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Post by Skyfire on Mar 3, 2010 6:50:28 GMT -5
Buzz eyed Zurg, trying to assess just what kind of toll those spells would take on the Evil Em – ahem, White Mage. …Oh brother, was that ever a twist: Zurg knew more about these games, certainly, but Buzz was the CO here. He shook his head at the thought, folding his arms and leaning his head back to stare up at the leaves above and the sky beyond.
“It sounds good,” Buzz said at last, “buuut… What kind of toll would that take on you?”
Then something occurred to him. If they were going… what? 200-300% faster than the battlewulfs… “These battlewulfs… are they cannibalistic like grey wolves? Because, if they are… well, really, whether they are or not, if we’re going 200-300% faster than they are, I could probably manage to kill some of them as we go.” He tilted his head back down to look at Zurg.
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Post by eez on Mar 4, 2010 3:54:50 GMT -5
"Oh I'd be having the biggest headache this side of the universe; but it'd be so totally worth it if we can outrun this mob." He smiled, thinking of the bragging rights.
Zurg snapped out of his dreamy reverie, however, once he heard Lightyear suggest something rather interesting.
"Cannibalistic? What, you think I'm a walking Monsterpedia?" The Evil Emperor scoffed. But it didn't sound like such a bad idea, though...Could work...if they ran fast enough and executed it without a hitch. "If they're starving, it might just work." He finished, getting his wooden staff ready for some serious casting.
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Post by Skyfire on Mar 4, 2010 7:32:39 GMT -5
Buzz winced, then nodded. “All right, then – let’s do it.”
“Um, yes?” Straight voice, but very much tongue-in-cheek.
“Good,” Buzz said simply, lowering himself to a crouch, his entire body tensing like a coiled spring. Yes! Time for action! “Ready when you are.”
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Post by eez on Mar 4, 2010 15:32:59 GMT -5
"Okay, okay; let me think of some incantations."
Ugh, he was getting rusty at this stuff! Better pay the bill when he got back home...
His body suddenly glowing with an eerie light and a supernatural wind ruffling his robes, the Evil Emperor stood up upon the branch, his staff held high, and managed to successfully summon a gigantic, purple glyph underneath the battlewulfs--arcane runes encircling the monsters as their bodies began to freeze in time during the spell.
"Spell of Lethargy; CAST!!"
The glyph suddenly exploded and the battlewulfs were now drenched in purple miasma, their motions drastically slowed and their howls drawn out and spooky.
"Alright! Now for us!" Zurg did the exact same thing except a green glyph was summoned underneath them both; emerald runes encircling their bodies until the Evil Emperor had reached the climax of the spell.
"Spell of Quickening; CAST!"
The glyph exploded and their bodies were entrenched with green hues, but Zurg wasted no time in the eye-candy. He quickly got his staff and pushed Lightyear out of the tree with a grunt.
Get going! The Evil Emperor yelled within his head, leaping after the man. The spell would only hold for thirty seconds at best, so time was of the essence! As Zurg's feet made contact with the ground, he found he had enough energy for one more spell.
With the haste effect still in play, his casting was much quicker and the blue glyph that appeared underneath Lightyear took but a moment to finish.
"Spell of Titan's Might; CAST!!"
There, that would hopefully grant Lightyear enough power to take on those battlewulfs...But they had to make it quick!
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Post by Skyfire on Mar 5, 2010 7:44:04 GMT -5
Buzz landed on all fours and quickly stood – like, hyper-quickly stood. Oh yeah! This was like using the Hyper-Speed Accelerator!
Titan’s Might? But Buzz almost instantly understood. He flew at the battlewulfs, sword flashing. In two seconds, one was decapitated, and another missing a foreleg. Five seconds, another was suffering a deep gash across his chest, and a fourth was also decapitated.
When ten seconds had passed from Buzz receiving the spell, ten battlewulfs lay dead, dying, or missing a limb.
That would have to be good enough.
He turned – strapping his sword to his back instead of sheathing it – and ran. Despite Zurg having a ten-second head-start and longer legs, the older man was also wearing robes. Buzz easily caught up with him, and they soon came to a cliff overhanging a river against the foot of the mountain.
“Jump!” Buzz told him, and flipped off the cliff, somersaulting to slow his descent and dive head-first into the water. The cold current knocked the wind out of him for a moment, but he broke through the surface and began to tread water.
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Post by eez on Mar 5, 2010 22:42:13 GMT -5
Zurg didn't even bother to watch Lightyear slay the battlewulfs. He was too busy looking out for his own life. Jumping over tree stumps and ducking under sweeping branches, the Evil Emperor found it somewhat a pain to travel in the white mage's robes. If this were his normal regalia, he'd be just fine, but noooooo, white mages had to be all fanciful.
Taking a chance, he peered over his shoulder and noticed Lightyear fast approaching, and not just Lightyear. Dozens of eyes, dozens of them, glistened in the waning sun and Zurg could only clutch his wooden staff tighter as he picked up his pace. With his drained mana, things were starting to look awfully blurry and he had the better vision!
