"Oh... somebody help me," Steven said as he holstered the gun, "Have you considered a form of governance and administration of Hell than 'Klingon Promotion?' Even if you kill Ahriman, some other God may try to overthrow you somewhere down the line and one of them will eventually win. Why not create some more stable form of rulership? Why not democracy, or some form of republican form of government? Your less likely to be overthrown by the guy with the bigger stick."
Remus had never seen a duel between Gods before, but he certainly didn't expect it to look anything like the scene before him. It was more reminiscent of a half-drunken club brawl than any epic battle he had imagine from the old antiquity stories. When the group entered the chamber and had gotten the attention of the two deities, soon identified as being Hades and some Persian God of whom Remus had never heard, both of them shouted for the demigods to aid them in battle.
"Things can never go the easy way for us, can they?" Remus though and internally sighed. Still, this seemed like a rather simple problem to handle. And simple to decide upon at that. Hades was the obvious choice to throw their support in with. Anyone who knew their antiquity mythology knew that while the ruler of the Underworld, he was far from the foulest of Gods. This Ahriman on the other hand sounded like quite the devil considering what the others were saying.
Andrew seemed to be on the same train of thought as him, as the doctor loosed an arrow in the direction of Ahriman. When he saw Nicole then join the fray, her wings sprouting out and striking a fighting pose, Remus wasted no time following in turn. He stood next to Nicole, drawing his blade out with one hand and keeping his eyes locked on Ahriman. Perhaps Remus should had felt a bit nervous about going toe-to-toe with a God. But then remembered how not even a day ago he had punched one in the nuts hard enough to draw tears, and any sort of anxiety evaporated.
Aria 'eepped' when the woman grabbed her, more out of surprise from not expecting it then anything else and turned to the woman whom seemed to just keep saying 'Remus'. Since contact was pretty much unavoidable now, she decided 'fuck it, find out what she wants'. "So, who are you? You have a message or something for him?" Aria asked the spirit, giving a quick glance in the direction of the two gods to see they group was apparently picking a side.
The gathered crowd of dead folk were no use, Able couldn't be that suprised but it was worth a shot. Although it seemed that the choice of which god to side with was made for him while he was busy, Andrew having loosed a few arrows into the armoured persian. The others were already taking up fighting positions, ready for all hell to break loose... something that might have a whole other meaning down here. Still Steven and Andrew hadn't given up on the possibility of resolving things without going into an all ot brawl.
With Hades on their side things might at least be easier than they were on the plane. And Able doubted that Ahriman would care for getting shot, no doubt things would kick off in a second. Able quietly manouvered himself into position off to the side of the two gods so that when things did get violent there was a chance he could blindside Ahriman. His head apparently still feeling clear enough to try and think of battle plans in the middle of Dis.
Ahriman staggered, clutching the arrow in his neck, ichor leaking from the wound. The poison began to take hold visibly, arching the veins in his skin, though his body seemed to resist; it would take time to incapacitate him. He pulled the arrow from his neck and dropped it, readying his mace, limping towards Andrew.
"You...are going...to regret that...Greek..."
As he drew nearer, he swiped at Hades, pushing him out of the way, heading straight towards the group. Abandoning the mace, he drew a large scimitar from it's scabbard, addressing Steven.
"Well then, let's try a democracy!"
He rallied the dead around him with a vague, golden aura; their pale eyes filling with golden, red light. They began to swarm over him, and then towards the group; tens and tens of dead, life flowing into their limbs, voices yelling forgotten battle-cries.
Prometheus readied himself, cracking his knuckles. He looked to Aria, and to Remus mother. She was still speaking in a strange dialect that only Aria could understand, speaking only Remus, and nothing else, unaffected by the Gods magic.
"Do something with her!"
He hissed, keeping his voice low, though not low enough that Able's keen ears couldn't hear. Yet before long, the dead had encircled the group, Ahriman stooping low in their ranks not 40 meters away.
Prometheus spoke, his titan voice booming through the grey landscape.
"Ahriman; we have both daughters of victory with us; we will find you."
