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Post by eez on Feb 19, 2010 3:09:12 GMT -5
"Eh, I traded one desolate plain for another..." Zurg grunted, taking a moment to sniff the air and observe the landmarks around them. They were on some mountain top, with a vast stretch of land below, but other than that...it was pretty much Planet Z with just a new home decorator on the job. Nana would be miffed.
He heard Lightyear mention a path, to which the Evil Emperor placed his hands upon his hips and shook his head.
"Feels like a wretched camping trip already..." Ugh, nature. If anything was the downside to virtual games--besides rez sickness--it was walking everywhere on foot. "Well, lead the way. There might be bandits or furry little critters and I'd hate for me to catch some sort of disease that would make me stark-raving mad. Won't get any good casting done that way."
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Post by Skyfire on Feb 19, 2010 7:58:43 GMT -5
“What’s wrong with camping trips?” Buzz protested. Camping trips, the great outdoors, fresh air – it was all fantastic!
Buzz stared at Zurg for a moment before heading down the path. “Where do you get this stuff?” Under his breath: “An’ the team thinks I’m random…” Out loud: “Maybe if it was a game that you designed, ‘cause it sounds a little bit like the vegetables incident – but honestly, this is just CompuKlerm. And while Klerm does have a rather twisted mind, I don’t think he would think of something like that.”
Buzz noted a cute little rabbit nearby, and inspiration struck. So was Zurg just grousing, or was he possibly scared? Only one way to find out. Buzz walked slowly and quietly over to the rabbit and quickly reached out to pick it up. It struggled a bit, but he kept a firm but gentle grip on it and held it up right in front of Zurg. “So this cute little fella could be a disease-carrier, Zurg?”
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Post by eez on Feb 19, 2010 11:52:37 GMT -5
"What was wrong with the vegetable incident?" Zurg scoffed loudly, following after Lightyear's trail, struggling with the brush and ducking under cropping branches. "And what do you mean that I would design? It's just common knowledge that nature likes to...as you say, weed out the weak! Nothing wrong with being realistic."
Honestly, where did Lightyear lrn2nature?
And just when it couldn't get any worse, the man did the unthinkable and Zurg watched with wide, confused eyes as the Space Ranger went over to capture a seemingly-harmless vermin of sorts.
"Why yes, that seemingly-harmless white puffball of quivering fluff is a disease-carrier." The Evil Emperor snorted flatly, resisting the urge to roll his eyes skyward and slap his face with an incredulous palm. With a sigh, Zurg shook his head and gently pushed the vermin out of his face. "Put that poor thing down before you attract some--"
Rrrrrrrrrrrrggggggh....
"--thing..."
The Evil Emperor already knew what made that noise--there was no mistaking that growl anywhere, even virtually--and out of instinct, he pointed behind Lightyear slowly as a pair of golden eyes stared out at them from within a dark, shuddering bush.
"I think you have whatever's-in-there's lunch..."
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Post by Skyfire on Feb 19, 2010 15:55:10 GMT -5
“In theory, nothing,” Buzz replied easily. “It was a fiendishly clever plan.” He tossed Zurg a grin over his shoulder. “It’s putting it into practice that I have an issue with.”
Buzz rolled his eyes heavenward. “For gosh sakes, it’s not foaming or anything!”
The bunny struggled again, and Buzz bent back down to let it go. “Okay, little guy, okay, I’ll let you down…”
Zurg didn’t have to say a word. Buzz had already drawn his sword, and his shield quickly followed. “I think you’d better get clear,” he said slowly and quietly, watching the eyes.
Almost too fast to see, a huge dark shape lunged out of the bush. Buzz ducked and swung his sword out at what he guessed was a leg – though the thing was moving too fast for him to really tell.
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Post by eez on Feb 20, 2010 22:50:57 GMT -5
Lightyear didn't have to say that twice--Zurg had already scurried over a decent amount of coverage and from his safe position, he waved smugly to the armoured man; he even almost pretended to blow a mock kiss in his direction.
"If you say so, Lightyear~! I'll just stand here and watch you sweat!" He crooned.
The monster howled angrily as the prey dodged, and with a twist of its furry, mangy body, it swiped at the prey with a paw; its claws slicing the air. The prey's weapon nicked a few strands of hair clean off, and the monster hopped lithely around--toying and prodding with its paws while it continued to bunch up its nose in a fearsome snarl, those golden eyes glistening.
"Yep..." Zurg watched the dance from his post, a hand over his brow to shield his eyes from the light overhead. "Lightyear should have read the monster handbook. Never go head-to-tail with a Naxxian battlewulf." He muttered, shaking his head slightly upon realizing that Lightyear would need some help sooner or later.
................Maybe later.
