Planet HellVandrell: Hawthorne Manor: CourtyardLucifer’s eyes widened in startled bewilderment as the glowing white magic pulsing and engulfing Selan’s body, starting with her chest, and then extending out to her arms and legs. One by one the glowing white pulse brightened then ceased, and in its place, over the top of Selan’s fine raiment’s, were a gleaming set of ornate armour. Lucifer’s brow furrowed, unsure what to make of the sudden transformation. He didn’t know his ‘guests’ well enough to be able to determine what their abilities could be, but he certainly would never have imagined that a fair woman such as Selan would be able to conjure armour from out of thin air. It was most unusual, but then they were Guilders, and Guilders always carried with them more then a few tricks. It was what made them so interesting, after all, and why, in these last twenty scant minutes before the Ascension was complete, it would be amusing to crush their resolve and abscond with their souls, to join the other thousands he had captured within that crystallised cube as an offering to his lord Abraxis.
In the end it didn’t matter whether or not she wore armour. Lucifer’s claws and fangs would cut straight through, if he so desired to target them. But why do that, when he could simply sever her head clean off? Armour had yet to formulate there, and so…
Lucifer’s right hand moved from right to left, his dark onyx talons slicing through the air, aimed at the spot where Selan’s neck laid. Dylan’s conjuring was now formulating the suit’s helmet, but it would be too late. Too-!
And then the wall behind Selan burst forth with debris as Lucifer’s attack struck. Selan found her footing beneath her suddenly lost, as something charged at her and attacked her from behind. Gripping her arm and waist, something suddenly pulled her down, scantly dodging the invisible air slicing scythe above. Her head turned, to her savior- Don.
Don, whose eyes were wide in disbelief and horror… at the poor strands of hair falling from his pompadour down around him. It had been a few months since Tabul, since his father Gaoh had severed much of Don’s magnificent coif. He had been regrowing it rather steadily and now, in his bid to save Selan, another fine chunk of his beautiful mane had been cut. Saving Selan meant it was more then worth it, but it still caused Don to shriek and whine.
“You… asshole!”
The rainwater pooled in the various puddles formed in the cracked courtyard’s ground suddenly splashed up here and there, as another angry Guilder charged towards Lucifer, ready to attack him with his attention distracted by Don and Selan. In contrast to Nikki who lunged forward in an aerial based attack, Celeste kept low, rearing a fist back to collide with Lucifer. But as the archdemon turned, ready to confront her, Celeste instead held back her punch, dropping her body low and swinging her foot out in a wide arc to connect with their adversary’s ankle. It was a swift sweep, and one so very close to connecting, were it not for Lucifer’s mighty wings beating down against the ground and lifting him up and over the acrobat’s valiant efforts.
“Celeste!!” Julius shouted from alongside Moira, Syed and Lucifer, his glaive gripped ever tighter in his hands as he charged forwards. “Get back!”
Celeste threw her hands overhead, somersaulting backwards in the nick of time to avoid Lucifer’s left claw driving into the ground, scantly missing the Lord’s hopes of impaling her. She was lucky.
But Lucifer was still able to attack at range, and even though he missed impaling Celeste whilst she was beneath him, it didn’t stop him lifting his other hand up, rising it to unleash yet another air cutting assault.
Until, that was, the battlefield surrounding Lucifer was buffeted by a thick purple smoke. Celeste disappeared from Lucifer’s sight, as did the rest of his closest targets in Selan, Don, Dylan and Marcus.
Not that it would matter. The prankster’s efforts succeeded in briefly forestalling the acrobat’s death, however now they had made each other blind to his and their comrades presence. And Lucifer… Lucifer had no need of his eyes. He could easily use his mighty wings to beat the smoke away, but why not make use of his foolish adversaries’ gift?
Their painful wounds. Bodies covered in blood.
He could smell them.
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Bunanigans
They were nearly there! Nearly there! Moira's boots pounded against the sodden, cracked ground as fast as she could. Damnit, why was she so slow? She couldn't stand it, how was she supposed to fight if she couldn't get there quick enough?
Hang in there.
Just hang in there.
I'm coming!
She brought her sword back, just as he began to raise his hand in the air. She was nearly there, she was so close! What the fuck was he?!
