[ORP] Nothing to Sneeze At (MINIBOSS PG 18!!)

[Seussi]

Na'ima's words were heard, but the only indication Wrath gave to show that they bothered him in anyway was a halt in his steps that lasted for about two seconds, before he started running headlong towards the beast, taking another swipe at it as he passed. It managed another strike on him in turn, but he barely felt it as he let his mind and body go numb to all that surrounded him. Now there was only the battle, and nothing else. That was what he would choose to focus on.

Whatever Na's issue was, they could deal with that later

HP: 21
Damage: 2
Boss HP: 15  

[Eight]

The blade came flying again, hooking onto the creature's side and sticking into it. Once again it was ripped out as slowly and painful as she could.

HP: 7
Damage: 6
Boss HP: 9  

[Carhop Cavalier]

Boss HP: 8  

[Eight]

The creature seemed to be winding down, but so did Na'ima. With one last strike she found herself shaking again, her knees beginning to buckle and her arms starting to feel like they were made of stone. She grunted unhappily and stumbled back a few steps away from it after slamming down one last strike against the creature.

She shook her head, a hand coming up to rub at her temple. Ugh, her head hurt. She was getting far too worked up over nothing, she knew it. But she was just so angry.

HP: 2
Damage: 5
Boss HP: 3  

[stella cinere]

HP: 35
Damage: 1
Boss HP: 2  

[prolixity]

The creature was condensed, and louder, and still flailing about, if rather more weakly now. Qarah hit it again, and got a good scratch for its troubles. The conglomerate creature did not stop moving.

HP: 24
Dmg: 1

Boss HP: 1  

[stella cinere]

HP: 30
Damage: 2
Boss HP: 0  

[Seussi]

While down below the battle between horsemen and the monstrosity that their science had wrought waged, above, a different commotion was taking place. It started with shouts that quickly deteriorated into wordless growls, a few colorful curses, and two voices that rose in battle cry as the two horsemen of war seemed to collide. Steel clanged against steel as weapons met, again and again. Feathers rained down, many of which were tainted with the grey of insanity, as the two circled each other like a whirlwind. Their sudden turn against each other might have been confusing, for anybody who even took notice (though most were likely distracted by a more immediate threat), but it was just a matter of the spores, really, of the infection, and its effects on all those who had been caught in the oozing grasp.

Every blow to the creature on the ground, at least, seemed to give the horsemen there some headway. It became smaller, its snarls and cries weaker and less fearsome, its attacks less aggressive as it seemed to shrink in upon itself, a bubbling, boiling mass that was steadily declining until, with one final strike, it seemed to simply fall apart and collapse, melting and evaporating with a high pitched whine, until all that was left behind were the spores, dead and used up.

"A shame," the Elder sighed as they righted themselves. Procuring a bottle from its sleeves (what), they began to try and scoop up what remains were left on their clothes.

It was precisely than that, out of the air above, the two war horsemen crashed to the ground and rolled across the floor in a flurry of furiously striking limbs and howls of anger. Though it was difficult to say who really had a handle on things, it was Shaheen that appeared to be coming out on top, but even that moment of triumph was cut short when the man she held pinned beneath her began to change, bucking her off as he surged up from the floor to land on all fours, his limbs and face morphing, his body becoming massive, his skin replaced by dense brown fur, nails replaced by thick, long claws, teeth lengthening and sharpening and becoming very visible as he roared out his rage, eyes burning into hers with hatred.

Replacing Shikoba Len was one very large, very angry, grizzly bear.

Shaheen struggled to her feet with an exhausted laugh, spitting blood on the ground before reaching up to wipe at her face with the back of her hand. "Stay back,"She demanded of the others. "I've got this."

She stood a little taller, and arms opened wide as the snarling, bellowing mass of Shikoba's mount form barreled into her, his gaping maw going straight to her shoulder. There was a cry of pain before she grit her teeth, feet fighting for purchase as she held her ground, wings flaring and beating as she pushed back, arms wrapping around his neck, squeezing, and then with a war cry to top them all she twisted with all her weight and strength to throw him onto the ground. Moving swiftly, before he could fully right himself, she clambered aboard his back, made a grab for one of his ears, and twisted it, hard. Not very appreciative of her man-handling, he reared up on hind legs and let his unhappiness be known with another loud roar that sent spittle flying. By the grace of her wings alone and the death grip like lock of her legs, Shaheen was able to stay on, and summoning her short sword, she gave the Shik-bear a solid slap on the side of his nose and face with the flat of her blade, while twisting his ear harder.

Stunned, and perhaps cowed (for the moment, at least), the bear lowered himself back to the floor, and made no further attempts to shake her off. With heavy breaths, Shaheen looked up to all those still gathered and watching. "I believe we are finished here for today. Thank you, all of you, for your efforts. We will be in touch with you again, hopefully soon."

Kicking Shik in the side with her heel, he let out a short yowl like sound that might have been a begrudging "Thank-you" as well.

Quote:

CLASS DISMISSED!

If you are berserked: The murderous inclination begins to wane into a slight sniffle and/or cough...at least for now. Should you find yourself in a fight within the next IC week, however, the anger suddenly rises up and gives you a brief boost to your strength. For one fight, your modifier will be at a -4!

If you completed and rp'd all 3 stages: The Elder in their infinite wisdom had saved a small vial of each horseman's mixture as they were testing. Should you ask for yours, they will happily pass it on for your purposes as thanks for saving them. The vial is a one time use item: when crushed, it releases a handful of the pollen mixture you created upon one opponent. Roll 1d4. This is the number of turns your opponent must fight at a -8 modifier as they suddenly become congested, watery-eyed, wheezy, etc. Using this item does not take a turn.

