Horizon Walkers (Game Thread) Dead

[Lunar Templar]

She just stood back and watched for now, letting the humans come up with a plan, they confused her, so many odd customs, so for now she kept watch over the fodder as they slowly picked off the remaining vermin, though she was eager to just be done with this waste of time. She looked about the arena, at all the dead, both human and vermin, then to the cheers from the humans gathered to watch, and those in the VIP seats, all laughing and enjoying the sights.

She snorted, then remembered barrier that stopped her attack before. "Think we could break the protection they have from us and the beasts? Wonder how much amusement they'd get from this when it's them in the game" She thought aloud, though not intentionally.

 

[The Ubermensch]

''She's got some, would that do?''

Orika looked at the pale figure for a moment before turning back to Dalrel.

"Lets not piss off the maiden with the power to control ice at her disposal."

She considered her plan for a moment longer and shook her head "No, that won't work. I mean there's not much we can do here aside from fight for our lives and not die." she said with a shurg "There's no cover, no high ground, that Lion will decimate tight groups and the Manticors with gang up on stragglers."

She turned, for a moment, to the VIP stand with a curious expression.

"Mage." she said again, turning to Dalrel "Do you have any idea how magical barriers work. Is there a way we can nullify that one." She asked thoughtfully, doubting he or anyone else would know, doubting even more that even if they did, that knowledge would do them any good, but it would be better than this battle of attrition.

 

[Josh123914]

"Mage." she said again, turning to Dalrel "Do you have any idea how magical barriers work. Is there a way we can nullify that one."
''Sorry, no. My magic is based around elements, not illusion or transfiguration.'' Dalrel said, disappointed with himself.
He watched the madness unfold, very few combatants were alone, though that might be due to how many were now dead.

The snow elf dodged a blow from the manticore, ducking underneath it. She flexed one of her hands and an icicle fabricated into her hand. She jabbed it into the manticore's underbelly, as blood and water mixed.

''I can't do that with ice, but I can do it with fire, and if I wanted I could turn water into ice or stea-''
He stopped.
Steam.
''Have any water?'' He asked anxiously. ''I could create a shroud of steam if I had some more'' Dalrel removed the flask near his waist and emptied it on the ground. He closed his eyes and clapped his hands together, as the water instantly bubbled and enveloped the air around him.
''This could be good cover for us, the Manticores will be less likely to attack what they cant see'' he informed her, shrouding the two of them in the mist.
''If I had more water I could create a bigger veil, perhaps even see how far the barrier extends, or if there's anywhere the steam escapes to.''

 

[DarkRawen]

"I'm Serragish."

Des nodded, it was as strange name, but considering where he was, it wasn't very surprising. "I'll remember that, then," he replied, cheerful as ever.

I might not be seeing totally straight, why you don't look the same way as you're body... How come you don't look like you should? Never mind, we can deal with it later. Bigger things to think about now."

"Hm?" She was saying some strange things, hurrying her words towards the end, as if the words were unimportant, but needed to be said out aloud. Still, he was... what had she said, not looking like his body... what?

Is she seeing something strange with my appearance?

Something like that would be rather unique, at least. She then went on to talk about paralyzing the lion, however, Des just pointed towards it. "People are trying to burn it, though. Would you even manage to get close?" Before he got an answer, he heard the feline lady mutter something behind him.

"Think we could break the protection they have from us and the beasts? Wonder how much amusement they'd get from this when it's them in the game"

"That doesn't sound very nice," Des said, unaware of that she'd just been thinking aloud. "They may act like this, but they're still innocent in this. Mostly, a least." He obviously couldn't tell for sure, but humans acted strange in groups. They were more eager to do things they normally wouldn't do, heck, he already knew that it was easier to talk groups into---- well, sinning.

"We shouldn't make more victims, nothing would be solving with more people dying than necessary." He looked at the dagger he was carrying, as well as the hunting knife. "I suppose I should do something too, would be silly if all you mortals kept doing the work. I can take a hit, after all. I can't do paralyzing, though. I don't think I have enough... energy for that, and trying without enough would cause me to get killed."

He waited for someone to tell him just what to do, Des could easily admit that he wasn't the greatest tactician.

 

[Lunar Templar]

"That doesn't sound very nice," She looked at Des curiously as he started to speak. "They may act like this, but they're still innocent in this. Mostly, a least. We shouldn't make more victims, nothing would be solving with more people dying than necessary." She'd turned to face him as he spoke, for a moment she wondered how he knew what she was thinking, before figuring she must have thought out loud.

