The God Hand vs Knight Sylvestre Round 2 goes to Cyril. Battle Score is 2-0 for me
The conclusion post will come alongside my entry for Round 3.
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Current GM of World of Light. When it comes to writing, there's nothing I love more than imagination, engagement, and commitment. I'm always open to talk, suggestion, criticism, and collaboration. While I try to be as obliging, helpful, and courteous as possible, I have very little sympathy for ghosts, and anyone who'd like to string me along. Straightforwardness is all I ask for.
Looking for more personal details? I'm just some dude from the American south; software development is my job but games, writing, and trying to help others enjoy life are my passions. Been RPing for over a decade, starting waaaay back with humble beginnings on the Spore forum, so I know a thing or two, though I won't pretend to be an expert. If you're down for some fun, let's make something spectacular together.
Looking for more personal details? I'm just some dude from the American south; software development is my job but games, writing, and trying to help others enjoy life are my passions. Been RPing for over a decade, starting waaaay back with humble beginnings on the Spore forum, so I know a thing or two, though I won't pretend to be an expert. If you're down for some fun, let's make something spectacular together.
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The conclusion post will come alongside my entry for Round 3.
It seems dead based on most of the players leaving and bringing momentum to a halt, but if it continues, I'll be here.
Emile and Liana would be up for teaming up with another character or two, but chances are they wouldn't want to join a large group or head in the same direction as them. To Emile, too many overpowered characters in one place just screams 'bad idea.'
@Rune_Alchemist @BurningDaisies No worries. Things are chaotic now, but with my GM-approved little event done with, everyone's free to pursue their own ends at their own pace.
I imagine there will be a little bit of talking among everyone out in front of the wreckage (those who're there so far include my charcters, Revenmar, Selena, Senna, Tania, Lena, and Cain) and then it's off to explore this wonderful world. I've already come up with a few things that I can get up to, but I do have a question for you, @IceHeart. You mentioned this in the OP:
We will be exploring parts of the world barely mentioned or not at all in the Overlord series. Contribute to the story and help develop the world around you.
I take it to mean that we have creative liberty to invent areas, settlements, and all sorts of fun stuff. Would you be interested in starting some sort of list of player-made locations/organizations/etc?
The Fungal Knight vs the Blood Devil Final Round goes to Bonesword!
Good work from the both of you. I will get in touch with you shortly, Rough, about what's going to happen next, and I will also have Oren officially conclude the fight in my next post.
@GreenGoat, not many people have voted in our latest match, but what do you say we call it tomorrow morning?
The battle against the noisome amalgam, fresh from reality's conflux, continues...
With all eyes on the many-eyed one, nobody noticed -or if so, deigned to help deal with- the debris falling from the ceiling in steadily increasing quantities. A chunk of masonry, robbed of its support as the wall that held it aloft melted like candlewax beneath the Beholder's ruby-red glare, cracked against Emile's hunched-over back just shy of terminal altitude. Although the pain and surprise tore a half-cry, half-swear from his beak, he was surprised to discover that the piece of stone didn't in fact kill him. After a moment's thought he came to the conclusion that the ample protection of his gear in Yggdrasil had also somehow transitioned along with the clothing itself, making it sturdier than should be possible for a fancified overcoat. Of course, he didn't waste much time thinking about bricks and clothes. The not-so-small matter of Liana's rampant monstrosity floated just overhead.
As one might expect, the other occupants of the guild hall did not stand idle. First into the fray sprinted Revenmar, completely unburdened by the sudden change that so profoundly perturbed the assembled lesser gods, as the complacent archangel Lexus might put it. His tremendous shield bash pushed the floating aberration into the wall, its weight hastening the destruction of Apocalypse Now's entire left side, and from its body three of the characteristic eye-stalks plummeted to the tiled floor.
The malformed tentacles dislodged by blunt force alone, however, parted ways with the Beholder's body in the same way as dead stalks might a garden plant: their pruning left only the functional ones intact. However, another moment was fated to pass before the beast might put them to use; scarcely had it bounced back from its sudden introduction to the wall than another dashing figure shot up from below to assail it. A gush of pigs' blood sprayed from the gaping wound Sapphire put in its back, prompting from the fleshy freak an otherworldly scream before it once more projected its beam of annihilation, angling it as fast as possible to evaporate its new attacker. Far faster than her quarry could turn, the pristine lodestar buried her signature weapon in its repulsive hide. Just as quickly she departed, a final few parting shots tearing slabs of meat from its exterior.