Wait...what...what was that sound? He heard water--roaring water. There must have been an overlooking cliff not far, perhaps straight ahead. Lightyear apparently found it before Zurg did, and he skidded to an abrupt halt before the drop; rocks and dirt carrying his momentum and going over the edge.
"You have got to be kidding me..." He mumbled, looking over his shoulders upon hearing all the bloodthirsty howls. "You have got to be kidding me!" Zurg cried.
But before he could tell Lightyear something, the man had already gone head first into the icy depths below.
"WHAT!? You never go first, Lightyear! What if there are rocks down there!?" He called out to the man. Whether out of concern or scolding, no one rightfully knew besides the Evil Emperor. Zurg did feel relieved, however, when he spotted Lightyear's head emerging from the raging surface.
"Right...my turn...." He glanced over his shoulder one more time; the howls were much closer now. Wasn't much time...
Taking a few good steps back for a running start, the Evil Emperor tore off and closed his eyes, leaping over the edge; feet first and arms crossed over his chest to make a perfect, straight edge to break the water's pressure against his body.
SPLASH! And it was big.
The chilly waters got him the rude awakening he needed, and Zurg struggled to reach he water's surface. He pawed at the liquid relentlessly, right and left and left and right, but he wasn't getting very far. Try as he might, he couldn't manage to propel himself up. And as the current began to sweep him away, past Lightyear's own dangling feet, the Evil Emperor realized one very important thing he had forgotten in the midst of all this.
He could not swim.
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Post by Skyfire on Mar 6, 2010 11:01:01 GMT -5
Buzz frowned as Zurg struggled, then realized it in a flash of surprise and dismay. He can’t swim! “Hold on!” Buzz called, and dove back into the water.
It was easier to swim under and hold your breath than to swim above and get a lungful of water. Working with the current, he propelled himself to Zurg and grabbed the man’s wrist. Then, somehow, Buzz managed to loop his arm around Zurg’s and worked hard to pull them up to the surface. He didn’t know how long Zurg could hold his breath, but he wasn’t taking any chances and he needed to see where they were going, anyway.
Buzz broke the surface first, and searched for a landing point. There was a rocky bank about ten feet away. “Come on!” Buzz shouted, though he wasn’t sure if Zurg heard him or not. But he swam almost perpendicularly, Zurg in tow, to reach that shore.
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Post by eez on Mar 7, 2010 1:02:42 GMT -5
Holding his breath was not a problem; keeping calm was.
Zurg struggled desperately to keep himself upright, knowing where up began and where down started. It was a maddening game of violent swirling and tossing as the current only continued to sweep him away. And as the surface's light became dimmer and dimmer, the Evil Emperor let out a scream and struck out frantically to a jutting rock from the river's bed. He successfully grasped it, and he pulled himself closer; huddling and fighting. The water was murky--a deep blue down here--and he could barely see three feet in front of him.
Where was Lightyear!? Where was the surface!?
He had more chances of dying from hypothermia than did he drowning, as he honestly considered clutching onto the rock until his last moments of consciousness came underway.
But that fortunately did not happen as the Evil Emperor felt something firm and diligent grasp his wrist.
Lightyear.
There was no shame to say that he clasped onto the man for dear life, for once seriously depending in the man's success in order to live--in order to see the world overhead again. Zurg worked in tandem, kicking with Lightyear's legs, and soon they broke the surface--the Evil Emperor hearing Lightyear gasp for air and yell a command.
"Come on!"
Zurg heard it perfectly, his frightened eyes darting to the bank, and he pawed with all his might to reach the rocks with Lightyear; grateful, yet too proud to admit his gratitude once both men had reached hard, solid ground.
"You just had to jump into a crater-pickin' river, didn't you!?" Zurg shouted, his limbs shaking as he pulled himself up onto the rocks and laid upon them, his chest facing the sky. His chest heaved not from a lack of air, but for the split-second realization that he could have very well succumbed to a phobia of his. Water...Why was it always water?
Taking a peek at Lightyear, Zurg gave a light, playful tap on the man's shoulder and went back to staring at the open sky.
"Heh! They don't teach you THAT in the Star Command Ranger Manual, do they!?" He laughed after a few seconds of awkward silence, finding some humour in all this.
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Post by Skyfire on Mar 7, 2010 8:56:00 GMT -5
Buzz stretched out beside Zurg, putting his hands beneath his head. “You’re welcome,” he said wryly.
Buzz couldn’t help laughing, too. “Nooo… you’re supposed to scope out the diving point first.” He glanced aside at Zurg and shrugged. “But I didn’t exactly have time for that. …Anyway, I’d rather take my chances with a river than with a bunch of bloodthirsty wolves.”
He stretched slightly, then frowned, rolling onto his side to face Zurg. “How come you can’t swim, anyway?”
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Post by eez on Mar 7, 2010 12:53:59 GMT -5
"Swimming...wasn't exactly something given, Lightyear." Zurg grumbled as he sat up, eventually stood up to wring out the water from his soaked robes. "When you hail from a planet where water is deadly and not something to enjoy for leisurely activities, you don't exactly have the mindset to naturally swim in it." He explained.
