[Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Archives of Occultus Magica's beginnings, ten years prior to the current story.
Luca
Posts: 65
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 5:12 am

Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Luca »

"Duly noted! I'll see to it that we eat!" Mr. Miller replied to Coco upon mention of smores, those funny American treats. He was feeling somewhat peckish, and now that he'd thought about it he'd suddenly realised that he was rather hungry. The flaming tree above him caught alight almost miraculously and Miller couldn't help but wonder how a Wizard, especially a firey one, would have to wait for the wood to dry out when some magic had you covered. Wizards were supposed to be subtle and quick to anger. Kids will be kids. He reflected.

"So that's what they mean by an arm and a leg," Miller gave Aurus, the resident God of Fire and War a nod before advancing forward with his flaming hot caber in hand, shifting his grip and priming himself to drop it on the yeti. "Shall we?" He asked the God-Avatar. Putting his right hand against the log and then shifting his weight and stance, he attempted to swing the burning log down onto the Yeti's head and shoulders while it was busy grappling with Riley's Phantasm. Even if it used its hands to block the log, it'd still suffer from some burning. The teacher let out yet another roar of exertion as the log came crashing down in a flurry of burning needles and cinders.
User avatar
Kokuten
Posts: 1259
Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 11:06 pm

Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Kokuten »

The weight was a little heavier than his previous arm, he could feel. He had barely any time to register the fact that Aurus was stomping around with no yelling going in his head, before he could finally support himself again. Still, he felt weary, and a little tired, as if he had just gone through trying to come over a stomach virus. He always seemed to end up like this too, weakened, and unable to defend himself. He wasn't an athlete like Miyuki, and as he was reminded he was crouched right next to her, he began to blush, somewhat embarrassed she had deemed to help him even after what happened.

The arm was nice, though, despite the fact that it was a dolls arms. Every time he turned the joints, it sounded like glass rubbing against glass in that gothic style, it wasn't even grating to the ears, almost pleasant even. He looked at her, and then the arm, knowing she had pulled a lot of mana for that. He turned, balancing himself on the ice arm, before taking up her hand in his own, pale fingers.

"I'm not going to apologize, because you almost broke my nose," He said rather suddenly, as he began to concentrate, gripping her fingers more tightly, "but I won't sit idly after you went to help someone as helpless as me."

He closed his eyes, and focused on his mana-flow, and gently coaxed a small strand of it through his arm, and into Miyuki, giving her what energy she needed to get going again.
User avatar
Gwathdraug
Posts: 281
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 9:48 am

Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Gwathdraug »

As Miller's flaming brand came down in a crash of violence Riley let out a shudder and short cry of pain before her breath was robbed from here. Almost folding over onto the ground the girl squeezed her eyes shut tight against tears as her lungs filled themselves in ragged and sporadic gulps.

In front of Miller wisping flames and torn ethereal flesh fought and swirled around each other as it wasn't the body of the yeti that had stopped his attack, but one of the white veined arms of the canid-helmed Phantasm.

Having freed itself from its fight with the yeti, and succeeded in tossing the enemy to the ground in the process, the Phantasm only glanced over as its opponent neared the blood covered, conjured dagger – the apparent lack of care explained when the weapon suddenly begun to warp and bend before exploded brilliantly with the remainder of the mana it had had sustaining it.

One arm still holding up Miller's blow the Phantasm raised its other hand once more and a white axe began to take shape in it. The crescent-bladed weapon started to twinkle into existence – until, with a sudden reversal, it began to unravel and each piece of it winked away like so many miniscule pieces of confetti.

The dog-headed helm swiveled for a moment as it stared over towards Riley. The little stage magician was still leaning over, clutching her knees and seemingly still dazed out of the fight.

With an economy of movement that contradicted all of the Phantasm's earlier dramatics the ethereal warrior turned back on its foe. Its free hand digging into Miller's club and ripping out a long spear of blackened wood and then stabbing viciously downwards – aiming right between the yeti's shoulder blades.
Kalshion
Posts: 78
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:47 pm

Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Kalshion »

"Ewww..." said Sakura disgustingly when she saw what Percy was doing to the Yeti, that is, after she had regained her senses. She wobbly got back up on her feet and gripped her bow and watched the Yeti suddenly fly upward, which left her blinking rather confusingly and with a raised eye-brow as she started to look around for the reason why that Yeti had flown upward. She cocked her head curiously to one side in thought and started to look around her surroundings, it was curious how these Yeti's had just appeared out of no where or how another person - a male adult sadly - had just appeared as well. Are we in some imaginary space? her mind got to thinking, that was the obvious conclusion naturally given how everything appeared wrong to her.

To her, she was feeling caged and it wasn't something she liked one bit and tightened the grip on her bow and turned toward the next Yeti. She drew another rune on the ground, a series of them which she knew would overtax her magical capability and control capabilities, but she was angry at the thought that was no her mind. She slowly lifted four runes off the ground, two were fire while the others were wind, the fire one dripped molten slag onto the snow - melting it where it landed. The wind one was creating mini-tornados that danced around the snow, raising some fine particles in its path.

