[Episode One] Bones for Bread

Archives of Occultus Magica's beginnings, ten years prior to the current story.
Post Reply
User avatar
Kai
Site Admin
Posts: 701
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:18 pm

[Episode One] Bones for Bread

Post by Kai »

To say it was a dark and stormy night would have been to lie through one's teeth. It was bright, and clear, not a cloud in the sky, not a hint of a breeze. The moon was bright enough that you didn't even need a flashlight to see, and some of the older streetlights had turned off, as it wasn't quite dark enough for them to be on. Somehow, despite the business of the city, a sense of foreboding had forced a large portion of the population into their homes much earlier than normal, and even the usual night owls and street rats were hard to find. Many would complain of a ringing in their ears, others simply described it as 'the willies'. Whatever it was, the city of Osaka slept for once, the only ones out and about were those that had no choice but to be, and they were doing their best to get done quick.

******

"I can feel it over here."
"Are you sure, Saph?" Miyuki complained, gripping the Babylon Key with one hand and Adjusting her outfit, the Babylon Maiden with the other.
"Yes, Yes. I can't tell what it is, but I know it's around here." The Cat-like beast responded.
"Well, I don't see anything."
"That's because it's not visible at the moment, stupid."
"Like I'm supposed to know that!"
"How do you think monsters hide most of the time?"
"Well... I, Umm... That is..."
"Exactly. So when I tell you it's around here, then you should trust that it's around here."
"How am I supposed to stop it if I can't see it."
".... Good point. You need to learn more magic."
"THAT DOESN'T HELP ME!"
"Hey hey hey! Quiet down, you don't want to draw it here, do you?"
"I thought that was the point?"
"Oh yeah."

The conversation between Miyuki and Saph, however, was cut short, as a dull thudding sound began to be heard. From the direction of one of the canals, the sounds echoed, bouncing off the concrete walls to come up to the ears of the Beast and its master.
"Okay, Now I believe you." Miyuki admitted, looking toward the source of the noise. It was a skeleton. A big. Effing, Skeleton. Easily 75 feet tall, the thing trundled along the canal, not seeming to pay attention to anything. Saph and Miyuki held their breath, the hair on the backs of their necks prickling up as they could feel that this was just a very bad idea to be around here, but it was just as bad of an idea to start moving.
"So... uhh.. How do we fight this?" the girl asked, turning to Saph. The blue catlike creature simply stared forward, transfixed, and Miyuki turned her head. Apparently, so had the enormous Skeleton.

Despite not having ears, the Skeleton seemed to be able to hear. It had noticed Miyuki and Saph, and was slowly turning to face them, having paused its stride. As soon as it had turned the required ninety degrees, it began trying to scramble up the side of the canal, which rose to nearly waist-height. "WhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdo" Miyuki repeated, frozen to the spot, her mind not working for the moment.
"Use the Sapphire! Try to wash it away!" Saph cried out.
"Oh!" Miyuki ejaculated, Lifting the babylon key and pointing it at the Canal. "Water, come forth to my call, and wash this beast away!" Almost immediately, out of apparently nowhere, an enormous surge of water washed down the Canal, slamming against the feet and lower legs of the creature, and hindering its attempts to scale the canal wall. After a few moments of struggling to master the amount of magic she had just done, Miyuki Steeled herself, and called more, finally knocking the skeleton off its feet, though it was apparent that the thing wasn't gone or done yet, as a bony hand still clutched the edge.

"We're going to need some help..." Saph muttered, awestruck.
In a flash of Genius, Miyuki pulled the Sapphire from the Babylon Key, and replaced it with the Ruby. The staff turned red, and the wave-like form on one side turned into a more flame-like one, the orb going from Cerulean to crimson. Not knowing what else to do, Miyuki shot a series of flares in the air, in a pattern internationally recognizable as "S.O.S."
"We'll be found out!" Saph Protested, but Miyuki quickly countered him.
"Better that than dead."
Luca
Posts: 65
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 5:12 am

Re: [Chapter One] Bones for Bread

Post by Luca »

Jonathan Miller, the English teacher was walking home from a little function he'd been invited to that was supposed to celebrate the first day of school going off without a hitch. Unfortunately, that hope turned out to be dashed, so a resolution was made for the rest of the school days to be trouble-free and informative. He only had two drinks very slowly for the entire party, and didn't stick around for the after party, instead wanting to get home and sleep.