By that time, the pain had galvanized the hovering horror into action. With its main eye recovering from a pair of arrows as ordinary as they were well-aimed, it explored an alternate form of attack. From each of the eye clusters in the remaining stalks a colored ray burst forth, thinner but of comparable magical might. In addition to the crimson-red heat ray, it blasted forth a yellow paralyzing ray and blue energetic ray that caused delayed explosions. These smaller rays spewed in every direction, each stalk whirling around violently like a high-pressure hose dropped on the ground. In an matter of seconds, the scene had transformed into a lethal disco.
Before the hideous thing could whip its lasers through the entire building, however, a magic miasma surrounded it. The unassuming village girl, having instantly figured out how to use her magic, lambasted it with debilitating hexes. One after another the effects piled up, and with the majority being crowd-control conditions like Stun, Daze, Heavy, Blind, Stupor, and Sleep, the Beholder's movement slowed to a crawl. Its blazing beams traced alarming but now laughably slow paths across and through the walls, taking a few seconds to bisect even normal-sized tables and sofas.
Having regained his senses, along with a surge of energy, Emile felt now was a good chance. He reached around to his belt, grabbed the Galecycler -which he'd only just remembered he possessed- and aimed upward. "Here goes nothin'." The Beholder's unprotected underside made for an easy shot, and a simple pull on the trigger released a volley of art bolts to puncture it before exploding. Had the strigiforme still been wearing his helmet, his visor's right eye could have told him that the meat monster's condition was 'critical'. No matter how formidable, a creature could take only so much punishment from beings with twice its power, particularly when weakened by dark hexes.
Perhaps sensing the aberration's condition, an ominous figure clad in black plate drew her dread claymore and moved in for the coup de grâce. A vile, malefic corona surrounded Kallahar, hard to look at for everyone present but indiscriminately oppressive to all those near her, and in a black flash she darted toward the Beholder. As she bore down on its eye, the scarlet beam burst forth once again to wash over the Dread Knight, but it was too late. Her sword split the flesh construct's great eye as easy as an axe might split a watermelon, and with a final scream the eyes of the unholy wretch popped in explosions of viscera.
The bulk of its corpse, plummeting while Kallahar floated thanks to her Etherfloat, hurtled down toward Emile, Liana, Senna, December, Lexus, and Selena. Already looking upward, the Comet Chaser sprang into action. "Go!" Holding his niece close with his one free hand, Emile leaped out of the way, and for an instant a burst of aether surrounded him to propel him out of harm's way. The remainder of the group standing near the bar, over which the Beholder had been floating, would have to deal with the disgusting mass for themselves.
Those directly beneath the newly-dispatched nightmare's body were not, however, the only ones in danger. Begun by the Beholder's original beam and hastened by the spray of its stalks' lasers, the guild hall's destruction was drawing dangerously close. The telltale sounds of crumbling stone and splintering wood suggested that everyone within protect themselves or flee, and indeed, pieces were already falling from the ceiling as the walls crumbled beneath it. Enough time remained for everyone to grab only one of Apocalypse Now's random items before the room's collapse destroyed everything else.
For his part, Emile could very well see that the roof was about to cave. He stood to his feet, Liana following suit, and without needing to communicate the two rushed toward an opening in the wall to escape outside. The chaos of the situation drove Liana to move almost without realizing it, her lack of proper legs forgotten for the moment. As he sprinted by with his niece on his heels, Emile bent down and scooped up his helmet from where it lay on the floor, slightly dented from a fallen brick but otherwise none the worse for wear.
The next moment, he and Liana were outside, but with hearts pounding they continued to run for about twenty-five feet before coming to a dead stop at the edge of a dead drop. ”Whoa! When the hell'd we get on a mountain!?” Emile blinked, staring off into the night. The moonlight lit up a beautiful and unfamiliar landscape, stretching as far as the eye could see.
