that had finally spotted prey. And then… a rising noise began.
The panes of glass currently stabbing out towards the sky began to vibrate. And with that vibration soon came a warbling, discordant noise, fit to rattle bones and set teeth on edge. A high sound that pitched up and down, before stabilizing into something ominously comprehensible: speech. Words that could be heard crashing from and against the mountains, as silicon sang.
“Ah~! tHeRe YoU aRe~!
There could be no doubt. They were sitting in a sea of imminent death.
Only moments and a lack of quick thinking would seal their doom.
So far, this was their darkest hour.
@SkyHresvelg@The World@Aisede@MagusDream@Lewascan2@Sniblet@Conscripts@Senhara@Creative Chaos
Lingayen Beach, Municipality of Lingayen, Lingayen Gulf - 9/25/2022, 17:15 UTC+8
Noel nodded, saying, "Of course, you can -" before he was blinded full-on by the flash of light from Huo Ren's spear. As he stood blinded by the light, Noel said to Nemo, "You have a healing ability, right? If you can use it, do it now so I can get my eyesight back faster!"
Meanwhile, the head-to-head battle with the Zodiac's Dragon was going... debatably well. As Fukyuko stumbled away, shins scorched by the grazing blow of Huo Ren's superheated spear, the man in question smiled grimly and made to pursue. Allowing his spear to slide down his grip, he extended his effective reach. Blinded and disoriented, the Japanese princess would have no feasible way to dodge his follow-up.
Cruel amber eyes snapped to the incoming pale-haired bodyguard of the princess, and Huo Ren's continence darkened at the continued interference. "Safety?" he hissed all too coldly at her words. His spear's edge flared again without warning or build-up, instead of a mere flash, a continuous near-searing sheen glaring off its length, heatwaves billowing oppressively out from his position. "Know your place in a battle between the Strong, insect." His right arm readjusted his grip on his spear, the blow he had been aiming for the princess beginning to redirect towards the incoming bodyguard, as the heat intensified explosively, the very sand beneath the nearby fighters' feet seeming to glow searingly.
A violent explosion of hissing sand erupted behind Huo Ren, a ringing thump of impact thundering out in time with the dying eddies of a sharp shriek and flash that had torn through the air overhead faster than the eye could blink. With a spray of crimson mist, Huo Ren... went flying, his entire body abruptly ragdolled away from the impact site, tumbling for a brief, uncontrollable moment through the sands.
Spitting sand furiously, the sun wielder staggered to a sense of composure on his knees, his spear having been flung away to pierce the war-torn beach like the grim gravestone of a battlefield from a medieval time. The heat was no longer quite as oppressive in the immediate area, but that didn't mean the sands weren't still hotter than the hottest desert wasteland.
"What?!" His face screwed up in equal parts fury and confusion, Huo Ren boggled... at the sight of his suddenly absent left arm, nowhere to be seen, a trail of crimson following his tumbling path. Snarling, his amber eyes seemed to glow with an inner fiery wrath, even with his spear out of hand, as he glared at the barrier... and the shadow writhing within. "Traitor-!"
Even despite his injury and disorientation, in the absence of his own light and having been bodily spun around by the prior blow, the incoming flare of Nico's presence could hardly be missed. The speedster blazed across the heated sands like a lesser comet, the oppressive heat from below searing into his soles with every step closer. For while he was protected from his own flames, the same did not hold true for others. Even so, he persisted, but the hesitation and hotfoot stepping the oppressive heat would naturally create was enough.
Huo Ren's spear disappeared from where it lay out of his grip. He wasn't fast. No, not by far was he quick enough to physically avoid Nico's attack, especially not severely injured and nearly prone. He was a living artillery, best suited to backline support, a commanding position. Frontline fights, for all that he could crush lesser foes in mass with the best of them as any A-Rank worth their salt could, pit him against a dedicated frontline fighter or two… and even he had to admit, he was in a spot of trouble.
His opponent was charging him head-on, so naturally, Huo Ren responded as any half-competent spearman would. His Noble Arm reappeared in a flicker beside him with one hand gripping the opposite end of the shaft from the head, the functionally instantaneous dispelling and summoning process his only practical way to respond to such a blazingly fast opponent. And so, he repositioned it exactly in Nico’s path, right into his momentum, his straight-forward charge. Huo Ren’s spear, propped up and beginning to glow with heat, was now inches away from impaling Nico upon his own momentum.