"They cheer for and enjoy in the needless deaths of others, treat the scared gift of life like as though it were a toy, something to be played with and cast aside. Which would be fine, where they risking there own lives, but they aren't they think them selves gods and force others to fight and die for amusement, far as I'm concerned, they deserve no such consideration." There was an eerie calm in how she spoke, no anger just a very matter of fact tone "My enemy's, are those who seek to take my life, as well as those who toy with it." she added as she turned back to the fights at hand, before seeing a couple fighters in need of aid and darting off to give them assistance.

 

[hiei82]

Whether by virtue of skill at arms of the gladiators or the satiation of the Manticores appetite's - this also by virtue of the gladiators - the Manticore threat had largely been dealt with. Only a few such creatures remained, making halfhearted attacks on straggling combatants between moves on easier scavenged prey such as the dead and dying bodies of gladiators and Manticore alike.

Of greater concern was the Nemean Lion.

The juggernaut that was the lion charged at the dwarf, his claws as swords and his teeth as daggers. With but a single wave of his paw, he smacked away the thrown axe as though it were but a vexing fly. The axe skid a good twenty paces before coming to a stop in the sand. A moment later, flames burst forth in its face, but to little avail. The flames flicked off the fur of the mighty creature as though it were a creature of stone more than flesh. Still, the flames did momentarily blind the creature, faltering its charge and driving its claws into the ground inches from where its dwarf adversary stood, rather than the dwarf itself.

As to the poisoned tail of the Manticore, it cracked like a whip as Vaerys brought it down upon the Lion but, the moment the poisoned tail hit upon the lion's fur, the poisoned barb shattered as though it were of ice or glass. The bones inside the tail fared little better, snapping as though they'd crashed into a wall of solid diamond.

 

[IFS]

"My enemy's, are those who seek to take my life, as well as those who toy with it."

"I'd rather not get the crowd throwing things at us," Alex commented, "And bringing down the barrier would do little good for us, the lion is the real threat and it can't fly."

He made note of how the various attacks on the lion failed, as well as how Des objected to setting the few remaining manticores on the people in the stands. Not entirely a point in his favor though, could simply mean he prefers another fate for them. He focused more on the problem of the lion though, the axe and barbs had done nothing to it, and the flames merely distracted it, its hide and exterior seemed to be armored by magic, he didn't want to try and test if the interior was the same.

He turned to Serragish "You said you might be able to paralyze it, how close would you have to get? At this point our only options seem to be to disable it or have someone crawl in its mouth and see if its insides are less protected. Any volunteers for the latter? If nothing else feeding it a treat might make it sleepy," he said cheerily.

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

That seemed like a good idea... Vaerys thought as the lion stopped mere inches from where he stood. The tail of the manticore only seemed to tickle the fearsome thing. He observed as the barbs of the manticore's tail crashed into the lion's fur and breaking the barbs as if it were made of glass. The dwarf only had moments to think as the distraction provided by a few gladiators some distance away helped Vaerys at least live for a few more seconds. He gave a quick glance at said gladiators as they would be key to killing the lion. Now the only thing that Vaerys needed to do was at least distract the lion long enough.

Vaerys rolled to he beast's side as to draw its attention away from the other gladiators and hopefully offering them a juicy, exposed flank of which they could exploit. Vaerys stood up from his roll, never taking his eyes off the lion as he moved a few paces back. He cracked his makeshift whip a few times to draw the lion's attention. Although if the beast were to look away, he would make a run for his axe but he doubted that lion's instincts would allow him such respite. Now all he had to do was stay alive long enough. The dwarf stood on his toes, ready to leap out of the way if the lion lunged at him once more. This dwarf still had some fight in him and would not go down easy.

 

[DarkRawen]

"They cheer for and enjoy in the needless deaths of others, treat the scared gift of life like as though it were a toy, something to be played with and cast aside. Which would be fine, where they risking there own lives, but they aren't they think them selves gods and force others to fight and die for amusement, far as I'm concerned, they deserve no such consideration. My enemy's, are those who seek to take my life, as well as those who toy with it."

