Misadventures of Nano 08 / pt 12
…This is a really dangerous fight. ;_; Avien gets a lot of injuries. I wonder how they’re going to deal with this?
On the other hand, this is a great opportunity to flesh out Groune and his issues with her. :DD (He’s a doctor)
And it’s hilarious how this fight is almost all Avien. Asteth and Groune just sorta…watch. |D;;;;
Continue reading for the dangerous fight! Yes yes, I know I use some of the same words too much, and some things don’t even make sense and I will use verbose wording, but A NANOWRIMER CARES NOT ABOUT SUCH THINGS. (Note: I haven’t actually even looked it over, myself) |D; Even so, if you object to whatever parts of this excerpt, feel free to tell me. ♥
Asteth turned his gaze back to the water below. He was right. There was something….
Asteth didn’t make this splash. When Avien looked back after turning away to shield her eyes, Asteth was in the air, the maw of a huge serpent-like creature just below him, waiting for him to fall. Avien pulled, willing Asteth’s trajectory to change just that much—
There was another splash as Asteth fell back into the water. She could see out of the corners of her eyes, his flailing, making for the shore as quickly as he could.
The serpent-like creature turned his head.
Soryuu—
No.
Another invocation this soon after the last one would kill her.
She was used to fighting size with size. But fine. She could fight this giant if she had to.
As she called her twin kodachi (simply for length alone) from the sigils on her clothes in her pack which she had dumped a little ways away, Asteth stepped to her side, brandishing his axes. Groune scuttled behind him, knuckles white on his bo.
Attack after attack. They would certainly be running from more soldiers after this. There was no way the Subarashiki Super Wonderful Organization of Amazing Intelligence wouldn’t notice this. There was no way.
Although who knew? With these uniforms, they might be mistaken for Subarashiki Super Wonderful Organization of Amazing Intelligence soldiers themselves. Although who could miss their battle cries that would certainly label them as fakers….
The serpent-like creature lunged forward. Avien and Asteth threw themselves out of the way, Asteth taking Groune with him. The serpent-like creature slammed into the ground, and as the three recovered, the serpent-like creature drew its head back, seemingly unharmed.
Thick skull, Avien noted.
She stood up and waved her swords under the sunlight, to make them glint and shine and catch the serpent-like creature’s attention. The serpent creature turned to her. Although she knew it probably wouldn’t understand the gesture, she smirked. It wasn’t habitual, per se, but it was a confidence tactic taught to her since…whenever. A sort of reckless, fatalistic daring that arose whenever a battle presented itself and manifested only in situations like these, when the odds seemed hopelessly stacked.
Maybe it was a tether of insanity that had been nurtured by having to have become a compliant soldier from such a young age.
Maybe she was just batshit insane.
The serpent creature dove at her, and as she was getting out of the way, she strike her kodachi (one of her kodachi) at it. It made a nice tear in the serpent creature’s scales, but didn’t seem to hurt it any. It didn’t react, and Avien could hazard a guess that it hadn’t even felt the blow.
Well that’s…problematic.
How would one normally go about killing something ten times one’s size?
A big rock.
She spotted it as she was running, flipping, and sliding away from the serpent creature’s jaws. A huge rock on top of a cliff that they’d bypassed with little fanfare earlier and which was located….
Conveniently close. She glanced behind as she heard Asteth bringing both axes down on the scales, with the result that Asteth was now weaponless and the serpent creature was sporting new pieces of jewelry.
Close enough.
Avien had to briefly wonder what she would do if the serpent creature had turned its attention to Asteth, but thankfully its attention stayed on her.
She started running to the cliff, and once there, turned around. While she watched the serpent creature approach, she had time to wonder why the serpent creature would come after them. And how had the serpent creature appeared? Asteth had been standing in only waist deep water. Had the serpent creature been buried under silt? Why would it bother coming after them, coming up from its habitat? Certainly the three of them couldn’t really be tasty, small as they were. And even if they were, why would the serpent creature bother coming out so far from the water? She could see the berth of the serpent creature continuing into the water. She had no way of discerning how long the serpent creature was.
Well, no matter. As the serpent creature dived forward, jaws outstretched, Avien jumped. If she hadn’t used magic to give her a boost off the ground, she never would have made it. She sailed above the head of the serpent creature, and as it turned to look at her, it started to ascend, to follow her path. It held its jaws wide as Avien started to descend, but a quick kick off the cliff wall (making sure her feet didn’t linger on the cliff face and risk shredding her legs) and Avien had sailed past the serpent creature’s jaws and landed on one of Asteth’s axes.
