Zombehs

Nature's Outlaws

‘Damn,’ had been Jean’s first thought when he heard rapid footsteps approaching from behind. He spun on his feet, despite knowing that he wouldn’t be able to raise his guard on time; the other individual was just too close if the sounds were anything to go by. And they were. The young lady crashed into him as he managed to get a glimpse of her appearance and sent both of them down on the ground. Successfully holding back a snarl, Jean snapped up and sized her up as quick in the moment she was still holding her head. Definitely not someone out for him, or he would have already been bleeding out, curse his lack of attention.

His expression calmed somewhat with that knowledge, though an eyebrow was raised when their eyes met for a moment. He didn’t dismiss them as a trick of the light or just imagination, her eyes had been slitlike like those of a Shifter. “Interesting…” he murmured to himself as he waved off her attempt to help him and instead picked himself up with little trouble. He paused momentarily, taken aback by just how short the girl was in comparison to him. For that moment, he was glad he hadn’t decided to throw himself back in an attempt to surprise his “ambusher”, she could have gotten hurt pretty damn bad. “It’s fine,” he reassured her with a small smile, “though, it’s a bit late to be out running the streets. Not as safe as you might think at this time, specially for a Shifter.”

He leaned back on a foot as he finished speaking with a grin, wondering what she would do. Would she run? Or try and have him keep his silence? Or maybe she’d bluff? Frankly he didn’t know what her reaction would be, she was the only other of his “kind” that he’d met since moving to this city. He knew how he would act if someone had found his “secret”, but then again he wasn’t exactly your average guy, Shifter or normal.

Academy Of The Arcane Artes

Some decisions were made in a split moment, and Raule’s decision to fall rather than stand tall after Talia crashed into him was one. With a hand behind him and another on Talia’s chest, he managed to cushion both their falls relatively well. Oh, the two of them still ended up in a heap on the floor, but at least neither of them hit anything particularly hard. Letting out a quiet sigh as Talia rambled on top of him, Raule was about to reassure her that it wasn’t a big deal when she scampered off and disappeared within the crowd. Blinking in a mix of confusion, amusement, and a smidge of irritation, Raule was quick to give a few passing fifth years the middle finger at their jeers, though both parties meant it all in good-humor.

He was about to stand up when he noticed that Talia had not departed flawlessly, but had left a small silver fox behind. Its eyes seemed to hold a fair bit of emotion and intelligence, and staring into them Raule had a fair idea of what was on the creature’s mind. Holding his hand out for it to climb onto, he muttered, “Come on. Wouldn’t want you getting crushed after all.” He wasn’t going to deal with a first-year’s panic about losing their pet if he could avoid it. Hell, he even rummaged through his bag and pulled out a piece of jerky to tempt the fox with. Thankfully the animal seemed cooperative for the most part and hopped onto Raule without much trouble.

---

The headmaster’s speech was about as much as any of the older years had come to expect. A bit random, a bit encouraging, highly improper for someone of his stature if you cared about such stuffy things, and all around condescending. He had somehow managed to enter the hall mid-speech, giving a small shrug that emphasized about how little fucks he gave about doing so. Which for the reference was zero, so the headmaster could call him out all he wanted. He knew the old gemstone hadn’t missed his “stealthy” entrance, but apparently didn’t deem it worth his time to rag on a fifth year. As the speech finally came to an end with a bit of applause from some confused first-years because that’s what you were supposed to do right? It died rather quickly when they realized, that no, such standards didn’t apply in this case.

Standing tall amidst the rush… okay not really. Raule took a spot away from the exits of the main hall and leaned against the wall as he scanned the many students rushing to leave the building. He was trying to figure pick Talia out from the crowd, something that wasn’t really working given how she wasn’t exactly tall compared to a fair share of her peers. With a small sigh, as he really did want to get to his own business and couldn’t really do so while carrying around her pet, Raule let a bit of energy infuse his legs. Holding the fox so it didn’t go flying away, Raule kicked off the hall’s floors and easily leapt a dozen meters or so to reach the ceiling. There, his claws dug into the stone as he hung and surveyed the student body from above. Much better, albeit now he had a fair bit of attention on him. It didn’t really bother him and he used his new found vantage point to scan the students below. Oh, there she was.

With a slight swing of his legs, Raule released his grip on the ceiling and flipped himself so he faced the floor. From there, a slight push was enough to propel him towards the floor. The students around Talia tried to scatter, but were frankly too slow, so Raule actually had to put some effort into not bowling over a dozen of them. Twisting his body so he slipped in between them, Raule stood up in the midst of likely a dozen people’s personal space. “My apologies,” he said to all those around him as he held the silver fox by the scruff of its neck and out towards Talia, “but I believe this is yours.”

Academy Of The Arcane Artes

Kilo6 said
I don't even know what's going on in the IC even more... I'm debating whether to just have Alika and Elena just barley acknowledge whatever the fuck is happening and go inside or bother reacting to what transpired.

Someone threw a snowball at your characters. Given how they're still cruising around in the sky, it probably didn't even come close. So yeah, just ignore the crazy and get in.