Throughout his trip home, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was just not right. He couldn't put his finger on it, since it shook him at a level very deep in his being. He deduced that it wasn't the alcohol. It was something like a wave coming over the world and blanketing it in a strange lifelessness. Owls didn't hoot, mice didn't squeak, delinquents didn't stay up past their bed time and pull pranks.

He just shrugged it off with a worried frown and continued walking, hurrying his steady walking pace to a brisk canter, when in the sky, a series of flares came to his attention.
He stopped and stared for a moment, three quickly, three more in slow succession, three more quick ones. Without a flicker of doubt, he was compelled to investigate. He figured, for the sake of an SOS being launched, it was more than just a kid hurling flares into the air.

Something wasn't right at all, and it was chilling Miller to the bone.
User avatar
Straken
Posts: 1211
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 4:40 pm

Re: [Chapter One] Bones for Bread

Post by Straken »

Ruarc looked up at the clear sky as he stood beneath the small bridge that he had adopted as his new home. He simply stared out into the vast nothingness as he contemplated the odd weight of the night air. With his hood pulled up shadows were cast across most of his face giving him a mysterious visage. A slight smile crossed his face as he mused about feeling very druid-like.

”The night is heavy. I don’t like it,” Laoise said to him as she flew over and perched on his shoulder.
”Yes, something is definitely out of balance tonight. I feel dread, like a weight on my chest. Do you sense anything, Laoise?” Ruarc said in a rather monotonous tone.
”Nothing, but something is definitely out of place tonight.”

Ruarc didn’t make a reply. Instead he turned and made his way back into the little nook of the bridge where his shelter was. Not too long after he had sat down to rest both he and Laoise perked up as a distinct feeling of magic to the place of dread. The Irishman, recognizing the familiar signature, scoffed. He looked out from under the bridge in the direction it had come from. “She doesn’t use much discretion, does she?” he said to himself in Irish. Moments later however sparks could be seen in the distance.
“S.O.S.?” Ruarc mumbled. He had seen the signal used before on trading ships and knew it was a sign of distress. “Magic is involved, and there is distress. Laoise! Come on.”

Ruarc was on his feet and hefting his pack onto his shoulders as Laoise took off into the night. With his cloaked pulled up around him and the heavy pack centered between his shoulders he sprinted off towards Miyuki.

”Woah,” Laoise said.
”What?” Ruarc asked.
”You may want to have the Tome ready.”

Unsure of what the bird meant, Ruarc none-the-less reached back and picked out the Tome and tucked it under his right arm. After several minutes at full speed Ruarc could feel a strong magical presence, and moments later he saw the behemoth skeleton. The Irishman trundled to a stop as his eye went crazy. He surveyed the situation from his side of the canal and saw Miyuki standing on the other side, antagonized by the abomination.
“If there was an S.O.S. than this skeleton would obviously be the cause,” Ruarc reasoned as he readied the Tome.
”Do you have a plan?” Laoise asked.
”Nope, but I can’t stand by and watch, now can I? Gonna catch it by surprise and hopefully draw aggro away from the girl.”
"How noble of you. Just remember, if you die I get drug along for the ride. So do us both a favor, stay safe."

With nothing more to say the Druid took several deep breaths to center himself. He then stretch out his left arm and pointed at the colossus. A familiar tingling rose from his feet and spread through his body as magic began to stir within him.
“Turraing!” Ruarc shouted, breaking his silence. In an instant the tingling in his body rushed forward and was focused within his fingertips, a split second later a large bolt of lightning arced out of his hand and shot towards the skeleton’s head.
User avatar
Gwathdraug
Posts: 281
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 9:48 am

Re: [Chapter One] Bones for Bread

Post by Gwathdraug »

It was strange night indeed for the Caxtons. Most of the house had had a rather uneasy quietness to it, with the only real noise being the occasional strange sound from his parent's room. Even the whole world had seemed to be rather uncomfortable silence as well, with strange noises that made it difficult to work with his potions. So, he decided to come out and find out for himself what was going on. Of course, Riley had picked up on it as well, but she wasn't allowed to leave the house after dark. Which is why, with his eyes shielded, his mother came out of the parent's room and scolded him for trying to go out alone.