After about a few good moments of airing his robes out, the Evil Emperor looked up and noticed the hungry eyes of the battlewulfs up upon the ledge, across the river; their fangs bristling and their jaws snapping angrily at their lost prey.
"Hmph! You're lucky I don't believe in hunting animals solely for their pelts!" Zurg shouted at them, throwing a rock and actually hitting one on the snout. Even though he was a white mage, he still had a good arm!
The battlewulfs took the cue and pawed away, sulking, the alpha looking over their brethren one last time to give the men a good, lasting snarl before it, too, eventually departed into the noisy forest above.
"Well...Guess we averted danger this time. What next? Got a map?" Zurg asked with his hands upon his hips. At this rate, you could very well see them thanks to the clinging, wet robes.
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Post by Skyfire on Mar 7, 2010 15:45:44 GMT -5
“Oh.” Buzz grimaced. Water deadly – now there was a concept that was just plain foreign to him. He couldn’t imagine water being anything but pure and life-giving…
Buzz watched as he cleaned his sword in the river, shaking his head and grinning. “People rule and canines drool,” he quipped, then laughed. “Craters, Ozma would’ve killed me for saying that.”
“Um, I don’t know…” Buzz stood and checked around his armor, then discovered a part in the back that opened up. “Ah-ha!” He dug in and pulled out a good, old-fashioned parchment map. “Oookay, so let’s see here… Okay, here’s the starting point on the mountain –” he pointed – “and the river…” About midway through the map was the capital. “And here’s where we need to be,” he said, tapping the paper. “That’s… southeast of here. If we head south, we’ll hit this highway here that will take us right to the capital.”
He stretched again and shrugged. “I guess we’d better get going.”
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Post by eez on Mar 8, 2010 2:14:48 GMT -5
"A map...just like that..."
Talk about a major convenience. But hey, Zurg wasn't going to complain. If having a map meant reaching their destination faster, then so be it. He just wished Lightyear had found a few health potions or something...Something useful, at least! They can't eat, drink, or use a map for anything else--save for actually reading it and using it for fire.
"A highway? They still have those here?" The Evil Emperor huffed, scratching the roof of his head underneath the mage's hood. Talk about archaic. "But yes, we should get going. The sun is setting and I don't have to explain that the battlewulfs will be the last of our worries once the darkness settles in."
For everyone knew that the worst beasties came out at night....
"Hey...." Zurg started to speak up, already heading along towards the south as he proposed something comically ironic. "How come we didn't use this map sooner, huh?"
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Post by Skyfire on Mar 8, 2010 8:17:00 GMT -5
“Roger that,” Buzz nodded. “Hopefully there’ll be an inn or… something…” He studied the map again as they began to walk off.
“Because… we didn’t know we had it?” Buzz face-palmed. “Wow, we’re bright.”
He lengthened his strides a bit and studied their surroundings. “Maybe sometime I’ll see if the team would like to do this. Except for XR.” He laughed. “He’d hate it.”
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Post by eez on Mar 8, 2010 10:31:44 GMT -5
"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't have any secret doohickeys this time around." He emphasized by shaking out his sleeves and excess robing, trying to find any sort of secret compartment to his attire that he could. Craters, he didn't even have pockets! What was this!?
"Hmph! White mage...." Zurg grumbled, using his staff to push some brush aside as they continued their walk through dusk. "XR? The little tin-can? Oh, I'm not sure about that, Lightyear. If I may say so, I bet that little robot ranger would love this game. Why, he could hack the system and produce an unlimited amount of whatever currency they use here, then use that false money to buy property such as housing, and then rent those properties and become a literally virtual mogel--he could afford all the fossil fuel and women money could buy!"
It was painfully obvious that the Evil Emperor thought too much at times.
"That is...IF the little cheater can hack past Klerm's security grids and trick the admins into thinking the system was fine." He continued with a shrug. "Now, the Tangean would probably hate this game. Have you seen what happens when you die in this game!? You become a ghost and have to find your corpse in order to be resurrected! It's a nightmare!"
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Post by Skyfire on Mar 8, 2010 15:41:00 GMT -5
Buzz raised an eyebrow. Great, that made him remember that crack Erin’d once made about XR having a harem if he could – ARGH, DO NOT WANT. He shook his head as if to clear it. “He could, but… I don’t know – is this even that kind of game? He’d hate trekking through the woods, that’s for sure.”
Buzz grimaced. “Note to self: don’t die.” He pushed away a shrub and ducked beneath a branch.
“Nah, I still think Mira would have fun. She’d probably get a kick out of the armor.” Mira in the black-and-silver armor? Oh WOW – now THAT was a mental image, and one that Buzz honestly liked. He laughed and shook his head at himself.
Was he grinning idiotically again? …Probably. And in front of Zurg, no less! Princess, what are you doing to me?? He held up the map again, hoping fervently that Zurg hadn’t noticed the grin or the blush that had followed.
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