Shorlixa/WPSessionNineteen
And here be Session Nineteen for this crew of pirates.
Session Nineteen
We return to our battling Solars. In the darkness of the waters, the only sources of light are those from the ship and the blazing gold animas of the Solars. But soon the battle is joined as the blindingly dark animas come into view, each castemark blazing and bleeding. The Daybreak has the most incredible anima, with a cloak of corpses, each one broken and bleeding, but also moaning and weeping. But rushing in from the front are the Dusk and Midnight. The Dusk has an anima of spitting snakes, each one hungrily devouring the other in a perpetual cycle. The Midnight flares an angelic vision of grace and beauty, but wrapped in warped and bloody chains. The Moonshadow is flaring, but not as extravagantly as the others.
All around them, the hordes of human and inhuman zombies swim through the waters, eager for a bite of Solar flesh. The ship is ensnared by the bonestrider, swinging dangerously close to a rocky outcropping. The four Solars linger near the exit hatch of the rear of the ship, having been busy with trying to destroy the bonestrider. Syn is currently bleeding into the waters, though her assailant seems nothing more than a shadow.
Ryoujal seeing the Shadow fade back into the murk, he turns to look at the next target, kicking away from the Bonestrider towards the Midnight, slashing twice with his claws to get his attention before he decides to go after his shipmates.
Ryoujal slashes at the Midnight furiously but all he gets is laughter as his claws just graze the Midnight's skin. It's obvious from the dark essence surrounding him that he is using charms to reinforce himself.
Megumi draws back her bowstring, a pair of arrows appearing on the cord as she reaches the apex of the pull. She twitches her finger as she releases the string, causing the two arrows to twine around one another on the pasta-y path to the target.
The Dusk swings his ghostly blue sword around as the ghosts within scream and moan and gripe, attempting to halt each arrow in their tracks.
The Dusk roars in pain as one arrow plunges into his flesh.
Now the others begin their attack. The Abyssals start small. The Moonshadow lashes out with his arrows, the Daybreak throws a Javelin of Essence and the Shadow tries to finish what he started.
Above them, the Bonestrider continues its assault while the Dusk and Midnight press in to unleash up close and heavy attacks. The Dusk seems particularly focused on Orillian.
Ryoujal seeing the Midnight laugh at him, Ryoujal does his best to wipe that off his face by using where ever his claws are stuck in his clothing and pushes him in the way of the Javelin, bracing himself for the shock.
Megumi notices the incoming arrows and bounces off the hull of the ship, spinning to try to arc out of the path of the arrows.
The Javeline is impeded by the Midnight, who again only laughs as the essence javelin simply shimmers and fades. Then the Midnight lashes out with her chain.
The Moonshadow's anima flares into existence, being a whirlwind of blades as she fires off her arrows.
Lady Syn dives back towards the bonestrider and smacks a zombie into the path of the Shadow so it's strike isn't just deflected but used to flay a few undead.
Orillian ducks amid the swirling fragments of soulsteel and bone tossed into the currents by the crushing attacks against the bone strider; his previous overconfidence, inspired by his near-invulnerability in the face of a horde of lesser undead, is replaced by genuine fear at these new, dark reflections of solar glory. From within the necrotic flotsam shines the red glow of his gloves as he empowers them, and every parry sweeps trails of bubbles with t to add further confusion.
The Shadow smashes a fist into Syn and gets another rib. Must like collecting those. She also feels a few motes fritter away into him. Orillian frantically invokes his charm against the incoming attack and the ghostly blade stops at his skin hungering for flesh. "I want him! Eat him! Kill him!" The sword screams.
Moonshadow with arrows. Check. Day with gauntlets. Check. Dusk with sword. Check. Oh right, Midnight. Ryou needs to declare a second defense. Aka, gonna spend anything?"
The Bonestrider continues to pummel the ship.
Ryoujal looks at the chain swinging about and simply sighs, wondering why he has to deal with this sort of thing and takes it like a man.
The Midnight attempts to whip him with the chain but is foiled by his use of a charm. Ryoujal gives her a smug little smile with a slight chuckle.
Orillian feels the power and ire of the sword and shudders even as the Essence in his muscles guides him into powerful, arcing sweeps of his hammer to retaliate, scattering bone and soulsteel fractured off the bonestrider as he does. His first strike aims for the sword rather than it's weilder - he doesn't like how it talks.
The blue sword flickers in the waters, smashing hard against his hammer, resisting the attacks. "He wants to hurt us." "Yes, he wants to kill us again." "Traitor. Murderer. Killer of friends."
Big Red powers up the Large Essence Canons 1 and 2 yet again along with the Lightning Ballista and lets the battery of weapons fire into the warstrider.
Big Red anima flares off filling the control with with a whirlwind of sand.
The Bonestrider doesn't scream. It feels no pain. But bits of it are slag and scorched in a way that can't be good for its functionality. A bit more ought to shatter it. After Red fires, Large Essence Cannon 1 indicates it does not have the required motes for another shot.