"You know, I'm fifteen. I'm practically an adult. Why can't I go alone?" growled Percy in anger, pulling down his beret over his head tightly. He looked back to Riley in tow as they left the house, "Why did I have to bring you along?"

Riley had spent the last few hours (and days to be honest) mumbling to herself about how Mrs. Caxton wouldn't let her out of the house if the sun even started to go down. So, as she trailed after Percy not even his angry grumbling could wipe the smile from her face.

"I don't see what's so bad about it, I like going outside, you like going outside. Aren't we both better off this way?" Riley asked curiously as she watched a squirrel climb around a tree with a look of slight envy on her face.

"I just want to know why I can't do it alone. It's not that I don't want you to be here, I just think I'm too old to be required to take someone with me." clarified Percival, throwing his hands up into the air in frustration. He then slapped his hand over his face, pulling down hard on it as his hand slid down. "And mother could have at least put some underwear on! She's not the only one that lives in that house! Argh!" The young man continued to stomp along, his mood considerably dampened by being treated like a child.

Riley easily kept pace with Percy as he tromped around. She had a thoughtful expression on her face as she listened to her roommate's complaints, she almost brought up the goose incident, but decided at the last minute that if she pointed out things could actually be dangerous he would most likely just get angrier.

"Well, if I wasn't here there would be no one for you to talk to, and then who would you have to try and help you figure everything out?" Riley was rather pleased with herself as she continued to walk along side Percy, she thought she had found a rather diplomatic answer to the older boy's problems.

Percival sighed at that.

"Why is the most reasonable person I can talk to in this country an eleven year old?" The young Caxton looked down at Riley with a slight smile, his mind eased by such a reasoned answer. The boy kept up his pace, though, he felt whatever was disturbing the night was steadily becoming more and more potent as he came closer. It was gradual, though, like walking towards the sun from the earth. Whatever had disturbed the air of the night, it wasn't natural, at least, for a nonmag.

Riley smiled at Percy's question, taking no offense at him pointed out her age - it was rather a compliment to be honest. In fact, the younger girl seemed to have not been effected at all by the tension all throughout the air as she kept up pace with her partner and whistled a short and rather tuneless tune.

Taking notice that Percy seemed to be still trudging along a bit Riley frowned and ran in front of him so she could maintain eye contact - plus walking backwards was just fun.

"You alright Watson?" She asked as she cocked her to the side a bit and her new favourite illusion - that of the small cat she had made dance at her first dinner with the family - faded into view on her shoulder and gave Percy a silly grin.

Percival stopped a moment and looked at Riley, tilting his head at her.

"You don't feel that?" said Percy, looking up towards the Canal area, his mind tugging in that direction. He always wondered why he was so sensitive to magic and magical things. Perhaps it was a perk of being a Font? With so much mana coursing through oneself at one spot... Maybe feeling eminate from elsewhere made it more noticeable. "It's... Strange... Like the magic I felt earlier today at the Science Lab only more... Concentrated... Something is going on, more than just an eerie night."

Riley let a deep, thoughtful sounding 'hmmm', despite the fact that she honestly didn't find the night to be the least bit ominous. Continuing to walk backwards, Riley sent the cat illusion back where it walked by Percy's side, imitating the boy's steps.

"If that's the case shouldn't we go check it out?" The little girl asked Percy, a grin on her face. "We are the only watchmen about afterall!"

"Then let's hurry up." said Percival, breaking out into a full run as he tore down the sidewalk and began to hustle his way towards the canals. At this distance, it was hard to tell the difference between what magics it may have been. He remembered Miyuki and the sensations of ebbing mana he felt from that trinket she wore. Could it be the same thing? If so, he was going to have an extremely stern talk with someone! It was then, though, that he began to see how barren the streets really were.

Though, nothing could really prepare him for the blaring 'Magic, Right Here! Come And Get It!', that came in the form of the mystic S.O.S. that sailed into the air.

"That... Oh man..." Percival felt a chill run down his spine, thinking aloud, "There's no way they won't come running after that."

As Percy stopped and the S.O.S. went sailing into the sky Riley was already halfway up a tree. As she reached the top and could see into the canal ahead, and the rolling waves knocking into the biggest skeleton she had every seen a tiny bit of fear itself known.