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Post by Skyfire on Feb 21, 2010 15:58:35 GMT -5
“Argh!” Well, if that didn’t bring up a memory… like, oh say… Sentilla? “You do that!” Buzz shot back as he dodged the huge wolf’s paws. “Just remember that you have to clean up the mess!”
And blast, wouldn’tcha know it? He didn’t have his jetpack or his wrist-ray – nope, he had to fight the old-fashioned way.
The wolf lashed out again, and Buzz struck at the foreleg. The creature howled in pain and lunged again at the Ranger, knocking him off his feet. Unable to stand, Buzz rolled back and forth on the ground, trying to avoid the huge paws. As the wolf brought his head down, Buzz swung his shield up and hit the snarling muzzle. The monster reared, and Buzz thrust his sword at the uninjured foreleg.
But that leg came down and ground his arm into the earth. Buzz cried out in pain as his dominant arm was wrenched unmercifully by the enormous paw. Great – second time in three days that he’s pinned to the ground.
He.
Hated.
This!
He managed to twist his right wrist just enough to slash at the leg, and the wolf reared again. Buzz scrambled to his feet, switched the sword to his left hand, flipped high into the air, and landed on the monster’s back. He held on for dear life at the creature tried to buck him, and plunged the sword in-between the shoulder blades. The wolf howled and snarled and gurgled, and still Buzz held on, driving the blade in deeper and twisting it.
Then he pulled the blade back out, certain that the blow was fatal. He let the thing throw him off and managed to land more or less on his feet, though the impact of just touching the ground jarred his injured arm pretty good. The wolf slunk back into the bushes, and Buzz stuck his bloodstained sword into the ground.
“Hey, Your Mage-esty – coast is clear!” he called out, sarcasm coloring his voice.
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Post by eez on Feb 21, 2010 21:59:08 GMT -5
And all the while Lightyear was valiantly battling the Naxxian battlewulf, Zurg had struck a very interesting conversation with a blue-breasted tweedle bird--which had the awful habit of going "tweed" every so often.
"No, I don't think he'll manage a critical hit on the battlewulf." The Evil Emperor stated matter-of-factly to the puffy bird on a branch next to him. "I rather think he's going to get stunned and then the battlewulf is going to inflict some stat-decreasing disease like rabies or something."
"Tweed."
"What? Think so?" Zurg blinked with innocent eyes. "I don't think the battlewulf has the ATK strength to roll a killing blow. Are you sure that's the norm around her--"
The cry of the wounded battlewulf startled both Zurg and the bird in unison, and as the bird flew off with a start of ruffled feathers, the Evil Emperor sprung off the stump he claimed for his royal rump and got a little closer towards the action.
He could see Lightyear doing basic combat training thanks to the many sessions of Star Command and he could see that the battlewulf--although injured--was still putting up a decent fight. And just when it got really good, Lightyear had the nerve to let the battlewulf go and escape into a bush.
"NOOOOO!" Zurg shouted in disbelief, clutching his head as he ran over towards the wounded Space Ranger Paladin. "Are you daft!?" The Evil Emperor gasped, somewhat having half a mind to whack Lightyear on the head with his staff. "You just released it! Do you know what happens when you release a Naxxian battlewu--."
Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowl.....
The howling of multiple beasts not far away instantly got Zurg's pupils to contract and without thinking, he snatched one of Lightyear's arms and pulled him away from the scene.
"You boob! Letting that battlewulf go enabled them to alert their pack leader, the Alpha Naxxian battlewulf!" He hissed, clearing the forest's foliage away with his curved staff. There would be no way to outrun them, not at this state; they could only hope to find cover high enough from the scratching of ten-inch paws.
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Post by Skyfire on Feb 22, 2010 15:35:32 GMT -5
((New one-shot! xrfanclub.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=fic&thread=981&page=1#45619)) “What?? What’s –” Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowl.....“…that?” Oh boy. Buzz managed to pull his sword back out of the ground as Zurg pulled him away. “What’s going on??” “Well, how was I supposed to know that??” Buzz hissed back, his eyes scanning their surroundings. Ah-hah! Redwood-ish trees at 2 o’clock! Extremely high and extremely strong. “These trees!” Buzz said, running over to one. “We can climb this!” He leapt and caught a thick limb with his good arm, swinging himself up into the branches. “Come on!”
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Post by eez on Feb 23, 2010 16:14:21 GMT -5
((I saw! I don't know how to reply to it, and speaking of replies...did you ever get my email? I didn't receive an error, but you never know!))
"What's going on!? You let that wounded battlewulf alert the rest of the pack!" Zurg shouted over his shoulder, still dragging the man tightly.
"And you would have known that if you read the handbook that came with the game!"
But now was not the time to argue; oh no. Before the Evil Emperor could think of a decent place to hide, Lightyear had pointed towards a patch of decently thick and tall tress--to which the man had already begun to scurry up and ascend into.
