by RKT16ct » Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:35 pm
JADE CURTIS
The smoke of their breaths rises into the air. Their steps echo across the cavern. Yet their steps were not the only thing heard amongst the icy walls; in the distance they could hear the smashing of ice cubes against the floor; the crunching of behemoth footsteps upon the hardened, frozen ground. The group even found it hard to breath, fearing that their lungs might freeze from the subzero temperature of the dungeon.
Ice Dungeon. It was their task, and the reward was reported to be strength, wisdom, and glory. They knew their task was not a simple one- a living snowman asking their assistance in ridding the area of the Titan masses of ice; all because they were "cramping his cool", whatever that might have meant. However, their quest was clear- fight. And though their flesh was paling because of the chill of the air- their hearts were burning with the great fire of adventure; and prompted them to walk that icy mile.
Jade Curtis was no ordinary professor. His scholarly skills earned him utmost rank amongst the premier of support builds. If there ever was a scholar that knew their shit, and did it beyond the norm, he was the golden example. If a wizards' magic reserves were depleted, he knew it; and before they could even ask for replenishment, he had already refilled their energies. If a monk or champion threw all of what he was into his definitive attack- he was keeping track; and as much ki as they might have used, he was ready with his tandeki and gave them their tamashi no iki wo hakidasu before they even knew what was going on. Exceptional was an understatement for his performance, and he thrived on it being that way.
His companions were ever-so wary in traveling that reflective-blue distance. The cold walls served as mirrors, reflecting both their fear, and their determination ; with each one of them fighting within themselves to strengthen their resolve, they clenched their fists and walked upon the slippery surface, putting their minds to be ready for whatever monster might come their way. Lumais Drakkengaurd was the first to break the silence.
"So, I'll travel up front and bring them to you guys" He said hesitantly.
The High Wizard, Zeal, took a quick look around him and replied, "Yes, and we'll be ready"
Zeal turned to another High Wizard, and gave him a wink of confidence as comrades do. The other wizard responded gingerly, "I'm ready now. Bring the fuckers here!"
Jade Curtis brought a hand out as if to calm a raging storm, and replied, "Tranquilo, Kalessin. Waiting is within the virtue of patience. And next to patience is godliness"
"No. Cleanliness is next to godliness." Kal replied.
"Well, if we're talking about cleanliness, you aren't winning points there either" Zeal interjected.
"Well if we're talking about assholes, then you are winning points there." Kal snapped back.
The two High Wizards then continued to bite and devour at each other with their cutting words, as Jade rubbed the temples of his forehead with his index finger and thumb in disbelief of what was taking place. Just as he was about to silence them, the High Priest Divina broke in.
"Guys, shut up! Listen!"
Jade was appreciative of the Absolute ally helping out with the quest. Seemed like simple enough of a task: slaying a certain amount of Ice Titans. When the list came up of how many he wanted to hunt- he picked 150 off the list. But Natsu suggested that they get a party going to do it, and that they needed a priest. However, Subaru had gone missing for a few days now. Her last whereabouts were with Ryu the champ and, from what he could gather from Mistgun's accounts- a purple robed stranger. So with their guild's High Priest MIA- Natsu contacted the guild allies in Absolute to see if they had any High Priests bored with nothing to do; and Divina volunteered for the party. The awkward thing about all of it was the Absolute guild was down a man too- Winterblind had gone missing for a few days as well. "So they all went off somewhere and disappeared? Not a word, nor a peep from them since. Strange", Natsu said at the time. He sent a few experienced members to track them down, and question those who knew of their last known whereabouts.
But the Ice Dungeon was the concern at the moment. Divina prompted them to listen, and listen they did. Zeal and Kalessin quieted themselves, and faintly, ever so faintly, they could hear the cold breath of an icy behemoth nearby.
But how nearby was it?
Jade Curtis looked around him frantically, to no avail. The echoes off the walls of the cave were making it hard to pinpoint the monster's position. Its as if the mirrors were actually reflecting the sounds as well- to make the movements of one Titan seem as a thousand. But what else was there to identify the creature's proximity? Feeling. The air itself, and the magicks that rose as a sustained mist in the atmosphere. Jade Curtis' magical training was going to be put to the test; how well could he sense the unsensible? How attuned was his third eye to the unseen realm? It was time for those questions to be answered; for if they could not be- they were all dead.
Sensing. Feeling the mist. Noticing a change in temperature. Being sensitive to the stillness in the air. It was a hard trick to master, but he closed his eyes and put his hands forth as if he were feeling the air itself. Nothing. Jade Curtis was not about to let his training in the arts of magick go to waste; he hardened his resolve as he concentrated more. All of a sudden, the steps stopped. The icy "crunch" had ceased, but the breathing of icy mist continued.