A crash from behind forced the two to turn around. Remembering the gear in his hands, Emile put on his helmet and put away the Galecycler as he watched the guild hall fall apart. In between pangs of sheer astonishment and disbelief at the current turn of events, he hoped that everyone had made it out alright; of course, everyone was probably powerful enough that even a roof caving in on their heads didn't count as serious injury. He made his way along the edge of the cliff toward the front of the building, where there was a good amount of open ground to stand on, with Liana following in numb silence. Perhaps everyone would gather there, away from the ruined building's choking dust. Emile hoped so. We gotta put our heads together and make sense of this situation. Things happening too fast. Has this fantasy world really become...? It hurt to think about it, even if he given the idea preliminary acceptance.
With all eyes on the many-eyed one, nobody noticed -or if so, deigned to help deal with- the debris falling from the ceiling in steadily increasing quantities. A chunk of masonry, robbed of its support as the wall that held it aloft melted like candlewax beneath the Beholder's ruby-red glare, cracked against Emile's hunched-over back just shy of terminal altitude. Although the pain and surprise tore a half-cry, half-swear from his beak, he was surprised to discover that the piece of stone didn't in fact kill him. After a moment's thought he came to the conclusion that the ample protection of his gear in Yggdrasil had also somehow transitioned along with the clothing itself, making it sturdier than should be possible for a fancified overcoat. Of course, he didn't waste much time thinking about bricks and clothes. The not-so-small matter of Liana's rampant monstrosity floated just overhead.
As one might expect, the other occupants of the guild hall did not stand idle. First into the fray sprinted Revenmar, completely unburdened by the sudden change that so profoundly perturbed the assembled lesser gods, as the complacent archangel Lexus might put it. His tremendous shield bash pushed the floating aberration into the wall, its weight hastening the destruction of Apocalypse Now's entire left side, and from its body three of the characteristic eye-stalks plummeted to the tiled floor.
The malformed tentacles dislodged by blunt force alone, however, parted ways with the Beholder's body in the same way as dead stalks might a garden plant: their pruning left only the functional ones intact. However, another moment was fated to pass before the beast might put them to use; scarcely had it bounced back from its sudden introduction to the wall than another dashing figure shot up from below to assail it. A gush of pigs' blood sprayed from the gaping wound Sapphire put in its back, prompting from the fleshy freak an otherworldly scream before it once more projected its beam of annihilation, angling it as fast as possible to evaporate its new attacker. Far faster than her quarry could turn, the pristine lodestar buried her signature weapon in its repulsive hide. Just as quickly she departed, a final few parting shots tearing slabs of meat from its exterior.
By that time, the pain had galvanized the hovering horror into action. With its main eye recovering from a pair of arrows as ordinary as they were well-aimed, it explored an alternate form of attack. From each of the eye clusters in the remaining stalks a colored ray burst forth, thinner but of comparable magical might. In addition to the crimson-red heat ray, it blasted forth a yellow paralyzing ray and blue energetic ray that caused delayed explosions. These smaller rays spewed in every direction, each stalk whirling around violently like a high-pressure hose dropped on the ground. In an matter of seconds, the scene had transformed into a lethal disco.
Before the hideous thing could whip its lasers through the entire building, however, a magic miasma surrounded it. The unassuming village girl, having instantly figured out how to use her magic, lambasted it with debilitating hexes. One after another the effects piled up, and with the majority being crowd-control conditions like Stun, Daze, Heavy, Blind, Stupor, and Sleep, the Beholder's movement slowed to a crawl. Its blazing beams traced alarming but now laughably slow paths across and through the walls, taking a few seconds to bisect even normal-sized tables and sofas.
Having regained his senses, along with a surge of energy, Emile felt now was a good chance. He reached around to his belt, grabbed the Galecycler -which he'd only just remembered he possessed- and aimed upward. "Here goes nothin'." The Beholder's unprotected underside made for an easy shot, and a simple pull on the trigger released a volley of art bolts to puncture it before exploding. Had the strigiforme still been wearing his helmet, his visor's right eye could have told him that the meat monster's condition was 'critical'. No matter how formidable, a creature could take only so much punishment from beings with twice its power, particularly when weakened by dark hexes.
