Log: Meric And Eva Take On A Shapeshifter
Eva's sniff is of an entirely different kind as she walks on, wiping her nose.
Meric frowns and makes his way in Eva's direction. "You alright, Eva?" he asks when he's close enough, sure she's already noticed him.
Eva sniffs "Yeah." she smiles. "I've chased away lady Desirata?"
Meric walks closer and moves to scoop Eva up unless she protests. "She said she had to go. You don't sound or smell alright. Are you ill?"
Eva sneezes "I might be allergic to you?" she offers with a grin, scooped up.
"I doubt it," Meric assures as he lifts her up and cradles her against his chest. "You sound as if the cold has gotten to you. Maybe I should build a shelter next time."
Eva bahs "I've grown lame since I chose to stay in the city this long..." she nuzzles into his shoulder "I was never cold when I travelled, before."
Meric starts walking, carrying her in the direction of the woods. "The city doesn't do anything good when it comes to one's ability to survive," he agrees, allowing her to nuzzle his shoulder as they walk. "If you spend enough time with me you'll be fine."
Eva chuckles "I feel better already. So, how come I keep bumping into you, big bad wolf man?"
"Fatal attraction," Meric answers her as he looks around and sniffs some. "You can't get enough of me so you find your way to me."
Eva hmphs at his explanation but doesn't deny it. She asks "What are you looking for?" her own nose crippled for the day.
"A safe place," Meric says, sniffing more deeply now. "We're being followed." He keeps walking, though, so as not to give away that he knows this. "Lots of them."
Eva blinks and tries to sniff. "I can't smell a thing." she seems annoyed. "I had no idea." if he didn't know better he'd think she's a bit spooked about her dulled down keen senses.
"Relax," Meric assures her as he takes another deep sniff. "Road creatures..." There's a menacing growl in his throat as he comes into a small clearing. He walks to the dead center and lowers Eva down to her feet once more. "Lots of them and a big one." He draws his sword from its sheath.
Eva nods and rests her hands on the hilt of her sword. She sniffs. Come little blacklings, sniff, sniff.
Meric sniffs and peers into the darkness of the trees as he turns about. "Well, we're surrounded. That's good," he says, an grin growing on his face. "Come on then!" he shouts.
The creatures seem to answer as they pour from the trees. Most of them look to be what's left of men, but some of the others are just touched creatures, mostly deer.
The hoard are like an unbridled tide of death. They surge forward at what they thought was unsuspecting and easy prey. Perhaps they were hungry, perhaps they just hated that the two were untouched. Either way, they rush to battle.
Meric is ready and waiting for them. He feels Eva put her back up to his and so roots himself in place, his blade at the ready. For added strength, he holds it in both hands. And when the Hoard arrives, the blades lays waste to the front group in front of him.
Eva calms her breathing, or lack of there of, and with a slightly disturbing grin on her face starts to slash through the beings with ease of a dancer.
The Hoard doesn't stop at the fall of a few of its friends. They've seen it before. There's always some that fail. They come on, swinging and slashing and attempting to gore the duo.
Meric swings his blade as if he were clearing trees. Two of the men-like ones fall, having been split in half by his blade. A deer tries to gore him, but he rams his blade down its throat.
Eva's dark blades find particulary amusing in swift slashes that leave the enemy confused as to wether they were cut or not, just before half of them slides away to oblivion.
There's a heavy thump and the ground shakes suddenly. The hoard has stopped coming from the trees. It's only those in the clearing now.
Meric ducks under a blade meant to cut his head from his skull, not even bothering to warn Eva since she's shorter than he is. That blade passes harmlessly quite a bit above her. He throws a shoulder into the group and drives them back before he spins and draws his blade through them.
Eva doesn't smell the black goo, but she felt THAT. She looks around, gutting the blacklings with precise slashes of katana almost as if they were flies, bothering her. SHe looks around.
Another thump, this one closer. Trees sway off to the side.
Meric brings his blade down and splits the skull of a man before he draws his axe and buries it in the chest of another. His own gaze flicks briefly to the trees.
Eva spins into a kick, pushing one enemy with suprising force against a tree, while decapitating another "So, what do you reckon it is?" she says, casually.
The thump comes closer this time and one can distinctly hear the sound of a falling tree, and then see it as it crashes into the clearing. The hoard is all but wiped out. The two experienced fighters easily outclassing them.
Meric clears another group of the little peons and then glances to Eva. "Not the slightest idea, but it doesn't smell good." He cleans up the last of the little ones.
Eva grins and finishes off her last little one. "And it's here...."
As if on cue, a.. black wolf? comes walking out of the forest and stops a little ways off. She's got long black fur, is somewhat dainty, and has some gray and white mixed in, mostly around her face and tail. She peers at the two of them. "Hello, Meric."
Meric hoists his blade up to his shoulder and turns to non-chalantly look at the woods. When he sees the wolf his face gets that big, wide-eyed look of shock. "Ivari?"