"Jade Curtis, behind you!" shouted Kal
"ego autem dico vobis, non resistere malo sed si quis te percusserit in dextera maxilla, tua praebe, illi et alteram---- Permitanme sacrificarme por ellas"
A cold razor sharp fist shot straight to his back; he felt the pain only for a moment- but it faded quickly- as if it were carried upon a mystical wind to some far off place. He looked about and saw a smokey blue line connecting him with Lumais, and realized what he just did. Luma was writhing in pain from a blow to his back, though there were no Titans actively attacking him. He had taken the blow for Jade, with a skill that were exclusive to Paladins.
"Sacrificarme," he muttered to himself, "I see."
"You see?" Zeal shouted, "If you see so damn well, then how come you couldn't get a glance at that shitty beast about your back?!?"
"Quit your idle talk! Move Jade Curtis!" Divina roared.
Jade hustled out of the way. Luma advanced to take the blows from the monster, while Divina kept chanting "beati pauperes," or "beati mites" or "beati qui esuriunt"; keeping his blessings up and even more heard was the incantation of "curacion" and "hechizos de sancion"; which were just fancier ways of saying "heal". The blessings were boosting his strength, and fortifying his endurance. The healings were making wounds disappear as fast as the frozen behemoth was giving them. But as he looked on, he saw that Divina's power was being drained, and her constitution was failing. Now it was his turn.
"Tamashi no iki wo hakidasu" was his chant. Immediately virtue left him- and a blue smoke went from his aura and flew to Divina as a line; without bend or break, and light returned to her eyes.
Jade glanced to the side of him. Both Kal and Zeal were glowing with auras white hot. The ground once frozen with ice was not being broken and melted from the heat of their precast. This monster was about to be smoked, and it was so concerned with beating their meat-shield Luma that it didn't even notice. Then Jade Curtis thought of something to help out the situation, and perhaps piss the monster off even more. He took out a small blue gem, and started chanting.
"anzen sei no kabe," and the stone dissolved.
Luma was enduring the icy fists of the frozen giant, when a circular wall of a pinkish hue haze went up around him. Now instead of taking hits, the monster was hitting the haze- which crackled like lightning against his fist.
"Hah! Baka!" Jade Curtis pointed and laughed.
The Ice Titan paused, and looked over to Jade. He ceased from his attacks on Luma, and pushed his way forward to him, thrusting Divina aside and readying his cold talons.
"How the hell did you do that Jade? You don't even have a provocation skill!" Luma shouted back
"Well you seem to be well enough skilled in it, take cover!" Divina said with teeth clenched in pain, as she was laid almost flat to the ground from the Ice Titan's shove.
"No worries" came a voice from behind, familiar and calm. "We're ready."
"I was ready before you, and I even did my zofuku jumon" called out another familiar voice.
"So did I, but I invested more towards my intelligence rather than dexterity. So your's might be faster at casting, but will be weaker than mine ultimately." the other voice rang in.
"I can pull two of these out before you even get your one in," the other voice clanged in, annoyed.
"JUST DO IT!" Chorused Luma, Jade, and Divina together.
"Ok" Zeal and Kal shirked.
They took their positions, and let rip:
"SHUIRO NO RYOSHU!"
"KAMINARII!"
A spiral of electric heat came down like the swirls of a barber shop's pole. All upon the Frozen monster's head. The blast cremated part of it's body, only leaving half a mass left standing for the next onslaught: A great single bolt of white lightning landing upon it.
The attack was so intense that it partially melted the surrounding walls, and had liquified what was once the frozen floor. To Jade's amazement, there was dirt beneath them; as if this cave at some point in time had been a place of earth- before the harsh magical winter had consumed it all, and made it into the frozen hell that it was now.
The monster had been utterly destroyed in the wake of the two High Wizard's fury. But this was only one of the required 150 that they had agreed to slay.
"Is that it?" Kal questioned. "I mean, I got more fight in me than that"
They heard the numerous footsteps around them, and wondered what other locations they could scout around at. But something in Jade tingled, and he spoke up.
"Guys, I think another one is coming."
"Just one, seriously? that other one was a cinch. I think we need a whole gaggle of 'em," Luma coined in.
The next Titan lurched his way towards them. His reflection off of the walls making it seem as if he were joined by many. The only thing giving off any heat were those red, glowing eyes. Eyes of hate, rage. Perhaps some empty soul whose disgust for humankind as a whole cursed his afterlife to this icy shell of a monster. Perhaps a monster destroyed in some previous life, and reincarnated to life in this frozen hell as punishment for past sins. Either way, it was their job to dispatch it.
They all took their positions. Luma was up front ready to take a beating, and activated his la resistencia fisica. Divina chanted her long phrase in Latin and gave everyone blessings.
"Vos estis lux mundi non potest civitas absoondi supra montem posita" she sang.
"Just say assumptio dammit! All that chanting, singing, whatever takes up too much time!" Kal harped
"I do not complain about your long casting time for your spells" Divina muttered
"Yes, I have cast time. But your blessings are instantaneous, and your assumptio casts under a second. So all this pretty tongue before you actually do the skill is just wasted time. And ya' know what I think? I think you do it just to piss us off, i say."