Lady Syn spins her sword around and smashes the Shadow towards the surface. "Damn it. You are really screwing with my figure." She uses two zombies to help propel her after the Shadow and spares a shot at the bonestrider before slamming the Shadow into the bonestrider then diving after the shadow and slicing him tce more before impaling him into the rocks. "How do you like that, you bone loving bastard?"
Orillian shakes his head in confusion and uncertainty at the sword's words. Something in the back of his mind is nagging at him, a stubborn memory that refuses to be recalled... but there's not any time left to dwell on that, just try and fight on. He pushes himself back in the water, as if to retreat, but then kicks out into the body of a zombie to push himself foward, taking a hand off his hammer just long enough to reach out and try to bearhug the Daybreak then use his strength and the handle of his hammer for crushing.
Orillian attempts to grab the Dusk but the sword cuts in efficiently to block the attempt. "Never touch." "Filthy traitor." "A Pirate with a heart of gold?" "Death death!"
Syn unleashes her fury and slices the Shadow into pieces, letting his flesh and bone mingle with the pieces that he took from her. One down.
Lady Syn says, "Well damn. That was more work then I wanted it to be."
Ryoujal decides the safest place to be would be right in the Midnight's face, lunging forward to grapple her to remove the chain from the fight.
Megumi strings arrows to her bow with impossible speed, glowing wierdly, and lets fly - contrails intertwining with her noodly anima as they create a trail between herself and the Dusk.
Megumi lets loose with a combo that would fell many a creature. But she has not contended with an Abyssal and has little experience against them. The Dusk simply slices the arrows away, the fiery golden bolts flickering out under the cuts of the ghostly blue sword as dark essence envelops each arrow. The spitting mass of snakes burn terribly as that occurs.
Robbed of his ability to unleash his greater fury against Orillian, the Dusk settles for shouting at the sword. "If you're so angry, help me kill him!" He snarls. And Orillian vaguely recognises the voice somehow. "Yes. Kill. Kill." The voices of the sword chant and slice into Orillian.
Orillian stays in the Abyssal's face. "Who are you!?" he demands, frustrated by his inability to remember as he brings up his gloves to block the blow.
Seeing the death of the Day, the Moonshadow begins unleashing more devastating attacks. Arrows begin firing upon Megumi in an effort to stop her own form of lethal attack.
The Daybreak seems to be refraining from unleashing various spells of doom, instead firing the javelin again. This time on an injured Syn.
The Dusk seems frustrated as the hammer blocks the sword, but can't do anything about it. Covered in the helmet as he is, Orillian can't even try to recognise the face.
Megumi finishes her drift by spinning and pushing off the deadstrider. She conducts a series of forward spins back toward the hatch of the ship and possible cover. This is starting to look not too terribly positive.
In the meantime, the Midnight has brushed off Ryou's attack and snapping his whip, slaps Ryoujal for his impudence.
Ryoujal this time goes low hoping to avoid the swinging chain, sinking a few feet to standing on the heads of some of the zombies, raising his hands to block the blasted chain.
The Moonshadow's anima flares to life, a billowing cloud of toxins and poisons.
The arrows pierce Megumi's flesh and she feels a numbing cold spread through her body, making her fingers stiffer and her movements slower.
In the meantime, the Midnight actually does attempt to clinch Ryoujal just like he wanted.
But he just misses.
Ryoujal lets out a disapointed grunt at the Midnight, "Not a very frightening warrior, are you?"
Lady Syn starts advancing towards the assulting Abyssals and activates Salty Dog Method.
"Same to you really. You won't even accept pain while I welcome it. And you can't even hit me." The Midnight answers playfully with a giggle.
Big Red powers up just the Lighting Ballista this time, but starts powering in his own essence into it. Fussing the bolt with the sand from his banner he lets fly a torrent of sand and lightning into the strider.
And the bonestrider finally shatters, but not before one last annoyed smash against the ship. Then the pieces of bone, flesh and soulsteel float in the waters.
Ryoujal says, "Sorry lady, but I got more important things to do than hurt."
Orillian holds his hammer high. "I don't remember who you are, and I don't know why we're fighting, but there's no place in this world for the dead who refuse to stay that way!" He brings the hammer down in a smashing arc, and lets the momentum carry him through the swing in the water, swirling bone fragments in its wake as it returns from behind him for another strike.
"I will return again and again until I can kill you who robbed me of life." The Dusk answers. "Murderer!" The sword choruses.
The sword swings around, cutting off Orillian's attack before it can even get started.
Megumi has returned to the hatch by now. Bracing against one corner of it with both feet, she yanks back twice hard on her bowstring, firing a pair of ethereal arrows at the Dusk.
Orillian grunts in frustration as the sword catches his strike. *Can ye get the ship moving, now the bone monster be gone?* he thinks to Syn.