Success or fail, Huo Ren grit his teeth in fury and spat. From his lips, an eye-searing burst of blue flames spilled forth like a tsunami in the direction of Fuyuko and Rin. Thankfully, the stream was thin enough at the start that it could still be dodged narrowly by both girls, even if it would still result in nasty burns just from the proximity. Like the Dragon he was bestowed with the title of, Huo Ren exhaled powerfully. Veins of effort and strain bulged on his forehead, and his own skin reddened and flaked from the heat that he had not the concentration to fully protect himself from. The stream of blue fire then blazed white-hot, crashing into Ari’s weakened barrier in a tidal wave of destruction. Superheated sand shone like the sun all around, as the glowing barrier shuddered… cracked… and then shattered.
“Finally,” he couldn’t help but muse. His role to play was almost done. Just one final stretch, one last push through the pain and pests, and he could stop wallowing in the dirt with these insects and their traitorous Snake. The plan was almost complete. He could sacrifice a little dignity now… to revel in absolute victory later. After all, he was The Dragon. He was The Strong.
And a Dragon would allow nothing less.
Thunder sounded on the horizon.
Clearly sensing something untoward, Sophist whirled around with a look of unadulterated panic on his face, his attention entirely redirected from the rolling earth below. Shrieks of punctured air ripped closer, as the Egyptian thrust out his hands, a wave of force distorting the air. It happened so fast that only the telekinetic seemed able to respond in time.
The first hit sent him reeling, as an artillery shell winged his barrier and thundered into the sands below with a massive plume of silicon. The only grace was that it hadn't been a high explosive shell, as Sophist staggered, before firming himself against its friends.
Far too fast for him to even consider grabbing the shells themselves mid-flight, he could only defend, as half a dozen more pounded into his defenses. A stream of blood dripped down his nose, but he held, maintaining his secure grip on Callie's team, shielding them behind himself from the sudden assault.
Not for long.
A harsher shriek approached, and Sophist could only shake himself to clear his foggy, strained senses in horror. A missile. One had managed to approach in the time the shells had kept him busy. A hand flung out, bleeding energy from the deadly projectile. But it was too close already-! Too fast-! There was too much energy to bleed it dry before-
-A shift redirected it somewhat, but the missile corrected. He firmed his barrier. He-
Thunder and fire rang with the impact, as four Arms Masters tumbled through the air. Miraculously, Callie's team had seemingly come out only singed and with potentially ringing ears, but Sophist...
The Egyptian hurtled senselessly. Unconscious. A nasty burn crawled across the right side of his body, and his legs... were nonexistent stumps. It was quite likely his Noble Arms had saved him, so long as his body remained intact and undisturbed from further harm. But there was no doubt that it was he who was in need of saving now.
And as Sophist went, so too did his gravitational hold upon Callie’s team, sending them plummeting towards the earth. By fortune or perhaps foresight on the telekinetic’s part, however, the fall was not long, hardly 20 feet up. And moreover, the landing zone was, for better or worse… a bit softer than packed earth.
Callie, Nil and Henri found themselves flopping into the writhing intermittently gold and crimson sands of the western beach, barely missing landing atop the bladed edge of one of the panes of glass below. The waves of sand were surprisingly soft -even if not exactly comfortable- to land upon, and the lurching motions… Well, it was not a place for anyone without sea legs.
Though the roiling motions of the sea of silicon continued unfettered, it was more than obvious that the impact of the four Arms Masters hadn’t gone unnoticed. The sands in their near vicinity shuddered, pulsing like a sonar that had finally spotted prey. And then… a rising noise began.
The panes of glass currently stabbing out towards the sky began to vibrate. And with that vibration soon came a warbling, discordant noise, fit to rattle bones and set teeth on edge. A high sound that pitched up and down, before stabilizing into something ominously comprehensible: speech. Words that could be heard crashing from and against the mountains, as silicon sang.
“Ah~! tHeRe YoU aRe~!
There could be no doubt. They were sitting in a sea of imminent death.
Only moments and a lack of quick thinking would seal their doom.
So far, this was their darkest hour.
@SkyHresvelg@The World@Aisede@MagusDream@Lewascan2@Sniblet@Conscripts@Senhara@Creative Chaos