Perhaps sensing the aberration's condition, an ominous figure clad in black plate drew her dread claymore and moved in for the coup de grâce. A vile, malefic corona surrounded Kallahar, hard to look at for everyone present but indiscriminately oppressive to all those near her, and in a black flash she darted toward the Beholder. As she bore down on its eye, the scarlet beam burst forth once again to wash over the Dread Knight, but it was too late. Her sword split the flesh construct's great eye as easy as an axe might split a watermelon, and with a final scream the eyes of the unholy wretch popped in explosions of viscera.
The bulk of its corpse, plummeting while Kallahar floated thanks to her Etherfloat, hurtled down toward Emile, Liana, Senna, December, Lexus, and Selena. Already looking upward, the Comet Chaser sprang into action. "Go!" Holding his niece close with his one free hand, Emile leaped out of the way, and for an instant a burst of aether surrounded him to propel him out of harm's way. The remainder of the group standing near the bar, over which the Beholder had been floating, would have to deal with the disgusting mass for themselves.
Those directly beneath the newly-dispatched nightmare's body were not, however, the only ones in danger. Begun by the Beholder's original beam and hastened by the spray of its stalks' lasers, the guild hall's destruction was drawing dangerously close. The telltale sounds of crumbling stone and splintering wood suggested that everyone within protect themselves or flee, and indeed, pieces were already falling from the ceiling as the walls crumbled beneath it. Enough time remained for everyone to grab only one of Apocalypse Now's random items before the room's collapse destroyed everything else.
For his part, Emile could very well see that the roof was about to cave. He stood to his feet, Liana following suit, and without needing to communicate the two rushed toward an opening in the wall to escape outside. The chaos of the situation drove Liana to move almost without realizing it, her lack of proper legs forgotten for the moment. As he sprinted by with his niece on his heels, Emile bent down and scooped up his helmet from where it lay on the floor, slightly dented from a fallen brick but otherwise none the worse for wear.
The next moment, he and Liana were outside, but with hearts pounding they continued to run for about twenty-five feet before coming to a dead stop at the edge of a dead drop. ”Whoa! When the hell'd we get on a mountain!?” Emile blinked, staring off into the night. The moonlight lit up a beautiful and unfamiliar landscape, stretching as far as the eye could see.
A crash from behind forced the two to turn around. Remembering the gear in his hands, Emile put on his helmet and put away the Galecycler as he watched the guild hall fall apart. In between pangs of sheer astonishment and disbelief at the current turn of events, he hoped that everyone had made it out alright; of course, everyone was probably powerful enough that even a roof caving in on their heads didn't count as serious injury. He made his way along the edge of the cliff toward the front of the building, where there was a good amount of open ground to stand on, with Liana following in numb silence. Perhaps everyone would gather there, away from the ruined building's choking dust. Emile hoped so. We gotta put our heads together and make sense of this situation. Things happening too fast. Has this fantasy world really become...? It hurt to think about it, even if he given the idea preliminary acceptance.
@Lugubrious
Question, where is the cemetery from the shore? Is it close, or is it far?
Forgive me, but I'm not sure what it is you're referencing. If you're talking about the cemetery that's part of the Culture Center, not only is it really far, but it's also nigh-inaccessible due to the gorge that divides Uptown and Downtown CoE.
Voting for the decisive final round between the Fungal Knight and the Blood Devil, as well as the second round between the God Hand and Knight Sylvestre, is open!
The events of this post have been coordianted with pre-approved by the GM. It most likely involves everyone at the guild hall, but I'm Mentioning several who are most directly concerned
@Rune_Alchemist@Hammerman@BurningDaisies
So the time had finally come. A woman with Egyptian-styled 'clothing' and a bust of nothing less than titanic proportions, having elevated herself upon a prominent table, called attention to herself. Only scant seconds remained on the clock, visible in the upper-right corner of the HUD where Emile had sequestered it. Opening his eyes, the Comet Chaser thought it only fair to target the voluptuous lady as she made her little announcement, which in turn made his character's head face her as he drifted down to the ground. Of course, it also proc'd his Sylphic Visor, causing her level and HP to appear in his private chat channel. 95, naturally. In the briefest of moments that were left, the woman uttered a few words and then gestured to the guild hall's physical clock. Its ever-moving hands counted down the instants left. Five. In the end, Emile was glad that Yggdrasil was going out with a little bang after all, rather than a depressing slide to nothingness. Four. He quickly unlocked his target and looked around to find his niece. Three. There she was, standing near a few female characters by the bar. Had she decided to try drinking now, of all times? Two. Quickly he turned back to the clock, watching the big hand like a hawk as it moved for the final time. How's this gonna work, anyway? Black screen with a popup, maybe?