"These people are just watching, though. They are by no means doing anything great, but they are hardly guilty, it wasn't them who forces us to fight, not all of them at least. Besides---" The feline darted off before before he could finish, and he sighed, turning to look as the lion was attacked. He realized now that getting close to it and trying to kill it would be useless for him, all he could do was stab it, and that seemed to do very little.

I suppose I'll wait for someone to come up with a real plan, then.

"You said you might be able to paralyze it, how close would you have to get? At this point our only options seem to be to disable it or have someone crawl in its mouth and see if its insides are less protected. Any volunteers for the latter? If nothing else feeding it a treat might make it sleepy,"

Alex said, cheerfully. Des frowned, while it was probably just a joke, it wasn't very nice to say, asking someone to get eaten was sort of a jerk thing to do. However, the first part of that, the part before he started to tell people to risk their lives, had been addressing Serragish, who answered promptly.

"Depends how far we can throw this.

She then proceeded to mix something in a bottle, until she was done, a small test-tube filled with an odd looking liquid.

"It'll burn, bright and hot and fast. My advice, throw it far away and don't look back and run."

Des looked at the bottle, it was probably not a pleasant thing to even be close to. He wondered how far they really could throw it, until he noticed Alex's crossbow. "It's small, could you fire it with that? Tie it to an arrow or something?" he mused, it wasn't more than a simple question, as he had no idea whether or not that would actually be possible.

 

[Josh123914]

Dalrel looked for a reaction from the elf, and recieved little in terms of inspiration.
Shrugging, he lowered his arms and began to swing them around, sucking the steam into a blob of water and cramming it all into a side bottle of his.
In the distance he noticed two fighters bickering, and as he approached he noticed a tall young man speaking.

"It's small, could you fire it with that? Tie it to an arrow or something?"
He approached with a sense of friendliness ''I could help with that. Ice or fire, would either do?''

 

[IFS]

"It's small, could you fire it with that? Tie it to an arrow or something?"

"That might work, my bolts wouldn't be thrown off too much by the extra weight, and its a big enough target that it wouldn't matter too much," Alex responded, with some dejection at having been ignored by Serragish "Though this won't do more than annoy it likely, paralysis would have been much more useful than something bright."

He took the flask and tied it to a bolt with a bit of string. He aimed carefully at the lion, aiming for the creature's face for maximum effect, and adjusting to the extra weight of it.

Hopefully this will do something, if not then I'll have to improvise. He took a deep breath, exhaled and fired watching the bolt sail towards the beast. He didn't doubt it would find its mark, whether it would have an effect remained to be seen. And if it does blind the beast, well that should make whatever we do next easier. Maybe it'll just go wild and we can avoid it until it tires itself out.

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

Kyras panicked upon the revelation that it was basically invulnerable to him currently.
He looked around and began pulling more energy into himself incase he needed to blind it again.

He turned his attention to the lion again and yelled at the dwarf.

"Any ideas?"

 

[Terratina.]

The crack of the whip, the clang of the axe, the woosh of the fire - those were the sounds Id perceived as it spent its time under the Lion. And now there was another, but different, crack as something broke. The previous happenings didn't seem to have an effect on the Lion, suggesting that the overgrown cat had some resistance to such attacks. Id thought on that for a moment, the gladiators were just there be the killed - useless.

But surely if this whole thing was just for entertainment, there would be a way to kill it; one-sided matches were hardly entertaining in Id's own experience. However, the gladiators seemed to only have access to physical attacks, how could such a beast be slain?

Difficultly, that was the answer.

Regardless, couldn't have the beast rampaging madly in the meantime. Might make things worse, as if being trapped in a deathmatch was a good thing to begin with. Should a construct made for combat even think that?

Regardless, the arcane experiment was curious whether the Lion would show the same resistance to... less orthodox attacks as it did with physical attacks. The robes and other various bits of clothing slumped to the ground as Id latched onto the Lion's soul, its life force, its consciousness. Now Id's true nature had been revealed and could be see if anyone was paying attention to the arcane experiment. Now, with luck, it would get an insight into seeing what being a Nemean Lion was like.

There was a soul-shaking roar, this wouldn't be easy...

 

[hiei82]

[HEADING=2]Arena:[/HEADING]

Vaerys rolled away from the Lion, but it was fast in pursuit. Vaerys had just managed to pick up its axe as the Lion reached him. For a moment, it seemed like there was nothing left to do but risk taking the terrible blow; risking death. Just as the outstretched claw seemed poised to cut the dwarf in two vertically, it stopped; roaring out in protest against some other force.