"Hmph. I'm not climbing that in a skirt!" Zurg growled. Where was the decency in that!? Still, he was a white mage, wasn't he? What spells did he know?
"Let's see....Holy, no....Vox, no....Haste? No." Wait! There was always good ol'e--"Aeriogata!"
With a breezy start, Zurg felt his weight drastically lessen and before he could even get a good smirk out, his body took out from underneath him and he floated upwards into the tree without any aim. The spell lasted only a second or two, and he was unceremoniously dropped onto a branch overhead with a thud, the wind almost knocked out of him.
"ARGH I HATE MAGIC!" He snarled, grappling the branch and his staff at the same time as he tried to clamber onto it fully.
And it wasn't a moment too soon as something began to stir within the bushes not far yonder...
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Post by Skyfire on Feb 24, 2010 11:48:47 GMT -5
((…Oops. Eh-heh… did I ever mention that I’ve never been a good pen-pal? Sending it now! ((Um, you don’t know how to reply? …Is that good, bad, or in-between? =S At least tell me what you thought of Zurg? Or give me blow-by-blow – I don’t care! Depending on what you say, I might argue, but I won’t get mad, I promise!)) Handbook? “I don’t remember any hand…” Ohhh. “Oops.”
“Oh, you’d rather be torn to little purple pieces??” Buzz retorted. “Come on!”
Buzz watched Zurg shoot up into the branches overhead and shook his head, stifling a grin. Still using only his good arm, he managed to pull himself up to where Zurg was, a good thirty feet off the ground. He scooted up against the tree trunk and exhaled forcefully, leaning his head back against the trunk. Below, he could make out the gray forms of the battlewulf pack, searching for the players.
Pain still shot through his right arm, and he clutched it, hissing. “Craters,” he whispered. That wolf had wrenched it really good.
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Post by eez on Feb 25, 2010 3:37:05 GMT -5
((Tsk, tsk, tsk! I was starting to think you forgot about me! And as for the one-shot, Yo no sé. XD I'll probably have to read it again, and discuss it aloud, to get a good review going.))
"I wouldn't be torn; I would be deleted..." Zurg said matter-of-factly, his non-existent nose all high in the air with his eyes condescendingly shut. Well, technically he could resurrect himself but that would cost a great deal of willpower and one really big headache--as well as a major case of munchies.
The battlewulfs didn't escape his attention, however, and Zurg peeked a bit over the branch to make sure they were out of the frying pan.
"Well, it's a good thing they're not withering creepers..." He mumbled, swinging his other leg so that both were over one side. "Otherwise we'd be in deep pedian slug guan--is that blood."
Sure enough, he saw red, glistening trickles of warm liquid snaking out of the Space Ranger's arm and the Evil Emperor somewhat paled a bit, if you could believe. He just retched at the sight of blood! Even the smell of it was enough to send him dizzy and disorientated!
"Uuuuugh....I think now is a bad time to admit that blood makes me nauseous...." He mumbled, clutching his head as he peeked through a few fingers to still see Lightyear bleeding. Argh, but if he let the man bleed, the battlewulfs would know they were there! And if he did fix the wound, Zurg would have to stomach the sight of...of....ARGH.
"Okay, okay; hold still and raise up your arm." Zurg instructed as he rolled up his sleeves and took a deep breath. He waited for Lightyear to get situated so that he could further inspect the wound, to which Zurg removed a few pieces of armour and cloth in order to get a good look at what he was dealing with.
Torn skin, muscle showing, blood...battlewulf got him good.
"Hmph, that's what you get for being a lowbie..." He muttered under his breath, trying to think of a good spell. "My first aid skill is not terribly high enough, not yet, but this will have to do for now."
Taking a firm hold of the man's arm with one hand and raising his other above the wound, Zurg concentrated on all his wit's end on mending. He envisioned the tears and rends of the flesh weaving their layers back together--like a craftsmen did expertly with baskets--and he pictured the blood clotting to prevent further bleeding. All the while his raised hand glowed with swirling green energy, snaking around his fingers in fast-paced arcs and swoops, and within a few seconds the wound had completely sealed himself--only a red patch of irritated skin was all that remained.
"Ooooooh and here comes the mana sickness..." Zurg felt his vision go first and his body become incredibly heavy as he nearly toppled off the branch and into the snarling yaps of the battlewulf pack below. Fortunately, he had enough consciousness to know better and he quickly swung a leg over the branch and grasped it for dear life as he doubled over--closer towards Lightyear.
"Magic....waning....must wait....five minutes!" He gasped, probably not making much sense.
Darn him for trying a high-level spell with hardly enough skill! And darn Lightyear for rushing head-on into battle with insufficient plate gear!