Turning to the group, he spoke.
"We can fight through them; they'll just pass from this realm at their death. What do you say?"
Etna was surprised that the Titan had heard her mutterings, she made a mental note of his good hearing. What surprised her even more was the fact that Prometheus immediately jumped at those words. She repeated them again, with a shrug, "'Oath by word'; from the that token. Mean anything?"
"We can fight through them; they'll just pass from this realm at their death. What do you say?"
Nevertheless, the stand-off between Hades and Persian Satan had erupted even further. No doubt because of Steven's snarks and Andrew's arrows. Then again, it appeared that fights were inevitable on this journey. Out of all of the gods they had met, Badb was the only one who seemed content to duel with a sharp tongue. At least fighting was a little more direct.
"Can't Mr. King of the Underworld help?" She quipped.
The evil god started running towards them, pushing Hades out of the way. However, then Steven said something about democracy, and Ahriman rallied some of the people there against them, before trying to run away. Or hide, Andrew wasn't completely sure, nor did he care a lot.
"We can fight through them; they'll just pass from this realm at their death. What do you say?"
Andrew looked at the crowd. There were a lot of them, and him shooting a few of them with arrows wouldn't be much help.
"I say that I have a limited amount of arrows. Where are they going to end up if we do kill them?"
If they end up going somewhere worse, I'd say it would be better to try something else. Besides, we might just kill the wrong one.
"And how do we know we won't kill the guy we need to talk to?"
If they were cutting their way through, knowing that they weren't getting rid of the one person they needed would probably be a good idea.
"Can't Mr. King of the Underworld help?"
Etna asked. It was a good question, surprisingly enough.
So she can use her brain to think, I was wondering if it was stuck on "overly hostile". I'm giving her a break, but that doesn't stop me from thinking negative things.
It made everything so much easier. And the same could be said if Hades could do something.
"Hey, Hades, could you calm down the souls?" He sounded a bit more persuasive. "Or at least tell us if the soul we need is here? We have the tongue of that person with us."
Prmetheus whispered to Able, his usual booming bass hissing over the chaos. The titan's head jerked towards Aria and one of the countless corpeses that was crowding around them.
At the time, in the heat of the moment, Able thought he meant to take care of Aria. the old fashioned part of his brain taking over as it tried to save the damsel in distress and play at being the white knight. Completly forgetting that with all her powers Aria could reduce them all to dust within minutes. Able stormed through the crowd of grey undead, swatting the shambling forms aside, even throwing one into the others like human shaped bowling pins.
It was only when he got there that he saw that this particular dead person didn't have the funky glowing eyes that the others had. She was just a sad, desperate looking woman. She seemed to be any kind of threat to Aria, she was just making her uncomfortable. Just who was he supposed to be taking care of?
Something of that light he'd seen was still left and it was enough for him to at least try and make sense of the situation. He ushered Aria away, trying to communicate that he could handle it in the limited ways available to him. She could easily be of more use to the group than he could be right now. He couldn't understand the dead woman, her mouth opened and closed silently as if she was trying to say something but couldn't summon the sound to do it, something he could relate to.
She She certainly didn't seem threatening, she seemed pathetic. Able pitited the very sight of her. She wasn't trying to rip anyone's face off, a rarity for the people they met, so maybe he could be nice to a supernatural person for once. He gripped her shoulders as he tried to communicate with her purly through facial expression, his regular stand by. He tried to turn her away from the violence, gently but firmly in the hope that she would leave soon and he could get back to where he was needed.
Aria was in the process of prying the woman's hand off her wrist when Able came over to help, sort shooing her away to deal with the latest asshole god, "Don't hurt her" she said, as she turned and headed over to Nicole. Aria had a simple, but utterly brilliant idea. "Those wings of yours? can you give a pair to some one else?" she asked after tapping her on the shoulder. "Cause I'm thinking an 'eye in the sky' would be a good idea, even better if said eye can shoot"
catchpa; 6 feet of snow
up hill, both ways, while being attack by wolves and tigers
"Goats, Loki, harpies, and now ZOMBIES?" Steven yelled, as he pulled out the colt.