Hell geese and bags of bones aren't so different, the braver part of her mind told her as it rallied, besides this time we have the numbers on our side. While the girl nodded and accepted this as a fact for her own peace of mind, caution also still had a rather large audience so she yelled down to Percy.

"Ah... we need a plan Watson." Taking another look at the skeleton Riley saw a large lightning bolt crash against the creature's head leaving behind a small patch of blackened bone but not much else in damage. "A good plan, a good, big plan would be best!"

"It's too late to just sit back and wait." the Welshman decided, the strange skeleton coming into his view right as the lightning bolt struck at it. He looked up at the spider monkey of a friend and held out his hand, having Unity slowly materialize into his grasp. The boy raised the staff and slammed it's spiked bottom into the ground, forming a circular glyph around him at his feet. "Straga!"

The glyph rose at the command, rising up and replacing his current wear with heavily garbbed robe. The boy had more the look of an Occultus Inqusitor now, with exception of the thin head-band and the mask over his face. He looked up at Riley, squinting, as if to focus his eyes. Though, when he spoke to her, his voice had very much changed. It resonated much in the way Aurus' did, and was even a little deeper with the staticky sound it made. Though, he could never understand why it did that.

"Whoever drew this things attention is about to get more than their share of trouble." Percival's eyes turned in the direction of the large skeleton. "Use your illusions to disorient or mess with it's perception." He rose his staff and slammed it down again, opening the transfer glyph below him. "I'm going on the assault."

Riley slid down the tree, a grin on her face at seeing Percy get down to business - she hadn't even knew he could transform, that almost topped his beret in coolness. Nodding to the older boy as she reached the ground Riley pulled on her reserves of mana.

"I hope the town won't mind a racket." The little girl simply stated an even wider grin appearing on her face right before the concentration for her spell wiped all her expressions away.

The whole area errupted with the sound of hundreds of ringing bells, each one the loudest in the canal and the sound resonating back and forth amplifying the noise as Riley attempted to disorient the skeleton.

"DETROI! O Nyit O Ember!" commanded Percy as his staff rumbled, and hellish, resonating voice laughed maniacally his mind. A burst of orange energy came forth out of the square head of his staff and rolled on the ground like a fireball, before Aurus came rolling out. Flames erupted up his little back and down his arms to form his twin cleaving and stabbing weapons, Wrath and Fury. Though, as soon as he seemed absolutely ready, he placed his little hands on the sides of his helmet, dropping his blades on the ground.

"Argh! Tell that stupid little mongrel to quiet that racket!" declared Aurus in Percy's mind, which allowed only sounded like a string of curse words in seventeen different languages. Five of which that had probably never been heard in centuries.

"Watch your mouth!" declared Percy as well, only with this, he revved his staff back like a golf club. Unexpectedly, what was going to be a disciplining strike on the back, turned out to be something monstrous. When Percival swung down, the staff erupted into flames, and the moment it contacted Aurus, the little mini god was sent flying through the sky at bullet speeds towards the skeleton. The young summoner stared vacantly, still holding his upward swing as Aurus flew away like a golf-ball from the devil's golf-coruse. It was almost comical in how the small thing arced through the air, bursting into flames as the black-armored fiend had finally realized what had happened.

"That..." said Percy, still slightly unsettled by his new voice, and Unity's strangly quirky powers. "That's never happened before..."
CadetNewb
Posts: 296
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 12:59 am

Re: [Chapter One] Bones for Bread

Post by CadetNewb »

A boy in a black casual vest and matching pants started to reach into the front pocket of his vest, but stopped short. There would be time for it later after all. What was more important, was making sure all was orderly and neat. He ran his hands over his hair, making sure it was still neatly combed, and then rolled up his dark blue sleeves. The boy looked up into the sky, started to mutter under his breath, and gave a thumbs up to the sky; with one eye closed, he simply wiped away the SOS in the sky like one would erase a whiteboard with fingers. Whoever these people are, they were rank amateurs. Sloppy, sloppy amateurs. Pulling a smartphone out of a seemingly empty pocket, Duncan twiddled a finger until his favorite app came up, selected what he wanted, and whispered aloud the words. Clearly of course. He didn't want anyone hearing the spell, and he most certainly didn't want to mispronounce the spell either.