DARN THIS GAME, EVEN.
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Post by Skyfire on Feb 25, 2010 8:12:38 GMT -5
“Yeah,” Buzz sighed, then stopped. Wait a microsecond… Zurg was looking kinda… pale… Sweet mother of Venus.
“Uhhh, just possibly,” Buzz nodded, a bit bewildered. The things you never knew!
Oh WOW, that was worse than he’d thought. When was the last time he’d even been injured this badly? In one spot, anyway – otherwise he’d have to go with the pounding he’d gotten from Hellboy Sunday night. …Umm, couldn’t think of the last time. Had there even been a last time?...
Buzz frowned at the lowbie comment, but whistled at Zurg’s handiwork. “Wow.”
“Whoa, hey!” Buzz reached out to steady Zurg. Mana sickn… oh. Using so much “magic” all at once… hey, Buzz did know something about this stuff. After a minute, he asked, “You gonna be okay?”
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Post by eez on Feb 26, 2010 2:15:14 GMT -5
"Yeah, yeah, peachy-keen; thanks for asking." Zurg grumbled sarcastically as he vied for control of his motor skills. He was seeing five Lightyears in five different colours! And not a single one of them was purple, to boot!
"Are the monsters gone." He asked, squeezing his eyes shut to keep down the nauseating feeling within his stomachs. He should have rolled for warlock or black mage--never white mage. "Look..." Zurg began, gripping his staff. "I'm not capable of using offensive-type magic such as the black arts of the arcane. I can't summon, I can't inflict damage, and I most certainly can't hold my own in battle. As you've just seen, I'm limited to healing and buffs that will make you strong enough to handle whatever comes our way. If I cast a few wards on you, think you can handle the battlewulfs below?"
It was worth a shot, and if the man did die, Zurg could always attempt to resurrect the man with a good, old-fashioned spell or two. It would drain him to practically nothing, but it was doable.
"Just let me think of a few wards to place on you first, though. I'm a bit rusty on this magic stuff."
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Post by Skyfire on Feb 26, 2010 16:13:19 GMT -5
((I also sent you a bigger email, and the P.S. was rather important (sort of), so please answer that as soon as you can! *hopeful look*))
Buzz shook his head, then realized that Zurg couldn’t see the motion, so he said, “Not yet.”
“Way-way-wait… are you crazy??” Buzz exploded. “I couldn’t handle one without my dominant arm getting damaged – how do you think I could handle a whole pack, even with protection?? At the very least, it would take a long time!”
Stopping himself, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and forced himself to calm down. “Okay, look, we’ve got some tactical problems here. One: I don’t have any combat backup. Two: I can’t fly. Three: I don’t have my wrist-ray. Four: I don’t have a wrist-cable. Five: we’re on the side of a mountain, and therefore on dangerous territory. Six: I haven’t observed anything in the territory that could give us a tactical advantage, aside from hiding in these trees. Seven, and not the least: there are well over a dozen of those wolves down there, all very tough and shuttle-sized!” He shook his head again. “If I had the team here, we could do it – but on my own, I’m not calculating my chances to be very high.”
He peered down at the battlewulfs once more and asked, “Is waiting them out a possibility?”
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Post by eez on Mar 2, 2010 0:14:44 GMT -5
Zurg would have slapped the man upside the head if he could. Did Lightyear not understand the concept of fantasy and magic!?
"Hellooooo, white mage to Lightyear! I can buff you from up here while you duke 'em out!" The Evil Emperor snorted, holding up his fists and pretending to box with the air. "I can keep you safe in a shield of warding or something! You know, those lessen-attacks-of-my-enemies' spell?"
But it was painfully obvious Lightyear was too much of a tactical thinker and Zurg just had to improvise and make sure they both didn't get mauled out here.
"Look, if you won't go into battle like your class is supposed to, then I'll be taking command here! And no, we can't wait the battlewulfs as they will circle this tree until we're skin and bones!" Zurg glanced over the edge of the branch, counting over a good dozen, and took a slight breath as he tried to recall any spells that would aide them.
Since he wasn't a black mage, he couldn't cast offensive magics which was a blasted shame. DPS spells and a tad craft in Demonology would have really come in handy!
"Okay, I think I've got it." He whispered, thinking a few key details over. "I'm going to cast a spell of Lethargy and that will slow those nasty mongrels down below to a grub's lazy pace. While I'm doing that, I'll enhance our own speed with a polar spell: the spell of Quickening. As we bolt down the forest at %150 our own speed and them crawling at a good %50 their own speed, we should have a good chance of running away. What do you think?"
That sounded like a good plan, didn't it? Granted, that would completely drain him and probably get him super sick, but it was the only thing he could think of!
Hopefully Lightyear had something better...
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