Academy Of The Arcane Artes

Trudging through the light snowfall wasn’t too bad he supposed, though a bit unexpected. The outpost hadn’t seen much winter weather despite the time of year, so it’d been a bit of surprise to see the blanket of white that covered the Academy grounds. Pausing, Raule took a moment to look around at the other arriving students. Most came in the usual way, climbing off the griffons once they had safely touched down. Others decided that waiting didn’t suit them and simply came crashing into the snow from the sky above. And even less decided to arrive by their own means, though Raule mainly took note of the pair of Witches. It was hard not to given one had promptly announced her arrival with a sonic boom, but there were other reasons. He had seen some of the land-based Witches before when a number of them were apparently on exercise in the Black Gale. Never heard of aerial variations, though it would make sense given what he knew of Earth technology and they did have quite the resemblance.

He stopped reminiscing when he felt someone’s attention on him. It wasn’t hostile, but there was a certain intensity to it that made it easy for Raule to feel. Looking around, his eyes came to rest on a foxy looking girl. Even if she hadn’t been staring at him, the beeline she made towards him told him where the presence was coming from. Raising an eyebrow when she finally came to a halt in front of him, Raule could confidently say he had no idea who she was. When it came to appearances he was fairly good at remembering them even if he had only seen the individual in question once. So unless she was a shapeshifter or something like that, this was his first time meeting her.

He had a quiet sigh under his breath, before he reached back into his bag. It wasn’t the first time someone had asked for some after he had begun leaving his griffon bags of the smoked meat after his second year. Fumbling around in it for a few moments finally rewarded his efforts with another pouch of jerky; this one was marked with two lines, one red and the other yellow. When he travelled it wasn’t too hard for Raule to dig out some of the snacks, but since he was returning to the Academy, he hadn’t bothered to prepare too much. Untying the knot, he plucked a piece out and held it out towards Talia as a gesture to help herself. This flavor had a bit of heat that faded to a sweet after taste, mild in comparison to some he enjoyed. “Nice to meet you. You can call me Raule.” While he was fairly sure she was his junior in the Academy, with him being a fifth year and what not, the the unofficial hierarchy had never appealed to him in the slightest.

Before he had a chance to pop the piece in his mouth though, something else caught his notice. His hand rose before he brought it down in a flash and slapped the snowball into powdered snow. He could just barely catch the sound of his snack plopping onto the snow behind him. Sighing in annoyance, he turned his attention to the direction of the projectile. A few cursory glances around had shown that he, or Talia, had not been the only one to receive a snowball in their direction. “Here hold this for a moment,” he told the girl as he held the pouch out for her to take as he had a child to catch at the moment. Hopefully she wouldn’t devour the whole thing, it was enough for a few days by his rationed standards after all.

It wasn’t too hard for him to figure out who the culprit responsible was. There were dozens if not hundreds of students milling about in the immediate vicinity and a good portion of them had years at the Academy under their belt. So when he put on the “work” expression and looked around, it didn’t take long for someone to point towards a black-haired individual that seemed to be trying to sulk his way towards the main entrance. Flashing the student a grin and receiving a thumbs-up in return, Raule was about to make his way after the student, but…

”All students, please proceed to the main hall with your luggage. You will be organized by year, and will wait for the headmaster to give his opening speech. Any students caught lingering around will be escorted personally.”

And with one fell swoop, the announcement made any further moves on his part pointless. With a sigh that expressed disappointment, since he wouldn’t see the instigator face the wrath of god knows how many students, Raule was about to make his way back to Talia. That decision was hastened when someone decided to take this far too seriously. Muttering a quick, "Nope," he continued on his way.

Academy Of The Arcane Artes

Exodus said
Teemo.

-Watches the community explode.-

Spirit fire :DDD.

Academy Of The Arcane Artes

Kilo6 said
Coding be bad yoh.

POWER LEVELS BE SRS BSNS. E-PENIS LENGTHS MUST BE ESTABLISHED.

Nature's Outlaws

Jean is free if you want.

Academy Of The Arcane Artes

ERode said
I literally called him a Thornmail Guardian. The implications were already there, Zombehs, as well as the quote of "Please don't. You'll hurt yourself more than you'll hurt me." Thought you'd be smart enough to figure that out, but ah well.

And pls, super-tank modu is enough to take a few hits like that, considering all the infinite resistances-scaling that comes with being a Gemstone~

Please. There was nothing to imply the armor actually reflected physical damage magically vs Ier-Briar simply manuevering the spikes in the way.

But fine. He'll go hulk-modu and throw Ier in a lake.

eddieddi said
Eh, Shockwave of big enough proportions to shatter stone and mush bone. problem solved.

In the middle of a crowd of returning students. Cool.

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ERode said
Well...if he's Nasus with 9999 stacks, then isn't he going to die the moment he hits Ier-Briar? XDWith 9999 stacks, the moment he Qs someone with Thornmail, he DIES.

Please. Ier-Briar's armor makes no reference to reflecting physical damage.

And actually no. He'd only take 3333 damage in return, less when armor is factored in, so around 1500 probably. Depending on what happens first, life steal or Thornmail damage, he might even walk out unharmed. While whoever got hit is ded.

Academy Of The Arcane Artes

ERode said
Doesn't Raule have built-in magic resistance though? Accompanying his status as a fifth year student and a super-bruiser who can tank AND do trinity force damage? Think that any human being is squishy compared to him. XD

Naw. Magic resistance wouldn't work unless it's like mental or curses. He is basically Nasus w/9999 stacks though yes. He moves fast, will tank, and will fug you up.