[IC] Books, Dreams, and Bleeding Things

[Shamitako]

The Wraith floated towards Latens again, chasing her down from behind as the girl futilely tried to crawl away. Initially she felt the chill of it passing through her, but it reacted quickly and switched to match her state and shove her again. This time the shove was clearly stronger, and both of her hands lost their grip on the thin path, causing her to fall forward but not yet entirely off. The Wraith reappeared in front of her and screeched again.

[Noir]

The Unnoticed Girl

 

Gah...!  This thing wasn't planning on letting up any soon, wasn't it?

 

That fall was extremely close......that monster had full intent on letting her fall, but at least she knew what to do. One moment she passed through it and it her, but the next it managed to touch her again. It was a wraith...it was easy to assume that it too, shared Latens' own power of being intangible, and a certain combination would enable or disable any form of touch between the two.... all she had to do was react at the right times to avoid damage. 

 

With newfound resolve, she steeled herself toward the wraith slowly, this time becoming invisible first, wanting to experiment with the reactive time of her change. The instant it came close, she would put the thought of being intangible into her mind to dodge anything attack it might attempt. Change of priorities.....even for a little girl, she had to take this....thing, down first. If it could touch her, it could touch it. 

[Shamitako]

The wraith barely even registered Latens's shift to invisibility, but then it didn't seem to have eyes in the first place. It reached out to shove her, and she quickly shifted from being invisible to being intangible. But there was a delay, and the Wraith still touched her, for a moment. Before it could finish shoving her, it's hand slipped into her intangible form, and then it suddenly vanished. A screech sounded from behind her, indicating it had yet again teleported.

[Noir]

The Unnoticed Girl

 

I see. The reactions of the apparition reaffirmed her guesses; the odd thing screeched as an indicator of it teleporting, and this time it was behind her instead of in front of her. The path seemed too far for her to walk further, but at least she wasn't cornered....and the wraith had failed to shove her aside this time.

 

She needed to react quicker. Pretending not to notice the spook behind her after a quick glance she continued forward. If it could touch her, she could touch it as well, she reminded herself -- frail as the girl was, she readied herself for a physical attack in her new position as she crawled across the narrow path. The saying went well: A cornered rat would bite the cat, and as the ghostly figure came closer, she thrust her right leg towards the ghost in a relatively strong kick as she held on to the path with her hands.

 

 

Edited December 5, 2016 by Noir

[Shamitako]

The Wraith bounced off of Latens's foot as intended, but instead of being flung away, it disappeared as soon as it disconnected from her foot. It reappeared in front of her, and screeched as usual. Then it began floating forward again, faster this time. The Black that had spilled out onto the path was slowly creeping down the sides, as well as creeping towards Latens. It was clearly outpacing her crawling, and if she had to keep fighting the Wraith it would soon catch up to her

[Noir]

The Unnoticed Girl

 

The black behind her consumed everything. She pondered on the possibility that she would be able to bait the wraith into appearing behind her -- possibly so that the darkness would consume it first. It was a risk, and she had no time to waste. 

 

With the creeping darkness coming again, she turned invisible again and readied herself to be intangible the first instant it intended to make contact, wanting to repeat the instance of the wraith appearing behind her earlier. She presumed that the wraith seemed to lack any form of physical perception, so it was a likely hunch that it, too, was ignorant of the darkness that came for them. Even if such assumptions were false and the ghostly being would be unaffected by such thoughts, she refused to believe anything but at that moment.

[Shamitako]

The wraith reacted just as it had before to the sudden switch, instantly teleporting away as soon as it ceased touching Latens. It screeched again as it reappeared just above the Blackened path. The Black reacted to its presence, reaching up slightly and trying to touch the wraith, but the creature avoided its touch by floating higher. It then moved towards Latens again, holding to its pattern despite the fact that Latens was adapting.

[Noir]

The Unnoticed Girl

 

Drat, she thought, not so easy again, is it?

 

While she was now sure that the wraith had a set pattern of approach, it also wasn't mindless; it knew the darkness was there and had the liberty to avoid it. She needed better timing, perhaps; as the wraith neared her Latens attempted another assault with her hind limbs as it came close enough, anticipating it to reappear before her just as it did the previous time.
 

[Sutoratosu]

The Brumal Girl

 

Rei spent a bit longer, clutching her gut as she fell to her knees from the strike, knowing naught which was more disorienting; the raw fact that she had just been, more or less, nearly eviscerated on the spot and still felt the pulsating fire of countless nerve endings, like so many bullets tearing through human flesh with all the mercy one could expect of an imperialistic battlefield... and then there was the fact that despite it, she was still able to consciously process anything at all. One thing was for certain though- whatever this was, it was most definitely, not a simple dream, at least not the types she'd always been familiar with; such a horrifyingly visceral experience as what that blob put her through moments earlier should've been enough shock to send her bolting up awake in bed in a cold sweat, screaming hysterically...