However, Steven remembered he was on the last clip, and was really unsure how much effect bullets would have on these... corpses? Steven quickly flipped the gun, smashing the hard metal butt of the gun into the side of the nearest corpses skull.
Prometheus eyes went wide at Etna's words, though he hadn't time to respond, as the dead quickly swarmed over them. He quickly scooped her up and strode back into the center of the group, placing her down next to the others. She raised a good question though, and as Andrew's question cut clear over the shambling voices, Dis rounded the corner of a building, his staff in tow.
"He never was much for fighting..."
Aria returned to the group to question Nicole, leaving Able surrounded by dead, nursing the rambling woman. Prometheus called out to him, shoving away the dead as they grasped at him.
"Leave her! She's just another dead!"
A lie, and his face told it, but he hoped Able would understand anyway.
A break in the dead revealed Ahriman, nursing his wound, the poison clearly causing him pain. Steven had begun to fight his way to the God, yet was quickly being overcome; the dead too many, and the group distracted. He encouraged the others.
"I for one like Steven, and don't fancy seeing him trapped here forever. Stop thinking and help!"
He strode next to Steven and kicked full-force into the crown, sending the men and women sprawling into their own ranks. The few that caught the brunt of it simply lay still and lifeless; a second death, and now free from the fight.
At the furthest limit of the mist, high in the sky, a brilliant flame burst into view, hurtling towards the city, striking a stone tower, and crashing into the rubble within.
Hades ran away, although Andrew was sure he had heard his question. The greek god of the underworld seemed more than a bit cowardly by now.
"He never was much for fighting..."
At least he is sort of sensible, then... It still annoys me, we'd need his help. Is there even any dangers for him? He's a god.
Not that he wouldn't have gotten himself to safety if he could, but that was mostly because right now, he was of little use there. Arrows could he shot from a distance, an it would quickly tire him out to attempt to give a plague to all of these people. Well. Actually---
"I for one like Steven, and don't fancy seeing him trapped here forever. Stop thinking and help!"
Prometheus ruined his current train of thoughts. Andrew sighed, before going into the middle, and taking an aim at a few people. He shot, noticing that something struck a stone tower in the corner of his eye, but he chose to ignore it for now. If it was danger, then it would be better dealt with when they weren't surrounded by a bunch of dead people. Souls. Whatever was going on here. Andrew continued to fire arrows, taking out a number of people, but the quiver was getting emptier. He could see the still usable arrows underneath the people surrounding them, but as he couldn't grab them yet, that was little use.
Then why are you giving me a funny look like you're - OH HELL!!
Able didn't have time to question anything for very long as before he could do anything the swarm of dead/undead were on him. clawing and pawing at him like drunken monsters. Their fingernails tried and failed to get any grip on him or rip at his skin, instead they stung like bug bites. He thrashed and lashed out wildly, knocking the closest ones back. Once he'd freed up some space Able managed to take up a proper stance, a little bit of his basic training coming to the surface during all the chaos.
But this wasn't the time for a proper fight, the dead may not have been up to much but there were enough of them gathering to drown him in bodies. The strange woman had gone, lost in the crowd and Able set out to follow her example, he couldn't afford to stay surrounded for much longer. He made to break the circle forming around him, tackling his way through their ranks in an attempt to reach the others. The gathered dead didn't put up much resistence, they'd have made a terrible rugby team.
Abe gritted his teeth and pushed on though, flooring his fair share of dead folks as he went. And then a meteor struck.
It's just one damn thing anfter another isn't it? He sighed internally, he wasn't even suprised anymore. That had to be a good thing right? He was finally taking it in stride. Just as he strode through the vanquished dead. There's probably a joke in there somewhere.
They could handle that later though, they'd handled everything else. Able sent the nearest corpse sprawling with a right hook allowing him to rejoin the 'vanguard' of the group as he stepped up beside Prometheus and Steven. It looked like they were fighting their way towards Ahriman. Makes sense, he's the source of it all. The faster they took him out the faster the horde would leave them alone.... he hoped.
