Light. Chaos. Noise. It was hard to entirely make it all out, particularly from Fuu's position. She wasn't about to get any closer; she did, in truth, have much more common sense than Lois Lane. The darkness also impeded things, making her unable to make out faces.
Even so, what she could see was almost too fantastic to be believed. Creatures too large to be human fighting against those who were definitively human, a boy-sized figure who felled a wolf, gouts of fire and light.
This was far more than she had bargained for. She pulled away, making the unconscious decision to return to her car . . .
And found herself face-to-face with Michaels, whose eyes gleamed yellow in the dark. They stared at one another for a moment, woman and man-creature, until his hand, hairy and clawed, snaked out and snatched her around the waist. By all accounts, she was his hostage now -- a last attempt at him defusing the situation, appealing to his attackers by taking a woman stupid enough to be a passerby into custody.
And good. She smelled good . . .
Fuu bit back a short yelp of surprise and rammed her elbow into his stomach. Hard. He yelled -- gasped -- and during his distraction, her foot went down his shin, cracking bone.
Meanwhile, near Shannon, a woman appeared within the bark of the tree that held him, her expression laughing and reproachful as she yanked him forward.
But what was this? The branch-drill met with tender, new-formed root. The tree-woman jerked back, roots loosening slightly around Shannon's feet.
There. Wasting no time, he shot in the direction Ling directed, a faint giddy feeling beginning to overtake him. So close. It's almost mine.
Of course, once he spotted him, the surprises just kept piling up. Michaels looked much more chimera than human now, and yet another person had shown up, apparently. Clearly not an accomplice by the way he made a grab for her. A hostage? Screw that-
He was saved from having to deal with that when Fuu elbowed the guy and took a crack at his shin, providing him with an opening. "Nice!" He took it by rushing up and bringing his elbow down onto the arm that held Fuu.
So, Shannon was not having a good day. The tree was not only a tree -- but a woman? "What is she?! What is she?!" His voiced cracked, and he continued to shriek as he was pulled forward.
And then it all happened so fast - Shannon saw the other branch drill forward, felt the circulation start to return to his feet, and then he was tumbling backwards at Felix, flailing his arms for balance he was sure not to find (and hitting a new high note in his screaming!). Apparently, in the heat of battle, Shannon was destined to fall on his ass. Multiple times.
Meanwhile, the branch drill continued to drill deeper -- until Shannon's ass hit solid ground and the prospect of becoming tree food was no longer an immediate issue. Then, it simply stopped, stuck in as far as it had drilled.
Fuu barely had time to register the boy in front of her; her main focus was getting this man-creature to let go. Another kick while he was distracted, putting all her weight into it -- the fracture became a solid break, and Michaels toppled back with a howl frighteningly like the real thing. And with Greed's elbow slamming down on his arm . . . there was no hope of holding onto Fuu, who tumbled out of his grip and into the dirt.
"Fucking . . ." But Michaels barely even spared the time to think, let alone finish the sentence. His arm vanished into a solid mass of bone, sharp like a blade, which sliced towards Greed's neck.
. . . In spite of the break to his shin, beyond the initial pain, he did not even seem to feel it, and it bore his weight.
Pouting, the tree-woman -- or dryad, though she could not say so -- flicked her wounded root, sending Shannon's branch flying. She pulled the wound into the earth and vanished back into the bark.
After the hit, he looked over as Fuu tumbled down, which may have been a mistake as he was just barely able to dodge Michaels' slash at his neck by jerking his upper body back, taking a couple steps back afterward to follow the movement. Where had he gotten a- oh. That was his arm.
As he regained his balance and took on a more defensive stance, arms shielded up to the shoulders and held ready for combat, his single-mindedness finally gave way enough for everything else to begin to catch up and fall into place. This guy... as little as he knew for certain about them, it had to be a shard. And he'd somehow harnessed its power to change like this. That wolf... had it sensed that this man was a threat? No, it wasn't a normal wolf- it must have sensed the shard itself. Wanted it. Was that what this woman had been looking for, too?
He addressed Michaels, casually enough despite the circumstances. "Hey, whatever your name is. How about you hand over your shard, and I'll let you go free. If you don't, I'll have no choice but to take it by force."
For now, he didn't question the circumstances surrounding his rescue. Trees were weird, Felix was pulling, Shannon was on his ass. At least his ass had a bit of cushioning this time. It helped when you fell on someone.
Shannon, for his part, took his time in getting up, unconcerned with Felix's need to breathe. He had just been through one of the most traumatic experiences of his life. In fact, it seemed like every experience in this town was doomed to be traumatic. He needed to recover his dignity. First step: dislodge self from former lover.
He slowly pushed away from Felix until he was standing. He brushed off his clothes, though they were clearly ruined - stained, torn, stretched - and only then did he speak, in a slightly hoarse, worn-out voice: "That was unpleasant."
And there seemed to be more unpleasantness around the bend, if he could trust his ears. "Has the entire world gone mad?"