       And screaming hysterically she was, this entire time. Only now was she able to realize it as her throat and lungs burned raw with exertion, hands drenched with purer white than her hair, dress torn and stained as if someone had poured a torrent of white paint where her abdomen should've been. But even as she realized the extent of the pain, she could begin to feel it ebbing... or at least, receding enough that something else could not rear it's head... Vindiction incarnate. The merciless fury of winter itself, blooming forth from her wound and spreading throughout her entire being as her screams went from those of the dying and to that of one about to make others suffer the fate of death, eyes burning pure silver as she channeled every ounce of her focus into the air around her- and like the merciless law of winter, it did freeze to the lowest possible of matter...

 

"S H A T T E R!" She commanded with gnashing teeth and a voice like the fiercest howling of a wintry gale, the rage of that old mythic fiend still channeling through as with every ounce of mental strength she had, she blasted the aura of frost outward along the path, fast as a bullet, freezing the very landscape and space as it surged forward but yet leaving the Plant Girl completely unscathed when it passed- for she was not the one The Brumal Girl wished destruction upon here, no, for her indignation knew only the blob, and it's befouled brethren hiding behind it...

 

 

[Shamitako]

Rei's assault iced over the shuffling monsters again, freezing their advance. Ciri's arm collided with the first one, smashing its body inwards on itself. Red sprayed from the creature, coating Ciri and the floor at their feet. It stumbled backwards momentarily, before disintegrating into a pool of red. The closer of the other two creatures turned its head to face her, the ice around its body emitting cracking sounds with the effort of turning.

 

~~~

 

The Wraith did as Latens expected, teleporting in front of her and screeching again as always. The Black continued to creep forward, there was very little time left to deal with the Wraith.

[Notus]

 Petra already had dreams where she felt like she was falling, but being flung across a room was a first. She landed quite nimbly on her feet, and that was one of the reasons she knew this had to be happening inside of her head - she never was even close to being the athletic type, aside from her walks to her neighborhood´s bookstore.

 She was quick to make note of her surroundings. The pure white of the room was blinding, and she probably wouldn´t even have noticed the door if her senses weren´t somehow heightened. 

And then, there was the black thing on the other side. Her whole being was screaming "danger" to her for some reason, and she decided to trust her instinct on this one. It really looked ominous.

  Petra quickly walked to the door and reached for the knob... Only to be left speechless by the vision of her own hand.
Better saying, she had no hand anymore, but black, curved and wicked looking claws instead. Petra frantically checked the rest of her body, but aside from the claws she couldn´t see any difference. She was even wearing her usual black and white tracksuit, the one with a crown drawn on the chest.

 "Calm down, it´s just a dream... I´ll take a better look at my hands later." Petra thought to herself while reaching again for the door knob.

Only after turning it she thought how suspect was it that she was actually aware she was dreaming.

[Shamitako]

The War Girl found herself in a long room with a very low ceiling. A ceiling which was covered in silver-colored spikes. The only other feature was a mess of what looked like grey twigs in the far right corner. A bony, hollow insectoid crawled out. It rose into the air, revealing a shape vaguely like that of a wasp. Its wings buzzed as it flew quickly towards the War Girl, aiming at her with a nasty looking stinger.

[Notus]

  Normally Petra would have screamed at the sight of the giant insect coming towards her at blazing speed. She would have considered  going back to the previous room, despite of the black shadow creeping ever closer, and she would have hesitated. And she would have died.
  

 Her body moved on it´s own, though, as if it was possesed by a predator beast. Before her conscious self could process what was happening, she ran towards the wasp with all the speed her body could muster. On the last moment before being impaled by the wicked stinger, she turned slightly sideways and and lowered her body to position herself under the insect. One of her claws was positioned to deflect the stinger if the monster changed direction, and the other was thrust upwards like a bullet, trying to throw the enemy against the spiked roof.

[Shamitako]

Unfortunately for the War Girl, the Bone wasp proved too fast for her. Before she could even finish ducking down beneath it, it was already following her movements. It jabbed its stinger into the center of her chest, piercing through her sternum and out the back of her spine. It pulled back off of her, its stinger covered in White. More White streamed down from the front and back of where the War Girl had been punctured, but there were no actual wounds.

[Notus]

  Petra screamed, but no sound came out of her mouth. She noticed the white... blood? cascading from her chest and felt a pain like none she ever had. Still, her body continued to move on it's own. 

 

 She went for a more cautious stance, following carefully the wasp's movements. She knew she had to break through no matter what to leave the Black behind - even though she didn't know for sure what that was, it scared her more then the monstrous insect in front of her.

 

  Then suddenly, she felt pain. Lot's of pain. Her body didn't show it, but she was screaming inside her mind, because something was happening to her right hand. The black claws were fusing together, changing shape and growing with a sickening sound of bone cracking and tearing through flash. The process was fast, but painful to even watch. In the end of it, Petra had a long, Katana like boney sword in the place of her right hand, and started slowly and cautiously pressuring the wasp to the other side of the narrow room, ready to either stab it if it kept in her way or cut it down if she tried to get inside her reach.

[Noir]

The Unnoticed Girl

 

Determined to have better timing this time round, Latens awaited until the wraith approached a certain distance before she turned intangible again. When it would go through her fully, she would attempt to shove it into the creeping darkness behind her again, her heart pacing faster and faster, knowing that there was little time before she could proceed forward....

[Shamitako]

The War Girl

 

The Wasp was unperturbed by Petra's advance, but it really should have been. As soon as it came close, the katana crashed into it's spine, causing Red to spatter everywhere. Split in half, the Wasp's carcass crumpled from the air, forming a pool of Red on the ground. The ceiling made a strange grinding noise and lowered just slightly. Out of the grey twig thing crawled another Bone Wasp, which again rose into the air and charged at her just like the first.

 