"Leave her! She's just another dead!" Vera heard Prometheus yell as she held her ground against the spirits of the dead.
When the swarm of undead came down upon them, she'd immediately ran into the swarm to close some of the gap between them and the Ahriman. Despite what Prometheus said, they had little hope against the controlled souls. It wasn't that they were particularly touch compared to everything else they'd fought, there were just countless billions of them he could call upon. The only real hope they had of surviving was stopping Ahriman or Hades getting his act together to take control of the dead. Given how little she could do about Hades (and her distrust of the god), she'd rushed ahead. And so, fighting defensively, she waited for a chance.
A chance that came when - for just a moment - the lines of the undead broke long enough to see the god nursing his wounds in the back. She took the chance, bolting into the breech with all the speed her warrior body could muster and all the skill her years of sports allowed; brandishing her sword as she closed the gap.
Prometheus helped - she grudgingly admitted - when he kicked the crowd, further widening the hole in their lines. In the warrior state of mind, she hardly registered the blue flames and the collapsing building, only using the chaos they created to further her goal, bringing her closer to Ahriman.
Close enough to strike hard with her golden blade.
@Green Shoes: I left the last line ambiguous for a reason. I'm assuming she can get close enough to actually strike Ahriman, in which case the last line is her attacking the god. If you don't think she can get close enough, then she's still working her way through the crowd and that line is just a restatement of her goal.
Thankfully, the corpses seemed to be completely mindless, and was easy to dispatch. However, there was just so many of them, and the butt of a gun was only a little better than a fist. Thankfully Prometheus was able to smash most of the group of zombies.
"Thanks!" Steven said, as he smashed a straggler's skull, "I for one like you as well.
Steven yelled to the group, "We need to get to Ahriman! There must be billions of dead people down here, they will just keep coming."
Another corpse ran at Steven, only for it to trip and have it's head stomped in.
"Cause I'm thinking an 'eye in the sky' would be a good idea, even better if said eye can shoot"
"What? No, of course not, I could carry you I guess," Nicole said, she wasn't sure why Aria would think granting blessings would equate to being able to give all of her powers, but at the moment running or fighting seemed like a better idea than thinking. She kicked out at an approaching undead, knocking it back, and struck another with a wing sending it sprawling, though she was somewhat lacking in anything that could truly damage the things.
Vera and Steven were not so lacking in weaponry though, although whereas Steven seemed content to spout rather awful one liners and smack things with the butt of his gun Vera was trying to charge at Ahriman, and possibly put an end to this quickly. She cast a blessing towards Vera, she had no idea how it might impact her though, after all Vera already had some of the same power, with luck it would enhance that.
"Bummer, well, Plan B it is then" Aria said, then, opened fire on the incoming dead around Vera, since she seemed to have an idea where this 'Ahriman' was between dealing with the ones coming at her, her shots burning through two at a time. As Aria blasted the undead away, she noticed her blasts felt a bit different, they even looked different, less like a fire ball and more like a small sphere with a tail, a bout the size of a billiard ball verses the cantaloupe sized ones she was shooting before, whats more these 'new' bolts felt much more natural, less forced then before.
This interested her, she'd never seen her powers change like this before, usually she just got a new ability not an upgrade to an existing one, and unlike before when such a change would have bothered her, it excited her a little, though wondered what this 'change' meant besides 'smoother lines' for her attacks
Vera's blade swung in a downwards arc, clashing with golden sparks against Ahriman's scimitar, raised to parry. The sparks scorched the ground where they fell, and amidst the grey-and-pink scene, the pair made an impressive sight. Gold and Silver warriors.
Ahriman spoke, drawing himself up, back to his full height. The dead enclosed the two, linking arms, forming an arena, struggling to keep the rest of the group out.
"Let's see what Verathragna has to offer then, shall we?"