It was a precarious position, and as the serpent creature moved around, trying to figure out where she went, she had a fight on her hands to stay aloft.
She kicked at the serpent creature’s head. No effect. The serpent creature didn’t seem to notice. In between flails, Avien glanced what seemed to be a flashy part of the serpent creature, between where its head seemed to end and where its gills began. It was only a short ways away from the axe Avien was standing on (or more accurately, gripping). She’d stuck her kodachi in the weapon holsters of the Subarashiki outfit when she’d started running for the cliff, and she drew one now, and, timing the flails and the pauses of the serpent creature as best as she could, threw it.
It would have missed if the serpent creature hadn’t moved at the last minute. The kodachi embedded itself in that fleshy part, and the serpent creature reared up, dislodging Avien’s feet from the axe, almost throwing her off if she hadn’t grabbed the shaft of the axe in time. A sound emitted from its throat, reverberating off the trees and cliff face, and all three winced as the scream of pain assaulted their ears.
The serpent creature flew up, and Avien took her chance. Swinging off the axe, she chanced propelling herself toward the top of the cliff jumping off one of the serpent creature’s plate-like gills. The gill was less firm than she thought it’d be, and it caved under her weight before she jumped off. It wasn’t enough propulsion to get her to the top of the cliff. She caught a small ledge on the cliff face just in time, wincing as it scraped her hands. She could feel the moist texture on her hands that probably meant blood, but she couldn’t worry about that now. The serpent creature had spotted her, and with another shriek, was lunging at her again.
Even though it hurt like a bitch, Avien managed to adjust her grip on the ledge, and calling up all the strength in her arms, used her arms to propel herself up to the top of the cliff.
Ironically, it was the serpent creature that facilitated her landing. Her arm strength hadn’t been enough. She would have slammed into the cliff face just short of the top if the serpent creature hadn’t flown up, clipping her on her shoulder, the force throwing her just over.
Her arm burned as Avien rolled over and over from the momentum, and when she stopped, she gripped her arm, almost unable to move from the pain.
Of all my stupid ideas…
A shadow fell over her. Avien looked up and saw the serpent creature over her, poised to strike.
At this stage, if she was about to die anyway, calling Soryuu couldn’t make anything worse, could it?
Soryuu didn’t answer.
Avien closed her eyes.
The power, familiar to her now, Soryuu’s metaphorical guiding hand to guide the invocation was not necessary but his strengthening presence was, helping her gather the energy.
The water below helped, a little, in the way the elements helped magic that was in their names. The sound of a grand and powerful waterfall crashing into waves, slamming into cliff faces, and Soryuu was manifest.
The water dragon opened its eyes, and glared at the serpent creature whose form was a pale imitation of the blue dragon’s.
A moment of silence passed, as the two powerful creatures sized each other up, poised on the brink of action.
The serpent creature moved first, but Soryuu, like the human it empowered, was faster. Soryuu moved left, hitting and turning the serpent creature’s head just enough so that the serpent creature didn’t crash down upon Avien’s inert form, and, twisting around and grabbing the serpent creature in a powerful claw, threw it over the cliff.
After a few meters, the serpent creature recovered, but before it could fly up again, Soryuu had struck at the boulder Avien had been aiming for. The boulder rocked and then fell as Soryuu’s form started to dissipate.
Avien’s eyes snapped open. Why—?
The boulder made a splat sound as it hit the top of the serpent creature’s head, and Avien scrambled to the edge of the cliff as the serpent creature swayed, dizzy from the blow.
The serpent creature shook its head. Avien watched it recover, and turn its head back up to her. She drew her remaining kodachi with her good arm.
The light was bright, almost unbearingly so. Avien moved her good arm to cover her eyes as the light ensconced the area, covering all with its oppressive, formless pall. In its wake, absolute silence reigned, almost to the point where Avien thought her hearing might have suicided itself.
Then, slowly, hearing returned, a companion to her returning vision. Avien cautiously peered over her arm as the light faded.
The serpent creature was dead.
Avien peered over the cliff wordlessly as the serpent creature bled itself out on the rocks below, Asteth standing over it on a high rock formation, shirt flapping around his body in the wind, still holding the piece of armor up high.
-
When Avien finally made it down safely to where Asteth and was waiting, she nearly collapsed. Her left arm was the most injured, but her legs hadn’t exactly escaped unscathed, either.
nanowrimo 08 | Jac the Tripper | 21 November 2008 |