And then suddenly, smoke. Moira skidded to a stop, her heavy panting punctuated with a couple of coughs, straining her eyes against the thick purple gloom. She couldn't see shit! She couldn't even see her partner!
Wait, no she could, or at least she could see his shillouette. Good thing he was so lanky, she guessed. Made him easy to recognise. He stepped a little closer to her so they could make eye contact, giving a small nod.
She returned it, and he closed his eyes and began gesturing.
He cast out a field of electromagnetic waves all around himself, using it as a primative kind of radar. It had been a while since he had done this. His eyebrows lowering slightly in a small frown, he felt out for any signs of movement. This spell did require him to stay still, but he wasn't going to be moving anyway with all this smoke.
He couldn't tell who was who, but Lucifer was fast. If he moved - or dissapeared, since he really was that fast - Syed could give himself an extra split second to react. Cast something or jump out of the way or... anything. Hopefully the smoke had blinded him too. Oh boy, if only he knew.
Moira felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up from the static, but that was all. Those further away might feel even less than that.
"Ey!" she shouted. Well, she couldn't go around hacking and slashing like this. She might end up getting one of her friends instead. She still needed to turn his attention away from the others though. "So who are you then?!"
"Lucius" Syed replied, his voice shaking dispite his concentration.
Moira's grip on her greatsword tightened. Shut up Sy, she wanted Lucifer to respond so she could sort of judge what direction he was in. "Wha? Bloody hell, what's with the makeover?"
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Dannyel
Dylan staggered back, drained by the magical effort it had taken to not only create such a suit of armor but place it effortlessly on Selan. She was protected, though, and Dylan could only hope the others would be safe as well. Celeste had attacked him as well, nearly knocking him down, and Julius was there to watch her back.
Then, he lost sight of everything. Trixie had set off a smoke grenade leaving him blind in the fight. True, Lucifer was in the same position, but there was little comfort in that. Dylan needed to see a fight, needed to know what was happening in order to react. Now he could only see inches in front of his face, and this…this was frightening.
Falling back, he stumbled to the ground. "Think man, think!" he said, not realizing that he was likely giving his position away. There had to be something he could do, some trick up his sleeve. He just had to figure out what it was.
The armor on Selan was probably not so necessary now, which was a shame because it was quite a sight to behold. The enemy flew and moved so quickly, and Dylan knew that it would be very difficult to land a melee attack on him. But what could he do? Could he give Selan or Don a ranged weapon?
Would that be enough?
Wiping part of the slate clean he dismissed part of Selan's armor, leaving her in only a breastplate, gauntlets, and a helmet. There was still protection in that, but the reserves he had freed allowed him to give her one bit more. Sketching on the other side of the crack, he created bow with a set of wicked barbed arrows. The appeared in her arms, and he cared not who used it. Perhaps Don could figure it out.
Not knowing what else to do, he did the last thing available to him. In his blindness, he listened.
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Fox of Spades
This was the result of playing hero…
Estelle, Moira, Julius, Lisette, Dylan, the kid – every one of them was going to perish. The pride could barely wound Oren, yet he had been killed in a split second by the figure that loomed above them. What chance did they really have? It was ridiculous to think they could destroy that thing when the fight with the family had exhausted them already. Lucien closed his eyes and for a moment just leaned one of the broken down walls. Maybe he should have abandoned them back at Lafeal.
He was never guild material – it was always fun and games and hell, this wasn’t a game. Well, not anymore. Abraxis would be summoned soon and lives – all life would be wiped off.
“MARCUS!”
His thoughts began spiraling down an abyss of what could have and should have been, but a scream pulled him back to the situation at hand and his head snapped towards the sound. Lucien turned just in time to see Marcus fall to the ground…there was so much blood and it froze the summoner in place. Was his friend still alive? Marcus had been one of the smartest and most experienced in their group and he had been cut down, just like that.
Do something – anything. He was frustrated with himself, but he couldn’t stand there and just watch Lucifer tear them to shreds. The creature called on Selan and suddenly the gears in his head began to turn. Back in the ballroom…hadn’t he asked the same thing? Lucien’s expression contorted into one of absolute fury and he took out his deck of cards. He ran a finger over the wound Damian had inflicted then pressed it down onto the card. There was a puff of smoke, followed by a grizzly bear’s angry roar.