One
Everything became a blur. Bewildered, disoriented, and with his head ringing Emile felt as though he'd gotten drunk and in his stupor started spinning, though he could make out one thing through the haze: the sensation of falling backward. A second later, his back hit the ground hard, and the impact both drove the wind out of his lungs and seemingly kickstarted his senses back into gear. While everything was still fuzzy, Emile gave a groan, thinking that the feedback from the game's sudden shutdown had caused him to fall back in his recliner. ”Jesus Christ...” he muttered, blinking. The instant his eyes cleared and he beheld a vaulted stone ceiling, he jolted awake. I'm still in the game? What the hell happened? Botched shutdown... But something was off. He sat up, and found his consciousness bombarded by a series of realizations in short order.
The first thing that he noticed -that his vision appeared to have a slight yellow-green tint- slipped his mind when his eyes landed on the ample lady from before, still atop her table, and a little holographic readout blinked into existence in his peripherals. Still not understanding, he read the stylized font.
It wasn't unlike the PM sent by his Visor whenever he targeted someone, demonstrated only moments before, but instead of numbers it used description, as well as appearing somewhere else. Come to think of it, he could sense the weight of the visor on his head, and the clothes on his body. Somewhat dumbfounded, he could only mutter, ”Weird...” Compelled more by instinct than reason, he reached toward his face and, without any issue, undid and removed his helmet. The tint disappeared, and he turned the crested helmet around in his gloved hands to look at the front. The visor implanted over the eyes was clearly visible, one lens emerald-green and the other citrine-yellow. None of this makes sense. In Yggrasil, one didn't do any of it that way. For starters, characters always landed on their feet after a fall, taking fall damage if they had no preventative measures but otherwise able to move just fine. Players de-equipped items by bringing up their inventory tabs using hand motions. On second thought, this makes too much sense. Everything feels...freaky real... His thoughts were swept away as if by a cyclone as something clicked in his mind.
Emile stared at his right lower leg. There was nothing odd about it, other than that it was there. He could feel the texture of his boot and the ground beneath the heel as if it had never been lost. Now thoroughly shocked, he reached out with a shaking hand and touched it, then after confirming its existence gingerly tried to stand to his feet, moving just as he might in real life. He turned his head to look around, the material of his coat and collar stretching and straining just as one might were it not a data-construct in a game, and Emile reached his own conclusion. Taking a deep breath, he reached up and ran his gloves hand across his head. The surface was soft and smooth. A strange mixture of excitement and horror surged through Emile's veins as he reached down to his waist and drew one of his swords halfway.
In the reflection of the perfectly-polished blade was the face of an owl, staring back at him with lustrous golden eyes.
”Whoa.” The mirrored beak opened and closed, and Emile felt his own mouth move. ”Whoa! Okay...okay.” Even his voice was different. Had no clue how, or why, or anything really, but faced with all this evidence he had to accept it: fiction had become reality.
On the heels of that ultimate realization came a nagging thought. He attempted to open a menu, and nothing happened. I can't quit. Oh God, what's happened to the real me? And where's...?” He whipped his head around, not noticing that he was able to crane his neck much farther to the side than usual. By the bar he spotted a familiar shape, and even from here he could tell she was trembling badly. Liana. Putting all thoughts of the real world out of his head, he turned her way and started to move. At first he limped, not trusting the leg that had been nothing more than phantom pain for over a decade, but by the time he reached his niece's side he was running normally.
With a sobbing sound the Shoggoth threw her arms around the Strigiforme, and he wrapped his own around her in a comforting hug. His helmet bounced on the floor and rolled next to the leg of December, but Emile didn't notice. The bizarre texture of Liana's exterior almost made him recoil, but he controlled the impulse and instead murmured, ”Shush, baby. I'm here. I'm here for you. Just stay calm. Don't you worry about nothin'.”