To anyone watching this...debacle a ways away, the very scene distorted as the rays of light itself was bent around the scene. The clanging bells, the fighting, all sound emanating from the messy brawl was muffled like a pillow placed atop a snoring person's mouth. And then it was pressed down with murderous intent, choking away even the smallest peep, the entire absurd display melting away into normalcy. Duncan finished reading the spell off his smartphone, and inspected his work. With the suppression/repellent field up, they could go wild and nobody without magic nearby, even if they stood an inch from the barrier, would not notice a thing off. Norms would not, could not see or hear their business. Though there were the chills; ominous, brooding and oozing menace. Nobody wanted to go down this street anymore, not while Duncan Leetenbaum was here. Satisfied, he leaned back against a wall, crossing his arms to watch with an amused yet disgusted smirk on his face.

Earlier, while cycling down the street a block away, Duncan's detection spell went off even before the SOS was sent up. 'Not even going to mention why that was done wrong.' As he rounded the corner and set the bike aside, a bolt of lighting tossed up and at the creature. Noob. There aren't any nerves or tissue to harm with that, and there wasn't enough heat either. Speaking of, the damned skeleton was soaking wet! What moron did this?! By the time Duncan dismounted, he had looked the two over; the girl was in a ridiculous blue dress, and magic was almost always color coded with blue as water. 'Figures. She tried to flush it down the tubes.' The American boy had drawn a little closer with his casual walk. Another duo approached the scene, one with a cloak resembling that used by the Inquisitors. No mask, so no. He wasn't. Idiotic bells had suddenly clamored and tolled, at which he winced. 'Everyone and their mother is going to be up!'

And finally, he watched as a fire midget was smacked up at the skeleton like a baseball. 'With enough idiots, something right was bound to be done, sooner or later.' Duncan admitted. Fire was simply the right thing to use against a dry skeleton. Why? Bone was constituted of two things; calcium salt, and leftover matrix. The two acted like cement and rebar, in that order. Remove one, the other went down; fire would destroy the matrix, letting the bones crumble. Now. Now was the time that Duncan chose to act. His hand reached into his pocket, grasping the object he sought out and held it with a vicious twinkle in his eyes. A box of Pocky. The American Spell Savant relaxed and bit into one of the chocolate coated snack sticks. He'd let them all have their fun. And when they were all tired and worn out, there was no way they were going to say no to Duncan's questions.

Especially after coming away with nothing from the frog fiasco. He wasn't going to go easy on them. Oh no. Not one bit.
User avatar
Kai
Site Admin
Posts: 701
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:18 pm

Re: [Chapter One] Bones for Bread

Post by Kai »

The Skeleton managed to stand up after being struck on the head with a bolt of lightning, and began to turn toward this new disturbance. However, that didn't last long as another racket started. The Skeleton didn't seem perturbed by the noise at all, but instead focused on a new source of magic, at which yet another source emerged, and then a flying ball of flame was shot at it.

The Skeleton raised a hand, and grabbed the burning ball, the force of which caused it to stumble slightly, but within moments it had flung Aurus back towards Percy in a lazy arc. Its hand seemed to have been charred, but, unlike Duncan had been predicted, it did not seem to have been damaged so much as blackened. However, Angered, the enormous skeleton decided to not even bother climbing over the wall in an orderly fashion, and instead threw itself down onto the street beside the canal, and began dragging the rest of its body forward, and out of the canal, at which it stood up, with surprising quickness for a seventy-five foot tall pile of bones.

The Skeleton's mouth opened, as if to roar, but no sound came out. However, it seemed at a loss as to where to go- the first, and closest target? The man across the Canal? the pair a little further away?- So it did the prudent, and lazy thing, and attacked the closest one: Miyuki.

"UUUAAAA" Miyuki cried, starting to run away as a cacophony of sounds and lights began congregating at the skeleton. Her SOS had worked well- perhaps too well- but now she was still in trouble, and things were possibly more dangerous than they had been a minute ago. Without really thinking, Miyuki pointed the Babylon key at the Giant Skeleton and unleashed a brilliant gout of flames, larger even than Riley could produce, but it proved just as ineffective as all previous attempts. Once Miyuki stopped, exhausted, she looked up, and noticed she had only managed to blacken the lower half of the monster, and nothing much more. "shoot shoot shoot... What do I do..." she muttered to herself and Saph.
"Hey, didn't your teacher say som ething about these things one tim?" the familiar offered.
"Oh yeah! This is a, Uhh.. Uhhh..." Miyuki thought hard while running towards the safest place she could think of- closer to the two figures on her side of the river whom had come to her aid. "It's called a Gashadokuro!... But... Something about it doesn't seem to fit... dammit, what was it?" Miyuki had little time to think, as it became immediately obvious the Gashadokuro was faster than she was, what with its enormous stride easily covering twenty or thirty of hers.