Eva swishes her blades in a pretty neat looking spins before she slips into a careful stance towards the wolfie. The bad one.
"Poor little, Meric. You had to watch me die but weren't strong enough to save me," the wolf thing says. Suddenly she shifts and stands a woman. A rather strikingly handsome woman, even. "How would you like to watch her die." She points to Eva.
"No.. You aren't Ivari," Meric says, suddenly growing very angry. His fingers tighen on his weapons. "You aren't!"
Eva places a flat side of her katana to Meric's chest. Perhaps to tell him to calm down.
"Oh, but of course I am, little brother," Ivari says with a broad grin, it growing as Eva puts a blade against Meric's chest. Suddenly, she shifts and stands as Thane North, looking at Eva. "Hello, Eva."
Meric stares at the new change, Eva's blade having held him back for now. Fingers, though, are still tight on the hilt of his weapons.
Eva doesn't look at it, her profile turned both to Meric and the vile creature. She grits her teeth, before smirking "He always called my real name, foul creature." she turns her sharply cold gaze on the shape of Thane it took "How dare you take his form." she spins her katana. But her anger is like liquid ice.
Now it's the Road creatures turn to be angry. It yells at them, no real words, just a yell, and advances at a run. At the last second it changed again, this time as a three headed dragon, a hydra. One head goes for each of them.
"What will it take for me to get your real name?" Meric questions as he glances to Eva. Then the thing is charging and he looks back, weapons coming up. But when it shifts and the head comes for him, he jumps to try and get out of the way, but teeth graze him down the back, taking out some of his armor which in turn rubs some of his skin off.
Eva dances around the head that attacks her, swishing both swords to chop off one of the heads that were after Meric. She tumbles down to avoid a bite herself and waits a bit out of it's reach. She doesn't really reply "Are you alright?"
The Hydra rears, missing a head, but two new ones appear from where the first one was. These two both go after Eva, gnashing at her, doing their best to do her harm and hopefully eat her.
Meric rights himself in time to avoid another attack and he turns to bury his axe in the neck of one of them before he heads for the body. "I'm fine!" he calls back to Eva.
Eva hmphs, having her own issues at the moment "I believe...I heard a story...about gah....THIS!" she fends off heads, avoiding further slaying for the moment "I hate when I find out I didn't lie in my stories!"
The beast grows angry at Eva and changes once again. This time it is a fire breathing lizard, large and angry. Tail slaps suddenly right at Eva as fire is spewed at Meric.
Meric actually yelps when the fire is turned on him. He runs around the creature, hard, doing what he can to avoid the flames while looking for a vantage point so he can attack.
Eva is sweeped away, the hit kicking breath out of her lungs. She rises to her feet while Meric keeps lizard busy, staggering a little, holding arm against her ribs. She growls, the hit making her angry and even more determined, attacking the beast from behind as Meric attracts flame throwing head.
The beast knows what Meric is and knows the only weakness it can use against him. It keeps doing what it can to burn him, ignoring Eva for the moment as it's occupied and has already given her a good tail smack.
Meric keeps running around as fast as he can, the lizard shifting around and following after him, spewing flames. "I hate fire!"
Eva would likely grin, but the bloodlust in her eyes has one target only as she leaps up the beasts' back and leaps in the air crossing her arms at elbows for blades to get more strength. With a yell, blades swish from both sides through tough neck like it was butter.
The beast screams as blades whip through its neck, beheading it. The head falls away, but the body continues to thrash. It rolls over, taking Eva with it.
Meric takes advantage of her cutting the things head off and takes a quick breather. When it rolls over, Meric moves quickly and thrusts his blade into the things chest.
Eva seems rather annoyed with the fact that beast decided to roll over and die on top of her after he finished it off. Either annoyed, or she can't breathe cause the damn thing is heavy. Can't really see if she's blue and out of air, cause she's soaked in creature's blood.
Meric pulls his blade out of the things chest and tosses it to the side before he grabs one of the legs and pulls. He gets the body off of Eva and then walks around to see if she's alright. His back is still bleeding. "You alright?"
Eva lies back, her arms stretched out, but not losing grasp of her cherished swords. "Ow." she coughs and sits up with a slight wince "You?"
Meric nods and moves over to sit beside her. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. Stupid thing wanted to turn me into cooked wolf."
Eva tries to laugh, then slips arm around her ribs, giving up "You made quite a masculine sound back there." she watches him through blood sticked bangs.
"I don't like fire," Meric says, rather sheepishly even. He reaches out to touch her arm and looks her over. "Teeth got my back there for a bit. It get you with anything but its tail?"
Eva says "No. Tail got a few ribs, though." she breathes in deeply, breaths out sharply and then decides to keep her breathing shallow. She looks at his back.
"Well, guess I can't toss you around for a while," Meric says, laughing just a bit as she looks at his back. He stands and walks over to get his lost weapons before coming back to her. "Let's go find somewhere safer than here. I'll build us a shelter."