Liana's body shook with another sob, and in a gargled voice almost as frightening as it was frightened she whispered, “Un-uncle what's, what's happenin', I feel...I feel naked, everything's...movin', I can't feel my legs, only things twistin' around oh my God please, Uncle E, what'd goin' on!?"
Slowly, Emile shook his head. ”Hush, baby girl. It's gonna be alright. Don't need be scared, everything's fine, just try an'...relax.”
“I feel...so h-horrible...like a m-monster....!”
About half a minute passed before something splattered onto the tile only a few feet away. Emile glanced at it on reflex, seeing the congealed blood and mucus melting only a short ways away from a village girl, a demoness, and a beastkin. With a gulp, he glanced upward.
A couple stories ahead floated the Beholder that Liana had summoned only a few minutes ago, except this wasn't the palette-swapped monster Emile remembered. It was a disgusting, nightmarish conglomeration of mangled flesh and protruding pig body parts, with writhing tentacles flailing in every direction from the central body that held its one enormous, blood-red eye. A hair-raising noise resounded through the guild hall, like nothing else they'd ever heard before.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV!
The abomination's eye lit up like a red sun, and from the gargantuan peeper issued an equally gigantic scarlet laser. The beam tore through the guild building's wall, obliterating the medium-quality masonry hastily purchased for Apocalypse Now's construction. As the monster turned, its beam traveled from the wall to the floor, destroying furniture and item alike with its raw power.
Liana screamed, burying her head in Emile's chest -the teeth on her headdress deflected by his Windbreaker- and the two hunkered down as debris began to fall from the decimated wall and ceiling.
@Rune_Alchemist@Hammerman@BurningDaisies
So the time had finally come. A woman with Egyptian-styled 'clothing' and a bust of nothing less than titanic proportions, having elevated herself upon a prominent table, called attention to herself. Only scant seconds remained on the clock, visible in the upper-right corner of the HUD where Emile had sequestered it. Opening his eyes, the Comet Chaser thought it only fair to target the voluptuous lady as she made her little announcement, which in turn made his character's head face her as he drifted down to the ground. Of course, it also proc'd his Sylphic Visor, causing her level and HP to appear in his private chat channel. 95, naturally. In the briefest of moments that were left, the woman uttered a few words and then gestured to the guild hall's physical clock. Its ever-moving hands counted down the instants left. Five. In the end, Emile was glad that Yggdrasil was going out with a little bang after all, rather than a depressing slide to nothingness. Four. He quickly unlocked his target and looked around to find his niece. Three. There she was, standing near a few female characters by the bar. Had she decided to try drinking now, of all times? Two. Quickly he turned back to the clock, watching the big hand like a hawk as it moved for the final time. How's this gonna work, anyway? Black screen with a popup, maybe?
One
Everything became a blur. Bewildered, disoriented, and with his head ringing Emile felt as though he'd gotten drunk and in his stupor started spinning, though he could make out one thing through the haze: the sensation of falling backward. A second later, his back hit the ground hard, and the impact both drove the wind out of his lungs and seemingly kickstarted his senses back into gear. While everything was still fuzzy, Emile gave a groan, thinking that the feedback from the game's sudden shutdown had caused him to fall back in his recliner. ”Jesus Christ...” he muttered, blinking. The instant his eyes cleared and he beheld a vaulted stone ceiling, he jolted awake. I'm still in the game? What the hell happened? Botched shutdown... But something was off. He sat up, and found his consciousness bombarded by a series of realizations in short order.
The first thing that he noticed -that his vision appeared to have a slight yellow-green tint- slipped his mind when his eyes landed on the ample lady from before, still atop her table, and a little holographic readout blinked into existence in his peripherals. Still not understanding, he read the stylized font.
POWER : EXTREME
CONDITION : UNTOUCHED
CONDITION : UNTOUCHED
It wasn't unlike the PM sent by his Visor whenever he targeted someone, demonstrated only moments before, but instead of numbers it used description, as well as appearing somewhere else. Come to think of it, he could sense the weight of the visor on his head, and the clothes on his body. Somewhat dumbfounded, he could only mutter, ”Weird...” Compelled more by instinct than reason, he reached toward his face and, without any issue, undid and removed his helmet. The tint disappeared, and he turned the crested helmet around in his gloved hands to look at the front. The visor implanted over the eyes was clearly visible, one lens emerald-green and the other citrine-yellow. None of this makes sense. In Yggrasil, one didn't do any of it that way. For starters, characters always landed on their feet after a fall, taking fall damage if they had no preventative measures but otherwise able to move just fine. Players de-equipped items by bringing up their inventory tabs using hand motions. On second thought, this makes too much sense. Everything feels...freaky real... His thoughts were swept away as if by a cyclone as something clicked in his mind.