She brough the runes up to eye-level and looked over at the Yeti that Miller was attacking. The runes began to warp themselves into arrows, which appeared on the side of her bow almost like an ammunition belt that would hold bullets, she pulled the string back and began to fire one after another, each arrow reloading itself into her string only to be released.
CadetNewb
Posts: 296
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 12:59 am

Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by CadetNewb »

"Not much reason for it at this point," Duncan sighed, grabbing a pen light from a coffee cup.

*****

WHAM!

The flaming evergreen tree smashed into the Phantasm rather than the Yeti Miller had attacked, upsetting its balance slightly before its greedy bloodlust sent it in for the kill! Despite being able to fight this off, a column of light lit up the creature as the blow bounced off the field harmlessly - it was pulled up, up and away from sight as Ruarc and Sakura made short work of the last remaining Yeti, the vast majority of its snowy white fur seared away and hide peppered with molten arrows. The same sequence of light repeated itself, this time accompanied by a great booming horn - its deep bellow shook them all to the core as the final Yeti ascended up and into the light.

"Wow! Me and Sensei hardly had to help at all!" a happy little voice cheered.

*****

Duncan put away the pen light as a Kazoo sounded again. The American boy cast a glare at the group of ragtag, burnt, cut and beat up Yeti sitting around the cooler - as though to make up for their missing white, they were wrapped up in many bandages and even an arm cast in one case. The one that blew the Kazoo quickly put it back in the box of Crackerjack it was eating from before Duncan went back to his work.

*****

"Alright class, the results are in!" Duncan's voice announced up from above. "Lets see, first we g - "

"Oh, oh! How did I do?!" Coco quickly butted in, practically bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet in excitement. "I made sure to help anyone that needed it, but not too much, or else it would have been to easy!"

"Er, yeah, well...the one you were supposed to fight got sent back early by someone else, so...yeah...no score for you Coco, sorry..." Duncan hesitantly replied, the sound of him rubbing the back of his head audible over the microphone. For a moment, Coco looked dejected that she wasn't able to get her brother's approval on how she did things, but his voice quickly cut in, "But you did really good helping the others!" She squeed at that. "So yeah, anyways, it looked like Ruarc did the best out of you lot, being clever with his spells and such. The rest of you did more or less the same old same old mostly, with our classical Mahou Shojou picking up her phone mid-battle - real smooth - and with Riley and Percival bringing up the rear with some poor performance," he commented casually, the tone un-menacing but words harsh.

"Speaking of Riley, someone shake a bit, I think she's having withdrawal from being too flashy or something," Duncan shrugged in his chair. "As for Percy, well, we can talk about that in private. Power Incontinence is an embarrassing problem, especially amongst guys," his voice leered at him. "Glad you all realized the moss that grows on the Pigmy Yeti in the warm season dries out and makes them highly flammable during winter, but bottom line, fight smarter, not harder. Any questions?"
User avatar
Gwathdraug
Posts: 281
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 9:48 am

Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Gwathdraug »

Seeing the yetis all escape from the battleground Riley's phantasm soundlessly let the tree it had blocked fall to the ground as the dog-helmed apparition moved; leaving Miller to deal with any of the dangers paired with his weapon's sudden movement straight into the ground. As part of the magical construct brushed past – and a bit through – the empowered English teacher would be the first to hear any sounds from it yet on the battlefield as the word “necessary” mutedly repeated itself in Miller's mind. Accompanying the distorted and mad chant was a series of pitch-changing growls and snarls that overlapped and fought each other for vocal-dominance.

As the phantasm broke contact with the Scotsman and strode past Miller without a single glance the chanting and growling broke off just as abruptly as they had begun.

Striding ever closer to the Stage Magician that had created it the greater phantasm responded to Duncan's suggestion to “shake” Riley by turning its white-helmed visage slowly in-turn on everyone in position to assist the girl. The manner of the constructs gaze and the change in its gait suggested in its own manner that the American's advice was wholely unnecessary.

Finally reaching Riley, the phantasm placed its much larger hand on the girl's shoulder and roughly straightened her. Looking up the stage magician plastered her face with a wan smile as she watched her combatant begin to dissolve and return its remaining mana to her.

The change started from the feet and traveled up. When the arm that was resting upon Riley's shoulder finally disappeared the stage magician shook her head as a wave of emotions hit her and she looked at what remained of her creation sadly.

“Thanks. And sorry.”

As the helm became the last part of the creature left it dipped in the air in an attempt at a nod, but ended up sharply falling instead, colliding into the ground. Flowing and writhing with movement the helmet almost seemed as if it would form itself into the wolfdog from earlier for a few seconds before it depressed all the way back into the smooth form of one of Riley's 'blank masks'.

That too then crumbled into the snow and disappeared.

Letting herself fall back into the snow, knees bent and her hands digging into the powdery substance, Riley closed her eyes and sighed.