"Gah, Saph! I need more speed!" Miyuki exclaimed, looking to the cat for advice.
"Summon the ruby into the Maiden, it lowers your defense but makes you a bit faster!"
"Right! Will do!" and so she did. The outfit turned from blue to red, and the subtle wave-like designs turned to flame-like ones, as well as the part on her shoulders becoming more ruffled, and orange tinted, as if they were flaming. The necklace, too, turned red, and Miyuki could feel herself become somewhat lighter and faster.

Still, the beast was chasing her.
User avatar
Kokuten
Posts: 1258
Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 11:06 pm

Re: [Chapter One] Bones for Bread

Post by Kokuten »

"That little shit! Hit me back, I'm not done with him!" demanded Aurus as he flew back towards Percy.

"I don't even know how I did it the first time!" sent Percival, looking at Unity and the quickly approaching Aurus.

"Just prepare for the swing, and think angry thoughts!" instructed the God of Fire, the window to prepare the shot closing rather quickly. Percival only nodded and brought his staff bat like a back for the swing. He had to come up with an angry thought quickly, something that brought out the mean person within him. Something that made him rage incessantly. But... Nothing came up... When Percy actually thought about things that made him angry, he thought again and found out for what silly reason he was so angry! He couldn't summon the emotion!

CRASH! went the rock that Aurus landed into, the rock that snapped in two after he had cratered deep enough.

"You idiot! Are too much of thinker to stay angry!? Why can't you act your age more, damn it!" roared Aurus as he pulled himself up, next to a debris of rock.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to! And hey, at least I got you up there!" winced Percy as he took a step back or two from Aurus.

"Well at least my mother isn't a filthy, psychopathic whore." growled Aurus, flames erupting out of the mouth-slots and eye-slots of his helmet. Percy was taken aback in absolute shock by this, the insults to his mother entirely unexpected.

"Tha--... That was uncalled for! You had no reason to say that!" stammered Percy.

"Oh, and why not? You going to crawl right back into her over-used tunnel? I'd bet you could still fit." continued the blazing fire god. The staff-carrying Caxton began to tighten his grip around Unity, and a blaze began to absorb the head of the staff. He couldn't take that sort of insult, especially not to his mother! Why, even the words he used were absolutely unsettling!

"A-aurus..." breathed the boy shakily as he held back a burning scar in his heart.

"What?" Aurus began to talk in a baby voice in continuation, "Are you going to cry because I'm said some truthful words about that dirty, disease-ridden bitch you call your mo--" There wasn't a moment allowed for him to finish that sentence. Percival's restraint snapped, and his condensed rage came forth in the form of a golf-swing completely unlike the last. When he made contact with Aurus this time, there was no arc, no relaxed flight. No, with Percival's seething rage, Aurus ascent sounded like a gun shot popping from the barrel as he tore through a tree and made a straight line back to the skeleton. The streaming line of burning flame materialized to 'wings' on it's way back, these wings being Wrath and Fury, the slashing and stabbing cleavers of Aurus.
Last edited by Kokuten on Wed Mar 23, 2011 10:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Luca
Posts: 65
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 5:12 am

Re: [Chapter One] Bones for Bread

Post by Luca »

Flares? Lightning? Screaming? Bells? Something was definitely not right. As Miller got closer to the action, something started to become apparent. Something that looked like just another building or a skeletal construction site from a distance away was, in fact, a seventy-five foot tall skeleton in the most literal sense possible, dead ahead.
His mind shuddered in revulsion in the throes of sudden revelation. Seventy-five foot tall skeletons were just not right according to the unspoken rules of the world that Miller had followed all his life. It was quite simply not of this world. Was his mind protecting him from the terrible truth by simply turning everything that wasn't right into something that just made 'sense', however a façade it was?

And if that was the case, why did it let him know the terrible secret right now? Why let an English teacher in on a titanic cover up to rival and quash any mere political scandal or accident? Why disprove so many years of logic and reason that guided lesser men through life and step into the fantastic without complaint?