Emile stared at his right lower leg. There was nothing odd about it, other than that it was there. He could feel the texture of his boot and the ground beneath the heel as if it had never been lost. Now thoroughly shocked, he reached out with a shaking hand and touched it, then after confirming its existence gingerly tried to stand to his feet, moving just as he might in real life. He turned his head to look around, the material of his coat and collar stretching and straining just as one might were it not a data-construct in a game, and Emile reached his own conclusion. Taking a deep breath, he reached up and ran his gloves hand across his head. The surface was soft and smooth. A strange mixture of excitement and horror surged through Emile's veins as he reached down to his waist and drew one of his swords halfway.
In the reflection of the perfectly-polished blade was the face of an owl, staring back at him with lustrous golden eyes.
”Whoa.” The mirrored beak opened and closed, and Emile felt his own mouth move. ”Whoa! Okay...okay.” Even his voice was different. Had no clue how, or why, or anything really, but faced with all this evidence he had to accept it: fiction had become reality.
On the heels of that ultimate realization came a nagging thought. He attempted to open a menu, and nothing happened. I can't quit. Oh God, what's happened to the real me? And where's...?” He whipped his head around, not noticing that he was able to crane his neck much farther to the side than usual. By the bar he spotted a familiar shape, and even from here he could tell she was trembling badly. Liana. Putting all thoughts of the real world out of his head, he turned her way and started to move. At first he limped, not trusting the leg that had been nothing more than phantom pain for over a decade, but by the time he reached his niece's side he was running normally.
With a sobbing sound the Shoggoth threw her arms around the Strigiforme, and he wrapped his own around her in a comforting hug. His helmet bounced on the floor and rolled next to the leg of December, but Emile didn't notice. The bizarre texture of Liana's exterior almost made him recoil, but he controlled the impulse and instead murmured, ”Shush, baby. I'm here. I'm here for you. Just stay calm. Don't you worry about nothin'.”
Liana's body shook with another sob, and in a gargled voice almost as frightening as it was frightened she whispered, “Un-uncle what's, what's happenin', I feel...I feel naked, everything's...movin', I can't feel my legs, only things twistin' around oh my God please, Uncle E, what'd goin' on!?"
Slowly, Emile shook his head. ”Hush, baby girl. It's gonna be alright. Don't need be scared, everything's fine, just try an'...relax.”
“I feel...so h-horrible...like a m-monster....!”
About half a minute passed before something splattered onto the tile only a few feet away. Emile glanced at it on reflex, seeing the congealed blood and mucus melting only a short ways away from a village girl, a demoness, and a beastkin. With a gulp, he glanced upward.
A couple stories ahead floated the Beholder that Liana had summoned only a few minutes ago, except this wasn't the palette-swapped monster Emile remembered. It was a disgusting, nightmarish conglomeration of mangled flesh and protruding pig body parts, with writhing tentacles flailing in every direction from the central body that held its one enormous, blood-red eye. A hair-raising noise resounded through the guild hall, like nothing else they'd ever heard before.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV!
The abomination's eye lit up like a red sun, and from the gargantuan peeper issued an equally gigantic scarlet laser. The beam tore through the guild building's wall, obliterating the medium-quality masonry hastily purchased for Apocalypse Now's construction. As the monster turned, its beam traveled from the wall to the floor, destroying furniture and item alike with its raw power.
Liana screamed, burying her head in Emile's chest -the teeth on her headdress deflected by his Windbreaker- and the two hunkered down as debris began to fall from the decimated wall and ceiling.
@LugubriousBloodsucking Universe needs to be an ability if you are using it as such, which you clearly did in your post.
Oh, I see. There is definitely no shortage of abilities to gain by leveling, then. I'll remove mention of Bloodsucking Universe.
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