~~~

 

The Unnoticed Girl

 

The Wraith passed through Latens again, and was too slow to react to being pushed. This time she successfully got it to touch the Black. The strange entity lashed out at the Wraith, quickly covering it completely in Blackness. The Wraith screeched repeatedly, as though it were in agony. It almost looked like the black was eating the Wraith. But the Wraith didn't fall, it remained afloat, now covered in Black. The Blackened Wraith screeched an unholy, agonizing screech and launched forward towards Latens. It lashed out mindlessly at the air in front of it, any sense of predictable behavior was gone. Black claws extended from the tips of its fingers and cut through the air, it clearly had no intention of just pushing Laten's this time.

[Notus]

The War Girl

 For a moment Petra exhilarated  for having defeated the bone wasp, but her joy was short lived as she was startled by the noise of the lowering roof and the buzz of another insect coming her way. She felt cold sweat running down her forehead, as she realized her situation was way more troublesome than she had thought.

 

 Her body assumed a defensive stance and she started to use her head along with her newly acquired instincts. She would try to block the wasp with her Katana and  hopefully pressure it towards the exit without using lethal force - meanwhile, she would think of a plan to get past it.

[Shamitako]

The Wasp seemed put off by Petra's pressuring, and withheld itself from attacking. Petra found herself at an impasse, however, as the only way out of the deathtrap of a room seemed to be back where she came from. But the room she had entered into this White world from was now heavily tainted with Black. A death trap forward and uncertain threat behind, she seemed to have no options.

[Notus]

  The realization that the room she was in had no apparent exit came as a cold shower to Petra, however while she was looking around an idea suddenly hit her.

The nest.

  It could be that the wasps were coming from somewhere else, passing through that. At least before retreating she should check that out, to make sure that room provided no escape route. How she would do that, though...

 

 Again, her body knew the answer, although it wasn´t a very pleasant one. She feinted at the wasp with her sword to gain some space, and then the bones in her right arm started moving once more. The black bone cracked and expanded, taking a long tubular shape with a cubic structure serving as base. "A... cannon?" Petra thought to herself, amazed, as she turned the barrel of the huge weapon towards the wasp´s nest.

 

 Then came pain. She felt like a piece of her own arm was being torn off as the cannon fired a projectile made of her own bone towards the target.  

[Twinwolf]

On 12/30/2016 at 0:31 AM, Nepgear said:

Rei's assault iced over the shuffling monsters again, freezing their advance. Ciri's arm collided with the first one, smashing its body inwards on itself. Red sprayed from the creature, coating Ciri and the floor at their feet. It stumbled backwards momentarily, before disintegrating into a pool of red. The closer of the other two creatures turned its head to face her, the ice around its body emitting cracking sounds with the effort of turning.

 

Ciri takes a deep breath - alright, this was going well. "Good job! Keep it up!" she calls to her companion, before advancing on the nearer monster and repeating the assault.

[Shamitako]

The wasp reacted instantly to Petra attacking the nest, confirming that at the very least it was important. Unfortunately, the War Girl was too fast for it and her attack shot past it to strike the next. The nest exploded into shards of bone and Red. A door opened up in the wall opposite the nest, revealing a small platform on the edge of a huge, open room. The wasp moved back to intercept her path to the room. The Black was about 3/4ths through her starting room, she had plenty of time to deal with the wasp and make it to the exit.

[Notus]

Petra was between happy with her success at destroying the nest and plain dumbfounded at her own newly discovered fire power - all of this with a background of pain from the shot. She started running towards the exit keeping her aim at the wasp, but after such a shocking experience she prefered to try and strike the opponent using the black cannon as a mace instead of shooting, once she had gotten closer. Her body seemed to accept that command, but she was still ready to shoot in case it was needed.

[Shamitako]

The wasp was smashed aside by Petra's attack, but was otherwise left intact. It darted back over to intercept her again, but was too slow to make an attack before she reacted.

[Noir]

The Unnoticed Girl

 

Latens had hoped that the approaching shade would rid her of that wraith, having successfully shoved her into it -- however, despite an exchange of agony and struggle, the black only served to enrage it as the darkness now coated the angered, wild wraith as it lashed violently at her. Fear reentered her bloodstream.

 

She wondered if the black had done anything to the wraith's senses; after proceeding slightly further away from the Wraith, she stood still, wanting to take a second or two to see if the Wraith detected her through her movement, or if the black influence had any effect. She largely hoped that it would go through her harmlessly again, knowing that she needed to time her moves carefully, like a game of chess, lest she lose her life there and then.