Though injured, Ahriman carried far more stronger, at least physically, than Vera; his blows were forever fighting her back, her agility allowing her to parry just in time. However, his swings were long and wide, staggered by his leg, and he occasionally swiped one of his own, dead, soldiers.
Pushed against the boundary of the dead, Vera felt a familiar blessing, that of Nicole, lift her spirits. At that moment, Ahriman swung diagonally, full-force, towards Vera.
------------------------------------------------
Prometheus yelled above the tumult of the crowd towards Andrew, struggling under the weight of several dead.
"Do you have any more arrows? Could you get a clear shot at Ahriman if you did?!"
He launched the clinging dead towards Aria, whose bolts seared them to a crisp.
The dead were slowly circling the rest of the group, in a similar fashion to Vera and Ahriman; for every two that fell, five more seemed to crop up. Prometheus decided that things were not looking decidedly good.
Remus' mother had been lost in the crowd, though he wasn't sure if Aria knew it. Still, he thought, this was his chance to eradicate any distractions she might cause. He turned to Aria.
"Just burn as many as you can; we'll keep them off you. Nicole, can you fly her up so she doesn't fry us?"
A few dead broke rank and charged at Etna, who stood distracted in the melee.
Steven saw the gold and silver golems forming up. The dead just kept COMING. Fighting through the horde wasn't working.
"Do you have any more arrows? Could you get a clear shot at Ahriman if you did?!"
"Somebody lift me and Andrew up!" Steven yelled, "Just give us a boost so we can get a clear shot on Ahriman, we are not going to be able to fight through this crowd!"
Vera threw her blade up to block an attack. The attack smashed into the sword with a resounding, ringing noise. The attack was heavy. They were all heavy.
Dodge Right
The next attack came down o top of her, she rolled out of the way, just in time for the scimitar to crash into the ground, splitting the stone. She tried to strike back, but to no avail. Ahriman knew his way around a blade, that much was certain.
And so the dance of thrusts, swings, feints, parries, dodges, hits, and misses continued. Though Vera wished it were the case, the fight was unbalanced. Ahriman had far more experience in real battle than she, and his divine power made him even harder to fight. She could hardly consider it a surprise Hades hadn't been fairing well; he wasn't know for his martial prowess after all.
Despite all of that, it was fun. One on one, against a god, in a fight to the death. It was exhilarating. Despite all the dead around her, she'd never felt more alive. Even as the fatigue of the prolonged battle began to show itself, her powers and her adrenalin compensated. Victory would be hers!
However, regardless of how alive and confident she felt, Vera slowly gave ground - inch by inch - until she had no more inches to give. Pushed against the wall of dead, she knew she needed to make a more aggressive move if she wanted to win. It was at that moment she felt Nicole's power. Ahriman seemed to slow by half as her agility skyrocketed. She felt lucky and confident and strong and fast. What more, she wanted to win more then ever. "Sacrifice the Bishop, Take the King" she said to herself as she slipped her right hand so it was around the middle of her blade and made her move.
Tired of giving inches, she decided to take some. As Ahriman struck diagonally toward her, Vera stepped int o the strike, grasping his scimitar just above the hilt with her left hand and pushed. The metal gauntlets covering her hands absorbed some of the force, though the scimitar was sharp enough to cut through them and into her hand. She felt her wrist give way and heard the snap as multiple somethings inside her broke. Despite this, with all the adrenalin flowing in her veins, she hardly felt it.
Using the opening she'd forcefully made, she brought her now effectively shortened blade up and around with all the force she could summon, hoping to slam the blade into the evil god's brain by way of ear canal.
In case what I just tried to do wasn't very clear, Vera
1) is now holding her sword on the middle of the blade (so as to shorten it and make the blade balanced for a single hand),
2) reached up and caught the scimitar (depending on her strength, adrenalin, metal gauntlet, Nicole's enhancement, and breaking bones to absorb the hit enough to stop it), then
3) brought her now effectively shortened blade up and around toward the side of the god's head while hoping humanoid gods have similar anatomies to humans.
If this works, Vera's totally going to scream "Checkmate!" as a victory cry
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