He didn't have any time to ponder this. Someone was screaming for their life, therefore: Someone was in danger.
"HELLO!?" He yelled at the top of his lungs. He looked ahead and noticed that there was a smaller person running away from his right, with the skeleton right behind her. He blinked in surprise, "...Miyuki?" He breathed, recognising the teenager from the Principal's office on the first day of school - furthermore, she appeared to change colour and gain more speed. She was running the hell away from the skeleton. Miller decided that he had to intervene and started sprinting.

Strangely, he was able to keep pace with Miyuki and catch up to her. He just attributed this to adrenaline and sheer terror, and not to what lay dormant inside him - which was waking up with a start. He looked over his shoulder and asked, "What in God's name is that?" He didn't even sound breathless from his sprint. Something was fuelling him from without, and Miyuki could see it - a subtle glow along the outline of his body.
User avatar
Straken
Posts: 1211
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 4:40 pm

Re: [Chapter One] Bones for Bread

Post by Straken »

Ruarc uttered a few choice Irish phrases. Bigger numbers means more hazards to pay attention to. He gritted his teeth as he tried to think of a new plan.
”Well, I still need to slow that thing down. Laoise, any suggestions?” he said to the bird.
”Hell if I know,” she replied.

An idea sparked in the Druid’s mind, but he hesitated. With a reaffirming breath Ruarc widened his stance and closed his eyes to concentrate. Once again magic began to stir within him as he prepared his spell. He thrust out his left hand and made a downward claw.
“Cloch a oscailt agus a ithe!” Ruarc shouted as he forced the magic within him down through his feet and into the earth. Instantly it felt as though a mountain was dropped on his arm. Struggling against the weight he commanded the Earth to bend to his will. He dropped down further into his stance as the ground resisted. A combination of the distance between him and the target as well as the volume of ground he was trying to move made this a difficult task.
“Bend. Move!” Ruarc said through gritting teeth.

Finally he felt his magic gain an edge and he pulled his left hand upwards as he sheered stone causing a wall of rock to cut up in front of the skeleton’s foot. “Trip damn you!”
CadetNewb
Posts: 296
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 12:59 am

Re: [Chapter One] Bones for Bread

Post by CadetNewb »

The lone stick of Pocky in Duncan's mouth steadily grew shorter, bobbing up and down as he nibbled on it. And then it simply fell. The boy's eyebrows furrowed together as his mouth opened in disbelief. Fire didn't do a thing; even if the bone matter was damp...he shook it from his head. So what if the Gashadokuro didn't die again like a good, normal one should have by crumbing into char? It just meant Duncan needed to find out another way to kill it. 'The Institute of Magic and Science back home's going to flip when I report this.' he mused, now munching on a fresh Pocky. As the Skeleton went about too quickly, he focused on it's quarry. The girl, she...color change? Wait. Dress. Staff. A furry cat? A familiar perhaps? No. No, no, no, no! Knowing what he knew, Duncan was sure she was going to die if she didn't get help. And they usually did die alone, contrary to popular belief. If she died, he wouldn't be able to get what he wanted...something he didn't even know he wanted until now! A twisted grin went across his face as the American boy spat out his snack. Time to intervene.

Duncan adopted a prep stance and began to chant the words necessary to conjure the spell he had in mind; there was no need to consult the list. This was a personal modification of a classic. Even though he had prodigal amounts of talent, skill and control, Duncan knew he lacked sheer power; to compensate, he had to make the most out of whatever advantages that were to be found and make the most out of the least. As Duncan shifted from prep to release, a thin, transparent beam of crystal shot out from the tip of his index finger, catching the night light and faintly flickering silver.

A water jet is an industrial tool used to cut industrial products and consisted of a thin stream of water extruded out in such high pressure, it could only be called a beam. It cut through plastic and metal, and in the food industry, was used to slice meat in an instant, doing away with the sharpened blades. One of the most basic spells was a simple water gun, but Duncan had taken it, refined it and turned it into something else entirely, exchanging water volume for sheer pressure and concentration. This cutting water lance was what went out to the legs of the Gashadokuro.

If it didn't burn, if it didn't cut, Duncan would try another and another and another way of destroying it; it was merely a process of trial and error, not a science. And Duncan always won.
Post Reply