Below it, the strange robed... thing had touched the creature, containing it with some strange magic. The Lion thrashed around wildly, trying to strike at unseen foes. A moment later, the beast let out a roar of pain. Not from the small magical man's robes, but from a strange arrow crashing into the Lion's face. As soon as it did, in burned as bright as the sun. Kes ran forward into the battle to pull the dwarf to safe distance (toward the Fire-mage) to make sure he was uninjured and, hopefully, find a way to finish the beast.

When finally the light died down, the damage it did could be seen. The arrow itself seemed to have done nothing more than part it's mane, but the burning bottle had done enough. For, when the smoke cleared, the creatures eyes were gone; burned to dust.

All the while, the Lion roared (cracking stone wherever in pointed its mouth) and lashed out with its claws (cutting through all that came in the way of the beast)

[HEADING=2]The Lion's Mind:[/HEADING] As Id tried to take command of the Lion, he discovered it would be no easy task. Though the beast had no reasoned consciousness, its will for life was stronger than most. Within its mind, the beast lashed out at Id; attacking him with roar after ground shaking roar and claw after razor-sharp claw.

 

[Lunar Templar]

She turned toward the Lion after noticing the bright flash of light, and watched the beast thrash about as smoke cleared, the looked unharmed at first but then noticed its eyes where burnt out, and sighed. One human had grabbed the smaller human and gotten him clear of the beasts claws but blinding it didn't seem the wisest of plans.

Still the beast was to close to the humans she said she'd help, so she decided to fix that and moved toward the Lion as though she where stalking prey, and when the moment was right, grabbed the Lion by the tail, did one full turn, and throw the beast toward an arena wall away from the humans.

 

[DarkRawen]

'I could help with that. Ice or fire, would either do?''

"Hm? How do you use fire or ice to bind something to an arrow?" Des asked, confused, however, before he got a reply, Alex already got it to work using some thread. "Ah, nevermind, I suppose. What's your name, by the way?" It was a guy, so Des wasn't that interested, but still. Wouldn't hurt to ask, he'd asked Alex before. "If you haven't heard me say it before, I'm Des."

"That might work, my bolts wouldn't be thrown off too much by the extra weight, and its a big enough target that it wouldn't matter too much. Though this won't do more than annoy it likely, paralysis would have been much more useful than something bright."

"Oh. My apologies, I'd help, but as I said, I might die very soon if I do that, if not today, then probably tomorrow," Des said, and smiled sadly. He still didn't like the thought of that very much, the aspect of mortals dying was one thing, but the very idea of his own death struck him as... strange. Unnatural. However, it appeared Alex had been very wrong, as the fire-bottle tied to the arrow took out the eyes of the huge lion, leaving it blind.

"Oh... it's blind now. That should be help a lot, yes? Looks like we don't need to paralyze it either way, that's a relief. Serragish did a wonderful job too, for the fire to leave the ashes as dust." As he spoke, the female feline grabbed the lion by the tail and threw it towards an empty area -empty of mortals and Des, at least- and he cheered up even more, only to have his mood turned by a single thought.

"Wonder what happens after we win..."

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

Vaerys' raised his axe in a final act of defiance as the beast raised its claw towards him. For a moment, he wanted to thunder through to the after life, and see her once again. He would be happy once more and he would be at peace with her by his side once again. But the moment was as short-lived as he was on the account of a very large human picking him up before the beast could get a swipe at him. Vaerys was at a loss of words as he was whisked away from certain death, uncertain if he should feel grateful or angered. He would have to express both.

"What's the meaning of this?!" Vaerys instinctively yelled despite the human's hold on him. It was a phrase he used often mostly because his knowings of the world around him were a little "limited". Once they were out of harm's way, Vaerys wriggled his way out of the human's grip then glancing at how tall the human was. He wasn't impressed at the height but rather that it was a human that had such a height.

"Ah, thank you kind... er... lass." Vaerys said, squinting his eyes to make sure that the human was a woman. Then a loud roar drew his eyes back to the lion who seemed to lacking eyes of its own. Some time during his rescue, a fire must have hit the creature in its eyes and it lashed about. Then another one of the gladiators ran up and threw the lion away. He gave a hearty laugh at the sight. But even in his laugh, he held his axe close in case any of the remaining manticores were feeling particularly daring.