This marks the end of the "class", though you may continue rping here! Thank you all so much for participating! <3 We would love to do any follow ups if your horseman is curious about the need for this experiment, or to do general rps if your horseman is looking for people to interact with!

Liz will be by to drop off the rp points~

show spoilerhide spoiler

lurks beneath

Yayoi

chirigami

Eight

Smerdle

Baneful

Carhop Cavalier

hanging gallow

Prolixity

baby_gwing

Beejoux

and be blue

ramenli

 

[medigel]

(( As a note: attacking the bonus boss can be used instead of the actual stage 3 in terms of completion for the item! All rolls throughout the stages must be filled in to count, however! ))  

[lizbot]

Quote:

BONUS POINTS

In addition to regular points, please give yourselves +1 rp point for every stage your character was in! That means if you participated in all three stages that is +3 points! If you posted in all three stages and wrote the standard requirements of 800 words, that is a max total of +4 points for this!

Thank you for playing and Medi and Seu for coming up with and running this!

 

[Eight]

As the creature was destroyed, Na'ima found herself just kind of..letting her knees collapse under her and send her to her knees. She groaned, hands rubbing her eyes and then her temples. A cough, a sniffle, she pulled her scarf down from her face. Ugh, she was so tired, the world was spinning.

Wait..wait.

Oh no.

Golden eyes widened with a look of horror as she realized what she had done. She'd told off Falair, slapped Wrath without explaining why. What had she done? Slowly she lifted her gaze off the floor and looked around until she found the mare and the stallion, and then she forced herself off the ground to approach them. She frowned, her hands messing with one of her scarves. Her gaze, once filled with rage and hatred as she regarded the pair, was now cautious.

Yayoi

Seussi

 

[Yayoi]

As the creature finally fell, Falair payed no mind to the sparring War pair as they tousled around on the ground like beasts. One having indeed transformed into a beast.

The bottle the Elders were giving out she took of course. While it was nice to have a keep sake she didn't quite trust any one else to hold on to it. It was a part of herself anyhow. And allowing someone the opportunity to experiment on something that had a part of her in it....well....that wasn't something she was took keen about.

Whether or not she would use the bottle remained to be seen.

Slipping the bottle into one of her pouches she turned just in time to spot Na'ima kind of skulking about. Perhaps Falair had been wrong in her judgement of priorities this day, so she couldn't blame her sister for what she had said. Even still if Na'ima had been in any serious danger Falair would have stepped in.

She sighed lightly. This was a mess and Falair was too over stimulated to deal with emotional messes right now. She hadn't payed attention to what had transpired between her sister and her stallion but Na'ima was giving him the same cautious glance.

"I will see you later, sister. There are things I need to...do." Yes, she was dawdling way too long here in the tower. There were preparations to make, things to pack.

Eight

 

[Seussi]

The creature was destroyed, melting away, and Wrath had taken several steps back, reaching into a pouch at his side for a rag that he could use to wipe off his blade with. When the war pair fell to the ground, and one of them transformed into a bear, he thought about stepping in to help, but it seemed that the mare had things under control. So well so, in fact, that he had to wonder if this happened often between war couples. It didn't occur to him, yet, that the problem had to do with the spores themselves, and any horsemen that might have been infected by them.

With their dismissal given, Wrath was of two minds. One was of to leave, to go return to his quarters for the remainder of the afternoon and evening, to clean himself up and spend some time alone. It was only too easy for him to walk away from anything he deemed difficult. But the other was to stay, to seek out Na'ima, and get to the bottom of why she had slapped him. He was willing to admit that he had been a little bit preoccupied by the baby, but he did not think his distraction was worth a slap to the face!

With an inward sigh, he desummoned his blade, returned the rag to it's pouch, and had a look around for Na. When he spotted her, approaching nearer to where he and Falair both stood, he waited, crossing arms over his broad chest and waiting until her attention was off of her sister and onto him.

She wasn't the only one with caution in her gaze.

eight

 

[Eight]

Falair was trying to escape. Na'ima hesitated, looking away from Wrath to instead regard her sister with worry. Should she let her leave? Approach her later? But what if she didn't get a chance to? She frowned and reached out to attempt to grab her arm, hoping to pull her sister into a tight hug. A tight hug that she wouldn't let the younger mare out of until she was ready. She whispered into her ear, "if you wish to leave, I will come to you later." A final squeeze and a kiss to the cheek, and Na'ima released her then and stepped back. "I love you," she reminded her gently, a hand coming up to be settled gently on her shoulder before letting her leave if she wanted.

Stepping past her, she stopped to look up at Wrath. Na'ima frowned. Approaching him, she reached out a hand to gently place her hand where she had slapped him. "I apologize," she said right off the bat. "I am sorry. It was wrong of me to hit you."

Yayoi

Seussi

 

[Seussi]

He was forced to continue to wait, as Na'ima had words with her sister first. That was fine, as Wrath did not for a moment wish to come between the sisters or be treated as if he were somehow more important. What they had was special, something that should have been treasured. He knew that he would have given anything to have any of his family with him here.

When she did finally approach, he remained stoic, unsure of what he should say. When she raised her hand, he did not flinch, as he did not believe that she sought to strike him again. His assumption proved true, as she instead laid the hand gently upon his cheek, before apologizing.

Reaching up, he placed his own hand over hers, and carefully drew it away from his face, his eyebrows furrowing into slight scowl as he finally let himself react.

"Why did you hit me?"

eight