Wasn't this all supposed to belong to some kind of B movie? Fuu would have strongly liked to insinuate as such, though the fact that she could feel her heart in her ribcage was discouraging. What was this boy doing, challenging this thing as though he expected to be able to fight the world and win?
"Fuck." Her hands scrabbled for something in the dirt -- stones, a handful of soil, anything, her voice a staccato, crowding Greed's. "Don't you have any common sense?"
Her hand flashed out, flinging a mass of dust into Michaels' face.
The man-beast twisted, but not having expected it, received the dirt in one eye, effectively blinding him on that side. And apparently he didn't think much of Greed's proposition; his other arm formed another blade, which he brought swinging down at Greed's shoulder.
"Hey!" The exclamation was more surprise than anything as she flung the dirt, and he gave her a more appraising glance. No time to really judge her at this particular moment, though.
"You've got guts- but you don't stand a chance against this guy."
As he finished his sentence, he moved to deflect the incoming blow with his arm, the blade striking and scraping against the carbon shielding as he forced it away.
"So hurry up and get out of here!" He didn't shout out of urgency, but more out of an adrenaline thrill as he went in for a counterattack, quickly dropping to a low crouch with his hands on the ground- well below the towering man's impaired vision, he presumed- as he struck out with one leg, swinging for the leg Fuu had already damaged.
Shannon tried to ignore the noise of the fight, but it seemed like Felix wasn't going to. No way Shannon was going to be left behind here, with that tree - and other trees - being so close by. However, he tried, urgently, to persuade Felix, asking with a voice full of nervous energy: "Can't we just go, Felix?"
It was a lame attempt, and it clearly didn't work. Sighing, he picked his way carefully after Felix. Shannon could have run out of the forest, but he hadn't told the taxi to wait and his house was too far to walk to. He didn't fancy having to walk by all those trees on the way out, either.
So instead, he was left facing the scene of a very scary, very impossible looking fight. There was the kid again, and now a woman, and of course that...man. Shannon thought it best to stay out of this one. He'd had enough excitement and danger. He did, however, offer a girlish yelp and a frantic, "Do something!" to Felix.
Guts. Fuu could better retort that Greed had more insanity himself, but there was no time for such a thing as he charged forward.
Unfortunately for Greed, the leg held . . . Greed's strike bounced off from it like a pebble, though it must have hurt Michaels to some degree -- the roar was sharp. Blindly the man stabbed downward with both hands, attempting to spear his assailant with both bone-bladed hands.
. . . Not even this would last long. Felix's spell closed in like a vice around the convict's brain. Again he roared, faltering . . . For the moment, all defenses were open.
Okay, so he hadn't expected that hit to just bounce off; it threw him off for a second. Otherwise he wouldn't have had any trouble dodging that mindless attack. As it was, he pushed off from the ground forcefully to both jump back to his feet and backwards out of the way of the attack, but it was just a moment too late, one of the blades slashing deeply into his thigh midway through the movement. He cursed loudly and fell on his ass. Should've done up my legs too.
"You'll pay for that-" He scrambled back to his feet, limped backwards once; then there was a minute but visible crackle of energy around the wound and it was healed. Now my pants are ruined, too. He frowned at his enemy, quickly trying to size him up. His options were to either kill him or disable him, the latter so that he could interrogate him about the shard. Or just get the shard off him, if that opportunity presented itself. Considering his attack just then, disabling him could prove a difficult task. But he'd go for that first.
Fighting this guy hand-to-...bone blade, well, it wasn't the best of odds. But he didn't have any other weapon, so it would have to do. He was about to try another attack when Michaels suddenly roared...in pain? Either way, he wasn't about to wait and let him get another attack in before him. He tried for a piercing attack this time, attempting to spear his hand through the front of Michaels' shoulder.
Even so, what she could see was almost too fantastic to be believed. Creatures too large to be human fighting against those who were definitively human, a boy-sized figure who felled a wolf, gouts of fire and light.
This was far more than she had bargained for. She pulled away, making the unconscious decision to return to her car . . .
And found herself face-to-face with Michaels, whose eyes gleamed yellow in the dark. They stared at one another for a moment, woman and man-creature, until his hand, hairy and clawed, snaked out and snatched her around the waist. By all accounts, she was his hostage now -- a last attempt at him defusing the situation, appealing to his attackers by taking a woman stupid enough to be a passerby into custody.
And good. She smelled good . . .
Fuu bit back a short yelp of surprise and rammed her elbow into his stomach. Hard. He yelled -- gasped -- and during his distraction, her foot went down his shin, cracking bone.
Reply
But what was this? The branch-drill met with tender, new-formed root. The tree-woman jerked back, roots loosening slightly around Shannon's feet.