The Dusk snarls in fury and black essence swirls around him while the snakes frantically spit and consume at the same time. His sword darts out to slash Orillian and the incoming missiles at the same time while slicing every single zombie in his radius and clearing a wide area of space. And it looks like he's ready for more.
Orillian quickly brings up his arms in a desperate attempt to block the blow as he tries to kick backwards.
As the ghostly sword bites into flesh for the first time, Orillian feels a terrible pain as the ghosts within chew upon his flesh, drawing forth more than just blood from his body. It is a sword filled with hate and it's all for him. "Blood. Blood. Blood."
Orillian feels the blow tear through his anima and actually strike him.
The Moonshadow keeps up her attacks on Megumi, but no longer with the same devastating curl of necromantic essence. The Daybreak seems oddly calm as the javelin is once more fired off at Syn while a flicking whip at her side seems anxious to get into battle.
Lady Syn brings her blade around to cut a chunk of rock away as a sheild.
Megumi looks at the impending shots, but she's in no position to avoid it, concentrating on taking down the warrior. But at the last moment, she seems to waver in the water right before the certain impact. Two blinks in a row.
The javelin misses, striking against the rock. The arrows also miss since Megumi blinks away.
Ryoujal keeps his hand on the dang chain, before jumping up using the chain to draw closer to the Midnight, his Anima glowing as he cries his rage, muffled in the thick water while coming about with a single blow towards the bastard's face to ugly up those good looks.
The Midnight giggles again as Ryoujal scratches him. "Oooh, that tickles. Let's play some more k?" He dances around Ryoujal, letting his own grip on the chain allow him to loop it around the Solar.
Ryoujal continues to swim about his opponent and tries to keep the chain taught to minimize the allowable slack.
But to no avail as the chains wrap tight around Ryoujal, holding him fast. "Let's play now k?" He giggles.
She notices ghosts and zombies surrounding the Daybreak. Not that it's any surprise considering they're already surrounded by ghosts and zombies.
Lady Syn springs off the zombies and tries to cut into the Daybreak. "Hello there. Pleasure to be beating you. Now, before I kill you, you're down a big toy and once freak. Retreat isn't something to be ashamed of."
As Syn moves in, she also notices the writhing snake-like whip that extrudes from the Daybreak's left hand.
The Daybreak seems to finally notice Syn. "Oh. There you are. I was wondering when someone would come close enough. My pet's a little anxious." And the whip on her left hand snaps forward while another javelin is fired almost absently.
Lady Syn brings her sword back and taps the whip into the javalin.
Syn gets hit by both attacks although the javelin seems to dissipate against her skin. The snake-whip is not so kind, slapping her once and biting down on her throat. And Syn collapses.
The Daybreak puts Syn down to one side and focuses on the rest of the battle.
Big Red truns on his weapon battery and sends a shot from the Lightning ballista to the Daybreak. The Large Essence Cannon 2 and Very Large Essence Cannon he trains on the Moonshadow sending a volley of heavy weapons fire his way
As the lancing lightning from the ballista crackles and hits the Daybreak, a zombie beside her shatters in a shower of sparks.
Leaving the Daybreak completely unharmed, though every Solar is certain something should have happened.
The Moonshadow on the other hand is much less unaffected and drops to the ground.
Megumi, feeling more confident now that her sniper has been sniped, returns to pelting Dusk. She allows the essence to flow through the pre-defined channels of mastery as she tries her damnedest to kill the creature.
The Dusk senses weakness in Orillian, but also glances at Megumi, wary of her arrows. And true enough, the arrows come. And he uses the same charm again to counter the attacks, clearing away any unfortunate zombie who swims into the area.
Orillian struggles to block the attacks yet again, but isn't particularly optimistic.
Orillian coughs out some blood into the water. "I really don't remember who you are..." he murmurs, as the lethargy from blood loss starts kicking in.
"He forgets. Tell." "Tell." "Let him know who kills him." The sword clamours even as they feast on Exalted flesh. The Dusk looks at Orillian pitilessly. "Do you remember the Serpent's Blood?" He finally sneers.
Orillian peers at the Dusk. "A ship..."
Orillian tries to wrack his brain for the memory.
The Midnight is giggling. "Oooh, everyone else is having fun. Our turn now don't you think?" He smiles and squeezes the chain tighter.
Ryoujal looks at the chains like they're not too much, "I don't have the time to deal with this," As his anima starts to flare with the slight image of the draconic man roaring at the Midnight as he does his best to break free.
And with the Moonshadow down and the Day dead, Syn unconscious and most of the Solars injured, night finally falls in the shadowland. The Daybreak strides forward with her entourage of zombies and ghosts, one of the ghosts is even carrying Syn's body. The Midnight continues to play with his Ryoujal toy. Red still remains safe in the ship while Megumi is carefully drifting around the hatch, trying to snipe at the Dusk that seems to have a vendetta against Orillian.