As the young girl spoke again her words were slow with an almost idyllic sound to them. “Yeap. Duncan, when are you gonna come down to see us in person again?”
User avatar
Kokuten
Posts: 1259
Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 11:06 pm

Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Kokuten »

Aurus turned around, a tad confused. Though no emotion could truly be discerned from his face, as it was sealed in that armored shell, prevent anyone from truly seeing the mixed emotions hidden within. The black knight seemed to ignore the end of combat, and turned his attention towards Percival.

The boy, found useless once again, simply stared towards the snowy floor. He sat on his knees after having spent a little energy on Miyuk. He kept his attentions to himself, having been embarrassed by even trying to fight. As always, he had so much trouble summoning his power and fighting alongside everyone. Even when he had tried, he had easily been put aside, and Duncan had said it well enough. That was his problem, he couldn't keep up with everyone else. His summoned guardians were too unruly, and he could barely comprehend his own strength. He had a feeling what Duncan would say to him, but it would probably be the truth.

"Hoi." said small, grisly voice.

Percival looked up from his knees, and found Aurus staring him in the face.

"What do you want?" bit the boy, a little weary by the fact that he had suffered that entire battle on his own.

"Hoi. Ha-hoi." answered Aurus. The Fire God tilted his head.

"Just say it in my head, you know I can't understand that chirping." growled the boy.

"Hoooi." growled Aurus, becoming petulant. "Hoi! Hoi-- you understand I'm trying to communicate with you, damn boy!"

"Aurus? I can hear you now, where were you!?"

The mini jolted for a moment, pausing momentarily. "I don't know what happened, boy. One moment. I'm teaching you a lesson, and the next, we couldn't hear or speak to you. Something cut us from you, from being able to hear you call us. So I forced myself forth."

"By taking my arm!?"

"I cannot exist without a constructed body, Percival. Normally, Unity transmutes the elements to forge our bodies, I had to use you to form myself. To defend you. When I leave, your arm will return, do not worry."

"But... but!" Percy's hands came up, trying to enforce his own side, but Aurus quickly reached up, and set down the ice and regular hand onto the boys lap.

"Enough, rest. You are nothing in battle, but you were very brave," answered the black knight, turning his attention elsewhere. "We saw your actions. Very stupid to rush your enemy like that, but your resolve... was fiery. Do not worry about Duncan and his words, they will not affect you."

"Wh-why do you say that?"

"Because I'm going to kill him."

"WHAT!?"
User avatar
Straken
Posts: 1211
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 4:40 pm

Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Straken »

At the end of the battle, Ruarc stood up and brushed away the snow that had stuck to his clothes when did his slide. Even without Duncan’s announcement, the Irishman felt that this battle was a huge success if only for the fact that he had made it through the engagement without being burnt, electrocuted, crushed, or thrown; the biggest issue he had now was the cold snow clinging to his pant legs. What he didn’t like however was that while he may have made it out unharmed, some of the others weren’t so lucky; and that was half of the reason why he personally put himself in the danger zone, so others wouldn’t have to.

“Well, can still do my part,” Ruarc said to himself as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a healing rune before brandishing it and calling to the rest of the team. “Is anyone in need of some healing?”

Making his way over to the others he made the offer again as he bounced the rune around in his hand a bit. “Miyuki? Sorry ya accidentally caught some of the backlash from my lightning, need healing at all?”
Kalshion
Posts: 78
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:47 pm

Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Kalshion »

Sakura sighed and cancelled out the other rune's that she had made, then placed the tip of the bottom of her bow on the snow and leaned on it - the bow didn't even flex at her weight. She listened to Duncan drone on, and looked up at the sky, although she was still annoyed she didn't seem to appear that way when she spoke. "So, what were those things we fought?"
User avatar
Kai
Site Admin
Posts: 701
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:18 pm

Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Kai »

Miyuki fumed at Duncan's prognosis of the battle. Doesn't he realize that I'd get in a ton of trouble if I didn't pick up my phone? she though, angrily, wanting to yell at the stupid American boy. How she despised him and his stupid smugness. But, like this, in his little house, there wasn't really anything she could do about it at the moment except be angry at him.

This feeling spilled over a little when Ruarc approached her, asking if she wanted any healing, and she sort of snapped at him "No. I'm fine. Just leave me be for now." She pushed Ruarc's bouncing hand out of the way, and turned to stare at a tree instead, imagining that it was Duncan. Somehow, the tree caught fire.

************

"Those were Pygmy Yeti, Miss." Adrienne responded to Sakura. "Just small ones which had some spells cast on them to make them seem bigger, and probably some more spells cast to make them angry. They aren't much of a threat normally, though at that size they can be a handful for beginners, which is probably why they were chosen," the teacher explained. She then looked up at the 'sky' and called out to Duncan.

"If it's all the same, perhaps it's time for us to head back to the real world? Some dry clothes and a bit of minor healing is likely in order."
Post Reply