Divina put up a hand and laughed to herself, "Oh yes, and you never do anything intentionally to piss other people off..."
Zeal started rolling on the floor, laughing out loud, "Shit, she got ya there! Bitch you got pwned!"
"'Pwned' as a word is soooo 2007..." Kal sighed
Jade Curtis shook his head and looked away from the banter behind him and put his eyes upon the Ice Titan. It didn't move. But it's eyes were glowing a red hotter than before.
"Guys," he motioned towards the monster, "Get it done."
All of a sudden a being of light with wings as bright as the sun flew over with scales in one hand, and a sword in the other. It hovered over the cold creature and imbedded upon it the mark of 7 swords. It must've been Divina using Lex Aeterna. So whatever damage would be dealt would be seven times worse than if it were done normal style.
The Ice Titan looked down upon the remains of it's fallen brother. The red glow of it's eyes became as a fire, and the burning of its soul came out as a gutteral howl that rang all throughout the cave.
"GWAUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"
At that moment, the walls of ice that covered the cave surrounding their party had shattered. What Jade Curtis was now looking at was not one Ice Titan, enraged by the death of his brother; but more than a dozen icy masses, hungry for the hot blood of their brother's murderers.
"Oh shit," Jade exclaimed, "All this time, those weren't reflections."
"There's one more my ass! That's what you get for waiting for the hairs of your genitals to tingle rather than use the two eyes God gave ya!" Kal bolstered
Zeal smacked him over the head, "This isn't time for the blame-game! As you can see, we are in deep shit here!"
Divina acted quickly, taking several blue gemstones from her satchel and chanting over them. At the end of her chants, the blue gems dissolved and all 4 of them were surrounded in a pink haze of protection.
"Now that was quick!" Kal exclaimed.
"Shuttup and start casting dammit!" Zeal shouted
The exercise was proving to be fruitless. When they would start their cast, they would only get interrupted as their safety wall shattered, and they were prone to injury. There was just too many too handle. Perhaps having this party was a bad idea, Jade thought to himself. Divina was using up blue gems as quickly as a chain smoker through a pack of cigs; attempting to re-establish a safety wall around the individual party members, and then quickly healing their wounds. Even Jade was chanting his anzen sei no kabe's and using up his blue gemstone supply to keep the safety walls going. But they were not going to be defeating even one more of the 150 they signed up to kill, if their main concern was attempting to stay alive.
"This is bad" Luma said, sustaining hits without the luxuries of safety wall.
"Shit, i need to safety wall you!" Divina exclaimed.
She reached into her bag and searched through hurriedly and turned it upside down to see if any would drop. Nothing but a butterfly wing came out. "Shit"
"We're screwed" Kal screamed.
Jade looked on the panicked Divina, and knew instantly that her power had been drained, along with her resolve. She was out of SP- the power which all magic users and members of the holy order drew from. For them, having that be drained just as bad as dying. They might have thought better of it to just throw the towel in, and warp out. Jade had one blue gem left- and was considering giving it to her to create a warp portal.
"Divina" He shouted across
"Dammit" as a hail of icy claws came down upon her pinked walls "what is it?"
"Here, take this and wa..."
As he was about to finish the sentence, a loud BOOM shook the caverns. It was like the beat of a heavy drum; then it seemed like someone with a crude voice started shouting
SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS
SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS
SHOTS------
"Wtf?" the party chimed, all with visible question marks above their heads
What seemed like a song, continued. Jade deduced it was being broadcast over them from the floor above. But he couldn't pinpoint the position, or why it was even happening.
what you drinkin' on?
Jaegerbombs
lemondrops
Buttery Nipples
Jello shots
Kamikaze
Three Wize men
Fuck all dat shit
Get me some Gin
Jade Curtis clenched his fist in realization. He figured it out. He looked up and crossed his arms and calmly proclaimed
"Yep, that could only be him."
The party looked at Jade then looked up with him.
Just then the frozen ceiling above them shattered, and out from it flew down three shadowy figures, two of which were covered as it seemed with red lightning. Jade concluded them to be champions; the more primitive, and violent contingency of the holy order. Their garments were as fire matched against pure white, with fists glowing red hot with power and fury. The third figure Jade could clearly see was wearing the holy garment of the priestly order.
Quickly the two lightning red figures hit ground, and each took a target for their next attack. With a rush of energy, a blast spread out from them as they ran their fists through their icy opponents; and two of the icy demons were dispatched with ease.
The rest of the Titans stepped back, if only for a moment, as if in fear of the power these two held.
The one champ carried a bag, and it dropped to the ground and what looked like jellopies poured out from it. The other champ dropped his bag and out from it poured what looked like treats of some sort wrapped in a blue metallic foil. The priestly member had a satchel with her with blue gemstones literally about to burst the bag.
"Ok guys" chimed in the one champion who carried the jellopies, "where's the party?"
) and then I just could not stop reading!