Reply
Of course, once he spotted him, the surprises just kept piling up. Michaels looked much more chimera than human now, and yet another person had shown up, apparently. Clearly not an accomplice by the way he made a grab for her. A hostage? Screw that-
He was saved from having to deal with that when Fuu elbowed the guy and took a crack at his shin, providing him with an opening. "Nice!" He took it by rushing up and bringing his elbow down onto the arm that held Fuu.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
And then it all happened so fast - Shannon saw the other branch drill forward, felt the circulation start to return to his feet, and then he was tumbling backwards at Felix, flailing his arms for balance he was sure not to find (and hitting a new high note in his screaming!). Apparently, in the heat of battle, Shannon was destined to fall on his ass. Multiple times.
Meanwhile, the branch drill continued to drill deeper -- until Shannon's ass hit solid ground and the prospect of becoming tree food was no longer an immediate issue. Then, it simply stopped, stuck in as far as it had drilled.
Reply
"Fucking . . ." But Michaels barely even spared the time to think, let alone finish the sentence. His arm vanished into a solid mass of bone, sharp like a blade, which sliced towards Greed's neck.
. . . In spite of the break to his shin, beyond the initial pain, he did not even seem to feel it, and it bore his weight.
Reply
A pity. He might have been fun, too.
Reply
As he regained his balance and took on a more defensive stance, arms shielded up to the shoulders and held ready for combat, his single-mindedness finally gave way enough for everything else to begin to catch up and fall into place. This guy... as little as he knew for certain about them, it had to be a shard. And he'd somehow harnessed its power to change like this. That wolf... had it sensed that this man was a threat? No, it wasn't a normal wolf- it must have sensed the shard itself. Wanted it. Was that what this woman had been looking for, too?
He addressed Michaels, casually enough despite the circumstances. "Hey, whatever your name is. How about you hand over your shard, and I'll let you go free. If you don't, I'll have no choice but to take it by force."
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Shannon, for his part, took his time in getting up, unconcerned with Felix's need to breathe. He had just been through one of the most traumatic experiences of his life. In fact, it seemed like every experience in this town was doomed to be traumatic. He needed to recover his dignity. First step: dislodge self from former lover.
He slowly pushed away from Felix until he was standing. He brushed off his clothes, though they were clearly ruined - stained, torn, stretched - and only then did he speak, in a slightly hoarse, worn-out voice: "That was unpleasant."
And there seemed to be more unpleasantness around the bend, if he could trust his ears. "Has the entire world gone mad?"
Reply
"Fuck." Her hands scrabbled for something in the dirt -- stones, a handful of soil, anything, her voice a staccato, crowding Greed's. "Don't you have any common sense?"
Her hand flashed out, flinging a mass of dust into Michaels' face.
The man-beast twisted, but not having expected it, received the dirt in one eye, effectively blinding him on that side. And apparently he didn't think much of Greed's proposition; his other arm formed another blade, which he brought swinging down at Greed's shoulder.
Yes, Shannon. The entire world had gone mad.
Reply
"You've got guts- but you don't stand a chance against this guy."
As he finished his sentence, he moved to deflect the incoming blow with his arm, the blade striking and scraping against the carbon shielding as he forced it away.
"So hurry up and get out of here!" He didn't shout out of urgency, but more out of an adrenaline thrill as he went in for a counterattack, quickly dropping to a low crouch with his hands on the ground- well below the towering man's impaired vision, he presumed- as he struck out with one leg, swinging for the leg Fuu had already damaged.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
It was a lame attempt, and it clearly didn't work. Sighing, he picked his way carefully after Felix. Shannon could have run out of the forest, but he hadn't told the taxi to wait and his house was too far to walk to. He didn't fancy having to walk by all those trees on the way out, either.
So instead, he was left facing the scene of a very scary, very impossible looking fight. There was the kid again, and now a woman, and of course that...man. Shannon thought it best to stay out of this one. He'd had enough excitement and danger. He did, however, offer a girlish yelp and a frantic, "Do something!" to Felix.
Reply
Unfortunately for Greed, the leg held . . . Greed's strike bounced off from it like a pebble, though it must have hurt Michaels to some degree -- the roar was sharp. Blindly the man stabbed downward with both hands, attempting to spear his assailant with both bone-bladed hands.
. . . Not even this would last long. Felix's spell closed in like a vice around the convict's brain. Again he roared, faltering . . . For the moment, all defenses were open.
Reply
"You'll pay for that-" He scrambled back to his feet, limped backwards once; then there was a minute but visible crackle of energy around the wound and it was healed. Now my pants are ruined, too. He frowned at his enemy, quickly trying to size him up. His options were to either kill him or disable him, the latter so that he could interrogate him about the shard. Or just get the shard off him, if that opportunity presented itself. Considering his attack just then, disabling him could prove a difficult task. But he'd go for that first.
Fighting this guy hand-to-...bone blade, well, it wasn't the best of odds. But he didn't have any other weapon, so it would have to do. He was about to try another attack when Michaels suddenly roared...in pain? Either way, he wasn't about to wait and let him get another attack in before him. He tried for a piercing attack this time, attempting to spear his hand through the front of Michaels' shoulder.
Reply
Leave a comment