There was no time to think and there was no time to doubt.
He was a coward, but…he’d never live with himself if he didn’t try his darnedest. If he didn’t give his all like everyone was doing. The pride made him just a little bit braver.
Lucien hunkered down beside one of the walls and when he opened his eyes again he saw the world through his medium’s own. Celeste and Julius were assaulting Lucifer and Selan was now encased in armor. The bear bared its teeth and ran towards their foe, but then smoke…
The summoner hesitated for a moment before putting on an almost feral grin.
Bears had a great sense of smell, though the problem was he couldn’t tell the guilder’s apart by smell and Lucifer could fly. The bear sniffed the air before padding carefully through the smoky battlefield.
"Think man, think!"
The bear’s ears twitched and it let out a soft growl, as he walked on a silhouette became clear through the smoke. Growling he walked up to the figure only to see that it was Dylan. The animal let out another less threatening grumble then looked up at the artist as if asking for the location of the others.
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Taerinn
"Ungh..." Selan said, unharmed but dizzy from the unfamiliar weight of her armor bringing her to the ground harder than she was expecting. She turned her head to see Don, who was fuming from Lucifer's shameful attack. "Don... Thank you." She was quickly pulled back up, made much easier as Dylan un-conjured some of the armor and freed up some of her movement.
A bow materialized in her hands, and she made a peculiar face at it. She decided to offer it to Don. "I have no skill whatsoever in archery..." she said apologetically, not at all happy with her status as a liability in this battle.
Still, all she could think of was that if Lucifer was here... Then Estelle was still nowhere to be found. Had she been defeated...?
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Lisette choked back a gasp at Celeste's close call. While Lucien charged forward to retaliate, she stepped backwards and crouched down."Okay, that's it!" she said, breathing deeply through her nose and taking aim, her arrow charged with what she thought was a sufficient amount of magical energy. The purple smoke was closing in on their side of the battlefield, but she could still see Lucifer, barely.
Shnnng!
"Please hit, please hit..." she mumbled, the smoke wrapping around Lucifer and obscuring her view.
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Rexcalibur
Trixie whimpered as she stepped back, an injured dog with nowhere to turn next. Her eyes continually wandered the battlefield of smoke - not looking for a figure, but following the direction of her nose. She ducked low, ready to dart off should the situation call for it.
It was a continuous stop and go for the child. Even if she could sniff out the dangerous man, what could she do next? She excelled in this type of odorless custom smoke, light enough to avoid suffocation, but still enough to hinder eyesight. But even here she knew she was useless against this bad man. Maybe someone else could land a direct hit... until he did that teleporting thing. How do you target - how do you chase after - how do you outrun someone who could teleport?
"He's... he's over... he's... he went..."
She wheezed. Too much going on in her head, too much going on in her surroundings. The smell of flesh, of metal, of blood.
It still had not occurred to her that Estelle was nowhere to be found. Her thoughts could not drift from their fate against this monster.
As Amy's vision clouded with smoke, she remained on her knees, her gem settled in her open palms atop her lap. She closed her eyes, allowing her magic to flow from her body to her focus and back. Lucius (or was it Lucifer?)'s inner aura burned with a sickening darkness; she sensed that much just looking at him. As someone who relies on the power of light, Amy figured she should be able to trace his hideous scent, even though the plume of smoke. Should.
She ground her teeth. The weak aura encapsulating her gem pulsed, but she knew not what to make of it. With her stamina draining with every spell expended, with the round of smoke blinding her eyes, her focus was the only thing she could rely on. Yet it proved useless, and thanks to Trixie's unwarranted actions, she was stuck there without sight either. She did however feel something lingering, creeping from inside her gem, threatening to interfere with her own magical prowess. What had that weasel done to her...?
Something high-pitched suddenly shot at Amy from southward, causing her to recoil instinctively. A green trail zoomed right on by as it fled southward. She sighed a breath of relief, hoping the smoke would assist her teammates rather than hinder them as it blinded the all-too-powerful Lucius as well...
